Pope Leo XIV has revealed his top four favorite films — a lineup of wholesome uplifting classics — ahead of a first-of-its-kind meeting with movie stars at the Vatican.
The Chicago-born pontiff, the first American to lead the Catholic Church, will host a special audience on Saturday morning inside the Apostolic Palace, welcoming a delegation of Hollywood A-listers including Cate Blanchett, Chris Pine, Viggo Mortensen, Alison Brie, Dave Franco and Monica Bellucci. Oscar-winning directors Spike Lee, George Miller, Giuseppe Tornatore and Gus Van Sant are also expected to attend.
According to the Vatican, the gathering is part of the Church’s ongoing Holy Year celebrations and aims “to deepen dialogue with the world of cinema … exploring the possibilities that artistic creativity offers to the mission of the Church and the promotion of human values.”
To mark the occasion, the Vatican released a video of the pope naming his five favorite movies: Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), Robert Wise’s The Sound of Music (1965), Robert Redford’s Ordinary People (1980), and Roberto Benigni’s Life Is Beautiful (1997). Each is a crowd-pleasing staple of the moral-uplift canon — though not all are without footnotes.
Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life remains the definitive parable of grace and redemption and a durable holiday classic. Wise’s The Sound of Music, uses its killer soundtrack to nice weave together twin messages of family values and anti-fascism (it made The Hollywood Reporter’s own list of the 40 Best Anti-Fascist Films of All Time). Redford’s Ordinary People pushed that spirit inward, examining guilt, grief and reconciliation inside a fractured American family. Benigni’s Life Is Beautiful — a critical and commercial hit at the time, winning three Oscars — has not aged as well, with many now viewing its sentimental take on the Holocaust as uncomfortably glib.
The Hollywood event is part of the Vatican’s ongoing attempt to engage with popular culture. This is Pope Leo’s first celebrity audience but his predecessor, Pope Francis, hosted a gathering of comedians in June last year that included Conan O’Brien, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Fallon.
Pope Leo also had a private audience with Robert De Niro and his family last week in Rome. But Saturday’s star-studded summit marks a new chapter in the Church’s engagement with the world of cinema and celebrity.
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