Autumn is always a busy time for movies, as studios begin to ramp up toward awards season, and this year is no exception: the next few months will feature not only your usual sequels, adaptations, remakes, and reboots, but some fascinatingly original dramatic premises. It’s time to unveil some of the most promising choices heading to theaters this fall—both acclaimed indie festival curiosities and bigger-budget fare that could dominate the box office. Let’s dive in.
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His Three Daughters
Sept. 6 (Sept. 20 on Netflix)
This drama from writer-director Azazel Jacobs (French Exit) stars Carrie Coon, Natasha Lyonne, and Elizabeth Olson as estranged sisters reconnecting to take care of their dying father in the New York apartment that was their childhood home. Early reviews suggest all three actors do some of the best work of their careers.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
Sept. 6
Tim Burton’s sophomore film, the 1988 dark fantasy Beetlejuice, starred Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis as a pair of married ghosts haunting the inhabitants of their old house (not to mention Michael Keaton as the titular Betelgeuse, a “bio-exorcist” they hire to do the spooking). Now, over three decades later, Burton is back with a follow-up, returning with Keaton, Winona Ryder, and Catherine O’Hara from the original film while introducing Jenna Ortega, Justin Theroux, and Monica Bellucci to the Burton-verse.
Read more: With Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Tim Burton Returns to Casual, Delightful Silliness
Will & Harper
Sept. 13 (Sept. 27 on Netflix)
This documentary, directed by Josh Greenbaum (Barb and Star Go to Vista del Mar), was one of the most crowd-pleasing premieres at Sundance this year. It originated when, one day in 2021, writer Harper Steele approached her old SNL friend Will Ferrell to open up about her gender transition. The two decided to film a 17-day road trip across the U.S.— with the pair frequenting bars, restaurants, and sporting events while having funny, frank conversations about the joys and challenges of Steele’s trans journey.
My Old Ass
Sept. 13
Director Megan Park’s sophomore feature is a coming-of-age comedy revolving around Elliott (Maisy Stella), who meets her 39-year-old self (Aubrey Plaza) during a ‘shroom trip on her 18th birthday. But when Future Elliott’s retrospective advice about growing up stands in the way of Young Elliott finding love, she becomes at war with herself … literally.
Speak No Evil
Sept. 13
The original Danish version of horror movie Speak No Evil begins with an almost comedic premise—a couple decides to spend the weekend with their new vacation friends at their remote country home, not anticipating the hosts’ passive-aggressive and intrusive behavior—before building toward an all-time nightmarish twist. Let’s hope this American remake by James Watkins (Eden Lake, The Woman in Black) doesn’t water down the third act’s delicious brutality—one of the most haunting and memorable horror endings of the last five years.
Wolfs
Sept. 20 (Sept. 27 on Apple TV+)
They don’t make movie stars like they used to, and mega-celebrities like George Clooney and Brad Pitt may be a dying breed in Hollywood. That makes it all the more exciting when they do team up, as in this new action comedy from writer-director Jon Watts (of the Tom Holland Spider-Man movies). Clooney and Pitt, who worked together on the Ocean’s trilogy and Burn After Reading, play fixers who clean up crime scenes and are forced to team up despite their professional rivalry when they are hired for the same job. A sequel is reportedly already in the works.
The Wild Robot
Sept. 20
Based on Peter Brown’s book series of the same name, this animated sci-fi survival film from DreamWorks follows a robot named ORZZUM unit 7134, a.k.a. Roz (voiced by Lupita Nyong’o), who becomes shipwrecked on an uninhabited Earth and befriends some forest animals. Writer-director Chris Sanders, one of the co-directors behind Lilo & Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon, compared The Wild Robot’s CGI visual style to “a Monet painting in a Miyazaki forest.”
Omni Loop
Sept. 20
Groundhog Day-style time loops have been hot in the last decade, with each permutation (Happy Death Day, Russian Doll, Palm Springs) offering a new take on the sci-fi concept. In this latest entry to the genre, Mary-Louise Parker plays Zoya, a quantum physicist with a black hole inside her chest, leaving her with only a week to live. Taking time-travel pills in an effort to prolong her life, Zoya experiences the same week-long span over and over, teaming up with student Paula (Ayo Edebiri) to figure out the mechanics of time travel and potentially avert her fate.
