With the new year officially upon us, here are the 10 films I am most excited for (based on projected release dates).

My list is certainly auteur driven and is less focused on the subject matter of the films themselves. The best filmmakers usually make the best films and my picks reflect my taste among auteurs and the quality of their works leading up to the film in question.

I will be excluding any works mentioned on my previous year’s list that were not yet released (ex: Hope by Na Hong Jin).

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
– Remain by M. Night Shyamalan: As a Shymalan apologist who feels particularly validated by 2024’s Trap, sign me up for his latest.
– Disclosure Day by Steven Spielberg: Given how exciting and filled with vitality West Side Story and The Fablemans are, one can’t help but be excited with what else a re-energized Spielberg has to say about aliens.
– Godzilla Minus Zero by Takashi Yamazaki: After the shame of never getting a sequel to Shin Godzilla, the confirmation of a sequel to Minus One is comforting, especially given that the same creative team behind the smash hit is back in action.
– Good Luck,Have Fun, Don’t Die by Gore Verbinski: With how much his remake of The Ring has conditioned my cinematic journey, I’ll watch anything Verbinski makes, especially after the 9 year delay between this and his highly underrated 2016 film A Cure for Wellness. ^[1] I have since learned this is technically a 2025 release
– All of a Sudden by Ryusuke Hamaguchi: With Evil Does Not Exist, Hamaguchi shot up my list of directors to get to sooner rather than later
– Jack of Spades by Joel Coen: Another collaboration between Joel Coen and cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel after their sumptuous work on The Tragedy of Macbeth makes this a must watch
– The Basics of Philosophy by Paul Schrader: In contention for one of the most underrated auteurs, Schrader is a director whose every work demands to be seen, especially with his run starting with 2017’s First Reformed.
– I Love Boosters by Boots Riley: For fans of the absurd, Boots Riley debut film, I’m Sorry to Bother You, was a breath of fresh year and the 8 year wait for the director’s return to the big screen has only increased the anticipation for what will most certainly be gonzo, unpredictable lawmaking.
– A Long Winter by Andrew Haigh: Haigh’s work has always been emotionally resonant but his most recent feature, All of Us Strangers, demonstrated an experimental formalism that finally enabled me to appreciate the rhythm of his writing/storytelling in a more cinematic opposed to literary manner, guaranteeing my excitement for his latest work.
–The Moment by Aidan Zamiri: As a longtime fan of Charli XCX, the prospect of a Spinal Type styled mockumentary about her Brat era sounds like it could be an absolute blast.

10. Wuthering Heights by Emerald Fennell

Fennel has quickly risen up my list of auteurs to watch out for her with her 2020 debut film, Promising Young Woman, and her sophomore follow-up, 2023’s Saltburn sitting firmly amongst the top films of their respective years. While both films demonstrate an uncompromising commitment to aesthetic and film style, her latter collaboration with Linus Sandgren produced some of the most evocative moments of 2023, a particularly great year for cinema.

Obviously, seeing the two return for a new collaboration assures this critic that the film will be stunning to view (a fact which seems easily supported by the trailers). The single tracks for the film produced by Charli XCX (who will be contributing to the film’s soundtrack) are inspiring to say the least, guaranteeing that the film will be an exhilarating audio-visual experience in spite of any other failures.

As a fan of Bronte’s text, a seminal work in the Gothic genre (and my personal introduction to the same), it does feel sacrilege of sort to profess excitement for an adaptation that seems so far away from the source material. However, Fennel’s track-record and her penchant for combining pop-aesthetics with dark, transgressive themes and narrative beats does inspire hope that there will be more than meets the eye especially when it comes to the spirit of the text.

9. Ray Gunn by Brad Bird

Brad Bird is one of the giants of the animated world and his contributions to both the medium and genre-film making as a whole in the form of The Iron Giant, The Incredible, Ratatouille make any work of his something to keep an eye out for.

But Ray Gunn is no simple project either and has been in development hell since ’95. That it is finally being released is nothing short of miraculous. That it is a an animation aimed at adults makes it even more intriguing.

