A tradition like no other has returned, my annual top 50 most anticipated movies article is here! As per usual, this list has been scoured from all over the web and studio announcements. Looking at 2024 movie wise, it looks mighty bleak for the big studio slates, as there’s not much to get excited about there. However, what excites me about this is that could mean we are in for a banner year of indie, foreign language, and documentary films as there seems to be much more to explore there. You’ll notice that there is a mix of films that have firm release dates and those that film experts expect to drop this year, so it’s a pretty eclectic mix. What movies are you excited to see in 2024?

2023 Movies that Moved to 2024: Dune Part Two, Challengers, Megalopolis, Havoc, Shirley

Top 50 Most Anticipated Movies of 2024

A Different Man
Dir. Aaron Schimberg
Writer: Aaron Schimberg
Starring: Sebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve, and Adam Pearson
Synopsis: After undergoing surgery for a new start in life, Edward becomes fixated on another man playing him in a stage production based on Edward’s former life.
Release Date: January 21 (Sundance)

Alien: Romulus
Dir. Fede Álvarez
Writer: Fede Álvarez, Rodo Sayagues
Starring: Cailee Spaeny, Isabela Merced, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Spike Fearn, and Aileen Wu
Synopsis: TBD
Release Date: August 17

As We Speak
Dir. J.M. Harper
Synopsis: Bronx rap artist Kemba explores the growing weaponization of rap lyrics in the United States criminal justice system and abroad – revealing how law enforcement has quietly used artistic creation as evidence in criminal cases for decades.
Release Date: TBD (Sundance)

Bird
Dir. Andrea Arnold
Writer: Andrea Arnold
Starring: James Nelson-Joyce, Barry Keoghan, Franz Rogowski
Synopsis: TBD
Release Date: TBD

Blitz
Dir. Steve McQueen
Writer: Steve McQueen
Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Harris Dickinson, Erin Kellyman and Stephen Graham
Synopsis: Follow the stories of a group of Londoners during the events of the British capital bombing in World War II.
Release Date: TBD

Death of A Unicorn
Dir. Alex Scharfman
Writer: Alex Scharfman
Starring: Paul Rudd, Jenna Ortega, Will Poulter, Anthony Carrigan, Sunita Mani, Steve Park, Téa Leoni, Richard E. Grant
Synopsis: Father-Daughter duo, Riley and Elliot, hit a unicorn with their car and bring it to the wilderness retreat of a mega-wealthy pharmaceutical CEO.
Release Date: TBD

Desire Lines
Dir. Jules Rosskam
Writer: Jules Rosskam, Nate Gualtieri
Starring: Theo Germaine, Aden Hakimi
Synopsis: Past and present collide when an Iranian American trans man time-travels through an LGBTQ+ archive on a dizzying and erotic quest to unravel his own sexual desires.
Release Date: January 22 (Sundance)

Drive-Away Dolls
Dir. Ethan Coen
Writer: Ethan Coen, Tricia Cooke
Starring: Margaret Qualley, Geraldine Viswanathan, Beanie Feldstein, Colman Domingo, Pedro Pascal, Bill Camp, and Matt Damon
Synopsis: This comedy caper follows Jamie, an uninhibited free spirit bemoaning yet another breakup with a girlfriend, and her demure friend Marian who desperately needs to loosen up. In search of a fresh start, the two embark on an impromptu road trip to Tallahassee, but things quickly go awry when they cross paths with a group of inept criminals along the way.
Release Date: February 23

Emmanuelle
Dir. Audrey Diwan
Writer: Emmanuelle Arsan, Audrey Diwan, Rebecca Zlotowski
Starring: Hu Kai, Noémie Merlant
Synopsis: Follows a woman and the series of erotic fantasies that she entertains.
Release Date: TBD

