100 films to look forward to in 2024 – part one

With Christmas and the excitement of the holidays over, one can be left with a strange feeling of emptiness. That’s why we look forward to publishing this list every year – an expansive preview of all the most interesting new films tipped to hit festivals and cinemas in 2024. Check back tomorrow for part two, and let us know what you’re excited about by tweeting @lwlies.

1. The Iron Claw (Sean Durkin)

The story of the Von Erich family – regarded by many as one of the greatest wrestling dynasties of all time – is one of unthinkable tragedy, brought to the big screen by indie godhead Sean Durkin with an all-star cast. Zac Efron plays eldest son Kevin Von Erich, a sweet Labrador of a man who loves his brothers, wrestling, and his daddy – in that order. He’s joined by Harris Dickinson and Jeremy Allen White as his younger brothers, while the indomitable Holt McCallany plays their domineering, single-minded father Fritz. The wigs are big, the spandex is tight, and the emotions run high. Hannah Strong

ETA: 9 February via Lionsgate (UK)

2. Spaceman (Johan Renck)

As a card-carrying member of the Adam Sandler Academy Award lobby, I’ve been keeping a close eye on this sci-fi drama, adapted from Jaroslav Kalfař’s 2017 novel about a Czech astronaut who travels to a far corner of space to investigate a cloud of mysterious dust. He leaves behind his pregnant wife, Lenka (Carey Mulligan), but not the trauma of his childhood, shaped by his father who was a member of the secret police, and the fall of Communism in Czechoslovakia. Determined to redeem his family’s honour he’s taken on a mission no one else wanted, which will see him befriend a giant, gentle arachnid named Hanuš (voiced by Paul Dano). Sounds nuts – count me in. HS

ETA: Spring 2024 via Netflix

3. Gladiator II (Ridley Scott)

Paul Mescal has some big sandals to fill in this long-awaited sequel to Scott’s historical epic, which is set 15 years after the events of Gladiator. Mescal plays Lucius Verus, the wee tyke that Russell Crowe’s Maximus saved back in the day – after living in the wilderness for some time, he emerges in search of his mother (Connie Nielsen reprising her role as Lucilla). With a starry cast including Denzel Washington, Joseph Quinn and Pedro Pascal – plus Djimon Hounsou returning as former gladiator Juba and Derek Jacobi as conniving politician Gracchus – this is set to be one of the cinematic events of the year, and not just because we get to see Mescal fight a load of baboons. HS

ETA: 22 November via Universal

4. Kind of Kindness (Yorgos Lanthimos)

Presumably Searchlight realised that the previous title ‘And’ was an SEO nightmare – but we can expect Lanthimos’ next project roll out sometime in 2023. Shot right after he completed Poor Things, this anthology film reunites Lanthimos with his muse Emma Stone, plus Poor Things stars Willem Dafoe and Margaret Qualley, The Favourite‘s Joe Alwyn, and new collaborators Jesse Plemons, Hong Chau and Hunter Schafer. When speaking to LWLies earlier this year, Lanthimos confirmed the film comprises several chapters, with the same actors appearing in different roles. HS

ETA: TBC via Searchlight

5. Love Lies Bleeding (Rose Glass)

As seems to be the case with so many rising directors these days, Rose Glass made a name for herself in horror (the wrenching Saint Maud) only to pivot out of the genre and explore wilder narrative territories. Fans of watching Kristen Stewart do things will be excited to learn that Kristen Stewart stars as the protective lover of a female bodybuilder (Katie M. O’Brian), concerned that her paramour will be chewed up and spat out by the cutthroat world of competitive musclewomen. The press release foretold a “romance fueled by ego, desire, and the American dream” which places this film in the compact, fascinating canon of movies about the US made from a European vantage. Charles Bramesco

ETA: TBC via A24 (US)

