60 New Movies We Can’t Wait to See This Fall

The Uprising

Premiere Date: September 11
Director: Paul Greengrass
Noteworthy Cast: Andrew Garfield, Jamie Bell, Katherine Waterston, Thomasin McKenzie

Writer-director Paul Greengrass, a master of tense, historical action-dramas, takes on the true story that inspired the legend of Robin Hood. Andrew Garfield plays a poor peasant turned leader of a rebellion against tyrannical King Richard II in his historical epic. The 1381 Peasants’ Revolt may have happened a very long time ago, but scenes of a few powerful men oppressing the many may feel eerily recognizable to contemporary audiences. —R.F.

Resident Evil

Premiere Date: September 18
Director: Zach Cregger
Noteworthy Cast: Austin Abrams, Paul Walter Hauser, Kali Reis, Zach Cherry

Fresh off Barbarian and Weapons, Zach Cregger is taking on one of horror’s most popular franchises. But instead of a sequel to a previous Resident Evil film or an adaptation of the video games, Cregger put together an original story set in the zombie-infested universe. The first live-action Resident Evil film in five years won’t feature any familiar characters; instead, Austin Abrams stars as an unlucky medical courier whose routine assignment becomes a race for survival, while Zach Cherry from Severance and Paul Walter Hauser round out the cast. —Max Adler

Primetime

Premiere Date: September 25
Director: Lance Oppenheim
Noteworthy Cast: Robert Pattinson, Merritt Wever, Skyler Gisondo

If you told someone in the early 2000s that one of the buzziest films in 2026 would be about the making of To Catch a Predator, they’d probably shake their head in disbelief. But almost 20 years after that controversial news series was canceled, that really is the case. Based on Luke Dittrich’s 2007 Esquire article “Tonight on Dateline This Man Will Die,” Primetime stars none other than Robert Pattinson as Chris Hansen. Emmy winner Merritt Wever stars as a producer on the series, alongside musician Phoebe Bridgers, in her acting debut, and Superman’s Skyler Gisondo. The trailer has already set the internet ablaze with Pattinson’s fascinating take on the television host (“You see how this looks, right?”). Primetime promises to be one of the buzziest features out of Venice, where it will premiere on September 5. Fresh off The Drama and The Odyssey, Pattinson, who’s currently filming his highly anticipated Batman sequel, might be able to pull off a hat trick of three critically acclaimed and commercially successful films in a row. —Chris Murphy

Charlie Harper

Premiere Date: September 25
Director: Mac Eldridge and Tom Dean
Noteworthy Cast: Emilia Jones and Nick Robinson

If you liked watching Nick Robinson and his puppy-dog eyes fall for Zoey Deutch in the Netflix hit Voicemails for Isabelle, you’ll love seeing him in Charlie Harper, a sweet romantic drama costarring Emilia Jones. The lovely time-jumping film, which debuted at the 2025 Toronto Film Festival, isn’t breaking the mold with its story about a five-year relationship, but Robinson and Jones’s chemistry is undeniable. Sometimes, all we want is to watch two gorgeous young people fall in love. —R.F.

Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother

Premiere Date: NYC/LA September 25; in theaters on October 9
Director: Bassam Tariq
Noteworthy Cast: Mahershala Ali, John Cho, Tramell Tillman, Giancarlo Esposito, Adia

After his wife passes away, Latif (Mahershala Ali) navigates life as a single father and reluctant hitman. While searching for breast milk for his infant daughter, he becomes entangled in the world of a dangerous Christian influencer, played by John Cho. Part action, part meditation on faith and fatherhood, this film strikes a unique tone. Ali is the main attraction, alongside superb performances from Cho and newcomer Adia, who plays his daughter. This is a dark film that might be off-putting for the average moviegoer, but it showcases director Bassam Tariq’s unique storytelling and ability to illustrate modern Muslim life in America. The film has its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival before Amazon MGM Studios releases it theatrically in September, followed by a streaming premiere (likely this year). —J.R.

Verity

Premiere Date: October 2
Director: Michael Showalter
Noteworthy Cast: Anne Hathaway, Dakota Johnson, Josh Hartnett

Just as the twisty legal saga behind the scenes of It Ends With Us actually, erm, ends, a new entry into the Colleen Hoover Cinematic Universe is upon us. Fresh off buzzy turns in The Devil Wears Prada 2 and The Odyssey, Hathaway reunites with her Idea of You director to star as bestselling author Verity Crawford. Unable to finish her next novel following a sudden accident, her husband Jeremy (Hartnett) hires up-and-coming writer Lowen Ashleigh (Johnson), whose arrival brings an air of pulpy intrigue familiar to Hoover’s loyal readers. —S.W.

Digger

Premiere Date: October 2
Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Noteworthy Cast: Tom Cruise, Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller

Starring relative unknown Tom Cruise as an oil baron who tries to save the world from an ecological disaster he started. We haven’t seen Cruise in a role like this since Tropic Thunder: He’s wearing heavy prosthetics, using a thick Southern accent, and creating an over-the-top character in director Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s dark comedy. So far, the film has also had an untraditional press rollout. In June, Warner Brothers’ released a Tom Cruise retrospective trailer that played before select movies. Then the studio released a teaser trailer showcasing Cruise’s radical physical transformation. Finally, it released a full trailer that revealed the film’s plot, accompanied by an event on the Warner Brothers lot for influencers and “friendly” media. Interest in the film is high, as is speculation about whether it will bring Cruise into the awards race. But because the film is bypassing fall festivals, we will have to wait until its premiere to get a taste of Cruise’s most ambitious role in some time. If you’re a Cruise fan, an Iñárritu fan, or even remotely curious about what the heck this film is going to be, you’ll want to see it opening weekend to be part of the conversation. —J.R.

