Goodbye, Park City, and thanks for all the memories.

Back in 1978, when Robert Redford first established what was then known as the Utah/U.S. Film Festival, this modest little affair was based in Salt Lake City; the initial idea was simply to attract more filmmakers to the region. Then, in 1981, Redford moved the fest to Park City, a quaint little ski-resort town where he owned property. And for the past 45 years, that’s where this event — which would eventually be rechristened the Sundance Film Festival, after one of the actor’s most famous roles, in 1991 — took place. Film lovers, industry bigwigs, indie-cinema movers and shakers, A-list celebrities, wannabe auteurs, and legions of corporate sponsors and lookieloo tourists and paparazzi flocked to this small hamlet in the snowy Utah mountains every January to make deals, establish careers, debate the future of the art form and, above all, to see movies. Lots and lots and lots of movies.

Now, with a relocation to Boulder, Colorado, on the horizon, Sundance is ready to say farewell to its longtime home. When the 2026 edition of the festival kicks off on January 22nd, it will be its final go-round in Park City, and its first without its late, great founder. We’d be lying if we said we weren’t a little misty-eyed about bidding adieu to the place where we’d seen so many memorable, occasionally lifechanging films. But damned if Sundance is not exiting its former base of operations without one last big bang. This year’s lineup looks to be one of its strongest in years, and we’ll be reporting on the highs and lows of the fest throughout its 11-day run. But here’s a look at some of the hotter, buzzier titles that seem poised to set Park City on fire (metaphorically speaking). From Charli XCX’s white-hot meta-fiction about Brat Summer to a white-knuckle Ethan Hawke survivalist thriller, a warped midnight movie from an Adult Swim legend to a doc about the life, times, and comeback of Courtney Love — here are 22 movies we can’t wait to see at Sundance 2026.

‘Antiheroine’

Everyone has some sort of opinion on Courtney Love — her history, her artistry, her marriage, her persona, her problems, and the undeniable force of the music she made with her seminal 1990s band Hole. Ms. Love is well aware of what folks might think about her — and she’s ready to set the record straight on a few things. Documentarians Edward Lovelace and James Hall give the former girl with the most cake a stage in which to tell her own story in her own words, covering everything from her tumultuous youth to her early brushes with fame to everything that happened after. We’ve been waiting for this for a long time.

‘The Best Summer’

It was the summer of ’95, and Australian music promoter Stephen “Pav” Pavlovic was putting together a traveling down-under music festival he dubbed “Summersault.” The lineup included the Beastie Boys, the Foo Fighters, Sonic Youth, Bikini Kill, Rancid, Pavement, Beck, and a host of James Lavelle’s Mo’ Wax crew. Fresh off of directing the cinéma du Sandler classic Billy Madison, Tamra Davis was following the traveling circus, camera in hand; she’d end up recording a number of performances, along with a handful of interviews with the musicians. Cut to January 2025, when Davis was evacuating her house during the Palisades fires. She happened to come across a box of tapes filled with her old Summersault footage — and now we get this oral history-cum-mixtape of a once-in-a-lifetime fest that captured a moment of Nineties live music in full feedback-soaked bloom.

‘Broken English’

When we were forced to bid farewell (on this plain of existence, at least) to Marianne Faithfull in January of last year, it wasn’t just one more cascade of tears going by — the loss of both a Sixties icon and a genuinely timeless iconoclast felt like a true end of an era. Documentarians Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard (no strangers to iconoclasts, having made the Nick Cave portrait 20,000 Days on Earth) revisit the life and times of the singer via something called the Ministry of Not Forgetting, where Tilda Swinton interviews the lady herself and digs into the who, what, where, and when of it all. Nick Cave, Courtney Love, Beth Orton, and Suki Waterhouse occasionally drop by to sing a song or three. Having played festivals in Venice, London and Taipei, this singular take on the music doc makes it’s U.S. premiere here at Sundance. The Faithfull faithful on these shores may now commence rejoicing.

‘Buddy’

The program note for this festival selection consists of a single sentence: “A brave girl and her friends must escape a kids’ television show.” Pretty vague, amirite? And yet! There may not be another movie in Sundance’s Midnight sidebar that we’re looking forward to seeing more than this one, due to the fact that thias comes courtesy of writer-director Casper Kelly, the gent who gave usthose demented Adult Swim Yule Loge videos, the instant classic “Too Many Cooks,” the TV show Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell, and a number of other brain-melting, psychotronic shorts. Also check out the cast: Cristin Milioti, Michael Shannon, Patton Oswalt, Keegan Michael-Key, Topher Grace and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You‘s Delany Quinn. Something tells us this one is going to generate some chatter. And probably some vomiting.

‘Carousel’

Noah (Chris Pine) is a doctor, a divorcé, and a dad who’s determined to make a modest medical practice in Cleveland enough to sustain both a close proximity to his daughter and his sense of well-being. He’s content to be on his own. Then an old high-school flame named Rebecca (Jenny Slate) returns, and suddenly, his carefully constructed life is upended. We’re fans of filmmaker Rachel Lambert’s previous Sundance entry, the oddball Daisy Ridley vehicle Sometimes I Think About Dying (2023), so we’re excited to see what she does with a similar story of self-imposed isolation and second chances.

‘Chasing Summer’

Comedian Iliza Shlesinger wrote and stars in this dramedy about a woman who, having found herself unexpectedly single and unemployed, retreats to her hometown in Texas. Once back in the Lone Star state, she finds her past catching up to her and naturally gets caught up in a host of angst-fueled shenanigans. Personally, you had us at “Iliza Shlesinger” — her stand-up specials are a hoot, and if you’ve seen her supporting turn in 2020’s Pieces of a Woman, you know she has chops — but add in the fact that she’s enlisted Jospehine Decker (Madeline’s Madeline, Shirley), and you’ve got something that sounds like more than just another millennial coming-of-age story.

‘The Disciple’

From the moment that heard the Wu-Tang Clan’s seminal debut album Enter the 36 Chambers, Tarik Azzougarh became an instant ride-or-die fan. The Dutch-Moroccan kid quickly put together his own hip-hop crew in his hometown of Tilburg, and ended up slinging verses onstage next to Ol’ Dirty Bastard when the group played in Amsterdam. Taking the name Cilvaringz, Azzougarh would become a Wu “affiliate” and end up booking a world tour for RZA. He’d also began conceiving and producing a project that would eventually be called Once Upon a Time in Shaolin, and, well… you know what happened next. Oscar-winning filmmaker Joanna Natasegara chronicles how a kid obsessed with the Staten Island collective ended up collaborating with heroes — and how what was supposed to be a major addition to the Wu legend ended up becoming one of the most controversial album “releases” of all time.

‘The Gallerist’

We remember catching Cathy Yan’s debut Dead Pigs at Sundance 2018 and immediately pledging our allegiance to this sui generis filmmaker (not even a detour into superhero I.P., 2020’s Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn, could dampen her sharp wit or her idiosyncrasies). So we’re especially jazzed that she’s back at the fest with one of the most buzzed-about screenings of this year’s edition — it nabbed the prime Saturday-night-at-the-Eccles slot — about a gallery owner (Natalie Portman) trying to catch the attention of an art-world tastemaker (Zach Galifianakis) before Art Basel Miami kicks into full gear. Let’s just say that a corpse becomes a key part of the equation. It’s fair to call this particular satire “star-studded”: In addition to Portman and Galifianakis, the cast includes Jenna Ortega, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Sterling K. Brown.

‘Ghost in the Machine’

No surprise that A.I. is a hot doc topic at this year’s fest, with not one but two different nonfiction takes on the tech that’s causing a lot of deserved existential dread among us flesh-and-blood types. There’s the Premieres section’s The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist, Daniel Roher and Charlie Tyrell’s big-picture look at the ins and outs of artificial intelligence as filtered through the lens of fatherhood. And then there’s this entry in the fest’s more experimental, odds-and-sods NEXT sidebar from documentarian Valerie Veatch (Love Child), which takes a more essayistic approach about the history of human advancement through technological advances, and how the combination of utopian ideology, dystopian nightmares and good old-fashioned exploitation are playing into what could happen next with AI.

‘The History of Concrete’

If you’ve seen John Wilson’s brilliant HBO series How to With John Wilson, then you know this one-of-a-kind documentarian has a knack for turning the mundane into the magnificent, not to mention mining B-roll footage for maximum irony. His feature debut picks up where his TV show left off, with Wilson asking a simple question: what is the history of that substance that paves our sidewalks and provides our structures with a strong foundation? His attempt to find an answer will lead him everywhere from a screenwriting class that teaches you how to write a Hallmark movie to a marathon that requires runners to run around a block for 3100 miles. To say “we can’t wait to see this,” per our list’s headline, is severely underselling our excitement.

‘I Want Your Sex’

He (Cooper Hoffman) is a young Angeleno who just scored a plum gig as an artist’s assistant. She (Olivia Wilde) is his new boss, who’s also decided that her new hire will become her “sexual muse.” Considering this cockeyed explored of intimacy, consent, power dynamics and hot ‘n’ heavy kink comes to us courtesy of director, cowriter and New Queer Cinema icon Gregg Arraki (The Living End, The Doom Generation, Mysterious Skin), we expect a post office’s worth of envelopes to get pushed before the end credits roll. Charli XCX, Daveed Diggs, The Studio‘s Chase Sui Wonders and Scream‘s Mason Gooding costar.

‘In the Blink of an Eye’

Pixar legend Andrew Stanton (WALL-E, Finding Nemo) has spent the last decade directing episodes of top-shelf TV series (Stranger Things, Better Call Saul, For All Mankind). Now he steps back into the world of live-action features — his first since 2012’s John Carter — with this trilogy of tales that spans the prehistoric era to the present day to our distant future. A family of cave dwellers fight to survive the harsh terrain. An anthropology grad student (Rashida Jones) starts a relationship with a peer (Daveed Diggs) while studying the remains of early humans. And an astronaut (Kate McKinnon) roams the galaxy many, many light years from now, trying to ward off a threat to the ship’s in-house ecosphere. Chances are good that there will be numerous similarities between all of these tales, which will lead folks to believe that time sure passes… well, see the title.

‘The Invite’

Olivia Wilde isn’t just at the festival as an actor for hire (see: I Want Your Sex). The hyphenate is also bringing her new directorial effort, the first since 2022’s Don’t Worry Darling — yeah, yeah, we know, quiet down now, people — which centers around two couples gathered together for what’s supposed to be a nice, civil dinner party. Quicker than you can ask who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf, the evening devolves into an airing of marital grievances that that threatens to go nuclear. Wilde and Seth Rogen play one of beleaguered duos; Edward Norton and Penelope Cruz play the other. Very curious about this one, in a sort of Bill-Hader-as-Keith-Morrison-chomping-popcorn-meme kind of way.

‘The Moment’

Remember how Charli XCX and “Brat Summer” dominated 2024? The singer-songwriter is now ready to give you a firsthand look at what it was like to be in the eye of that pop-superstar storm, via a cheeky metafictional comedy! Director, co-writer, and longtime Charli collaborator Aidan Zamiri has described this faux-chronicle of the hitmaker on tour as an “alternate history of the Brat era… if she’d made all the wrong choices.” Alexander Skarsgård plays the hottest director in town, who’s been hired to document everything. Rachel Sennott, Kate Berlant, Rosanna Arquette, Jamie Demetriou, and Hailey Gates co-star. We assume the premiere will shock Sundance like a defibrillator.

‘Once Upon a Time in Harlem’

In 1972, the late, great filmmaker William Greaves (Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One) sent out an invite to the last living creators and emissaries of the Harlem Renaissance: come to Duke Ellington’s apartment on the corner of West 157th and St. Nicholas Avenue for a night of cocktails and conversations. Greaves proceeded to document a who’s who of songwriters, authors, poets, theater bigwigs, journalists, movers, and shakers sitting around and reminisced. The footage remained virtually unseen — until now. Thanks to David Greaves, William’s son (and who was operating one of the cameras on that fateful night), we now get to be a fly on the wall as a host of legends detail how they made history and changed American art forever.

‘Paralyzed by Hope: The Maria Bamford Story’

Anyone who has been lucky enough to sample Maria Bamford’s sense of humor — via her stand-up specials, the Comedians of Comedy documentary, her TV show Lady Dynamite, or at a mid-sized theater or club near you — can attest to the fact that she is one of the funniest, smartest, and most unique comics working today. Seriously: name another comedian who would center an entire televised showcase around performing her act live for her parents, and no one else. She’s also had her share of struggles in terms of anxiety, depression, mental instability, and what may or may not be professional self-sabotage (it depends on whether you consider a Target pitch-person talking shit about the superstore to be “self-sabotage.”) Bamford has been long overdue for a solo doc, so thank the good lord that Judd Apatow and co-director Neil Berkeley have not only put this profile together, but refused to play down her issues — or how she’s consistently managed to turn a long, hard stare into the abyss into a tight hour of hilarious material.

‘Public Access’

Before the World Wide Web, before Wayne’s World, before social media and the era of 24-7 content creators and influencers, there was public access television — a wild frontier of would-be talk show hosts, bon vivants, raconteurs, kooks, freaks, and free-speech advocates with a need to push the boundaries of good taste. When New York City introduced the nation’s first public cable channel in 1971, it not only opened the floodgates to a host of DIY entertainers and marginalized communities — it changed what could be said and shown on the air. David Shadrack Smith’s doc gets into the good, the bad, and the Midnight Blue of it all, filling in a lost chapter of media history that’s crazier than you could imagine.

‘See You When I See You’

Jay Duplass — he of the Duplass brothers, Transparent and Industry acting fame, and director of the recent shaggy-dog comedy The Baltimorons — hits Sundance with an adaptation of Adam Cayton-Holland’s memoir Tragedy Plus Time: A Tragi-Comic Memoir. Cooper Raiff (Cha Cha Real Smooth) plays the author’s screen counterpart, a young writer named Aaron who’s trying to find his voice. Then a family tragedy forces him to deal with an unbearable loss, and the idea that humor can help guide folks through the darkest of times. If anyone can pull this off without turning this into quirky indie grief-porn, it’s Duplass. Kaitlyn Dever, David Duchovny, Hope Davis, and Lucy Boynton costar.

‘The Shitheads’

Because what is Sundance without a ridiculous buddy comedy, usually involving various dim and/or down-on-their-luck dudes getting into absurd — and absurdly dangerous — situations? Thank god writer-director-actor Macon Blair (I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore) stepped up and gave the 2026 edition its requisite bumbling-idiots road-movie farce. O’Shea Jackson Jr. and Dave Franco are hired to transport a rich teen (The Black Phone‘s Mason Thames) to rehab. Simple enough, right? Before you can say The Ransom of Red Chief, however, he’s turning their lives into a living hell. Also along for the ride: Peter Dinklage, Nicholas Braun, Kiernan Shipka, and Killer Mike.

‘The Weight’

No stranger to Sundance — he’s been a constant presence at the fest since Reality Bites premiered there in 1994 — Ethan Hawke stars as a Depression-era dad who ends up in a brutal work camp out in the Oregon wilderness. But there’s this corrupt warden (Russell Crowe), see, and he has an offer: smuggle a mother lode’s worth of gold through a 100 miles of unforgiving terrain, and if he makes it through, the prisoner can go free. The task is way, way harder than it sounds. This sounds so up our action-filled-1970s-style-character-study-survivalist-thriller alley.

‘When a Witness Recants’

It started with a teenager being robbed and murdered for his Georgetown jacket in the hallways of his high school, during the middle of a school day; the 1983 crime would rock the Baltimore neighborhood in which it took place, causing a generation of kids to feel that they were unsafe in their own community. But it would also lead to a gross miscarriage of justice, in which one of the victim’s best friends was coerced by the police to lie about what he witnessed that day — a decision which would send three innocent teens to jail for 36 years. Documentarian Dawn Porter (The Lady Bird Diaries, John Lewis: Good Trouble) and executive producer Ta-Nehisi Coates revisit the case, and dive into the details regarding the conspiracy that landed the trio in jail, how they were eventually exonerated and released, and the sense of guilt that hovered the young man whose decision cost them their freedom.

‘Zi’

Video artist and filmmaker Park Joon Eung — who goes by the nom de artiste Kogonada — has been one of the major Sundance discoveries of the past 10 years, having shown his extraordinary first feature Columbus at the festival in 2017. He’s back with this elliptical, sci-fi–inflected story of a Hong Kong resident (Michelle Mao) who begins to encounter her future self. Then things apparently get weird(er). Longtime collaborator Haley Lu Richardson and Pachinko’s Jin Ha add to the vibes.

From Rolling Stone US.

The post 22 Most Anticipated Movies at Sundance 2026 appeared first on Rolling Stone India.

It was the nakedly aspirational quote heard ’round the world. Accepting the Screen Actors Guild best-actor award last February for his performance as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown, Timothée Chalamet took the stage and joked about the microphone being too short, expressed shock at winning, thanked his mom. Typical awards-ceremony banter. Then the artist formerly known as Lil’ Timmy Tim took on a serious tone. 

“I know the classiest thing would be to downplay the effort that went into this role,” he began. “But the truth is … I’m really in pursuit of greatness. I know people don’t usually talk like that. But I wanna be one of the greats.” He name-checked Daniel Day-Lewis, Marlon Brando, Viola Davis, Michael Phelps (!), and Michael Jordan (!!). “I wanna be up there.”

