Favourite Jesus Films 2025

It was great to be back in the classroom this spring after a sabbatical that itself followed several years as department chair, when classroom time is drastically reduced. As well as a graduate class on the Synoptics, one of my regular offerings, I taught my undergraduate course on Jesus in Film for the fourth time. It's a real joy to teach, but a huge challenge too, especially given the sheer volume of films that we could cover.

Each time I teach the course, I ask the students to vote on their favourite and least favourite Jesus films. There were fifteen students, and I asked them to vote for their three favourite Jesus films, not in ranked order (to make it easier). I also asked them for their least favourite film. Here are the results:

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Favourite Jesus film: 

(1) Jesus of Montreal (dir. Denys Arcand, 1989): 10 votes

(2) Son of Man (dir. Mark Dornford-May, 2006): 6 votes

     Last Temptation of Christ (dir. Martin Scorsese, 1988): 6 votes

(4) Journey to Bethlehem (dir. Adam Anders, 2023): 5 votes

(5) The Chosen (dir. Dallas Jenkins, 2020-present): 4 votes

(6) The Gospel According to St Matthew (dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1964): 3 votes

(7) Greatest Story Ever Told (dir. George Stevens, 1965): 2 votes

    Passion of the Christ (dir. Mel Gibson, 2004): 2 votes

    Life of Brian (dir. Terry Jones, 1979): 2 votes

    Jesus of Nazareth (dir. Franco Zeffirelli): 2 votes

One vote: 

Mary Magdalene (dir. Garth Davis, 2018); The Nativity (dir. Coky Giedroyc, 2010); Jesus Christ Superstar (dir. Norman Jewison, 1973), Mary (dir. D. J. Caruso, 2024)

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Least favourites film:

(1) Godspell (dir. David Greene, 1973): 5 votes

(2) Karunamayudu (dir. A. Bhimsingh, 1978): 3 votes

(3) Shanti Sandeshem (dir. P. Chandrasekhar Reddy, 2004): 2 votes 

   Gospel According to St Matthew (dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1964): 2 votes

   Passion of the Christ (dir. Mel Gibson, 2004): 2 votes

One vote: Greatest Story Ever Told (dir. George Stevens, 1965) and Journey to Bethlehem (dir. Adam Anders, 2023)

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I found the students' votes fascinating. Jesus of Montreal was a runaway winner, with two-thirds of the class voting for it. One of the biggest surprises was seeing how well Journey to Bethlehem faired. I have to admit that I absolutely love this film too, and I have been meaning to blog and podcast about it for some time. Other new films like Mary Magdalene and Mary also make the cut.

The Chosen is also in there, but it has the disadvantage of being the only film that the class did not watch in total. That was impossible! There's so much of it. Nevertheless, it's interesting that several people still voted for it. 

Films that we watched but that did not chart included King of Kings (1961), The Passion (BBC, 2008), The Nativity Story (2006), Young Messiah (2016) and all the documentaries we watched. 

As usual, Godspell got the bottom spot! I'm a little sad that Karunamayudu and Shanti Sandeshem were unpopular too, but we were so hampered by the lack of English subtitles for both. 

It's also striking that several films appear in both lists -- favourites and least favourites -- Gospel According to Matthew, Greatest Story, Passion of the Christ, and Journey to Bethlehem. It just shows how personal and emotional reactions to these films can be, and it made class discussions fascinating.

I hope to blog a little more about the course soon, and to think out loud about how to change it.