25 new films to look out for this awards season

We may be more than halfway through 2018 but, judg­ing by the recent autumn fes­ti­val pro­gramme announce­ments, there’s still plen­ty of cin­e­mat­ic delights to savour between now and the 91^st Acad­e­my Awards. Ahead of the Venice and Toron­to film fes­ti­vals, now gen­er­al­ly regard­ed as the most impor­tant Oscars launch­pads, we’ve com­piled a list of 25 of our most antic­i­pat­ed upcom­ing releas­es. These aren’t nec­es­sar­i­ly the films we think will pick up major hon­ours this awards sea­son, more an indi­ca­tion of what we expect to be in con­tention. Let us know what you’re most look­ing for­ward to @LWLies

Released 5 October

If you had to guess what Bradley Cooper’s direc­to­r­i­al debut would be, chances are it wouldn’t be this. It will be the third remake of the 1937 William A Well­man roman­tic dra­ma, fol­low­ing in the more musi­cal foot­steps of George Cukor’s 1954 ver­sion star­ring Judy Gar­land, and the Bar­bra Streisand and Kris Kristof­fer­son-star­rer from 1976. Cast­ing him­self in the lead along­side Lady Gaga, it looks like it will be very hip-and-hap­pen­ing indeed.

Released 12 October

For his hot­ly antic­i­pat­ed fol­low-up to La La Land, Damien Chazelle has picked up a Neil Arm­strong biopic for his lat­est Oscar bait. The direc­tor will be reunit­ed with Ryan Gosling in the lead role as NASA ago­nis­es just how to get him on the Moon. The film will also star Lukas Haas as Michael Collins – hope­ful­ly he will deliv­er a great per­for­mance so peo­ple will stop for­get­ting his name at pub quizzes.

Eta late 2018

Palme d’Or-winner Jacques Audi­ard is bring­ing us his first Eng­lish lan­guage fea­ture this year, based on the nov­el by Patrick deWitt. Dubbed a west­ern dark com­e­dy, the film will focus on John C Reil­ly and Joaquin Phoenix as the tit­u­lar sib­lings hunt­ing down a prospec­tor who has stolen from their boss. The best thing is, he’s being played by Rut­ger Hauer.

Released 2 November

An Orson Welles film being released in 2018 feels very strange indeed, but good things come to those who wait. And those lucky few who have already seen it are enrap­tured, with The Last Jedi direc­tor Rian John­son giv­ing it a rave review. Com­ing to Net­flix in Novem­ber, we’ll get to see John Hus­ton and Peter Bog­danovich star­ring in this mock­u­men­tary spoof of Michelan­ge­lo Anto­nioni. Don’t rule out Welles receiv­ing a spe­cial posthu­mous award for this one.

Released 2 November

Any­thing new film from Mike Leigh is cause for excite­ment, and the revered British direc­tor will be hop­ing to build on the suc­cess of 2014’s Mr Turn­er with his lat­est his­tor­i­cal dra­ma. The film arrives in time for the bicen­ten­ni­al of the Peter­loo Mas­sacre of 1819, which left some 700 peace­ful pro­tes­tors killed or wound­ed. Rory Kin­n­ear and Max­ine Peake will be the famil­iar faces in the ram­bunc­tious crowd.

Released 9 November

Lyn­da La Plante was the defin­ing voice of 1980s crime dra­ma, and her British TV series has inspired Steve McQueen to direct a present-day update. The plot cen­tres on four women whose hus­bands are killed in a failed heist which the wid­ows then decide to com­plete them­selves. McQueen has teamed up with Gone Girl writer Gillian Fly­nn, and has put his faith in the very capa­ble hands of Vio­la Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Eliz­a­beth Debic­ki and Cyn­thia Erivo.

Released 30 November

Bar­ry Jenk­ins, the direc­tor behind 2017’s Best Pic­ture-win­ner, Moon­light, returns with an adap­ta­tion of the epony­mous 1974 James Bald­win nov­el. Fol­low­ing a woman from Harlem’s bat­tle to clear the name of her fiancé after he is accused of rape, the film stars Kiki Layne, Stephan James, Dave Fran­co and Diego Luna. Only time will tell if Jenk­ins can repli­cate his his­toric suc­cess, but we wouldn’t bet against it.

Eta late 2018

Fol­low­ing the mas­sive suc­cess of 2013’s Grav­i­ty, Mex­i­can direc­tor Alfon­so Cuarón returns home for an auto­bi­o­graph­i­cal fam­i­ly dra­ma shot in black-and-white. Recent­ly announced as the cen­tre­piece of the New York Film Fes­ti­val, Roma focus­es on mid­dle-class domes­tic life in 1970s Mex­i­co City.

