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My Christmas shopping is done. My annual rewatch of “The Family Stone” is queued up. And our last issue of 2025 is out in the world. Which means it’s time to sign off and start food prep. (I’m doing beef Wellington this year.)

But before I do, I wanted to share stories from this week’s edition of The Envelope, and my thanks to all of you out there for reading. Have a very happy holiday!

The Envelope Directors Roundtable

(Jason Armond / For The Times)

As Rian Johnson said while taping this year’s Envelope Directors Roundtable, filmmakers don’t get many chances to hang out and talk shop — so when they do, it’s always an engaging and illuminating conversation.

Led by moderator Mark Olsen, participants Johnson (“Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery”), Jon M. Chu (“Wicked: For Good”), Nia DaCosta (“Hedda”), Guillermo del Toro (“Frankenstein”), Mona Fastvold (“The Testament of Ann Lee”) and Benny Safdie (“The Smashing Machine”) shared their unvarnished views on theatrical moviegoing, budgets and artificial intelligence. It’s absolutely worth your time.

And by the by: I’m not sure what The Times’ standard is on the, uh, pungent phrase Del Toro used to describe A.I. during the conversation, so I’ll just say that you can and should see it in all its glory on our Instagram.

‘Roofman’ Is a Christmas Movie

(The Tyler Twins / For The Times)

If you’re looking for a new Christmas movie to watch before Santa squeezes down the chimney tonight, “Roofman” is just the ticket. Like “The Holdovers” last year, Derek Cianfrance’s charming fable about a fugitive (Channing Tatum) who falls for a single mom (Kirsten Dunst) while hiding out in a Toys R Us channels Old Hollywood in a way that can seem sadly out of fashion.

“As we were selling this movie, trying to get it financed, I was pitching it to everyone as a Capra movie and what I kept hearing is, ‘We don’t make those movies anymore,’” as Cianfrance told Kristen Lopez.

Perhaps they should reconsider. Unfairly written off after its $8 million opening weekend in October, “Roofman” went on to gross $34 million worldwide from a slim $19 million budget. Not exactly “Home Alone,” to be sure, but a respectable showing nonetheless — and that’s before its streaming afterlife. And those of us who dearly miss the mid-budget studio movie will take any data we can to show they can still thrive at the right price.

Imax’s banner year

(Robert Alexander / Getty Images)

Speaking of box office, one big bright spot in 2025 was the performance of Imax and other premium formats, which are attracting cinephiles to see movies theatrically, often multiple times, and at a higher price point than the standard movie ticket.

With an estimated $1.2 billion take this year, and a raft of highly anticipated films like Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” slated for 2026, Imax has forged an alliance between our most committed moviegoers and some of our most exciting filmmakers that bodes well for the future of cinemas, writes Daron James.

“Imax superfan Shane Short, who saw ‘Oppenheimer’ 132 times and once sat next to [cinematographer Autumn Durald] Arkapaw during a screening of ‘Sinners,’ says it’s a good thing. ‘What really pulls me into movies is the emotional aspect when connecting with something. For me, it’s hard to get that in a normal theater. Imax is truly the ultimate immersive experience that draws me in.’”

More stories from this week’s issue

No, our Women in Film issue doesn’t exclusively feature women — Noah Baumbach and Brendan Fraser feature in our Dec. 16 edition as well — but it does shine a particular spotlight on their extraordinary contribution to the year in film.

As performers and production designers, writers, directors and more, the women included here helped fashion deeply felt stories of parenthood, friendship, grief and betrayal, and that’s just for starters. Read on for more highlights from this week’s Envelope.

The Envelope Actresses Roundtable

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

This year’s Oscar Actresses Roundtable was full of laughter, sparked by everything from Gwyneth Paltrow’s impression of mother Blythe Danner to Sydney Sweeney’s tales from inside the ring on “Christy.” But when it comes to self-determination, this year’s participants — who also included Emily Blunt, Elle Fanning, Jennifer Lopez and Tessa Thompson — are dead serious.

As performers, producers and businesswomen, the sextet told moderator Lorraine Ali, the boxes that Hollywood and the broader culture seek to put them in need not apply. And realizing that is its own liberation. As Lopez put it, “I don’t ever feel like there’s somebody who can say to me, ‘No, you can’t.’”

