25 films to look forward to in 2025

The approaching 12 months sees the return of Superman, Avatar and Bridget Jones, together with new movies from Bong Joon-ho, Paul Thomas Anderson and Ryan Coogler.

Pixar has ticked off toys, fish, monsters, automobiles, superheroes, elves and feelings. Now cinema’s smartest animation studio has made a cartoon about aliens: Elio. Its hero is a shy younger boy who’s obsessed by outer house, so he’s delighted to be beamed as much as the Communiverse, the intergalactic residence of clever lifeforms from everywhere in the universe. The one snag is that these clever lifeforms have mistaken him for the supreme chief of planet Earth. Elio may not have the ability to match the success of Pixar’s final movie, Inside Out 2, which was the highest grossing film of 2024, nevertheless it’s actually promising, not least as a result of its co-director, Domee Shi, made the fantastic Turning Red. And it would make a stellar double invoice with one other of 2025’s cartoons, The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Film, which has Daffy Duck and Porky Pig saving the world from an alien invasion. (NB)

Twenty-four years after Bridget Jones’ Diary, Renée Zellweger returns within the fourth movie within the collection as middle-aged Bridget, with a distinct life however the identical qualities that made her standard within the first place. She’s nonetheless an lovely bumbler in life. Within the romcom, primarily based on Helen Fielding’s 2013 novel, Bridget is now a widow, after the dying of Mark (Colin Firth within the earlier movies), and is the mom of two young children. Single once more in a brand new world of courting apps, she seems to be horrified when a co-worker says, “I’ve set you up on Tinder”, And as soon as extra she is torn between two interesting males: Mr Wallaker (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a trainer at her kids’s faculty, and a 29-year-old referred to as Roxster (Leo Woodall). Hugh Grant returns as Daniel – Uncle Daniel to Bridget’s kids – together with Jim Broadbent and Gemma Jones as her dad and mom and Shirley Henderson and Sally Phillips as her loyal greatest pals, Jude and Shazz. (CJ)

Releases on 13 February on Peacock within the US and 14 February in UK cinemas

Michael B Jordan and director Ryan Coogler have fashioned an thrilling collaboration that goes again 12 years, from Fruitvale Station by Black Panther and Creed. Their fifth movie collectively is a socially acutely aware horror story written by Coogler. A bulked-up Jordan performs twins, Elijah and Elias, in a interval piece set within the Thirties. When one of many troubled twins returns to his hometown within the South to begin over, he solely finds extra hassle, which incorporates Jim Crow-era violence, in addition to snakes and supernatural evil. “I ain’t by no means seen no demons, no ghosts, no magic – until now,” Jordan says in voiceover within the creepy, attractive trailer. Hailee Steinfeld, Jack O’Connell, Delroy Lindo and Wunmi Mosaku additionally star within the movie, which was shot in New Orleans by the nice cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever). Coogler hasn’t made a weak movie to date, and Sinners ought to proceed that streak. (CJ)

Releases 18 April 2025 within the US and UK

F1 stars Brad Pitt as a Nineties car-racing champion who comes out of retirement to mentor a rookie, performed by Damson Idris. One promoting level is that the movie was shot at actual racing circuits, and options quite a few actual Components One drivers. However one other intriguing side is who it does not function. F1 reunites a number of key members of the Top Gun: Maverick staff, together with director Joseph Kosinski, screenwriter Ehren Kruger, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and composer Hans Zimmer. In different phrases, Tom Cruise is nearly the one one of many staff who’s lacking. And contemplating that Cruise starred in Days of Thunder, a car-racing drama produced by Bruckheimer, F1 does elevate an enchanting query: why did not Cruise star on this, too, and name it Days of Thunder 2? (NB)

Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell star on this romantic fantasy directed by Kogonada (After Yang and Pachinko) and written by Seth Reiss (co-writer of The Menu). The journey they take is an precise highway journey in addition to a metaphor. Farrell performs David, who’s en path to a marriage, driving a 1996 automobile that has a magical GPS, when he meets Sarah (Robbie). The strangers go off collectively, guided by the automobile’s sixth sense, and uncover they’ve a mysterious connection. Lily Rabe, Jodie Turner-Smith and Phoebe Waller-Bridge additionally star. You actually must go together with the premise on this as a result of it sounds absurd, however I would not underestimate the good Kogonada’s skill to make it work. When the manufacturing was introduced, Tom Rothman, the chairman of Sony Footage, said: “We consider the viewers is determined for originality.” Within the present movie panorama, that quantities to welcome counterprogramming. (CJ)

