Santa might have flown back to the North Pole for another year, but we’re still handing out the presents at LWLies. As is annual tradition, here’s our list of 100 films to (hopefully!) look forward to, from some big names, new faces and returning champs. We’ll be back with Part Two tomorrow – let us know what you’re excited about in 2025 on Bluesky.

1. Wolf Man (Leigh Whannell)

Tom Cruise vehicle The Mummy single-handedly terminated Universal’s Dark Universe series of monster flicks. No pressure for Wolf Man then, another attempt to reanimate Universal’s iconic monster IPs. Directed by Leigh Whannell, director of Upgrade and The Invisible Man, the cereal box lyncanthrope could be getting a long overdue makeover befitting of our grittier times. Supported by stars Christopher Abbott and Julia Garner, maybe this is the revival of the Dark Universe. Alternatively, a rumoured leaked image of the titular beast suggests maybe it isn’t. Barney Nuttall

ETA: 17 January (UK)

2. Avatar: Fire and Ash (James Cameron)

I’m gonna be honest… I’m one of those boring old fools who has zero positive feelings towards the two existing Avatar movies. And so the prospect of a third one, another pummeling, three-hour sensory assault, doesn’t fill me with that much anticipation. Hearing Cameron talk, he always seems like a more sophisticated and refined filmmaker than demonstrated in these film, so here’s hoping his supremely erudite nature shines through a little more in this one. David Jenkins

ETA: 19 December

3. Zodiac Killer Project (Charlie Shackleton)

Journalist-turned-film essayist Charlie Shackleton takes true crime serials in his crosshairs for this dryly ironic deconstruction of the genre’s most time-honoured tropes. With plans to make his own true crime opus based on a more esoteric perspective of the famous Zodiac Killer case, Shackleton ends up sketching a cine-blueprint with the author of his preferred source book gives him the heave ho. We loved the filmmaker’s previous film, The Afterlight, and so we’re really looking forward to this one. We’ll know more after its Sundance premiere. DJ

4. The Phoenician Scheme (Wes Anderson)

Long-time LWLies readers will know we ride hard for Wes Anderson, so of course we couldn’t do this list without mentioning his next project. Described as an “espionage thriller” about a father and daughter, it sounds like something a little different for Wes, which is always welcome but particularly after his wonderful sci-fi gambit Asteroid City in 2023. The usual suspects – Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Rupert Friend, Mathieu Amalric – appear, as well as new Wes friends Riz Ahmed and Michael Cera. Hannah Strong

ETA: February 13 (UK)

5. I Am Martin Parr (Lee Shulman)

One of the most renowned and celebrated smudgers on these here scepter’d isles, Martin Parr is known for his hyper-real, lightly grotesque portraits of the British working classes, and is the subject of a new profile documentary from director Lee Shulman. A little like the UK equivalent of Diane Arbus, one might critically question Parr’s intention and his relationship to his subjects, and we hope this film takes a similarly objective viewpoint rather than being a boring celebration. DJ

ETA: 21 February

6. The End (Joshua Oppenheimer)

Joshua Oppenheimer went away for a long ol’ time following the success of his one-two punch of The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence. Turns out that, while squirrelled away, he longed to make a musical, one set in a bunker populated by rich industrialists during a new, population-decimating ice age. Veteran producer/composer Marius de Vries supplies the Sondheim-esque tunes for the writer-director’s own lyrics, while Tilda Swinton, Michael Shannon and George McKay are on singing detail as their various anxieties and closet-skeletons come out to haunt them. BN

ETA: 23 January

7. The Legend of Ochi (Isaiah Saxon)

A24’s big budget foray into family filmmaking didn’t get off to the best start when its trailer drop was beleaguered by accusations of AI usage, which director Isaiah Saxon refuted somewhat snippily on social media. But you have to admit ‘Ochi’ – the little alien-looking creature in this film – does look an awful lot like Baby Yoda. But Saxon has a strong cast in Helena Zengel, Finn Wolfhard and Emily Watson, plus Willem Dafoe himself on villain duties. Could be fun! HS

ETA: 27 February (US)

