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100 films to look forward to in 2026 – part one

Grid of 16 film stills showing various characters and scenes. Mix of colour and darker tones with blue, red, yellow accents throughout different frames.

New year, new movies! Here's part one of our annual preview looking ahead to the year's most exciting releases.

We may still be deep in the 2025 awards cycle for a few more months, but that’s no excuse for looking into the deep blue yonder at some of the cinematic delights that may be bobbing to the surface in the coming weeks and months. Here we present to you part one of our round-up of potential cinematic delights, all the things we’re looking forward to this years, from new works by arthouse favourites to innovative blockbusters and everything in between. The industry is in the midst of a period of violent flux right now, so hopefully our 2027 preview list won’t just be 100 films all from the same giant production house. Watch this space!

1. I Want Your Sex (Gregg Araki)

January 2026 (Sundance Premiere)

It’s been 22 years since Gregg Araki’s Mysterious Skin, a film whose raw depiction of queer adolescence remains as devastating and radical as the day it was made, and the director’s new erotic thriller sounds like a deliberate return to his sweet spot. When Elliot (Cooper Hoffman) lands a job with artist Erika Tracy (Olivia Wilde), he’s drawn into her world as a sexual muse. If nothing else, expect neon-drenched excess and a refusal to behave daintily. Anna Stafford

 

2. The Moment (Aidan Zamiri)

January 2026 (Sundance Premiere)

Aidan Zamiri has spent the last decade shaping pop’s visual language from behind the camera, directing videos for FKA twigs and Billie Eilish. In his feature film debut The Moment, Charli XCX steps into full pop-feral auteur mode. It’s a mockumentary fever dream where fame becomes both a mask and a meltdown, with its star spinning an apparently self-scalding portrait of stardom eating itself in real time. AS

 

3. Send Help (Sam Raimi)

January 30, 2026 (UK)

The great horror auteur Sam Raimi finally returns to horror from a little break in the blockbuster hills, harking back to his gleefully gory opus Drag Me to Hell from over a decade ago. His new film strands two colleagues (Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien) on a remote island and asks, what could possibly go wrong? (Answer: everything). If he leans into the nastier edges, this could be a welcome reminder of how much fun Raimi has when he’s being bad. Set to be splattered with his trademark slapstick terror, January already seems like a less boring prospect. AS

 

4. We Bury The Dead (Zak Hilditch)

February 5, 2026 (Australia/New Zealand)

Okay, we have fingers and toes crossed that British actor Daisy Ridley scores a post Star Wars hit with this upcoming zombie survival thriller by Australian filmmaker Zak Hilditch. The bad faith posting army seemed to have it in for her from the off, and if nothing else, it would be great if she were able to prove her talents to the haters just to shut them up for a bit. The film premiered at South By Southwest in March of 2025 and received warm reviews, so things are looking good so far. David Jenkins

 

5. The Chronology of Water (Kristen Stewart)

February 6, 2026 (UK)

We were pleasantly surprised when we caught The Chronology of Water at the Cannes Film Festival back in May 2025. Kristen Stewart’s feature directorial debut is a rousing adaptation of Lidia Yuknavitch’s ferocious memoir of the same name. Tackling abuse, addiction and the female body as both battleground and refuge, Stewart delivers an uncompromising debut. AS

Man with brown hair and beard in blue shirt facing blonde woman in red leather jacket against purple and pink cloudy background.

6. “Wuthering Heights” (Emerald Fennell)

February 13, 2026 (UK)

Emerald Fennell has so far made a career out of excavating rot from respectability, and “Wuthering Heights” (note the scare quotes!) already feels like a provocation-in-making. Since an early trailer ruffled more than a few feathers, with purists bristling at the casting of Margot Robbie as Cathy and Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff, we are intrigued to see how Fennell’s 2026 approach to Emily Brontë’s canonical 1847 novel plays out. AS

 

7. The President’s Cake (Hasan Hadi)

February 13, 2026

Dictators are, for the most part, deeply humiliating and insecure human beings, and Hasan Hadi’s film tells of an Iraqi ritual during the reign of Saddam Hussain where young children were nominated to deliver the despot a cake on his birthday. This bittersweet directorial debut was selected as the Iraqi entry for Best International Feature Film at the 98th Academy Awards, and even though it’s up against some very stiff competition, it’s just the sort of lightly-political drama that voters tend to stump for. DJ

 