The Working Man is a novel written by Stephen King, utilizing the pseudonym Richard Bachman, which was printed in 1982. Set in a far-fetched alternate actuality wherein the US of the 12 months 2025 is a totalitarian dystopia, the novel contains a scrawny household man who’s so determined for cash that he indicators up for a harmful tv recreation present: he has to outlive for 30 days whereas being chased all over the world by the TV community’s educated killers. The novel was the idea of a daft 1987 motion movie, starring an especially unscrawny Arnold Schwarzenegger, which is remembered primarily for the sub-James Bond puns he makes use of when he kills somebody, akin to “He needed to break up!” And: “He was an actual ache within the neck!” However now Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Useless, Final Night time in Soho) has directed and co-written a darker, extra devoted adaptation of King’s novel, starring Glen Powell with Katy O’Brian, Josh Brolin and Michael Cera. It is positive to be nearer to Squid Game than it’s to the Arnie movie, however whether or not Wright can resist a nasty pun or two stays to be seen. (NB)

Avatar: Hearth and Ash is because of come out a mere three years after Avatar: The Way of Water, which isn’t any time in any respect by the requirements of its director, James Cameron: there have been 13 years between the primary two Avatar movies, and 12 years separating Avatar and Titanic earlier than that. Nonetheless, it isn’t as if Cameron has to hurry to pay the payments. His final three movies – Titanic and the primary two Avatar instalments – are three of the 4 highest grossing movies ever launched (Avengers: Endgame is the opposite). Will Avatar: Hearth and Ash be part of them in box-office historical past? Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldaña are again as blue-skinned Na’vi on the moon of Pandora – and this time they’re up towards a tribe of Na’vi baddies, the “Ash folks”, who reside in a volcano. Should you fancy seeing extra CGI-heavy sci-fi sequels in 2024, there’s additionally a 3rd Tron movie, Tron: Ares, in October, and Jurassic World Rebirth, starring Scarlett Johansson and Mahershala Ali, in July. (NB)

The masterful zombie-apocalypse film 28 Days Later (2002) shortly turned a traditional, with a little-known Cillian Murphy as a survivor in a world decimated by a virus that induced rage and turned folks into the strolling useless. That movie is extra resonant and horrifying than ever in our personal post-pandemic world, and this comply with up may land as a nightmare come true. As with the unique, Danny Boyle is directing and Alex Garland wrote the screenplay. Aaron Taylor-Johnson stars as a person who leaves an island of survivors and ventures to the mainland, not the neatest transfer. Jodie Comer and Ralph Fiennes additionally function. When the trailer dropped, it turned the second most watched horror trailer of all time and created a surge of speculation {that a} skeletal creature was the zombified model of Murphy’s character. The thought was quickly debunked, however the frenzy is an indication of how eagerly viewers are ready for the movie, the primary in a projected new trilogy. (CJ)

Releases 20 June within the US and UK

Bong Joon-ho directed Parasite, the worldwide hit which turned the primary movie not within the English language to win the Oscar for greatest image. However that got here out again in 2019, so we have had an extended look forward to the Korean director’s follow-up. A 12 months in the past, in actual fact, Mickey 17 was on the BBC’s list of films to watch in 2024, however its launch date was pushed again, so we have needed to put it on the listing once more. Nonetheless, the surprisingly wacky trailer has solely made Mickey 17 extra tantalising. As we stated final 12 months, Bong has made a science-fiction thriller a few man referred to as Mickey (Robert Pattinson) who volunteers to be an “expendable”, that’s, a labourer on a deep-space mission who’s cloned each time he’s killed. Tailored from a novel by Edward Ashton, the plot thickens when multiple Mickey is allowed to reside on the identical time. (NB)

Virtually the whole lot in regards to the new movie from Paul Thomas Anderson is veiled in secrecy besides the actual fact of its existence, however that alone is sweet motive to look ahead to it. We all know he’s daring and different in his work, most lately with the delicately crafted drama Phantom Thread (2017) and the offbeat romantic comedy Licorice Pizza (2021). On condition that vary, it could be silly to guess what the brand new movie is likely to be, however we all know it is going to be proven in Imax, and stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Regina Corridor, Teyana Taylor and Alana Haim. The secrecy hasn’t stopped a swirl of rumours, after all, the most typical being that the movie is an adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 politically tinged novel Vineland. Who is aware of about that, however there’s intriguing photographic proof of Leo and PT collectively on the shoot. (CJ)