A Different Man
Sept. 20
This new black comedy-slash-psychological thriller by Aaron Schimberg centers on Edward (Sebastian Stan), a lonely man living with disfiguring neurofibromatosis who takes a drug that completely heals his tumors, leaving him looking like, well, Sebastian Stan. In comes Oswald (Adam Pearson, best known from Under the Skin), another man with the same condition yet popular and overbrimming with confidence—he’s a star in the making, playing our protagonist in a stage production based on his life—and that drives Edward crazy.
The Substance
Sept. 20
Coralie Fargeat’s debut feature, Revenge, was a deliciously nasty rape revenge thriller. Now she’s back with a feminist body-horror movie about a miracle drug that, when injected, turns a woman into the physically “best version” of herself. Demi Moore, who plays the star of an aerobics show fired for her age, has already attracted acclaim from critics for potentially career-best work. Margaret Qualley co-stars as her younger doppelganger.
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story
In theaters Sept. 21 and Sept. 25 only
This documentary centers on the late Christopher Reeve, who was responsible for cinema’s most famous depiction of Clark Kent. Narrated and framed through the eyes of the man’s friends and family, Super/Man is less interested in the roles that made Reeve famous than the 1995 horse riding accident that paralyzed him at 42 and led him to devote his life to disability activism.
Megalopolis
Sept. 27
When the legendary Francis Ford Coppola’s first film in over a decade premiered at Cannes earlier this year, the response was deeply divided. But despite the tortured behind-the-scenes drama surrounding this passion project—a difficult-to-explain sci-fi epic juxtaposing the fall of Rome with the modern-day U.S.—it’s impossible to deny Coppola’s boldness in making something so fiercely original. The director spent $120 million of his own money to fund the production, which was later plagued by allegations of sexual harassment and on-set chaos.
Read more: Megalopolis Is a Messy, Self-Indulgent Sprawl of Ideas—In the Best Way Possible
Rez Ball
On Netflix Sept. 27
Director Sydney Freeland co-wrote the screenplay of this coming-of-age sports drama with Reservation Dogs co-creator Sterlin Harjo—and LeBron James stepped in to produce. Based on Canyon Dreams by journalist Michael Powell, this underdog story follows a high school basketball team made up of students from a Native American reservation in Chuska, N.M., competing for the state championship after losing their star player.
The Apprentice
October TBA
Well, it was only a matter of time until the inevitable Trump biopic. This one, directed by Ali Abbasi and written by author Gabriel Sherman, explores the former president’s career in New York real estate in the ’70s and ’80s rather than tackling his more recent rise to power. The script specifically zeros in on the mentor-mentee relationship between Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong) and Trump (Sebastian Stan), which played an important role in Trump’s understanding of how to be ruthless in the pursuit of money and power.
Read more: Donald Trump Has Called The Apprentice ‘Garbage.’ But the Actual Movie Is Almost Too Real
Joker: Folie à Deux
Oct. 4
No matter what you think of Todd Phillips’s Scorsese-inspired psychological thriller Joker, you can’t deny its success; not only did Joaquin Phoenix win the Best Actor Oscar for his role of the mentally ill Arthur Fleck, but Phillips found a way to present an (arguably) new take on a done-to-death character. Now he’s back with a sequel that introduces the Joker’s longtime love interest, Harley Quinn, to the fold—with Lady Gaga stepping in to offer her take on the iconic DC Comics villain. Folie à Deux is also a musical, featuring at least 15 numbers based on preexisting songs.
The Outrun
Oct. 4
Scottish journalist Amy Liptrot’s 2016 book won positive reviews for weaving together nature writing and recovery memoir, illustrating the ways communing with nature can soothe a troubled soul. Now that memoir has become a movie, co-written by director Nora Fingscheidt and Liptrot herself. Saoirse Ronan stars as Rona, a recovering alcoholic who returns to her home in the Orkney Islands after a stay in rehab.