Exhibiting Forgiveness
Dir. Titus Kaphar
Writer: Titus Kaphar
Starring: André Holland, Andra Day, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor
Synopsis: Utilizing his paintings to find freedom from his past, a Black artist on the path to success is derailed by an unexpected visit from his estranged father, a recovering addict desperate to reconcile. Together, they learn that forgetting might be a greater challenge than forgiving.
Release Date: January 20 (Sundance)

Femme
Dir. Sam H. Freeman, Ng Choon Ping
Writer: Sam H. Freeman, Ng Choon Ping
Starring: George MacKay, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Aaron Heffernan
Synopsis: Follows Jules, who is targeted in a horrific homophobic attack, destroying his life and career. Some time after that event he encounters Preston, one of his attackers, in a gay sauna. He wants revenge.
Release Date: March 24

Flint Strong
Dir. Rachel Morrison
Writer: Barry Jenkins
Starring: Ryan Destiny, Brian Tyree Henry, Judy Greer
Synopsis: Claressa “T-Rex” Shields trains to box in the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Release Date: August 24

Freaky Tales
Dir. Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck
Writer: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck
Starring: Pedro Pascal, Ben Mendelsohn, Jay Ellis, Normani, Angus Cloud, Dominique Thorne, Jack Champion
Synopsis: In 1987 Oakland, a mysterious force guides The Town’s underdogs in four interconnected tales: Teen punks defend their turf against Nazi skinheads, a rap duo battles for hip-hop immortality, a weary henchman gets a shot at redemption, and an NBA All-Star settles the score. Basically another day in the Bay.
Release Date: January 18 (Sundance)

Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1 and 2
Dir. Kevin Costner
Writer: Jon Baird, Kevin Costner
Starring: Kevin Costner, Sienna Miller, Sam Worthington, Jena Malone, Abbey Lee, Michael Rooker, Danny Huston, Luke Wilson, Isabelle Fuhrman, Jeff Fahey, Will Patton, Tatanka Means, Owen Crow Shoe, Ella Hunt, and Jamie Campbell Bower
Synopsis: Set in the pre– and post–American Civil War period depicting the expansion of the American west.
Release Date: June 28 and August 16

How to Have Sex
Dir. Molly Manning Walker
Writer: Molly Manning Walker
Starring: Mia McKenna-Bruce, Lara Peake, Samuel Bottomley, Shaun Thomas, Enva Lewis and Laura Ambler
Synopsis: Sixteen-year-old best friends Tara, Em, and Skye head to the party resort of Malia on the Greek island of Crete for a rites-of-passage holiday. While Em will be off to college in the Autumn, Tara and Skye are less certain of their futures. The girls all look forward to drinking, clubbing, and hooking up in what should be the best summer of their lives. Tara, the only virgin in the trio, feels pressure to match the sexual experiences of her friends.
Release Date: January 18 (Sundance)

I.S.S.
Dir. Gabriela Cowperthwaite
Writer: Nick Shafir
Starring: Ariana DeBose, Chris Messina, John Gallagher Jr., Maria Mashkova, Costa Ronin, and Pilou Asbæk
Synopsis: The film centers on a group of astronauts living aboard the International Space Station whose mission is thrown in jeopardy by an ominous message from Earth. Tensions flare in the near future aboard the International Space Station as a worldwide conflict breaks out on Earth. Reeling from this, the astronauts receive orders from the ground: take control of the station by any means necessary.
Release Date: January 19

Imaginary
Dir. Jeff Wadlow
Writer: Jeff Wadlow, Greg Erb and Jason Oremland
Starring: DeWanda Wise, Tom Payne, Taegen Burns, Pyper Braun, Veronica Falcón and Betty Buckley
Synopsis: When Jessica returns to her childhood home with her family, she finds her old stuffed bear, Chauncey, and sees that her stepdaughter Alice has grown attached to it. After Alice’s behavior becomes concerning, and the games that she and Chauncey play turn increasingly sinister, Jessica starts realizing that Chauncey is much more than the stuffed bear she believed him to be for all those years.
Release Date: March 8