People instantly took sides: Chalamet was refreshingly honest. Chalamet was a bratty try-hard. Chalamet was ambitious enough to strive for nothing less than total awesomeness. Chalamet was passive-aggressively inserting himself into the canon. Social media pundits either said he lacked grace and humility or dropped memes of his Little Women co-star Florence Pugh saying, “I want to be great, or nothing.” Fellow actor Josh O’Connor declared in GQ that, confessional speech aside, Chalamet was already a legend (“You did it, mate”). Davis herself said she’d happily pass him the baton.

The fact is, ever since Chalamet demonstrated he could be fearless onscreen (and a first-rate lover of peaches) in 2017’s Call Me by Your Name, the actor has been reaching for the brass ring of movie-star immortality. He’s radiated an intensity that falls somewhere between self-serious and extremely disciplined. He’s worked in edgier-than-usual projects — Wonka detour excluded — and with name-brand filmmakers (Wes Anderson, Denis Villeneuve, Christopher Nolan, Luca Guadagnino, and, er, Woody Allen). He’s been nominated twice for a lead-actor Oscar before the age of 30. He’s not a Method guy, but he prepped for close to five years to play Dylan and nearly as long to portray a table-tennis phenom in Josh Safdie’s Marty Supreme, installing a ping-pong table everywhere he lived while working on other movies, from London to Budapest to France.

It’s this last project that blurs the line between Chalamet playing someone aspiring to greatness and being an actor who has a strong chance of achieving that goal in real life. Marty Supreme casts Chalamet as Marty Mauser, a Manhattan shoe salesman circa 1952 who’s gunning for that number-one spot in … ping-pong. No, the sport doesn’t get the respect it deserves. Yes, Mauser will beg, borrow, and steal to get to London for the world championship, where he comes this close to winning the entire tournament. His last-minute loss only makes him that much more determined to get a rematch and prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that he’s the best to ever play the game.

Mauser is blustery, egomaniacal, a hustler, and a motormouth who nearly gets knocked out (or worse) numerous times. He thinks nothing of lying to loved ones, cheating business associates, leaving friends in the lurch, seducing a married movie star (Gwyneth Paltrow), and co-opting a young woman he’s impregnated (I Love LA’s Odessa A’zion) into his shenanigans. Mauser is also a once-in-a-lifetime talent — potentially the Michael Phelps or Michael Jordan of ping-pong. He can back up the smack talk. “In spirit, this is the most who I was that I’ve had to play [in] a role,” Chalamet told The Hollywood Reporter after the film’s New York Film Festival premiere. “This is who I was before I had a career.” 

Marty Supreme plays like a nervous breakdown already in progress — no surprise, given that Safdie made his bones putting stars like Robert Pattinson and Adam Sandler through the wringer in films like Good Time (2017) and Uncut Gems (2019). What’s shocking is how this frantic, gritty, darkly comic sports drama taps into something we haven’t seen in Chalamet before. He’s played boy wonders and sociopaths, messiah figures and eccentric chocolatiers, but this young man trying to parlay raw talent into fame, fortune, and professional glory intertwines a double helix of extreme confidence and neediness that seems to motivate Chalamet as well. Desperation suits him. So does knowing he’s excellent and throwing it back in haters’ faces.

And here’s where things get truly interesting: Marty Supreme has not only gifted the LaGuardia High School graduate and thin white duke of contemporary screen acting with the best reviews of his career. It’s moved him that much closer to his goal of being considered one of the major talents of his generation. (As well as an artist who truly understands how to gonzo-market a movie in the 21st century — try getting Jacob Elordi or Sydney Sweeney to stand on top of the Sphere!) He’s already been called to the podium twice this awards season, first at the Critics Choice Awards last week and last night at the Golden Globes. His speech at the former was overshadowed by hyperventilating headlines regarding his shout-out to longtime romantic partner Kylie Jenner. The Globes speech, however, found him loose, exuding both confidence and humility.

After thanking his director, big-upping his cast mates, and joking about Shark Tank‘s Mr. Wonderful, Chalamet started to take on the same tone he did at last year’s SAGs. Anyone expecting more aspirational mantras, however, was likely (mildly) shocked by the next part. “My dad instilled in me a spirit of gratitude growing up,” Chalamet began. “‘Always be grateful for what you have.’ It’s allowed me to leave this ceremony in the past empty-handed, my head held high, grateful just to be here. But I’d lying if I said those moments didn’t make this moment that much sweeter.” What a difference a year makes.

Watching Chalamet lean into certain qualities of Marty Masuer — even, at times, the less-than-admirable ones — you don’t see the second coming of Brando or Day-Lewis. You see someone who, in attempting to reach for those heights, pulls something uniquely exceptional out of himself. This is the first coming of Timothée Chalamet, the kid who dreamed of being near the level of his heroes and, as he walks proudly into this awards season, convinces you he might make this dream come true. Marty Supreme tells two stories of overcoming obstacles in pursuit of rarefied air — of wanting to “be up there.” Only one of them is fictional.

From Rolling Stone US.

The post Timothée Chalamet Said He Wants to Be ‘One of the Greats.’ He’s Well on His Way appeared first on Rolling Stone India.

Awards season is officially in full swing — and tonight, the biggest names in Hollywood gathered for the 2026 Golden Globe Awards.

Shows and movies, including One Battle After Another, The White Lotus, and Severance, are among the major titles competing for multiple awards.

Paul Thomas Anderson’s celebrated action thriller led all film nominees with nine, including Best Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy. The other big film nominees this year were Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value (eight), Ryan Coogler’s Sinners (seven), and Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet (six). All three will compete in the Best Motion Picture — Drama category against Frankenstein, It Was Just an Accident, and The Secret Agent. 

Over in television, The White Lotus led all nominees with six, including Best Television Series — Drama. In the comedy categories, Only Murders in the Building notched a pack-leading four nominations, with Selena Gomez, Steve Martin, and Martin Short all securing acting nominations. And after cleaning up at the Emmys earlier this year, Adolescence dominated the Limited Series categories at the Golden Globes, picking up five nominations. 

As for that new Podcast of the Year prize, the inaugural nominees are: Armchair Expert With Dax Shepard, Call Her Daddy, Good Hang With Amy Poehler, The Mel Robbins Podcast, SmartLess, and Up First From NPR.

Nikki Glaser returns as host for a second consecutive year.

(The Golden Globes are produced by Dick Clark Productions, which is owned by Penske Media Corporation and Eldridge Industries; PMC is also the parent company of Rolling Stone.)

Check below for the full list of winners (bolded) as they are announced.

MOVIES

Best Motion Picture — Drama
Frankenstein
Hamnet
It Was Just an Accident
The Secret Agent
Sentimental Value
Sinners

Best Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy
Blue Moon
Bugonia
Marty Supreme
No Other Choice
Nouvelle Vague
One Battle After Another

Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture — Drama
Joel Edgerton, Train Dreams
Oscar Isaac, Frankenstein
Dwayne Johnson, The Smashing Machine
Michael B. Jordan, Sinners
Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent
Jeremy Allen White, Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere

Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture — Drama
Jessie Buckley, Hamnet
Jennifer Lawrence, Die My Love
Renate Reinsve, Sentimental Value
Julia Roberts, After the Hunt
Tessa Thompson, Hedda
Eva Victor, Sorry, Baby

Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy
Timothée Chalamet, Marty Supreme
George Clooney, Jay Kelly
Leonardo DiCaprio, One Battle After Another
Ethan Hawke, Blue Moon
Lee Byung Hun, No Other Choice
Jesse Plemons, Bugonia

Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy
Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You
Cynthia Erivo, Wicked: For Good
Kate Hudson, Song Sung Blue
Chase Infiniti, One Battle After Another
Amanda Seyfried, The Testament of Ann Lee
Emma Stone, Bugonia

Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role — Motion Picture
Benicio Del Toro, One Battle After Another
Jacob Elordi, Frankenstein
Paul Mescal, Hamnet
Sean Penn, One Battle After Another
Adam Sandler, Jay Kelly
Stellan Skarsgård, Sentimental Value

Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role — Motion Picture
Emily Blunt, The Smashing Machine
Elle Fanning, Sentimental Value
Ariana Grande, Wicked: For Good
Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Sentimental Value
Amy Madigan, Weapons
Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another

Best Director — Motion Picture
Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another
Ryan Coogler, Sinners
Guillermo Del Toro, Frankenstein
Jafar Panahi, It Was Just an Accident
Joachim Trier, Sentimental Value
Chloé Zhao, Hamnet

Best Original Score — Motion Picture
Alexandre Desplat, Frankenstein
Ludwig Göransson, Sinners
Jonny Greenwood, One Battle After Another
Kangding Ray, Sirāt
Max Richter, Hamnet
Hans Zimmer, F1

Best Original Song — Motion Picture
“Dream as One,” Avatar: Fire and Ash, Miley Cyrus, Simon Franglen, Mark Ronson, and Andrew Wyatt
“Golden,” KPop Demon Hunters, EJAE and Mark Sonnenblick
“I Lied to You,” Sinners, Ludwig Göransson and Raphael Saadiq
“No Place LIke Home,” Wicked: For Good, Stephen Schwartz
“The Girl in the Bubble,” Wicked: For Good, Stephen Schwartz
“Train Dreams,” Train Dreams, Nick Cave, Bryce Dessner

Best Motion Picture, Non-English Language
It Was Just an Accident
No Other Choice
The Secret Agent
Sentimental Value
Sirāt
The Voice of Hind Rajab

Best Screenplay
One Battle After Another
Marty Supreme
Sinners
It Was Just an Accident
Sentimental Value
Hamnet

Best Motion Picture, Animated
Arco
Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba Infinity Castle
Elio
KPop Demon Hunters
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain
Zootopia 2

Cinematic and Box Office Achievement
Avatar: Fire and Ash
F1
KPop Demon Hunters
Mission Impossible — The Final Reckoning
Sinners
Weapons
Wicked For Good
Zootopia 2

TV

Best Television Series — Drama
The Diplomat
The Pitt
Pluribus
Severance
Slow Horses
The White Lotus

Best Television Series — Musical or Comedy
Abbott Elementary
The Bear
Hacks
Nobody Wants This
Only Murders in the Building
The Studio

Best Limited Series, Anthology Series, or Motion Picture Made for Television
Adolescence
All Her Fault
The Beast in Me
Black Mirror
Dying for Sex
The Girlfriend

Best Performance by a Male Actor in a TV Show — Drama
Sterling K. Brown, Paradise
Diego Luna, Andor
Gary Oldman, Slow Horses
Mark Ruffalo, Task
Adam Scott, Severance
Noah Wyle, The Pitt

Best Performance by a Female Actor in a TV Show — Drama
Kathy Bates, Matlock
Britt Lower, Severance
Helen Mirren, Mobland
Bella Ramsey, The Last of Us
Keri Russell, The Diplomat
Rhea Seehorn, Pluribus

Best Performance by a Male Actor in a TV Show — Musical or Comedy
Adam Brody, Nobody Wants This
Steve Martin, Only Murders in the Building
Glen Powell, Chad Powers
Seth Rogen, The Studio
Martin Short, Only Murders in the Building
Jeremy Allen White, The Bear

Best Performance by a Female Actor in a TV Show — Musical or Comedy
Kristen Bell, Nobody Wants This
Ayo Edeberi, The Bear
Selena Gomez, Only Murders in the Building
Natasha Lyonne, Poker Face
Jenna Ortega, Wednesday
Jean Smart, Hacks

Best Performance by a Male Actor in a TV Show — Limited Series, Anthology Series, or Motion Picture Made for Television
Jacob Elordi, The Narrow Road to the Deep North
Paul Giamatti, Black Mirror
Stephen Graham, Adolescence
Charlie Hunnam, Monster: The Ed Gein Story
Jude Law, Black Rabbit
Matthew Reis, The Beast in Me

Best Performance by a Female Actor in a TV Show — Limited Series, Anthology Series, or Motion Picture Made for Television
Claire Danes, The Beast in Me
Rashida Jones, Black Mirror
Amanda Seyfried, Long Bright River
Sarah Snook, All Her Fault
Michelle Williams, Dying for Sex
Robin Wright, The Girlfriend

Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role — Television
Owen Cooper, Adolescence
Billy Crudup, The Morning Show
Walton Goggins, The White Lotus
Jason Isaacs, The White Lotus
Tramell Tillman, Severance
Ashley Walters, Adolescence

Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role — Television
Carrie Coon, The White Lotus
Erin Doherty, Adolescence
Hannah Einbinder, Hacks
Catherine O’Hara, The Studio
Parker Posey, The White Lotus
Aimee Lou Wood, The White Lotus

Podcast of the Year
Armchair Expert With Dax Shepard
Call Her Daddy
Good Hang With Amy Poehler
The Mel Robbins Podcast
SmartLess
Up First From NPR

Best Performance in Stand-Up Comedy
Bill Maher: Is Anyone Else Seeing This?
Brett Goldstein: The Second Best Night of Your Life
Kevin Hart: Acting My Age
Kumail Nanjiani: Night Thoughts
Ricky Gervais, Mortality
Sarah Silverman: PostMortem

From Rolling Stone US.

The post Golden Globe Awards 2026: See the Complete Winners List appeared first on Rolling Stone India.

The TV landscape is shifting faster than you can say “Scrubs reboot,” with tectonic pressure from relentless corporate mergers, the specter of AI, and the unsettling fact that no one under 20 even knows what TV is. Nevertheless, creators and showrunners persist. And thank goodness. This year promises another barrage of knockout shows, from prestige dramas to camp comedies. Many of them are packed with stars — or with stars in the making. Some continue stories we haven’t revisited in years; others create whole new worlds we’ve never even imagined. A great TV show can help you escape or connect — sometimes both at the same time. And those are two things we need right now more than ever. Here are 40 upcoming series we can’t wait to get lost in this year.

‘His and Hers’ (Netflix, Jan. 8)

Jon Bernthal. Tessa Thompson. Those two names alone should be enough to whet your whistle for this miniseries based on Alice Feeney’s 2020 novel of the same name. It’s a twisty thriller involving a small-town cop (Bernthal), a TV reporter (Thompson) trying to reclaim her spot as a star news anchor in Atlanta, and a dead body that brings them (back) together. The story reaches back into high-school friendships and marriage drama, and for those who didn’t read the book, chances you know where it’s going are approximately zero. —Maria Fontoura

‘The Pitt’ Season 2 (HBO Max, Jan. 8)

Everybody’s favorite hospital drama (sorry, ER, we moved on with a younger model) is back with 15 new hours of white-knuckle drama. Can it sustain the intensity and depth of Season One? Our bet is yes, and then some. This season sees a new attending physician join the team as Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle) prepares to leave the ED on an extended motorcycle trip. Don’t worry: He’s got one last shift to complete before that happens, and we all know how that’s gonna go. Expect the series to deftly touch on more social issues of the day that intersect with our health-care system, from immigration to insurance inequity and more. Paging viewers to HBO Max, stat. —M.F.

‘Industry’ Season 4 (HBO Max, Jan. 11)

Hopefully you took the 15-month break between Industry seasons to brush up on your U.K. finance-speak, because series co-creators Mickey Down and Konrad Kay are throwing us directly back into its melee of financial corruption. When this slow-burn prestige drama premiered in 2020, it introduced fans to investment bankers Harper Stern (Myha’la), Yasmin Kara-Hanani (Marisa Abela), Eric Tao (Ken Leung), and their growing cohort of associates who let lust, deception, and some insatiable cocaine habits rule their actions on and off the trading floor. Kit Harington spiced things up in Season Three, and now, a fresh influx of soon-to-be fan favorites like Max Minghella, Kwabena Bannerman, and Kiernan Shipka arrive to give the show an extra jolt of energy. —CT Jones

‘The Night Manager’ Season 2 (Prime, Jan. 11)

Ten years after its debut, the sophomore season of this TV take on John le Carré’s thriller — starring Tom Hiddleston as Jonathan Pine, a former British soldier enlisted to nab an arms dealer — has arrived. Olivia Colman returns as Pine’s foreign-office liaison, assigning him to infiltrate the operations of the new big dog on the international smuggling scene. Soon, our man is in Colombia, mixing it up with Camilla Morrone’s sultry businesswoman, Roxana, and getting into dangerous (and by the looks of this trailer, quite steamy) situations. —David Fear

‘Star Trek: Starfleet Academy’ (Paramount+, Jan. 15)

Or: What if Top Gun took place in space and featured Klingons? The latest addition to the venerable Star Trek franchise boldly goes where it has never gone before, i.e. officers training school. Come, follow a bunch of young recruits as they attempt to find out whether they have what it takes to go into the final frontier! Holly Hunter plays the captain of the USS Athena, the starship that doubles as a campus for these cadets; Paul Giamatti, Tatiana Maslany, and Tig Notaro will be on board as well. Stephen Colbert voices the academy’s Digital Dean. —D.F.

‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ (HBO, Jan. 18)

Readers of George R.R. Martin’s three Dunk and Egg novellas will be thrilled to see that HBO has chosen these Games of Thrones tales, set close to a century before the events of original series, as their latest GoT spin-off. Peter Claffey is Ser Duncan the Tall, a lowly squire who is liberated from his master and goes to seek his fortune amongst the knights. Dexter Sol Ansell is the future Prince Aegon Targaryen, a child now better known by his nickname “Egg”; he’s the underage Sancho Panza to Dunk’s Don Quixote. Expect a slightly less reverent tour through the Seven Kingdoms, though we assume that here be dragons as well. —D.F.