Hopefully, Netflix doesn’t drown this passion project out to stream and allows a wider release.

8. Werewulf by Robert Eggers

Eggers has consistently delivered some of the very best of the century starting from his feature debut The Witch in 2015 up to his latest foray, 2024’s Nosferatu.

His two masterpieces, The Lighthouse and Nosferatu, are easily some of the most beautiful films, horror or not, to be shot this century and all his efforts, even his more slightly uneven ones, feature compositions and movements that are gob-smacking in terms of their formal coherence and artistic vision. Cinematographer Jarin Blaschke, who has collaborated with Eggers on all four of the latter’ films, is returning once more, guaranteeing that Werewulf will be one of the best looking films of the year.

If that isn’t enough, Eggers is reuniting with Lily-Rose Depp and Aaron Taylor-Johnson from Nosferatu, the former of whom delivered a career-best performance and certainly one of the best of that year, along with his consistent collaborators in Willem Dafoe (whose performance in The Lighthouse ranks among the finest in his storied filmography) and Ralph Ineson.

Here’s hoping that the interference that Eggers and returning co-writer Sjon experienced on The Northman (least of all being the Old Norse Dialogue being replaced by easier to understand English) doesn’t rear its head on what’s looking to be the self-purported darkest chapter in Egger’s oeuvre to date. ^[2]Paur, J. (2025a, February 10). Robert Eggers says his WERWULF horror film is the darkest thing he’s ever written. GeekTyrant. … Continue reading

7. Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma by Jane Schoenburn

While their 2021 debut, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, showed promise, Schoenburn’s sophomore effort, I Saw the TV Glow, shattered expectations, delivering an sublime and devastating experience that hasn’t been forgotten amongst discourse in my cinematic circles.

The suffocating manner in which the film unfolds and its complex meditations on our relationship with the screen, namely as an interface to the virtual realm, demonstrates both a commitment to the thematic inclinations of Schoenburn’s debut and the auteur’s rapid growth in effectively conveying those themes through cinematic affect.

After reading their description of the film as “Portrait of a Lady on Fire set in a Friday the 13th sequel,”^[3]Navarro, M. (2025, May 9). Gillian Anderson & Hannah Einbinder to star in “teenage sex and death at Camp Miasma.” Bloody Disgusting! … Continue reading involving a director trying to reboot a horror franchise, how can one not be excited?

6. Her Private Hell by Nicolas Winding Refn

Refn is one of our great contemporary visual artist and consistently creates some of the most beautiful, evocative images in the medium.

This marks his first return to a proper film since 2016’s The Neon Demon, a film whose runtime is almost packed end-to-end with expressionist color and sublime, measured framing. While his miniseries, Too Old to Die Young and Copenhagen Cowboy, are similarly filled with breathtaking sequences, they are also bloated and feel less precise compared to Refn’s feature films (even if they feature stretches of some of his best film making), especially when compared to his run from 2009’s Valhalla Rising to The Neon Demon.

5. Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie -Walpurgisnacht: Rising by Yukihiro Miyamoto and Akiyuki Shino

As a fan of magical girl shows from a young age (Cardcaptor Sakura and Sailor Moon are childhood mainstays), 2011’s Puella Magi Madoka Magica instantly captivated me in its 12-episode run. Directed by Akiyuki Shinbo and Yukihiro Miyamoto, the series deconstructed the genre much like Anno’s transgressive masterpiece Evangelion did for the mecha-genre, and just like Evangelion it cemented its place in as one of the best in the medium.

When the sequel film to the series, Puella Magi Madoka Magica the Movie Part III: Rebellion (a sequel to two films which served to retell the initial 12-episode story in a compacted time), completely upended the ending of the series and dramatically altered the stakes of what the story could do, fans like myself waited for years to see what the conclusion would pan out to be (or even if there would be a synthesis to the series’ thesis and the film’s antithesis).