In The Blink Of An Eye
Dir. Andrew Stanton
Writer: Colby Day
Starring: Kate McKinnon, Rashida Jones and Daveed Diggs
Synopsis: Depicts three interconnected stories exploring the history of the world.
Release Date: TBD

Joker: Folie à Deux
Dir. Todd Phillips
Writer: Todd Phillips, Scott Silver
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson, Catherine Keener, Jacob Lofland, and Harry Lawtey
Synopsis: The film will feature musical elements.
Release Date: October 4

Love Lies Bleeding
Dir. Rose Glass
Writer: Rose Glass, Weronika Tofilska
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Katy O’Brien, Dave Franco, Jena Malone, and Ed Harris
Synopsis: The film depicts the extreme qualities it takes to succeed in the competitive world of bodybuilding.
Release Date: January 20

Maria
Dir. Pablo Larraín
Writer: Steven Knight
Starring: Angelina Jolie, Valeria Golino, Haluk Bilginer
Synopsis: The film is reportedly set during Callas’ final years in the 1970s when she was living in Paris.
Release Date: TBD

MaXXine
Dir. Ti West
Writer: Ti West
Starring: Mia Goth, Elizabeth Debicki, Moses Sumney, Michelle Monaghan, Bobby Cannavale, Lily Collins, Halsey, Giancarlo Esposito, and Kevin Bacon
Synopsis: After being the only survivor of events of a massacre, Maxine moves to Los Angeles in the early 1980s to pursue her dreams of becoming a famous actress.
Release Date: TBD

Mickey 17
Dir. Bong Joon-ho
Writer: Bong Joon-ho
Starring: Robert Pattinson, Steven Yeun, Naomi Ackie, Toni Collette, and Mark Ruffalo
Synopsis: Feature adaptation of the science fiction novel by Edward Ashton follows the story of Mickey 17, an “expendable”, who is a disposable employee on a human expedition sent to colonize the ice world Niflheim. After one iteration dies, a new body is regenerated with most of his memories intact.
Release Date: March 29

Mother Mary
Dir. David Lowery
Writer: David Lowery
Starring: Michaela Coel, Anne Hathaway, Hunter Schafer
Synopsis: Follows the relationship of a musician and a fashion designer.
Release Date: TBD

Mothers’ Instinct
Dir. Benoît Delhomme
Writer: Sarah Conradt
Starring: Jessica Chastain, Anne Hathaway, Josh Charles and Anders Danielsen Lie
Synopsis: The friendship of two 1960s housewives rapidly deteriorates after a tragedy.
Release Date: TBD

Nightbitch
Dir. Marielle Heller
Writer: Marielle Heller
Starring: Amy Adams, Scoot McNairy, Mary Holland
Synopsis: 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.
Release Date: TBD

Nosferatu
Dir. Robert Eggers
Writer: Robert Eggers
Starring: Emma Corrin, Nicholas Hoult, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Willem Dafoe
Synopsis: A gothic tale of obsession between a haunted young woman and the terrifying vampire infatuated with her, causing untold horror in its wake.
Release Date: December 25

Orion and the Dark
Dir. Sean Charmatz
Writer: Charlie Kaufman
Starring: Jacob Tremblay, Paul Walter Hauser, Werner Herzog
Synopsis: Follows Orion, a young boy who is afraid of heights, pets, and rendered nearly catatonic by the worst of all perils: the dark. The Dark takes Orion on a nighttime trip to prove to the youngster that the only thing to fear is fear itself.
Release Date: February 2

Out of Darkness
Dir. Andrew Cumming
Writer: Ruth Greenberg
Starring: Safia Oakley-Green, Kit Young, and Chuku Modu
Synopsis: In the Old Stone Age, a disparate gang of early humans band together in search of a new land. But when they suspect a malevolent, mystical, being is hunting them down, the clan are forced to confront a danger they never envisaged.
Release Date: February 9