‘The Beauty’ (FX/Hulu, Jan. 21)

The ever prolific Ryan Murphy’s latest series for FX concerns a new wonder drug that causes people to become instantly smokin’ hot. Sounds great, unless you read the fine print (and who ever does that), which suggests users may experience a few… interesting side effects. The show is based on the comic book of the same name by Jeremy Haun and Jason S. Hurley, though if you think it also sounds like the American Horror Story producer doing his own riff on The Substance, then congratulations! You get to advance to the next round. As usual for a Murphy joint, the cast list is bananas: Ashton Kutcher, Isabella Rossellini, Anthony Ramos, Rebecca Hall, Dahmer’s Evan Peters, Bella Hadid, Billy Eichner, Meghan Trainor, Ben Platt, Peter Gallagher, and Vincent D’Onofrio. —D.F.

‘Wonder Man’ (Disney+, Jan. 27)

MCU alumni Daniel Destin Cretton and Andrew Guest — the former directed Shang-Chi and the Legend of the 10 Rings, the latter was a producer on Hawkeye — take a spin at giving the comics’ on-again, off-again Avenger his own series. It remains to be seen whether they’ll delve into the character’s backstory from the books, which is complicated (to say the least). But we do know that Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Watchmen) is stepping into the suit as Simon Williams, a struggling actor who gets the opportunity to audition for the title role of Wonder Man in a big superhero blockbuster. It seems he may be a little too qualified for the role, however, given his own unique powers. Ben Kingsley reprises his role from Iron Man 3 and Shang-Chi, Williams’ fellow thespian Trevor Slattery. —D.F.

‘Shrinking’ Season 3 (Apple TV, Jan. 28)

Grief reverberates in new ways for the Shrinking crew in the sweet hangout comedy’s third outing. Jimmy (Jason Segel) struggles with the pending departure of his daughter Alice (Lukita Maxwell) for college, and with the introduction of a potential love interest (played by Cobie Smulders!). Paul (Harrison Ford) faces the rapid progression of his Parkinson’s (including with the spirited help of guest star Michael J. Fox). Brett Goldstein’s guilt-ridden drunk driver Louis comes to a realization about his future, and Jessica Williams’ Gaby gets a spotlight that brings new emotional depth to her fun-loving sidekick character. A sleeper hit whose audience just keeps growing, this show feels like a big squishy hug in chaotic times. —M.F.

‘The ’Burbs’ (Peacock, Feb. 8)

A suburban resident and several neighbors watch as a new couple moves onto their block, and they begin to suspect something fishy is going on. Naturally, these nosy folks decide to start snooping and get way more than they bargained for. If this sounds familiar, that’s because it’s the plot of the 1989 Tom Hanks comedy of the same name. If you’re tempted to yawn about another cult movie from the Rubik’s Cube decade getting a TV makeover, consider this: The creators of this redo cast Keke Palmer in the lead role. Now you have our attention, Peacock! The supporting cast ain’t too shabby, either: Paula Pell, Haley Joel Osment, Weeds’ Justin Kirk, British stand-up Jack Whitehall, Newhart’s Julia Duffy, and What We Do in the Shadows MVP Mark Proksch. —D.F.

‘Dark Winds,’ Season 4 (AMC, Feb. 15)

The Southwestern noir once again drops Zahn McClarnon’s tribal sheriff and Kiowa Gordon’s former fed turned deputy into the middle of a hot case, this time involving a missing Navajo girl last seen on the seamier streets of Los Angeles. Once they and their fellow law enforcement officer (played by Jessia Matten) head to the City of Angels, things quickly go from bad to worse. Run Lola Run‘s Franke Potente and the late, great Udo Kier join a host of returning regulars in this series we’ve consistently hailed as one of TV’s best. —D.F.

‘The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins’ (NBC, Feb. 23)

Tracy Morgan is back! 30 Rock co-creators Tina Fey and Robert Carlock (along with one of the show’s writers, Sam Means) have crafted a good old-fashioned network sitcom around the comedian, who plays a former NFL great now on the skids. Enter an award-winning filmmaker (Daniel Radcliffe) who wants to help the sports legend rehabilitate his bad image and win back his family and friends. Get Out’s Erika Alexander and SNL alum Bobby Moynihan join in the fun as well. —D.F.

‘Paradise’ Season 2 (Hulu, Feb. 23)

One of the most bonkers shows of 2025 returns — let’s call this round Paradise II: Beyond the Bunker. When we last left the mountains of Colorado (or their undercarriage), evil-ish bajillionaire mastermind Redmond (Julianne Nicholson), code name “Sinatra,” had been shot by definitely evil Secret Service agent Driscoll (Nicole Brydon Bloom). The president (James Marsden), code name “Wildcat,” was still dead. And our hero, special agent Xavier Collins (the always heroic Sterling K. Brown), was piloting a plane back to what remained of aboveground America to hunt for his wife, who he had reason to believe was still alive. This season, we get Shailene Woodley joining the cast and a whole new batch of eye-popping reveals. Strap in. —M.F.

‘Scrubs’ Season 10 (ABC/Hulu, Feb. 25)

Andy Warhol once said that in the future, every sitcom that had at least nine seasons would be rebooted for at least 15 minutes. (We’re pretty sure that’s the quote.) And so, this Primetime Emmy-nominated comedy — which ended, or so we thought, in 2010 — gets a new batch of eps for nostalgia’s sake. Zach Braff and Donald Faison don the titular doctor duds once again, heading back to the teaching hospital of Sacred Heart for more medical misadventures and, we’re assuming, more voiceover commentary. Looks like J.D. and Turk may finally get that man-date after all! —D.F.

‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ Season 2 (Apple TV, Feb. 27)

The ongoing Monsterverse saga returns to the small screen with more clashes of the Titans — your Kongs, your Godzillas, your other raging, ginormous kaiju beasties. This time around, something wicked this way comes on the great ape’s home of Skull Island, which brings the various humans chasing these creatures together once again. Oh, and there’s some type of sea monster that’s burst onto the scene wreaking oceanic havoc as well. The Russells (Wyatt and Kurt) are back, as is Shōgun‘s Anna Sawai, Kiersey Clemons, Ren Watabe, and Anders Holm. —D.F.

‘American Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette’ (FX/Hulu, February)

If you are old enough to have lived through the Nineties heyday of John F. Kennedy Jr. and Carolyn Bessette — their tumultuous courtship, paparazzi-stalked NYC existence, the unfathomably chic wedding at a tiny chapel in Cumberland Island, Georgia — you understand both the fervor and the glamour producer Ryan Murphy is looking to recapture with this dramatization of their relationship and tragic deaths. (The couple, along with Bessette’s sister, perished in 1999, when the plane John was flying crashed into the Atlantic en route to Martha’s Vineyard.) If you’re a Gen Z newcomer who’s just discovered the pair (mostly Carolyn) as style icons of the era, welcome to the story of one of America’s great tragedies. Murphy’s shown he can do great things with historical spectacles like the O.J. Simpson murder trial. Here’s hoping he honors the last vestige of Camelot. —M.F.

‘Scarpetta’ (Prime Video, March 11)

They call her Kay Scarpetta — a brilliant Italian-American forensic pathologist who uses medical science, the latest technical advances in her field, and her ability to rock an autopsy like nobody’s business to figure out whodunnit. Patricia Cornwell’s popular crime novels come to the small screen with no less than Nicole Kidman playing the sleuth with the scalpel. Jamie Lee Curtis is Kay’s sister; Ariana DeBose is her niece; Bobby Cannavale is a former detective and resident complicated hot guy; and Simon Baker is an FBI profiler. —D.F.

‘Imperfect Women’ (Apple TV, March 18)

Araminta Hall’s 2020 novel gets the celebrity-packed prestige-TV treatment with Kerry Washington, Elisabeth Moss, and Kate Mara playing three lifelong friends known to clink their wine glasses together (see above photo) while hiding whatever jealousies and hurt feelings have bubbled up over time. Then a murder takes place, some secrets come to light, and all hell breaks loose. The book followed a Rashomon-like structure where each woman got a section to delve into her own perspective; no word yet whether the show will do the same. Joel Kinnaman and Corey Stoll co-star. —D.F.

‘Rooster’ (HBO Max, March)

Lately, when we see Steve Carrell on TV, we can’t help but long for his days as Michael Scott. His forays into straight drama often lack the inherent charm he brings to comedic performances. But this series from Bill Lawrence, creator of Scrubs, Ted Lasso, and Shrinking (hey, three other shows on this list!), and Matt Tarses promises to hit the sweet spot between the two for its star. Carell plays Greg Russo, a famous beach-lit author trying to repair a strained relationship with his adult daughter, Katie (Charly Clive), a college art history professor. The great Danielle Deadwyler plays one of Katie’s colleagues, John C. McGinley is the school’s president, and Phil Dunster (Lasso’s Jamie Tartt) is Katie’s preening estranged husband. That’s a Ph.D.-level comedy ensemble. —M.F.

‘Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair’ (Hulu/Disney+, April 10)

Malcolm fans, rejoice! The beloved Fox sitcom of the early 2000s gets a four-episode update and reunites most of the original cast — notably Frankie Muniz, who played Malcolm; Jane Kaczmarek, a.k.a. Malcolm’s mom Lois; and Bryan Cranston (who sadly never did anything of note after this sitcom, certainly not a drama series with a strong claim to be the best TV show of all time) as Malcolm’s dad Hal. It seems Mom and Dad are celebrating their 40^th wedding anniversary in a big way and demand the presence of their son with the genius I.Q. This is easier said than done, apparently. Cue shenanigans. —D.F.

‘Margo’s Got Money Troubles’ (Apple TV, April 15)

This miniseries adapting Rufi Thorpe’s bestselling novel follows down-on-her-luck single mom Margo (Elle Fanning), desperately trying to raise her baby after an ill-advised affair ends in an unexpected pregnancy. Her estranged parents — mom (Michelle Pfeiffer) was a Hooters waitress and dad (Nick Offerman) a semipro wrestler — don’t have much advice in the way of child-rearing. But when bills pile up, Margo turns her frustration with life into a quirky and wildly successful run on OnlyFans. Pfeiffer’s husband, the legendary TV creator David E. Kelley, serves as showrunner, and Nicole Kidman co-stars, because she is simply not busy enough. —CTJ

‘Widow’s Bay’ (Apple TV, April 29)

Writer-producer Katie Dippold (Parks and Recreation) and director Hiro Murai (Atlanta) gin up a horror-comedy starring Matthew Rhys as a small-town mayor who wants to turn an island community off the coast of New England into a touristy hot spot. The locals aren’t crazy about the idea, due to some sort of ancient curse. The mayor ignores their warnings. Bad idea. This sounds like a cross between a Stephen King novel and a Northern Exposure-type sitcom, which, OK, we’re here for it. —D.F.

‘Euphoria’ Season 3 (HBO Max, April 2026)

How do you solve a problem like an overwrought high school television series? For Euphoria creator Sam Levinson, the answer may be granting fans their long-awaited time jump. According to early interviews, Season Three of the blockbuster series — returning after a four-year hiatus — begins five years down the road from where we last saw its characters, pushing Rue (Zendaya), Jules (Hunter Schafer), Lexi (Maude Apatow), Nate (Jacob Elordi), Cassie (Sydney Sweeney), and Maddy (Alexa Demie) out of the schoolyard and straight into the world of adulthood. That means plotlines about Nate and Cassie’s marriage, Rue’s ongoing debt to a drug dealer, and Maddy’s potential involvement with a strip club. The show will also welcome 18 new cast members, including a guest appearance by viral content creator and former exotic dancer Trisha Paytas. If messy is the theme, this season might have it in full. —CTJ

‘Man on Fire’ (Netflix, Spring 2026)

If you had asked us beforehand whether we needed a TV-series version of A.J. Quinnell’s Eighties thriller novel of the same name, which was already adapted into not one but two movies — a 1987 flop starring Scott Glenn and a gritty 2004 nail-biter starring none other than Denzel Washington and directed by Tony Scott — we would’ve offered a hard no. But this unexpected take starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as the troubled ex-Special Forces soldier John Creasy, and helmed by Creed II director Steven Caple Jr., is mighty enticing. Bobby Cannavale, Scoot McNairy, and Alice Braga co-star — and keep your eye on newcomer Billie Boullet, who plays Creasy’s young charge. —M.F.

‘Elle’ (Prime, Summer 2026)

What, like it’s hard to make a prequel series based on a beloved movie that came out 25 years ago and spawned two sequels (one still in production) and a musical? Well, yeah. It sounds like it is. But, with Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine production company behind this latest foray into the Legally Blonde universe, we trust it’s in great hands. The new show will follow a young Elle Woods (played by Lexi Minetree, handpicked by Witherspoon herself) on her high school adventures in Bel Air. There’s sure to be plenty of pink, pools, parties, and deceptively adorable overachieving. —M.F.

‘The Bear’ Season 5 (Hulu, 2026)

The Bear may have lost its crown as the series America is most obsessed with (see: The Pitt, another hilarious comedy) but don’t pretend you’re not counting the days till the next batch of episodes following Sydney (Ayo Edebiri) — who’s emerging as the show’s focal point — Carmy (Jeremy Allen White), Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), and the gang. Last season ended on a properly big moment: Carmy is turning over the restaurant to Syd and leaving cooking to go deal with his glaring emotional problems (maybe this season he’ll say something other than “sorry” to everyone). How will that decision actually play out? We can’t wait to find out. —M.F.

‘Beef’ Season 2 (Netflix, 2026)

When it dropped back in 2023, Lee Sung Jin’s Beef was as shocking as a slap across the face with a cold slab of raw meat. That’s a compliment, to be clear. The show was original, bold, clever, and shifty — the tone and plot always racing and zagging one step ahead, urging you to keep up. Its tale of dueling revenge schemes — and how they intoxicated and nearly destroyed their perpetrators — was so expertly played by stars Steven Yeun and Ali Wong, it was tough to shake. As a limited series, we didn’t necessarily expect to see it again; but now it returns in anthologized form, with a new cast featuring Oscar Isaac (!) and Carey Mulligan (!!). —M.F.

‘Blade Runner 2099’ (Amazon, 2026)

After Denis Villeneuve extended and expanded upon the, ah, Bladerverse with Blade Runner 2049, his 2017 sequel to Ridley Scott’s sci-fi cinema game-changer, fans hoped that wouldn’t be the last we’d see of replicants and bounty hunters running around dystopian worlds. Thankfully, this series grabs the baton and fast-forwards 50 years, where it’s safe to guess that androids still dream of electric sheep and the elite law enforcers known as blade runners still track down rogue bots. Details are scarce, but we do the know year in which the action takes place (see title), and that Hunter Schafer, Michelle Yeoh, and Furiosa’s Tom Burke star. Frankly, you had us at “Blade Runner.” —D.F.

‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer: New Sunnydale’ (Hulu, 2026)

OK, so this entry may be an act of wishful thinking — precious little has been confirmed about this reboot — but the Buffy faithful have been engaging in such fantasies for years, so why stop now. Here’s what we can say, based on reports and interviews out there in the world: No, the problematic showrunner behind the original teen-horror series to end all teen-horror series will not be helming this extension of the 1990s classic. Yes, Sarah Michelle Gellar will be returning as Buffy Summers, the worst thing ever to happen to vampires, ghouls, demons, and other creatures of the night. Word is that the OG slayer revisits the place she once called home and finds that things around the ol’ Hellmouth are still alive and kicking. The executive producers include Gellar, director Chloé Zhao, and Dolly Parton — seriously! —D.F.

‘The Comeback’ Season 3 (HBO, 2026)

Plenty of shows take time off between seasons; few take a whole decade. But by doing just that, The Comeback — a mockumentary series starring Lisa Kudrow as Valerie Cherish, a onetime television It girl — is able to skewer Hollywood’s ever-changing expectations of its female stars. The first season, in 2005, saw a 40-year-old Cherish taking on a matronly character in a network sitcom, while also documenting her journey on the then-nascent platform of reality TV. Season Two, in 2014, had her struggling to find her place within the world of streaming prestige dramedies. Twelve years later, as social media stars reshape the entertainment landscape, where will Cherish fit in? There’s only one way to find out. —Elisabeth Garber-Paul

‘DTF St. Louis’ (HBO Max, 2026)

Does that acronym mean what you think it means? It sure does! This miniseries follows some bored and frustrated middle-America married folks (played by Jason Bateman, Linda Cardellini, and David Harbour) who wind up in an extramarital entanglement — and then one of them winds up dead. As with much of creator Steven Conrad’s work (like the cult-favorite series Patriot), expect more than meets the eye: This show promises to be quirky, darkly funny, and sometimes just dark. With this cast (which also includes Richard Jenkins as a cop investigating the death), we’ll follow wherever it leads. —M.F.

‘East of Eden’ (Netflix, 2026)

In 1955, Elia Kazan directed a film adaptation of John Steinbeck’s opus that was nominated for four Oscars, including Best Actor for its star, James Dean. Seven decades later, his granddaughter Zoe Kazan has written and executive produced this adaptation for television. Florence Pugh stars as the volatile Trask family matriarch Cathy Ames, who flees motherhood for life as a bordello madam. Christopher Abbott is her abandoned husband, Adam. Mike Faist plays Adam’s brother Charles. But the spotlight will really be on up-and-comers Joe Anders (Kate Winslet and Sam Mendes’ son) and Joseph Zada, tackling the roles of doomed twins Aron and Cal, respectively, and bringing the full weight of this intergenerational saga to bear. —M.F.

‘For All Mankind’ Season 5 (Apple TV, 2026)

When we last left Ronald D. Moore’s extraordinary sci-fi show about an alt-historical space race, Mars colony rebels pulled off a “heist” of a resource-valuable asteroid, an ensuing riot almost left one person dead, and the former head of NASA got marched off to the hoosegow. Season Five should pick up right after the previous finale’s ended, with a time jump to 2012 and the fate of our tenure on the Red Planet secure… for now. Mankind OGs Joel Kinnaman, Krys Marshall, and Wrenn Schmidt are all slated to return for what may (or may not) be the Apple TV drama’s final go-round. —D.F.