The Social Reckoning

Premiere Date: October 9
Director: Aaron Sorkin
Noteworthy Cast: Mikey Madison, Jeremy Allen White, Jeremy Strong, Wunmi Mosaku

Sixteen years after The Social Network by screenwriter Aaron Sorkin launched the careers of a handful of young actors (including Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield), Sorkin is returning to the world of Mark Zuckerberg. The Social Reckoning centers on sensitive Facebook info leaked by whistleblower Frances Haugen (Oscar-winner Mikey Madison) in 2021. This time, Jeremy Strong is playing Zuckerberg (voice included!), and the cast also features Jeremy Allen White and Wunmi Mosaku. Sorkin is directing as well, though he’s got big, David Fincher–sized shoes to fill. —R.F.

Fjord

Premiere Date: October 9
Director: Cristian Mungiu
Noteworthy Cast: Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan

Cristian Mungiu won his second Palme d’Or at Cannes for this film, which stars Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan as a religious couple who move their family to a small Norwegian town. Child protection services step in when they notice bruises on the arm of one of their daughters, which then ignites a legal battle between the parents and the Norwegian government. At Cannes, this film got under people’s skin: It avoids moral conclusions about the family while raising questions about personal liberty and child-rearing. There isn’t a line of dialogue that doesn’t have meaning, and Reinsve and Stan deliver quietly devastating performances as parents who believe they are doing what’s best for their family. You will be talking about this movie for some time after watching it—which is the point. —J.R.

Animals

Premiere Date: October 9
Director: Ben Affleck
Noteworthy Cast: Ben Affleck, Kerry Washington, Gillian Anderson, Steven Yeun

Affleck’s getting back to Gone Baby Gone basics with his latest directorial effort, which also involves a kidnapping but is set in Los Angeles rather than Boston. (Don’t worry: I’m sure they still drink Dunkin’ there.) Additionally, Affleck cowrote the script and stars as a mayoral candidate whose son goes missing, taking over the role from his good friend Matt Damon—who had to drop out of the project due to his participation in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey (heard of it?). Kerry Washington, who knows political thrillers, plays Affleck’s wife. Keep an eye on that one, Ben; you never know what she might be up to. —Hillary Busis

Tenzing

Premiere Date: in select theaters October 9; on Apple TV starting October 16
Director: Jennifer Peedom
Noteworthy Cast: Tom Hiddleston, Genden Phunstock, Caitríona Balfe, Willem Dafoe

Based on a true story, the film chronicles Tenzing Norgay, a Himalayan mountain climber who, alongside New Zealander Edmund Hillary (Tom Hiddleston), became the first person to summit Mount Everest. This is an old-school adventure film with stunning cinematography, told from the point of view of a lesser-known figure. The film’s core tension is between the British climbing team and the native Sherpas, who view the mountain as a spiritual being. The film will have its Canadian premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, followed by a small theatrical release and a streaming debut on Apple TV. —J.R.

Misty Green

Premiere Date: October 9
Director: Chris Rock
Noteworthy Cast: Adam Driver, Daniel Kaluuya, Anna Kendrick, Topher Grace, Chris Rock, Rosalind Eleazar

Slow Horses star Rosalind Eleazar plays the titular Misty Green, an award-winning actress caught wrestling with the fickle entertainment industry and attempting a comeback after reconnecting with her former agent. While the British Eleazar is better known across the pond, she’s surrounded by a cast of A-listers including Adam Driver, Anna Kendrick, Topher Grace, Oscar-winner Daniel Kaluuya, and even Chris Rock himself. Misty Green marks Rock’s first return to the director’s chair since his critically acclaimed Top 5 (2014), which also satirized the entertainment industry. Like Top 5, Rock wrote the screenplay for Misty Green, so expect sharp insights into his decades in Hollywood. —C.M.

Sense and Sensibility

Premiere Date: October 16
Director: Georgia Oakley
Noteworthy Cast: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Esmé Creed-Miles, Caitríona Balfe, George MacKay, Fiona Shaw

There won’t ever be an adaptation of Jane Austen’s 1811 classic that can outdo Ang Lee’s Oscar-winning 1995 version. Still, this new take on Sense and Sensibility is a charming, sweeping adaptation with a very strong cast. Daisy Edgar-Jones is dynamic as Elinor Dashwood, but it’s Esmé Creed-Miles who really shines as her sister Marianne. Creed-Miles, the daughter of Samantha Morton, seems to have inherited much of her mother’s talent: expect this performance to be a star-making moment for her. —R.F.

Sacrifice

Premiere Date: October 16
Director: Romain Gavras
Noteworthy Cast: Chris Evans, Anya Taylor-Joy, Salma Hayek, John Malkovich

Gavras, who may be better known for romancing Dua Lipa, Emily Ratajkowski, and Rita Ora than for his film work, will take audiences inside a star-studded fundraising gala, where a movie star in freefall (played by Evans) is taken hostage by a supernaturally powered warrior (Taylor-Joy) and her fleet of followers. Rounding out the Netflix thriller’s cast are some familiar faces from TV, such as One Day’s Ambika Mod and Veep’s Sam Richardson, as well as a global pop star: Charli xcx continues her foray into acting with her role as—who else—Mother Nature. —S.W.

