I keep waiting to become more cynical about movies as a film critic. Every week I read one think piece after the next about how cinema is dying and no good movies are made anymore. But 2025 was packed to the rafters with one masterpiece after another.
In a year with movies like Train Dreams, One Battle After Another, Hamnet, Black Bag, Sinners, Weapons, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, No Other Choice and so many other stone classics, it’s hard to feel like filmmakers, actors and writers aren’t still out there telling stories of lasting power and quality.
I’m not saying 2026 is going to remotely match the quality of 2025, but I’m still excited for quite a few films—some of which have a good chance of being all-timers. Here’s a brief look at just a few of the films coming this year that have my attention. Several of these might see their release dates change and new ones will also get added, so that’s something to keep in mind.
Jan. 16, “Dead Man’s Wire”: The film, about a true-life hostage situation in 1977, looks like a powerful crime drama about class and outlaw justice, but the reason I’m hyped is that it’s the latest film from indie godfather Gus Van Sant. He’s made a few less-than-stellar movies over the last few years, but has a lifetime pass from me for Drugstore Cowboy, My Own Private Idaho and To Die For.
Jan. 30, “Send Help”: A bonkers island survival thriller starring Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien, directed by Sam Raimi—who’s back in horror mode for the first time since 2009’s all-timer Drag Me to Hell—and with a new score from Danny Elfman. Shut up and take my money.
Feb. 6, “Pillion”: A BDSM love story starring Alexander Skarsgård and Harry (Dudley Dursley) Melling. Every sub deserves a good dom, and this looks absolutely adorable.
Feb. 13, “Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die”: A sci-fi comedy thriller starring Sam Rockwell that looks like equal parts 12 Monkeys and Everything Everywhere All At Once. From director Gore Verbinski, who hasn’t made a film since 2016’s A Cure for Wellness. This looks like a return to form for the imaginative and singular filmmaker.
Feb. 27, “In the Blink of an Eye”: I don’t have much information about this one except that it stars Kate McKinnon, Rashida Jones and Daveed Diggs. It’s set across thousands of years, spans the entire history of the world and is directed by Andrew Stanton, the brain behind the Toy Story movies and WALL-E. Can’t wait to have my brain broken.
March 6, “The Bride!”: Featuring one of the best trailers I’ve ever seen, this reimagining of The Bride of Frankenstein looks like another powerhouse performance from Jessie Buckley and a work of striking vision from director Maggie Gyllenhaal.
March 20, “Project Hail Mary”: I’ve been in the mood lately for a crowd-pleasing sci-fi dramedy along the lines of The Martian, and this looks like it fits the bill perfectly. Everyone I know who read the book loved it and I’m a big fan of the Baby Goose, so I feel extremely overhyped for this one.
March 27, “Alpha”: A new film from French auteur Julia Ducournau (Raw and Titane) is cause for celebration, but this looks like a brutal time at the movies. Receiving terrible reviews at last year’s Cannes, this allegory about the AIDS crisis might be a misunderstood classic or the first bad movie of Ducournau’s career. I’ll be there opening day, either way.
April 24, “Mother Mary”: David Lowery is one of my favorite living directors. I have a tattoo of his masterpiece A Ghost Story, and his The Green Knight is a misunderstood banger, so his new film Mother Mary is high on my list of anticipated titles. Starring Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel as a pop star and her estranged costume designer, this looks like a hallucinatory rollercoaster.
May 22, “I Love Boosters”: The new film from Boots Riley, the provocateur behind The Coup and Sorry to Bother You. All I know about his next trip is that its cast features Keke Palmer, LaKeith Stanfield and Taylor Paige, and follows a group of shoplifters going after a fashion icon. Riley is a genius, so this should be insane.
June 12, “Disclosure Day”: Steven Spielberg doing another alien invasion thriller has me feeling like I’m 12 all over again. With Josh O’Connor and Emily Blunt in front of the camera, I want this to be Spielberg’s best since Minority Report. Better, even!
July 17, “The Odyssey”: The five-minute preview that played before Avatar was breathtaking —even Christopher Nolan’s worst movie is still better than most people’s best. The man is a visionary with a limitless imagination and I think The Odyssey will be something really special.
Aug. 14, “Flowervale Street”: This new film is from David Robert Mitchell, the weirdo behind one of my favorite movies of the last decade—which most everyone else despises—Under the Silver Lake. Starring Anna Hathaway and Ewan McGregor, this appears to be a sci-fi freakout about a family in the ’80s who starts noticing strange things happening on their street. I’m excited to see a trailer for this one.
Sept. 11, “Clayface”: A body horror comic book movie written by Mike Flanagan and set in James Gunn’s new DC Comics Universe sounds like a step in a new direction for superhero films. I’m ready for this genre to expand and this looks like the beginning of something original and, hopefully, groundbreaking.
Oct. 9, “The Social Reckoning”: The sequel to The Social Network sees Jeremy Strong playing Zuckerberg and Jeremy Allen White in the lead with another script by the great Aaron Sorkin. I’ll miss David Fincher in the director’s chair, but he’s busy making a sequel to Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood.
Nov. 26, “Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew”: Greta Gerwig making a Narnia movie sounds like a treat, but as someone not very in love with the previous films, here’s hoping her unique sensibility will do something remarkable with these stories.
Dec. 18, “Avengers: Doomsday and Dune: Part Three”: Colloquially known as “Dunesday,” this double bill will most likely be 2026’s version of “Barbenheimer,” unless one of the movies moves from this date. Marvel wants this to be a return to form by bringing back Steve Rogers and the directors of Endgame, while Denis Villeneuve is wrapping up his Spice-y Sand Jesus Trilogy as only he can.