6. Dune II (Denis Villenueve)

Those curious about what will take place in the second instalment of Denis Villeneuve’s sandy, spicy sci-fi epic can just consult anyone who’s read the novel — the people who have love nothing more than being asked about it. As for the laypeople, there’s still plenty to look forward to in the introduction of new cast members Florence Pugh, Austin Butler, Lea Seydoux, and Christopher Walken, plus the promise of more screen time for the heretofore sparsely-shown Zendaya. Eyes will glow, empires will fall, Timothée Chalamet will probably do that goofy little two-step walk across the desert again. Now that the SAG strike has ended and Warner Bros. will presumably cool it with the delays, bring on the giant worms! CB

ETA: 1 March via Warner Bros

7. Paddington in Peru (Dougal Wilson)

The little bear with the big heart returns after the phenomenal success of his 2017 adventure Paddington 2. This time, he’s headed back to his native Peru (something the Tories will probably be delighted about) and taking the Brown clan with him, on a voyage to visit his beloved Aunt Lucy. Of course hijinks ensue. Antonio Banderas will play ‘Hunter Cabot’, surely the film’s big bad, with his daughter played by Carla Tous after Rachel Zegler had to drop out due to the SAG-AFTRA strike. There are two other big changes too: Sally Hawkins has been replaced in the role of Mrs Brown by Emily Mortimer, and Dougal Wilson subs in for director Paul King, who had prior commitments with Wonka. No pressure then! HS

ETA: 8 November via StudioCanal (UK)

8. Megalopolis (Francis Ford Coppola)

Soon, it will have been thirteen years since Francis Ford Coppola last completed a movie, and many more since he made one generally agreed upon as “good.” But that’s no reason to approach his surefire comeback with anything less than feverish excitement; when you’re the guy who did The Godfather, you get the benefit of the doubt. In his long-gestating new sci-fi/fantasy, an architect (Adam Driver) drafts a bold blueprint for the future of New York in the wake of a disaster decimating the city, a sweeping proposition that corrals a massive ensemble cast including Forest Whitaker, Jon Voight, Nathalie Emmanuel, Laurence Fishburne, Aubrey Plaza, Dustin Hoffman, Jason Schwartzman, Shia LaBeouf, and Kathryn Hunter, among others. Driver has called his time working on the film “one of the best shooting experiences of [his] life.” Can it be one of the best viewing experiences of ours? CB

9. Joker: Folie a Deux (Todd Phillips)

Perhaps one day I’ll understand what it is about the role of the Joker that fascinates Joaquin Phoenix so much. He’s joined by Lady Gaga for the sequel to Todd Phillips’ gritty DC standalone – she’s playing the psychiatrist Dr. Harleen Quinzel, who is assigned to treat Joker in prison and subsequently falls in love, taking on the moniker Harley Quinn. Given the raft of accolades that inexplicably followed the first film, chances are Hollywood will be rolling out the red carpet for Phillips and co this time around. Expect a ritzy premiere, possibly at the Venice Film Festival, where Joker won the Golden Lion back in 2019. HS

ETA: 4 October via Warner Bros

10. The Nickel Boys (RaMell Ross)

RaMell Ross’s documentary Hale County This Morning, This Evening was widely regarded as one of the finest films of 2018, earning him an Academy Award nomination. He returns with an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys, which marks his narrative feature debut, and centres on the historic Dozier School for Boys in Florida, which was notorious for its abusive treatment of pupils. A fictionalised version of the school appears in Ross’s film, which follows a young African-American student who is sent there and forms a friendship with classmate Turner. From there, the pair try to survive the horrors of the Nickel School together. HS

ETA: TBC via Amazon MGM

11. Mickey 17 (Bong Joon-ho)

After cranking it among the stars for Claire Denis in High Life, Robert Pattinson will return to the deepest reaches of the cosmos with an even higher-profile global auteur, portraying a series of mentally deteriorating clones sent to colonise an ice planet in Bong Joon-ho’s follow-up to crossover smash Parasite. It’s one of the year’s most giddily anticipated releases, but the March date suggests a pass on a festival premiere (too big for Sundance, too on the radar for Berlin) as well as a possible lack of confidence from Warner Bros., a company that made some unfortunate decisions over the past year. Only time will tell whether our jokes about this film’s debut closely following the entrance of Mickey Mouse to the public domain — and the graphically sexual potential implied therein — have come true. Or maybe it’ll just be existentialism in space. Either way, it’s director Bong, so the floor on expectations is still pretty high. CB

