10. “Black Panther”
Director: Ryan Coogler (“Creed”)
Cast: Chadwick Boseman, Lupita Nyong’o, Michael B. Jordan, Danai Gurira, Angela Bassett
Synopsis: Back home in Wakanda after his brush with the Avengers, T’Challa must defend his kingdom against an alliance of an exiled rival and a black market arms dealer.
What You Need To Know: To their credit, Marvel have established a fairly solid quality level that rarely dips below ‘disappointing.’ But also, the uniformity of their approach means that it’s been hard to imagine their movies tipping into true greatness — even the freer hand that Taika Waititi seemed to be granted with “Thor: Ragnarok” couldn’t quite escape the MCU house style. But we have high hopes that “Black Panther” could be the one to stand out from the pack. Even aside from the joy of seeing a giant blockbuster movie with an almost entirely non-white cast, Coogler is a filmmaker of serious talent, as good as Marvel have ever had, and from the excellent trailers, he’s created an Afrofuturist wonderland that looks like nothing ever put on screen. Teamed with Marvel’s usual quality control on the scripting, and a killer cast (also including Letitia Wright, Daniel Kaluuya, Forest Whitaker, Winston Duke, Andy Serkis and Martin Freeman), and we haven’t been this excited for a superhero movie in a long time.
Release Date: February 16th, 2018
9. “Beach Bum”
Director: Harmony Korine (“Spring Breakers”)
Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Isla Fisher, Bria Vinaite
Synopsis: The story of a rebellious stoner called Moondog
What You Need To Know: In one of the more unlikely crossovers of the last few years, Harmony Korine, one of indie film’s true rebels and weirdos, shepherded an unlikely sleeper hit with “Spring Breakers.” He’s taken his time with a follow-up (starry crime pic “The Trap” never shot, and he has admittedly been busy being surprisingly excellent as an actor on “The Girlfriend Experience” this year), but shooting is nearly done on his first movie in six year, which sees him working with his biggest name yet in Matthew McConaughey. The McConaissance might have hit a few snags recently with flops like “Sea Of Trees” and “The Dark Tower,” but if McConaughey wasn’t born to pay ‘a rebellious stoner called Moondog,’ we don’t know what to tell you. He’s joined by the always-welcome Isla Fisher, and “Florida Project” breakout Bria Vinaite.
Release Date: It shot later in the year: Venice, like “Spring Breakers,“ is the best bet.
8. “Widows”
Director: Steve McQueen (“12 Years A Slave”)
Cast: Viola Davis, Elizabeth Debicki, Michelle Rodriguez, Cynthia Eviro, Colin Farrell
Synopsis: When four armed robbers are killed in a heist, their grieving spouses decide to attempt to finish the job.
What You Need To Know: Steve McQueen smashed records four years ago when he became the first black filmmaker to direct a Best Picture-winner (though he lost the Best Director statue to Alfonso Cuarón) for his masterful “12 Years A Slave.” His long-gestating follow-up looks to be a little more fun, with the helmer going into genre territory for this remake of a British thriller miniseries, co-adapted with “Gone Girl” author Gillian Flynn. The idea of diverse, female-driven take on the heist picture is a winner, but when you also include McQueen’s undeniable directing gifts at the helm, and an utterly stacked cast also including Daniel Kaluuya, Liam Neeson, Robert Duvall, Carrie Coon, Garret Dillahunt, Jacki Weaver, Brian Tyree Henry and Jon Bernthal, you couldn’t keep us away from this.
Release Date: November 16th, 2018.
7. “Isle Of Dogs”
Director: Wes Anderson (“Fantastic Mr. Fox”)
Cast: Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Greta Gerwig, Scarlett Johansson
Synopsis: In a future Japan where dogs have been quarantined on an island to stop a disease from spreading, five canines help a human boy search for his lost friend Spots.
What You Need To Know: Nine years on from his last foray into stop-motion animals, Wes Anderson returns to animation for his ninth feature, reportedly influenced by Akira Kurosawa (hence, presumably, the Japanese setting). “Fantastic Mr. Fox” wasn’t much of a hit, but things have changed for Anderson since: his two subsequent movies have seen him become much more of a box-office force, and an awards player to boot. Nevertheless, that may not stop accusations of cultural appropriation from being thrown at him (for what it’s worth, it looks like U.S. actors are playing the dogs, Japanese actors the human characters)… That aside, the trailer is as delightful as ever, and the cast — also including Jeff Goldblum, Bob Balaban, F. Murray Abraham, Frances McDormand, Courtney B. Vance, Mari Natsuki, Harvey Keitel, Liev Schreiber, Tilda Swinton, Ken Watanabe, Yojiro Noda and Yoko Ono — might be Anderson’s finest ever, which is saying something.
Release Date: March 23rd, 2018. And just announced as the Berlinale 2017 opener.
