We Can't Wait. 2026 Cinema. (Part Two: G-P)

by Nathaniel R

Oscar nominee Rinko Kikuchi stars in HA-CHAN, SHAKE YOUR BOOTY! which premiered at Sundance.
If you missed part one we are listing titles (alphabetically, we already covered A-F) that we're excited to see in the new film year. While the new film year doesn't truly begin (if you ask us) until the Oscars for lsat year are handed out) we've included a couple of late February and early March titles anyway.  Please do add to the list in the comments here if you see something you're excited about that we haven't listed.

Okay, let's move on to part two with lesbian dramas, heist films, dance competitions, an Oscar-centric biopic, a French actress feast, and a couple of A list witches hoping to recast spells at the box office...

GIRLS LIKE GIRLS - JUNE 19. Focus Features
Pop star Hayley Kiyoko directs this lesbian coming-of-age drama. Canadian actress Maya Da Costa, who you might remember from her debut in the miniseries Under the Bridge about traumatized secretive teen girls, and Myra Molloy, a Thai-American actress, co-star.
 

THE GREAT BEYOND - NOV 13. Warner Bros.
Remember J.J. Abrams? The Producer/Director got lost in franchise world for a while but he's back with his first original since his well received teen-centered sci-fi drama Super 8. Glenn Powell (37) stars and it's about a newlywed couple and a supernatural entity. Not sure which one is the bride but Jenna Ortega (23) and Emma Mackey (30) co-star. 

HERE COMES THE FLOOD - TBA. Netflix
Oscar player Fernando Meirelles (City of God, Constant Gardner, The Two Popes) returns with a heist film starring Denzel Washington, Robert Pattinson, and Moses Arias.

HOPPERS - MAR 6. Disney/Pixar.
You've surely already seen the trailer which makes this look just delightful -- love the Avatar joke and especially love the character designs from woodland animals to mature lady scientists with wild hair.

HOW TO ROB A BANK. SEPT 4. Amazon/MGM
Mosty interested in this heist film about bank robbers posting their crimes on social media because David Leitch has bonafide action chops (LOVED Atomic Blonde and The Fall Guy). All that and two stars who are let's just say "exceedingly pleasing to the eyes" in Nicholas Hoult & Zoe Kravitz. 

I PLAY ROCKY -NOV 13. Amazon/MGM
A biopic centered on young Sly Stallone trying to get Rocky made... which of course went on to win the Best Picture Oscar. Peter Farrelly (Green Book) directs. Amazon seems to be positioning it as an awards hopeful with a Thanksgiving-centered expansion. Matt Dillon is playing Stallone's father and an actor named Anthony Ippolito is playing Young Stallone. Ippolito is working his way through 1970s Italian icons since he already played the young Pacino in the miniseries The Offer which was about The Godfather. This feels like the kind of thing that the Oscars will either completely ignore or go wild for. 

HA-CHAN, SHAKE YOUR BOOTY! - TBA
Rinko Kikuchi (Babel) stars in a dance-centered Japanese-language US indie that was well received at Sundance. Wouldn't it be wild if this was another Oscar role for her?  She'd be the most unexpected Oscar comeback since Amy Madigan!

Ackie, Paige, and Palmer in I LOVE BOOSTERS

I LOVE BOOSTERS - MAY 22. Neon
Boots Riley, who made an inventive surreal splash with Sorry to Bother You (2018), is finally back with the always watchable Keke Palmer leading the cast in this shoplifting fashion comedy. The delicious supporting cast includes LaKeith Stanfield, Naomi Ackie, Demi Moore, Don Cheaddle, and Taylour Paige and I have a few non-movie-obsessed friends who have already messaged me saying "are we going to this?" so maybe it'll be a hit?  Some Star Wars movie is opening opposite it but who cares when you can see this cast and director make chaos in the theater next door! 

JACK OF SPADES - TBA
Oscar winning auteur Joel Coen (No Country For Old Men, Fargo, etcetera) returns behind the camera with his three-time Oscar winning wife Frances McDormand in front of it. While he and his brother Ethan have not been Oscar-magnets since they started working solo instead of as a duo, maybe this one will catch on. The new film is a "gothic mystery" set in 19th century Scotland and also stars Josh O'Connor & Damian Lewis. 

