This year in cinema

Predicting how a film will be received long before it comes out is always tricky business. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been caught up in the excitement of a lauded new release only to leave the theatre, or the couch, feeling let down. 

But every once in a while I watch a compelling movie that lives up to the hype and reminds me why I fell in love with movies in the first place. Sinners and One Battle After Another were both examples of that in 2025. 

It’s in that spirit that I chose a selection of seven films slated for release this year that are getting a lot of attention and, if they can live up to the hype, may go down as some of the biggest entertainment highlights of 2026.

Wuthering Heights (February 13)

Few novels have stood the test of time like Wuthering Heights. Emily Brontë’s singular work has long unsettled readers with its raw depictions of obsession, cruelty and class resentment. A Gothic romance that rejects restraint in favour of emotional excess. Now, the story returns to the screen with a cast and creative approach that promises a fresh bold take to what could easily be a stale period piece if not executed properly.

Two of Hollywood’s best-looking movie stars Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi play the lead roles of Cathy and Heathcliff. Charli XCX was brought on board to write original music for the film. This all gives me the impression that this adaptation is less interested in museum-piece fidelity than in making sure audiences have a good time in the cinema. The approach reminds me of Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette (2006): a period setting filtered through contemporary sensibilities, a pop soundtrack and deliberate anachronism.

If done well, this Wuthering Heights could reclaim Brontë’s novel as something youthful and confrontational rather than solemnly canonical. After all, the book was never meant to be polite. It was meant to disturb. And this vibrant reimagining may be the boldest way to honour that legacy.

I Love Boosters (May 22)

Nearly eight years after his audacious debut, Sorry to Bother You (2018), Boots Riley returns with a long-awaited follow-up that promises to be just as inventive, provocative and wildly entertaining. Where his first film stunned audiences with its surreal satire of capitalism and race, I Love Boosters takes that boundary-pushing sensibility into a new, gleaming world: the cutthroat fashion industry.

Riley’s second feature boasts a cast that reads like a who’s who of compelling Black women in Hollywood, with Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackie, and Taylour Paige in the lead, supported by Poppy Liu, Eiza González, LaKeith Stanfield, Demi Moore and Will Poulter. 

Together, they play a crew of career shoplifters plotting against a ruthless fashion mogul, navigating a story that promises razor-sharp social commentary wrapped in surreal, eye-popping visual storytelling.

With cinematography by Natasha Braier (Honey Boy) and Riley’s signature fearless style, I Love Boosters is shaping up to be a must-watch: part comedy, part science fiction and entirely unpredictable, it signals the arrival of another singular cinematic voice unafraid to blend wit, spectacle and moral bite.

Odyssey (July 17)

Once described as the blockbuster auteur for his ability to craft artistically challenging films that also work as crowd-pleasing popcorn movies, Christopher Nolan may have reached the peak of his career with Oppenheimer (2023). Nolan’s historical examination of the father of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer, grossed close to a billion dollars worldwide and won seven Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director. 

But the director who’s tackled everything from Gotham’s caped crusader to a heist film inside a subconscious dreamscape, might just be poised to outdo himself. The Odyssey is Nolan’s upcoming adaptation of Homer’s ancient Greek epic in which King Odysseus navigates the long and perilous journey home after the Trojan war. 

And he’s assembled a cast featuring some of the most recognisable names and faces in Hollywood including Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o and Charlize Theron. With the film having reportedly been shot in a diverse range of locations including Morocco, Greece, Italy, Iceland and Scotland, The Odyssey seems destined to be the epic fantasy event of the year.

Digger (October 2)

Alejandro G. Iñárritu is no stranger to ambition, audacity, or spectacle, but Digger marks a sharp, unexpected turn: the director’s first English-language film since The Revenant is a “comedy of catastrophic proportions,” starring Tom Cruise as a man who wields a shovel. That’s the premise, at least, though with Iñárritu at the helm, the chaos is guaranteed to be as artful as it is absurd.