‘Half Man’ (BBC/HBO Max, 2026)

After the runaway success of Richard Gadd’s Baby Reindeer, folks wondered what the writer-actor was going to do next. The answer: an equally intense-sounding drama, co-produced by HBO and BBC, about two brothers with a river of bad blood between them. When one shows up unannounced to the other’s wedding, several decades’ worth of issues bubble up to the surface. Jamie Bell plays one of the siblings; Gadd plays the other, and judging from the early stills, it looks like our guy has been hitting the gym for the role. —D.F.

‘The Hunting Wives’ Season 2 (Netflix, 2026)

In the immortal words of Billy Eichner, let’s go lesbians! Netflix’s campy surprise-hit charting the lives of a group of lying, cheating, murdering, girl-kissing Texas women is returning for another season. This comically entertaining take on the airport-novel thriller puts small-town mysteries mostly on the back burner in favor of seeing its main characters conduct steamy, sapphic affairs in as many scenes as possible. While Season One ended with no fewer than five dead bodies, there are still plenty of questions the writers need to answer — and plenty of new ladies to introduce to the group. After all, there is at least one vacancy. Our only request? Let Malin Ackerman keep her godawful shake-and-go wig. —CTJ

‘Spider-Noir’ (Amazon, 2026)

Remember that film noir-style alt-version of Spidey from Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, voiced by none other than Nicolas Cage? The fan favorite gets his own live-action series, with Cage reprising the role of Ben Reilly, a 1930s private dick who, in his spare time, fights mobsters and criminals as a costumed superhero. Even if you’re not a fan of the comics or those animated Spiderverse movies, this sounds like a retro crime-flick blast. Brendan Gleeson, Lamorne Morris, Jack Huston, Lukas Haas, and Sinners’ Li Jun Li co-star. —D.F.

‘Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen’ (Netflix, 2026)

The Duffer brothers follow up their truly epic Stranger Things run with this nuptial horror series from showrunner Haley Z. Boston, about a bride and groom prepping for their big day. Before their knot can officially be tied, they must deal with a possible derailing factor. What, exactly, threatens their union, you ask? We don’t know, but if the title is to believed — and you factor in that Boston was a writer on Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities and this show’s executive producers gave us the Upside Down — let’s assume it’s very, very bad indeed. —D.F.

‘Ted Lasso,’ Season 4 (Apple TV, 2026)

So remember how Ted Lasso‘s third season was rumored to be its last? Apparently the good folks involved with AFC Richmond are ready to get back on the pitch. Apple confirmed that production on the award-winning series’ fourth season was underway via a video that appeared to show Jason Sudeikis, Hannah Waddingham, Juno Temple, and Jeremy Swift filming a scene in an American diner. No word on whether this will now be a transatlantic workplace comedy, though fellow series regulars like Brett Goldstein and Nick Mohammed are said to be returning for this extra-time batch of episodes. —D.F.

‘Vladimir’ (Netflix, 2026)

Rachel Weisz and White Lotus breakout Leo Woodall star in Julia May Jonas’ adaptation of her own 2022 novel, about a college professor experiencing a marital crisis after her fellow-academic husband is accused of inappropriate behavior with students. She then develops a deep fixation on a hot young novelist who has recently joined the university’s faculty. If the limited series is half as suggestive as the book’s cover, we may be in for one of the hornier prestige dramas of the year. —D.F.

‘Yellowjackets’ Season 4 (Showtime/Paramount+, 2026)

Not since Lost have survivors of a plane crash had so many quasi-spiritual, totally confusing experiences in the wilderness — only this time there’s cannibalism, same-sex love stories, grunge-era needle drops, and a slew of 1990s teen stars we’d watch read a phone book (looking at you, Melanie Lynskey, Christina Ricci, and Juliette Lewis). Last we saw the remaining members of the Wiskayok High girls soccer team in the wild, they were pretty sure they’d devised a method to contact the outside world for rescue; meanwhile, their 2020s counterparts were trying to figure out if the mysterious “it” could be passed on to younger generations. This will be the series’ final season, so hopefully showrunners Ashley Lyle, Bart Nickerson, and Jonathan Lisco will fare better than that other plane-crash show in tying up the loose ends. —EGP

From Rolling Stone US.

The post The 40 Most Anticipated TV Shows of 2026 appeared first on Rolling Stone India.

As a wise man once said, so this is the new year — which means we’ve got a whole lotta new movies on the horizon. We’ve peered ahead at what’s hitting theaters and streamers over the next 12 months, and picked out 50 titles that are likely to wow us, thrill us, move us, and make a good deal of noise. From a massive Elvis concert doc in IMAX to Charli XCX’s metafictional portrait of a pop star under pressure; a Once Upon a Time in Hollywood sequel to new chapters in the Star Wars, Dune, and Avengers sagas; Christopher Nolan tackling The Odyssey to a brand-new take on Wuthering Heights — here’s everything you need to know about everything you need to see in 2026. (Dates are not only subject to change, but almost guaranteed to do so in more than a few cases.)

1. ‘28 Years Later: The Bone Temple’ (January 16)

We had to kill time for close to 18 years to get a new entry in Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later series — but we only had to wait seven months for a sequel to last year’s 28 Years Later. This latest addition to franchise follows Alfie Williams’ plucky young hero, Spike, as he falls in with known as the Jimmys, a.k.a. the feral gang of track-suited miscreants we met in the closing moments of the previous film. Jack O’Connell plays the head Jimmy; Eleanor the Great‘s Erin Kellyman is his second-in-command; and Rafe Fiennes returns as the former doctor trying to tame an infected “Alpha” superhuman. Nia DaCosta (Hedda) steps in for Boyle as the director.

2. ‘The Moment’ (January 30)

Remember how Charli XCX and “Brat Summer” dominated 2024? The singer-songwriter is now ready to give you a firsthand look at what it was like to be in the eye of that pop-superstar storm, via a cheeky metafictional comedy! Director, co-writer, and longtime Charli collaborator Aidan Zamiri (he did the videos for “Guess” and “360” — hey, and shot this Rolling Stone cover story of Timothée Chalamet) described this faux-chronicle of the hitmaker on tour as an “alternate history of the Brat era… if she’d made all the wrong choices.” We’re sold. Alexander Skarsgård plays the hottest director in town, who’s been hired to document everything. Rachel Sennott, Kate Berlant, Rosanna Arquette, Jamie Demetriou, and Hailey Gates co-star. We assume this will shock us like a defibrillator.

3. ‘Send Help’ (January 30)

He (Dylan O’Brien) is the asshole boss to end all asshole bosses, a corporate bro who thinks nothing of humiliating his employees. She (Rachel McAdams) is a frumpy junior V.P. who’s often the target of his mockery. When a plane accident during a business trip strands both of them on a desert island, however, her surprising facility as a survivalist reverses the power dynamic — and essentially turns this Cast Away situation into horror-movie scenario filled with carnage. Bonus: No less than the great Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead, Drag Me to Hell) is orchestrating this revenge thriller.

4. ‘Pillion’ (February 6)

Colin (Harry Melling) is a shy young man who lives with his parents in the suburbs of Southeast London and is content to pass the time singing with his barbershop quartet. Then he meets Ray (Alexander Skarsgård), a tall, handsome, gay biker into BDSM who decides that Colin would make the perfect submissive. Writer-director Harry Lighton’s feature debut made quite a stir when it premiered at Cannes last spring, and his delightfully subversive rom-com has been leaving scorch marks on the festival circuit all year. Now you’ll get the chance to see what all the buzz is about.

5. ‘Scream 7’ (February 6)

Frankly, we’re surprised that the venerable horror franchise managed to get this seventh entry made at all, given all the “creative retooling,” beaucoup backstage drama, and exits — voluntary or otherwise — of talent. But the series seems to have picked itself up, dusted itself off, and enlisted a host of O.G. Scream folks, including filmmaker Kevin Williamson, Neve Campbell, and Courteney Cox; the movie’s IMDb page also lists David Arquette, Matthew Lilliard, and Scream 3‘s Scott Foley in the cast as well. We’re guessing the plot involves Campbell’s in-house survivor having to deal with Ghostface returning and once again making her life hell. You know the drill.

6. ‘Wuthering Heights’ (February 14)

“Heeeeeeathcliffff, it’s meeeee, Cath-yyyyy, I’ve come home, I’m so cold!!!” Emily Brontë’s novel of love and death on the Yorkshire moors gets yet another adaptation — but this time, Promising Young Woman/Saltburn filmmaker Emerald Fennell is behind the camera, and she’s got two super-hot A-listers playing every bibliophile’s favorite pair of doomed lovers. (No disrespect, Romeo and Juliet!) Jacob Elordi, a.k.a. the star of Euphoria, Frankenstein, and your dreams, should bring the brooding sensuality as Heathcliff, and Margot Robbie, a.k.a. Barbie, Harley Quinn, and three-time Oscar nominee, puts her hand to her dampened-with-lust brow as gothic-lit’s first couple. We’ve heard rumors that whenever you watch the trailer online, any kettle within 100 yards of your laptop will simply start boiling of its own accord.

7. ‘EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert’ (February 20)

When Baz Lurhmann was researching his Elvis biopic, he came across reels of unused footage from two concert films from the early 1970s (Elvis: That’s the Way It Is and Elvis on Tour) in an archive in a Kansas salt mine. Some of it was extra performance footage, some of it was candid clips of Presley offstage — and in Lurhmann’s mind, all of it was fodder for a whole other documentary on the King of Rock & Roll. Epic, indeed. The film’s IMAX run (!) begins Feb. 20; it’ll hit general theaters Feb. 27.

8. ‘How to Make a Killing’ (February 20)

When he was but a wee lad, Beckett Redfellow was told by his mother that yes, he was indeed related to the rich and famous Redfellow family — think the Rockefellers meet the Murdochs, only wealthier. But Mom had been disowned by her kin when she became pregnant with him, and that’s why he grew up poor. Nonetheless, the boy would be seventh in line to inherit the family fortune. Fast forward a few decades, and let’s just say the now-adult Beckett (Glen Powell) would like to hurry up the process by any means necessary. “Killing” is in the title for a reason, people. Margaret Qualley, Ed Harris, Topher Grace, Zach Woods, and Bill Camp co-star. John Patton Ford (Emily the Criminal) directs.

9. ‘Man on the Run’ (February 27)

So there’s this guy from Liverpool named Paul, see, and he and his mates start a rock band. Long story short, they become kind of a big deal. Everybody loves ’em. Then the quartet call it quits. What’s this talented fella supposed to do now? Morgan Neville’s doc charts Paul McCartney’s post-Beatles career, from his first recordings after the Fab Four break up to his formation of the group Wings. If you’re the sort of Macca fan who heavily stans his solo joint Ram and knows all the words to “Magneto and Titanium Man” by heart, this one’s for you.

10. ‘The Bride!’ (March 6)

Actor turned director Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Lost Daughter) puts her own uniquely twisted spin on The Bride of Frankenstein, with our main man-slash-monster Frankie (Christian Bale) requesting that his maker supply him with a companion. He is then gifted with a bride (Jessie Buckley) who proves to be the perfect partner in crime. Like, literally: Did we mention that the story has been relocated to 1930s Chicago and refashioned as something like an old-timey gangster movie, with the couple going on a Bonnie and Clyde-like spree? Also there are musical numbers? The combination of a truly unleashed Buckley — whose performance in Hamnet remains the most earth-shattering thing we’ve seen in eons — and that exclamation point in the title suggests this one’s gonna be extra bananas.

11. ‘Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man’ (March 6)

When we last saw Tommy Shelby, Irish-Romani gangster and top dog of the Birmingham underworld, he’d burned down his house, burned every bridge in his old life, and ridden away into the sunset. Fans hoped they’d at least get a Peaky Blinders feature to definitively wrap things up after creator Steven Knight announced the sixth season of the popular crime show was its last. And, well, sometimes dreams do come true! Cillian Murphy returns as Shelby, ready to settle some scores. A number of series regulars, including Sophie Rundle and Stephen Graham, reprise their roles; franchise newbies Barry Keough, Rebecca Ferguson, and Tim Roth also jump on board.

12. ‘The Breadwinner’ (March 13)

He’s one of the most successful touring comics right now, selling out arenas across America — it was only a matter of time before Nate Bargatze got a starring role in his own movie comedy. Our man Nate plays an everydude who becomes a stay-at-home dad when his wife (Mandy Moore) starts her own business. He is, shall we say, actively learning on the job. So it’s a contemporary version of Mr. Mom starring the really dry, witty guy with the Southern drawl? OK, we’ll bite. Will Forte, Kumail Nanjiani, Kate Berlant, Colin Jost, and Severance‘s Zach Cherry fill out the supporting roster of funny folks.

13. ‘Project Hail Mary’ (March 20)

A middle-school science teacher (Ryan Gosling) is recruited by a government agent (The Zone of Interest‘s Sandra Huller) to travel millions of light years from Earth. The reason: Our sun is dying, as are a number of other infected “luminous spheroids of plasma held together by self-gravity” (thanks, Wikipedia!). There’s one distant star that’s unaffected by whatever is causing this celestial meltdown, however, and he’s apparently the only person that can save humanity. Also there is an alien who appears to be made of rocks and is called Rocky. The trailer makes it seem like there will be laughter, tears, and a whole lotta Gosling.

14. ‘Ready or Not 2: Here I Come’ (March 27)

That’s right, the 2019 class-conscious horror flick — featuring Samara Weaving fighting her way out of becoming a casualty in the world’s deadliest hide-and-seek game — gets a sequel. Part 2 picks up where the original left off, with Weaving’s “final girl” now having to contend with not just one horrible rich family, but a whole slew of them, all vying to take her down so they can keep their respective ill-gotten fortunes. Bad news for our hero: Her sister is now dragged into this as well. Good news for us: The sibling is played Kathyrn Newton, a strong contender for the greatest scream queen of her generation (see: Freaky, Abigail). Solid supporting cast, too: Sarah Michelle Gellar, David Cronenberg, Elijah Wood, The Faculty‘s Shawn Hatosy, Kevin Durand.

15. ‘The Drama’ (April 3)

Most engaged couples will tell you that they experience a minor case of the jitters before getting hitched. Charlie (Robert Pattinson) and Emma (Zendaya) are no different — they love each other, but they’re still nervous about the whole til-death-do-us-part thing leading up to their wedding. Then a secret is revealed, and suddenly, these newlyweds are in what appears to be a serious state of crisis. Given what writer-director Kristoffer Borgli put Nicolas Cage through in his previous film Dream Scenario (2023) — not to mention what the Norwegian filmmaker ginned up in the truly gnarly satire Sick of Myself (2022) — we’re more than a little concerned about what’s in store for these kids. Also cordially invited to this A24 production: Alana Haim, Mamoudou Athie, Zoë Winters, and Hailey Gates.

16. ‘Normal’ (April 17)

Bob Odenkirk continues his run as your favorite new AARP-aged action hero in this tense thriller about a sheriff settling into his job in a small Minnesota town. After he begins investigating a bank robbery, the lawman stumbles in to the middle of a vast criminal underground — and suddenly, the officer is under siege from a lotta locals who don’t like strangers meddling in their less-than-legal affairs. Not great, Bob. The mighty Ben Wheatley (Kill List, Down Terrace, Free Fire) is calling the shots behind the camera.

17. ‘Michael’ (April 26)

The ever-spinning music-biopic wheel has finally landed on Michael Jackson — and yes, director Antoine Fuqua’s look back at the life and times of the King of Pop has had its share of friction, funny you should ask! Casting Jafar Jackson to play his uncle Michael has been one of the few aspects of this project that hasn’t caused controversy, and both the Jackson estate and those with legal agreements regarding what can and can’t be depicted in the film have had their issues. “Complicated” doesn’t begin to describe the feelings around all of this. People will be able to judge for themselves in April. Colman Domingo, Miles Teller, Derek Luke, Nia Long, and Larenz Tate are on board as well.

18. ‘Mother Mary’ (Spring 2026)

Once upon a time, a singer (Anne Hathaway) and her go-to dressmaker (Michaela Coel) were inseparable. Then the former leveled up in her career, the two drifted apart, and, well, you know how it goes when it comes to suddenly being the major constellation in the pop-star universe. It’s time for a new world tour, however, and the musical icon wants her old friend to design her wardrobe. Except here’s a lot of bad blood that needs to be dealt with first. And some of that “dealing with it” may include the supernatural. We’d be psyched about whatever filmmaker David Lowery (A Ghost Story, The Green Knight, The Old Man and the Gun) has been up to, but judging from this creepy-ass trailer, his latest looks especially promising — and highly unsettling. Plus it features new music from Charli XCX, FKA Twigs, and Jack Antonoff.

19. ‘Marc by Sofia’ (Spring 2026)

From the Titular-Truth-in-Advertising department: Sofia Coppola makes what A24’s press release calls “an intimate, unconventional portrait” of her good friend Marc Jacobs. It’s the first nonfiction movie from the Lost in Translation filmmaker, and captures 12 weeks in the life of the fashion icon as he designs his spring collection in 2024. Word out of last year’s Venice Film Festival, where this premiered, was promising. And if anyone is going to get the gentleman to drop his guard and open up — as well as craft something more interesting and impressionistic than your standard clips-testimonial-rinse-repeat doc — it’s Ms. Coppola.

