25 films to look for­ward to in 2016

19 August (US) / 30 Sep­tem­ber (UK)

It is for­tu­itous tim­ing – just as Barack and Michelle Oba­ma approach their final days in the White House, a film arrives that recounts their begin­nings. The direc­to­r­i­al debut of one Richard Tanne fol­lows Michelle Robin­son and Barack Oba­ma on their first date in Chica­go dur­ing the sum­mer of 1989. The film pre­miered at Sun­dance and the leads Tika Sumpter and Park­er Sawyers have been praised for their sen­si­tive por­tray­als which sur­pass mere imper­son­ations. As a mad­cap Amer­i­can pres­i­den­tial elec­tion looms and the Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion winds down, South­side With You may be touch­ing rom-com, but it’s got an unde­ni­able polit­i­cal edge. Char­lie Theobald

16 Decem­ber (US)

Direc­tor Damien Chazelle’s La La Land is some­thing of a depar­ture from the blood, sweat and tears of his last project, Whiplash. A dream­like ode to Hollywood’s gold­en age and the city of Los Ange­les, the film fol­lows a jazz pianist (Ryan Gosling) and a strug­gling actress (Emma Stone) as they meet cute and come togeth­er. Bring­ing an orig­i­nal musi­cal to the screen with­out an estab­lished the­atri­cal rep­u­ta­tion to draw in the crowds is no mean feat – but with Chazelle at the helm, the expec­ta­tions for this one are sky high. Cather­ine Karellis

21 Octo­ber (US)

Direc­tor JA Bay­ona brings to life Patrick Ness’ haunt­ing 2011 nov­el about Conor O’Malley, a 12-year-old boy strug­gling to come to terms with his mother’s ter­mi­nal ill­ness. One night, Conor is unex­pect­ed­ly vis­it­ed by an ancient tree mon­ster, bril­liant­ly voiced by Liam Nee­son (his raspy vocals are a high­light of the first trail­er). Bayona’s pre­vi­ous cred­its include 2007’s The Orphan­age and 2012’s The Impos­si­ble, so the expec­ta­tion is a film that is visu­al­ly spec­tac­u­lar and emo­tion­al­ly anni­hi­lat­ing. CK

14 Octo­ber (US)

Avid read­ers of this mag­a­zine might know that we have some­thing of a soft spot for direc­tor Kel­ly Reichardt, what with her hav­ing made some of the great­est films of the 21^st cen­tu­ry (Old Joy, Meek’s Cut­off, Wendy & Lucy). This new one is based on a vol­ume of beau­ti­ful, melan­cholic short sto­ries by the author Maile Meloy, and sees the direc­tor gath­er­ing up a slew of female pow­er­house actors in the form of Kris­ten Stew­art, Lau­ra Dern and Michelle Williams. It received a rap­tur­ous response from its Sun­dance pre­mière, so to say that we can­not wait for this one is an under­state­ment and a half. David Jenk­ins

26 August (UK) / 21 Decem­ber (US)

Pedro Almodóvar’s twen­ti­eth fea­ture film spans 30 years in the life of a woman named Juli­eta in an homage to three short sto­ries by acclaimed Cana­di­an writer Alice Munro. Sig­nalling a return to his trade­mark female-cen­tric dra­ma – he hasn’t made one since 2006’s Volver – Juli­eta is a com­pelling and intri­cate por­trait of a woman on the verge. After all, Almod­ó­var rarely dis­ap­points when he’s doing what he does best. CK

Eta unknown

There’s no deny­ing that a new Scors­ese movie is always an event, and reports sug­gest that it should be with us by the end of 2016. Based on the 1966 nov­el by Shusaku Endo, the film fol­lows the har­row­ing expe­ri­ences of two Jesuit priests (Adam Dri­ver and Andrew Garfield) who trav­el to Japan amidst rumours that their men­tor (Liam Nee­son) has renounced his faith. Silence is some­what of a pas­sion project for Scors­ese – he’s been try­ing to get it off the ground for 20 years. Now that it’s near­ly with us, here’s hop­ing it’s worth the wait. CK