ETA: 29 March via Warner Bros

12. Civil War (Alex Garland)

Described as an “action epic”, Garland’s film sounds like his most ambitious to date, set in a future United States where the states have gone to war. Kirsten Dunst​, Wagner Moura and Stephen McKinley Henderson appear to be playing members of the press covering the conflict, while Nick Offerman is the President. Cailee Spaeny, Jesse Plemons and Karl Glusman also star, but I’m a little concerned by Garland describing the film as a “companion piece” to his last film, Men, which was…not great. Still, his sterling work on Ex Machina, Annihilation and Devs is enough to ensure I’m still rooting for him, and hope that Civil War is a return to form. HS

ETA: 26 April via A24 (US)

13. Wizards! (David Michôd)

Franz Rogowski and Pete Davidson, together at last! The odd couple play hapless, permanently zooted beach bar owners who come across some stolen loot that quickly proves more trouble than it’s worth. It sounds like Michôd is returning to the comedic territory of Hesher and War Machine after his rather dreary take on Shakespeare’s Henriad – hopefully a pivot that will pay off. HS

ETA: TBC via A24 (US)

14. Challengers (Luca Gudagnino)

Pushed from a Venice 2023 premiere to an arguably less glam April release, Luca Gudagnino’s tennis love triangle drama set pulses racing with its trailer last summer, in which we caught a glimpse of Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor set to Rihanna’s classic bondage bop S&M. The trio play the tennis pros caught up in an enduring love affair, and it’s Guadagnino, so you can count on big emotions, a flair for the dramatic, excellent needle drops and some gorgeous costumes. HS

ETA: 26th April via MGM/Amazon (US) Warner Bros (International)

15. The Watchers (Ishana Shyamalan)

Like father like daughter – M Night’s progeny started out working with her dad on his television series Servant, where she wrote and directed various episodes, and then served as a second unit director on his 2021 holiday thriller Old. She strikes out on her own with The Watchers, in which Dakota Fanning plays Mina, an artist stranded in an Irish forest. She meets three strangers, but the group soon find themselves stalked by mysterious creatures at night. The Watchers has been described as a dark fairy tale, and studying under a modern master, we’re excited to see what Isahana’s picked up from her pops. HS

ETA: TBC via Warner Bros 

16. Twisters (Lee Isaac Chung)

Lee Isaac Chung’s semi-autobiographical drama Minari was a 2020 Sundance standout (and a LWLies cover film!) It netted six Academy Award nominations back in 2021, with Youn Yuh-jung becoming the first Korean to win an Oscar for her performance as mischievous grandma Soon-ja. How does one follow such a well-received film? By making a sequel to the 1996 disaster film Twister of course! Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell and Anthony Ramirez are slated to star, though filming was halted back in the summer due to the SAG-AFTRA strike, so it may yet end up moving out of the 2024 schedule. Nevertheless, we’re interested to see how Chung takes on a big-budget blockbuster, considering the beauty of Minari was its incredible intimacy. HS

ETA: 19 July, via Universal (US) Warner Bros (International)

17. Janet Planet (Annie Baker)

Annie Baker, the finest playwright-turned-filmmaker since Kenneth Lonergan, arrived in auspicious fashion on the fall festival circuit with this quasi-memoir recounting a passage of her girlhood in a liberal enclave of the Massachusetts boonies. The mordant, hilarious Lacy (Zoe Ziegler) watches her single mother (Julianne Nicholson, astonishing) try on different partners and versions of herself, but this is no soul-searchy Sundance cast-off. Baker has bona fide chops as a slow-cinema formalist, her confident compositions and unhurried editing betraying her as a true student of the medium rather than another stage expat treating the screen like a big proscenium. Rich with emotional nuance, expansive in its quiet contemplations, this is one of the all-time great debuts — no further qualification required. CB

ETA: TBC via A24 (US)