Musk

Premiere Date: October 16
Director: Alex Gibney
Noteworthy Cast: Elon Musk

This is not a Pepé Le Pew biopic, but a nearly four-hour documentary about Earth’s primary mad trillionaire from the very prolific Oscar winner behind Taxi to the Dark Side, Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer, and the Elizabeth Holmes exposé The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley. The movie, which premieres in Venice, covers Musk’s entire career: “The contradictions, and the conditioning power that is centralized in the hands of a single man,” according to that festival’s artistic director, Alberto Barbera. “Consider a genius of capitalist entrepreneurship, but also a dangerous technocrat, with no moral scruples.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, Musk himself is not looking forward to the film. —H.B.

La Bola Negra

Premiere Date: in theaters on October 16; on Netflix December 2
Director: Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi
Noteworthy Cast: Penélope Cruz, Glenn Close, Guitarricadelafuente, Miguel Bernardeau

The belle of the Cannes Film Festival, La Bola Negra is an ambitious queer epic set during three different time periods that traces the interconnected lives of three gay men. This bold drama features the acting debut of Spanish singer-songwriter Guitarricadelafuente, who quickly proves a natural movie star. The film’s directors, known as the Javis, have their own fascinating backstory: They ended their 13-year romantic relationship while making this movie. Bola Negra is such a wide-ranging epic that it’s almost impossible to summarize, but the ending brings all the storylines together beautifully. It’s a film that’s not afraid to take a big swing. —R.F.

Klara and the Sun

Premiere Date: October 23
Director: Taika Waititi
Noteworthy Cast: Jenna Ortega, Amy Adams, Mia Tharia

Kazuo Ishiguro’s beloved 2021 novel is a meditative exploration of loneliness, love, humanity, and spirituality about a robot who learns about being human through her adoptive family. Taika Waititi wanted to turn that story into an entertaining movie, full of his usual charm and wit. But Waititi also gets a little more dramatic with this project, which also allows Ortega to show her many colors beyond playing Wednesday Addams. —R.F.

Wildwood

Premiere Date: October 23
Director: Travis Knight
Noteworthy Cast: Jacob Tremblay (voice), Carey Mulligan (voice), Peyton Elizabeth Lee (voice), Awkwafina (voice)

The latest stop-motion animation film from Laika, the studio behind Coraline and Paranorman. Wildwood is based on a 2011 book by Decemberists lead singer Colin Meloy, about a teenager named Prue and her classmate who enter an enchanted forest to rescue her brother. Based on the trailer, this is a major step forward in stop-motion animation, with visuals unlike those we’ve seen in other films: battle sequences with groups of characters, bigger set pieces, sweeping camera movements. Toy Story 5 might be the biggest animated movie of the year, but this might be the most ambitious. —J.R.

A Talent for Murder

Premiere Date: October 23
Director: Anton Corbijn
Noteworthy Cast: Helen Mirren, Alden Ehrenreich, Olivia Cooke

Patricia Highsmith was known as a brilliant writer of psychological thrillers, including her five novels featuring devious Tom Ripley. But she was also a challenging character herself, someone who could be cold, difficult, and deeply cynical. Helen Mirren takes on this colorful woman with gusto, playing Highsmith toward the end of her life. In this fictionalized story, an ambitious young man (Ehrenreich) travels to the writer’s home in Switzerland to convince her to pen one more Ripley novel. This fun, meta story about Highsmith’s oeuvre will entertain anyone who’s been seduced by the Ripley universe. —R.F.

Wicker

Premiere Date: October 23
Director: Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson
Noteworthy Cast: Olivia Colman, Alexander Skarsgård, Elizabeth Debicki, Peter Dinklage

Who isn’t a little curious to see the chaos Alexander Skarsgård creates as a man made from wicker? In this film adapted from Ursula Wills-Jones’s short story, a lonely fisherwoman (Colman) commissions the local basketmaker (Peter Dinklage) to weave her a husband. The movie debuted at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, and already has the internet clutching its pearls following the release of a trailer that appeared to tease what wood Skarsgård may be packing in his….basket. “Are You Wet for Wicker?” The Cut asked in a blog post about the trailer. So far, all indications on social media point to a resounding, if rattled, yes. —S.W.

Gentle Monster

Premiere Date: in theaters October 30; on Netflix November 18
Director: Marie Kreutzer
Noteworthy Cast: Léa Seydoux, Jella Haase, Laurence Rupp, and Catherine Deneuve

Léa Seydoux plays a mother whose husband is charged, out of the blue, with possessing and distributing child sex abuse material. This film premiered at Cannes and was purchased by Netflix with the intention to launch a justified best actress campaign for Seydoux, who has never been nominated for an Oscar. This is a tough film, although nothing graphic is shown on screen. But it is mentally exhausting to watch Seydoux juggle what she thought she knew about her husband and how to move forward with him as the father of her young boy. Seydoux is an actor known for daring work, and this is no exception. Even if at times you are yelling at the screen, “Don’t believe him,” you understand why she does. —J.R.