8. Sinners (Ryan Coogler)

Ryan Coogler has been in the Marvel machine for a long time, so it’s exciting to see him telling an original story for the first time since Fruitvale Station rather than working within an IP framework. He reunites with his long-time creative collaborator Michael B. Jordan for this vampire flick, centred on twin brothers (both played by Jordan) who reunite in their hometown only to discover a great evil awaits them. Hailee Steinfeld, Jack O’Connell and Wunmi Mosaku co-star. HS

ETA: 7 March

9. Black Bag (Steven Soderbergh)

Some of us are old enough to remember when Steven Soderbergh chucked in the towel and called it quits on filmmaking. Now, not only is he back, but he’s working at Fassbinder-levels of productivity, with this new star-spangled London-set spy thriller out mere weeks after his innovative POV ghost story, Presence. Cate Blanchett, Michael Fassbender and Tom Burke head up a none-more stacked cast. DJ

ETA: 14 March

10. Sister Midnight (Karan Kandhari)

Karan Kandhari’s genre-splicing odyssey made waves at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival when it played as part of the vaunted Director’s Fortnight strand. Following a couple of festival victory laps, it finally comes to UK cinemas, telling of an Indian housewife holed up in a one bedroom flat who adopts some comically bizarre methods to fulfil her domestic duties. DJ

ETA: 14 March (UK)

11. Dark Nuns (Hyeok-jae Kwon)

Tropes come and go but exorcisms in horror films will always be around. Exorcisms on the silver screen have become a bit sillier since The Exorcist – it’s a relief then that this South Korean take indicates a return to something darker. Of course our fingers are still crossed for the standard geysers of blood, vomit, and other unholy fluids to keep us entertained as we watch a team of nuns expel a demon from a young boy. BN

ETA: 24 January

12. Alto Knights (Barry Levinson)

Why have one one Robert De Niro performance when you can have two? Barry Levinson directs De Niro as two rival Mafiosos, reuniting the gangster genre veteran with Goodfellas screenwriter Nicholas Pillegi. Putting De Niro back on home turf is a sure-fire way to please a crowd, and with this being the fourth collaboration between the actor and Levinson, Alto Knights seems like a safe bet. Don’t fuhgeddaboud this one. BN

ETA: 21 March

13. Four Mothers (Darren Thornton)

We at LWLies towers are massive fans of the 2008 Italian film Mid-August Lunch by Gianni Di Gregorio, and so we were tickled to hear that it’s been remade by director Darren Thornton and transposed to Ireland. As with the original, it’s about a struggling artist who is forced to organise a party for his demanding mother and her four friends. DJ

ETA: 4 April

14. Sneaks (Rob Edwards)

Here’s a novel concept for you: a designer shoe gets lost on the mean streets of New York, and must face many obstacles as it tries to reunite with its owner (and presumably its twin). Keith David, Laurence Fishburne, Macy Gray and Anthony Mackie lend their vocal talents to this zany-sounding animated movie, from Disney mainstay Rob Edwards. HS

ETA: 25 April

15. One of Them Days (Lawrence Lamont)

Keke Palmer is a comedic force of nature, so it’s great to see her cast in another film which plays to her talents. She co-stars with SZA in this screwball comedy, where two best friends must race against the clock to make rent after a deadbeat boyfriend makes off with their money. HS

ETA: 24 January

16. The Ritual (David Midell)

Apparently “priest-sploitation” is not a subgenre yet. However, this exorcism horror starring cinema royalty Al Pacino may be exactly what’s needed to flesh out this peripheral genre phenomenon. Cashing in on the surprising success of Russell Crowe vehicle The Pope’s Exorcist, newcomer David Midell finally puts Al Pacino in the role he was born for. If this is a success, there could be the possibility of an Avengers style team-up with Pacino and Crowe. We can only pray. BN

ETA: 18 April

17. The Man In My Basement (Nadia Latif)

Full disclosure: this one comes courtesy of a debut filmmaker who also happens to be the sister of our Truth & Movies host and LWLies contributor Leila Latif, but we’d be remiss to not include it. Latif’s adaptation of Walter Mosley’s novel features rising star Corey Hawkins as a down-on-his-luck man who is approached by a mysterious European (Willem Dafoe!) who offers to rent out his basement to him for the summer. Latif is an accomplished playwright, so we’re very excited to see what she brings to cinema. HS