Releases 8 August within the US and UK

Daniel Craig could have made his final ever Bond movie, however he appears completely happy to maintain taking part in Benoit Blanc, the puzzle-solving sleuth with the dapper gown sense and the extravagant Southern accent. The third within the deliciously devious Knives Out collection, Wake Up Useless Man is as soon as once more written and directed by Rian Johnson, and as soon as once more named after a pop tune (by U2 on this case). It additionally boasts a sometimes star-studded forged of potential killers and victims, together with Josh Brolin, Thomas Haden Church, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Andrew Scott and Cailee Spaeny. Will Hugh Grant return as Benoit’s accomplice, as noticed for a second in Glass Onion? That is one of many many issues we do not find out about Wake Up Useless Man, but when it matches Johnson and Craig’s first two satirical homicide mysteries, it needs to be one of many 12 months’s most entertaining movies. (NB)

Maggie Gyllenhaal proved that she has a real director’s imaginative and prescient along with her first movie, The Lost Daughter (2021), an eloquent adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s novel. She makes a good bolder transfer with an imaginative tackle The Bride of Frankenstein, set in Thirties Chicago. Christian Bale performs the monster who wants an appropriately patched-together mate, and Jessie Buckley is the Bride. There’s an echo of the 1935 traditional in her look. Elsa Lanchester had an electrical streak of white hair within the unique film, and Buckley has a platinum blonde interval type. However this Bride additionally units off a social motion, which solely hints at how unique Gyllenhaal’s movie can be. “There are huge dance numbers,” Peter Sarsgaard, Gyllenhaal’s husband, instructed The Hollywood Reporter. “The Bride is punk and it is quick.” He is within the forged, together with Annette Bening and Penelope Cruz. And if issues do not work out with this husband, perhaps The Bride can get along with Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein monster, additionally coming this 12 months. They’re from totally different time intervals, however what’s a bit time journey between Frankensteins? (CJ)

Releases 26 September 2025 within the US and UK

This off-kilter true crime story and romance from Derek Cianfrance (Blue Valentine) seems like a romp. Channing Tatum stars because the real-life Jeffrey Manchester, who robbed a collection of McDonald’s by slicing holes within the roof. The movie focuses on his time after he escaped from jail for these crimes, and in a good much less seemingly flip hid out in toy shops, dwelling on child meals and sweet and driving a bicycle at evening for train. Kirsten Dunst performs Leigh, a single mom who falls for Jeffrey with out figuring out about his previous. Her character relies on the real-life Leigh Wainscott, who even after the revelation said the roofman was “humorous, romantic, essentially the most delicate man I’ve ever met”, an outline that requires simply the form of goofy attraction Tatum can carry. Juno Temple, Peter Dinklage, LaKeith Stanfield and Ben Mendelsohn additionally star on this you-couldn’t-make-it-up story. (CJ)

Might The Closing Reckoning be the ultimate Mission: Inconceivable movie? The action-espionage collection started again in 1996, and its star, Tom Cruise, is now 62, so it is likely to be time for him to cease working by cities and hanging onto the facet of planes in mid-air. Alternatively, perhaps that subtitle is only a snappier various to its wordy working title, Mission: Inconceivable – Useless Reckoning Half Two. The earlier movie within the collection, Dead Reckoning Part One, was a box-office disappointment in 2023, so Cruise and his writer-director, Christopher McQuarrie, could choose audiences to think about this one as a stand-alone blockbuster somewhat than the second half of an ongoing story. Both manner, Ethan Hunt and his gang (performed by Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg and Hayley Atwell) can be racing all over the world, dodging explosions and assassins, of their try to foil a dastardly AI generally known as the Entity. (NB)

Wicked has remodeled half-a-billion {dollars} on the field workplace, so there is no doubt in regards to the prepared viewers for this movie. Previously generally known as Depraved Half 2, its new title is taken from a duet sung by Elphaba and Glinda within the musical’s second half, which follows a time leap between the 2 components. Cynthia Erivo’s Elphaba is now firmly the Depraved Witch of the West and Ariana Grande’s Galinda now Glinda the Good Witch. The opposite acquainted characters return, together with Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero, the centre of a love triangle with Glinda and Elphaba, Michelle Yeoh as Madame Morrible, Marissa Bode as Nessarose, now Governor of Munchkinland, and Jeff Goldblum because the Wizard. Stephen Schwartz, who composed the Broadway present, has added new songs for half two, which can even embody the origin tales of the Tin Man, Scarecrow and Cowardly Lion. However a gazillion impatient followers most likely knew that already. For Good arrives a 12 months after half one, and as Bowen Yang, who performs Glinda’s buddy Pfanee, has said, “Everybody’s like, ‘That is the longest intermission ever.'” (CJ)

