Elf is a 2003 American Christmas comedy film directed by Jon Favreau, written by David Berenbaum and starring Will Ferrell, James Caan and Zooey Deschanel. It was released in the United States on November 7, 2003 and grossed over $220,400,000 worldwide. The story is about one of Santa's elves who learns of his true identity as a human and goes to New York City to meet his biological father, spreading Christmas cheer in a world of cynics as he goes.

A baby boy crawls into Santa Claus's (Ed Asner) sack of gifts while he is delivering toys to an orphanage one Christmas Eve. Santa Claus unwittingly takes the baby back to the North Pole, where Papa Elf (Bob Newhart) volunteers to raise him. The baby was christened William but through a humorous misunderstanding is renamed Buddy (Will Ferrell). He is raised unaware of his status as a human, until his enormous size and (relatively) poor toy-making abilities lead him to ultimately find out the truth. Papa Elf reveals that Buddy was born to Walter Hobbs (James Caan) and Susan Wells and given up for adoption, and that Walter never knew of his existence. He explains how Susan later died and that Walter now works at a children's book company in New York City. Buddy sets out for Manhattan to find his father.

An elf (plural: elves) is a type of supernatural being in Germanic mythology and folklore. Elves are first attested in Old English and Old Norse texts and are prominent in traditional British and Scandinavian folklore.

Elves were originally thought of as ambivalent beings with certain magical abilites capable of helping or hindering humans, but in later traditions became increasingly sinister and were believed to afflict humans and livestock in various ways. In early modern folklore they became associated with the fairies of Romance culture. The Romanticist movement revived literary interest in folk beliefs and culture, and elves entered the 20th-century high fantasy genre in the wake of works published by authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien.

The "Christmas elves" of contemporary popular culture are of relatively recent tradition, popularized during the late 19th century in the United States, in publications such as Godey's Lady's Book.

The English word elf is from the Old English ælf or elf; in compound as ælfadl "nightmare," ælfsogoða "hiccup," afflictions apparently thought to be caused by elves.

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects. The process of filmmaking has developed into an art form and industry.

Films are cultural artifacts created by specific cultures, which reflect those cultures, and, in turn, affect them. Film is considered to be an important art form, a source of popular entertainment and a powerful method for educating – or indoctrinating – citizens. The visual elements of cinema give motion pictures a universal power of communication. Some films have become popular worldwide attractions by using dubbing or subtitles that translate the dialogue into the language of the viewer.

Films are made up of a series of individual images called frames. When these images are shown rapidly in succession, a viewer has the illusion that motion is occurring. The viewer cannot see the flickering between frames due to an effect known as persistence of vision, whereby the eye retains a visual image for a fraction of a second after the source has been removed. Viewers perceive motion due to a psychological effect called beta movement.