60 films to look for­ward to in 2019 – part 1

It may be ear­ly days, but we’re will­ing to stick our neck out and say that 2019 is going to be an incred­i­ble year for new movies. With so many of our favourite film­mak­ers from around the world return­ing with new works over the next 12 months, here are just some of the films we think you should be get­ting excit­ed about. Read part one below, then check out 30 more titles in the sec­ond part of our bumper new year’s preview.

Eta 26 July

Tak­ing inspi­ra­tion from Ser­gio Leone’s 1968 west­ern, the ninth film by Quentin Taran­ti­no sees Brad Pitt and Leonar­do DiCaprio (play­ing a fad­ed TV actor and his stunt dou­ble) nav­i­gate their way through the film indus­try cir­ca 1969. A star-stud­ded com­e­dy-dra­ma back­dropped by one of the most infa­mous peri­ods in Tin­sel­town his­to­ry, cul­mi­nat­ing in the Man­son Fam­i­ly mur­ders, this LA odyssey is not to be missed.

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Expect more exis­ten­tial larks in the lat­est offer­ing from Songs from the Sec­ond Floor and A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflect­ing on Exis­tence direc­tor Roy Ander­s­son. Said to be a med­i­ta­tion on the beau­ty of exis­tence, as well as a cau­tion­ary tale about its frag­ile nature, About End­less­ness could well be anoth­er stand­out offer­ing from this vision­ary filmmaker.

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Amer­i­can actor-cum-film­mak­er Josephine Deck­er directs Elis­a­beth Moss and Michael Stuhlbarg in this adap­ta­tion of Susan Scarf Merrell’s 2014 nov­el. Inspi­ra­tion strikes when a hor­ror writer and her sig­nif­i­cant oth­er take in a young cou­ple. Fol­low­ing a hand­ful of strong inde­pen­dent fea­tures, includ­ing the sub­lime Madeline’s Made­line from 2018, this might be the film to nudge Deck­er into the big leagues.

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A com­plex tale of crime fam­i­lies and dirty deal­ings, it’s busi­ness as usu­al for Mar­tin Scors­ese. This may be over­ly-famil­iar sub­ject mat­ter for the vet­er­an Amer­i­can film­mak­er, but the cast­ing of Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Al Paci­no has sig­nif­i­cant­ly upped the ante, not to men­tion our antic­i­pa­tion. Audi­ences won’t get to expe­ri­ence it on the big screen though – it’s arriv­ing glob­al­ly on Net­flix in the sec­ond half of 2019.

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The bom­bas­tic direc­tor of Star­ship Troop­ers and Robo­Cop had audi­ences on the edge of their seats in 2016 with Isabelle Hup­pert vehi­cle Elle. Paul Verhoeven’s next project is set in 17^th cen­tu­ry Italy and fol­lows a nun com­ing to terms with her repressed sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion despite the restric­tions of reli­gion and soci­ety. Adapt­ed from the Judith C Brown nov­el of the same name, Char­lotte Ram­pling stars in the lead, with 120 Beats per Minute​’s Jeanne Lapoirie on DoP detail.

Eta 29 March (US)

In a year set to be dom­i­nat­ed by Elis­a­beth Moss (hey, we’re not com­plain­ing), this film from Lis­ten Up Philip direc­tor Alex Ross Per­ry deals with a female punk rocker’s strug­gle with sobri­ety and des­per­a­tion to recap­ture her cre­ative spark. Along­side Dan Stevens and Good Time cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er Sean Price Williams, this looks to be an in-depth char­ac­ter study soaked in glo­ri­ous psychedelia.

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A Hait­ian zom­bie thriller with voodoo ele­ments and a sociopo­lit­i­cal under­cur­rent? Just anoth­er day at the office for House of Tol­er­ance direc­tor Bertrand Bonel­lo. The use of the fan­tas­ti­cal to shed light on con­tem­po­rary social issues is noth­ing new, but the con­sid­ered and inci­sive edge Bonel­lo brings to all his films will make this an inter­est­ing outing.

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On the lips of British direc­tor Ben Wheat­ley since 2014, Ali­cia Vikan­der and Armie Ham­mer team up to van­quish Homi­noidean hor­rors in this sci-fi adven­ture. Assured at both explo­sive action and bit­ing social com­men­tary, as evi­denced in pre­vi­ous efforts Free Fire and High Rise, Wheatley’s lat­est will hope­ful­ly offer some­thing exhil­a­rat­ing and entire­ly fresh.

Eta 4 October

In a fic­tion­al future, past-his-prime hit­man Hen­ry (Will Smith) faces off against a younger clone of him­self. If the impres­sive cast, fea­tur­ing Mary Eliz­a­beth Win­stead and Clive Owen, wasn’t suf­fi­cient­ly intrigu­ing, the promise of Ang Lee tack­ling an orig­i­nal sci­ence-fic­tion screen­play should do the trick.

