From a film pairing the alluring Renate Reinsve with the intimidating Sebastian Stan to a film where Tennis rivals are competing for Zendaya. From a film marking the return of Paul Atreides to a film with a love story between a boy and a satellite. From a film about the making of The Godfather to a film about Mads Mikkelsen becoming a billion-dollar spy. From a science fiction union between Paul Dano and Adam Sandler to a film that brought Cooper Hoffman and Cooper Raiff together, 2024 has in store some of the most fascinating projects a cinephile can ask for.
PS: Last year, I made a list of 125 films, out of which 31 didn’t release in 2023, so you may see some of the previous edition’s titles on this list. Without further ado, let’s jump right in to the 75 most anticipated movies of 2024:
1. A Different Man | Director: Aaron Schimberg
Cast: Sebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve, Adam Pearson, Marc Geller
Genre: Thriller
Release Date: January 21, 2024
It tells the story of Edward. After undergoing facial reconstructive surgery, he becomes fixated on an actor in a stage production based on his former life.
2. A Manual for Cleaning Women
Cast: Cate Blanchett
Genre: Drama
An adaptation of Lucia Berlin’s stellar short story collection. The Film is being written by Pedro Almodóvar and Lucia Berlin. The search for a suitable director is ongoing.
3. All-Star Weekend | Director: Jamie Foxx
Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Gerard Butler, Benicio Del Toro, Jamie Foxx
Genre: Comedy
Two buddies form a rivalry over their favorite American basketball player.
4. Alto Knights | Director: Barry Levinson
Cast: Robert De Niro, Cosmo Jarvis, Debra Messing
Genre: Biography, Crime, Drama
Release Date: Expected November 15, 2024
Vito Genovese and Frank Costello, a pair of Italian Americans who run two separate crime families in the mid-20th century. Genovese attempted to assassinate Costello in 1957, although Costello retired from the mob.
5. Anora | Director: Sean Baker
Cast: Mikey Madison, Yura Borisov, Ivy Wolk
Genre: Drama
Anora is a comedy about sex workers shot in both upstate New York and Las Vegas.
6. Argylle | Director: Matthew Vaughn
Cast: Henry Cavill, Bryce Dallas Howard, Samuel L. Jackson, Sam Rockwell, Bryan Cranston
Genre: Action, Thriller
Release Date: February 2, 2024
An introverted spy novelist is drawn into the activities of a sinister underground syndicate.
7. Assassination | Director: Barry Levinson
Cast: Al Pacino, Shia LaBeouf
Genre: Thriller
The fateful murder of John F. Kennedy re-imagining his death as a hit ordered by Chicago kingpin Sam Giancana as payback for JFK’s attempt to undermine the mob after they helped get him elected.
8. Beetlejuice 2 | Director: Tim Burton
Cast: Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Monica Bellucci, Willem Dafoe
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
Release Date: Expected September 6, 2024
This is a follow-up to the comedy Beetlejuice (1988), about a ghost who’s recruited to help haunt a house.
9. Blitz | Director: Steve McQueen
Cast: Erin Kellyman, Saoirse Ronan, Harris Dickinson, Stephen Graham
Genre: Drama, History, War
Follow the stories of a group of Londoners during the events of the British capital bombing in World War II.
10. Borderlands | Director: Eli Roth
Cast: Cate Blanchett, Jamie Lee Curtis, Jack Black, Ariana Greenblatt
Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy
Release Date: Expected August 9, 2024
A feature film based on the popular video game set on the abandoned fictional planet of Pandora, where people search for a mysterious relic.
11. Challengers | Director: Luca Guadagnino
Cast: Zendaya, Josh O’Connor, Mike Faist
Genre: Drama, Romance, Sport
Release Date: Expected April 26, 2024
Follows three players who knew each other when they were teenagers as they compete in a tennis tournament to be the world-famous grand slam winner and reignite old rivalries on and off the court.
12. Despatch | Director: Kanu Behl
Cast: Manoj Bajpayee, Rituparna Sen, Shahana Goswami
Genre: Drama
News has turned digital, leaving veteran crime journalist Joy at the cusp of irrelevance. Determined to break the next big story and refashion his complicated personal life, Joy embarks on a relentless odyssey through the heart and gut of Mumbai, stumbling into its darkest corners.