20. ‘The Adventures of Cliff Booth’ (2026)

OK, so this is exciting: Quentin Tarantino has indeed written a sequel to what’s arguably his best movie (please do not @ me, feel free to have a different opinion and discuss amongst yourselves), Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood. It’s allegedly set in the 1970s and centers around Brad Pitt’s stuntman Cliff Booth (!), with His Bradness reprising the role. And while Tarantino isn’t directing the movie — he’s said he wants his last official film to be something original and take place “in uncharted territory” — he did get someone of equal stature to helm it: David Freakin’ Fincher. This may well be the most anticipated of the Most Anticipated Movies of 2026.

21. ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2’ (May 1)

First off, it’s nice to know that the Prince of Darkness still has great taste in designers. Second, this sequel to the beloved 2006 rom-com — in which Anne Hathaway dealt with a demanding boss who is definitely not based on anyone in real life, nope, not at all or even a little bit — reunites the Les Mis Oscar-winner with her old co-stars Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, and Stanley “the Tooch” Tucci for more misadventures in the fashion-mag industry. Plus, the original’s director and screenwriter, David Frankel and Aline Brosh McKenna, respectively, are back in the fold as well. Joining the veterans: Lucy Liu, Justin Theroux, Kenneth Branagh, Rachel Bloom, Sydney Sweeney, Lady Gaga, and Donatella Versace. Let’s find out if details of an assistant’s incompetence still don’t interest Miranda Priestly, shall we?

22. ‘Hokum’ (May 1)

A haunted house movie set in Ireland, starring Severance‘s Adam Scott? You have our attention, Neon. We know the who and where; details are scarce on the what, how, and why of this horror film from writer-director Damian McCarthy (Caveat, Oddity). But the production company that gave us that cryptic, crazy-successful marketing campaign for Longlegs a few years ago is back to its old ballyhoo tricks, and this unnerving trailer does indeed do a good job selling this scary movie while giving away exactly nothing.

23. ‘Obsession’ (May 15)

The big headturner out of last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, writer-director Curry Barker’s debut feature is a spin on the old when-you-wish-upon-a-monkey’s-paw chestnut: A boy (Michael Johnston) is head over heels for a girl (Inde Navarrette). Worried that he’s stuck in the friend zone, he buys an item at a curio shop that will apparently make his dream of true love come true. It works not wisely but too well. Way, way too well. Barker takes his time with the wind-up, which only makes the eventual shift into high gear that much more of a jolt.

24. ‘I Love Boosters’ (May 22)

Writer, director, musician, and overall Renaissance man Boots Riley drops his latest satirical smart bomb, in which a group of professional, Oakland-based thieves led by Keke Palmer do battle with a fast-fashion CEO played by Demi Moore. It’s been picked as the opening night selection for SXSW, which bodes well in terms of how it will play with crowds hyped to have fun; if it’s one-third as outrageous as Riley’s 2018 feature debut Sorry to Bother You, we’re in for a wild ride. Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige, LaKeith Stanfield, Will Poulter, Eiza González, and Poppy Liu co-star.

25. ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’ (May 22)

The Star Wars movies begat the Star Wars TV series The Mandalorian, in which Pedro Pascal’s masked interstellar gunfighter must protect a young, Yoda-like child with a unique connection to the Force — and now that show gives us the latest big-screen adventure set in that good ol’ galaxy far, far away. Congrats, Grogu, you’ve graduated to in-the-title status! Sigourney Weaver joins the franchise as a former rebel pilot who now leads the starfighter squad known as the Adelphi Rangers; Jeremy Allen White plays Rotta the Hutt, Jabba’s son (!!!); and the series co-creator Dave Filoni will reprise his exquisitely named X-wing flyboy Trapper Wolf as well.

26. ‘It Ends’ (2026)

Anyone lucky enough to have caught this indie-horror gem from writer-director Alexander Ullom — about a group of kids who are driving home during their college break and mysteriously find themselves on a literal road to nowhere — on the festival circuit in 2025 can confirm that it’s one of the better genre film debuts in recent years. The fact that it quickly racked up viewers when Letterboxd added the movie to its online Video Store only added to its growing reputation, and now Neon had picked up the film for distribution. Trust us, you’ll wanna check this one out.

27. ‘Over Your Dead Body’ (2026)

If you’ve been listening to the Lonely Island and Seth Meyers podcast, you know former SNL writer and Popstar co-director Jorma Taccone spent a good portion of 2025 filming something in Finland. Now you’ll get a chance to see what he was up to. A remake of the 2021 Norwegian movie The Trip, this dark comedy follows a couple (Jason Segel and Samara Weaving) whose relationship is on the skids. Both of them are respectively planning to murder each other during an upcoming vacation. Then they’re taken hostage by some criminals on the lam from the law, and, well… nothing really messes up your homicide plans like a hostage situation, amirite? Juliette Lewis, Timothy Olyphant, and retired MMA fighter Keith Jardine add to the mayhem as well.

28. ‘Master of the Universe’ (June 5)

Just because you can make a film franchise out of a line of toys doesn’t mean you should make a movie franchise out of a line of toys — but that hasn’t stopped Mattel from trotting out this I.P. in the hopes of having its own in-house blockbuster series. You’re either very excited that the adventures of He-Man are getting the full summer-movie treatment or you need to see an ophthalmologist due to injuries incurred from too much eye-rolling. Nicholas Galitzine (Red, White and Royal Blue) is the super-jacked prince who moonlights as the savior of the galaxy; Jared Leto plays his nemesis, Skeletor; Alison Brie is the super-villainess Evil-Lyn; Idris Elba is He-Man’s second in command, Man-at-Arms; Morena Baccarin shows up as a sorceress; and Kristen Wiig voices a robot called Roboto.

29. ‘Disclosure Day’ (June 12)

For months, the new sci-fi movie on Universal’s summer schedule was simply known as the “Untitled Steve Spielberg UFO Movie” — and the thought that the legend behind Close Encounters of the Third Kind and War of the Worlds [Editor’s note: the Tom Cruise one, not the Ice Cube one] was revisiting the watch-the-skies subgenre was enough to get a lot of filmgoers drooling. The film now has a name, albeit one that brings up more questions than answers — what’s being disclosed, exactly? — and a trailer featuring Emily Blunt speaking in tongues that somehow muddies the waters even further. We know Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Colman Domingo, Eve Hewson, and Wyatt Russell all factor into this, as do what appears to be a lot of self-aware animals trying to nudge their human counterparts into some sort of epiphany. But who are we kidding? You had us at “Spielberg UFO Movie.”

30. ‘Toy Story 5’ (June 19)

After a few hit-and-miss swings at non-sequel material, Pixar goes back to the drawing board — get it? — for a sure thing, i.e. milking their O.G., game-changing animated hit for one more go-round. This time, Woody, Buzz, Jessie, and the rest of the gang must contend with their eight-year-old owner’s newest obsession: a smart tablet. Who thinks there might be some messaging about screen time versus play time, how technology is warping kids’ imaginations, and how not even the latest fancy-pants Silicon Valley gadget can truly replace good old-fashioned playthings? Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, John Ratzenberger, Tony Hale, Melissa Villaseñor, and Blake Clark return to voice their characters from the previous movies; Greta Lee, Conan O’Brien, Anna Faris, and Ghostbusters‘ Ernie Hudson are the new talent jumping into the fray.

31. ‘Supergirl’ (June 26)

Superman viewers probably remember Milly Alcock showing up at the end of James Gunn’s movie as the Man of Steel’s 23-year-old cousin Kara Zor-El, a.k.a. Supergirl — defender of truth, justice, and fighting for her right to party. This cosmic bar-hopper will now anchor the second movie in Gunn’s revamping of the DC Extended Universe, based on Tom King and Bilquis Evely’s comic Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. Enlisted by a teen (Eve Ridley) to help avenge the death of her father, our hero with the red cape and the wicked hangover must confront a host of bad guys and deal with the responsibility that comes with being one of the last Kryptonians alive. Jason Momoa trades in his gills for an interstellar biker get-up and a cigar to play Lobo, the fan-favorite badass mercenary. And yes, Krpyto is around to save the day, super-doggy–style, as well. Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya) directs.

32. ‘The Odyssey’ (July 17)

What do you do after you’ve revolutionized the superhero genre, cornered the wonky, psychologically dense puzzle-thriller market, and crafted the ultimate biopic on Shiva, Destroyer of Worlds? If you’re Christopher Nolan, you go back to the source — the original epic-poetic narrative of a hero’s journey. Matt Damon is Odysseus, Greek king of Ithaca who battles all sort of perils (witches, sirens, and cyclops, oh my!) so he may be reunited with his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) after the Trojan War. The actor bench is as deep as you’d expect in a Nolan IMAX extravaganza like this: Zendaya, Robert Pattinson, Tom Holland, Mia Goth, Lupita Nyong’o, Charlize Theron, Elliot Page, Mia Goth, Jon Bernthal, Samantha Morton, Benny Safdie, John Leguizamo… the list goes on. Go big or go Homer, we always say.

33. ‘Moana’ (July 30)

Do not ask, “Did we actually need a live-action version of the 2016 Disney animated film about a Polynesian girl who befriends a demigod and must save her island?” — that way, dear reader, lies only madness. Simply acknowledge the fact that Disney made a ridiculous amount of money off its live-action Lilo & Stitch last year, and that the unsolicited transformation of all your animated favorites into so-so redos with real actors has become an inevitability. We look forward to seeing what Catherina Laga’aia does with the title character, and you’ll now be able to watch Dwayne Johnson give the exact same performance as Maui rather than just listen to him do it. Plus, they got Thomas Kail, producer of Hamilton and one of the creators of Fosse/Verdon, to direct.

34. ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ (July 31)

Your friendly neighborhood arachnid-themed do-gooder is back for yet another adventure involving post-teen angst, great powers equaling great responsibilities, and a whole lotta webslinging. Tom Holland once again dons the mask and Zendaya once again graces the screen as MJ. The plot is being kept under wraps — no surprise there — but we do know that Mark Ruffalo will be on hand as the Hulk, Jon Bernthal’s Punisher is slated to show up, and Better Call Saul‘s Michael Mando will introduce the legendary Spidey villain Scorpion into the MCU. Stranger Things‘ Sadie Sink and Severance‘s Tramell Tillman have also been cast in yet-to-be-revealed roles.

35. ‘The Christophers’ (2026)

When does Steven Soderbergh find time to sleep? (Perhaps a better question is: Does Steven Soderbergh sleep at all?) After last year’s stellar ghost story (Presence) and the best spy-vs.-spy thriller in ages (Black Bag), the prolific filmmaker now gifts us with art heist film — or maybe it’s a heist art film? — involving a legendary painter (Ian McKellen) and his new assistant (Michaela Coel). The young woman has actually been hired by the artist’s heirs to steal a number of his unfinished works, complete them after he dies, and split the profits. Our guess? It gets complicated.

36. ‘Exit 8’ (2026)

The concept is simple: You’re walking down a corridor in a Tokyo subway underground. You notice everything around you, from advertisement posters to a passing fellow commuter. After turning a corner or two, you find yourself in the same hallway — but if you notice any “anomalies,” such a different billboard or an extra door, turn back. If everything is the exact same way it was the first time, proceed. Do this successfully eight times, and you can exit the building. The 2023 Japanese cult game doesn’t exactly scream “movie adaptation” when you play it. But director Genki Kawamura not only captures the feeling of existential panic and the flexing of deductive muscles the game generates; he also constructs a parable about parental anxiety and the peril of making bad choices — in and outside of this strange prison — as he puts his hero, the “Lost Man” (Kazunari Ninomiya), through his paces. The film was a highlight of last year’s festival circuit, and we’re glad Neon is giving it a proper release.

37. ‘Flowervale Street’ (August 14)

We’ve been waiting to see what David Robert Mitchell — the writer-director behind cult hits It Follows (2014) and Under the Silver Lake (2018) — would do next, and the answer is apparently a cryptic sci-fi movie. The logline is simply: “A family in the 1980s starts to notice bizarre happenings in their neighborhood.” Yes, it’s a fairly generic premise that could virtually go anywhere. But given how Mitchell managed to mine gold out of equally stock ideas like “curse is passed from one person to next” and “man stumbles across vast, hidden conspiracy,” our curiosity is piqued about this one. Nice, eclectic group of actors he’s corralled, too: Ewan McGregor, Anne Hathaway, My Old Ass breakout Maisy Stella, Sweet Tooth‘s Christian Convery, The Boys’ P.J. Byrne, The Deuce‘s Chris Coy.

38. ‘The Dog Stars’ (August 28)

New Ridley Scott joint incoming! The latest from Sir Ridley concerns a pilot (Jacob Elordi) who survives a deadly global pandemic and is left to navigate the postapocalypse with his faithful pooch and a crusty old marine (Josh Brolin) on an airbase. When one of his searches for supplies ends in disaster, he ends up befriending a rancher (Guy Pearce) and his daughter, a doctor (Margaret Qualley). Readers of Peter Heller’s 2012 novel know what’s in store for our hero. The rest of us will have to head to a theater to find out.

39. ‘Clayface’ (September 11)

If someone forced us to pick a legacy Batman villain that would be ripe for getting his or her own solo flick, Clayface would probably have been the second-to-last name we’d have chosen. (The last pick is naturally Hugo Strange and we will not be taking questions at this time.) But Mike Flanagan, the writer-director of Doctor Sleep, Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House adaptation, and numerous other spooky endeavors, pitched DC Studios heads James Gunn and Peter Safran a horror-centric tale involving an actor who can turn his body into shape-shifting clay, and look who’s now fronting the DCEU’s big fall movie! Because of scheduling conflicts, however, James Watkins (Speak No Evil) will be calling the shots on a script partially credited to Flanagan. Welsh actor Tom Rhys Harries (above) will play the title character; Naomi Ackie is the scientist who helps transform him; Max Minghella and Eddie Marsan show up to lend support.

40. ‘Sense and Sensibility’ (September 11)

Has it really been over 30 years since Emma Thompson and Ang Lee gave us that near-perfect screen adaptation of Jane Austen’s debut novel? How time flies when you’re left swooning over Hugh Grant’s dashing Edward Farrars. We were certainly overdue for a new version, and given the deft touch that Georgia Oakley displayed in her 2022 anti-bigotry drama Blue Jean, we have high hopes take on this literary warhorse. Daisy Edgar-Jones is Elinor Dashwood, the lovelorn young woman pining for Farrars, now played by George McKay (1917, The Beast). Fiona Shaw, Outlander‘s Catríona Balfe, and Frank Dillane round things out. Expect a display of some serious Austen powers here.

41. ‘Resident Evil’ (September 18)

Fresh off the success of Weapons, director (and dedicated gamer) Zach Cregger jumps into the Resident Evil franchise, with what sounds less like a reboot and more like a cinematic expansion pack. According to the director, his movie is set in the same universe as the popular PlayStation zombie-killing title, and will stick to the same rules as those RPGs and first-person shooters. But it will follow a new character — played by Cregger’s longtime actor-in-residence Austin Abrams — as he navigates his way through a signature landscape of mutants, creepazoids, and other “bio-organic weapons.” The filmmaker calls it a “love letter” to the games. OK!

42. ‘Digger’ (October 2)

Alejandro González Iñárritu truly loves immersive, intense moviemaking — if you’ve seen Birdman and The Revenant, you know what we mean — so the thought of him collaborating on the movie with the totally chill Tom Cruise (joke alert!) was always going to get tongues wagging. Until recently, their mystery project was simply known as the “Iñárritu/Cruise” film; we now know it’s a dark comedy that takes its title from Cruise’s name Digger Rockwell, “the most powerful man in the world.” And the logline is essentially that Rockwell causes some sort of catastrophe, and has to try to make things right again before something akin to Armageddon occurs. Dropping by for the end of the world as well: Jesse Plemons, Sandra Huller, Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Emma D’Arcy, and Michael Stuhlbarg.

43. ‘Verity’ (October 2)

The cinéma du Colleen Hoover continues, with the novelist’s 2018 psychological thriller getting the A-list treatment. A young woman (Dakota Johnson) is hired to finish the bestselling series of a popular author (Anne Hathaway) after the latter is waylaid by an accident. The more this ghostwriter dives into her employer’s history, however, the more it seems like her condition was not due to an “accident.” Let’s hope this one doesn’t end in lawsuits.

44. ‘The Social Reckoning’ (October 9)

Don’t call it a sequel — Aaron Sorkin’s revisit to the world of Facebook corporate shenanigans is being listed as a “companion piece” to his Oscar-winning film The Social Network, not a Part II. This time, Sorkin is doing double duty as writer and director, and he’s training his focus on Frances Haugen, the product manager turned whistleblower who passed along internal documents detailing all types of dodgy decisions at Zuckerberg Inc. involving misinformation peddling, election misinformation, and worse. Mikey Madison plays Haugen; Jeremy Strong brings his characteristic Method madness to Mark Zuckerberg; Jeremy Allen White is Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz.

45. ‘Remain’ (October 23)

M. Night Shyamalan teams up with bestselling author Nicolas Sparks — a series of words we never, ever thought we’d be writing — for this potboiler about an architect (Jake Gyllenhaal) mourning the death of a family member. He decides to take his mind off things by designing a house in Cape Cod for his closest friend; while there, he meets a young woman (Fair Play‘s Phoebe Dynevor) who throws a monkey wrench into his attempts at mental and emotional stability. Expect a last-minute twist.

46. ‘The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping’ (November 20)

Ah yes, another Hunger Games prequel! This was takes place roughly a quarter of a century before the original movie, with a handsome young Haymitch Abernathy (played by handsome young Australian actor Joseph Zada) competing in the games — but there’s a catch. Because of some obscure rule or another, this particular competition requires not one but two tributes from each district. This means Haymitch has to go toe to toe with one of his neighbors as well as his fellow citizens, in the form of District 12 resident Maysilee Donner (McKenna Grace). The franchise’s resident auteur Francis Lawrence directs.

