A holiday treat suitable for all but the tiniest, The Star (Sony) is a delightful animated version of the Christmas story told from the perspective of some of the animals present in the manger. Director Timothy Reckart and screenwriter Carlos Kotkin skilfully balance religious themes such as the importance of prayer and the value of forgiveness with a more secular message about pursuing your dreams. By John Mulderig.

The hilarious romantic comedy revolves around a group of people from all walks of life whose lives collide when they all come together for an annual music festival held over three consecutive summers. Among the group of music lovers is the talented and headstrong Keevey (Rebecca Breeds), who performs alongside her father, Eamon (John Waters) in an Irish folk band. By Daniele Foti-Cuzzola.

Butchery accompanied by siren-wail screaming, franchise shock value that has long since played out and a rapid descent into self-parody, this is Jigsaw. The eighth, uh, film in the ‘Saw’ series, which is now about seven and a half movies too long – has nothing new to say and far too much about it that’s familiar, most prominently, scenes of intricately choreographed torture and murder. By Kurt Jensen

Though it presents itself as a complex, thinking person’s thriller, The Snowman, director Tomas Alfredson’s adaptation of Jo Nesbo’s best-selling novel, is not above dabbling in penny-dreadful sensationalism. In between, this Nordic whodunit returns to plodding wearily across the frozen landscape of its unconvincing mystery. By John Mulderig.

Jackie Chan takes a sharp turn from his typically genial screen personality to become the vengeful father of a London terrorist victim in The Foreigner. In this efficiently suspenseful adaptation of Stephen Leather’s pulp thriller, director Martin Campbell and screenwriter David Marconi have produced a drama about Irish Republican Army (IRA) violence and bureaucratic treachery. By Kurt Jensen.

Misogyny hangs over Blade Runner 2049 as blithely as the fog of the post-apocalyptic Los Angeles it portrays. While that’s not unusual for science-fiction epics with a substantially male audience, director Denis Villeneuve has made a two-and-a-half-hour film that, in its eagerness to have the audience linger over every point about artificial life developing authentic human emotions, feels more like four hours. By Kurt Jensen.

Roberto Benigni’s World War II drama, Life Is Beautiful (La Vita e’ Bella) is one of Italy’s most celebrated and beloved films. Winner of three Academy Awards, including Best Actor and Best Foreign Language Film; Life is Beautiful wowed audiences and critics around the world when it was released in 1997. Twenty years later, the Italian classic returns to the big screen at the Lavazza Italian Film Festival. By Daniele Foti-Cuzzola.

Naples, the home of pizza, pasta fazu and as Dean Martin famously crooned – amore (love), takes centre stage in Director Gianluca Ansanelli’s hilarious romantic comedy, From Naples with Love (Troppo Napoletano). The charming family friendly film celebrates love among all ages and is in itself a love letter to Ansanelli’s own birth city, Naples. By Daniele Foti-Cuzzola.

This British-American film is based loosely on a book of the same name written by Shrabani Basu in 2010. It tells the story of the relationship between Queen Victoria and an Indian Muslim commoner, Abdul Karim, in late 19th century England. Queen Victoria (Judi Dench), is lonely after the death of friend and servant John Brown, and she forms an ‘unlikely’ attachment to Abdul Karim (Ali Fazal). By Peter Sheehan.

COMPETITION DETAILS BELOW By Peter Malone MSC If you have been following the career of intense mastermind criminal, Gru as well as his conversion to the side of right, and also his devotion to agent, Lucy, then there is no doubt that you will want to see what they are up to in the third chapter of Despicable Me 3. Of course, there are the Minions in their bright yellow, some of them with a t...