FLICKS FORWARD

Jacob Stolworthy and Adam White pick 20 must-see movies for 2026, from sandworms and superheroes to Fennells and Fockers, and about 1,000 films starring Anne Hathaway

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We must savour these moments.

When we don't know for certain how unhinged Emerald Fennell's “Wuthering Heights” will be, or if the talking-sheep-solve-Hugh-Jackman's-murder movie (released 8 May!) is a once-in-a-generation classic or an absolute dumpster fire. That's the joy of looking over a calendar of new films at this time of year - it’s all so mysterious, so exciting, so encouraging of absolutely wild declarations. Remember this time last year, and our prediction that Keanu Reeves would win an Oscar for a movie that still hasn’t actually come out? Hilarious!

What we do know for certain is that 2026 looks pretty great, with a slate full of provocative dramas, ambitious blockbusters, intriguing comedies and an inexplicable amount of Anne Hathaway. Seriously, she’s in four of the movies we’ve selected below, plus an elaborate pop-star psychodrama with Michaela Coel and potentially a Ron Howard film if it gets completed in time. One way to prove that we’re collectively better than we used to be? Letting her get through the year without a backlash, a la the period around 2012 or 2013, when we all for some reason decided she was annoying.

Anyway, here are the 20 films we’re most excited for in 2026 – with apologies to Greta Gerwig’s Narnia movie, Maggie Gyllenhaal’s intriguing-looking take on The Bride of Frankenstein, Jesse Eisenberg’s film about Julianne Moore joining a local theatre production, and new movies by Gregg Araki, Joel Coen, Nicolas Winding Refn and Pedro Almodóvar, all of which just missed the cut here.

Send Help

Rachel McAdams leaves her house maybe once every two years, so Send Help is cause for celebration. Sam Raimi’s latest thriller seems like a juicy star vehicle for the