He-Man returns... in the form of Nicholas Galatzine in MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE

MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE - JUNE 5
Nicolas Galitzine stars in this remake of the 1985 fantasy starring Dolph Lundgren based on the cartoon series. It looks terrible but it might also be great in a self-aware camp fantasy kind of way. We can dream.

MIDWINTER BREAK - FEB 20.
Lesley Manville and Ciarin Hinds play a marital couple unravelling due to a long-held secret in this drama. Manville is always a great watch. Can this be one of those early year releases that springs back up in conversations at awards time?

MOTHER MARY - APRIL 24. A24
Yes, Anne Hathaway again (THREE LEADING ROLES THIS YEAR) in a drama about a female pop star (Hathaway) hoping for a comeback and her estranged best friend / costume designer (Michaela Cole). This was pushed back from last year. Hope you love Hathaway as much as I do because we're getting four films this year (after a drought).  Euphoria's Hunter Schafer and Downton Abbey's Jessica Brown Findlay and real life music star FKA Twigs are in the supporting cast. 

NARNIA - NOV 26. Netflix
Against my better judgment -- haven't we seen enough film and television adaptations of this franchise? -- and only because its Greta Gerwig behind the camera and wisely NOT The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe again but one of the less adapted novels as the primary source material.

THE ODYSSEY - JULY 17.
Christopher Nolan directs so you know people will be eager for it. But will they go for it? Longtime readers know that I'm fairly agnostic about Nolan and he's not an automatic draw for me. But trying to follow up Oppenheimer should be interesting.

ON THE ROAD / EN EL CAMINO - TBA
A gay erotic thriller from Mexico that was well received at Venice. It won both the Orrizonti and the Queer Lion so we're impatient to gaze at it. 

THE ONLY LIVING PICKPOCKET IN NEW YORK - TBA
John Turturro's Oscar role? Early buzz suggests a campaign will follow its Sundance popularity. He's backed by three mainstays of Hollywood ensembles: Jamie Lee Curtis, Steve Buscemi, Giancarlo Esposito. Plus the still underutilized Tatiana Maslany (whose career has been hard to figure lately... the projects appear to be so random!)

PAPER TIGER - TBA.
I keep hoping to see what so many critics see in writer/director James Gray who nearly always wins sensational reviews only to be summarily ignored during awards season. Anyway, Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson co-star and I'm excited about the unexpected Marriage Story reunion as they were fantastic together. Miles Tellers plays Driver's brother and the siblings are somehow mixed up with the Russian mafia. 

PARALLEL HISTORY - TBA
Two-time International Feature Film winner Asghar Farhadi (A Separation, The Salesman) returns for a French-language drama starring literally 3 of the 6* greatest living French actresses: Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert, and Virginie Efira. I am so so so there and praying it's closer to the quality of the auteur's Iranian dramas rather than his only previous French-language drama (The Past). 

* the others being Adjani and Binoche and Seydoux... but if you put them all in the same film it would surely trigger some kind of actressexual apocalypse.

POWER BALLAD - JUNE 5. LIONSGATE.
John Carney directs Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas in this music dramedy about songwriters and an unexpected hit single. Carney's movies are always good  / enjoyable but he has yet to equal Once. 

PRACTICAL MAGIC 2 - SEPT 18. WARNER BROS.
Confession: I only ever saw the original movie about sibling witches (Nicole Kidman & Sandra Bullock) once and that was in the theaters 21 long years ago. I liked it just fine. But apparently Milennials are obsessed so it's getting a legacy sequel. I should probably rewatch the original before this hits. Anyone in ? Should we maybe do a retrospective on the first one?

PROJECT HAIL MARY - MAR 20. Amazon / MGM
The always loveable Ryan Gosling stars in this sci-fi adventure about one man and an alien trying to save their worlds. Busy German star and Oscar nominee Sandra Huller is in support. The trailer is a lot of fun and it looks like it might actually be an all-quadrant hit for the directing duo of Lord & Miller.