6. “High Life”
Director: Claire Denis (“Let The Sun Shine In”)
Cast: Robert Pattinson, Juliette Binoche, Mia Goth, Andre Benjamin, Agata Buzek
Synopsis: A group of convicts are used as reproductive experiments against their will by scientists.
What You Need To Know: The great French helmer Claire Denis’s first foray into sci-fi territory (with a script by the great novelist Zadie Smith and her poet husband Nick Laird) first made our list two years ago when it seemed on the verge of shooting, but it didn’t happen for one reason or another, and when she shifted to this year’s Juliette Binoche-starrer “Let The Sun Shine In,” we worried that “High Life” was dead. Fortunately, filming finally got underway last year, with the long-attached Robert Pattinson (in a role envisioned first for Vincent Gallo, then Phillip Seymour Hoffman) joined by Binoche, Andre 3000 and Polish actress Agata Buzek, among others. We’ve had a plethora of space movies of late, but expect this to be utterly distinct from any of them.
Release Date: Shooting wrapped in October, so a Venice bow seems more likely than Cannes.
5. “The Favorite”
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos (“Dogtooth,” “The Lobster,” “The Killing of a Sacred Deer”)
Cast: Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz, Nicholas Hoult, Olivia Colman
Synopsis: Two noblewomen jockey for power and influence at the court of England’s Queen Anne in the early 18th century.
What You Need To Know: I mean, wtf? Is Yorgos Lanthimos just punking us all? After freaking the freak out of the half-audiences who remained in their seats for all of his icily amazing “The Killing of a Sacred Deer,” scarcely a year later, he’s going all corsets and court intrigue and for the very first time apparently a film f his can be described as “bawdy.” That said, we are super up for what will undoubtedly be the highest profile outing for the Greek director yet, with not just the cast (Olivia Colman as Queen Anne is a bit of a “yasss kweeen” moment) but also the crew stacked with A-list collaborators, from Robbie Ryan as DP, to Sandy Powell on costumes.
Release Date: ‘The Lobster’ and ‘Sacred Deer’ both played Cannes, so it’s very possible he could return, unless the film’s “bawdiness” is judged not Cannes-y enough, in which case expect another major European festival to snap it up.
4. “Ad Astra”
Director: James Gray (“The Lost City Of Z”)
Cast: Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Ruth Negga, Donald Sutherland, Jamie Kennedy
Synopsis: An autistic astronaut travels in search of his father, who’s been missing for twenty years.
What You Need To Know: Claire Denis isn’t the only arthouse favorite to be heading into space: James Gray is helming this decidedly bigger-budget space adventure, toplining Brad Pitt. The surprise success of the transcendent “The Lost City Of Z” finally saw Gray bring in a wider crowd, but this, his first studio picture since “We Own The Night,” is likely to be a different kettle of fish entirely, especially given the presence of Pitt, in his first movie in over two years. He’s got a DP with some space experience too, with Nolan’s new fave Hoyte Van Hoytema bringing along his “Interstellar” expertise, and a strong supporting cast that also includes, fascinatingly, Jamie Kennedy for some reason.
Release Date: Well, here’s the rub: the movie’s currently officially slated for January 11th, 2019. But we can’t imagine that, if the film’s even halfway good, that Paramount won’t have some kind of qualifying run.
3. “Roma”
Director: Alfonso Cuarón (“Children of Men,” “Gravity”)
Cast: Marina de Tavira, Daniela Demesa, Marco Graf, Yalitza Aparicio.
Synopsis: A year in the life of a middle-class Mexican family in the 1970s
What You Need To Know: The last time Alfonso Cuarón went back to his Mexican roots for a Spanish-language film after a run of Hollywood movies, was in 2001, and “Y Tu Mama Tambien” was the result. After that rejuvenating experience, he made the empirically best ‘Harry Potter‘ movie, then the best sci-fi film of the 21st century with “Children of Men,” then the extraordinary, immersive, 7-time Oscar-winner “Gravity.” And so our expectations for “Roma” could not be higher, even if its lower-profile cast and less genre-based story necessarily means it’s likely to make less of a splash. But if the “personal project” air might make one think it’s going to be a tiny intimate indie, think again: while it mines incidents and memories from Cuarón’s own childhood, the film, which wrapped in March, has been shot on 70mm and includes a recreation of The Corpus Christi Massacre, in which student demonstrators were killed by elite Mexican soldiers, and which required key streets and subway stations in Mexico City to be shut down. Cuarón himself and Mexican DP Galo Olivares are on cinematography duties, so no Lubezki connection this time, but we still expect something extraordinary to look at.
Release Date: Track record points to a Venice bow, though it should be finished well in time for Cannes.