19 August (US), 28 Octo­ber (UK)

Wern­er Her­zog has made films about life on death row, ancient cave paint­ings and men­tal ill­ness. But has the lov­able Ger­man ever tack­led any­thing as dark and enig­mat­ic as the inter­net? Lo and Behold, Rever­ies of the Con­nect­ed World attempts to do just this — it explores the expan­sive, endear­ing, and dev­as­tat­ing sto­ry of the Inter­net age. Her­zog vis­its the birth­place of the World Wide Web, speaks with a sci­en­tist who cre­ates foot­ball-play­ing robots, and inves­ti­gates tech addic­tion, includ­ing the sto­ry of one South Kore­an cou­ple whose baby starved while they played video games. CT

14 Octo­ber (US)

It makes sense that direc­tor Anto­nio Cam­pos was drawn to the infa­mous sto­ry of Chris­tine Chub­buck for his new project, as he’s known for his metic­u­lous, close-quar­ters char­ac­ter stud­ies. Chub­buck was a Sara­so­ta news anchor who com­mit­ted sui­cide dur­ing a live broad­cast in 1974. This film drama­tis­es the weeks lead­ing up to her death, explor­ing not only her men­tal state, but also the fraught dynam­ics of a 1970s news­room and the rise of ​‘if it bleeds, it leads’ report­ing. With the under­rat­ed Rebec­ca Hall in the title role, this is def­i­nite­ly one to look out for. CK

30 Sep­tem­ber (US) / 14 Octo­ber (UK)

This is only Andrea Arnold’s fourth film and yet it’s already been met with wide­spread acclaim, with Arnold’s tak­ing home her third (!) Prix de Jury at Cannes. A teenag­er (new­com­er Sasha Lane) runs away from her dead-end Okla­homa town to join a trav­el­ling mag­a­zine crew led by the ever-polar­is­ing Shia Labeouf. Judg­ing from the trail­er, what fol­lows is an exhil­a­rat­ing, self-destruc­tive trip across the Mid­west as the crew sell mag­a­zine sub­scrip­tions to fund their alco­hol, drugs and stays in motels. It promis­es to be sun-soaked, reck­less yet vul­ner­a­ble – a more sin­cere Spring Break­ers. CK

30 Sep­tem­ber (US)

The long over­due crime com­e­dy will final­ly hit screens this fall now that Rel­a­tiv­i­ty Stu­dios has risen from the ash­es of bank­rupt­cy. Mas­ter­minds is based on the 1997 Loomis Far­go Rob­bery in North Car­oli­na, in which a night guard for an armoured truck com­pa­ny made away with mil­lions. The film stars Zack Gal­i­fi­anakis, Kris­ten Wiig, and Kate McK­in­non and was direct­ed by Jared Hess, whose cred­its include Napoleon Dyna­mite and Nacho Libre. The first trail­er offers up furi­ous­ly-paced slap­stick mad­ness. CT

7 Octo­ber (US)

This upcom­ing biopic earned the longest stand­ing ova­tion at Sun­dance ear­li­er this year and set a fes­ti­val record when Fox Search­light acquired it for $17.5 mil­lion. A pas­sion project for Nate Park­er, who directs, pro­duces and stars, Birth of a Nation charts the life of Nat Turn­er, a preach­er who even­tu­al­ly led a slave rebel­lion at a Vir­ginia plan­ta­tion in 1831. It is a film that’s bound to tie into cru­cial ongo­ing con­ver­sa­tions about racial injus­tice in Amer­i­ca. In fact, the lat­est poster for the film fea­tures Park­er as Turn­er with tears in his eyes and an Amer­i­can flag noose around his neck. It might be one of the most pow­er­ful – and time­ly – movie posters in recent years. CK