ETA: To be announced

18. A Big Bold Beautiful Journey (Kogonada)

From a career which began in the domain of video essays, Kogonada is now a fully paid-up feature director, and A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is his third film following 2017’s Columbus and 2021’s After Yang. Colin Farrel joins him on this apparently wonderful voyage alongside Margot Robbie, in her first screen run-out since 2023’s Barbie, though not much more is known about the film beyond its official logline: “An imaginative tale of two strangers and the unbelievable journey that connects them.” Sounds like it could be a little saccharine, but colour us intrigued. DJ

ETA: 9 May

19. Presence (Steven Soderbergh)

The POV-craze continues (cf Nickel Boys) as “Big” Steve Sodebergh directs a script by his old mucker David Koepp about a family moving into a plush suburban mini mansion which is being haunted by a spirit who may be trying to warn them about some impending danger. BN

ETA: 24 January

20. Final Destination: Bloodlines (Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein)

As a die-hard Final Destination fan, I’ve long lamented the lack of new additions to this goofy horror franchise in which an interchangeable group of (mostly) teens attempt to cheat death. It’s been 14 long years since we saw a new clutch of unfortunates get dispatched in creative ways – and look at how the world has gone to shit since. This will also be one of the last on-screen appearances of the late, great Tony Todd, who sadly passed away in November 2024, after filming had wrapped. Could Final Destination: Bloodlines heal the world? Listen, anything’s possible… HS

ETA: 16 May

21. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (Christopher McQuarrie)

More short men running fast in the latest in a long line of M:I movies from Christopher McQuarrie and his stunt-happy leading lad, Tom Cruise. This one is set to wrap up events laid out in Dead Reckoning: Part One, and we’ll see if and how they’ve managed to trump themselves in terms of jaw-dropping set pieces. But the last installment faltered at the box office, and if this one doesn’t do mega numbers, then it may be time to lead Ethan Hunt and his cohorts around the back of the barn… until the inevitable reboot comes along! DJ

ETA: 21 May

22. Elio (Adrian Molina, Madeline Sharafin, Domee Shi)

A space-obsessed youngster with a wild imagination discovers that his belief in extra terrestrials was entirely warranted when he’s abducted from earth and taken to meet a galactic congress in this high-concept Pixar movie. Acting as a planetary representative, he must make friends with aliens and navigate inter-planetary conflict, all while dealing with the usual pre-teen growing pains. Pixar’s output has been a little underwhelming as of late, but perhaps this could be the film to change their fortunes. HS

ETA: 13 June

23. Companion (Drew Hancock)

This directorial debut from Drew Hancock – produced by Barbarian director Zack Cregger – stars new scream queen Sophie Thatcher and The Boys star Jack Quaid in a psychological battle of unrequited love. Echoes of cannibal horror/comedy Fresh and Takashi Miike’s Audition reverberate through the trailer, indicating a gory forecast. Post Christmas cheer, this could be the bloody palette cleanser we need. BN

ETA: 31 January

24. 28 Years Later (Danny Boyle)

It’s not quite 28 years since Danny Boyle’s budget zombie thriller 28 Days Later hit cinemas, but it’s not far off (I was horrified to learn it’s 23). After the damp squib that was 28 Weeks Later, Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland are back on board, joined by a cast including Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ralph Fiennes and Jodie Comer. Cillian Murphy’s Jim is also rumoured to be appearing, though no one is quite sure in what capacity. One thing we do know: the first trailer, set to Rudyard Kipling’s poem ‘Boots’, was suitably terrifying. HS

ETA: 20 June

25. F1 (Joseph Kosinski)

After making a boatload of cash for Paramount with the sequel smash Top Gun: Maverick, blockbuster brainiac Joseph Kosinski has set his sights on another form of high-octane transport. This time it’s F1 racing, with Brad Pitt and Javier Bardem in pole position. Pitt stars as a celebrated driver who comes out of retirement to mentor an up-and-coming talent (played by Damson Idris). If his work on Top Gun is anything to go by, expect some nifty camera tricks from Kosinski. HS