Godzilla Minus Zero

Premiere Date: November 6
Director: Takashi Yamazaki
Noteworthy Cast: Ryunosuke Kamiki, Minami Hamabe, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Yuki Yamada, Kuranosuke Sasaki, Sakura Andō, Min Tanaka

One of the most famous movie monsters of all time is back to stomp another day in Godzilla Minus Zero, the follow-up to 2023’s Godzilla Minus One. Takashi Yamakazi returns as writer and director, and brings the bulk of that film’s core cast with him for Zero, with Min Tanaka joining the marquee as a biologist with some psychological issues to work through. The movie is set in 1949, two years after the chaos of Godzilla Minus One, with studio Toho promising “all-new calamity” for the Shikishima family. Godzilla Minus Zero also holds the distinction of being the first Japanese production filmed for IMAX, so plan to see this one on the biggest big screen available. —Kase Wickman

Club Kid

Premiere Date: November 6
Director: Jordan Firstman
Noteworthy Cast: Jordan Firstman, Cara Delevingne, Diego Calva

Jordan Firstman was previously best known for his spicy character on I Love LA and his colorful internet presence. But he’s establishing himself as a director to watch with this strong debut, which is like a queer version of Big Daddy meets Anora. After Club Kid earned stellar reviews at Cannes, A24 scooped it up in a $17 million deal, the biggest at this year’s festival. Firstman, who stars in the film about a hard-partying club promoter who discovers he has a 10-year-old son, has crafted a heartfelt movie that authentically captures New York’s queer community, while also revealing its creator’s softer side. As Firstman told me in Cannes, “I feel like people are actually seeing the real me, and I felt so misunderstood for the last five years.” —R.F.

Jimmy

Premiere Date: November 6
Director: Aaron Burns
Noteworthy Cast: KJ Apa, Max Casella, Jason Alexander, Sarah Drew

Charles Melton has earned Oscar buzz and an Emmy nomination since the end of Riverdale—and now his costar KJ Apa is taking his own swing into awards season. He plays Old Hollywood legend Jimmy Stewart, known for films including The Philadelphia Story, Rear Window, and It’s a Wonderful Life, in a biopic about the actor. Apa, a native New Zealander who spent seven seasons playing high school footballer Archie on the campy teen drama, knows there is a lot of room for error. “At the end of the day, I’m the one who went out there and sweated my ass off and bled for this thing,” he recently told USA Today of the mixed online reaction to the movie’s first trailer. “I feel good about the work that I do, regardless of whether people like it or not.” Come to see if Apa will pull off Stewart’s oft-imitated accent. Stay for sure-to-be-something supporting turns from Seinfeld’s Jason Alexander as bullish studio head Louis B. Mayer and Grey’s Anatomy alum Sarah Drew as influential gossip columnist Hedda Hopper. —S.W.

Wild Horse Nine

Premiere Date: November 6
Director: Martin McDonagh
Noteworthy Cast: John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell, Steve Buscemi, Mariana Di Girólamo

Director Martin McDonagh returns with a dark comedy about two CIA agents, played by John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell, stationed in Chile in the 1970s. The two take a trip to Easter Island, shortly before the infamous coup that overthrew the socialist president Salvador Allende. The film premieres at the Venice Film Festival, then does the festival circuit before Searchlight Pictures opens it in November. The film mixes McDonagh’s signature comedy with a more political angle, and there’s already awards buzz for Malkovich’s performance. (He’s been nominated for two Oscars, but hasn’t won one yet.) Expect perfectly executed dialogue against a gorgeous backdrop, as McDonagh managed to actually film on the island of Rapa Nui. Prognosticators, take note: This film will have awards legs and be in the conversation well into March of next year. —J.R.

Being Heumann

Premiere Date: in theaters November 6; on Apple TV November 13
Director: Sian Heder
Noteworthy Cast: Ruth Madeley, Mark Ruffalo, Dylan O’Brien, Rob Delaney

Sian Heder has teamed back up with Apple for her first feature since Coda, her moving film about a teenage girl with deaf parents who discovers a passion for singing. That movie took home multiple Oscars in 2022, including best supporting actor for Troy Kotsur, best screenplay for Heder, and Apple’s first-ever best picture win. Now, Heder is back to tell the story of disability rights activist Judith Heumann, played by British actor Ruth Madeley. Based on Heumann’s memoir, the film follows Heumann as she organizes a coalition of outsiders who conduct the longest occupation of a federal building in American history, leading hundreds to spontaneously seize government offices in a direct challenge to the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Joseph A. Califano Jr. (played by Mark Ruffalo). —C.M.

Madden

Premiere Date: November 18
Director: David O. Russell
Noteworthy Cast: Nicolas Cage, Christian Bale, Kathryn Hahn, John Mulaney, Sienna Miller

David O. Russell returns to the gridiron roughly 15 years after making Silver Linings Playbook—but this time, his focus is on one of football’s most influential characters. Nicolas Cage is playing legendary coach and commentator John Madden in a biopic that traces Madden’s unlikely evolution from Super Bowl–winning coach to beloved broadcaster to the face of one of the world’s most successful video game franchises. Frequent Russell collaborator Christian Bale plays Madden’s longtime friend, eccentric Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis, while Kathryn Hahn plays Madden’s wife, Virginia. Good news for dads: After a limited theatrical release, Madden will be on Amazon Prime in time for Thanksgiving. —M.A.

Heartland

Premiere Date: November 13
Director: Shana Feste
Noteworthy Cast: Jessica Chastain, John Hawkes, Carter Faith, Garrett Hedlund, Jennifer Nettles, Ross Lynch, Ben Dickey

Country Strong hive, your time has arrived. Shana Feste wrote and directed this starry Netflix thriller, which follows a reclusive former country music star, Misty Jones (Chastain), on a mission to find a rising talent (Faith) who has gone mysteriously missing. The younger singer also happens to be her niece. What follows promises to be a twisty journey through Nashville’s underbelly. Chastain has, of course, done the country music rounds in the recent series George & Tammy (winning a SAG Award and Emmy nomination in the process), and Faith is a real-world country musician making her acting debut. —K.W.