18. Nightbitch (Marielle Heller)

Marielle Heller’s peculiar new film adapts Rachel Yoder’s 2021 novel, in which an accomplished artist (the still-somehow-Oscarless Amy Adams) takes a step back from her career to care for her child, and finds herself chafing under the smallness of domestic life. Instead of taking up pills like so many before her, however, she instead starts turning into a dog and wanders into a sinister multi-level marketing scheme run by housewives. Who among us, right? Festival selection committees baulked at the surreal, blackly comic approach to feral feminism this past fall, but Heller’s got a couple of strong movies to her name in Diary of a Teenage Girl and Can You Ever Forgive Me, and that’s more than enough to earn her “one to keep an eye on” status. CB

ETA: TBC via Searchlight

19. Drive Away Dolls (Ethan Coen)

Two paths diverged in the yellow wood of the Coen brothers’ directing partnership, and their first solo projects suggest why; Joel gave us an austere, experimental-theatre-inspired adaptation of Macbeth in 2021, and soon Ethan will retort with a long-delayed “action-sex-comedy” road movie chockablock with bawdy, sapphic hijinks. Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan play a pair of lesbians traversing the great lattice of American highways circa 1999, encountering along the way a “potpourri of a severed head in a hatbox, a bitter ex-girlfriend, a mystery briefcase, and an evil senator.” Cowritten with Coen’s wife Tricia Cooke under the working title of Drive-Away Dykes, it’s a start to rectifying the urgent issue of not having enough present-day Russ Meyer homages. CB

ETA: 15 March via Universal

20. Mufasa: The Lion King (Barry Jenkins)

This sequel to 2019’s The Lion King was announced back in 2020, but the pandemic and then the WGA/SAG-AFTRA strikes slowed things down a little bit. What we do know is that it will be an original prequel rather than an adaptation of The Lion King 2: Simba’s Pride, with Aaron Pierre voicing Mufasa and Kelvin Harrison Jr voicing Scar (boo hiss, because Simba’s Pride had some banging original songs). Billy Eichner, Seth Rogen and John Kani are expected to return as Timon, Pumba and Rafiki. The script was written by Jeff Nathanson, who also wrote the script for the 2019 film. Barry Jenkins’ involvement has confused a lot of people, but with his track record, we’re willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. HS

ETA: 20 December via Disney

21. Borderlands (Eli Roth)

For the uninitiated, Borderlands is a first-person shooter video game series which achieved particular popularity in the 2010s. Inspired by the likes of Mad Max, the games focused on loot-seeking individuals battling their way across barren planets in search of fabled prizes. A film adaptation has been on the table since 2015, initially under the supervision of Leigh Whannell, before Eli Roth became involved in 2020. Despite initially wrapping filming in 2021, Borderlands has had a rocky production history. Reshoots took place in 2023 under Tim Miller as Roth was shooting his festive horror Thanksgiving, and screenwriter Craig Mazin had his name removed from the film in 2023, replaced by ‘Joe Crombie’. So, who knows what the finished film will look like. But at least we can look forward to Cate Blanchett playing ‘a infamous outlaw with a mysterious past’! HS

ETA: 9 August via Lionsgate

22. Immaculate (Michael Mohan)

Those bemoaning the lack of good sleaze in today’s movie landscape have a friend in Michael Mohan, who massaged devious wit into the long-dormant erotic thriller with 2021’s The Voyeurs, and will soon set his sights on the august tradition of the psycho nun flick with Immaculate. Sydney Sweeney plays a maiden of God on the assignment of a lifetime at a prestigious convent in the Italian countryside, only to discover that the sisters (one of whom is played by Simona Tabasco, Sweeney’s fellow alumna from TV’s The White Lotus) harbour a dark secret. Principal photography wrapped early this year, and even with strike-related delays in post-production, it should’ve been a lock for Sundance’s Midnight section this January. No such luck, but “a trash-ified Black Narcissus homage featuring two of Earth’s most rapturously gorgeous women” shouldn’t be such a hard sell whenever it comes around. CB

23. The Front Room (The Eggers Brothers)

If you recognise the surname, is because Max and Sam are the brothers of Robert “The VVitch” Eggers. They’re making their feature debut with The Front Room, starring US singer Brandy Norwood and British theatre legend Kathryn Hunter. Together at last! According to Screen International, the film follows “a young, newly pregnant couple who are forced to take in an ailing stepmother who has long been estranged from the family”. Sure sounds like a convenient set-up for a psychological horror. HS

24. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer)

If you’re reading this list from the USA or France, you’ll have already had the chance to catch Jonathan Glazer‘s haunting Cannes Gran Pix winner back in 2023, but the UK has to wait a little bit longer. It’s worth it though – Glazer’s fourth film focuses on the day-to-day life of Auschwitz camp commander Rudolf Höss and his family, exposing the callous indifference of those ‘just following orders’ during the Holocaust, and the normalisation of the unthinkable. Shot with a discomforting, voyeuristic camera set up and featuring imposing discordant soundscapes by Mica Levi, it’s a horror story played out amid immaculate gardens and ambient terror. HS

ETA: 2 February

25. Humane (Caitlin Cronenberg)

Following in the footsteps of dad David and brother Brandon, Caitlin Cronenberg will make her feature debut in 2024 with the environmental horror Humane, starring Jay Baruchel, Emily Hampshire and Peter Gallagher. Taking place over a single day, the film is set months after a global environmental collapse, with world leaders forced to take “extreme measures” to reduce the earth’s population. Mass murder it is then. Just as cheery as we’d expect from a Cronenberg! HS

26. Hot Milk (Rebecca Lenkiewicz)

Rebecca Lenkiewicz is best known as a screenwriter but makes the jump to director with this adaptation of Deborah Levy’s bestselling novel, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2016. Emma Mackey plays Sofia, a young woman who travels to Spain with her unwell mother Rose (Fiona Shaw) in search of a dubious cure for her debilitating paralysis. While tensions with her mother heighten, Sofia becomes infatuated with a traveller named Ingrid (Vicky Krieps) and begins to experience freedom for the first time. The bonds between Sofia and Rose quickly begin to strain under the tension. HS

27. Little Death (Jack Begert)

Jack Begert is best known as a music video director and makes the jump to films with an all-star cast at Sundance 2024. A screenwriter (David Schwimmer) suffers a midlife crisis and a pair of taco truck operators (Talia Ryder and Dominic Fike) search for an opioid fix among a cast of other oddballs in this LA story, which also features “surreal montage” and “AI animation”. Hmm. Jena Malone, Fred Melamed, Gaby Hoffman and Karl Glusman also star. HS

28. Babygirl (Halina Reijn)

Nicole Kidman plays a high-flying businesswoman who begins an affair with her intern (played by Harris Dickinson) in the next project from Bodies Bodies Bodies director Halina Reijn. Her debut feature, Instinct, was an erotic thriller, so she’s got form here, and if the prospect of Kidman/Dickinson getting up close and personal wasn’t tantalising enough, consider the fact Jude Law is on board too. Make movies sexy again! HS

29. Love Me (Sam & Andy)

Kristen Stewart has a busy Sundance – alongside Rose Glass’s Love Lies Bleeding, she’ll star alongside Steven Yeun in a decidedly different romance. The pair play “a smart buoy and an orbiting satellite” in “a love story that spans a billion years” in the directorial debut of Sam and Andy Zuchero, which will focus on questions of identity, sentience, reality and existence. Sundance has a track record for high-concept indie films that don’t necessarily nail the execution, but Stewart and Yeun are two of our finest, so we’re intrigued all the same. HS

30. Bird (Andrea Arnold)

Demonstrating an affinity for single-word animal-themed titles that began with her short film Wasp and continued with Cow, Andrea Arnold returns to fiction with Barry Keoghan and Franz Rogowski on side. We don’t know much else about this upcoming title, other than the fact it was shot last summer in the south of England and on the Isle of Sheppey, but given the Cannes success of her past films, it seems likely Bird will debut on the Croisette. HS

31. Juror No. 2 (Clint Eastwood)

Proving that age really ain’t nothing but a number, 93-year-old Clint finished up his 40th directing credit in November 2023. It’s his first film after a few years off – some naysayers speculated that Cry Macho might actually be his swan song, but you can’t keep a good man down, or Clint away from the director’s chair. He works with Nicholas Hoult for the first time on this legal drama, about a man who discovered he is actually responsible for the murder he’s on the jury for. Yikes. Toni Collette, Zoey Deutch, Kiefer Sutherland and Chris Messina co-star. HS