ETA: 27 June

26. M3GAN 2.0 (Gerard Johnstone)

There was plenty to enjoy about the tongue-in-cheek M3GAN, featuring a sinister AI-driven doll who goes to extreme lengths to protect the young girl she’s assigned as a friend. It’s no surprise that Blumhouse ordered a sequel, and with original director Gerard Johnstone and writer Akela Cooper on board, we’re cautiously optimistic this could be a fun one. Allison Williams and Violet McGraw reprise their roles, while Amie Donald and Jenna Davis return as the performance and voice of M3GAN. Curiously, Jermaine Clement is also on the cast list – is he going to teach M3GAN a new TikTok dance? Only time will tell. HS

ETA: 27 June

27. Bring Them Down (Christopher Andrews)

Two of Hollywood’s hottest young stars – Barry Keoghan and Christopher Abbott – star in Christopher Andrews’ bleak feature debut, set in the rural world of Irish sheep farming. Abbott plays Michael, the last son of a shepherding family, who lives with his ailing father, Ray (the legend himself Colm Meaney). Burdened by a terrible secret, Michael has isolated himself from the world. When a conflict with rival farmer Gary (Paul Ready) and his son Jack (Keoghan) escalates, Michael is drawn into a devastating chain of events, forcing him to confront the horrors of his past and leaving both families permanently altered. HS

ETA: February 7

28. Superman: Legacy (James Gunn)

There are a few certainties in this world: death, taxes, and DC rebooting Superman. This iteration marks the first film since James Gunn took over as DC’s head honcho, brought in to bring some cohesion to their extremely chaotic, widely mocked film slate. David Corenswet stars as the Man of Steel, with Nicholas Hoult playing his arch nemesis Lex Luthor and Rachel Brosnahan as his love interest Lois Lane. Will it be any good? Who knows. I had a lot of fun with Gunn’s Peacemaker television series, but his Suicide Squad was a low point of 2022. We’ll see! HS

ETA: 11 July

29. Freakier Friday (Nisha Ganatra)

The nostalgia boom continues, as Lindsay Lohan and Jamie Lee Curtis return in this sequel to their 2003 comedy about a mother and daughter who accidentally switch bodies. Speaking as someone who was 1o years old when the original film came out, I’m naturally a little sceptical about this long-in-the-making sequel, but I have to admit it’s a delight to see not only Lohan and Lee Curtis return, but their co-stars Chad Michael Murray, Mark Harmon, Lucille Soong and Rosalind Chao too. Picking up years after the events of the first film, Anna (Lohan) is now a mother herself, and as she prepares to become a step-mother, she turns to her own mother (Lee Curtis) for advice. But the fates might have other plans… HS

ETA: 8 August

30. The Battle of Baktan Cross (Paul Thomas Anderson)

Is this going to be another Thomas Pynchon adaptation from Paul Thomas Anderson? We loved Inherent Vice, so we’d be happy if it was, and this Leonardo DiCaprio-starring retro action caper is said to be loosely inspired by Pynchon’s early 90s headspinner, Vineland. But no-one really knows for sure. Apparently, Anderson had sacks o’ cash thrown at him for this production, which comes out at the height of summer, so can’t wait to see if he’s gone full-bore action blockbuster on our asses. Probably not… DJ

ETA: 8 August

31. Love Hurts (Jonathan Eusebio)

Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan gets his long-awaited leading role in this action comedy, directed by long-time stunt coordinator Jonathan Eusebio, who’s worked on films including The Fall Guy, The Matrix Resurrections, Birds of Prey and John Wick, plus a host of Marvel movies. Ke Huy Quan stars as Marvin, a hot-shot realtor dragged back into his former life as a criminal at the behest of his crime lord brother (played by Daniel Wu). Ariana DeBose co-stars as Rose, an unlikely ally. HS