13. Drive-Away Dolls | Director: Ethan Coen
Cast: Pedro Pascal, Margaret Qualley, Matt Damon
Genre: Action, Comedy, Thriller
Release Date: February 23, 2024
Jamie regrets her breakup with her girlfriend, while Marian needs to relax. In search of a fresh start, they embark on an unexpected road trip to Tallahassee, but things quickly go awry when they cross paths with a group of inept criminals.
14. Dune: Part Two | Director: Denis Villeneuve
Cast: Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Zendaya, Florence Pugh, Léa Seydoux
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama
Release Date: March 1, 2024
Paul Atreides unites with Chani and the Fremen while seeking revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family.
15. Emmanuelle | Director: Audrey Diwan
Cast: Naomi Watts, Noémie Merlant
Follows a woman and the series of erotic fantasies that she entertains.
16. Far Bright Star | Director: Casey Affleck
Cast: Damien Ober, Robert Olmstead
Genre: Western
Set in 1916, an aging cavalryman leads a team of men to hunt down the Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa. However, after an ambush in which most of the men are killed, the cavalryman must struggle to survive in the desert.
17. Francis and the Godfather | Director: Barry Levinson
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Oscar Isaac, Elle Fanning, Elisabeth Moss
Genre: Drama
Young director Francis Ford Coppola faces off against producer Robert Evans during the production of ‘The Godfather.’
18. Greedy People | Director: Potsy Ponciroli
Cast: Lily James, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Himesh Patel
Genre: Comedy, Crime
Release Date: Expected May 16, 2024
Follows the residents of a small island town who must navigate a sensational murder and the discovery of a million dollars, a series of increasingly bad decisions upend the once peaceful community.
19. Hamnet | Director: Chloé Zhao
Cast: Paul Mescal, Jessie Buckley
The story of Agnes – the wife of William Shakespeare – as she struggles to come to terms with the loss of her only son, Hamnet. A human and heart-stopping story as the backdrop to the creation of Shakespeare’s most famous play, Hamlet.
20. Hand of Dante | Director: Julian Schnabel
Cast: Jason Momoa, Al Pacino, Gal Gadot
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Follow the dark and violent path of a man who plunges into a metaphorical hell until he reaches paradise in search of his forbidden and impossible love.
21. Havoc | Director: Gareth Evans
Cast: Tom Hardy, Timothy Olyphant, Forest Whitaker
Genre: Action, Thriller
After a drug deal gone wrong, a bruised detective must fight his way through the criminal underworld to rescue a politician’s estranged son, unraveling a deep web of corruption and conspiracy that ensnares his entire city.
22. Here | Director: Robert Zemeckis
Cast: Kelly Reilly, Tom Hanks, Robin Wright
Genre: Drama
Set in one single room, follows the many people who inhabit it over years and years, from the past to the future.
23. IF | Director: John Krasinski
Cast: Ryan Reynolds, John Krasinski, Steve Carrell, Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Family
Release Date: Expected May 17, 2024
A young girl who goes through a difficult experience begins to see everyone’s imaginary friends who have been left behind as their real-life friends have grown up.
24. Joker: Folie à Deux | Director: Todd Phillips
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson
Genre: Crime, Drama, Musical
Release Date: Expected October 4, 2024
Plot unknown. Sequel to the 2019 film ‘Joker.’
25. Juror #2 | Director: Clint Eastwood
Cast: Zoey Deutch, Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette
Genre: Thriller
Family man Justin Kemp, while serving as a juror in a high-profile murder trial, finds himself struggling with a serious moral dilemma…one he could use to sway the jury verdict and potentially convict or free the wrong killer.
26. Kinds of Kindness | Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Cast: Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, Jesse Plemons
The plot is kept under wraps.
27. Kraven the Hunter | Director: J.C. Chandor
Cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Christopher Abbott, Russell Crowe
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Release Date: Expected August 30, 2024
Russian immigrant Sergei Kravinoff is on a mission to prove that he is the greatest hunter in the world.
28. Kung Fury 2 | Director: David Sandberg
Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Michael Fassbender, David Sandberg
Genre: Action, Comedy, Crime
The story will focus on Kung Fury’s universe with no real connection to the short movie other than the lead character.
