We may still be talking about the best films of 2025, but the year ahead is already stacked with projects worth marking on your calendar. Early on, Kristen Stewart makes her feature directing debut with The Chronology of Water, a poetic adaptation of Lidia Yuknavitch’s memoir nearly a decade in the making. Then, Emerald Fennell takes a characteristically provocative swing at Wuthering Heights, a choice that already has the Internet buzzing thanks to its Charli xcx-scored trailer. Several directors are returning to familiar material from new angles: there’s Maggie Gyllenhaal’s 1930s-set Frankenstein musical with Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale, Boots Riley making the fashion industry his target in sci-fi satire I Love Boosters, and Christopher Nolan’s sure-to-be-epic take on The Odyssey, with Matt Damon as his hero. Add in the return of the Practical Magic coven, Aaron Sorkin’s Facebook follow-up The Social Reckoning, and Denis Villeneuve’s final Dune installment, and 2026 is shaping up to be a crowded—and compelling—slate for movies.
The Chronology of Water (January 9)
Director: Kristen Stewart
Cast: Imogen Poots, Thora Birch, Jim Belushi, Tom Sturridge
Kristen Stewart has wanted to adapt Lidia Yuknavitch’s 2011 memoir, The Chronology of Water, since she first read it seven years ago. Now, after spending the interim years trying her hand at directing short films and music videos, Stewart is finally making her feature directorial debut with the project. Hedda actor Imogen Poots plays Lidia in the film, whose coming-of-age is marked by a difficult journey with alcoholism and the aftermath of childhood abuse. Along the way, though, she finds healing through competitive swimming, writing, and later, motherhood. “It’s about repossessing your voice through your body,” Stewart told Vanity Fair of the film, “and just how you process that as a woman in this motherfucking day and age.”
Dead Man’s Wire (January 16)
Director: Gus Van Sant
Cast: Dacre Montgomery, Bill Skarsgård, Colman Domingo, Al Pacino, Myha’la
The true story behind Dead Man’s Wire was so compelling that it inspired Gus Van Sant to make his first feature film in seven years. The crime drama stars Bill Skarsgård as real-life character Tony Kiritsis, who, in 1977, held his mortgage broker Richard Hall (Dacre Montgomery) hostage for 63 hours after falling behind on his house payments. The event was widely covered by the media, including on live TV, with Kiritsis declaring himself a “goddamned national hero” before eventually pleading not guilty to the crime by way of insanity. The Dog Day Afternoon-esque story even has an Al Pacino appearance.
The Moment (January 30)
Director: Aidan Zamiri
Cast: Charli xcx, Alexander Skarsgård, Rachel Sennott, Jamie Demetriou, Rosanna Arquette, Kylie Jenner
Charli xcx’s ultra-meta The Moment is part tour diary, part mockumentary, part artist statement. Following the success of her last album, Brat, the singer enlisted friend and creative collaborator Aidan Zamiri to follow her with a camera as her pop stardom ascended to new heights, resulting in a film that pokes fun at both fame and herself.
Wuthering Heights (February 13)
Director: Emerald Fennell
Cast: Jacob Elordi, Margot Robbie, Alison Oliver, Hong Chau
Emerald Fennell’s take on Emily Brontë’s Gothic masterpiece is sure to ruffle some purist feathers; the film’s Charli xcx-soundtracked trailer caused a stir the moment it dropped online. But leave it to the Saltburn director to get people talking—and maybe even picking up the classic book to compare notes. Fennell’s version of Wuthering Heights, though (which stars Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie as the story’s central tragic lovers), is more of an impressionistic interpretation than a faithful adaptation of the novel.
Pillion (February 26)
Director: Harry Lighton
Cast: Alexander Skarsgård, Harry Melling
Pillion turns what could be a trope-filled journey through BDSM culture into a sweetly touching love story between two polar opposite characters. Harry Lighton’s film stars Alexander Skarsgård as the motorcycle daddy dom to shy sub Harry Melling (whom you may otherwise remember as Harry Potter’s cousin, Dudley Dursley). Clearly, Pillion is “not a conventional gay love story,” as Skarsgård has said in interviews, but a more playful take on power dynamics and desire.
The Bride (March 6)
Director: Maggie Gyllenhaal
Cast: Jessie Buckley, Christian Bale, Peter Sarsgaard, Annette Bening, Jake Gyllenhaal, Penélope Cruz
After Guillermo del Toro turned Jacob Elordi into The Creature in this year’s Frankenstein, Maggie Gyllenhaal takes a stab at her version of the classic story. In The Bride, Frankenstein’s monster (Christian Bale) gets his wish for a female companion, in the form of a murdered woman brought back to life (Jessie Buckley) by scientist Dr. Euphronius (Annette Bening). Set in 1930s Chicago and inspired by a silent film from that era of the same name, The Bride is a “punk, monstrous love story” and a musical with “big dance numbers,” according to Gyllenhaal.
Cast: Emma Mackey, Daniel Craig, Meryl Streep, Carey Mulligan, Denise Gough
C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia book series has been adapted for the screen several times since it was first published in the 1950s, especially fan-favorite The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. That’s exactly why Greta Gerwig wanted to direct what is technically the sixth book in the series (The Magician’s Nephew), though chronologically, it’s a prequel: by making a film about Narnia’s origin story, Gerwig gets to put her own fresh take on the well-tread material. Given the way Gerwig used old-Hollywood production techniques to create a very tactile Barbie universe and set, it’ll be exciting to see what she’ll do with one of the most imaginative children’s stories of all time.
Dune: Part 3 (December 18)
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Cast: Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Florence Pugh, Jason Momoa, Josh Brolin, Rebecca Ferguson, Anya Taylor-Joy, Robert Pattinson
It’s your last chance to see Timothée Chalamet potentially ride a sandworm. Based on Frank Herbert’s novel Dune Messiah, Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Three will mark the end of the director’s film trilogy based on the sci-fi book series. The principal cast from the first two films will return (and Hans Zimmer will once again provide the score), though there’s one major casting addition: Robert Pattinson will play the villain, Scytale, to Chalamet’s antihero, Paul Atreides.
Werwulf (December 2026)
Director: Robert Eggers
Cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Willem Dafoe, Lily-Rose Depp
After drawing inspiration from Bram Stoker’s Dracula for his 2024 vampire thriller Nosferatu, Robert Eggers has once again cast Lily-Rose Depp in a Gothic horror film about a supernatural villain. In this case, it’s Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the titular Werwulf. Early set images show Depp with a split lip in what’s reportedly meant to be 13th-century England. Little else is known yet about the film, except that Eggers has called it “the darkest thing I’ve ever written.”
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