32. Rebel Ridge (Jeremy Saulnier)

Fine purveyor of miserable stories that he is, it’s no surprise that the IMDB logline for Jeremy Saulnier’s latest thriller is “​​A high-velocity thriller that explores systemic American injustices through bone-breaking action sequences, suspense and dark humor.” John Boyega was originally slated to star, but after he dropped out Aaron Pierre (best-known as Mid-Sized Sedan in M Night Shyamalan’s Old, later to be seen voicing Mufasa in Barry Jenkins’ Lion King sequel) stepped in. He stars alongside Don Johnson, James Badge Dale, AnnaSophia Robb and James Cromwell. HS

33. Mother’s Instinct (Benoît Delhomme)

Benoît Delhomme is best known as a cinematographer, having shot films including Tran Anh Hung’s The Scent of Green Papaya, John Hillcoat’s The Proposition, and James Marsh’s The Theory of Everything. He makes his directorial debut with a remake of the 2018 Belgian thriller Duelles, which was adapted from Barbara Abel’s novel Derrière La Haine (Behind the Hate) psychological thriller starring powerhouse actresses Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway, who play best friends and neighbours Alice and Celine in tranquil 1960s suburbia. Following an accident, their relationship is shattered, and paranoia and suspicion begin to take hold. HS

34. Furiosa (George Miller)

The sun is rising on another lovely day. After decamping to Namibia to shoot his crowd-pleasing Fury Road, George Miller has blazed a path back to his home of Australia for the latest addition to the astonishingly consistent franchise of post-apocalyptic motor opera. Anya Taylor-Joy fills out the robot arm previously wielded by Charlize Theron as the warrior heroine Imperator Furiosa, lashing out against a patriarchal biker gang led by Warlord Dementus (a mustachioed Chris Hemsworth). Meeting the standard set by the most rapturously acclaimed action picture of the millennium is no small feat, but George Miller can do it, and indeed, has done it on multiple occasions in the past. Anyone foolhardy enough to think, “Well, surely this one can’t be as good as the others” is betting against the house. CB

ETA: 24 May via Warner Bros

35. American Fiction (Cord Jefferson)

It’s great to see the great author Percival Everett have his work adapted for the big screen, and this soulful satire sees Jeffrey Wright as a writer whose jokey attempt at a mainstream literary hit backfires in the strangest way possible. Taking its cues from Spike Lee’s Bamboozled, Jefferson Cord’s film is a more laid-back and ambling affair, and it’s always just a real treat to have perennial supporting guy Wright in a lead role. David Jenkins

ETA: 2 February via Curzon (UK)

36. Nosferatu (Robert Eggers)

Robert Eggers’ continuing odyssey through the most obscure corners of the past has brought him to Romania circa 1838, where Transylvanian townspeople whisper of Count Orlok, the ghoulish owner of the house on the hill that junior real estate agent Thomas Hutter has come to inspect. Eggers wanted his remake of F.W. Murnau’s proto-horror landmark to be his second film, only to hold it as a passion project while he shifted focus to The Lighthouse and The Northman, but he’s finally got the industry firepower to make it happen his way — which, as he told LWL in a 2022 interview, has a lot to do with Biedermeier-style furniture design. With Bill Skarsgård as the noted bloodsucker, Nicholas Hoult as the hapless Hutter, and Lily-Rose Depp taking over for Anya Taylor-Joy as his bride, it’s sure to be a major event, though when we’ll see it is anyone’s guess. Eggers brought The Lighthouse to Cannes in the Directors’ Fortnight, so maybe this could be his entrée to Competition. Maybe US distributor Focus will hold for the fall festivals. Or maybe they’ll bypass it all and count on the natural buzz generated by one of the most acclaimed genre filmmakers currently in the game taking on a monster icon prominently lodged in cinema history. CB