Paper Tiger

Premiere Date: limited release on November 13; wide release on November 20
Director: James Gray
Noteworthy Cast: Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson, Miles Teller

James Gray, the filmmaker behind We Own the Night and Little Odessa, loves a tense New York drama about family—and he’s right at home with his latest work, Paper Tiger. What started out as a sequel to Armageddon Time—a very personal story inspired by the director’s own upbringing—morphed into a more operatic, Hitchcockian drama that centers on two brothers (Miles Teller and Adam Driver) who get wrapped up with some shady characters while trying to make a better life for themselves. After a strong premiere at Cannes in May, Paper Tiger will open the New York Film Festival on September 25 before Neon releases it in theaters in November. —R.F.

Ebenezer

Premiere Date: November 13
Director: Ti West
Noteworthy Cast: Johnny Depp, Tramell Tillman, Ian McKellen, Daisy Ridley

Enjoyment of Ebenezer is likely predicated on two major factors: one’s tolerance for yet another version of Charles Dickens’s oft-adapted A Christmas Carol, and one’s willingness to welcome Johnny Depp back to the big screen following his messy domestic violence legal battle with ex-wife Amber Heard. Depp plays the titular Scrooge, surrounded by stars like Ian McKellen as Jacob Marley, Rupert Grint as Bob Cratchit, and a few spirits from Christmases past, including one played by the Oscar-nominated Andrea Riseborough. Perhaps Ti West—the man behind Mia Goth’s A24 slasher trilogy (X, Pearl, and MaXXXine)—is up to proving the Depp naysayers wrong. Or maybe you’d be better off rewatching Scrooged—although its leading man has a few Ghosts of Christmas Past too. —S.W.

A Bitter Christmas

Premiere Date: limited release on November 13; wide release on November 25
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Noteworthy Cast: Bárbara Lennie, Leonardo Sbaraglia

Pedro Almodóvar has been looking inward with his latest works, and A Bitter Christmas is no different. The film’s dual stories explore the ethical questions that arise when a filmmaker uses inspiration from his life and from those around him. The story centers on Raúl, a gay Spanish screenwriter and film director who pulls personal details from his circle of friends for a new screenplay, while at the same time following Elsa, an advertising director who is grappling with grief after her mother dies. As Raúl writes Elsa’s story, this nesting-doll structure results in a deep look into grief and creativity, with the gorgeous color palette and production design that only Almodóvar can deliver. —R.F.

I Play Rocky

Premiere Date: November 13
Director: Peter Farrelly
Noteworthy Cast: Anthony Ippolito, AnnaSophia Robb, Jay Duplass, Tracy Letts, Matt Dillon

It’s not a new Rocky movie, but a movie about the making of Rocky—starring 27-year-old unknown Ippolito as a 29-year-old then-unknown named Sylvester Stallone. From the trailer, it seems Ippolito has Sly’s unique voice and mannerisms down pat. We’ll see if that’s enough to carry an entire film about the production of a classic, the sort of project that can’t help but cause certain viewers to wonder why they shouldn’t just watch the actual thing instead. (At least it’s just one movie rather than a whole dang series.) —H.B.

How to Rob a Bank

Premiere Date: November 13
Director: David Leitch
Noteworthy Cast: Nicholas Hoult, Zoë Kravitz, Anna Sawai, Pete Davidson, John C. Reilly

Finally, a movie ready to teach its audience some useful skills! Stunt coordinator turned blockbuster director Leitch—he made his debut with the first John Wick—is behind this stylish cat-and-mouse tale, which casts Hoult as a sort of modern-day, internet-pilled Robin Hood. Kravitz plays the stoner hacker hired by fed John C. Reilly to bring him down; she and Hoult’s character also used to date. It sounds like the sort of fizzy, original entertainment Hollywood doesn’t make enough of these days, with a soupçon of social commentary. (The trailer features a very Luigi Mangione–coded moment, which can’t be accidental.) —H.B.

The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping

Premiere Date: November 20
Director: Francis Lawrence
Noteworthy Cast: Joseph Zada, McKenna Grace, Jesse Plemons, Elle Fanning, Kieran Culkin, Ralph Fiennes, Glenn Close

Did Suzanne Collins start writing new Hunger Games movies solely to provide Lionsgate with a steady stream of adaptable material? Perhaps—but who cares when the work is as surprisingly rich as her Hunger Games prequels have been? This second one is about young Haymitch Abernathy, who will grow up to be Katniss Everdeen’s rough-hewn, alcoholic mentor—played in the original series by Woody Harrelson. Here, though, he’s a teenage Hunger Games conscript played by Australian up-and-comer Joseph Zada, an actor with a big fall ahead: He’s also playing the James Dean role in Netflix’s reimagined East of Eden. As always in a Hunger Games movie, the hero will be surrounded by a group of A-listers giving their all—including Plemons (in a role originated by his career and physical doppelganger Philip Seymour Hoffman), Fanning (as young Elizabeth Banks), Culkin (as young Stanley Tucci), and Fiennes (as young Donald Sutherland, or middle-aged Tom Blyth, depending on your point of view). —H.B.

Josephine

Premiere Date: November 20
Director: Beth de Araújo
Noteworthy Cast: Channing Tatum, Gemma Chan

The winner of the U.S. Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, Beth de Araújo’s powerful drama is based on her own experience of witnessing a crime when she was eight years old. The movie follows parents (Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan) who are grappling with how to navigate their daughter’s (Mason Reeves) emotional state after she witnesses a rape in a park. “I decided to make Josephine an extreme version of what it feels like to have female fear and keep it through the eyes of an eight-year-old girl,” de Araújo told me earlier this year. Both Tatum and Chan give commanding performances here, but it’s Reeves, in her acting debut, who makes this story a must-watch. —R.F.