8. By Design (Amanda Kramer)

February 13, 2026 (US)

Amanda Kramer has quietly carved out a niche as one of American cinema’s sharpest satirists of modern life, and By Design looks to continue that streak. Following Please Baby Please and Ladyworld, her new film promises a winking riff on objectification that literally turns Juliette Lewis into designer furniture. AS

 

9. The Testament Of Ann Lee (Mona Fastvold)

February 20, 2026 (UK)

Given its stark imagery, it is no surprise that The Testament of Ann Lee found its way onto the cover of the latest print issue of LWLies. Following her Oscar-recognised work on The Brutalist, Mona Fastvold’s historical drama traces the radical life of Ann Lee (Amanda Seyfried), founder of the Shaker movement, foregrounding questions of gender equality within a faith built on labour and discipline. AS

 

10. If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (Mary Bronstein)

February 20, 2026 (UK)

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You announces itself with a title that matches its subject – abrasive, tense and feral. Rose Byrne stars as a spiralling mother on the brink, navigating her daughter's mysterious illness and irritating therapist. Following her cult mumblecore film Yeast, Mary Bronstein returns with a bracing study of motherhood, co-starring A$AP Rocky and Christian Slater. AS

Woman with long brown hair in dark bodice and brown skirt, arms raised, surrounded by crowd in period clothing in dimly lit room.

11. Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die (Gore Verbinski)

February 20, 2026 (UK)

In an all-too-close to home version of the future where AI has taken over, a man from the future (Sam Rockwell) arrives at a Los Angeles diner to recruit some misfits to save the world. Starring Haley Lu Richardson, Zazie Beetz and Juno Temple, the film frames its sci-fi hook as a darkly comic portrait of a generation fluent in anxious irony and jokes about existential dread. AS

 

12. How to Make a Killing (John Patton Ford)

February 27, 2026 (UK)

There’s something slightly terrifying about this contemporary, Americanised remake of the Ealing classic, Kind Hearts and Coronets. Will the makers do justice to this sacred text and find something new? Or is it just a case of an IP cash-in that hops on the back of some start-spangled acting talent in the form of Glen Powell and Margaret Qualley? The trailer proves inconclusive, but now might be the time to bone up on the perfect original. DJ

 

13. The Secret Agent (Kleber Mendonça Filho)

February 20, 2026 (UK)

The Secret Agent is a historical hang-out movie from the great Brazilian filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho. There’s a taught political thriller nestled in there somewhere, but this innovative director is more interested in recreating the messy experience of being alive and pressing up against the political chaos of the local military dictatorship during the 1970s. And things are helped no end with one of the year’s best, most understated performances from Wagner Moura. DJ

 

14. Sirāt (Oliver Laxe)

February 27, 2026 (UK)

Sirāt began life as a mirage, when Oliver Laxe considered making a film based on “trucks crossing the desert”. What arrives is far stranger. Evolved through Laxe’s rediscovery of rave culture while making Mimosas, his new film follows a transient community of dancers in Morocco, among them a father (Sergi López) and son searching for a missing daughter. Described as his most political and radical work yet, we can attest to the fact that the film is an audiovisual feast. AS

 

15. The Bride! (Maggie Gyllenhaal)

March 6, 2026 (UK)

In the wake of Guillermo del Toro’s Netflix-released Frankenstein, it feels only fitting that the monster’s counterpart gets her own reclamation. Maggie Gyllenhaal’s punk re-imagining of James Whale’s 1935 Bride of Frankenstein looks angrier, grittier and stranger than del Toro’s vision. With Jessie Buckley as the eponymous bride and Christian Bale as the monster, Gyllenhaal twists gothic prestige into something wildly romantic, with rumoured musical numbers. AS

A man with a beard wearing a white shirt and holding a red telephone in front of a wall covered with old newspaper clippings.