ETA: 25 December via Universal

37. Y2K (Kyle Mooney)

Kyle Mooney starred in and co-wrote the underrated Brigsby Bear and was consistently one of the better performers on NBC’s dwindling sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live before he left in 2022, so his filmmaking debut is something to keep a close eye on. Two high school losers (Jaeden Martell and Julian Dennison) crash a party on New Year’s Eve 1999, only to find the projected events of Y2K actually come true. HS

38. Longlegs (Oz Perkins)

Maika Monroe plays young FBI agent Lee Harker, who is tasked with solving a serial killer case in Oz Perkins’ fourth feature, produced by Nicolas Cage who also stars. The case quickly becomes stranger, taking a turn for the occult, and Harker realises there’s a familial connection between her and the killer. Back at the end of 2022 Cage mentioned the film during a conversation with John Carpenter, and referred to his character as a “possessed Geppetto, who’s making these dolls”. Sure! HS

39. Lisa Frankenstein (Zelda Williams)

It’s not really her rep, but scanning her filmography, one may notice that screenwriter Diablo Cody has quietly become a polarising quantity; though the tide has turned in favour of Jennifer’s Body, her last two produced scripts (for 2018’s Tully and 2015’s Ricki and the Flash) have as many detractors as champions for their winky middlebrow wit. She’s taking a hard left turn into the weird and whimsical for the feature debut from Zelda Williams (daughter of Robin), in which a lonely, horny teen goth (Kathryn Newton) lands a boyfriend by reanimating the corpse of a gallant Victorian (Cole Sprouse, better known as TV’s Hot Jughead on Riverdale). Anyone who’s ever made love to themselves while picturing Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice will feel seen. CB

ETA 22 March via Focus/Universal

40. Echo Valley (Michael Pearce)

We were big fans of Michael Pearce’s eerie debut Beast, which also brought Jessie Buckley and Johnny Flynn into the mainstream. His sophomore film, Encounter was a bit of a disappointment, but he’s assembled a very exciting cast for film number three: Julianne Moore plays a horse trainer living in Pennsylvania’s Echo Valley, whose daughter returns home one day covered in someone else’s blood. Domhnall Gleeson provides an air of menace as a local thug with an axe to grind. Fuck us up, Michael! HS

41. Holland, Michigan (Mimi Cave)

Mimi Cave’s modern cannibal breakout Fresh debuted at Sundance in 2022 and was promptly snapped up by Searchlight for distribution. She’s harnessed some serious star power for her next film: Nicole Kidman stars as a woman living in a small town who begins to suspect her husband is living a double life – but the reality is even more shocking than she could have imagined. Kidman is joined by Gael García Bernal, Matthew Macfadyen and Rachel Sennott, plus cute kid Jude Hill, who played a young Kenneth Branagh stand-in in Belfast. The script for this one has been doing the rounds for a while, first appearing on the Blacklist in 2013, and now it seems to have found a home at Amazon. HS

42. Evil Does Not Exist (Ryusuke Hamaguchi)

How do you follow up a very unlikely foray into the wilds of American award season, which Japanese filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi experienced with his Murakami adaptation, Drive My Car? Well, with something very much the same, but very much different at the same time. This new one, which has already received an award at the 2023 Venice Film Festival, sees the members of a rural enclave gently pushing back against a “glamping” start-up who want to take over their land. DJ

ETA: 1 March via Modern Films

43. The Order (Justin Kurzel)

While I wasn’t so keen on Nitram, plenty of other fine folks found a lot to admire about Kurzel’s true crime film about the Port Arthur massacre. Continuing his interest in the darker side of human behaviour, Kurzel has teamed up with writer Zach Baylin for this interpretation of the non-fiction book The Silent Brotherhood, which focused on ‘The Order’, a white supremacist group active in the United States throughout the 1980s. In this film Jude Law plays an FBI agent who discovers that a radical group may be responsible for a string of violent bank robberies across the Pacific Northwest – leading him to their charismatic leader Robert Jay Mathews (played by Nicholas Hoult). HS