Saturday Night
Oct. 11
For all its complex history and its frequent missteps, Saturday Night Live was, is, and (at least for a while) will remain a cultural juggernaut. So it makes sense to set a biopic in the lead-up to the premiere of its 50th season. Directed by Jason Reitman, this comedy-drama features a lot of noteworthy wigs and a whole lot of talented actors in its stellar ensemble cast, including (deep breath) Gabriel LaBelle, Rachel Sennott, Cory Michael Smith, Ella Hunt, Dylan O’Brien, Lamorne Morris, Nicholas Bruan, Cooper Hoffman, Kaia Gerber, and J. K. Simmons.
We Live in Time
Oct. 11
John Crowley’s romantic comedy-drama for studio A24 begins with an accident: Almut (Florence Pugh) hits Tobias (Andrew Garfield) with her car, kicking off a years-spanning love story that threatens to turn into tragedy when Almut begins cancer treatment. But the real star of this movie might be the carousel horse currently taking the internet by storm.
Anora
Oct. 18
Since Sean Baker broke out with his 2015 film Tangerine, the writer-director has become known for his depictions of people from marginalized communities, including sex workers. His latest comedy-drama, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes this year, follows the dangerous love story between a Russian-American exotic dancer named Anora (Mikey Madison from Better Things and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) and the son of a Russian oligarch (Mark Eydelshteyn).
Read more: Anora Is a Glorious Strip-Club Fairytale With a Generous Spirit
Woman of the Hour
On Netflix Oct. 18
Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut co-stars Daniel Zovatto as Rodney Alcala, the infamous serial killer who appeared on The Dating Game in the middle of a murder spree back in 1978, earning himself the “Dating Game Killer” moniker. Kendrick herself stars as Cheryl Bradshaw, a real-life contestant on the game show who refused to go out with Alcala after he won a date with her. But this thriller serves as more than a chilling true-crime story; it’s also a fierce critique of misogynistic objectification, laying bare the ties between seemingly harmless games and serious violence against women.
Read more: The True Story of the Dating Game Serial Killer in Woman of the Hour
Nickel Boys
Oct. 25
Let’s hope the latest Colson Whitehead adaptation, based on his 2019 novel The Nickel Boys, attracts a bigger audience than Barry Jenkins’s criminally underseen The Underground Railroad. Set in the 1960s, the story follows Elwood (Ethan Herisse) and Turner (Brandon Wilson), two young Black attendees of the Nickel Academy—a reform school based on the real-life Dozier School for Boys in Florida, infamous for the brutally racist abuse (in some cases murder) of students by staff.
Venom: The Last Dance
Oct. 25
The final installment of the Venom trilogy—and the fifth in Sony’s Spider-Man universe—comes courtesy of director Kelly Marcel, making her debut after co-writing the first two films. In this one, Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) and the alien Venom symbiote are on the run from antagonists from both of their worlds, including a soldier (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a scientist (Juno Temple), and a race of monstrous alien invaders.
A Real Pain
Nov. 1
Kieran Culkin has garnered strong festival acclaim for his role in this buddy comedy-drama written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg. Eisenberg and Culkin play cousins forced to re-litigate their complicated relationship during a Holocaust tour around Poland, visiting concentration camps and war memorials while honoring their late grandmother. It’s a deeply empathetic dual character study that more than capitalizes on Culkin’s post-Succession star power.
Blitz
Nov. 1
Steve McQueen’s first narrative feature since 2018’s Widows stars Saoirse Ronan as Rita, a Londoner separated from her nine-year-old son George (newcomer Elliott Heffernan) after she sends him to the English countryside to hide out during World War II. When George goes missing on a harrowing adventure back home to his mother and grandfather (Paul Weller from ‘70s rock band The Jam), Rita sets out to find him herself.
Conclave
Nov. 1
Peter Straughan scripted this adaptation of Robert Harris’ 2016 thriller, the title of which refers to the papal conclave charged with selecting a successor to replace the late pope. Ralph Fiennes stars as the cardinal tasked with overseeing the crucial decision, with Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, and Isabella Rossellini (among others) filling out the cast of cutthroat cardinals and nuns, each with their own secrets that could threaten the sanctity of the papacy.