16. Whitney Springs (Trey Parker)

2026; Release date TBA

It’s almost coming to the 27 year mark, and we over at LWLies towers are still laughing at the projectile puking scene from Trey Parker’s South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut. He returns to the feature film fray with this enticing collaboration with Kendrick Lamar, about a man who works as a slave re-enactor who discovers that his partner's parents own his own. The project is still shrouded in some amount of secrecy, and it’s being made at Paramount which has just been taken over by billionaire Trump die-hards, so let’s see if this ever makes the light of day. DJ

 

17. Sound of Falling (Mascha Schilinski)

March 6, 2026 (UK)

Mascha Schilinski’s second feature film arrives with a reputation forged on the festival circuit, having won the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2025. The film traces four generations of girls – from the eve of WWI to the early 2000s – whose lives are bound by a farm in Germany’s Altmark region. Sound of Falling looks set to move through time via the familiarly haunting echoes of intergenerational trauma. AS

 

18. Red Rocks (Bruno Dumont)

2026; Release date TBA

The French director Bruno Dumont used to make films that had people running from the cinema screens in a fit of appalled nausea with their bouts of sexual violence and human degredation. He then pivoted to slapstick comedy and the films themselves seemed to suggest that he’d always been a comedy director at heart. With Red Rocks, there’s a new pivot afoot, as Dumont heads to the French Riviera for a romantic drama inspired by Romeo and JulietDJ

 

19. One Last Deal (Brendan Muldowney)

March 13, 2026 (UK)

British crime cinema has spent decades insisting on one last job – usually in an accent trying very hard to sound like Danny Dyer. Irish filmmaker Brendan Muldowney’s One Last Deal arrives fully aware of the tradition it’s brushing up against. Swap the pub backroom for the transfer window and the standoff for a contract negotiation, and suddenly Dyer’s well-worn persona feels perfectly repurposed as a football agent chasing one last payday. AS 

 

20. Arco (Ugo Bienvenu)

March 20, 2026 (UK)

This animated science fantasy film by Ugo Bienvenu and produced by Natalie Portman follows ten-year-old Arco in the year 2932, who uses a rainbow to accidentally time travel back to the year 2075. The film draws on the style and tone of classic French animated features from the 1970s, notably the psychedelic likes of Fantastic Planet and Gandahar by the great René Laloux. DJ 

A woman in a brown robe sits at a dresser in a vintage-style room, with framed portraits on the wall behind her.

21. Dead Man’s Wire (Gus Van Sant)

March 20, 2026 (UK)

In 1977 Indianapolis, Tony Kiritsis wired the muzzle of a 12-gauge shotgun to the back of banker Richard Hall’s head. This infamous standoff forms the basis of Gus Van Sant’s newest endeavour starring Bill Skarsgård, Dacre Montgomery and Al Pacino. With true crime touchstones like To Die For and Elephant on his resumé, Van Sant seems well-suited to a story that treats the media circus as an active player in the violence itself. AS

 

22. Project Hail Mary (Phil Lord and Chris Miller)

March 20, 2026 

If anyone is still able to remember their way back to the 2015 dadcore Matt Damon vehicle, The Martian, in which the star managed to un-strand himself from Mars with the power of Science, then the logline for Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s Project Hail Mary may ring a few bells. Swap out Damon for Ryan Gosling, and Mars for a drifting space shuttle, and on paper you have the same damn movie. Maybe because they’re both adaptations of Andy Weir hard sci-fi novels? Who’s to say? DJ

 

23. Bitter Christmas (Pedro Almodóvar)

March 20, 2026

Pedro Almodóvar tends to drop new films around the time of either the Cannes or Venice film festival – it seems with this one he may be angling for the earlier Berlin with his forthcoming Bitter Christmas. Eschewing the big stars of previous films The Room Next Door and Parallel Mothers, this intriguing drama stars Spanish actor Bárbara Lennie as an ad exec who heads to Lanzarote following a breakdown. The promise of melancholy, self-reflection and a dose of humour promise classic Almodóvarian shenanigans, and we can’t wait. DJ

 

24. The Dog Stars (Ridley Scott)

March 27, 2026 (UK)

After a rather disappointing sequel to Gladiator, Ridley Scott’s new film feels less like an event and more like a reckoning. The Dog Stars, adapted from Peter Heller’s post-apocalyptic novel, strips the world back to a pilot, a dog, an abandoned airstrip and the echo of a civilisation lost to pandemic. Starring Jacob Elordi, Margaret Qualley and Josh Brolin, the question hanging over Scott’s late-career turn is whether, this time, we’ll be left entertained. AS

 

25. Mother Mary (David Lowery)

April 2026

This is one of those cases where you watch the trailer for a film and still have no real idea what it is and what it’s about. Which is probably a good thing all told. We have Anne Hathaway as a pop star and Michaela Coel as her costume designer, and there’s clearly some bad blood in the air when the former comes crawling back to the latter for some new gear. The trailer claims it’s not a ghost story or a love story but it is in fact a “prayer” [quizzical shrug emoji]. It looks atmospheric, Lowery is good value, let’s see what happens… DJ

Man in white t-shirt and woman in dark top with arms raised, standing in bright interior space with wooden surfaces.