Releases 21 November 2025 within the US and UK

After Conclave, among the finest of 2024, and the Oscar-winning All Quiet on the Western Front (2022), Edward Berger has change into a director whose movies leap onto any listing of the 12 months’s most promising. He has put collectively one other terrific forged for this drama, starring Colin Farrell and Tilda Swinton. Farrell performs a high-rolling gambler with money owed who flees and hides out in Macau. He’s additionally a con man, who pretends to be an aristocrat referred to as Lord Doyle. The story, primarily based on a 2014 novel by Lawrence Osborne, takes place within the glitzy pretend opulence of Macau’s casinos, the place Doyle meets a lady who may assist save him. Berger instructed Deadline, “If Conclave is a extremely well-constructed chess recreation, very architectural, this embraces chaos and opera.” He was curious, he stated, about “the exterior pomp and circumstances of Colin Farrell in Macau, China, thrown into the final days of capitalism, in a manner”. Including authenticity, the movie was shot in Macau and Hong Kong. (CJ)

The return of Ke Huy Quan is considered one of Hollywood’s most heartening comeback tales. As a toddler actor, he co-starred in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Goonies, however he turned disillusioned with that facet of the enterprise, and he pivoted to stunt work. Virtually 20 years later, Quan had one other go at appearing, and he went on to win an Oscar for his efficiency in Everything Everywhere All at Once. Now he’s starring in a movie of his personal. In Love Hurts, he performs a mild-mannered property agent, Marvin Gable, who retains his legal previous a secret. When his gangster brother (Daniel Wu) sends a pair of goons to his home, Marvin has no selection however to point out off his martial arts expertise as soon as once more. It is not essentially the most unique plot ever, however Love Hurts does look enjoyable. Moreover, it co-stars Ariana DeBose, who gained the very best supporting actor Oscar in 2022 for West Side Story, making it one of many solely motion comedies to have two Oscar winners within the central roles. (NB)

Guillermo del Toro was making nice elevated horror films earlier than anybody referred to as them that, going again to Cronos in 1993. In Frankenstein, he brings his distinctive imaginative and prescient to the ultimate horror story, Mary Shelley’s enduring Gothic story of Dr Victor Frankenstein’s scientific ambition, his monster’s humanity and the hunt for immortality. Oscar Isaac performs Frankenstein, who has a mad, demonic look in his eyes, and Jacob Elordi is the monster. The movie’s interval look is true to Shelley’s 1818 novel with nods to the lab within the traditional 1931 Frankenstein film. The undertaking has been simmering in numerous incarnations since 2008 and in Del Toro’s thoughts for for much longer. “Frankenstein to me is the head of the whole lot, and a part of me desires to do a model of it, a part of me has for greater than 25 years chickened out of constructing it,” he said in 2016. In a world filled with Frankenstein films, there’s none I would somewhat see than del Toro’s. (CJ)

Marvel’s superhero movies by no means fairly regained their momentum after Avengers: Endgame got here out in 2019. In 2023, the studio suffered two outright flops, The Marvels and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. And in 2024, the one Marvel movie was Deadpool & Wolverine – and that one made some extent of utilizing characters from different studios, somewhat than from Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe. However Marvel is hoping to bounce again with three potential blockbusters in 2025. In February, there’s Captain America: Courageous New World, with Anthony Mackie as the brand new Captain America and Harrison Ford because the Purple Hulk. In Could, there’s Thunderbolts, which groups up numerous supporting characters and anti-heroes, together with Florence Pugh’s Yelena and Sebastian Stan’s Bucky. However Marvel’s most feverishly anticipated providing is The Incredible 4: First Steps, with Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby. This retro-futuristic sci-fi caper is about within the Nineteen Sixties, when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s unique comedian was launched, so it ought to look totally different from every other Marvel movie. Anyway, it may possibly solely be an enchancment on the final Incredible 4 movie, from 2015, which was one of many best debacles within the historical past of superhero cinema. (NB)

Each of Hollywood’s main superhero movie studios are relaunching in 2025. Marvel is having a gentle reboot, in that its tales will give attention to a brand new group of characters, however can be set in the identical fictional universe as all of its earlier movies. However DC is wiping the slate clear, which implies that Henry Cavill’s Superman, Ben Affleck’s Batman, Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman and the remainder can be nowhere to be seen. That is most likely for the very best. James Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy, The Suicide Squad) is overseeing the brand new DC Universe, which means that it may need a bit extra gentle and humour than the previous couple of DC efforts. Gunn has additionally directed the primary movie set on this new universe: Superman. David Corenswet (Twisters) is the most recent actor to play the Man of Metal, Rachel Brosnahan (The Marvellous Mrs Maisel) is taking part in Lois Lane, and Nicholas Hoult is the evil Lex Luthor. The trailer additionally guarantees that we’ll see a number of different DC superheroes – to not point out Krypto the Superdog. (NB)