2. “The Irishman”
Director: Martin Scorsese (“Goodfellas”)
Cast: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci,Harvey Keitel, Anna Paquin
Synopsis: The story of union official and mobster Frank Sheeran, who claims to have been involved in the death of Jimmy Hoffa.
What You Need To Know: Martin Scorsese has so many projects in development (even ones that don’t have Leonardo DiCaprio attached sometimes), that we’d sort of suspected that “The Irishman,” his long-gestating adaptation of the non-fiction crime book “I Hard You Paint Houses,” would never happen. After all, it was dependent on reuniting not just Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, but also the mostly retired Joe Pesci, it was hugely expensive, and it was tied up in the legal issuesthat occasionally happens with Scorsese pictures. But then, Netflix stepped up with what’s rumored to be their most expensive movie to date, and filming actually got underway on the director’s first crime pic since “The Departed,” and his first work with De Niro since “Casino.” “Schindler’s List” scribe Steve Zaillian has penned the script, Scorsese will use CGI de-aging to let his actors play their characters in their twenties and thirties, and the supporting cast is full of recent Scorsese TV faves like Bobby Cannavale, Ray Romano, Stephen Graham and Jack Huston.
Release Date: Given the visual effects work required, there have been some warnings that it might not arrive until 2019. But given the pedigree, if Netflix can get it out in time to qualify for the next Oscars, you can be damn sure they’ll do that.
1. “If Beale Street Could Talk”
Director: Barry Jenkins (“Medicine for Melancholy,” “Moonlight”)
Cast: Kiki Layne, Stephan James, Teyonah Parris, Regina King, Colman Domingo, Brian Tyree Henry, Diego Luna, Dave Franco.
Synopsis: A pregnant woman in Harlem desperately scrambles to prove the father of her unborn child innocent of the crime of which he is accused.
What You Need To Know: So the same summer that then-little-known director Barry Jenkins was writing last year’s Best Picture winner, “Moonlight” he was also working on another script, an adaptation of James Baldwin‘s “If Beale Street Could Talk.” Now, with “Moonlight”s incredible, well-deserved, game-changing success, he’s making that movie, and it will without doubt be the hot-ticket item of 2018. Baldwin himself is having something of a cinematic moment after award-winning doc “I Am Not Your Negro,” and the Baldwin estate has thrown their support behind the film, which Annapurna and Plan B are producing. Furthermore, “Moonlight” didn’t just make a star of Jenkins, it also catapulted half his behind-camera team to the tops of their fields, and key personnel return this time too: James Laxton as DP, and Joi McMillan and Nat Sanders as editors. There’s no such thing as a sure bet in the movies. Except, maybe there is.
Release Date: None yet, and festival heads would probably happily duel at dawn over it, but as it’s still filed under “filming” there’s a good chance that the “Telluride/TIFF premiere, followed by Oscar season rollout” that worked so well for “Moonlight” will also happen here.
Even maybe being overly optimistic with some of our picks in terms of timing, there’s a few high-profile movies that seem destined to hit in 2019 rather than 2018. We already know the release dates for a few — Tarantino’s next, “The Goldfinch,” Doug Liman’s “Chaos Walking,” Taika Waititi’s “Bubbles,” Justin Kurzel’s ‘True History Of The Kelly Gang,” Jia Zhangke’s “Ash Is Purest White,” Roy Andersson’s “About Endlessness.” There’s also a few that could end up surprising, but are likely 2019 bound: Peter Strickland’s intriguing “In Flames,” Luca Guadagnino’s “Rio” with Cumberbatch, Gyllenhaal and Williams, Andrew Dominik’s “War Party” with Tom Hardy, Brady Corbet’s “Vox Lux,” which doesn’t appear to have shot yet, Leos Carax’s Sparks musical with Adam Driver, which similarly is waiting for the greenlight.
Blockbuster wise, there’s a few big hitters that we hope turn out well, but remain question marks for various reasons. Among them are “Aquaman,” mega-sequel “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,” the Taron Egerton-toplining “Robin Hood” reboot, Andy Serkis’ long-delayed mo-cap “Jungle Book: Origins,” X-Men-related horror “New Mutants” and Simon Kinberg’s main franchise outing “Dark Phoenix” (which adds Jessica Chastain to the mix), the “Fantastic Beasts” follow-up, Benedict Cumberbatch voicing “Dr. Seuss’s The Grinch,” Disney follow-up “Wreck It Ralph 2,” the Peter Jackson-produced “Mortal Engines,” and “Transformers” spin-off “Bumblebee,” which at least comes from the director of the excellent “Kubo & The Two Strings.”