Eta unknown

Greek New Wave direc­tor Alexan­dros Avranas makes his Eng­lish lan­guage debut with True Crimes fol­low­ing 2013’s ​‘mount­ing­ly nasty’ yet crit­i­cal­ly acclaimed Miss Vio­lence. Based on a 2008 New York­er arti­cle by David Grann, the film tells the eerie sto­ry of a police offi­cer who finds some dis­con­cert­ing links to his cur­rent case in a nov­el. Spoil­er alert for those who haven’t read Grann’s arti­cle: it only gets more bizarre (as a gen­er­ous assess­ment, ​“bat­shit crazy” might be more accu­rate) from there on. A solemn and impres­sive­ly beard­ed Jim Car­rey takes on the role of the trou­bled detec­tive in charge of the case. CK

23 Sep­tem­ber (US/UK)

The dusty town of Rose Creek is under the thumb of an evil indus­tri­al­ist and the towns­peo­ple have called on a mot­ley crew of sev­en to free them — there’s the Boun­ty Hunter (Den­zel Wash­ing­ton), the Gam­bler (Chris Pratt), the Out­law (Manuel Gar­cia-Rul­fo), the Sharp­shoot­er (Ethan Hawke), the Assas­sin (Lee Byung-hun), the War­rior (Mar­tin Ses­meier) and the Track­er (Vin­cent D’Onofrio). It’s an impres­sive­ly heavy-hit­ting cast, notable also for its racial diver­si­ty. But we’ll have to wait and see if The Mag­nif­i­cent Sev­en chal­lenges the gener­ic stereo­types of the wily Mex­i­can, sav­age Native, and docile wid­ow with as much brava­do and rib-tick­ling one lin­ers as the first trail­er promis­es. Direc­tor Antoine Fuqua’s West­ern is a ​“re-imag­in­ing” of the 1960’s clas­sic of the same name, itself an adap­ta­tion of Aki­ra Kurosawa’s leg­endary Sev­en Samu­rai. CT

4 Novem­ber (US)

Jeff Nichols’ lat­est fol­lows hot on the heels of last April’s Mid­night Spe­cial. It is the true sto­ry of Mil­dred Jeter and Richard Lov­ing, an inter­ra­cial cou­ple sen­tenced to prison for get­ting mar­ried in 1958. Jeter and Lov­ing sued the state of Vir­ginia and took their case to the Supreme Court where, in 1967, laws pro­hibit­ing inter­ra­cial mar­riage were deemed uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. From its stir­ring first trail­er, Lov­ing looks like a hum­ble, gor­geous­ly pho­tographed telling of a major moment for the civ­il rights move­ment. The film pre­miered at Cannes where it was nom­i­nat­ed for the Palme D’Or. CT

Eta 29 July (Net­flix)

The direc­to­r­i­al debut of Sian Hed­er, a staff writer on Orange is the New Black, tells the sto­ry of Tal­lu­lah, or Lu, played by Ellen Page, who impul­sive­ly kid­naps a 1 year old from her irre­spon­si­ble moth­er. Lu turns up at the doorstep of her boyfriend’s mom, the bril­liant Alli­son Jan­ney, and pre­tends the child is her own. From there, an unlike­ly friend­ship forms. In an inter­view with the Los Ange­les Times, Hed­er revealed she was inspired by an expe­ri­ence she had as a hotel babysit­ter. ​“It was the most absurd kind of abuse I had ever seen.” Hed­er said, ​“I left the hotel, got in my car and cried the whole way home, and I thought, I should have tak­en that kid.” Tal­lu­lah pre­miered at Sun­dance and was snatched up by Net­flix where it will be pre­mier­ing exclu­sive­ly at the end of July. CT