ETA: February 7

32. Cold Storage (Jonny Campbell)

Ever since watching The Last of Us, mushrooms haven’t tasted the same. Another fungal threat arises in this disaster thriller from TV old hand Jonny Campbell, with Liam Neeson and Lesley Manville facing off against world-ending shrooms. Of course with the recent green innovations in mycelium, it’s more likely that, in reality, mushrooms will save the world rather than destroy it, but no-one comes to disaster thrillers for rigorous scientific research. Just look at Roland Emmerich’s Moonfall. If this is a fraction as fun as that was, then we’re in for a treat. BN

ETA: 18 September

33. The Bride! (Maggie Gyllenhaal)

Hold on to your neckbolts, as Maggie Gyllenhaal is back behind the camera following the rousing success of her skillful Elena Ferrante adaptation, The Lost Daughter, from 2021. That Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale are playing the leads is enough to get us through the door, but it’s exciting to see that Gyllenhaal has brought on two regular PTA collaborators to her crew: editor Dylan Tichenor and composer Jonny Greenwood. DJ

ETA: 26 September

34. Roofman (Derek Cianfrance)

We gotta do something about that title, Derek. No-ones going to the pictures on a Friday eve and saying, “Two for Roofman please.” It’ll almost have been a decade since we’ve seen a Derek Cianfrance movie, with 2016’s overreaching The Light Between Oceans, and this new one sees Channing Tatum as a soldier evading police capture by holing out on the roof of a Toy R Us store. Juno Temple is also in the mix. DJ

ETA: 3 October

35. The Fire Inside (Rachel Morrison)

Rachel Morrison is one of the most exciting cinematographers working today, as seen in her work on films such as Mudbound and Black Panther. She takes up the reigns as director for this underdog sporting saga about female Olympian Claressa Shields whose incredible boxing achievements went ignored after corporate sponsors who thought her to be too unladylike for their brands. Ryan Destiny slips on the gloves in the lead role, while Brian Tyree Henry is on hand as her lovable smalltown coach, Jason Crutchfield. DJ

ETA: 7 February

36. Bugonia (Yorgos Lanthimos)

After receiving Poor Things and Kinds of Kindness within a six month period, Greece’s pre-eminent oddball auteur won’t grace our screens until the end of 2025, which is probably just enough time for us to get our appetites back. His remake of the Korean cult horror-comedy Save the Green Planet! sees him reunite with Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons and Alicia Silverstone, and rumour has it the production involved building an entire house set in the British countryside. It’s also a new collaboration – screenwriter Will Tracy is best known for his work on The Menu and Succession. Colour us intrigued. HS

ETA: 7 November

37. Now You See Me 3 (Ruben Fleischer)

While I think it’s appalling that the studio didn’t go with ‘Now You 3 Me’ for the title of this third act in Lionsgate’s magic heist franchise, I suppose I’ll have to let that go eventually. Original cast members Jesse Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco, Woody Harrelson, Morgan Freeman and Mark Ruffalo return, as does Daniel Radcliffe who appeared in Now You See Me 2. Newcomers include Rosamund Pike, Justice Smith and Dominic Sessa, plus director Ruben Fleischer, who worked with Eisenberg and Harrelson on Zombieland and its sequel. HS

ETA: 14 November

38. The Running Man (Edgar Wright)

In a Guardian article about this upcoming remake, Ben Child hypothesised that “We will probably not see anyone garrotted or chainsawed in two”, referencing the bombastic ‘80s original. Clearly Child has forgotten about every brawl, murder (pronounced in a West Country accent), and bodily mutilation in Wright’s filmography. Despite his lively style, Wright has promised to be more faithful to the politically-charged Stephen King source material, which saw the poor compete in a killer TV show for financial freedom. Nevertheless, whip pans, match cuts and callbacks will certainly be used to retell this dystopian social satire. BN

ETA: 21 November

39. Hot Milk (Rebecca Lenkiewicz)

Although best known for her work on the stage (her 2008 play ‘Her Naked Skin’ was the first original work written by a woman to be performed at the National Theatre’s main stage), Rebecca Lenkiewicz has many laudable screenwriting credits under her belt. She co-wrote Ida with Pawel Pawlikowski, Disobedience with Sebastian Lelio, and she was also the lead writer for Steve McQueen’s miniseries Small Axe. She makes her highly-anticipated directorial debut with an adaptation of Deborah Levy’s astonishing novel, Hot Milk, starring powerhouse actors Vicky Krieps, Emma Mackey and Fiona Shaw. MA