Minotaur

Premiere Date: November 20
Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev
Noteworthy Cast: Dmitriy Mazurov, Iris Lebedeva

The Grand Prix winner at this year’s Cannes, Minotaur is a reimagining of the French film La femme infidèle, which was the basis of Adrian Lyne’s Unfaithful. Set in modern-day Russia, a business executive profiting off the war in Ukraine suspects his wife might be having an affair. The film sets its family drama against the backdrop of Russia’s corrupt socio-economic system. Andrey Zvyagintsev’s last movie, Loveless, was released nine years ago. and this is a welcome return—one sequence in particular is a masterclass in filmmaking and will leave you on the edge of your seat. —J.R.

Elsinore

Premiere Date: November 20
Director: Simon Stone
Noteworthy Cast: Olivia Colman, Andrew Scott, Billie Piper, Joe Locke

Irish actor Andrew Scott is one of countless performers who have brought their own version of Shakespeare’s Hamlet to the stage. Another was Scottish star Ian Charleson, who, after making Oscar-nominated films including Chariots of Fire and Gandhi, delivered a courageous final performance—on stage at London’s National Theatre—while dealing with a terminal AIDS diagnosis. Those who orbited Charleson in the final days before his 1990 death at age 40 will be played by many familiar British faces, including Emma’s Johnny Flynn and Bridgerton’s Luke Thompson. —S.W.

Hexed

Premiere Date: November 25
Director: Fawn Veerasunthorn, Jason Hand, Josie Trinidad
Noteworthy Cast: Hailee Steinfeld, Rashida Jones, Jodie Foster, Walton Goggins

This rare non-sequel from Disney Animation sits inside the Venn diagram of Harry Potter and Encanto: it’s about a teenage girl (Steinfeld) who finds out she’s got magic powers as she stumbles into a fantastical world, where she and her mother (Jones) discover “family secrets connected to the world of witches.” Fun fact: the movie was apparently originally about a boy witch. Perhaps draw your own conclusions as to why that particular plot point was changed. —H.B.

The Mosquito Bowl

Premiere Date: in theaters October 30; on Netflix November 25
Director: Peter Berg
Noteworthy Cast: Nicholas Galitzine, Bill Skarsgård, Ray Nicholson, Tom Francis

The film, based on Buzz Bissinger’s book, follows four college football stars who enlist in the Marines and play in the now legendary Mosquito Bowl before being shipped to fight in the brutal invasion of Okinawa. The actual Mosquito Bowl really did assemble some of the country’s best college football players, many of whom died just a year later in the war. Director Peter Berg cast some of today’s top young actors in this ensemble drama, which will start streaming on Netflix this Thanksgiving. —J.R.

Focker-in-Law

Premiere Date: November 25
Director: John Hamburg
Noteworthy Cast: Ben Stiller, Robert DeNiro, Ariana Grande, Skyler Gisondo, Beanie Feldstein, Owen Wilson, Teri Polo

Did you miss the Focker family? The fourth film in the Meet the Parents franchise finds Henry (Skyler Gisondo), the now-adult son of Ben Stiller’s Greg, bringing his girlfriend to meet his parents. The girlfriend, Olivia, just happens to be a former FBI hostage negotiator and triathlete played by Ariana Grande. Naturally, she gets grilled by Greg’s grandfather, Robert De Niro’s retired CIA agent and Vietnam veteran Jack Byrnes, and chaos ensues. Going toe-to-toe onscreen with De Niro is not for the faint of heart, but the two-time Oscar winner said that Grande, in her first post-Wicked film role, was up for the challenge. On the Today show, De Niro said Grande was “terrific” to work with; while attending CinemaCon, he said that Grande is “probably the single most talented screen partner I’ve been lucky enough to share the screen with.” Tough news for Joe Pesci. —C.M.

The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth

Premiere Date: in IMAX November 25; on Netflix December 23
Director: David Fincher
Noteworthy Cast: Brad Pitt, Elizabeth Debicki, Scott Caan, Carla Gugino, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Timothy Olyphant

No, Quentin Tarantino didn’t direct this sequel to his Oscar-winning blockbuster Once Upon a Time in Hollywood—but he did write it. (How’s that for retirement?) The movie finds Pitt and his mustache back in the saddle as the titular stuntman, who’s now working as a studio fixer (the same job Harvey Keitel’s character had in Pulp Fiction) in the post-Manson New Hollywood ’70s. Expect F-bombs, groovy guitar licks, and lots of power neutrals, not necessarily in that order. —H.B.

14th

Premiere Date: in theaters on November 27; on Netflix December 4
Director: Ava DuVernay
Noteworthy Cast: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Hasan Piker, Stacey Abrams, Alex Padilla

A decade after her Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning documentary 13th—a deep dive into the U.S. Constitutional amendment that abolished slavery and servitude, except as punishment for a convicted crime—Ava DuVernay has set her sights on the 14th Amendment. “If 13th asked who gets caged, then 14th asks who gets counted,” DuVernay told Netflix, which will house the film after its theatrical bow. “This is not a film about the past tense of freedom. I’m not interested in asking you to look back. The film asks what kind of country is being written beneath our feet now…while we’re busy believing the stories we’ve all been told.” More than 50 experts from across the spheres of power join DuVernay to debate Reconstruction Era legislation, including political leaders like current Democratic representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, former Republican senator Jeff Flake, and Stacey Abrams. —S.W.

