This year, we will have a new president, a new total lunar eclipse, and a new viral phrase that supplants “brat.” I won’t pretend I’m capable of predicting much else—well, except for this: We’re about to have an incredible year in cinema. After a spotty year for noteworthy releases, the 2025 slate is jam-packed. There are steamy, star-studded romances, franchise finales (goodbye, Mission Impossible!), and even one talking hippo. Most excitingly, there are an inordinate number of movies coming from the world’s greatest filmmakers. And not just that: Many of said films sound as though they’ll be high points even within storied careers. Guillermo Del Toro, for instance, is finally taking a swing at a story he’s been dreaming about for decades; Kelly Reichardt is making a heist movie with Josh O’Connor; Paul Thomas Anderson is making his biggest movie yet. I could go on. Instead, though, why not just read through this list of fifty films we’re excited for in 2025?
The Shrouds
What we know: In the latest from David Cronenberg, Vincent Cassel plays Karsh, a prominent businessman, who—after the death of his wife—invents GraveTech, a cemetery system for monitoring buried corpses as they decay in their shrouds.
Why we’re excited: The Shrouds is an extraordinarily dark and funny conspiratorial maze about processing grief. It’s Cronenberg in peak form.
Release date: January 22
Presence
What we know: After working together on 2022’s Kimi, Steven Soderbergh has re-teamed with screenwriter David Koep for another contained thriller. This one takes place within a beautiful suburban home, where a supernatural presence is lurking.
Why we’re excited: What’s cozier than a ghost movie in the winter?
Release date: January 24, 2025
If The Legend of Ochi is half as memorable as Okja, we’re in for a good time.
The Legend of Ochi
What we know: In this A24 fantasy adventure from director Isaiah Saxon, a young girl named Yuri is raised to never go outside after dark. In her remote northern village, there are reclusive forest creatures known as “the ochi.” But when a baby ochi is left behind by its pack, Yuri embarks attempts to reunite it with its family.
Why we’re excited: Potential Okja vibes.
Release date: February 28
Eephus
What we know: Carson Lund’s debut feature captures the final rec-league softball game at a beloved New England ballfield.
Why we’re excited: Gorgeously shot, very funny, and full of incredible detail, Eephus was one of our favorite films out of this past year’s New York Film Festival.
Release date: March 7
Black Bag
What we know: Steven Soderberg’s second feature coming this year—also written by David Koep—will star Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett as a married couple who are prominent intelligence agents. When Blanchett’s character is suspected of betraying the nation, Fassbender’s must choose between his country and his marriage.
Why we’re excited: It’s a mid-budget original spy thriller with a stacked cast from one of America’s great directors. Oh baby!
Release date: March 14
Bong Joon-ho is back, baby.
Mickey 17
What we know: Robert Pattinson is going to space again—this time, as a clone in director Bong Joon-Ho’s loose adaptation of Edward Ashton’s novel, Mickey7.
Why we’re excited: Bong is back, baby!
Release date: April 18
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey
What we know: Columbus director Kogonada has enlisted Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell in a romantic fantasy film that will also feature Lily Rabe, Jodie Turner-Smith, Jacqueline Novak, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
Why we’re excited: Romance!
Release date: May 9
Golden
What we know: Pharrell and Michel Gondry are traveling back to Virginia Beach in 1977 for a musical coming-of-age film starring Kelvin Harrison Jr. There will be appearances from Pharrell collaborators such as Anderson .Paak, Missy Elliott, and André 3000.
Why we’re excited: Pharrell + Michel Gondry > Pharrell + Legos
Release date: May 9
Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning
What we know: The final installation of the Tom Cruise-led Mission: Impossible franchise (and the second half of the Dead Reckoning saga) will arrive this spring, from director Christopher McQuarrie. While we don’t know this for a fact, we feel pretty confident in predicting that Tom Cruise will do some crazy shit.
Why we’re excited: In the last Mission: Impossible movie, Tom Cruise rode a motorcycle off a giant cliff. We’re dying to know how he tops that.
Release date: May 23
Brad Pitt in a prestige-y sports movie? It’s been too long.
F1
What we know: In F1, Brad Pitt plays Sonny Hayes, a 1990s Formula One driver who retired after a horrific crash, and comes out of retirement to mentor a promising rookie for the Apex Grand Prix team.