47. ‘Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew’ (November 26)

Greta Gerwig is using her post-Barbie clout to reimagine the through-the-wardrobe-and-back-again world of C.S. Lewis’ fantasy novels — and if there has to be yet another stab at bringing Narnia to the screen, we thank Azlan that it’s Gerwig who’s in charge of it. She’s tackling the sixth book in the series, a prequel which involves magic rings, pools which double as portals to other universes, regal witches (naturally), and two English kids who get into a number of sticky, otherworldly situations. The cast includes Carey Mulligan, Daniel Craig, Emma Mackey, and Andor‘s Denise Gough. Thankfully, Netflix is giving this holiday release an IMAX theatrical run at the end of November, before dropping the film on its service on Christmas Day.

48. ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ (December 18)

Marvel Studios has already started dropping teasers for its next big all-star superhero epic, which promises to not only bring back a lot of favorites — Chris Evans’ Steve Rogers, Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, Robert Downey Jr. except now he’s Doctor Doom — but also to finally, fully integrate a lot of former I.P. properties (the X-Men, the Fantastic Four) into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Even the ridiculously long reveal of the cast list was treated like a major event. Details are scarce regarding the plot, but we know this will help kick the next “phase” of the MCU into full gear. If we had to hazard a guess, it will likely involve Doom fucking some shit up big-time, and every living, dead, formerly dead, and alt-timeline superhero trying to stop him, lest the universe be in fatal peril, etc. Let’s see how close our predictions are come next December.

49. ‘Dune: Part 3’ (December 18)

And we’re back! Denis Villeneuve will finish what he started back in 2021 with this final chapter of his sci-fi epic, which will follow Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) as he gets a little spice-drunk with power, what with him being the new emperor and all. This chapter draws heavily from Frank Herbert’s second book in the series, Dune Messiah, which revolves around a religious jihad that helps Paul maintain his reign yet spirals out of his control — so brace yourself for both a lot of spectacle and even more reel-to-real commentary about the world outside the theater. Zendaya, Josh Brolin, Rebecca Ferguson, Florence Pugh, Jason Momoa, and Anya Taylor-Joy reprise their roles from the earlier films; Robert Pattinson joins the cast as a yet-unnamed character.

50. ‘Werewulf’ (December 25)

He’s taken on witches and vampires — now Robert Eggers digs into the mythology around lycanthropes. The writer-director hasn’t said much about the specifics of his tale regarding a werewolf terrorizing a medieval town, but he has confessed that this is the “darkest thing I’ve ever written by far,” which… yikes. Card-carrying members of Eggers repertory company Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Lily-Rose Depp, Willem Dafoe, and Ralph Ineson will help our man carry out his vision of sheer, blood-curdling terror. The fact that it’s coming out on Christmas Day may seem counterintuitive, but remember that Eggers released Nosferatu on that holiday as well, and look how well that turned out.

Fom Rolling Stone US.

The post The 50 Most Anticipated New Movies of 2026 appeared first on Rolling Stone India.

There are two dates that are considered sacred to movie lovers, film historians, and those who diligently chart the evolution of the seventh art. The first is October 6th, 1927, when Al Jolson told the audience “you ain’t seen nothin’ yet!” and The Jazz Singer officially ushered in the sound era. The second is December 9th, 2009, a.k.a. the premiere of Avatar, when the general pubic could finally bask in what James Cameron had conjured up in the name of turning the fantastic into the eerily photorealistic, and hear characters breezily throw around the word “unobtainium.”

We’re kidding (or are we?!), yet you can’t underestimate how seismic this blockbuster was in terms of technological breakthroughs any more than you could blow off its box-office bona fides — it remains the highest grossing movie to date. Nor could you deny that all that hyperpixelized 3D sound and fury was being utilized to tell a story that felt as elemental and simplistic as a cave painting. It was part of Avatar‘s global appeal as much as the overwhelming visuals; love, war, and the colonial ransacking of resources in the name of corporate bottom lines tend to play universally. For some, it also had the feeling of several philharmonic orchestras being assembled to play an extravagantly Wagnerian rendition of “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”

Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) made up for that aspect by quadrupling the in-franchise mythology and pioneering underwater performance-capture filmmaking, thus combining three of Cameron’s passions: deep-sea exploration, developing state-of-the-art tech, and putting actors through hell. Everyone now expects the writer, director, and King of the World to reinvent the wheel every time out, yet three films into what he’s said is a five-film series, Avatar: Fire and Ash suggests that he’s happy to simply settle into a groove for a bit. There are more stand-offs between the natives of Pandora and the “sky people” who want to ransack the planet, more family drama and ecological strife, more firefights in the heavens and on the All-Mother’s earth, more blue-skinned teens calling each other “bro.” Familiarity doesn’t breed outright contempt here, but it certainly doesn’t inspire shock or awe, either. The story continues, while Cameron goes to great pains to give the people what he believes they want: the most expensive three-hour video-game cut scene ever made. Mission accomplished.

Abandon hope, all ye who do not remember every single detail of the previous two films or possess a Ph.D in Avatar Narrative History 101. Part Three throws viewers right into the fire, with the Sullys collectively mourning the loss of their eldest child at the end of The Way of Water. Their collective grief is interrupted by the fact that the resident human among them, Spider — played by Jack Champion, whose name sounds like a James Cameron character — is in need of help ASAP. The batteries on his oxygen mask have a habit of cutting out at inconvenient moments, so Jake (Sam Worthington) makes an executive decision: The kid needs to return to his kind. His wife Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), his son and Spider’s best bro Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), their adopted daughter Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), and the Sullys’ youngest, Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), don’t want him to leave. Spider’s whole vibe is very “Whoa, think I took too many ‘shrooms during Phish’s second set,” and his survival may be at risk, but this “pinkskin?” He’s still family.

The idea is that they’ll transport Spider back to the base where the Na’vi-friendly humans live via caravan, with members of the reef tribe known as the Metkayina accompanying them for safety. It will be an adventure, Jake says. It will also be an ambush. Because there’s this other tribe, see, called the Mangkwan, and because their home terrain was in the path of a raging volcano, they’ve essentially become warring godless heathen. Led by Varang (Oona Chaplin, Charlie’s granddaughter), they swoop down on the group’s blimp-like skyships and give Cameron & co. the chance to break up the handwringing by staging a massive attack sequence. The Sullys are split up. Spider nearly asphyxiates to death, until Kiri connects him to the spirit that connects all living things on Pandora and voila, the kid with the dreads can survive without a mask now.

Meanwhile, Spider’s biological dad, Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) — tough-as-shit marine, former dead person resurrected as a human-Na’vi “recombinant,” big blue bad guy — still wants to capture Jake for being a “traitor to humanity.” If he has to form an alliance with Varang and Mangkwan to make that happen, and if said alliance means he’s going to get horizontal with this unhinged kindred warrior, so be it. Plus: Evil scientists, venture capitalists, and shorts-wearing former corporate bigwig Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi) all want to study Spider to see if they can replicate his ability to breath Pandora’s air, which would be gamechanging in terms of strip mining resources en masse. Also: The tulkun, those whale-like creatures with their own tribal culture, are still being hunted for their brain juice, and still stick to their pacifist ways; their exile of a member that fought back has Lo’ak in a tizzy. And: the Metkayina remain skeptical that Jake is the one meant to unite all tribes, and fear his presence will once again bring enemies to their home.

Lots going on here subplots-wise, in other words. Lot of eye candy being served up, in great big scoopfuls. A whole lotta lead-up to a huge, epic battle that takes up the bulk of Fire and Ash‘s final quarter, cross-cut between skirmishes in the sky and aquamarine melees, punctuated by huge beasties going full kaiju on ships and mecha-suited troops. There are births and deaths and the reminder that, for all of the digital blitzkrieg on display, the performance-capture technology that Cameron helped both upgrade and refine remains the secret weapon of this whole endeavor. Some actors utilize this in a way that feels both thrilling (Lang and Chaplin create the best villainous double act since Boris and Natasha) and extremely impressive (God bless Weaver, who does such an incredible job channeling an emotional 16-year-old that you forget the character isn’t being played by an adolescent). Others are merely forced to say lines like “The fire of hate leaves only the ashes of grief,” or “When you ride the beast, you become the beast,” or “We do not suck on the breast of weakness,” and pray the digi-touch-up team ensures their characters keep straight faces while delivering such howlers.

Cameron has said that the fate of Chapters Four and Five will depend on the financial success of Fire and Ash, and that if necessary, this could function as the final movie of a trilogy. But who the fuck are we kidding here? This is not the huge leap forward that the previous Avatars were — there’s a distinct middle-child feel to all of this, and the filmmaker’s insistence that the next two movies are gonna be out of this world only heightens the feel that this one’s here to get you from one point to the next. But it’s still an Avatar movie, which means it will still likely make a gajillion dollars no matter what, and we’ll still be left wondering, either reluctantly or breathlessly, what happens next. You can crow about the fact that it’s merely a going-native narrative dressed up in fancy 1’s and 0’s, or that this I.P. leaves little to no cultural footprint, or that its hodgepodge of Joseph Campbell and Alan Watts and mix-and-match Indigenous cultural myths is somehow way too much yet not nearly enough. More are coming. It’s just a question of when.

The irony is that the Avatar films are the products of a true visionary who’s figured out a new way of storytelling without having a new story to tell, and has simply made a bigger, bolder, more bleeding-edge campfire around which to sit while the old warhorse origin tales are trotted out. These movies have also bled a lot of viewers’ love of spectacle dry in the process, to the point where even a mammoth production like this feel like business as usual. You may feel, with its immersive 3D set pieces and screensaver imagery blown up to IMAX proportions, that you’re entering a bold new world. But transportive is not the same as transcendent. The piles of ash here looks and sounds phenomenal. What you would not give to feel some actual fire burning behind all of this.

From Rolling Stone US.

The post ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ Is the Most Expensive Video-Game Cut Scene Ever Made appeared first on Rolling Stone India.

This year in television gave us stunning breakouts (newcomer Owen Cooper in Adolescence), crowd-pleasing comebacks (good to see you, Matthew Macfadyen, even behind that scraggly Death by Lightning beard), and long-awaited kudos for journeymen (and -women) of the small screen (see: Katherine LaNasa on The Pitt). It was 12 months full of good TV — and truly great acting that made it all come alive. Here, in alphabetical order, are our 10 favorite performances of 2005.

Photographs in Illustration: Sarah Shatz/FX; Shane Brown/FX; Apple TV; Kenny Laubbacher/HBO

Odessa A’zion, ‘I Love LA’

Odessa A’zion was like a husky-voiced tornado barreling into movies and television this year. On the film side, she’s a wonder in Marty Supreme. On TV, she’s the most entrancing thing about Rachel Sennott’s I Love LA, a whirlwind of chaos with untamable hair and a stolen Balenciaga. A’zion plays Tallulah, the bestie and also client to Sennott’s Maia, an aspiring talent manager. Tallulah is hoping to make it as an influencer, but she’s not quite driven or ruthless enough to make it big just yet. A’zion plays her with a natural charm that makes it clear why people are drawn to her, but adds in a hefty dose of vulnerability so it’s evident this girl is a little bit of an outsider. She might be incredibly messy, but you can’t help but root for her. That’s the magic of A’zion’s elastic face. —Esther Zuckerman

Christopher Chung, ‘Slow Horses’

Roddy Ho is disgusting. He is crude and rude and sexist and all manner of gross. Christopher Chung as Roddy Ho, however, is a singular delight. This season of Slow Horses put a spotlight on Chung’s performance as the Slough House gang’s resident IT whiz. Chung was the star from the season’s very first scene, which featured a sweatsuit-clad Ho dancing his way to work along to (what else?) Robert Palmer’s “Simply Irresistible.” His dancing commute sees him harass multiple women and kicks off some fresh spy games with a near-death experience — but, more importantly, it shows off Chung’s honest-to-goodness moves. Chung, who has a real-life side hustle as a personal trainer in London, manages to make Slow Horses’ slimiest misfit into an absolute thrill whenever he’s onscreen. Roddy Ho forever. —Claire McNear

Stephen Graham, ‘Adolescence’

Fans of the Liverpudlian actor have been raving themselves hoarse over both his film and British TV work for years (we implore you to seek out not just the three This Is England series that extended the mods-and-sods universe of the 2006 movie, but also The Virtues, his equally great 2019 collaboration with Shane Meadows). To see Graham finally get his flowers on these shores for this devastating limited series, about the aftermath of a 13-year-old boy’s murder of a classmate, was a huge vindication. And while we’re blown away by deserving Emmy winners Owen Cooper and Erin Doherty’s work in that standout third episode, it’s Graham who truly anchors this drama about the corrosive effects of incel culture on young men. The moment he realizes that his child is actually guilty and reflexively recoils from him is gutting enough. Yet the way Graham plays this father’s confusion, protectiveness, anger, and genuine sorrow over what’s happened to his son is the emotional backbone of the entire endeavor. That long-building breakdown at the end is enough to leave you raw and in tears as well. —David Fear

Ethan Hawke, ‘The Lowdown’

There is no television character this year that seems like a better hang than Ethan Hawke’s Lee Raybon on Sterlin Harjo’s Oklahoma-set noir The Lowdown. Lee is a self appointed “truthstorian,” a journalist and bookstore owner who has a habit of getting in trouble for digging too deep into the muck of local conspiracies. Hawke plays Lee with a ragtag energy that’s absolutely infectious. You can see how he’s both a nuisance and a smooth operator, as the actor melds his years of heartthrob status with the rough edges of someone who has seen it all. The performance adds to an incredible year for Hawke, who is also phenomenal in Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon, playing a character in complete opposition to Lee: the midcentury composer Lorenz Hart. —E.Z.

Tom Pelphrey, ‘Task’

Most people were probably introduced to Tom Pelphrey via his one-season arc on Ozark — his take on a lost-soul sibling in a downward spiral remains the highlight of that show. In Brad Ingelsby’s follow-up to Mare of Easttown, he gets the chance to truly flex his chops, playing a sanitation worker whose side hustle is robbing local trap houses with a small crew in Pennsylvania’s Delco region. There’s a personal aspect to his character Robbie Pendegrast’s crime wave, which involves his family and an old score that needs settling; things get even more complicated when one of their raids goes horribly wrong and he must bring a victim’s son into his already chaotic household. Pelphrey turns this morally conflicted criminal into a walking contradiction, capable of both incredible tenderness and violence. What really makes his work stand out is how deftly he nails the compartmentalization of someone who’s got to balance vengeance and survival, emotional ties with righteous fury. It’s one of the least fussy yet most layered TV performances we’ve seen on a premium-cable prestige drama in years. And keep your tissues handy for his turn in the justifiably praised Episode Six. —D.F.

Rhea Seehorn, ‘Pluribus’

Vince Gilligan is keenly aware of the power of Rhea Seehorn’s face, and he makes incredible use of it in Pluribus, where the Better Call Saul star plays Carol Sturka, a woman who suddenly becomes one of the few people on Earth able to feel unhappiness. The series makes it clear that Carol wasn’t a particularly peppy person before most of the planet’s human citizens were turned into a smiling hivemind, but the juxtaposition of the barely buried anger in her eyes and her neighbors’ newfound joy is powerful. Though it’s not just simmering rage that makes Seehorn great; it’s also her ability to hit a punchline. She’s our sardonic avatar, carrying skepticism on her shoulders, cracking jokes as she tries to figure out just what the hell is going on in this not-so-brave new world. —E.Z.

Will Sharpe, ‘Too Much’

In a show that was often exactly as advertised in its title, Will Sharpe leapt off the screen as a paragon of nuance and subtlety. His indie musician Felix, boyfriend to Megan Stalter’s exuberant Jessica, was a fully realized human instead of just a manic pixie dream guy — sweet without being a pushover, diffident but self-assured, aloof yet tender. Sharpe played moments of sincerity with an edge, imbued with intellect and vulnerability lurking behind Felix’s eyes. In nearly every scene, he offered viewers a bit of much needed breathing room amid Jess’ histrionics. Previously best known for his appearance in The White Lotus Season Two as Ethan, tech bro husband to Aubrey Plaza’s Harper, and for playing a tour guide in Jesse Eisenberg’s Oscar-nominated dramedy A Real Pain, the London-born actor proved with Too Much that he can carry a series — even one that’s not centered on him. —Maria Fontoura

Tramell Tillman, ‘Severance’

Tramell Tillman was already one of the big breakouts out of the initial season of Apple TV’s hit dystopian workplace comedy — he’ll forever be synonymous with the phrase “defiant jazz.” Season Two, however, is where Tillman gets to add new levels to his smiling corporate enforcer Seth Milchick. He lets you see the cracks in the armor as Milchick starts to question both Lumon Industries’ methods and the company ceiling he’s starting to bump his against. By the end, he’s left trapped in both the office bathroom and a prison of his own making. Tillman still gets his share of showstopping set pieces — that marching band sequence is a killer. But the moment we keep going back to comes in Episode Three, when Milchick is presented with a series of paintings intended to make him feel like a part of Lumon’s mythological backstory. His murmured “Oh, my” speaks louder than any cri de coeur. There are centuries of social history that play out in miniature in Tillman’s exchanges with his scene partner Sydney Cole Alexander. The actor simply plays the dented dignity and cascade of tamped-down emotions that Milchick, and thousands of workers in similar situations, would feel. Then he goes right back to work. —D.F.