There’s also Emily Blunt taking up Julie Andrews’ mantle for “Mary Poppins Returns,” Eli Roth and Cate Blanchett together at, uh, last for “The House With The Clock In Its Walls,” Jared Leto taking on the Yakuza for Netflix’s “The Outsider,” The Rock’s destruction double bill with “Rampage” and “Skyscraper,” Robert Rodriguez helming giant robots for James Cameron with “Alita: Battle Angel,” the long-delayed third Cloverfield movie formerly known as “God Particle” and a WW2-themed entry called “Overlord,” Robert Zemeckis’ awards-chasing “The Women Of Marwen” with Steve Carell, Aardman’s return with “Early Man,” Alicia Vikander as “Tomb Raider,” John Boyega drifting with “Pacific Rim: Uprising,” Denzel getting his murder on again with “The Equalizer 2,” Ewan McGregor as “Christopher Robin,” Helen Mirren getting the “Lucy” treatment from Luc Besson with “Anna,” and Liam Neeson as “The Commuter.”
From a more indie-minded perspective, there’s also Chris Evans in real-life hero mode for “The Red Sea Diving Resort,” Julianne Moore in Sebastian Lelio’s remake of his own “Gloria,” Nick Offerman in “Heart Beats Loud,” Chris O’Dowd and Rose Byrne in Sundance-bound Nick Hornby adaptation “Juliet, Naked” from “Girls” director Jesse Peretz, Julian Schnabel taking on Van Gogh with Willem Dafoe and Oscar Isaac for “At Eternity’s Gate,” Jody Hill and Danny McBride reuniting for “Legacy Of A Whitetail Deer Hunter” with Josh Brolin, Kim Nguyen’s financial drama “The Hummingbird Project,” Andrew Bujalski’s “Support The Girls” with Regina Hall, and Steve Carell and Timothee Chalamet in meth addiction drama “Beautiful Boy.”
Let’s also not forget Best Actress competitors Margot Robbie and Saoirse Ronan going period for “Mary Queen Of Scots,” Amma Asante returning with “Where Hands Touch,” Colin Firth on a yacht for “The Mercy,” Drake Doremus going sci-fi again with “Zoe,” the second part of “Mektoub Is Mektoub,” Brad Anderson’s Tony Gilroy-scripted “Beirut” with Jon Hamm, National Lampoon biopic “A Futile And Stupid Gesture,” “Chewing Gum” star Michaela Coel in Netflix musical “Been So Long,” Sandra Bullock vs. the apocalpyse with “Bird Box,” Carol Morley’s “Out Of Blue’ with Patricia Clarkson, Chiwetel Ejiofor’s directorial debut “The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind,” Christoph Waltz’s directorial debut “Georgetown” with Annette Bening and Vanessa Redgrave and Bradley Cooper’s directorial debut “A Star Is Born” with Lady Gaga.
We’re also vaguely intrigued by Helen Mirren in “Winchester,” Albert Hughes’ prehistoric adventure “Alpha,” Jason Bateman comedy “Game Night,” Nash Edgerton’s starry actioner “Gringo” with David Oyelowo and Charlize Theron, Jose Padilha’s “Entebbe” with Daniel Bruhl, John Krasinski’s near-silent horror “A Quiet Place,” Rupert Wyatt’s mysterious sci-fi “Captive State,” Melissa McCarthy with Muppets in “The Happytime Murders,” Kristen Stewart in “Lizzie,” about Lizzie Borden, ventriloquism horror “Possum” with Sean Harris, the directorial debut of Garth Marenghi co-creator Matthew Holness, Idris Elba’s “Guerrilla,” Emma Forrest’s “Untogether” with the Kirke sisters and Ben Mendelsohn, Annette Bening taking on “The Seagull,” Joshua Marston’s “Come Sunday,” Bart Layton’s “American Animals,” Matteo Garrone’s “Dogman,” Godard’s “Le Livre D’Image” and Steven Knight’s “Serenity” with Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway.
And finally, there’s Oscar Isaac both hunting Nazis in Chris Weitz’s “Operation Finale,” and teaming with the creator of “This Is Us” for “Life Itself,” Kristen Stewart in undersea actioner “Underwater,” Chiwetel Ejiofor in Michael Almereyda’s Jonathan Lethem adaptation “Tonight At Noon,” Kristin Scott Thomas directing herself and Mark Strong in “The Sea Change,” Vincent D’Onofrio helming Western “The Kid” with Dane DeHaan and Chris Pratt, Ralph Fiennes’ “The White Crow,” Jack Black in “The Polka King,” Olivia Colman as an snake-handling church matriarch in “Them That Follow” (hell. yes.) and Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly as Laurel & Hardy in “Stan & Ollie.”
Finally finally filed under ‘possibly on the wrong side of history’: Woody Allen’s 2018 entry, Casey Affleck’s “Light Of My Life,” and Kevin Spacey’s final (?) roles in “Gore” and “Billionaire Boys Club,” the latter of which stars Taron Egerton and Ansel Elgort.
Anything else we’ve missed? Let us know in the comments.