Why we’re excited: To see if director Joseph Kosinski can bring Top Gun: Maverick-level thrills to the racing track.
Release date: June 27
The Battle of Baktan Cross
What we know: Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest is rumored to be an adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland. Leonardo DiCaprio tops an extraordinarily stacked cast. It’s Anderson’s biggest budget ever. It’ll be released in IMAX.
Why we’re excited: See everything listed above.
Release date: August 8
The Bride!
What we know: Guillermo Del Toro isn’t the only auteur tackling the world of Frankenstein this year. Maggie Gyllenhaal will follow her critically acclaimed debut, The Lost Daughter, with a tale set in 1930s Chicago, about the bride of Frankenstein.
Why we’re excited: Gyllenhaal has assembled a stacked cast (led by Jake Gyllenhaal, Christian Bale, Jessie Buckley, Penelope Cruz, and Peter Sarsgaard), as well as one of the best editors (Dylan Tichenor) and film composers (Johnny Greenwood) in the game.
Release date: September 26
Bugonia
What we know: Two Yorgos favorites—Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons—star in his latest, about “two conspiracy obsessed young men who kidnap the high-powered CEO of a major company, convinced that she is an alien intent on destroying planet Earth.” It’s based on the 2003 South Korean sci-fi comedy, Save the Green Planet!
Why we’re excited: To see Yorgos’s spin on conspiracies and kidnapping.
Release date: November 7
Who’s ready for Timothée Chalamet, ping pong superstar?
Marty Supreme
What we know: Timothée Chalamet plays mustachioed ping pong pro Marty Reisman in a new one from Josh Safdie.
Why we’re excited: Beyond being Josh Safdie’s first directorial effort since Uncut Gems, Marty Supreme probably has the most intriguing cast of any film coming out this year. Here are a few names for ya: Gwyneth Paltrow, Tyler, the Creator, Penn Jillette, Abel Ferrara, Fran Drescher.
Release date: December 25
The Drama
What we know: Zendaya and Robert Pattinson play a couple who, days before their wedding, face a crisis brought on by unexpected revelations about one of them. It comes from Kristoffer Borgli, the young Norwegian director behind 2023’s Sick of Myself and Dream Scenario.
Why we’re excited: To see if Zendaya and Pattinson can top Zendaya and Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor.
Release date: TBA
Universal Language
What we know: This absurdist ensemble comedy from Matthew Rankin is set “somewhere between Tehran and Winnipeg,” and its tone is somewhere between Wes Anderson and Jacques Tati.
Why we’re excited: We were dazzled by the inventive and imaginative art direction, compositions, and performances when we caught it at New York Film Festival last year.
Release date: TBA
Big Break
What we know: A group of friends and former comedic collaborators reunite for a weekend at a secluded home. One of the friends has become successful in Hollywood and the rest are desperate to get a part in his next film. Little do they know that Hollywood has turned him into a monster.
Why we’re excited: Over the last decade, Simple Town has become a beloved Brooklyn comedy group, known for their antic style and absurd videos. Their first feature could be a future cult classic.
Release date: TBA
Bunnylovr
What we know: Rachel Sennott, Austin Amelio, and Katarina Zhu star in Zhu’s directorial debut. The film follows a drifting, Chinese-American cam girl (Zhu) as she navigates a toxic relationship with one of her clients and rekindles her relationship with her estranged, dying father.
Why we’re excited: Hot young talent and noirish vibes.
Release date: TBA
By Design
What we know: There’s an old philosophical debate about what makes a chair a chair. And then, when does a chair stop being a chair? I’m not sure if By Design, the latest film from director Amanda Kramer, answers that question. But it does find a woman swapping bodies with a chair.
Why we’re excited: Forget Freakier Friday. The only body-swap movie we’re dying to see this year is between a woman and a chair.
Release date: TBA
Jeremy Allen White will surely shine as The Boss. (Once you get used to those brown contacts.)
Deliver Me From Nowhere
What we know: Jeremy Allen White is The Boss in the latest in a recent spate of high-profile music biopics.
Why we’re excited: Generally, we could do without seeing Hollywood smooth out the lives of the 20th Century’s greatest rock stars. But Bruce Springsteen’s music, life, and performances are so inherently cinematic that we’re not going to miss this one.