29. La Cocina | Director: Alonso Ruizpalacios
Cast: Rooney Mara, Oded Fehr, Laura Gómez
Genre: Drama
Follows the life in the kitchen of a NYC restaurant where cultures from all over the world blend during the lunchtime rush.
30. London | Director: Ben Stiller
Cast: Oscar Isaac
Genre: Thriller
Crime thriller based on a short story by Jo Nesbø.
31. Long Day’s Journey Into Night | Director: Jonathan Kent
Cast: Jessica Lange, Ed Harris, Ben Foster
Genre: Drama
Over the course of a day, a married couple, Mary and James Tyrone, and their two sons, Jamie and Edmund, grapple with Mary’s morphine addiction and confront each other over the past in a series of emotionally tense and volatile exchanges.
32. Love Child | Director: Todd Solondz
Cast: Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz
Genre: Comedy, Drama
An 11-year-old boy schemes to reshape his mother’s love life – to disastrous consequences.
33. Love Lies Bleeding | Director: Rose Glass
Cast: Kristen Stewart, Jena Malone, Ed Harris
Genre: Action, Adventure, Crime
Release Date: March 8, 2024
A romance fueled by ego, desire, and the American Dream.
34. Love Me | Director: Sam & Andy Zuchero
Cast: Kristen Stewart, Steven Yeun
Genre: Drama, Sci-Fi
Release Date: January 19, 2024
A love story between a satellite and a buoy.
35. Malaikottai Vaaliban | Director: Lijo Jose Pellissery
Cast: Mohanlal, Sonalee Kulkarni, Hariprashanth
Genre: Action, Drama, Fantasy
Release Date: January 25, 2024
Follows the life of a legendary man whose struggles and life pave the way for next generations.
36. MaXXXine | Director: Ti West
Cast: Mia Goth
Genre: Horror
Follows Maxine, who was the only survivor of the bloody incidents of X, as she continues her journey towards fame to be an actress in 1980s Los Angeles.
37. McCarthy | Director: Václav Marhoul
Cast: Emilia Clarke, Michael Shannon, Dane DeHaan
Genre: Biography, Drama, History
A personal look at the influential former politician who rose to fame as a driving force behind anti-communist and anti-homosexual U.S. political sentiment during the Cold War.
38. Merrily We Roll Along | Director: Richard Linklater
Cast: Paul Mescal, Ben Platt, Beanie Feldstein
Genre: Comedy, Musical
“Merrily We Roll Along” follows Franklin Shepard, a talented Broadway composer who abandons his theater career in New York and all his friends in order to produce movies in Los Angeles.
39. Merry Christmas | Director: Sriram Raghavan
Cast: Katrina Kaif, Vijay Sethupathi, Vinay Pathak, Sanjay Kapoor
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Release Date: January 12, 2024
Two strangers meet on a fateful Christmas Eve. A night of delirious romance turns into a nightmare. Revealing anything more would be a crime.
40. Mickey 17 | Director: Bong Joon Ho
Cast: Robert Pattinson, Mark Ruffalo, Toni Collette
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi
Plot under wraps
41. Modi | Director: Johnny Depp
Cast: Riccardo Scamarcio, Antonia Desplat, Al Pacino
Genre: Biography, Drama
The Italian-born painter and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani, considered a commercial failure, navigates a turbulent and eventful 48 hours that will become a turning point in his life, solidifying his reputation as an artistic legend.
42. Monkey Man | Director: Dev Patel
Cast: Dev Patel, Sharlto Copley, Sobhita Dhulipala
Genre: Action, Thriller
A recently released ex-felon living in India struggles to adjust to a world of corporate greed and eroding spiritual values.
43. Mother’s Instinct | Director: Benoît Delhomme
Cast: Jessica Chastain, Anne Hathaway, Josh Charles
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Alice and Celine live a traditional lifestyle with successful husbands and sons of the same age. Life’s perfect harmony is suddenly shattered after a tragic accident. Guilt, suspicion and paranoia combine to unravel their sisterly bond.
44. Newsflash | Director: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
Cast: Chris Pine, Mark Ruffalo
Genre: Biography, Drama
On November 22, 1963 CBS newsman Walter Cronkite is given the task of reporting on live television about President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in Texas.