Released 2 November

After the effer­ves­cent Call Me by Your Name, direc­tor Luca Guadagni­no is indulging his sadis­tic streak with this remake of Dario Argento’s gial­lo clas­sic. Sus­piria stars Til­da Swin­ton as the dance academy’s Madame Blanc, with Chloë Grace Moretz and Dako­ta John­son pro­vid­ing sup­port. At Cin­ema­Con ear­li­er this year audi­ences were report­ed­ly left nau­se­at­ed by some graph­ic pre­view footage. Here’s hop­ing it lives up to the original.

Released 2 November

Based on Gar­rard Conley’s har­row­ing mem­oir, this is the sec­ond film of 2018 (along with Desiree Akhavan’s The Mise­d­u­ca­tion of Cameron Post) con­cern­ing a Chris­t­ian com­mu­ni­ty forc­ing their chil­dren to go through con­ver­sion ther­a­py. Joel Edgerton’s fol­low-up to The Gift stars Lucas Hedges as repressed teenag­er Jared, with Nicole Kid­man and Rus­sell Crowe play­ing his par­ents. Hope­ful­ly it will pack a pow­er­ful punch, and raise fur­ther aware­ness of a deeply trou­bling issue.

Released 7 December

Yann Demange fol­lows up ​’71 with a crime-dra­ma about a teenage under­cov­er FBI infor­mant who was arrest­ed for drug-traf­fick­ing in the 1980s. The film stars Jen­nifer Jason Leigh and Matthew McConaugh­ey along­side Bruce Dern and Bel Pow­ley, with Dar­ren Aronof­sky on pro­duc­ing duties. New­com­er Richie Mer­ritt plays the juve­nile king­pin, whose remark­able sto­ry has to be seen to be believed.

Released 7 December

Ain’t Them Bod­ies Saints and A Ghost Sto­ry writer/​director David Low­ery is try­ing his hand at true-crime with Robert Red­ford in tow. Sell­ing itself on the absur­di­ty of it being about, well, an old man with a gun, the film tells the sto­ry of For­rest Tucker’s last heist, as record­ed in a 2003 New York­er arti­cle by David Grann.

7 Sep­tem­ber 2018

Appro­pri­ate Behav­iour direc­tor Desiree Akha­van brings us a beau­ti­ful, spir­it­ed cri­tique of con­ver­sion ther­a­py. Final­ly tak­ing on a role wor­thy of her tal­ent, Chloë Grace Moretz plays the tit­u­lar teen who is sent to an evan­gel­i­cal Chris­t­ian camp after being caught mak­ing out with anoth­er girl in the back­seat of her car. Amer­i­can Hon­ey​’s Sacha Lane co-stars.

Released 11 Jan­u­ary 2019

Tom­my Lee Jones is jet­ting off to Nep­tune, and Brad Pitt is hot on his tail. It’s a sci-fi premise we’ve seen a thou­sand times before, but it will inter­est­ing to see which direc­tion The Lost City of Z direc­tor James Gray takes it in. He has cit­ed Joseph Conrad’s ​‘Heart of Dark­ness’ as a key influ­ence, so if we’re in for an deep space remake of Apoc­a­lypse Now, sign us up.

Released 1 Jan­u­ary 2019

This looks to be the wildest offer­ing yet from Greek writer/​director Yor­gos Lan­thi­mos. Set dur­ing the reign of Queen Anne, the film places Olivia Cole­man at the cen­tre of a rag­ing bat­tle between the favoured women of her court, played by Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone. Expect plen­ty of laughs and not a lot in the way of his­tor­i­cal accuracy.

Released 11 Jan­u­ary 2019

The 2010 doc­u­men­tary about mod­el artist Mark Hogan­camp, Mar­wen­col, is fan­tas­tic, so a Hol­ly­wood biopic direct­ed by Robert Zemeck­is has piqued our inter­est. Steve Carell por­trays Hogan­camp on his road to recov­ery fol­low­ing an assult, through to the metic­u­lous con­struc­tion of a World War Two era mod­el vil­lage. Told through a com­bi­na­tion of live-action and ani­ma­tion, the film also stars Eiza González, Diane Kruger and Gwen­do­line Christie.

Released 18 Jan­u­ary 2019

Steve Carell has cer­tain­ly been busy. In Beau­ti­ful Boy he plays David Sheff, the father of Nic (Tim­o­th­ée Cha­la­met), in the Eng­lish-lan­guage debut of direc­tor Felix Van Groenin­gen. The sto­ry explores a parent’s heart­break as he tries to help his son on the path to recov­ery from crip­pling drug addiction.