44. I Saw the TV Glow (Jane Schoenbrun) 

Schoenbrun’s feature debut We’re All Going to the World’s Fair was one of the great surprises of 2022, so all eyes are on them for their second film. Justice Smith and Brigette Lundy-Paine play the leads, with Smith’s Owen introduced to a mysterious late-night television show which suggests a supernatural world existing beneath their own. Soon enough Owen’s vision of reality begins to distort. The rest of the cast is eclectic: Danielle Deadwyler, Helena Howard, Connor O’Malley, Phoebe Bridgers and Limp Bizkit’s Fred Durst. A Sundance debut followed by a Berlinale bow suggests we’ll get a release sometime in 2024 – hopefully in the UK as well as the US. HS

45. Timestalker (Alice Lowe)

Agnes has a problem – every time she’s reincarnated, she falls in love with the wrong man. Sounds pretty inconvenient, but like the premise for a very fun twist on the rom-com. Alice Lowe writes, directs and stars in her second feature, and it’s a welcome return seven years after her criminally underrated debut Prevenge. Her supporting cast is pretty great too: we’ve got Jacob Anderson (currently winning audiences over in the Interview with the Vampire television series), Aneurin Barnard (David Copperfield), Tanya Reynolds (Sex Education) and Nick Frost (you know who he is!) HS

46. Swimming Home (Justin Anderson)

The second Deborah Levy adaptation slated to hit cinemas this year after Hot Milk, Swimming Home sounds like it has shades of La Piscine about it – a troubled married couple and their teenage daughter holidaying in the south of France find their idyll interrupted by the appearance of a naked stranger in their swimming pool. It turns out she’s a big fan of poet Joe, and despite her intrusion, matriarch Isabel invites her to stay with them. Ariane Labed, Christopher Abbott and Mackenzie Davis are tipped to star. HS

47. Visitation (Nicolas Pesce)

Nicolas Pesce’s The Eyes of My Mother and Piercing were great – his remake of The Grudge…less so. But his next film sounds promising: with her mother dying, 14-year-old Maria (Isla Johnston, who played a young Anya Taylor Johnson in The Queen’s Gambit) is sent away to live with Catholic nuns, but her arrival turns sinister as one of her caretakers becomes enamoured with her. Olivia Cooke plays a nun in the story – no word on if she’s the sinister one or not. HS

48. The Bikeriders (Jeff Nichols)

Taking inspiration from photojournalist Danny Lyon’s 1968 book which documented the exploits of a group of motorcyclists, Jeff Nichols has crafted a romantic homage to the easy riding heydays of Harley Davidson. Austin Butler stars as a James Dean-esque figure, while Comer plays his fast-talking, no-nonsense wife, and Michael Shannon, Tom Hardy and Boyd Holbrook round out the cast as members of the biker gang. Despite a positive reception out of Telluride and London Film Festival, Searchlight chose to offload The Bikeriders to Focus for release, but don’t let that put you off – in typical Nichols fashion, this is a poetic, lovingly crafted take on the golden age of bike riding. HS

ETA: 21 June via Focus/Universal

49. Babes (Pamela Adlon)

Veteran actor Pamela Adlon is best known as the voice of Bobby Hill and for her collaborations with Louis CK, but she’s also been writing, producing and directing for a long time. Babes is her feature debut, in which Ilana Glazer plays the aggressively single Eden, who becomes pregnant after a one-night stand and leans on her married best friend to help her navigate this new chapter of her life. Hasan Minhaj, Michelle Buteau, John Carroll Lynch, Stephan James and Oliver Platt round out the cast. HS

50. Faces of Death (Daniel Goldhaber)

After the excellent Cam and How to Blow Up a Pipeline, Daniel Goldhaber has established himself as one to watch within the American indie filmmaking scene. Along with creative partners Isa Mazzei and Isabelle Link-Levy, he’s tackling the iconic Faces of Death, which achieved notoriety back in 1978 for allegedly showcasing actual death on film. Of course, most of the footage was staged, but the legend of the film endures – and now it’s being updated for a new generation. Starring Barbie Ferreira and Dacre Montgomery, this new version “revolves around a female moderator of a YouTube-like website, whose job is to weed out offensive and violent content and who herself is recovering from a serious trauma, that stumbles across a group that is recreating the murders from the original film.” HS

Published 31 Dec 2023

Tags: Films Coming Out 2024 New Films 2024