Polaris
Dir. Lynne Ramsay
Writer: Lynne Ramsay
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Rooney Mara
Synopsis: Set in Alaska during the 1890s, an ice photographer meets the devil.
Release Date: TBD

Ponyboi
Dir. Esteban Arango
Writer: River Gallo
Starring: River Gallo, Dylan O’Brien, Victoria Pedretti, Murray Bartlett Indya Moore
Synopsis: Unfolding over the course of Valentine’s Day in New Jersey, a young intersex sex worker must run from the mob after a drug deal goes sideways, forcing him to confront his past.
Release Date: January 20 (Sundance)

Presence
Dir. Steven Soderbergh
Writer: David Koepp
Starring: Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan, Callina Liang, Julia Fox, Eddy Maday, West Mulholland
Synopsis: A family moves into a suburban house and becomes convinced they’re not alone.
Release Date: January 19 (Sundance)

Queer
Dir. Luca Guadagnino
Writer: Justin Kuritzkes
Starring: Daniel Craig, Jason Schwartzman, Lesley Manville, Drew Starkey
Synopsis: Lee, who recounts his life in Mexico City among American expatriate college students and bar owners surviving on part-time jobs and GI Bill benefits. He driven to pursue a young man named Allerton, who is based on Adelbert Lewis Marker.
Release Date: TBD

Rob Peace
Dir. Chiwetel Ejiofor
Writer: Chiwetel Ejiofor
Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jay Will, Mary J. Blige
Synopsis: Robert Peace grew up in an impoverished section of Newark and later graduated from Yale with degrees in molecular biophysics and biochemistry while on scholarship. Peace led a dual life in academia and research while also earning six figures selling marijuana.
Release Date: January 22 (Sundance)

Sebastian
Dir. Mikko Makela
Writer: Mikko Makela
Starring: Ruaridh Mollica, Hiftu Quasem, Ingvar Sigurdsson, Jonathan Hyde, Leanne Best, Lara Rossi
Synopsis: Max, a 25-year-old aspiring writer living in London, begins a double life as a sex worker in order to research his debut novel.
Release Date: January 21 (Sundance)

Sonic the Hedgehog 3
Dir. Jeff Fowler
Writer: Pat Casey, Josh Miller
Starring: Ben Schwartz, James Marsden, Idris Elba
Synopsis: TBD
Release Date: December 20

The Amateur
Dir. James Hawes
Writer: Gary Spinelli
Starring: Rami Malek, Rachel Brosnahan, Caitríona Balfe, Adrian Martinez, Laurence Fishburne, Holt McCallany and Julianne Nicholson
Synopsis: After Charles Heller, a CIA cryptographer, loses his wife in a London terrorist attack, he realizes his bosses will not act due to conflicting internal priorities. He begins to blackmail the agency into training him and letting him go after them himself.
Release Date: November 8

The American Society of Magical Negroes
Dir. Kobi Libii
Writer: Kobi Libii
Starring: Justice Smith, David Alan Grier, An-Li Bogan, Drew Tarver, Michaela Watkins, Aisha Hinds, Tim Baltz, Rupert Friend and Nicole Byer
Synopsis: The film is a satire of the Magical Negro trope. Protagonist Aren is recruited into a magical society of African-Americans to follow their lifelong cause: to make the lives of White people easier.
Release Date: March 22

The End
Dir. Joshua Oppenheimer
Writer: Joshua Oppenheimer, Rasmus Heisterberg
Starring: Tilda Swinton, Michael Shannon, George MacKay
Synopsis: A Golden Age-style musical about the last human family.
Release Date: TBD

The Fall Guy
Dir. David Leitch
Writer: Drew Pearce
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Emily Blunt, Winston Duke, Aaron Taylor Johnson, Stephanie Hsu
Synopsis: A battered and past-his-prime stuntman, Colt, finds himself working on a movie set with the A-list star for whom he doubled long ago. When the star goes missing, and the film (which is being directed by Colt’s ex-girlfriend), is in danger of being shut down, he volunteers to investigate the disappearance and find the missing actor.
Release Date: May 3