19 August (US) / 9 Sep­tem­ber (UK)

Kubo is the lat­est from Lai­ka Stu­dios, best known for stop-motion gems Cora­line and Para­nor­man. It marks the direc­to­r­i­al debut of Lai­ka CEO/​president Travis Knight and tells the sto­ry of a young boy who must ward off venge­ful spir­its and fight gods and mon­sters while on a jour­ney to find his late father’s mag­i­cal samu­rai suit. Matthew McConaugh­ey and Char­l­ize Theron lend their voic­es to Kubo’s com­pan­ions Bee­tle and Mon­key. Above all, the ani­ma­tion is absolute­ly stun­ning. It’s an adven­ture film on an epic scale, but the atten­tion to rustling leaves and rip­pling fab­ric gives Kubo’s world a pulse. CT

16 Decem­ber (US/UK)

The crit­i­cal and com­mer­cial suc­cess of Star Wars: The Force Awak­ens marked an unprece­dent­ed renew­al of inter­est in a beloved galaxy far, far away. Not one year lat­er, a new space epic looms on the hori­zon. Rogue One: A Star Wars Sto­ry fol­lows a band of Rebel fight­ers on a mis­sion to steal the Empire’s plans for the Death Star. The spin-off is direct­ed by Gareth Edwards, whose pre­vi­ous cred­its include Godzil­la and indie alien flick Mon­sters, and stars Felic­i­ty Jones as rebel­lious resis­tance fight­er Jyn Erso. Diego Luna, Riz Ahmed, For­est Whitak­er, and mar­tial arts leg­end Don­nie Yen join the cast. The teas­er trail­er is all laser guns and explod­ing Storm Troop­ers while Jones is imme­di­ate­ly like­able as the lead, con­fi­dent and qui­et­ly intense. CT

Eta unknown

Ana Lily Armipour’s styl­ish mono­chrome debut, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, amassed some­thing of a cult fol­low­ing before it had even found wide release. Now, hype is build­ing for the writer-director’s next fea­ture. Jason Momoa will play Mia­mi Man, one half of a love-sto­ry set in dystopi­an Texas among a com­mu­ni­ty of can­ni­bals. Jim Car­rey, Keanu Reeves, Suki Water­house, and Diego Luna have also joined the cast. In an inter­view with Film­mak­er Mag­a­zine, Armipour described the film as ​“Road War­rior meets Pret­ty and Pink with a dope sound­track.” The direc­tor announced pic­ture lock over Twit­ter in Jan­u­ary of 2016, but The Bad Batch has yet to get a release date. CT

Eta unknown

Bas­ing a film on a short sto­ry by Neil Gaiman can only ever be a good thing. It fea­tures your usu­al com­ing-of-age sus­pects: angsty teenage boys, punks, and attrac­tive for­eign exchange stu­dents who turn out to be aliens with sin­is­ter inten­tions. Set in 1970s Croy­don, Enn gets more than he bar­gained for when he crash­es a par­ty host­ed by local punk Queen Boadicea. Elle Fan­ning stars as an enig­mat­ic alien, and she also joins in the fun. The film also fea­tures Nicole Kid­man in a spiky white wig. She pre­vi­ous­ly worked with direc­tor John Cameron Mitchell on 2010’s Rab­bit Hole. CK

Eta late 2016 (Net­flix)

In 2016, the best mas­cot in the world will be crowned. The lat­est Net­flix Orig­i­nal and Christo­pher Guest helmed mock­u­men­tary will fol­low a group of men and women as they com­pete for the pres­ti­gious Gold Fluffy award at the 8^th World Mas­cot Asso­ci­a­tion Cham­pi­onships. Guest’s fre­quent col­lab­o­ra­tors Parkey Posey, Jen­nifer Coolidge, Bob Bal­a­ban, and John Michael Hig­gins will all be present. Jane Lynch will report­ed­ly play Gab­by Monkhouse, a for­mer moose mas­cot whose legs were left dif­fer­ent lengths after a series of splits. It’s been some time since Guest released any­thing, but Mas­cots looks to be a fur­ry-ous and hys­ter­i­cal return. CT