‘Hamnet’s’ last-minute miracle

(Evelyn Freja / For The Times))

Since the moment I first saw “Hamnet,” I’ve been raving to everyone I know about its climactic sequence, set inside the Globe Theatre during a performance of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” (Well, if you can call it “raving” when you preface your recommendation with the sentence, “I sobbed through the last 45 minutes.”) As it turns out, though, the process of making the film’s final act was as miraculous as the finished product.

“There were only four days left of shooting on ‘Hamnet’ when Chloé Zhao realized she didn’t have an ending,” Emily Zemler begins this week’s digital cover story, which features Zhao, actors Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal and Joe Alwyn and production designer Fiona Crombie. What they created from that point, combining kismet, creative inspiration and grueling preparation, will buoy your belief in the power of art. “It was like a tsunami,” Buckley tells Zemler. “I’ll never forget it.”

A Is for Animal Wrangler

When I first read Helen Macdonald’s transporting “H Is for Hawk,” which combines memoir, nature writing and literary criticism, I can’t say I closed the book wondering when we’d get a film adaptation. Little did I know that director Philippa Lowthorpe, star Claire Foy and a pair of married bird handlers would provide such a thorough answer to my skepticism.

As Lisa Rosen writes in her story on the marriage of art and goshawk in “H Is For Hawk,” that meant shaping the production around the notoriously wary birds of prey, including its lead performance. “It wasn’t like having another actor who had another agenda or actions or a perspective that they wanted to get across in the scene,” Foy told Rosen of her extensive screen time alone with the five goshawks who stood in for Helen’s. “I was along for the ride with these animals.”

More stories from our Dec. 16 issue

Rob Reiner was known to millions as a TV actor and film director.

But the Brentwood resident, known for the classic films “Stand by Me” and “When Harry Met Sally,” was also a political force, an outspoken supporter of progressive causes and a Democratic Party activist who went beyond the typical role of celebrities who host glitzy fundraisers.

Reiner was deeply involved in issues that he cared about, such as early childhood education and the legalization of gay marriage.

Reiner, 78, and his wife, Michelle Singer Reiner, were found dead inside his home Sunday, sparking an outpouring of grief from those who worked with him on a variety of causes.

Ace Smith — a veteran Democratic strategist to former Vice President Kamala Harris, Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Gov. Jerry Brown and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton — had known Reiner for decades. Reiner, he said, approached politics differently than most celebrities.

“Here’s this unique human being who really did make the leap between entertainment and politics,” Smith said. “And he really spent the time to understand policy, really, in its true depth, and to make a huge impact in California.”

Reiner was a co-founder of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, the organization that successfully led the fight to overturn Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot measure that banned same-sex marriage. He was active in children’s issues through the years, having led the campaign to pass Proposition 10, the California Children and Families Initiative, which created an ambitious program of early childhood development services.

Proposition 10 was considered landmark policy. Reiner enlisted help in that effort from Steven Spielberg, Robin Williams, and his own father, comedy legend Carl Reiner.

“He wanted to make a difference. And he did, and he did profoundly,” Smith said.

Reiner was also a leading backer of Proposition 82, an unsuccessful measure that would have taxed the wealthy to create universal preschool in California.

Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who had known Reiner since he was a state lawmaker in the 1990s, worked with him on Proposition 10 and was impressed with how Reiner embraced the cause.

“He was a man with a good answer. It wasn’t politics as much as he was always focused on the humanity among us,” Villaraigosa said. ‘When he got behind an issue, he knew everything about it.”

“Just a really special man. A terrible day,” the former mayor said.

Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement that she was “heartbroken” by the day’s events, saying Reiner “always used his gifts in service of others.”

“Rob Reiner’s contributions reverberate throughout American culture and society, and he has improved countless lives through his creative work and advocacy fighting for social and economic justice,” the mayor said.

“I’m holding all who loved Rob and Michele in my heart,” Bass said.

Newsom added, “Rob was a passionate advocate for children and for civil rights — from taking on Big Tobacco, fighting for marriage equality, to serving as a powerful voice in early education. He made California a better place through his good works.”

“Rob will be remembered for his remarkable filmography and for his extraordinary contribution to humanity,” the governor said.