Warning: gothic horror, edgy sci-fi madness and general lunacy are the watchwords for 2025’s most eagerly awaited movies. However, for something a little more easy-going, there’s always a brand new Bridget Jones to cosy up with.
Will Timothée Chalamet win an Oscar for his freewheelin’ portrayal of Bob Dylan? Probably; and deservedly so. Charting the singer-songwriter’s arrival in New York as the eponymous unknown through to him infamously going electric at Newport Folk Festival in 1965, Chalamet is mind-blowing; not least when he’s singing. Monica Barbaro is equally brilliant behind the mic as Dylan’s on/off girlfriend Joan Baez. James Mangold made the pretty decent Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line – this is far better.
Your first monumental cinema outing of 2025; quite literally with Adrien Brody on Oscar contender form as László Toth, a visionary Jewish architect and Holocaust survivor who arrives in America in 1947. Guy Pierce is the wealthy industrialist who takes him under his wing, while Felicity Jones plays Toth’s long-suffering wife. Towering in every sense, not least the 215-minute runtime (including planned intermission), it marks the arrival of Brady Corbet as a brutally talented director.
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy
Eight years after Bridget Jones’s Baby, they’re back for more big-knickered japes: Renée Zellweger, Hugh Grant, Colin Firth and Emma Thompson all returning to the fray. Bridget is dealing with widowhood, being a single mum and… of course, potential hanky panky with new young hottie Roxter (Leo Woodall) and, perhaps, her son’s science teacher (Chiwetel Ejiofor). Meanwhile, Grant’s Daniel Cleaver is more lip-curlingly moreish than ever. Michael Morris (Better Call Saul, House of Cards) directs.
Bong Joon Ho doesn’t do bad films, and after Parasite he’s in even stranger territory with this jaunty sci-fi. Robert Pattinson (he doesn’t choose bad films either) is Mickey, an “expendable” whose body is reprinted if he dies on a mission. As Mickey 17 on an expedition to colonise an ice planet, things go very amusingly wrong when he comes face-to-face with Mickey 18. Steven Yeun, Naomi Ackie, Toni Collettte and Mark Ruffalo join Pattinson for the madness.
What, not excited about another Marvel movie? Yeah, understood, that particular cinematic universe has been hit and miss of late. However, here’s a fresh big-screen gang, and they’re supervillains (don’t you just love an anti-hero) who go on Mad Max-type missions for the government. Florence Pugh, Sebastian San, David Harbour and Julia Louis-Dreyfus lead the cast, while Jake Schreier (who did the excellent Beef) directs. Oh, and that asterisk is an intentional Marvel tease of a hidden meaning…
It’s actually 18 years since 28 Weeks Later, and the anticipation among horror fans for this third film in the series is feverish. With a plot “under wraps” and an impenetrable trailer, speculation is rife. What we do know is that, decades after a “rage virus” infected humans, “Time didn’t heal anything”, according to the tagline. And also that Danny Boyle is back behind the camera with Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Ralph Fiennes leading a scorching cast.
The Battle of Baktan Cross
Leonardo DiCaprio will star in The Battle of Baktan Cross
PA Archive
Otherwise known as “Untitled Paul Thomas Anderson Event Film” (that might not be the final title), this crime drama from the There Will be Blood director is indeed an “event”. No surprise the cast is cracking (Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Regina Hall, Benicio del Toro) and the budget is way north of £100 million. Scant plot details so far, but word is it’s based on Thomas Pynchon’s book Vineland and said to be PTA’s most mainstream film yet.
Jessie Buckley plays the Bride
Warner Bros
Maggie Gyllenhaal’s follow-up to her gentle directorial debut, The Lost Daughter, is another beast altogether. A take on 1935 classic Bride of Frankenstein, this follows a lonely Frankenstein’s monster (Christian Bale, hopefully in full-on bonkers mode) to 1930s Chicago where he asks Dr Euphronius to create a companion for him. Enter Jessie Buckley (and that wild platinum hair) as the bride. It’s a family affair, with brother Jake Gyllenhaal and husband Peter Sarsgaard joining Penélope Cruz in the cast.
Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos
Kate Green/Walt Disney Studios
Yorgos Lanthimos, eh, the insane gift that keeps on giving. Two movies out in 2024 and already the Poor Things director is back with Emma Stone (obvs) and his brilliant Kinds of Kindness star Jesse Plemons (who ought, by rights, become a Lanthimos regular). Based on 2003 South Korean film Save the Green Planet! it follows two conspiracy obsessed young men who kidnap the CEO of a major company, convinced she is an alien intent on destroying Earth.
Zoe Saldaña in Avatar
20th Century Fox
Whether you like blue people or not, the sequel to the third highest grossing film of all time (itself a sequel to the biggest box office hit ever) is an event. Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver and Kate Winslet are back, with David Thewlis and Oona Chaplin joining as new characters. All involved are tight-lipped about the plot, but James Cameron has hinted this may be a rather sombre affair: “It goes to darker places than the previous ones.”
Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson in Die, My Love
Scottish auteur Lynne Ramsay works glacially (four movies in 26 years), so here’s a thrill for fans. An adaptation of Ariana Harwicz’s novel, it stars Jennifer Lawrence as a mother driven to insanity by her marriage to Robert Pattinson and postpartum depression. However, cheer up! Ramsay says the film will be funny. And it seems the director is having an unexpected flurry: Margaret Atwood adaptation Stone Mattress with Julianne Moore and Polaris with Joaquin Phoenix are also both near completion.
Jacob Elordi will play Frankenstein’s monster
Getty Images for FLC
All you need know is that this is by Guillermo del Toro, right? If the gothic master can come anywhere close to Pan’s Labyrinth, we’re in for a treat. And he’s got the hot star-power to do it: Oscar Isaac as Victor Frankenstein, Jacob Elordi playing the monster, phenomenal screen presence Mia Goth and scenery-muncher Christoph Waltz. It’s a Netflix production and presumably one of their 2026 Oscars hopefuls, so likely to hit screens towards the end of the year.