ETA: 13 February

40. Wicked: For Good (Jon M. Chu)

Good news for people who didn’t mind being pummeled in the face by Wicked’s aggressive marketing campaign this autumn: we get to do it again in 2025! Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jeff Goldblum et al. return for the second half of Jon Chu’s musical extravaganza, as Elphaba is banished for uncovered the dastardly truth about the Wizard of Oz, and fights to clear her name. HS

ETA: 21 November

41. Zootropolis 2 (Jared Bush, Byron Howard)

The first Zootropolis film was smart and sharp despite the fact that it was very much “pro cop” at a time when that was not a particularly fashionable political stance. Ginnifer Goodwin and Jason Bateman return as, respectively, wide-eyed bunny Judy Hopps and sly red fox Nick Wilde, teamed once more and on the case of a nefarious reptile. Here’s hoping that this one doesn’t succumb to the recent plague of sequelitis where second films are just crummy rehashes of the first with enough time left to pass so people would’ve forgotten the original. DJ

ETA: 28 November

42. Blue Moon (Richard Linklater)

Richard Linklater was kinda in the wilderness for a while, and when his film Hit Man cropped up in an out-of-competition slot in the 2023 Venice Film Festival, expectations for it were muted at best. Well, it turned out to be a major banger, and all eyes are back on Austin’s Finest Son once more, and Blue Moon looks set to return to the “putting on a show” template he toyed with in 2008’s Me and Orson Welles, as it tells of the opening night of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! DJ

ETA: To be announced

43. Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy (Michael Morris)

With a plum Valentine’s Day release and some star-wattage from newcomers Leo Woodall and Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renée Zellweger returns as Britain’s favourite diarist (apologies Adrian Mole). After the untimely death of her true love Mr. Darcy, Bridget Jones is raising her two kids as a single mother, but a much younger love interest catches her eye. Meanwhile, Hugh Grant reprises his role as archetypal philanderer Daniel Cleaver. Don your best granny pants with pride for this one. HS

ETA: 13 February

44. Animal Farm (Andy Serkis)

There have been a few cinematic adaptations of Orwell’s classic allegorical novel. The 1954 animation is the unsaid definitive version, while the ‘90s live action attempt has fallen into obscurity. How, then, will Andy Serkis approach adapting this literary cornerstone? It’s confirmed to be an animation, but other details, such as the cast, are currently under wraps. With his motion capture background, Serkis could play the whole farmyard, although he may favour a more pragmatic approach to an already heightened narrative. BN

ETA: To be announced

45. Ash (Flying Lotus)

Musician and artist Flying Lotus makes his second feature in Ash, which focuses on a woman played by Eiza González, who wakes up on a planet and finds the crew of her space station have been viciously killed. A man – played by Aaron Paul – arrives to rescue her, but his appearance sparks more questions than answers. We’ll likely get a Flying Lotus score too, and given the artist’s wild imagination, this probably won’t be your standard sci-fi thriller. HS

ETA: To be announced

46. The Wizard of the Kremlin (Olivier Assayas)

After his low-key pandemic picture, Hors de Temps, Olivier Assayas returns to his political thriller roots with this adaptation of Giuliano da Empoli’s 2022 fiction bestseller about the imagined life of one of Vladimir Putin’s most trusted spin doctors. Alicia Vikander is set to star, with Paul Dano, Zach Galifianakis, Jude Law and Jeffrey Wright all signed up as well. Assayas’ previous political/historical film, Wasp Network, was somewhat underwhelming, so we hope he finds his hyperbolic, conspiratorial juice again with this one. DJ

ETA: To be announced

47. Memoir of a Snail (Adam Elliot)

Adam Elliot (of Mary and Max fame) took the top prize at the London Film Festival for his animated drama, about a melancholy woman named Grace Pudel – “hoarder of snails, romance novels, and guinea pigs.” Elliot’s unique art style and stop-motion animation is quite unlike anything else, and with Jacki Weaver, Eric Bana and Sarah Snook lending their vocal talents, it’s a truly Australian affair. It’s also categorically not an animated film to watch with your kids. You’ve been warned. HS