9 Sep­tem­ber (US) / 2 Decem­ber (UK)

In 2009, US Air­ways Flight 1549 col­lid­ed with a flock of geese, lost both engines and made an emer­gency land­ing on the Hud­son Riv­er. 155 pas­sen­gers evac­u­at­ed onto the wings and wait­ed for res­cue while the air­craft slow­ly sank into the freez­ing water. Pilot Ches­ley ​“Sul­ly” Sul­len­berg­er was deemed a nation­al hero, but Clint Eastwood’s lat­est tells the ​‘untold sto­ry’ of the inves­ti­ga­tion into Flight 1549 that scru­ti­nized Sully’s per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al life. There’s already Oscar buzz for solemn and sil­ver-haired Tom Han­ks in the title role, while Aaron Eck­hart plays co-pilot Jeff Skiles. Sul­ly was adapt­ed from the pilot’s own auto­bi­og­ra­phy, ​‘High­est Duty: My Search for What Real­ly Mat­ters.’ CT

23 Sep­tem­ber (US and UK)

In 1978, beloved South Kore­an actress Choi Eun-hee and her direc­tor hus­band, Shin Sang-ok dis­ap­peared with­out a trace. This doc­u­men­tary thriller tells the sto­ry of their kid­nap­ping, ordered by dic­ta­tor (and aspir­ing film pro­duc­er appar­ent­ly) Kim Jong-il to revi­talise the North Kore­an film indus­try. Cen­tred around the tes­ti­mo­ny of Choi Eun-hee her­self and record­ings of Kim Jong-il that she and Sang-ok secret­ly taped at the time, this looks to be a grip­ping account of what must be one of the strangest true-crime sto­ries on record. CK

16 Decem­ber (US)

Direc­tor Pablo Lar­raín has rather cryp­ti­cal­ly described his lat­est offer­ing as an ​‘anti biopic’. Span­ning a year and a half in 1940s Chile, Neru­da is a cat-and-mouse tale revolv­ing around an unre­lent­ing investigator’s pur­suit of poet Pablo Neru­da, in hid­ing on account of his Com­mu­nist asso­ci­a­tions. Lar­raín has firm­ly estab­lished him­self as one Chile’s most com­pelling film­mak­ers in recent years. In his hands, this is sure to be an uncon­ven­tion­al and intrigu­ing take on this chap­ter of Neruda’s life. CK

21 Octo­ber (US)

Ken Loach has always called things as he sees them, and his lat­est project, I, Daniel Blake is no dif­fer­ent. His unflinch­ing por­trait of the wel­fare state won the direc­tor his sec­ond Palme d’Or and report­ed­ly reduced audi­ence mem­bers to tears when it screened at Cannes. It fol­lows New­cas­tle car­pen­ter Daniel Blake (Dave John) and the bureau­crat­ic night­mare he faces when he applies for gov­ern­ment ben­e­fits after a severe heart attack. The film also explores his impromp­tu friend­ship with a strug­gling sin­gle moth­er (Hay­ley Squires) and her two chil­dren. With mil­lions of peo­ple being failed dai­ly by the red tape trip­ping them up at every junc­ture, it’s worth not­ing the words of Loach him­self as he accept­ed his award: ​“We must say that anoth­er world is pos­si­ble, and nec­es­sary.” CK

14 Octo­ber (US)

Jonas Cuarón’s direc­to­r­i­al debut fol­lows a group of immi­grants, led by Gael Gar­cía Bernal, who find them­selves hunt­ed by a gun-tot­ing vig­i­lante as they cross the US Mex­i­co bor­der. From the looks of the first trail­er, it’s a tense and bru­tal thriller, a game of cat and mouse set in an expan­sive desert ter­rain. Desier­to was co-pro­duced by Alfon­so Cuarón, who last col­lab­o­rat­ed with his son on space epic Grav­i­ty. CT

Which films are you most excit­ed to see in 2016? Let us know @LWLies