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Thor­ough­breds, a crime film where all ille­gal­i­ties occur off-screen, was about as con­fi­dent a debut as they come. For his next fea­ture, Cory Fin­ley has paired Hugh Jack­man and Alli­son Jan­ney in a tale of pub­lic school embez­zle­ment and scan­dal. Giv­en his nuanced char­ac­ter work and razor-sharp writ­ing, we’re ful­ly expect­ing Bad Edu­ca­tion to enhance Finley’s rep­u­ta­tion still further.

Eta 15 March

Hav­ing turned heads on the fes­ti­val cir­cuit in 2018, Alice Rohrwacher’s off-kil­ter fairy tale about a benign peas­ant named Laz­zaro is final­ly get­ting a the­atri­cal release this year. One of world cinema’s bright­est tal­ents tack­les com­ing-of-age and class pol­i­tics in rur­al Italy, and the results are spellbinding.

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The now decid­ed­ly un-retired Amer­i­can film­mak­er Steven Soder­bergh is back with a polit­i­cal dra­ma cen­tred around the leaked Pana­ma Papers. True-to-life jour­nal­is­tic tales have piqued the inter­est of many an accom­plished direc­tor, with Steven Spielberg’s The Post and Todd McCarthy’s Spot­light both prime exam­ples. This one has Gary Old­man and Meryl Streep lead­ing the way, and a screen­play by long­time Soder­bergh col­lab­o­ra­tor Scott Z Burns.

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There’s orig­i­nal, there’s uncon­ven­tion­al, and then there’s Char­lie Kauf­man. The think­ing person’s drama­tist has cast Brie Lar­son as a woman who while fig­ur­ing out how best to end her rela­tion­ship begins to rethink her life. If like us you were deeply affect­ed by Anom­al­isa and Eter­nal Sun­shine of the Spot­less Mind, you won’t want to miss this one. To sweet­en the deal, Jesse Ple­mons co-stars.

Eta 6 September

Thanks to the mas­sive suc­cess of 2017’s IT, we’re set to return to Maine for more Stephen King creepi­ness this year. Sim­i­lar to the 1990 TV adap­ta­tion fea­tur­ing the infal­li­ble Tim Cur­ry, It: Chap­ter Two sees the Losers Club reunite in adult­hood, intent on destroy­ing Pen­ny­wise once and for all. Direc­tor Andy Muschi­et­ti turns to Jes­si­ca Chas­tain and James McAvoy to fin­ish what he started.

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Bong Joon-ho’s Eng­lish-lan­guage debut, Snow­piercer, was a riv­et­ing post-apoc­a­lyp­tic ride, car­ry­ing grim pre­dic­tions of the future. Pri­or to this, his 2006 crea­ture fea­ture, The Host, proved Bong a shrewd social com­men­ta­tor. Despite efforts to mask his agen­da behind genre, Bong remains an inher­ent­ly polit­i­cal film­mak­er. Par­a­site, a tale of two South Kore­an fam­i­lies, promis­es more of the same.

Eta 25 January

In The Mule direc­tor and star Clint East­wood tack­les the Mex­i­can car­tels as an aged drug-run­ner in this crime dra­ma. The vet­er­an Hol­ly­wood icon has enlist­ed the tried-and-test­ed ser­vices of Bradley Coop­er and Michael Peña. This is sup­pos­ed­ly Eastwood’s final film, and if that proves to be the case then it’s a swan­song wor­thy of the Man with No Name.

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Arman­do Ian­nuc­ci is the Jonathan Swift of mod­ern polit­i­cal satire, with The Thick of It and The Death of Stal­in exem­pli­fy­ing this. Dick­en­sian Britain is par­tic­u­lar­ly ripe for ridicule as far as Vic­to­ri­an-era domes­tic pol­i­cy is con­cerned, but all signs point to this being a char­ac­ter study. Dev Patel occu­pies the title role, sup­port­ed by Til­da Swin­ton, Hugh Lau­rie and Ben Whishaw.

Eta 22 February

Cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er-turned-direc­tor Reed Morano’s third fea­ture fol­lows Blake Lively’s pro­tag­o­nist as she hunts down those who co-ordi­nat­ed the plane crash that killed her fam­i­ly. Penned by Mark Bur­nell and co-star­ring Ster­ling K Brown and Jude Law, this has all the ingre­di­ents to be a grip­ping mys­tery thriller.

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Lieu­tenant Com­man­der Wade McClusky’s expe­ri­ence dur­ing the 1942 Bat­tle of Mid­way is the inspi­ra­tion for Roland Emmerich’s next fea­ture. The direc­tor has gained a rep­u­ta­tion for bom­bas­tic action cin­e­ma, but there’s no short­age of tal­ent in the ensem­ble cast, and Dunkirk proved audi­ences still love a good war flick.