Michelle Williams, ‘Dying for Sex’

Michelle Williams is one of the most open-hearted performers working today, and that is evident in Dying for Sex, where she plays Molly, a woman with stage 4 cancer who leaves her husband to explore her sexual desires. Too many other actors would only focus on the tragedy of this scenario. Instead, Williams leans into Molly’s humor, whether she’s figuring out that she likes to dominate men or losing herself to an afternoon of masturbation. Yes, Williams is also able to make you weep, but she does so with a delicacy that would be impossible to replicate. When you inevitably lose Molly, it cuts deep because this person feels so real in Williams’ hands. She turns Molly into your best friend over the course of the limited series’ run. —E.Z.

Noah Wyle, ‘The Pitt’

Has there ever been an actor so fully melded with one of their characters in the public consciousness as Noah Wyle is with Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch? Be honest: If you had a horrific accident with a meat grinder at home, you would fully expect Noah Wyle could arrive and save your mangled forearm. And so would we. Not only that, he’d do it with all the calm and focus of Dr. Robby, and the heart and gravitas of a man who’s seen every type of tragedy darken his emergency department door over decades on the job. It would be a dangerous thing for many actors to return to a genre well that made them a star years prior. But ER veteran Wyle is so invested in the characters and stories of his new show (he also writes, directs, and serves as executive producer), that past experience only brings his performance to new heights. Noah Wyle is Dr. Robby. There’s no separating the two, and we hope it stays that way for as long as he keeps making The Pitt. —M.F.

From Rolling Stone US.

The post The 10 Best TV Performances of 2025 appeared first on Rolling Stone India.

Rob Reiner may not have been an auteur on the level of contemporaries like Martin Scorsese or Steven Spielberg, but you’d be hard pressed to find a director whose filmography had a bigger, broader impact on popular culture than Reiner’s over a roughly 10-year stretch from the mid-Eighties to mid-Nineties. Reiner had a nimble hand, working across genres from mockumentary to rom-com to thrillers — an underrated skill few directors can claim — and letting stories shine through his actors, who he treated with palpable tenderness onscreen. If there is a hallmark that unifies and defines his work, it’s an unwavering humanity and belief that our better nature will always prevail. Here are eight classic films he contributed to the American canon.

‘This Is Spinal Tap’ (1984)

Music’s heaviest genre hit critical mass in 1983 when “heavy metal day” at the US Festival attracted an estimated 375,000 headbangers in May and, six months later, Quiet Riot notched Billboard’s first metal Number One. A year later, three comedians — Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, and Harry Shearer — starred in the metal mockumentary, This Is Spinal Tap. Reiner, who directed and co-wrote the picture, played straight-man documentarian Martin “Marty” Di Bergi, following the band on a comically disastrous U.S. tour. The film’s gags would become legendary among music fans: There’s an amplifier that goes “one louder” (to 11), an all-black album cover, a miniscule Stonehenge stage set, and a “shit sandwich” record review. Some of the movie’s jokes even foreshadowed and mirrored real life events. In fact, as ridiculous as the movie seemed, Ozzy Osbourne thought it was a genuine documentary. “When I went to see it, I was the only person in the audience that wasn’t laughing… because those things actually happened,” he once told Conan O’Brien. “When they got lost going to the stage, that happened [to me]!” —Kory Grow

‘Stand By Me’ (1986)

Reiner took the inner lives of young people seriously. It was one of his gifts, never more foregrounded than in this coming-of-age story that defined a generation. Based on the short story “The Body” by Stephen King, this tale of four young men trying to find the body of a missing boy works because it paints its main characters — Wil Wheaton’s sensitive Gordie, River Phoenix’s tough-but-tender Chris, Corey Feldman’s volatile Teddy, and Jerry O’Connell’s sweet and dopey Vern — with deep humanity and heart. Nominated for the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, it’s another project for which Reiner’s direction often doesn’t get enough credit. He guided these young actors, especially Phoenix and Wheaton, to performances that felt like people we knew or even people we were. Perhaps that’s because Reiner connected with the story, too. “Stand By Me means more to me than any of the other films I’ve made,” he told The Guardian in 2021. “It was the first time I did a film that reflected my own personal sensibility; it had a mixture of melancholy, humor, and nostalgia… The music I listened to and the feelings I had in relation to my father, I injected into the film. When it came out and was accepted it validated me.” —Brian Tallerico

‘The Princess Bride’ (1987)

This action-romance-fantasy-adventure story was a disappointing box-office draw that became a huge cult classic in the decades following its release. Directors Norman Jewison, Robert Redford, and even Francois Truffaut reportedly had inquired about adapting its source material, the 1973 William Goldman book of the same name. But it was Reiner who won over the author. The first actor he brought on: his buddy Billy Crystal, who helped set the cutting-yet-kind tone of the entire film. The bedtime story-within-the-story follows farm boy turned pirate Westley (Carey Elwes), who must save Princess Buttercup (Robin Wright) from the evil Prince Humperdink (Chris Sarandon). Joining him on his mission are the intense swashbuckler Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin), who is set on avenging his father’s death, and sweet oaf Fezzik (Andre the Giant), who just wants to help. There’s fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles, and yes, even some kissing, resulting in a childhood touchstone that holds up almost 40 years later. To have anyone else behind the camera on this would be inconceivable. —Elisabeth Garber-Paul

‘When Harry Met Sally …’ (1989)

There was a time when Hollywood minted frothy rom-coms, but by 1989 they had become hopelessly schmaltzy box-office duds. Not so When Harry Met Sally…, an unsentimental, knee-slapping tearjerker that reinvented the beloved genre by asking the very modern question: Can men and women be friends? (Maybe.) Reiner deftly manages Nora Ephron’s tart screenplay and the easygoing talents of his stars, Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal, teasing out two timeless performances. As a director, he naturally finds messy humans funny. Ryan’s fake orgasm at Katz’s Delicatessen is one of cinema’s most famous scenes, and “I’ll have what she’s having” is cemented in the popular lexicon. When Harry Met Sally… transcends the traditional rom-com with inventive larks: real-life lovebird interviews, 12 years’ worth of unexpected time jumps, and hilarious supporting turns from Bruno Kirby and Carrie Fisher. But it’s the roller-coaster, will-they-won’t-they chemistry between the leads — and the warm, forgiving eye behind the camera — that makes this one of the best comedies of all time. —John DeVore

‘Misery’ (1990)

There’s only one film based on a Stephen King book to win an Oscar and it’s not The Shining or The Shawshank Redemption. Relatively unknown at the time of her casting, future Oscar winner Kathy Bates shook the movie world when she stepped into the shoes of the terrifying Annie Wilkes, deranged Number One fan of James Caan’s celebrated author Paul Sheldon. Tapping into issues around fan culture and what artists owe their most loyal supporters, Misery now seems ahead of its time thematically; but it was a bolt of lightning to experience back then, a thriller perfectly calibrated — thanks to Reiner’s direction — in terms of how it ratchets up the tension. Reiner and writer William Goldman also incorporate humor into the horror, making us laugh uncomfortably at Annie’s behavior while we wonder what the hell she’s going to do next with the man she’s taken prisoner in her home. She was a true “dirty birdy.” —B.T.

‘A Few Good Men’ (1992)

Go back and read the reviews that were published when this Best Picture-nominated courtroom drama came out, and you’ll notice one particular sentiment expressed again and again: “This is the sort of sharp entertainment Hollywood used to make all the time.” Those words are even truer more than 30 years later. Working from Aaron Sorkin’s electric screenplay, Reiner tapped into perhaps his greatest strength as an actor’s director — someone who knew how to stay out of the way of his talented cast, giving them the room to deliver a good script’s best moments. His classical filmmaking style was also crucial here, as Tom Cruise’s hotshot lawyer goes after Jack Nicholson’s arrogant colonel, their verbal parrying and thrusting all the juicier because of Reiner’s crisp, unfussy staging. Never forget, however, that the director wasn’t just making thrilling popcorn fare: This film’s advocacy for truth and accountability echoed Reiner’s own stubborn belief in an America that might, occasionally, live up to its highest ideals. —Tim Grierson

‘The American President’ (1995)

Practically a rough draft for Aaron Sorkin’s later triumph, The West Wing, this endearing romantic comedy was where the writer first started mulling the inner workings of the presidency. But it took Rob Reiner to make The American President sing. The premise is perfect: A kind, progressive president (Michael Douglas) mourning the death of his wife falls for a strong-willed lobbyist (Annette Bening) who feels he isn’t doing enough in his job to substantially improve people’s lives. In another age, maybe Frank Capra or Preston Sturges would have been behind the camera, but during Reiner’s heyday, none of his contemporaries could have delivered a love story this charming, fundamentally decent, and stirringly idealistic. The film has just the right combination of pathos and polish, making the most of its dramatic moments while also savoring the sexy, witty rapport between Douglas and Bening. Martin Sheen played Douglas’ chief of staff — the veteran actor would get a promotion when The West Wing came around. But with The American President, Reiner first suggested the enormous potential of capturing the messy, colorful humanity of the people who work at the White House. —T.G.

‘Spinal Tap II: The End Continues’ (2025)

When Reiner talked to Rolling Stone back in August, he admitted he’d never really thought about making a sequel to his beloved directorial debut. But after Harry Shearer won a long legal battle to regain the rights to the 1984 cult classic, the director found himself surrounded by his old cohorts and wondering aloud: Should we do something with Tap again? One of them came up with the idea of reuniting the aged rockers for a final concert. The result plays like one long, affectionate farewell to the concept that started it all — a playful poke at the idea that even if it’s now too loud, you’re never too old to rock & roll. They even got Paul McCartney and Elton John to join in on the fun. (Be careful around those Stonehenge monuments, Sir Elton!) The fact that this would end up being Reiner’s last project now makes everything around Spinal Tap II feel bittersweet. But his ability to bring the story full circle dials our gratitude up to 11. —David Fear

From Rolling Stone US.

The post Rob Reiner: 8 Essential Movies appeared first on Rolling Stone India.

2025 was a year that posed a lot of questions for movie lovers: Did the success of Sinners prove that there was still a mass audience hungry for original (read: non-IP) stories on a blockbuster level? Does Ryan Coogler’s historic deal to have the film rights revert back to him in 25 years change how Hollywood deals with creative talent? How would James Gunn’s reboot of Superman transform the fate and fortunes of the DC cinematic universe? What was the ideal format to see One Battle After Another? Which would be the bigger existential threat to the medium — the continuing atrophy of the traditional theatrical experience or the introduction of the first AI “star”? Would Hamnet make you cry two gallons of tears, or three? Was Brad Pitt really driving those Formula 1 cars in F1? What the hell, exactly, is a KPop Demon Hunter?

It was also a truly great year for great movies, period. We had to kill a number of darlings to get the following best-of-2025 down to 20 films. And between the various film-festival premieres, brief Oscar-qualifying runs, streaming-only standouts, and a number of left-field surprises, we could have easily doubled this list. (Special shout-outs to: Blue Moon, F1, Is This Thing On?, One to One: John & Yoko, My Undesirable Friends, The President’s Cake, The Secret Agent, Sinners, Sirat, and The Voice of Hind Rajab.) A number of name-brand auteurs reminded us why they’ve earned the title. Several newcomers released the sort of knockout debut features that made the future of film seem brighter. We got not one but two backstories behind the making of not one but two very different masterpieces, set centuries apart. For every major disappointment, there were two or three big swings that connected in ways that inspired audiences, instigated conversations, and instilled hope in a way that the world outside of the theater did not.

These 20 titles aren’t just the highlights of the last 12 months. They’re the ones we’ll likely be going back to year after year. From an epic tale of resistance to a personal reimagining of a gothic horror classic, welcome to the best movies of 2025.

Photographs in Illustration: Neon; Warner Bros.; Agata Grzybowska/Focus Features; Netflix

20. ‘Weapons’

By this point, you likely know the central secret behind writer-director Zach Cregger’s ambitious follow-up to his Airbnb horror flick Barbarian (2022), and understand why veteran actor Amy Madigan is now generating a lot of awards-season heat for her portrayal of a mysterious, unwelcome houseguest. Even after all of this psychological thriller’s cards have been turned over, however, Cregger’s tale of the unexplained disappearance of 17 children in the middle of the night still manages to cast a chill. Juggling several different narratives and re-viewing events from the perspectives of a teacher (Julia Garner), one of her young students (Cary Christopher, amazing), the father (Josh Brolin) of a missing kid, and several others, the movie has a penchant for toying with viewers in the same way a predatory cat toys with a wounded mouse. The go-for-broke climax is well-earned, yet it’s the deft way that Cregger weaves between storylines and sets everything up for the kill that sticks with you more than the payoff itself. It’s a horror movie that knows how to hit its targets. (Read the review here.)

19. ‘Frankenstein’

Guillermo del Toro finally tackled the movie he was born to make, and his take on Mary Shelley’s misunderstood monster and the man who made him is exactly what you’d hope for: tony yet pulpy, tender yet perverse, faithful to the source material while paying homage to all sorts of other Gothic and genre-related influences. Above all, however, it’s a passionately personal story about being an outcast, and trying to break cycles of bad parenting — no, seriously — that does not skimp on bringing the sound and the fury. Oscar Isaac’s Victor Frankenstein is part 18th-century dandy and part swaggering Swinging Sixties rock star, as if Lord Byron had been genetically spliced with Brian Jones. And for those who only know Jacob Elordi from Euphoria, his sympathetic interpretation of the creature as both an innocent and an angel of vengeance is eye-opening. (Read the review here.)

18. ‘Caught by the Tides’

Sifting through old footage during the pandemic, Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke (Unknown Pleasures, Still Life) came up with the idea of using outtakes and scenes from his previous films — all of which featured his longtime actors Tao Zhao and Zhubin Li — to craft something new. For a while, you ride shotgun through a stream-of-consciousness tour through the nation’s cities and rural provinces, complete with corporate-sponsored pageantry and personal strife. It’s only when you get to the final third of the movie that Jia drops the hammer, and you suddenly realize that what felt like a free-form slideshow of China’s prosperity in the early 21st century has been carefully crafted to break your heart. (Read the review here.)

17. ‘The Phoenician Scheme’

Wes Anderson scores big with this combo of corporate-espionage thriller, slapstick comedy, and father-daughter family drama, centered around Anatole “Zsa Zsa” Korda (Benicio Del Toro), international business magnate of mystery. He’s trying to make sure his dream project involving a multinational transport system becomes a reality before he’s assassinated by rivals; if he can also mend fences with his estranged daughter (Mia Threapleton), who wants nothing to do with her dad and yearns to become a nun, that’s simply a bonus. It’s got all the hallmarks of an Anderson project, from an all-star ensemble cast to the meticulously composed imagery that’s made him a film-nerd idol. But this new film gels in a genuinely satisfying way that several of his recent works haven’t. And it gifts us with a real discovery in Threapleton, whose deadpan reactions, comic timing, and chemistry with Del Toro make this finely crafted film feel like there’s a heart beating underneath it all. (Read the review here.)

16. ‘On Becoming a Guinea Fowl’

Rungano Nyoni’s follow-up to 2017’s I Am Not a Witch starts with a woman named Shula (Susan Chardy) coming across a dead body in the road. The fact that she’s dressed exactly like Missy Elliott from “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)” video, down to the silver helmet and puffy black jumpsuit, shows you that Nyoni has a wicked sense of humor. The revelation that the corpse is “Uncle Fred,” a well-known pedophile who chronically abused the village’s young women for years without consequences, demonstrates that the movie is also not fucking around. A pointed take on the social protections we afford predators to avoid “awkwardness,” the unnecessary shame shared by survivors, and the need to call out complicity and speak out regardless of such stigmas. (Read the review here.)1

15. ‘Orwell: 2+2=5’

Documentarian Raoul Peck returns with a look at George Orwell’s transformation from a cog in Britain’s colonialist machinery (he served on the police force in Burma in the 1920s) to political critic, essayist, and world-renowned author of Animal Farm and 1984. Had the filmmaker merely delivered a documentary on the writer’s radicalization and warnings about power, corruption, and lies this would still make for essential viewing. But he goes several giant steps further, borrowing the expansive design of his magnum opus Exterminate All the Brutes (2021) and connecting the dots between those two dystopian novels, the 20th century’s totalitarian regimes, and the ways in which history tends to repeat itself — like, say, in contemporary America. It’s a virtual firehose of doubleplusbad information on how fascism insidiously takes hold, collapsing the gap between then and now in a way that’s damn near overwhelming. You would not call the outlook “good.” This dour primer is absolutely vital at this particular moment in time. (Read the review here.)

14. ‘Best Wishes for All’

Something strange is going on at a quaint house in the countryside, where a Tokyo nursing student (Kotone Furukawa) is visiting her grandparents. They seem a little too cheery at times, and completely checked out at others. Grandma keeps asking if her darling is “happy.” Strange noises keep echoing throughout the house after dark. The young woman doesn’t feel safe here — and that’s before she spies a fat, middle-aged man in dingy tighty-whiteys crawling past the kitchen doorway, his eyes and mouth sewn shut. Director Yûta Shimotsu’s debut feature had been kicking around the festival circuit before finally making it way here — and it’s no exaggeration to say this is, hands down, the best J-horror movie to hit these shores in decades. Everything from Furukawa’s performance to the sideways manner in which the story reveals its secrets and surreal, Lynchian interludes hits exactly as it needs to. Occasionally, a nudge is required to remind folks that privilege, luxury, and personal fulfillment usually come with a price. This film shoves that notion right back in your face. (Read the review here.)