Behemoth!

Premiere Date: December 4
Director: Tony Gilroy
Noteworthy Cast: Pedro Pascal, Olivia Wilde, Will Arnett, Eva Victor

Although prior gigs on Game of Thrones and Gladiator II required Pascal to learn stunts and handle swords, making this film “was 10 times harder than any of those things because of the fucking cello,” he told Vanity Fair in his first interview about the project. “Literally the hardest, hardest, hardest thing I’ve ever had to learn to do. Being in a gladiator arena or hanging from a harness—that stuff pales in comparison to learning how to play the cello and making it look convincing as you’re doing Tchaikovsky.” Pascal plays searching, sensual cellist Alex in this decades-spanning drama from Oscar-nominated filmmaker Tony Gilroy, grappling with his path from child prodigy to workaholic wanderer alongside a jealous brother (Arnett), vengeful ex (Wilde), and a new love interest (Victor), whose arrival in Alex’s life flips everything. The film’s music has a similarly striking effect. The passage of time is communicated through nine separate orchestrations scored by an unprecedented nine different composers: Michael Abels, Emily Bear, Lukas Frank, Michael Giacchino, James Newton Howard, Henry Jackman, Nami Melumad, Brandon Roberts, and Alan Silvestri. —S.W.

Tender Loving Care

Premiere Date: December 4
Director: Mike Leigh
Noteworthy Cast: Marion Bailey, Alice Bailey Johnson, Kate O’Flynn, Paul Jesson

As if you need convincing to sit down for any film by auteur Mike Leigh, this one is very likely to be his final movie. In July, the improvisational filmmaker told Indiewire that because he is battling illness (immune disorder myositis, which attacks the muscular system), making another film is “not going to be possible.” This R-rated dramedy stars O’Flynn—a former Leigh collaborator and recent audience favorite showing her Final Girl chops in Widow’s Bay—as a social worker, and explores themes of family, grief, and what it means to care for someone. —K.W.

The Debut

Premiere Date: December 11
Director: Jesse Eisenberg
Noteworthy Cast: Julianne Moore, Paul Giamatti, Halle Bailey, Bernadette Peters

Jesse Eisenberg’s last directorial feature, A Real Pain, earned Kieran Culkin an Oscar and cemented Eisenberg as the next actor-turned-filmmaker to watch. With The Debut, he turns his lens toward the acting profession itself, casting Julianne Moore (who previously appeared in Eisenberg’s directorial debut, the 2022 Sundance dramedy When You Finish Saving the World) as his leading lady. Moore plays Mona Friedman, a restless housewife who’s reborn by starring in a community theater production run by Paul Giamatti’s mercurial but magnetic director, Jerry. Eisenberg says the A24 title blends the behind-the-scenes antics of Waiting for Guffman with the psychological trickery of Black Swan. “I wrote the film for Julianne Moore, but it’s about my own experiences,” Eisenberg told The Wrap. The dramedy is set in 1990 New Jersey—the time and place where a young Eisenberg first found the stage. “I loved it and was terrified by it. It was the only place I felt comfortable, and the place that scared me the most.” —S.W.

Ink

Premiere Date: in theaters on December 11; on Netflix January 8, 2027
Director: Danny Boyle
Noteworthy Cast: Guy Pearce, Jack O’Connell, Claire Foy

Based on the Tony-winning play of the same name, Danny Boyle’s Ink chronicles Rupert Murdoch’s takeover of The Sun, charting how the mogul transformed it into a salacious tabloid that for a time became the most popular paper in the world. Ink, which will have its world premiere as the opening film of the Venice Film Festival ahead of several other festival stops, has Boyle’s kinetic filmmaking style while being a journalism nerd’s dream. There are plenty of montages of newly printed papers flying across the printing press, and a sequence in which The Sun’s new editor Larry Lamb (played by Jack O’Connell) assembles a ragtag group of reporters to run his new paper. But the film also goes deeper, exploring how The Sun’s rise can be tied to the modern-day media landscape. “That was an ignition point for where we are now,” Boyle told me. “And I really believe you can trace it back because it’s about attitude to authority. It’s about attitude to central governance, central truth.” —R.F.

Bad Day

Premiere Date: December 11
Director: Jake Szymanski
Noteworthy Cast: Cameron Diaz, Mark Duplass, Danielle Brooks, Ed O’Neill

Who can feel down in the dumps with the effervescent Cameron Diaz onscreen? After breaking her decade-long acting retirement to star alongside Jamie Foxx in the fittingly titled Netflix action-comedy Back in Action, Diaz is back on the streamer. She plays a stressed-out single mother struggling to fulfill a small promise to her daughter on an increasingly difficult day. “I reserve the right to say no to doing a movie ever again, and I reserve the right to say yes if I decide to,” Diaz told Empire about her foray back into film last year. “I’m not defining anything. I’m just open to whatever makes sense for me and my family at any given moment.” Director Jake Szymanski’s prior work, including episodes of Jury Duty and SNL, suggests this film will be a return to Diaz’s broad comedic roots, dating back to big-screen hits like The Mask and There’s Something About Mary. —S.W.