The Front Room
Dir. The Eggers Brothers
Writer: The Eggers Brothers
Starring: Brandy Norwood, Kathryn Hunter and Andrew Burnap
Synopsis: The story follows a young, newly pregnant couple forced to take in an ailing stepmother who has long been estranged from the family.
Release Date: TBD

The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim
Dir. Kenji Kamiyama
Writer: Phoebe Gittins, Arty Papageorgiou
Starring: Brian Cox, Miranda Otto, Gaia Wise, Luke Pasqualino, Laurence Ubong, Shaun Dooley
Synopsis: Set 261 years before the events of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The War of the Rohirrim tells the story of Helm Hammerhand, a legendary King of Rohan who must defend against an army of Dunlendings. He becomes the namesake for the stronghold of Helm’s Deep.
Release Date: December 13

The Order
Dir. Justin Kurzel
Writer: Zach Baylin
Starring: Nicholas Hoult, Jurnee Smollett, Jude Law
Synopsis: A series of bank robberies and car heists frightened communities in the Pacific Northwest. A lone FBI agent believes that the crimes were not the work of financially motivated criminals, but rather a group of dangerous domestic terrorists.
Release Date: TBD

The People’s Joker
Dir. Vera Drew
Writer: Vera Drew, Bri Lerose
Starring: Vera Drew, Lynn Downey, Kane Distler, Tim Heidecker, Bob Odenkirk
Synopsis: In the absurdist autobiographically-inspired dark comedy, a painfully unfunny aspiring clown
(Vera Drew as Joker the Harlequin) grapples with her gender identity while unsuccessfully
attempting to join the ranks of Gotham City’s sole comedy program in a world where comedy
has been outlawed. Uniting with a ragtag team of rejects and misfits, Joker the Harlequin forms
an illegal anti-comedy troupe that puts her on a collision course with the devious caped
crusader controlling the city.
Release Date: April 5

The Supremes at Earl’s All-You-Can-Eat
Dir. Tina Mabry
Writer: Tina Mabry, Gina Prince-Bythewood
Starring: Uzo Aduba, Aunjanue Ellis, Sanaa Lathan, Russell Hornsby, and Mekhi Phifer.
Synopsis: Three best friends who call themselves “The Supremes” have experienced life together through the good and bad, and are now finding their friendship tested.
Release Date: TBD

Untitled Jordan Peele film
Dir. Jordan Peele
Writer: Jordan Peele
Starring: TBD
Synopsis: TBD
Release Date: December 25

Untitled Universal Monsters film
Dir. Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett
Writer: Stephen Shields, Guy Busick
Starring: Melissa Barrera, Alisha Weir, Dan Stevens, Kevin Durand, Kathryn Newton, Angus Cloud, Will Catlett, and Giancarlo Esposito
Synopsis: The film is reportedly inspired, in some capacity, by the 1936 Universal film Dracula’s Daughter, and will revolve around a group of kidnappers abducting young people.
Release Date: April 19

We Live In Time
Dir. John Crowley
Writer: Nick Payne
Starring: Florence Pugh, Andrew Garfield
Synopsis: TBD
Release Date: TBD

Wicked Part 1
Dir. Jon M. Chu
Writer: Winnie Holzman and Stephen Schwartz
Starring: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater, Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Yeoh
Synopsis: The story of how a green-skinned woman framed by the Wizard of Oz becomes the Wicked Witch of the West.
Release Date: November 27

Wolf Man
Dir. Leigh Whannell
Writer: Leigh Whannell, Corbett Tuck, Lauren Schuker Blum, Rebecca Angelo
Starring: Christopher Abbott
Synopsis: A man seeks to protect his family from a dangerous predator.
Release Date: October 25