Celine Music’s first movie, the Oscar-nominated Past Lives (2023), was a nuanced drama a few New York lady who reconnects with the boy she knew as a toddler in Korea years earlier than, because the lure of the previous intrudes on her fortunately married life within the current. Christine Vachon, who has produced each Music movies, predicted, “She’s going to be the form of director who does not make the identical film twice”.  Positive sufficient, she strikes into lighter, romcom territory with Materialists, starring Dakota Johnson as Lucy, a matchmaker who has to cope with her personal romantic dilemma. Ought to she go for the right match she would have arrange for herself or the ex she thought she had left behind? Chris Evans and Pedro Pascal additionally star, so she most likely cannot go far fallacious, however the premise displays a well timed query: does the guts communicate louder than the algorithm? (CJ)

Should you’ve seen Piece by Piece, the Pharrell Williams documentary which was made utilizing Lego animation, you may know that the multi-talented music famous person has fond reminiscences of rising up within the Atlantis Residences in Virginia Seaside, Virginia, not removed from Missy Elliott and Timbaland. Now he’s producing a complete movie that revolves round these flats, a coming-of-age musical set in the summertime of 1977. The director is Michel Gondry, the eccentric French genius who made The Everlasting Sunshine of the Spotless Thoughts, and the forged consists of Halle Bailey (The Little Mermaid), Da’Vine Pleasure Randolph (The Holdovers), Quinta Brunson (Abbott Elementary), Janelle Monáe and Missy Elliott herself. Extra importantly, the songs are by Pharrell, along with Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (The Greatest Showman, La La Land), so Golden ought to have considered one of 2025’s greatest soundtrack albums, if nothing else. (NB)

This can be a giant 12 months for live-action remakes of cartoons. In Could, Disney is releasing Lilo & Sew, and in Could, Common / DreamWorks is releasing The way to Prepare Your Dragon – though we will assume that Sew and the dragons are CGI somewhat than live-action per se. However the remake which is making all of the headlines is Disney’s Snow White, a brand new model of the studio’s very first animated function movie, 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It has created controversy on social media for all types of causes, together with the ethnicity and the politics of its stars, and a screenplay (co-written by Greta Gerwig) which reimagines Snow White (Rachel Zegler) as a insurgent chief who foments a revolution towards her depraved stepmother (Gal Gadot). Let’s hope that each one of this controversy does not dwarf the movie itself. (NB)

Simply belief him. Noah Baumbach, the author and director of Marriage Story and The Squid and the Whale, is aware of what he is doing, even when Netflix is not able to say a lot about what that’s but, not even providing up a title. It’s a comedy written with Emily Mortimer (The Pursuit of Love) and has a forged of individuals you would not essentially assume belong in the identical movie, which might be the purpose. George Clooney stars in his first movie with Baumbach, together with Adam Sandler, who was a central character within the director’s The Meyerowitz Stories. The sterling lineup of actors consists of Laura Dern, who gained an Oscar for Marriage Story, in addition to Billy Crudup, Riley Keough, Jim Broadbent, Eve Hewson, Patrick Wilson, Alba Rohrwacher and Greta Gerwig (Baumbach’s spouse, frequent collaborator and co-writer on Barbie). The forged is as sprawling because the areas the place the movie was shot, in numerous cities within the US, the UK and Italy. (CJ)

David Lowery is understood for such experimental supernatural dramas as A Ghost Story, which confirmed life after dying from the attitude of a ghost, and The Inexperienced Knight, a strange Arthurian saga. However even he’s perplexed by his newest movie. “It’s so wild,” the writer-director has stated. “It’s a film I’m positive will provoke a whole lot of sturdy emotions, in each potential path. It feels very true to who I’m, and really near me, however it is usually persistently stunning me in ways in which I didn’t anticipate.” What Lowery can affirm is that Mom Mary is an “epic melodrama” in regards to the relationship between a pop star, performed by Anne Hathaway, and a dressmaker, performed by Michaela Coel (I Will Destroy You), who has the job of designing a gown for her. Additionally, Hathaway can be performing songs by Jack Antonoff and Charli XCX – and provided that her supercharged singing in Les Misérables earnt her an Oscar for greatest supporting actress, these songs ought to certainly be “wild”. (NB)