Clarissa

Premiere Date: December 11
Director: Arie Esiri and Chuko Esiri
Noteworthy Cast: Sophie Okonedo, Ayo Edebiri, India Amarteifio, David Oyelowo

Amid new literary adaptations of Jane Austen novels on film (Sense and Sensibility) and TV (Netflix’s Pride and Prejudice) this fall, a contemporary reimagining of Virginia Woolf’s 1925 novel, Mrs. Dalloway, enters the canon. Instead of 1920s London, Nigerian filmmakers Arie and Chuko Esiri (who happen to be twins) set their tale in modern-day Nigeria. Clarissa follows a society woman—played across multiple decades by Hotel Rwanda’s Oscar-nominated Okonedo and Queen Charlotte star Amarteifio—as she plans a party at her Lagos home and reunites with formerly close childhood friends. But as Mrs. Dalloway once discovered, not every homecoming is harmonious. —S.W.

Avengers: Doomsday

Premiere Date: December 18
Director: Anthony Russo and Joe Russo
Noteworthy Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Pedro Pascal, Florence Pugh, Patrick Stewart

The Russo brothers are getting the gang back together. Seven years after the success of Avengers: Endgame, Robert Downey Jr. is in the Marvel Cinematic Universe once more. This time, though, he’s playing the legendary villain Victor von Doom. Doomsday unites the Avengers with the Fantastic Four and characters from the original X-Men films as three cinematic universes collide. The stacked cast also includes Ian McKellen, Channing Tatum, Tom Hiddleston, and David Harbour—who stepped in it last week when he hinted that Tony Stark could be making an appearance in the upcoming film. —M.A.

Dune: Part Three

Premiere Date: December 18
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Noteworthy Cast: Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Jason Momoa, Florence Pugh, Robert Pattinson, Anya Taylor-Joy

The final installment in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune trilogy is set 17 years after Paul Atreides seizes control of the Imperium. Watching Chalamet play Atreides at his full power should be a delight—but the film also features numerous supporting performances that are primed to break out, including another turn from Pattinson and a much bigger role for Zendaya. The first two Dune films earned a total of 15 Oscar nominations, so the release of Villeneuve’s last one raises the question of whether the Academy will finally give him a directing nomination for his success in adapting a series that was once considered unadaptable. Regardless, we’re ready for a final trip to Arrakis. —R.F.

Ray Gunn

Premiere Date: December 18
Director: Brad Bird
Noteworthy Cast: Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Waits

The two-time Oscar-winning director behind animated classics including Ratatouille, The Iron Giant, and The Incredibles returns to the world he knows well for a secretive venture into space. Rockwell voices Raymond Gunn, the last human private detective, who lives in a universe where humans and aliens coexist. “It was always meant to be a blend of sci-fi and classic detective movies from the ’40s,” Bird has said of his next film. “The elevator pitch I came up with is The Maltese Falcon meets Buck Rogers.” Details on the retro-futuristic tale are sparse, but the cast includes Johansson as a megastar named Venus Nova, plus Grammy winner and Oscar nominee Tom Waits as Eyera, Ray’s right hand—who happens to be a one-eyed extraterrestrial. —S.W.

Mr. Irrelevant: The John Tuggle Story

Premiere Date: December 25
Director: Jonathan Levine
Noteworthy Cast: David Corenswet, Isabel May, Michael Shannon, David Krumholtz

Nobody wants to be picked last. But in the NFL, that distinction is a badge of honor—and a sizable chip to carry on your shoulder. Superman star David Corenswet plays this film’s title character, a running back who earned the nickname Mr. Irrelevant after the New York Giants selected him with the final pick of the 1983 NFL draft. Tuggle’s promising career was cut short by injuries and, eventually, cancer; he died in 1986 at just 25. Mr. Irrelevant, directed by Warm Bodies filmmaker Jonathan Levine, tells the story of Tuggle’s enduring impact on the Giants, with Michael Shannon playing legendary coach Bill Parcells. —M.A.

Artificial

Premiere Date: Late 2026
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Noteworthy Cast: Andrew Garfield, Monica Barbaro, Yura Borisov, Mark Rylance, Ike Barinholtz, Jason Schwartzman

It almost looked like Luca Guadagnino’s highly anticipated film about Open AI CEO Sam Altman, starring Andrew Garfield, would become a piece of lost media. Artificial follows Altman’s roller-coaster ride with his AI company, OpenAI, focusing on Altman’s controversial firing and rehiring in 2023. In June, Amazon MGM Studios announced that it was dropping the film from its slate—just months after Amazon announced a $50 billion investment in OpenAI. Artificial, it said in a statement, “will be better served if it were released by a different studio and [we] are working closely with the filmmaking team to find the film a new home.” That studio wound up being Neon. Now, after all the drama, we know that Artificial will get a theatrical release, but we still don’t know when. Word on the street, though, is that Artificial will premiere sometime in late 2026, whether Sam Altman likes it or not. —C.M.

Werwulf

Premiere Date: December 25
Director: Robert Eggers
Noteworthy Cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Willem Dafoe, Lily-Rose Depp, Ralph Ineson

There, wulf! The tactile auteur who launched Anya Taylor-Joy’s career with The Witch, drove Robert Pattinson to madness in The Lighthouse, and made Alexander Skarsgård engage in a naked sword fight atop an active volcano reunites the stars of his 2024 horror film, Nosferatu, for this new take on a very old legend. Once again, we’ll see a crew of wretched people who have not had a bath in many moons encounter all sorts of horrors, including the titular beast (embodied, of course, by Taylor-Johnson). If you love the sound of cracking bones and have yearned to watch Lily-Rose Depp play “the cursed farmer’s wife,” this one’s made for you. Speaking of “made for you”: Is an Eggers Frankenstein next? —H.B.

Coward

Premiere Date: December 25
Director: Lukas Dhont
Noteworthy Cast: Emmanuel Macchia, Valentin Campagne, Willem De Schryver