Reuniting with multi-Oscar-winning cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, Iñárritu surrounds Cruise with an ensemble of heavyweights: Jesse Plemons, Sandra Hüller, Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sophie Wilde, Emma D’Arcy, and Michael Stuhlbarg, among others. In interviews, the director has spoken glowingly of Cruise’s professionalism and passion, describing a collaborative process that was “unexpected, sweet, gentle” yet filled with laughter and creative daring.

Digger promises a blend of black comedy, visual audacity and Iñárritu’s signature emotional complexity, suggesting that Cruise may surprise audiences with a performance unlike anything in his career. If nothing else, it’s a reminder that even the most established stars and filmmakers can find fresh, chaotic and utterly original territory together.

The Social Reckoning (October 9)

The Social Network (2010) is regarded as one of the most important films of the 21st century because it put a magnifying glass on the fragile ego posturing and ambition-fuelled treachery behind the scenes of one of the tech world’s biggest success stories. 

With the memorable tagline “You don’t get to 100 million friends without making some enemies,” director David Fincher and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin’s incisive film has aged like fine wine as Silicon Valley’s tech oligarchs have only become more unhinged and power hungry since its release. Now, 16 years later Aaron Sorkin is stepping into the director’s chair to give us a follow up with Jesse Eisenberg swapped for Jeremy Strong in the lead role of Mark Zuckerberg. 

The Social Reckoning will explore the 2021 leaks from Meta whistleblower Frances Haugen and the resulting congressional hearings about the company’s dodgy practices. The sequel has a lot to live up to but if it sticks the landing it could just be a timely portrait of greed run rampant and the global scale harm it causes.

Dune: Part Three (December 18)

Across two films, Denis Villeneuve has transformed Frank Herbert’s notoriously dense Dune into one of the most confident and visually arresting sci-fi epics of the modern blockbuster era. Dune: Part Two (2024) in particular cemented the series as both a critical and commercial triumph, deepening its political intrigue while expanding its scale and emotional weight.

The forthcoming Dune: Part Three is not, Villeneuve insists, a conventional trilogy closer but a darker epilogue drawn from Herbert’s Dune Messiah. 

Set after Paul Atreides’ ascension, the film interrogates the consequences of prophecy fulfilled, as a once-reluctant messiah edges closer to becoming the very tyrant the universe feared. 

Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya return as Paul and Chani, joined once more by Florence Pugh, Rebecca Ferguson and Josh Brolin, with Robert Pattinson and Anya Taylor-Joy adding fresh intrigue to the ensemble.

If the earlier films flirted with the myth of the chosen one, Dune: Part Three promises to dismantle it entirely, offering a sobering meditation on power, fanaticism and the dangerous comfort of believing in saviours.

Avengers: Doomsday (December 18)

After years of narrative sprawl, mixed results and franchise fatigue, Avengers: Doomsday arrives with something the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been missing: a clear attempt at course correction. Following Avengers: Endgame (2019), Marvel struggled to give its multiverse ambitions emotional coherence but the return of directors Anthony and Joe Russo and longtime collaborator Stephen McFeely signals a deliberate bid to restore focus and momentum.

Originally conceived as The Kang Dynasty, the film was radically retooled after Marvel abandoned its initial villain arc. In its place stands Doctor Doom, played by a provocatively cast Robert Downey Jr., re-entering the MCU not as saviour but as supreme antagonist. 

The premise brings together an almost overwhelming ensemble. Avengers old and new, Wakandans, the Fantastic Four and the original X-Men will all feature in a collision of timelines, legacies and unresolved power struggles.Shot partly at Pinewood Studios and on location in Bahrain, Doomsday aims to marry spectacle with consequence, positioning itself as the true beginning of the end for the Multiverse Saga. Whether it recaptures Marvel’s former cultural dominance remains to be seen but as a statement of intent, it’s impossible to ignore.