Released 1 Feb­ru­ary 2019

After the delight­ful The Diary of a Teenage Girl, direc­tor Marielle Heller is back with a bio­graph­i­cal dra­ma based on the life of Amer­i­can author-turned-crim­i­nal Lee Israel. Melis­sa McCarthy is in the lead as a strug­gling jour­nal­ist who starts sell­ing forged let­ters by dead writ­ers and celebri­ties. Hope­ful­ly we’ll get to see a dif­fer­ent side of the com­e­dy actor, and a return to form for co-star Richard E Grant.

Released 8 Feb­ru­ary 2019

Who doesn’t love a Supreme Court dra­ma? Appar­ent­ly direc­tor Mimi Led­er is a fan, espe­cial­ly of Ruth Bad­er Gins­burg, who played an instru­men­tal role in the removal of state gen­der dis­crim­i­na­tion. The famed Jus­tice is played by Felic­i­ty Jones, hop­ing to chan­nel the moti­va­tion­al strength of her Jyn Erso into a sil­ver-tongued lawyer. Kathy Bates also stars along with Armie Ham­mer as Jones’ on-screen husband.

Released 25 Jan­u­ary 2019

The first film direct­ed by Wash West­more­land fol­low­ing the death of his hus­band and co-direc­tor Richard Glatzer, Colette is the sto­ry of a French ghost­writer fight­ing for recog­ni­tion. Star­ring Keira Knight­ley as the tit­u­lar Colette and Dominic West as her cel­e­brat­ed hus­band, the film will depict her Bohemi­an exper­i­men­ta­tion and cre­ative lib­er­a­tion fol­low­ing the suc­cess of her ​‘Clau­dine’ novels.

Released 21 December

Hav­ing put his Anchor­man days firm­ly behind him with 2015’s Oscar-win­ning eco­nom­ics dra­ma The Big Short, Adam McK­ay is helm­ing anoth­er polit­i­cal satire this year. This time he has tak­en Dick Cheney as his sub­ject, as played by Chris­t­ian Bale, the Vice Pres­i­dent to Sam Rockwell’s George W Bush. There are plen­ty of oth­er excit­ing names in the cast list, includ­ing Amy Adams and McK­ay reg­u­lar Steve Carell.

Released 22 March 2019

For his lat­est com­e­dy, Richard Lin­klater has cho­sen to adapt a Maria Sem­ple nov­el about Bee Branch and the search for her moth­er, as played by Cate Blanchett. It’s a typ­i­cal­ly star­ry ensem­ble, with Kris­ten Wiig, Judy Greer, Bil­ly Crudup and Lau­rence Fish­burne all pop­ping up on Emma Nelson’s jour­ney. We ranked Every­body Wants Some!! as the best film of 2016 – no pres­sure on Lin­klater, then.

Released 22 March 2019

Fol­low­ing the pub­lish­ing of his short sto­ries, Tom Han­ks is con­tin­u­ing his writ­ing endeav­ours with the screen­play for this World War Two dra­ma. Han­ks is also set to star as Com­man­der Ernest Krause, the leader of an inter­na­tion­al con­voy of 37 Allied ships that were pur­sued across the North Atlantic by Ger­man U‑boats. This is the sec­ond fea­ture from Get Low direc­tor Aaron Schnei­der, who won an Oscar for his 2003 short film, Two Soldiers.

We loved Aus­tralian film­mak­er Jen­nifer Kent’s direc­to­r­i­al debut, The Babadook, so we’re pret­ty ecsta­t­ic that her fol­low-up has been select­ed in offi­cial com­pe­ti­tion at this year’s Venice Film Fes­ti­val. This time it’s back to Van Diemen’s Land (now Tas­ma­nia) cir­ca 1825, where Ais­ling Franciosi’s Clare is seek­ing revenge against the peo­ple who killed her fam­i­ly. Along with an Abo­rig­i­nal out­cast, played by Baykali Ganam­barr, there should be plen­ty of goth­ic thrills ahead on the pair’s jour­ney through the interior.

Released 15 March 2019

Last year saw a rise of genre films at the awards cer­e­monies, with Jor­dan Peele’s fea­ture debut Get Out set­ting up high hopes for the writer/​director. His next project, planned for ear­ly 2019, is a thriller star­ring Lupi­ta Nyong’o, Win­ston Duke and Elis­a­beth Moss. And that’s pret­ty much all we’ve got to go on for the time being – don’t divert your eyes from this space.