Eta 9 August (US)

Fol­low­ing his low-bud­get sen­sa­tion, Hered­i­tary, writer/​director Ari Aster is return­ing this year with what sounds like Cou­ples Retreat meets The Wick­er Man. All we know from a brief syn­op­sis is that Flo­rence Pugh’s trip to a remote Swedish island is ham­pered by cultist inter­ven­tion. Jack Reynor and Will Poul­ter also star.

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Depict­ing the twi­light years of noto­ri­ous Chica­go gang­ster Al Capone, as por­trayed by a pros­thet­ic-laden Tom Hardy, Fon­zo is cer­tain­ly an inter­est­ing career choice for Fan­tas­tic Four direc­tor Josh Trank. He’s backed up by a sup­port­ing cast of Kyle MacLach­lan, Lin­da Cardelli­ni and Matt Dil­lon though. Fin­gers crossed it doesn’t turn out to be anoth­er Gang­ster Squad / Legend.

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Fol­low­ing his Palme d’Or-winning Shoplifters, Japan­ese writer/​director Hirokazu Koree­da is set to make his Eng­lish lan­guage debut with this moth­er-daugh­ter sto­ry set against the back­drop of a film pro­duc­tion. Koree­da is a mas­ter at craft­ing low-key but pow­er­ful domes­tic dra­mas, and we’re excit­ed to see what he does with Ethan Hawke and Juli­ette Binoche.

Eta 24 May

In what promis­es to be a wel­come injec­tion of hard sci-fi, James Gray flings Brad Pitt to the far­thest reach­es of the solar sys­tem in an attempt to find his father, stum­bling over some­thing sin­is­ter en route. With Inter­stel­lar cin­e­matog­ra­ph­er Hoyte van Hoytema in-tow, Ad Astra promis­es to be anoth­er gor­geous voy­age into the unknown.

Eta 8 March

This Brie Lar­son vehi­cle car­ries pro­duc­er Kevin Feige’s assur­ance that Cap­tain Mar­vel will indeed be the most pow­er­ful hero the MCU has seen so far. Set in the 1990s, the plot sees Car­ol Dan­vers spring into action when Earth becomes caught in the mid­dle of a trans­galac­tic spat between war­ring alien races.

Eta TBA

Hav­ing charmed both crit­ics and audi­ences alike with Lady Bird, Gre­ta Ger­wig returns to the direc­tors chair with an adap­ta­tion of Louisa May Alcott’s famed nov­el. With Emma Wat­son, Flo­rence Pugh and Lau­ra Dern are on hand to help ele­vate the mate­r­i­al, Ger­wig could have the defin­i­tive adap­ta­tion on her hands. She’s done com­ing-of-age cir­ca 2002, so let’s see how she fares in the 19^th century.

Eta 19 July

John Favreau’s The Jun­gle Book was a huge hit with audi­ences three years ago, so it makes sense that the House of Mouse have turned to the ever-depend­able direc­tor for a live-action ani­ma­tion update of the studio’s 1994 fan favourite. With Bey­on­cé and Don­ald Glover among the voice cast and Hans Zim­mer con­duct­ing a brand new score, you bet­ter be pre­pared for the return of the king.

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Pedro Almodóvar’s first film since 2016’s Juli­eta finds the leg­endary Span­ish film­mak­er in a reflec­tive mood. Pain & Glo­ry tells the sto­ry of a direc­tor who’s forced to reeval­u­ate the choic­es he’s made in life, with Almod­ó­var main­stays Pené­lope Cruz and Anto­nio Ban­deras among the prin­ci­ple cast. This one is almost cer­tain­ly a shoo-in for a Cannes Film Fes­ti­val berth.

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Shia LaBeouf has been sub­ject to wide­spread crit­i­cism regard­ing his recent pub­lic antics, per­haps unfair­ly so. Yet there’s no deny­ing he’s a per­former of rare pres­ence and phys­i­cal­i­ty. Helmed by acclaimed doc­u­men­tar­i­an Alma Har’el and script­ed by the actor him­self, Hon­ey Boy is a semi-auto­bi­o­graph­i­cal deep dive into LaBeouf’s for­ma­tive years, with Lucas Hedges and Mai­ka Mon­roe also featuring.

Eta TBA

There are few liv­ing film­mak­ers as irrev­er­ent and inven­tive as Leos Carax. The French surrealist’s long-await­ed fol­low-up to 2012’s Holy Motors details the life of a wid­owed stand-up come­di­an and his young daugh­ter. Adam Dri­ver and Michelle Williams stand to make this Carax’s most wide-reach­ing work. Oh, and it’s a musical.

Eta 20 December

As expect­ed, lit­tle is known about the final instal­ment in the newest Star Wars tril­o­gy. In the fall­out of The Last Jedi and Col­in Trevorrow’s uncer­e­mo­ni­ous depar­ture, JJ Abrams is back in the hot seat hop­ing to steer the saga back on course, while there’s wel­come addi­tions to the cast in the form of Richard E Grant and Keri Rus­sell. In this post-Sky­walk­er era, it’s all to play for.

Now read part two of our 2019 preview