13. ‘Universal Language’

Trust Canada’s absurdist Matthew Rankin (The Twentieth Century) to give us a vintage Iranian kid-centric drama, complete with subtitled Farsi dialogue and a visual vocabulary akin to 1970s Abbas Kiarostami-lite… and set the whole thing in the snowy, super-banal suburbs of his hometown Winnipeg. It initially feels like hipster film-nerd trolling, right down to the replica of the Tehran-based Kanoon institute’s logo (with a turkey instead of the organization’s signature songbird). But the longer you watch Rankin’s deadpan juxtaposition of styles, you more you begin to realize it’s not a goof so much as a mash note. There is no universal language except the lingua franca of seeing yourself reflected back in cinema made half a world away, and then responding in kind. (Read the review here.)

12. ‘Eddington’

Ari Aster’s fever dream of an op-ed on American carnage circa right-fucking-now was easily one of the most divisive films of 2025 — which, frankly, fits the Hereditary director’s crackpot vision of a nation fatally at odds with itself to a T. It’s one paranoid android of a fairy tale, disguised as a modern-day Western circa the early days of the pandemic, and centered around a showdown between a sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) and a mayor (Pedro Pascal) in a small, fictional town in New Mexico. Here, all progressivism is performative, all red-pilled right wingers are one red cap away from going full MAGA, all painful personal experiences are ripe for political exploitation, all both-sides misanthropy gets dialed up to 11. What starts as a broad parody soon reveals itself to be a paranoid conspiracy thriller eerily attuned to our country’s center-cannot-hold bad vibes. Aster has given us another movie that chills, unnerves, and makes you want to crawl out of your skin. You just wish this one didn’t feel so close to nonfiction. (Read the review here.)

11. ‘Peter Hujar’s Day’

Ira Sachs (Keep the Lights On, Passages) focuses his attention on a single, extended, IRL interview between writer Linda Rosenkrantz (Rebecca Hall) and her friend, photographer Peter Hujar (Ben Whishaw) in downtown NYC, 1974. That’s it, but dear god, it’s more than enough to evoke a lost world of downtown scenesters, art-world gossip, funky fashion, post-Stonewall gay culture, and Beat legends behaving badly. (The Allen Ginsberg anecdote alone is worth the price of admission.) A conversation between two chatty Lower East Side hipster luminaries — resurrected by two preternaturally gifted actors at the top of their games — doesn’t need much more than the camera to be in focus, to be honest. Yet the way in which Sachs turns their conversation into something like a time machine easily made this modest indie one hell of a standout. (Read the review here.)

10. ‘Sentimental Value’

Joachim Trier’s family drama continues his winning streak after the highly praised The Worst Person in the World (2021) hit his creative reset button. It also reminded many of us why we initially fell in love with the Norwegian filmmaker’s work in the first place. Once again working with his longtime co-writer Eskil Vogt and his TWPITW star Renate Reinsve, Trier carefully constructs a morality tale around a once-prominent movie director (Stellan Skarsgård) hoping to make a comeback with a new project. He offers the role based on his daughter to his actual daughter, an anxiety-prone stage actor (Reinsve) with a grudge against Dad. Then he decides to cast an American movie star (Elle Fanning) instead, and film the whole thing in their actual family house. A mild version of emotional chaos soon reigns. It’s the sort of bittersweet fable recognizable to anyone who’s struggled with paternal baggage, by which we mean everybody. And yet the way it uses their prickly dynamic to explore how storytelling can both mask hurt and facilitate healing goes way beyond just heroes and villains. Truly remarkable. (Read the review here.)

9. ‘Marty Supreme’

Josh Safdie finally gives ping-pong its own version of Rocky — if that sports-movie landmark felt like a two-hour panic attack, and its hero were less of a lovable underdog and more of an egotistical prick. Timothée Chalamet inches that much closer to being one of the greats with his portrayal of Marty Mauser, a world-class table tennis champion circa 1952 who functions as both his own hype man and worst enemy. He’s determined to score a rematch with his Japanese rival by any means necessary; so what if a few dozen bridges get burned in the process? It’s the most caustic American success story you can imagine, boasting the most eclectic cast of any movie this year (name another film that includes Gwyneth Paltrow, Fran Drescher, Tyler, the Creator, Abel Ferrara, NBA hall of famer George Gervin, and Shark Tank‘s Kevin O’Leary in its ensemble?), and bounces between down-and-dirty grit and old-fashioned uplift so much you begin to feel like one of those little white balls. (Read the review here.)

8. ‘Sorry, Baby’

From the “A Star Is Born” Dept.: Writer-director-actor Eva Victor instantly establishes herself as a multihyphenate to be reckoned with this semi-fractured, sometimes harrowing, and often hilarious tale of a college professor dealing with a longstanding trauma. It would have been enough for Victor to translate an already pointed comic voice, honed through improv shows and viral tweets, to the screen. Yet her debut knows when to go for deadpan laughs and when to knock you flat with emotional haymakers; occasionally, as in a visit to a doctor whose bedside manner leaves something to be desired, the movie delivers both at once. The temptation is to compare Victor to Phoebe Waller-Bridge, especially since the movie gives off heavy Fleabag vibes (minus the fourth wall-breaking). But while they may be kindred spirits, this Brooklyn-by-way-of-San-Francisco artist is mining a wit and pathos that’s all her own. Throw in solid supporting performances from Naomi Ackie, Lucas Hedges, and Louis Cancelmi, and you have a keeper. (Read the review here.

7. ‘No Other Choice’

Park Chan-wook (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Decision to Leave) turns Donald E. Westlake’s 1997 novel about an unemployed businessman killing off potential rivals for jobs into a pitch-black comedy, one that’s both horrifying and laugh-out-loud funny (see a set piece involving a loud stereo, a home invasion, and a gun). Squid Game superstar Lee Byung-hun is a paper-company middle manager in Seoul who suddenly finds his middle-class life deteriorating after getting laid off. Desperate times mean desperate measures, which means murder is on the table as an option. Forget it, Jake, it’s late capitalism. Slapstick bits of business sidle up to satirical jabs at the mercenary aspects of selling yourself as a job candidate and the less-than-level playing fields one is forced to navigate for creature comforts and self-worth. It’s bleak, thrilling, and a blast.

6. ‘It Was Just an Accident’

The overall premise of Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi’s award-winning parable is simple: A man (Ebrahim Azizi) finds his family trip interrupted when his car breaks down. A mechanic (Vahid Mobasseri) thinks he recognizes him as the person who tortured him for years in prison. He abducts the traveler, and then proceeds to round up several other former inmates to confirm that he is indeed the culprit. It plays at times like a nailbiting thriller, an elliptical road movie, and a sort of backstage farce revolving around a potential payback killing instead a theatrical production. Yet every moment of it attests to the work of a master, right down to one sublime gut-punch of a final shot. It’s a work that purposefully sets out to question the need to even scores. There’s nothing accidental about it. (Read the review here.)

5. ‘Nouvelle Vague’

Anyone could technically craft a behind-the-scenes recreation of the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s gamechanging debut feature Breathless. Only Richard Linklater could turn it into a glorious hangout movie, in which you get to ride shotgun with the critic turned cineaste in sunglasses as he and his fellow band of film-mad outsiders make history, 24 frames per second. The way Linklater identifies everyone from 1960s Cahiers du Cinéma legends (Chabrol, Rivette, Truffaut, Rohmer) to deep-cut scenesters, then gathers all of the players together, feels a little like he’s making The Avengers for the hardcore Letterboxd crowd — here’s all your favorite superheroes of the French New Wave, assembled for one great big collective adventure. Guillaume Marbeck’s take on Godard as a quote-spouting enfant terrible is priceless; Zoey Deutch chronicling Jean Seberg’s conversion from skeptic to true believer is sublime; Aubry Dullin’s Jean-Paul Belmondo is one big, goofy grin of a tribute. The whole thing is pure cinephile catnip. (Read the review here.)

4. ‘Train Dreams’

You’ve probably heard the buzz steadily growing writer-director Clint Bentley’s adaptation of the Denis Johnson novella, about the life and times of a logger named Robert Granier (Joel Edgerton) practicing his trade in the early part of the 20th century. Believe the hype. It’s a meditative film that recalls early Terrence Malick, with its languorous shots of nature and philosophical narration as Granier witnesses the best and worst of this nation’s growing pains, falls in love with a resourceful woman named Gladys (Felicity Jones), and experiences both peace of mind and great tragedy. (Bonus: You also get Kerry Condon as a sympathetic nature lover and William H. Macy going full Walter Brennan as a crazy old coot!) But the movie truly hinges on Edgerton, who gives the best performance of his career playing the kind of stoic, callous-handed man who helped build modern America from the ground up. There were many people like Granier who walked the Earth and left without a noticeable trace. Yet, as this beguiling, beautiful character study proves, they too had stories to tell. They lived and loved and felt joy and sorrow. They mattered. (Read the review here.)

3. ‘Black Bag’

Steven Soderbergh’s take on love, marriage, and espionage plays like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf as written by John le Carré, as spouses and fellow spies Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett navigate a precarious situation involving a double agent in their organization. He’s been tasked with finding out who might behind the sale of classified information; she’s the prime suspect. From there, it gets complicated. Yet the sheer fun that the filmmaker, his leads, and their co-stars — Pierce Brosnan, Tom Burke, Naomie Harris, Regé-Jean Page, Industry‘s Marisa Abela — are having as they indulge in an old-school spy-vs.-spy thriller and use it as a metaphor for faith, trust, and power struggles in relationships is contagious. You want movie-star glamour and a smart deconstruction of a genre? It’s all in the bag. (Read the review here.)

2. ‘Hamnet’

Meet the Shakespeares. Chloé Zhao‘s rigorous, moving, and altogether transcendent take on Maggie O’Farrell’s novel — about the untimely passing of William and Anne “Agnes” Shakespeare’s son Hamnet, and the way that tragedy inspired the Bard’s play Hamlet — immediately established itself as the movie of 2025 destined to leave you in a puddle on the floor. Yet it’s a chronicle of reckoning with death that nonetheless bursts with life, renewal, rebirth. Young Hamnet’s shuffling off this mortal coil once laid the groundwork for a masterpiece. It’s now done so twice. Paul Mescal makes for a rugged Shakespeare, and young actor Jacobi Jupe delivers a surprisingly sublime portrayal as the title character. Yet it’s Jessie Buckley’s performance that truly drives this grief-stricken tale, and the manner in which she ultimately finds a sense of solace and catharsis through art feels revelatory. The rest is silence. (Read the review here.)

1. ‘One Battle After Another’

Paul Thomas Anderson’s thundering, dizzying epic is a lot of things: a parable about fathers and daughters, a conspiracy thriller for the ICE age, an ensemble comedy that encourages all-stars to get their best eccentricity on, a take on Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel Vineland that’s less a straight, VistaVision adaptation than a passing nod to the author on the way to its own profound insights. Mostly, however, it’s a film that both captures our extremely fucked-up moment and somehow transcends it, creating a timeless tale about revolutionaries taking care of their own while getting the next generation to pick up the flag.

Everyone from old hands like Leonardo DiCaprio and Sean Penn to newcomer Chase Infiniti is on point here, though Teyana Taylor comes close to nabbing the MVP brass ring as the queen of guerrilla warfare. Every oddball detour, from underground-railroad dojos to the meetings of the clandestine Christmas Adventurers Club (Hail Saint Nick!), contributes to the bigger picture that PTA is sketching out of a world tilted off its axis. In its sprawling attempt to wrap its arms around the Great-Step-Backward Age we find ourselves in, One Battle After Another asks the question: How do you fight back when all seems lost? After several stoner-comedic set pieces, a couple of canon-worthy chase scenes, and a vibe that distills all the agony and the absurdity of the past 10 years i nto a free-floating angst, the movie delivers an answer. You fight back with love. That’s the only way you protect the future, and change it. That’s how you live to battle another day. (Read the review here.)

From Rolling Stone US.

The post The 20 Best Movies of 2025 appeared first on Rolling Stone India.

Marty Mauser can’t be stopped. He won’t be stopped. The young man with the Coke-bottle glasses and pockmarked face and ferret-like frame may be one of eight million stories in the naked city known as Manhattan circa 1952. But Mauser refuses to be just another schlemiel working at a shoestore. Luckily, he’s got a plan. It involves being the single greatest table tennis player the world has ever seen. The kid has the willingness to beg, borrow, or steal (mostly the latter) in order to get to London for the sport’s world championship; the confidence to bum-rush his way into the tournament once he’s there; and the talent to go the distance. Mauser has got a genuine shot at the title. He is his No. 1 biggest fan. If only this perpetual fuck-up wasn’t also his own worst enemy.

Imagine Rocky if you substituted ping-pong for prizefighting, Alexander Portnoy for the Italian Stallion, and an egotistical prick for a lovable underdog. You’d have something close to Marty Supreme, Josh Safdie‘s manic character study that doubles as a cracked American success story. Mauser may be loosely — and we do mean loosely — based on five-time world champ Marty Reisman, but he has a lot more in common with the filmmaker’s usual gallery of hustlers, rogues, crooks, and schnooks. Whether solo (see: his 2008 debut The Pleasure of Being Robbed) or in tandem with his brother Benny (Daddy Long Legs, Good Time, Uncut Gems), Safdie specializes in giving sad sacks a sympathetic spotlight while keeping things raw, rough, and paced like a Rube Goldberg machine of chaos. The character he’s dreamed up with co-writer, co-editor, and longtime collaborator Ronald Bronstein may be his most accessible, charismatic loser to date. Mauser recognizes he’s extraordinary; he’s just waiting for everybody else to catch up.

It helps, of course, that Safdie has lots of supreme talent in his corner: cinematographer Darius Khondji (Seven), production designer Jack Fisk (Days of Heaven, There Will Be Blood), costume designer Miyako Bellizzi, composer Daniel “Oneohtrix Point Never” Lopatin. They’re below-the-line legends, the lot of them. The soundtrack is a playlist comprising period-appropriate tunes and Eighties New Wave and post-punk. (Les Paul and Mary Ford, meet Tears for Fears!) Per usual, the writer-director mixes in non-professionals who look like they’ve stepped straight out of a Weegee portfolio with a supporting cast you’d swear was assembled via Mad Libs. Seriously, name another ensemble that boasts Fran Drescher, Tyler, the Creator, Penn Jillette, cult filmmaker Abel Ferrara, NBA hall of famer George Gervin, and Shark Tank‘s Kevin O’Leary?

There’s one person who’s truly channeling Safdie’s grindset obsessions, however, and arguably stands head and slim shoulders above the rest. Timothée Chalamet has played troubadours and sociopaths, chocolatiers and cannibals, messiah figures and broken-hearted boy-wonders. You wouldn’t think a motormouth jerk who’s really the Michael Jordan of ping-pong would be a bespoke role for the star, yet the role fits him like a customized backless jumpsuit. It’s not hard to believe his Mauser could make a fellow shoe salesman liberate the store safe easier with his patter than the pistol in his hand; Marty’s gift of gab is even more aggressive than his serve. The guy’s an aspiring pro athlete but a professional grifter, putting the confidence back into “con artist.”

Of course this nebbish with the rat mustache will talk his way into both the Ritz and the pants of a faded movie star (Gwyneth Paltrow, reminding you how good she was before Goop became her full-time gig), the ultimate seduction by chutzpah. Of course he’ll win over journalists with proto-edgelord pull quotes — “I’m gonna do to Klutsky what Auschwitz couldn’t!” he exclaims, regarding a Hungarian rival; it’s OK though, Mauser says, because he’s also Jewish and “Hitler’s worst nightmare” — and piss off the powers that be. Of course he’ll refuse to kowtow to a fountain-pen magnate (O’Leary), a.k.a. the actress’ husband, then humiliate himself before the tycoon in order to accomplish his goals. Of course he’ll get his married neighbor (I Love LA‘s Odessa A’zion) knocked up, then co-opt her into his schemes. Of course he’ll bilk Long Island rubes out of their dough with a fellow table tennis ace (Tyler) and turn a hotel disaster involving a gangster (Ferrara) and an M.I.A. dog into an extortion plan. You know the fable about the scorpion and the frog? Marty’s the one with the stinger. Everybody else is simply waiting to get stung.

Chalamet doesn’t just lean in to Marty’s less-than-stellar qualities; he turns them into pluses, pitching them as part of the DNA that will allow Mauser to eventually stage something akin to a comeback. You can feel some of the Complete Unknown star’s own reputational baggage being used to good advantage here — not just the inherent confidence that occasionally speed-reads as arrogance, but the striving, the constant need to prove himself, the sort of let-it-blurt attitude that finds the artist formerly known as Lil’ Timmy Tim pining in public to be one of the greats. The irony is that this role bursting with equally naked yearning gets him that much closer to actually demonstrating why he might make that wish come true. It’s the sort of performance that feels like early Pacino or Dustin Hoffman, all twitches and vibrations and seeming like he’s in a constant state of motion even when standing still. And it fuses so well with what we, the viewer, think we know about Chalamet that it begins to blur the boundary in the best possible way.

In other words, Marty Supreme is a testament to the Men Who Would Be King, both the fictional and nonfictional ones. The real regent here, however, is the one actually calling the shots. Josh Safdie would likely cop to identifying with Mauser not wisely but too well; game usually does tend to recognize game. To say that Marty Supreme is autobiographical would be pushing it. But the way the director lends his high-anxiety style of filmmaking to this highly caffeinated Horatio Alger narrative is extremely simpatico. You have to be a hustler to make movies like this in the age of AI and IP, even ones with genuine movie stars in them. It’s in Safdie’s DNA as much as Marty’s. Both end up champions in their own way, and we’re the ones who end up winning.

From Rolling Stone US.

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