13 years later, we are finally receiving the answer as the final film is set to release. There is no doubt that this film will feature mainstays of the series: surreal multi-media interludes, unsettling juxtapositions between the adorable and macabre, and stunning action sequences. Here’s hoping that the wait was worth it.

4. Digger by Alejandro González Iñárritu

Iñárritu’s’ run including 2014’s Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), 2015’s The Revenant, and 2022’s Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths is legendary, with each film clearly ranking amongst its respective years best (if not being the best outright).

That would be enough to rouse excitement for the feature. However, the fact that the feature represents Tom Cruise’s return to art-fare since his appearance in 1999’s Eyes Wide Shut and Magnolia, raises the stakes exponentially. Cruise’s multi-decade long run as a leading action man has been a joy to watch, but there is a certain joy realizing that one of the best actors may finally have a complex role to sink his chops into.

Here’s hoping to lighting striking as these two titans of the craft mark their first collaboration with one another.

3. The Adventures of Cliff Booth by David Fincher

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is arguable Tarantino’s best work and is certainly my favorite of his, ranking amongst my most re-watched films. It features some of his most ambitious formal maneuvering and contains some of his best production design and mise en scène.

When I heard he was developing a sequel, I was obviously excited. When I heard that he did not want to direct the same, I was saddened. But when I heard that the project was being revived by none other than David Fincher, one of the only contemporary directors who feels like they’re a match for Tarantino and his filmography, and whose consistent collaboration with Brad Pitt, the co-star of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, produced some of the actor’s best performances, I became ecstatic at the possibilities of what this sequel could be.

Fincher is such a distinctively different director from Tarantino, more exacting and clinical and less flashy; you would never confuse a character from one director’s film for another, let alone the aesthetic. But if anyone could pull it off and find a way to honor Tarantino’s script while doing something Tarantino couldn’t do with the material in a way that’s cinematically engrossing, it would be Fincher.

One prays that Netflix gives this cinematic chimera a wide release. The only real tragedy would be that the sequel to one of the great love letters to cinema and the cinematic experience is relegated forever to a streaming service. Although, given that Fincher’s previous works, Mank and The Killer, great as they are, are still tied behind Netflix’s dreaded “exclusivity” , the chances aren’t looking particularly great.

2. Dune: Part 3 by Denis Villeneuve

After doing what very few thought was possible in rendering Frank Herbert’s opus, Dune, in a cinematic form capable of captivating a mass audience without compromising on its formal or artistic sensibilities, Villeneuve’s return to the franchise with his adaptation of Herbert’s sequel Dune Messiah is looking to be one of the great events of the year.

As a fan of Herbert’s novels, Villeneuve’s narrative changes, more so present in Part Two, certainly draw intrigue; how he’ll be able to bridge the gap between his adaptation and the text will be interesting, especially given the lack of comparative action between the two texts.

At the very last, the switch from Greg Frasier’s impeccable digital cinematography on the first two parts to shooting on IMAX film with Linus Sandgren indicates that Denis is going for a distinctive look to match the change in narrative.

It’ll be interesting to see he how he he’s able to land the trilogy, but if anyone has earned the benefit of the doubt, it is Denis Villeneuve.

1. The Odyssey by Christopher Nolan

There could be no other choice.

Christopher Nolan is on a generational run and has arguably been the best director working since 2008, delivering some of the best films of their respective genres in: The Dark Knight, Inception, The Dark Knight Rises, Interstellar, Dunkirk, Tenet.

That his most recent (and arguably best) film Oppenheimer , a 3-hour drama, feels consistent with his oeuvre and contains some of his most breath-taking film making and formal choices of his filmography, is testament that this is an auteur who is very much not done exploring what his craft is capable of.

For a director obsessed with a non-linear exploration of the narrative wherein the strands of the narrative are couched within one another like a Russian nesting doll, Homer’s source material proves fertile ground for Nolan’s cinematic occupations.