Release date: TBA
Faces of Death
What we know: How To Blow Up a Pipeline director Daniel Goldhaber is back at it with a sort-of remake of John Alan Schwartz’s notorious 1978 shockumentary. This version, penned with Goldhaber’s frequent collaborator Isa Mazzei, is about a content moderator who comes across a series of violent videos. It stars Dacre Montgomery, Josie Totah, and Barbie Ferreira.
Why we’re excited: How to Blow Up a Pipeline was one of our favorite movies from 2023. We’re dying to see what Goldhaber and his team does next.
Release date: TBA
Father, Mother, Sister, Brother (Jim Jarmusch)
What we know: Jim Jarmusch is returning to the anthology format, with a comedic drama shot in New Jersey, Paris, and Dublin. It will star Jarmusch favorites like Tom Waits, Adam Driver, and Cate Blanchett, as well as newcomers like Vicky Krieps, Charlotte Rampling, and Indya Moore.
Why we’re excited: At the 2023 Outlook Festival, Jarmusch described his new film as a “very subtle film; it’s very quiet…Funny and sad.” That sounds like all Jarmusch films. Which is just fine with us!
Release date: TBA
The Ballad of a Small Player
What we know: This psychological thriller from Conclave director Edward Berger is an adaptation of Lawrence Osborne’s 2014 novel in which a gambler and con artist flee Britain for Macau. It stars Colin Farrell and Tilda Swinton.
Why we’re excited: Berger’s last film, Conclave, was one of the best pop entertainments of 2024. There are few actors with better taste in material than Farrell and Swinton. All bodes well.
The Smashing Machine
What we know: Benny Safdie has teamed up with The Rock for a drama based on the story of MMA legend Mark Kerr, set in 2000.
Why we’re excited: To see The Rock work with one of the great young auteurs.
Release date: TBA
Die, My Love
What we know: Lynne Ramsay has adapted Ariana Harwicz’s 2017 novel, which finds a woman dealing with postnatal depression, bipolar disorder, and a steamy love affair. Jennifer Lawrence stars, with Robert Pattinson playing her onscreen husband and LaKeith Stanfield as her lover.
Why we’re excited: It’s been far too long (seven years!) since there was a new Lynne Ramsay movie.
Release date: TBA
To all of those who would like more comedies on the big screen—Paul Rudd and Tim Robinson would like a word.
Friendship
What we know: Andrew DeYoung’s debut feature—which was very well received out of TIFF—places Tim Robinson and Paul Rudd in a suburban neighbor bromance gone wrong.
Why we’re excited: Tim Robinson saying, “Ow! I got water on me!”
Release date: TBA
The History of Sound
What we know: A pair of American WWI servicemen (played by Josh O’Connor and Paul Mescal) journey across America to record and collect the sounds, voices, and music of their countrymen in a sprawling love story from Oliver Hermanus.
Why we’re excited: If a film with Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor as lovers does not become a sensation, then something went horribly wrong.
Release date: TBA
Jay Kelly
What we know: Noah Baumbach is Baum-back (sorry!) with what appears to be a coming-of-age drama starring George Clooney, Adam Sandler, Laura Dern, Billy Crudup, Riley Keogh, Greta Gerwig, and others.
Why we’re excited: How is this the first time George Clooney is working with Noah Baumbach?
Release date: TBA
The Michaela Coel-issance is coming in 2025.
Mother Mary
What we know: Anne Hathaway plays a fictional musician and Michaela Coel plays an iconic fashion designer in what’s being referred to as “an epic pop melodrama” from David Lowery.
Why we’re excited: A pop melodrama starring Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel? Yes, please.
Release date: TBA
SLY LIVES!
What we know: Questlove has a new documentary, and it’s an examination of the life and legacy of Sly & The Family Stone!
Why we’re excited: To delve deep into the story of one of the 20th century’s groundbreaking bands.
Release date: TBA
Jimmy
What we know: Director Yashaddai Owens imagines the life of a young James Baldwin, who’s just moved from New York to Paris, in this tight (67 minutes) feature that played at Telluride, NYFF, and New/Next last year.
Why we’re excited: Everyone who we’ve talked to who’s seen this film has raved about it.