ETA: 14 February

48. Bring Her Back (Danny and Michael Philippou)

Aussie bros Danny and Michael Philippou had a smash hit on their hands in 2023 with supernatural horror Talk to Me, and they’ll be looking to terrify audiences all over again with their next frightener, which stars British national treasure Sally Hawkins. We know absolutely nothing else yet, but this will be on a lot of horror fans’ Must-See lists for 2025. HS

ETA: To be announced

49. Carolina Caroline (Adam Rehmeier)

After directing the award-winning, cult hit Dinner in America, Adam Rehmeier returns with past collaborator Kyle Gallner and rising star Samara Weaving in this Bonnie and Clyde style crime caper. In search of her estranged mother, a young woman joins a con man on a crime spree through Southeast America. Both the director and stars have been on the peripheries of fame for a while—this romance thriller could be their big breakthrough into the mainstream. BN

ETA: To be announced

50. Death of a Unicorn (Alex Scharfman)

Alex Scarfman is best known as a producer, but he makes his feature debut with this black comedy, starring Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega as a father and daughter who accidentally hit a unicorn with their car while en route to a work retreat. Rudd’s billionaire boss – played by Richard E Grant – immediately sees an opportunity to exploit the dead mythical creature’s remains for profit, but things quickly start to go awry. Great premise, great cast, but even more exciting: John Carpenter is doing the score! HS

ETA: To be announced

It may have taken decades for Bob Dylan to receive Academy-bait biopic treatment, but finally it happened. A Complete Unknown is James Mangold’s film about Dylan’s West Village ascension in the early 1960s, with Timothée Chalamet starring behind the shades as Dylan.

The fact that the only other Dylan biopic — Todd Haynes’ I’m Not There (2007) — employed six different actors to play the central role suggests the size of Chalamet’s task: Dylan is completely sui generis, the metamorphic nature of his career marking him as an artist impossible to define or depict. Do you play him as the earnest young folk singer of his debut album, or the flayed Rimbaud figure of Blonde on Blonde only three years later, with Dylan juiced up on amphetamines and a “thin, wild mercury sound” to him?

I’m Not There gets around this partly by using a child actor (Marcus Carl Franklin) and an androgynous Cate Blanchett alongside the more “correct” Dylan stand-ins (e.g. Ben Whishaw), an approach that aptly mirrors the many characters Dylan has styled throughout his life, both in his career as a singer-songwriter and on the big screen too.

If Haynes’ film is symbolistic and formally daring, A Complete Unknown appears to be more in the mode of the rote, boring music biopic, and while I can’t confess to having seen it, from what I can glean from promotional materials, Chalamet hits all the physical beats while also looking like someone has dressed their child as Bob Dylan for Halloween. Dylan himself has vouched for Chalamet’s casting, though, and in a post on X hinted at the mutability that his stand-in will have to strive for: “I’m sure he’s going to be completely believable as me. Or a younger me. Or some other me.”

Chalamet said he was unfamiliar with Dylan when approached for the project, but has since been converted to the “Church of Bob”. It’s doubtless that part of this conversion would’ve involved studying the many incarnations of Dylan in the Movies, then, king of which is D. A. Pennebaker’s Don’t Look Back (1967), which captures Dylan on tour in England in 1965, his last outing as a purely acoustic act.

Billed as, variously, a concert-film and a documentary, Don’t Look Back is both things and neither, with only segments of Dylan’s live performances included and the frantic backstage footage more akin to a Hard Day’s Night (1964) than factual reportage. Dylan isn’t acting per se, but he is playing himself, or at least this version of himself: skinny and sullen behind sunglasses, all in black, blessed with emergent genius and superior because. This is still the quintessential Dylan iconography.