Even though Homer’s Odyssey contains sequences that feel impossible to render in a way that would captivate a modem audience without immediately feeling inauthentic or convoluted, Nolan’s commitment to fidelity in the image makes these depictions seem capable of being brought to life. If anything, the hint of the legendary cyclops from the trailer inspires confidence that things will look properly gnarly.

With his biggest budget yet and an even more elaborate IMAX set-up compared to his previous films, this adaptation of one of the greatest pieces of literature to have been recorded is looking to be the definitive cinematic event of 2026.

With the new year officially upon us, here are the 10 films I am most excited for (based on projected release dates).

My list is certainly auteur driven and is less focused on the subject matter of the films themselves. The best filmmakers usually make the best films and my picks reflect my taste among auteurs and the quality of their works leading up to the film in question.

10. Nouvelle Vague by Richard Linklater

Linklater’s 2020’s output has been consistent with both Apollo 10 1⁄2: A Space Age Childhood and Hit Man serving as solid additions to the director’s oeuvre, so Nouvelle Vague would have been something to keep my ears out for anyways; but in the past few years I’ve come to genuinely enjoy the French New Wave’s importance and relevance within the history of film. In particular, I have found myself circling the behemoth that is Godard’s filmography.

The idea of Linklater tackling the milieu and genesis of Godard’s Breathless at that sounds too exciting a prospect to miss out on.

Additionally, Linklater has always been an excavator of dialogue and an surveyor of chronology, so seeing his take on one of cinema’s great linguists (both in the spoken word and film grammar), Godard, in a wholly different language, French opposed to English, at the moment when Godard would change the schema of cinema entirely with his groundbreaking debut film, sounds like it has all the parts that could let Linklater truly let loose in a way his past few entries haven’t allowed.

9. Hope by Na Hong Jin

While Na’s first two features are remarkable, it is his 2016 foray into horror with his feature The Wailing which put him on my radar and made his next film an immediate must-see.

The Wailing is one of the densest, most intricately written and woven horror films of the 21st century and deserves comparisons to the best. Fans were able to partially whet their appetite for a Na with his screenplay contributions to 2021’s The Medium, but nothing can substitute the feeling of watching his direction proper. Here’s to hoping that the long gestation period will deliver.

8. Mickey 17 by Bong Joon-Ho

This has been the longest period between films for the prolific auteur from South Korea made all the more curious given that his last film, 2019’s Parasite, was a critical and commercial darling. For me, it also stands as his finest (which is certainly a compliment when your filmography contains Memories of Murder), so my anticipation for this next work is palpable to say the least.

In addition, the pairing of Bong with Robert Pattinson, a star whose iconic performances in multiple arthouse hits (Good Time, The Lighthouse) and outings in bigger blockbusters ( Tenet, The Batman) have demonstrated his versatility and depth, is exciting to imagine (especially after hearing that voice in the trailer).

Additionally, as a huge fan of his last fully English science-fiction feature, Snowpiercer, the subject matter and change in language feel like they could allow Bong to do something spectacular once more.

Fingers crossed that this does not get delayed again.

7. Resurrection by Bi Gan

Few modern filmmakers have treaded into the liminal space between reality and dream in such ethereal fashion as Bi has in recent years. His 2018 film Long Day’s Journey Into the Night and 2022 short A Short Story demonstrated his unique voice and ability to set a slow and dreamy tone like few others in the artform and certainly feels like its descended from a lineage including Andrei Tarkovsky and Apichatpong Weerasethakul – good company to say the least.

Resurrection’s synopsis mentions dreams, being lost in time, and androids – all markers which augur well for a Bi film (and remind me quite a lot of Wong Kar-wai’s 2046 which makes me all the more excited).

6. Orphan by László Nemes

With one of the best debuts of the 21st century in 2016’s Son of Saul and his nearly equally triumphant second feature in 2018’s Sunset, Nemes has marked himself as a director to pay special attention to. He is daring formalist whose sheer dedication to carving out an aesthetic from the sublime and terrible makes his moving images immediately captivating.