Emilia Pérez
Nov. 13
This French musical crime comedy from Jacques Audiard (The Beat That My Heart Skipped, A Prophet)—an adaptation of his opera libretto of the same name—won the Jury Prize and a shared acting award at Cannes. Zoe Saldaña stars as Rita, a lawyer who must assist the title character (telenovela star Karla Sofía Gascón) with her gender confirmation surgery. But it’s more complicated than that: Emilia is a violent Mexican cartel boss on the run, whose transition will not only ease her longtime dysphoria but help her to evade the law.
All We Imagine As Light
Nov. 15
Payal Kapadia’s second feature (and first scripted drama) was the first Indian film to compete at Cannes in almost 30 years—and it won the Grand Prix. The film follows nurses Prabha (Kani Kusruti), Anu (Divya Prabha), and Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam), three women of different generations working together in Mumbai. A road trip to a beach town leads them to reflect on their experiences of patriarchal expectations, allowing an opportunity to regain their agency as they reevaluate their careers and relationships.
Here
Nov. 15
Richard McGuire’s 2014 graphic novel Here evokes the feeling of floating through time, each double-page spread serving as a snapshot of the same location at a different point spanning from the prehistoric era into the distant future. It’s an ambitious story to adapt as a movie, but Robert Zemeckis is never one to shy away from ambitious projects—and in this one, he actually keeps the camera stationary to mimic the book’s single-frame focus. Tom Hanks and Robin Wright—reuniting with Zemeckis 30 years after Forrest Gump—play two of the spot’s inhabitants over decades, de-aged with AI.
Heretic
Nov. 15
Two young Mormon missionaries (Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East) attempt to convert a seemingly friendly older man (Hugh Grant) and find themselves trapped in his maze-like home with their faith put to the ultimate test. That’s the premise of this psychological horror film from Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, which casts Grant in potentially his creepiest role yet.
Wicked
Nov. 22
The musical Wicked, loosely based on a Gregory Maguire novel (itself based on characters from L. Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its iconic film adaptation) was a massive sensation when it premiered in 2003, winning three Tony Awards and breaking box-office records internationally. So it was only a matter of time before we got a big-screen movie version, starring Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande as Elphaba (a.k.a. the Wicked Witch of the West) and Glinda (Glinda the Good), respectively. Director Jon M. Chu (Crazy Rich Asians, In the Heights) decided to split the film into two parts, with this first part premiering in the fall and the follow-up slated for November 2025.
The Piano Lesson
Nov. 22
This adaptation of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name is the directing and screenwriting debut of Malcolm Washington, son of Denzel. Set in 1936 Pittsburgh in the wake of the Great Depression, the film deals with a debate between siblings (here played by the director’s brother, John David Washington, and Danielle Deadwyler) over the decision of what to do with an old family heirloom: a piano covered with designs by an enslaved ancestor.
Gladiator 2
Nov. 22
Ridley Scott is back for this sequel to his historical epic Gladiator, which starred Russell Crowe as a Roman general hellbent on vengeance after the Emperor Commodus, the son of Marcus Aurelius, murdered his family. But besides Connie Nielsen and Derek Jacobi, who reprise their roles from the original, this one boasts a new cast featuring Pedro Pascal and Denzel Washington—along with lead actor Paul Mescal, who recently acknowledged his nose “just is kind of Roman,” playing Aurelius’ grandson Lucius.
Moana 2
Nov. 27
The 2016 animated musical Moana told the story of a village chief’s daughter in ancient Polynesia tasked with returning a powerful relic to the goddess Te Fiti. The sequel, which centers on a journey to reunite the communities of Oceania, brings back voice actors Auliʻi Cravalho, Dwayne Johnson, Temuera Morrison, Nicole Scherzinger, Rachel House, and Alan Tudyk. And while Lin-Manuel Miranda won’t be returning to work on the soundtrack, his fellow Moana songwriters Opetaia Foaʻi and Mark Mancin are on board to bring the second film to life.
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