26. Parallel Tales (Asghar Farhadi)

April 2026

Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhardi rose to prominence in 2011 with his barnstorming moral maze drama, A Separation. While he’s never quite been able to reach those same heights again, we’re still excited for his new one, the literally-titled Parallel Tales for which he has assembled the cream of French acting talent in the form of Isabelle Huppert, Virginie Efira, Vincent Cassel, Pierre Niney and la reign herself, Catherine Deneuve, for a film whose plot is under wraps, but we’d take a guess that there are lots of little stories running alongside one another? Prove us wrong! DJ

 

27. The Drama (Kristoffer Borgli)

April 3, 2026 (UK)

A24 cordially invites you to the “wedding of the year,” pairing two of the biggest stars in cinema right now, Zendaya and Robert Pattinson. Days before their wedding, a couple’s relationship begins to fracture when one partner discovers unsettling truths about the other. The film lands as 2026 shapes up to be a banner year for Zendaya and Pattinson, both also starring in Dune: Messiah and The Odyssey. The duo seem perfectly cast for Kristoffer Borgli’s follow-up to the almost-good Dream Scenario, an interrogation of ego that skirts similar territory to Lynne Ramsay’s Die My LoveAS

 

28. Michael (Antoine Fuqua)

April 24, 2026 (UK)

We thought the churn of popstar biopics had eased after Rocketman, but with A Complete Unknown and Springsteen, they appear to be making a comeback. Antoine Fugua takes on pop’s most mythologised figure in Michael. With Jaafar Jackson starring as his own late uncle, the film promises an immersive account of the artist’s rise from prodigious child star to global phenomenon. But with the Jackson estate closely involved, Michael feels less like a reckoning than a carefully managed exercise in legacy control. AS

 

29. Coward (Lukas Dhont)

May 2026

The Belgian golden boy Lukas Dhont heads to the past for the first time with his upcoming film Coward, a follow-up to the contemporary-set twofer of 2018’s Girl and 2022’s Close. Set in 1916, the story zeroes in on a young Belgian soldier who discovers love and art in the trenches while questioning notions of heroism and cowardice. That’s all the logline gives us at this point, but we’re excited to see this young talent turning his obvious skill to a completely new place and time. DJ

 

30. The Devil Wears Prada 2 (David Frankel)

May 1, 2026 (UK)

Against all odds, Miranda Priestly is strutting into the office, again. We’re curious to find out what a cerulean sweater means in the age of TikTok and Shein hauls. Nearly two decades on, David Frankel reunites Anne Hathaway, Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci for a sequel that risks leaning on cliché over freshness. Whether it has anything new to say remains to be seen. Either way, gird your loins. AS

Man with glasses and woman smiling at camera in front of bookshelf filled with colourful books.

31. The Sheep Detectives (Kyle Balda)

May 8, 2026 (UK)

On paper, The Sheep Detectives reads like a prank – a deadpan, pastoral mystery filtered through the architect of Minions and The Lorax, Kyle Balda. Adapted from Leonie Swann’s German novel ‘Three Bags Full’, the film follows a flock of anthropomorphic Irish sheep attempting to solve their shepherd’s murder. That this shaggy, existential whodunnit is being shepherded by a filmmaker synonymous with manic yellow creatures is precisely the point. Starring Hugh Jackman and Emma Thompson, anticipation hinges on whether Balda’s eccentric energy can bend toward something drier and quietly unhinged. AS

 

32. Is God Is (Aleshea Harris)

May 15, 2026 (US)

Playwright Aleshea Harris makes the crossover to film with the long-gestating Is God Is, originally set up with A24 and then later passed over to Amazon. The story tells of two sisters with scars of abuse, who are instructed by their mother to kill their father, the apparent cause of the family’s woes. It sounds great, and we’re excited to see if this first-timer can pull off such a primal, Classically-inspired narrative. DJ

 

33. Obsession (Curry Barker)

May 15, 2026

Following the viral video sensation of his YouTube horror Milk & Serial, Curry Barker steps up to feature length with his new film Obsession. Barker’s move from viral short-form to long-form storytelling will be closely watched, but with a promising reception at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival – and a proven knack for turning everyday spaces into pressure points – Obsession looks set to be an uncomfortable study of modern unease. AS