Release date: TBA
Life After
What we know: Life After, which will premiere at this year’s Sundance, is about the “right to die” debate, and Elizabeth Bouvia, the disabled Californian woman who sparked it.
Why we’re excited: A light and fun time at the movies!… Kidding, of course. This one, from Reid Davenport, promises to be a thoughtful, nuanced look at a complicated issue. We’ve heard good things.
Release date: TBA
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
What we know: Mary Bronstein returns to directing, with a character study of a woman named Linda whose life is falling to pieces. Her child has a mysterious illness, her husband is absent, there’s a missing person, and she has an adversarial relationship with her therapist. The film stars Rose Byrne, A$AP Rocky, Conan O’Brien, Danielle Macdonald, and Ivy Wolk, and it is being produced by Elara Pictures and Bronxburgh.
Why we’re excited: Since its 2008 release, Mary Bronstein’s scuzzy microbudget debut feature, Yeast, has acquired cult status. It’s abrasive, honest, and singular. Bronstein is long-overdue a follow-up, and we can’t wait to see what she does with it.
BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions
What we know: This is the first feature from renowned visual artist Kahlil Joseph. It is about a journalist’s profound encounter with a curator and scholar’s magnum opus. It will be playing at this year’s Sundance.
Why we’re excited: Way back in 2015, I encountered m.A.A.d., a dual-screen 15-minute video installation at MOCA, in Los Angeles. It was incredibly beautiful and moving, and ever since I’ve hoped that Joseph would make a feature film. He finally has, so suffice to say this is one of the films I’m most curious to see.
Release date: TBA
Release date: TBA
It Ends
What we know: This Gen-Z horror hangout film from Alex Ullom is about four recent grads who are trapped on an infinite backroad and have to navigate their new reality.
Why we’re excited: Filmmaker Magazine has a strong track record with its 25 New Faces list of finding great up-and-coming talent before they blow up. This past year, Alex Ullom was named to the list, and I’ve heard a lot of enthusiastic feedback about his first feature.
Release date: TBA
The Mastermind
What we know: Last year, our favorite film of the year featured Josh O’Connor as a looter of buried treasures. This year, he’ll play the mastermind behind an audacious art heist set amidst the backdrop of the Vietnam War in the latest from Kelly Reichardt.
Why we’re excited: Kelly Reichardt’s films tend to be quiet and meditative. It will be interesting to see her take on a heist movie.
Release date: TBA
Wes Anderson’s next act is… wait for it… espionage.
The Phoenician Scheme
What we know: During the press cycle for Asteroid City, Wes Anderson called his next film a “three-hander” adventure that would feature Benicio del Toro in every frame. We’ve since learned that it will be set in the world of espionage, and that many of Anderson’s usual troupe will show up, including Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Rupert Friend, Willem Dafoe, and Benedict Cumberbatch.
Why we’re excited: Wes does spies!
Release date: TBA
No Other Choice
What we know: Park Chan-wook is loosely adapting Donald Westlake’s 1997 novel The Ax. The film will follow a man who goes to desperate lengths to find new employment after being fired from his longtime job.
Why we’re excited: At the 2019 Busan International Film Festival, Park told audiences that No Other Choice was a “lifetime project” and that he wished “to make this film as my masterpiece.” That’s a tall order from the filmmaker behind Oldboy, Decision to Leave, and The Handmaiden.
Release date: TBA
Pavements
What we know: Alex Ross Perry tells the story of the seminal Gen-X alt-rock band Pavement by creating a biopic, stage play, art exhibit, and documentary all at once.
Why we’re excited: This is one of the best music docs I’ve seen, and was probably the most fun I had at this past year’s New York Film Festival.
Release date: TBA
Peter Hujar’s Day
What we know: Ben Shishaw and Rebecca Hall star as photographer Peter Hujar and his friend Linda Rosenkrantz in an Ira Sachs-directed period piece about New York City’s downtown art scene in 1974.
Why we’re excited: Ira Sachs, whose last film, Passages, was among our favorites of 2023, is exactly the filmmaker we want to see capture the downtown New York art world of 1974.
Release date: TBA
OBEX
What we know: Tux and Fanny creator Albert Birney stars in a new feature he is directing about a reclusive man who gets sucked into the world of a state-of-the-art computer game, and finds reality and his experience of the game blurring.
