Let’s be honest, this summer movie season has been kind of a bummer. “Captain America: Civil War” got things off to a pretty good start, but since then, the big blockbusters — “X-Men: Apocalypse,” “Alice Through The Looking Glass,” “Warcraft,” “Independence Day” — have mostly been painful to sit through. And even the better wide releases, like “The Nice Guys,” “Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping” and “The Neon Demon,” have mostly done poorly with audiences. One of the only films to get both good reviews and turn a profit is the one where Blake Lively fights a shark.
There’s hopefully still some highlights to come — “Ghostbusters,” “Star Trek Beyond,” “Jason Bourne” and “Suicide Squad” are all on the horizon — but we’re already turning our eyes to the fall festival season in the hope of redemption for moviegoing in 2016. Announcements have started coming in, with Venice and LFF both unveiling their openers, and we should see full line-ups of the other festivals, including TIFF and NYFF, fill in in the weeks and months to come.
But what will we end up seeing being unveiled across September, October and November? We’ve put together fifty films that we hope and seem likely to be making their world premiere at one of the big festivals over the coming months. We can’t guarantee that they’ll all appear — some may not surface until 2017, and even the most awards-friendly might not go the festival route, as “The Revenant” modeled last year. But we’re confident that a large chunk of these will be seen on the circuit. And you’ll be able to find reviews of them all right here. Take a look below, and let us know what you’re most looking forward to in the comments.
“20th Century Women”
The return of “Beginners” director Mike Mills is one of the things we’re most looking forward to this fall, and his new film, backed by Megan Ellison and starring Elle Fanning, Greta Gerwig and Annette Bening as a trio of women in 1970s California, looks to be done, recently landing a UK release date. A TIFF premiere would seem most likely, as Mills’ previous film debuted there, though don’t rule out a Telluride bow now that A24 have just come on board to distribute.
“Allied”
After taking a big box-office bath last year with “The Walk,” Robert Zemeckis will be back in the fall on safer territory — an A-list-starring romantic spy thriller penned by “Peaky Blinders” writer Steven Knight about a pair of WW2 agents who fall in love, only for one to fear if the other has become a double agent. Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard have the lead roles (with Lizzy Caplan and Matthew Goode backing up), and while filming only began in March, making a TIFF bow a bit unlikely, this seems like a good bet for an AFI Fest slot.
“American Pastoral”
To be fair, we’d dismissed Ewan McGregor’s directorial debut, an adaptation of Philip Roth’s novel about a New Jersey family torn apart by political unrest, as the kind of vanity project that comes and goes at TIFF quickly and without much of a splash. But after a striking trailer last week, and some good buzz, we’re definitely paying more attention. McGregor stars with Dakota Fanning, Jennifer Connelly and Uzo Aduba, and there’s some behind-the-scenes class from “Control” DP Martin Ruhe and composer Alexandre Desplat.
“Arrival”
More “Close Encounters” than “Independence Day,” “Sicario” director Denis Villeneuve’s latest should be something of a change of pace as far as sci-fi pics go, with Amy Adams as a language expert asked to help communicate with an alien race trying to make first contact (Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker also star). It’s easily the strongest script Villeneuve’s had to work with so far, and we hear good things, the only real question being where it bows: with a November release coming, it could be at Venice (where “Incendies” bowed), TIFF (where “Prisoners” did), Telluride or even a big NYFF bow might make sense.
“The Bad Batch”
Ana Lily Amirpour made one of the most striking directorial debuts of the last few years with “A Girl Who Walks Home Alone At Night,” so all eyes are on her followup, a post-apocalyptic love story about cannibals. Described by the director as “‘The Road Warrior’ meets ‘Pretty In Pink’ with a dope soundtrack,” it stars Jason Momoa and Suki Waterhouse, with Jim Carrey, Keanu Reeves and Diego Luna also appearing. It shot back in April 2015, so unless they’re holding out for Sundance, we imagine this is a dead cert for a midnight slot at TIFF, or even something in Venice .
“Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk”
A few years after the triumph of “Life Of Pi,” Ang Lee is back in 3D for this intriguing war movie shot in super high frame-rate, and with one of the maddest casts seen in some time (Kristen Stewart! Steve Martin! Chris Tucker! Vin Diesel!). Sony have already started pushing the film hard, and our best guess is that, like ‘Pi,’ it’ll get the opening, closing or centerpiece slot at NYFF (it might have been a candidate for Venice, but without the opening slot it’s unlikely to happen unless Lee really wants it there).
“The Body Artist”
Once meant to team “A Bigger Splash” director Luca Guadagnino with Isabelle Huppert and Denis Lavant, Don DeLillo’s novella “The Body Artist,” about a performance artist dealing with the death of her husband, finally reaches the screen thanks to Benoit Jacquot (“A Single Girl,” “Farewell My Queen”). Newcomer Julia Roy takes the lead role, with Mathieu Amalric as the late husband, and we’d be stunned if this didn’t turn up at Venice (where Jacquot’s “Three Hearts” premiered).
“The Circle”
James Ponsoldt’s been rising through the ranks swiftly the last few years, but “The Circle” should bring him the closest to the big time he’s yet been. An adaptation of Dave Eggers’ satirical thriller about a young woman who begins working at a Google-type internet giant, it has one of the most interesting casts of the year — Emma Watson, Tom Hanks, John Boyega, “Boyhood” star Ellar Coltrane, Karen Gillan and Patton Oswalt. Distributor EuropaCorp have European ties, and we hear this could be one to keep an eye on for the Venice line-up, though TIFF is a strong possibility too.
“Collateral Beauty”
After a rather panicked pre-production — “Me & Earl & The Dying Girl” director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon fell off the film shortly before filming was meant to begin, while Hugh Jackman, Rooney Mara, Johnny Depp and Jason Segel all were attached and then left — shooting finally got underway on this dramedy about an ad executive in a downward spiral in February. Will Smith stars, with Kate Winslet, Keira Knightley, Helen Mirren, Edward Norton, Michael Pena and Naomie Harris joining him. It won’t open til December, so if it hits a festival, it’ll likely be AFI Fest, but we suppose it might turn up earlier.
“Colossal”
One of the more inspired premises of recent times — Anne Hathaway plays a woman in crisis who discovers she has a psychic connection to a “Godzilla”-style creature — this marks the studio debut of “Time Crimes” director Nacho Vigalondo, with Anne Hathaway in the lead, and Dan Stevens and Jason Sudeikis also in the cast. It shot last fall, so could be done for the fall festivals depending on the VFX — a TIFF midnight screening followed by Fantastic Fest, where Vigalondo is a regular, seems like the most likely route.