 

34. Poetic License (Maude Apatow)

May 15, 2026 (US)

Maude Apatow steps behind the camera with Poetic License, a move that inevitably invites scrutiny given her Euphoria stardom and well-documented nepotism pedigree. The question, fairly or not, is whether this will register as another nepo vanity project or something more assured. Leslie Mann, Apatow’s mother, leads as a former therapist at the centre of a love triangle between two college seniors. The film received warm reception at Toronto International Film Festival in September 2025, but we have yet to place our peepers on it. AS

 

35. I Love Boosters (Boots Riley)

May 22, 2026

After turning heads at Sundance with his 2018 debut Sorry to Bother You, Boots Riley returns with I Love Boosters, a satire starring Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackie and Demi Moore. It follows a group of shoplifters who set their sights on a formidable fashion mogul and the shenanigans that ensue. As a self-proclaimed communist filmmaker, Riley’s new film looks set to push the ironic chaos further, with his radical instincts fully dialled up. AS

Man with wet dark hair and facial injuries wearing patterned hoodie against mint green and white tiled bathroom wall.

36. Stop! That! Train! (Adam Shankman)

May 29, 2026 (US)

Exclamation points are doing a lot of work in Stop! That! Train!, which feels entirely appropriate for a project overseen by Adam Shankman. The director of Hairspray and Rock of Ages leans fully into camp spectacle, with two stewardesses racing to save a high-speed train from disaster as a catastrophic storm approaches. Adding extra sparkle is an ensemble cast drawn from the RuPaul’s Drag Race universe, including RuPaul and Ginger Minj. AS

 

37. Disclosure Day (Steven Spielberg)

June 12, 2026 (UK)

Big Steve returns, and he really is in need of a major hit to cement his legacy as one of the all-time greats. The first sneak trailer for his new one, Disclosure Day, looks promising, as he explores personal favourite questions of “are we alone?” through a Shyamalan-coded lens of modern religion, conspiracy and mass media. And he’s still got major pulling power when it comes to A-list talent, as Emily Blunt, Josh O'Connor, Colin Firth, Eve Hewson, and Colman Domingo are all along for this mad-looking ride. DJ

 

38. The Odyssey (Christopher Nolan)

July 17, 2026 (UK)

What do you get when you cross Lawrence of Arabia with Dunkirk? Christopher Nolan’s adaptation of The Odyssey – a high-stakes collision between cerebral spectacle and old-school epic. Matt Damon is Odysseus, alongside Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, Robert Pattinson and more. This is Homer bent to Nolan’s warped logic – whether they can coexist will shape how this journey lands. AS

 

39. Flowervale Street (David Robert Mitchell)

August 14, 2026 (UK)

It Follows (2014) still lingers as one of modern horror’s most quietly unsettling films. David Robert Mitchell returns with Flowervale Street, a project wrapped in secrecy but primed for speculation. Set in 1980s suburbia, the film blends science fiction with creeping paranoia, starring Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor. Expect domestic nostalgia tinged with terror, as the American dream once again begins to rot from the inside. AS

 

40. The Beloved  (Rodrigo Sorogoyen)

August 28, 2026 (Spain)

We have been impressed by Spanish filmmaker Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s TV serial, The New Years, which has been premiering in the UK on MUBI. So it’s exciting to see his switch back to feature filmmaking with The Beloved, which is set to star Javier Bardem and Victoria Luengo. The plot concerns a strained father-daughter relationship with the father a famous film director and the daughter an actor – and they mull over the possibility of collaborating. Sounds fun – although we definitely hope that Joachim Trier isn’t getting ready to lawyer up. DJ

Man in green jacket and hoodie kneeling on wooden floor in rundown room with peeling walls, exposed beams, and renovation materials.