Whether it’s one-upping an awestruck Donovan, or stopping a raucous room-party to demand that whoever threw a glass out of the window make themselves known, Dylan is very much giving a performance in Don’t Look Back. He would do this again in the documentary form, most recently for Martin Scorsese in Rolling Thunder Revue (2019), a seemingly straightforward talking-head doc in the manner of No Direction Home (2005). It’s only on closer inspection that Rolling Thunder is revealed to be full of Dylan’s lies and leg-pulls, not least the insertion of the Revue’s “director”, a tell-all interviewee on the face of it but actually a fictional character played by an actor.

But what about Dylan’s own fictional performances, of which there are a handful, scattered among the many lives he has both lived and invented on screen? First off, there’s his turn as Alias (the name is no coincidence), a small part in Sam Peckinpah’s Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973), for which Dylan wrote the soundtrack. It’s common opinion that Dylan is “bad” in Pat Garrett. And while that may be true of the technical quality of his performance, it remains that you can’t help but look for him when he’s not there. Peckinpah himself felt this, enlarging Dylan’s role from an unmemorable member of Billy’s gang to a mercurial newspaperman who follows The Kid around (the idea being that Alias would later tell Billy’s tale, weaving fictions and printing the myth).

Accordingly, the camera cuts to Dylan when it doesn’t make sense to, an effect that catches both viewer and actor off guard, Dylan jerky and awkward, his speech littered with “uh’s”, his eyes (“blue as robin’s eggs”, per Joan Baez) blazing out from beneath the brim of a cowboy hat. His compositions may motor the movie, but Dylan’s perplexing performance (his key scene has him read out the labels of bean cans) further inflects it with a mournful unknowability. It’s a slim role, but Dylan exudes enough enigma to make it stick.

He is less successful for Richard Marquand in Hearts of Fire (1987), playing co-lead in a film released at time of creative standstill for Dylan, just out of his Christian run of albums and yet to be reborn again with Oh Mercy in 1989. Sporting a touch of mustard-yellow in his curls, Dylan mumbles his way through a film only available on YouTube and best left there.

Of much more importance is Masked and Anonymous (2003), which Dylan co-wrote with Larry Charles, who also directs, shooting it like it’s a hostage video. The film was disparaged upon release, and its reputation has only slightly improved with Letterboxd and time — it’s now considered a curio! While it’s true that the film has a lowdown look and dialogue that proves “only Dylan can do Dylan” — in other peoples’ mouths his words can seem shallow — its supposed demerits are actually the things that most recommend it: its inscrutability and ill-advisedness, as well as its determination to describe a New Weird America (to paraphrase Greil Marcus). Best of all, Masked and Anonymous is like a Dylan song come to life: unconcerned with passing fashion and completely out of time.

Dylan ostensibly plays the lead, his Jack Fate a washed-up midlist rock star who makes a return for a benefit concert in a country run by a perverted dictator. Dylan looks physically uncomfortable in front of the camera, an era away from the restless energy he showed on stage and film during the Rolling Thunder tour, which he captured hundreds of hours of and turned into Renaldo and Clara (1978). That restlessness is still there in Masked and Anonymous, but he reserves it for his face, which squints and slants and never stills. Beneath it, his body looks like it’s stuck on inhale. You start to wonder if the reason Dylan speaks in clipped aphorism, rarely ever putting multiple sentences together, is so that the camera can slew away and he can breathe again. He does, at least, have the good sense to surround himself with an absolutely stacked cast of A-List and respected actors, many of whom took pay cuts to work with Dylan.

Despite this, Dylan is oddly moving in Masked and Anonymous. He has a great face for staring ruefully out of windows while his own masterpieces play, and in the film’s musical set pieces you see the thrill of his artistry blow away the amateur aspects of his performance style, which at worst is wooden but at best wouldn’t look out of place in Twin Peaks: The Return, a Lynch link backed up by critic Will Sloan, who calls Masked and Anonymous Dylan’s Inland Empire, “a state of the union of Bob Dylan’s subconscious.”

Robert Zimmerman. Arthur Rimbaud. Alias. Jack Fate: Bob Dylan has played many parts and many people. Misdirection, unknowability, masks, myths: these are his modes, and his long history in the movies suggests it as an art form perfect for his protean wiles, shapeshifting with the medium, always busy being born. “Who are you?” someone asks early on in Pat Garrett. It’s a good question.