The moment I saw he was doing another film in an oppressive historical milieu, my interest was piqued. It’s always a pleasure to see a master crafter doing what they do best.

5. The Phoenician Scheme by Wes Anderson

Any Wes Anderson film is an event to be marked, and with his dogged formal commitment and evolution in the 2020’s present in his features The French Dispatch and Asteroid City along with his series of Roald Dahl shorts/anthology film, the anticipation for his next film is all the greater.

The French Dispatch saw him playing with his commitment to breaking apart stories at a formal level while Asteroid City and his anthology work showed him using his style in an increasingly aware style that makes the incredible artifice of his work even more layered. As a fan of Wes Anderson’s pictorial beauty and melancholic narrative sensibilities, it’s his formal work that most excites me now.

This is very much an auteur still finding the limits and thresholds of his particular style, one whose nuance in expression has become even more poignant with his most recent offerings. Here’s hoping that his latest continues the trend.

4. Die My Love by Lynne Ramsay

Ramsay’s oeuvre is certifiable proof that quantity is not quality as her four features over multiple decades comprise a filmography that could go pound-for-pound with many of the forms greatest. No one else is able to quite capture the way characters are ensnared, molded, and react to traumatic wastelands with such poetic brevity. There is a texture in her films that is immediately apparent and eludes textual description; she’s a filmmaker whose works can only be experienced because the narrative, so to speak, hangs off the image like a drape on windows, accentuating but never overdetermining.

With a cast that features Jennifer Lawrence in the lead and multiple surrounding stars (including Robert Pattinson, Sissy Spacek, and LaKeith Stanfield) and a genre, horror-comedy, that her work has played with more tangentially, it seems like we’re in for yet another indelible cinematic offering.

3. One Battle After Another by Paul Thomas Anderson

There is a good argument that Paul Thomas Anderson is the greatest working director and many of his 21st century works (including There Will Be Blood, The Master, Punch Drunk Love) are in contention for the best #1 position on many “Best Of” lists.

His latest feature marks his first collaboration with Leonardo DiCaprio, who likewise has a similar argument for being the finest working actor in the modern era and some of his finest performances (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Revenant) come from the last decade.

Any collaboration between stars is one to to keep ones eyes out for, but a collaboration between two superstars in their respective artforms is a whole other deal. Given the budget and IMAX screenings the film received, it will be a beast to behold regardless of whether or not it reaches PTA’s peaks.

In any other year, this would easily be my number one pick, but due to both nature of personal biases it slots in at three.

2. Eddington by Ari Aster

Ari Aster is my favorite director out of all the most recent auteurs. His works are the ones I have found myself most entranced by and I find myself returning to them to mine their formal conceits again and again. His current run of Hereditary, Midsommar, and Beau is Afraid is truly a behemoth to witness in real-time.

He’s a true formalist with a gift for directing actors and Beau demonstrates his willingness to push the limits of maximalist storytelling in ways that are wholly original and engrossing.

Eddington sees him working once again with Joaquin Phoenix (whose work in Beau is certainly some of his and 2023’s best) and Emma Stone (who is coming off a hot-streak from her collaborations with Yorgos Lanthimos) along with Austin Butler (whose transformations in both Elvis and Dune: Part Two have certainly made him someone to watch for).

But interestingly enough, this also marks his first feature apart from his longtime cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski. Instead, Eddington will be lensed by legendary DP Darius Khondji (who coincidentally also lensed Mickey 17). It’ll be curious to see how Aster’s visual language changes (or stays the same) as a result.

If anything, seeing him tackle the Western with his patented black humor and absurdist horrific tendencies with this cast will be a treat.

1. No Other Choice by Park Chan-wook

Park is one of the great masters of the art-form. Full stop.

He’s made multiple masterpieces in multiple decades and his most recent 2022 film, Decision to Leave, is proof that he is still at the top of his game.

No Other Choice has been a long gestating film for him for developed over years and is one he has described as wanting to make as his “masterpiece.”

When an artist of this caliber and consistency announces their passion project, you best be ready.