45. Nightbitch | Director: Marielle Heller
Cast: Amy Adams, Mary Holland, Scoot McNairy
Genre: Comedy, Horror
An artist who pauses her career to be a stay-at-home mom seeks a new chapter in her life and encounters just that, when her nightly routine takes a surreal turn and her maternal instincts begin to manifest in canine form.
46. Nosferatu | Director: Robert Eggers
Cast: Emma Corrin, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Bill Skarsgård, Willem Dafoe
Genre: Fantasy, Horror, Mystery
Release Date: Expected December 25, 2024
A gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman and the terrifying vampire infatuated with her, causing untold horror in its wake.
47. Nuremberg | Director: James Vanderbilt
Cast: Russell Crowe, Rami Malek, Michael Shannon
Genre: Drama
Based on the book ‘The Nazi and the Psychiatrist’ by Jack El-Hai
48. Parthenope | Director: Paolo Sorrentino
Cast: Gary Oldman, Luisa Ranieri, Stefania Sandrelli
Genre: Drama, Fantasy
Partenope is a woman who bears the name of her city. Is she a siren or a myth?
49. Perfect | Director: Olivia Wilde
Cast: Mckenna Grace, Thomasin McKenzie
Genre: Biography, Drama, Sport
Release Date: Expected September 9, 2024
American gymnast Kerri Strug tries to overcome a terrible injury in order to compete for a gold medal in the 1996 Olympics.
50. Polaris | Director: Lynne Ramsay
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara
Genre: Drama, Horror, Thriller
Set in Alaska during the 1890s, an ice photographer meets the devil.
51. Pussy Island | Director: Zoë Kravitz
Cast: Adria Arjona, Channing Tatum, Christian Slater, Alia Shawkat
Genre: Thriller
Frida is a young waitress in Los Angeles who has her eye on tech entrepreneur Slater King. When she gets to go to an intimate meeting on his private island. Frida senses there’s more to it than meets the eye.
52. Seance on a Wet Afternoon | Director: Tomas Alfredson
Cast: Rachel Weisz
Genre: Drama
The story will follow a medium who convinces her husband to kidnap a child so she can help the police solve the crime and achieve renown for her abilities. When her true intentions come to light, however, her husband realizes the plan threatens to consume them both. The novel was previously adapted as a film in 1964 starring Richard Attenborough and Kim Stanley.
53. Spaceman | Director: Johan Renck
Cast: Paul Dano, Adam Sandler, Carey Mulligan
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Sci-Fi
Release Date: March 1, 2024
Jakub Procházka, orphaned as a boy and raised in the Czech countryside by his grandparents, overcomes his odds to become the country’s first astronaut.
54. Stoner | Director: Joe Wright
Cast: Casey Affleck
Genre: Drama
A poor farmer in the early 1900s becomes a scholar and faces a series of frustrating challenges and disappointments in his chosen career path.
55. Suncoast | Director: Laura Chinn
Cast: Laura Linney, Woody Harrelson, Nico Parker
Genre: Drama
Release Date: February 9, 2024
From debut feature film writer/director Laura Chinn, a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story about a young woman dealing with her brother’s serious illness.
56. Swimming Home | Director: Justin Anderson
Cast: Mackenzie Davis, Christopher Abbott, Ariane Labed
Genre: Comedy, Drama
An adaptation of cult author Deborah Levy’s unique and provocative novel about love, loss, and longing. A woman invites a naked stranger found floating in the pool of her family holiday villa to help her set those she loves free.
57. The Billion Dollar Spy | Director: Amma Asante
Cast: Mads Mikkelsen
Genre: Biography, Drama, Thriller
The true story of a man who became the Pentagon’s most valuable spy during the last years of the Cold War.
58. The Chronology of Water | Director: Kristen Stewart
Cast: Imogen Poots
Genre: Biography, Drama, Romance
In this adaptation of an author’s memoir, the author focuses on her bisexuality, her addiction issues, and her involvement with the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement opposing Israeli oppression of Palestine.
59. The Crow | Director: Rupert Sanders
Cast: Bill Skarsgård, Laura Birn, Danny Huston
Genre: Action, Crime, Fantasy
Release Date: Expected September 26, 2024
A modern re-imagining of the beloved character, The Crow, based on the original graphic novel by James O’Barr.