41. How to Rob A Bank (David Leitch)

September 4, 2026 (US)

Former stuntman turned blockbuster wrangler David Leitch returns with yet another action endeavour, How to Rob a Bank, a title that implies method, precision and perhaps even restraint – qualities his recent work has struggled to prioritise. After Bullet Train and The Fall Guy, Leitch’s new film arrives with expectations cautiously managed. With big names like Nicholas Hoult, Pete Davidson and Zoë Kravitz attached, the question remains if this latest caper will offer simply another blur of punchlines and pyrotechnics. AS

 

42. Resident Evil (Zach Cregger)

September 18, 2026 (US)

The golden boy of studio horror is riding a wave of success following the release of 2025’s Weapons, and his new assignment is making a decent movie out of beloved gaming franchise Resident Evil. We’ll actually admit to being very fond of the Paul WS Anderson originals, but we’re very intrigued to see what Cregger does with material that has proven time and again to not be ideal for a cinematic treatment. DJ 

 

43. Sense and Sensibility (Georgia Oakley)

September 25, 2026

Having reworked 1980s lesbian subculture into something ferocious and tender with Blue Jean, Georgia Oakley turns her attention to Jane Austen with an adaptation of Sense and Sensibility. On paper, this might look like a genteel literary swerve, but Oakley’s interest has never been in politeness for its own sake. Her Austen is allegedly less lace-trimmed period piece than social pressure cooker, where emotion, repression and gender are constantly negotiating terms. Starring Daisy Edgar-Jones and Esmé Creed-Miles. AS

 

44. Digger (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu)

October 2, 2026 (UK)

Dear lord, is there anything that strikes fear into the heart more than the words, “an Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu comedy”? Following 2022’s bomb, Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths, the Mexican writer-director returns with Tom Cruise as his lead, in a story that tells of (per the cryptic logline), “the most powerful man in the world embarks on a frantic mission to prove he is humanity’s saviour before the disaster he’s unleashed destroys everything.” Nice to see TC doing something that doesn’t involve him base jumping off a Hungarian dam from the back of a packmule, but we’ll see if AGI can really bring the funny this time. DJ

 

45. The Social Reckoning (Aaron Sorkin)

October 9, 2026 (UK)

After scripting The Social Network into a defining myth of the digital age, Aaron Sorkin circles back as writer-director of The Social Reckoning. This time around, his focus shifts to the wreckage left in Big Tech’s wake. The film tackles events surrounding the 2021 Facebook leak by whistleblower Frances Haugen (played by Oscar-winner Mikey Madison). All we know is Sorkin remains unrivalled when it comes to rendering the anxieties of today’s digital age with precision and pace. AS

Silhouette of a person standing in a lake at dusk, trees and sky visible in the background.

46. Street Fighter (Kitao Sakurai)

October 16, 2026

Not a lot of people know this, but the widely-mocked Street Fighter film from 1994 is actually pretty good, largely down to the extraordinary performance by the late, great Raul Julia as antagonist M Bison. Now, 30 years on, Eric Andre cohort Kitao Sakurai throws his hat into the ring with this new version of the iconic fighting game, with a cast of thousands along for the ride to essay all your favourite puglists: Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Dan Hibiki… DJ

 

47. Karma (Guillaume Canet)

October 21, 2026 (France)

The French actor and sometime thriller director Guillaume Canet returns behind the lens for this missing child drama starring his other half, Marion Cotillard. Set in a village in northern Spain, a woman tries to rebuild her life with her partner following the revelation of her child randomly going missing. Canet scored a mega hit way back in 2006 with the wrong man thriller, Tell No One, and he’s never quite managed to capture the spark or appeal of that film – but 2026 may be the year when Canet’s back in business. DJ

 

48. The Legend of Aang: The Last Airbender (Lauren Montgomery)

October 23, 2026 (UK)

We return to the beloved animated universe of Avatar: The Last Airbender with its original hero back at the centre, this time older and wiser. Co-directed by franchise veterans, The Legend of Aang blends traditional 2D animation with 3D CGI environments. It follows Aang and his friends as young adults on a quest to secure a powerful artefact – a hopefully fan-facing corrective to past live-action detours. AS

 

49. Remain (M Night Shyamalan)

October 23, 2026 (UK)

M. Night Shyamalan’s greatest trick has always been the twist, and his newest film suggests the latest is a pivot into a love story. Teaming up with unlikely collaborator Nicholas Sparks (author of ‘The Notebook’), Shyamalan brings us a supernatural romantic thriller in Remain. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Phoebe Dynevor, it’s certainly one of the director’s more intriguing left turns. AS

 

50. Chork (Shane Meadows)

2026; Release date TBA

Even if 2026 turns out to be the year of the apocalypse, maybe we’ll live long enough to see Shane Meadows long-awaited return to feature filmmaking? Chork is the Brit legend’s first narrative feature since 2009’s mock doc, Le Donk & Scor-zay-zee, and from its description of two boys breaking out of a care home and going on a journey along the UK coast, looks like it has the potential to be vintage Meadows. DJ



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