Pope Leo shares his favourite movies ahead of Vatican event

VATICAN CITY – The Vatican is going Hollywood this weekend. Or, perhaps more accurately, Hollywood is going Vatican.

As part of the Catholic Church Jubilee celebration, which takes place every quarter century, Pope Leo XIV is expected to host dozens of actors and directors in a star-studded World Of Cinema gathering on Nov 15 at his official residence, the Vatican announced this week.

Some of the actors expected to attend are stars Cate Blanchett, Adam Scott, Chris Pine, Viggo Mortensen, Alison Brie and Dave Franco – as well as directors Judd Apatow, Spike Lee, George Miller and Gus Van Sant.

On Nov 11, Variety posted a video of Pope Leo sharing his four favourite movies of all time: director Frank Capra’s It’s A Wonderful Life (1946) with star Jimmy Stewart; director Robert Wise’s The Sound of Music (1965) with star Julie Andrews; director Robert Redford’s Ordinary People (1980) with stars Donald Sutherland and Mary Tyler Moore; and director Roberto Benigni’s Life Is Beautiful (1997).

The Vatican statement read: “In this Jubilee Year, Pope Leo XIV has expressed his desire to deepen dialogue with the World of Cinema, and in particular with actors and directors, exploring the possibilities that artistic creativity offers to the mission of the church and the promotion of human values.”

The year-long Jubilee, a rare Catholic tradition of penance and forgiveness, began in December 2024 and will end in early January. This particular event is promoted by the church’s culture and education department, along with its communications department and the Vatican Museums.

Pope Leo, who was born in Chicago and is the first pope to hail from the United States, was elected in May to lead the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.

Last week, he met with actor Robert De Niro at the Vatican, and in June, actor Al Pacino visited with him there.

Nov 15’s gathering is the first such meeting of its kind, though Pope Francis, who died in April, hosted comedians from around the world in 2024. Among the attendees were comedians Conan O’Brien, Whoopi Goldberg, Tig Notaro, Stephen Colbert, Chris Rock and Jimmy Fallon.

Pope Leo’s move to connect with the film world could be seen as an extension of one of his predecessor’s interests. In 2013, the year he was elected, Pope Francis founded Scholas Occurrentes, a global educational movement that developed a project for youth communities around the world to create short films highlighting their identities, histories and values.

Director Martin Scorsese, who had a long relationship with Pope Francis, is producing a feature-length documentary titled Aldeas – A New Story as part of that project. The documentary includes what is said to be Pope Francis’ final on-camera interview, recorded at Vatican City in December 2024, months before his death. NYTIMES