The busy holiday season is here, which means you have shopping to do, dinners to prepare and in-laws to avoid. Somewhere in there, the studios hope, you’ll find time to see a movie.

Which to choose?

Fox is hoping it will be “Avatar” (opening Dec. 18), the sci-fi adventure from James Cameron with a reportedly humongous budget of $500 million. It’s already the most-talked-about film of the year, though whether it will connect with audiences remains to be seen. Its star, Sam Worthington, is a relative unknown, and its reliance on computer-animated actors could be a liability rather than a draw — just ask Robert Zemeckis, who replaced humans with pixels in “Disney’s A Christmas Carol” and “Beowulf,” both box-office disappointments.

That means there’s room for competition. Also on Dec. 18 comes “Nine,” a musical from director Rob Marshall (of the Oscar-winning “Chicago”) with an A-list cast that includes Daniel Day-Lewis, Nicole Kidman and Penelope Cruz. On Christmas, Warner Bros. will unleash “Sherlock Holmes” with Robert Downey Jr. sexing up the fusty fictional sleuth. And Fox will go up against itself Dec. 23 by releasing “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel” five days after “Avatar.”

For more serious-minded filmgoers, the studios are also rolling out several movies based on novels, including Cormac McCarthy’s post-apocalypse drama “The Road,” Walter Kirn’s semicomedic “Up in the Air” (Dec. 4) and Alice Sebold’s thriller “The Lovely Bones” (Dec. 11). Even long-dead writers Christopher Isherwood and Tennessee Williams have new movies coming out.

In case you find a few spare hours this season, here’s a list of major movies to choose from through January.

—Rafer Guzmán / Newsday (MCT)

Me and Orson Welles, starring Zac Efron and Claire Danes, is releasing today, November 25th.

Efron plays a teenage actor who nabs a minor role in a Welles-directed production of Julius Caesar. The movie portrays one fateful week in the young actor’s life and his encounters with Welles and love. The period drama screened at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival,  but found no buyers.  Luckily for Efron and co., and surely all of us, Freestyle Releasing bought the rights and the movie can be seen tomorrow in a few theaters in L.A. and New York City.

Catch the trailer below:

—Faye Rasmussen

The long-awaited, at least in some quarters, new Twilight movie hits theatres later this week, but the hype has been going on seemingly forever. Part of that was the early release of the film’s soundtrack, an indie soaked affair featuring Thom Yorke, Death Cab for Cutie, St. Vincent and others that clearly has the vampire film franchise trying to reach into a hipper audience base this time around.

We’ve rounded up the available videos for the soundtrack below. Don’t be surprised if this is all you really need in the way of Twilight. Where there’s no decent video, we have included a link to a streaming version of the song on Lala or YouTube.

01 Death Cab For Cutie - “Meet Me on the Equinox”

—PopMatters Staff

The Beatles on Record will premiere in the U.S. Wednesday 25 November 10PM ET/PT on the History Channel. The documentary was originally released by the BBC in September and it covers the Beatles’ musical and creative journey from Please Please Me through Abbey Road. The Beatles on Record was narrated by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr and Sir George Martin and directed by Bob Smeaton, director of the Beatles’ Anthology series and creator of the mini-documentaries for the Beatles’ 2009 re-mastered albums.

—Allison Taich

Adam Bhala Lough’s documentary on Weezy F. Baby made waves at Sundance and is set for a DVD release on November 17th. Lil Wayne is certainly one of music’s more enigmatic megastars, and the trailer looks pretty provocative, not only for its in-depth look at the man and his talent, but also for glimpses of him under the influence of his beloved cough syrup.

—Tyler Gould

Tim Burton’s highly anticipated interpretation of the Lewis Carrol/Disney classic promises to deliver with a clever mix of live action and computer animation. Disney’s animated classic entertains, but undershoots the creepy, ominous tone found in the book. We posted a teaser last month; here’s a trailer.

—Katharine Wray