Why we’re excited: Birney is a tremendously imaginative filmmaker, who achieves great things on small budgets.
Release date: TBA
Edgar Wright and Glen Powell will team up in The Running Man—and the former directing the latter should be worth the price of admission alone.
The Running Man
What we know: Glen Powell’s ascent to the upper-echelon of the young leading man ranks will likely continue as he teams up with Edgar Wright for a dystopian action thriller based on Stephen King’s 1982 novel.
Why we’re excited: King’s novel was originally adapted into a film in 1987 by director Paul Michael Glaser. We’re interested to see Wright’s spin on the material!
Release date: November 7
The Scout
What we know: Before directing, Paula Andrea González-Nasser worked as a location scout on shows like Broad City and High Maintenance. That experience informed her debut feature, which follows a New York-based location scout (Mimi Davila) throughout an exhausting day of work. The film explores the realities of working in a creative field and the lives you’re able to glimpse by peeking into someone’s home.
Why we’re excited: A fresh take on the all-in-a-day New York movie? With appearances by a bunch of Brooklyn alt-comedy stars? Hell yes.
Release date: TBA
Sorry, Baby
What we know: Barry Jenkins and Adele Romanski are two of the producers behind Eva Victor’s directorial debut. Victor stars as Agnes, a woman for whom something bad happens. That’s about all we know about the plot. But we do know that the cast also features Lucas Hedges, John Carroll Lynch, Louis Ancelmi, and Naomie Ackie.
Why we’re excited: A murderer’s row of character actors and the Jenkins-Romanski seal of approval make this a debut to watch.
Release date: TBA
Did you miss Benoit Blanc? Us too.
Wake Up Dead Man: a Knives Out Mystery
What we know: The third Knives Out movie is on the way, and this one’s cast is as star-studded as the first two, with Kerry Washington, Cailee Spaeny, Josh O’Connor, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Jeremy Renner, Andrew Scott, Glenn Close, and Annie Hamilton joining Daniel Craig.
Why we’re excited: So far as franchise filmmaking goes, Rian Johnson’s whodunits remain a cut above most of the slop Hollywood and the streamers churn out.
Release date: TBA
Dead Lover
What we know: A whirlwind affair between a lonely gravedigger and her dream man is cut short by his untimely death. But the grave digger (played by Grace Glowicki, who also directs) attempts to resurrect the man through various science experiments.
Why we’re excited: We love cemeteries. And we love Grace Glowicki (who, most recently, starred in Mary Dauterman’s excellent 2024 indie, Booger).
Release date: TBA
Splitsville
What we know: Michael Corvino and Kyle Marvin—the pair between 2017 indie sensation, The Climb—reunite, alongside Dakota Johnson, Adria Arjona, and Nicholas Braun, for a relationship comedy about divorce and open marriage.
Why we’re excited: Corvino and Marvin did special things with a tiny budget for their first feature. We’re dying to see what they do with a few hot young stars and a bigger budget!
Release date: TBA
Pepe
What we know: Dominican filmmaker Nelson Carlos de los Santos Arias tells the story of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar’s pet hippo, Pepe, which escaped after Escobar’s death, and became the target of government sterilizers and poachers. The film is told from Pepe’s perspective, at the moment of its death.
Why we’re excited: Talking hippo!
Release date: TBA
Frankenstein
What we know: Guillermo Del Toro’s long-discussed Frankenstein movie is finally happening! It will star Oscar Isaac, Mia Goth, Jacob Elordi, Ralph Ineson, and Cristoph Waltz. And it will be released by Netflix.
Why we’re excited: Guillermo Del Toro is famous for loving monsters. But Del Toro has always had a sweet spot for Frankenstein, which he one described as his “favorite novel in the world.” Naturally, he’s been wanting to make a Frankenstein movie for decades. In 2016, he described it as, “the pinnacle of everything.”
Release date: TBA
The Travel Companion
What we know: Creative envy, friendship, and a fight for flight benefits collide in this scrappy new indie from up-and-coming New York filmmakers Travis Wood and Alex Mallis.
Why we’re excited: Travis Wood and Alex Mallis have been churning out stellar short films for a while now. We’re curious to see what they do in a longer form.
Release date: TBA