60. The End | Director: Joshua Oppenheimer
Cast: Tilda Swinton, Michael Shannon, George MacKay
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Musical
A Golden Age-style musical about the last human family.
61. The End of Getting Lost | Director: Deniz Gamze Ergüven
Cast: Paul Mescal
Genre: Thriller
Follows a young couple as they hop borders across Europe and their old lives threaten to catch up with them while the truth grows more elusive, showing what it means to lose oneself in love.
62. The Fall Guy | Director: David Leitch
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson
Genre: Action, Comedy, Drama
Release Date: Expected May 3, 2024
Colt Seavers is a stuntman who left the business a year earlier to focus on both his physical and mental health. He’s drafted back into service when the star of a mega-budget studio movie, which is being directed by his ex, goes missing.
63. The Instigators | Director: Doug Liman
Cast: Matt Damon, Casey Affleck, Hong Chau
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Follows two robbers who must go on the run with the help of one of their therapists after a theft doesn’t go as planned.
64. The Island | Director: Pawel Pawlikowski
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara
Genre: Drama, Thriller
A couple decides to turn their backs on civilization to build their private paradise on a desert island, however a millionaire passing through the island makes them a sensation, causing a European countess to want to take over their island.
65. The Nightingale | Director: Mélanie Laurent and Maria K. Singh
Cast: Dakota Fanning, Elle Fanning
Genre: Drama, History, War
The lives of two sisters living in France are torn apart at the onset of World War II. Based on Kristin Hannah’s novel ‘The Nightingale’.
66. The Pack | Director: Alexander Skarsgård
Cast: Florence Pugh, Alexander Skarsgård
Genre: Horror, Thriller
It tells the story of a group of documentarians who go to the remote wilderness of Alaska to save a nearly extinct species of wolves.
67. The Piano Lesson | Director: Malcolm Washington
Cast: John David Washington, Ray Fisher, Samuel L. Jackson
Genre: Drama, Music
It follows the lives of the Charles family as they deal with themes of family legacy and more in deciding what to do with an heirloom, the family piano.
68. The Shallow Tale of a Writer Who Decided to Write about a Serial Killer | Director: Tolga Karaçelik
Cast: John Magaro, Steve Buscemi, Britt Lower
Genre: Comedy, Drama
A struggling writer in the midst of a divorce befriends a retired serial killer who incidentally becomes his marriage counselor by day, and killing counselor for his next book by night.
69. The Trashers | Director: Cooper Raiff
Cast: David Harbour, Olivia DeJonge, Cooper Hoffman
Follow the rise and fall of Jimmy Galante, a garbage tycoon from Danbury, Connecticut, and partner of the Genovese crime family.
70. The Way of the Wind | Director: Terrence Malick
Cast: John Rhys-Davies, Mark Rylance, Ben Kingsley
Genre: Drama, History
A retelling of several episodes in the life of Jesus.
71. Tonight at Noon | Director: Michael Almereyda
Cast: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Lauren Ambrose, Ethan Hawke
Genre: Drama
Lee, a writer, and Mae, his partner, wrestle with their relationship issues. Mae reminisces about an ex; Lee channels his frustration into writing a mind-bending story mingling reality and fantasy.
72. Twisters | Director: Lee Isaac Chung
Cast: Glen Powell, Katy M. O’Brian, Kiernan Shipka
Genre: Action, Adventure, Thriller
Release Date: Expected July 19, 2024
An update to the 1996 film ‘Twister’, which centered on a pair of storm chasers who risk their lives in an attempt to test an experimental weather alert system.
73. Voyagers | Director: Sebastián Lelio
Cast: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Andrew Garfield
Genre: Biography, Drama, Romance
The cosmic love story between Carl Sagan and his wife, Ann Druyan.
74. Wizards! | Director: David Michôd
Cast: Sean Harris, Pete Davidson, Naomi Scott
Genre: Comedy
The problems of two unlucky beach bar operators start when they find stolen loot that they really should have left alone.
75. Wolfs | Director: Jon Watts
Cast: Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Amy Ryan
Genre: Thriller
Release Date: Expected September 20, 2024
Follows two lone wolf fixers who are assigned to the same job.
