From an outsize Francis Ford Coppola passion project to a “Joker” follow-up that multiplies the madness by two, the fall movie calendar is going big. Reducing it to a select list of noteworthy titles was a daunting task. Alongside major releases, including sequels to “Gladiator” and “Moana,” we’ve included a large number of films that earned acclaim at this year’s festivals. Many other titles haven’t yet settled on release dates. (All dates and platforms are subject to change.)
September
‘A DIFFERENT MAN’ Sebastian Stan won best lead performance at the Berlin Film Festival for his turn as an actor with a facial disfigurement. As he pines for a new neighbor (Renate Reinsve), a playwright, he undergoes an experimental treatment. Aaron Schimberg directed this offbeat comedy, featuring Adam Pearson as the Stan character’s rival. (Sept. 20; in theaters)
‘THE SUBSTANCE’ In what would make an excellent Sept. 20 double feature with “A Different Man,” Demi Moore plays an aging actress reduced to fitness guru-dom who undergoes an experimental treatment of her own. A mysterious injection will divide her into, essentially, two people. Margaret Qualley plays her counterpart. Coralie Fargeat, who wrote and directed, won the screenplay prize at Cannes. (Sept. 20; in theaters)
‘WOLFS’ George Clooney and Brad Pitt mastered the art of smooth teamwork over three “Ocean’s” movies, but in this action comedy, their characters — two fixers who wind up on the same job — are initially at loggerheads. Amy Ryan also stars. Jon Watts (“Spider-Man: No Way Home”) wrote and directed. (Sept. 20 in theaters, Sept. 27 on Apple TV+)
‘LEE’ The celebrated photojournalist Lee Miller got a shoutout in “Civil War” earlier this year. Now she gets a biopic, with Kate Winslet in the role. Josh O’Connor, Andrea Riseborough and Andy Samberg co-star. Ellen Kuras, best known for her work as a cinematographer, directed. (Sept. 27; in theaters)
‘MEGALOPOLIS’ Francis Ford Coppola’s first feature since 2011 is a project he’s been talking up for more than 40 years. In an amalgam of contemporary New York and ancient Rome, Adam Driver plays an urban-planning visionary who at various points evokes Robert Moses, Ayn Rand’s Howard Roark and Coppola himself. (Sept. 27; in theaters)
‘SATURDAY NIGHT’ Jumping the gun — by one year — on the 50th anniversary of the premiere of “Saturday Night Live,” Jason Reitman’s film depicts the 90-minute countdown to the first broadcast, on Oct. 11, 1975. Gabriel LaBelle (“The Fabelmans”) and Rachel Sennott (“Bottoms”) star. (Sept. 27; in theaters)
‘THE WILD ROBOT’ Nature vs. nurture vs. … programming? A robot voiced by Lupita Nyong’o is stranded on an island with furry friends and becomes a mother to a gosling. Chris Sanders (one of the filmmakers behind “How to Train Your Dragon”) directed this animated feature, based on the first of a trilogy of books by Peter Brown. (Sept. 27; in theaters)
‘WILL & HARPER’ That would be Will Ferrell and the former “Saturday Night Live” writer Harper Steele. The two of them travel the country — focusing, in part, on Steele’s transgender identity — in a documentary that was a huge crowd-pleaser at the Sundance Film Festival. (Sept. 27; Netflix)
October
‘JOKER: FOLIE À DEUX’ Joaquin Phoenix, returning to the role that won him an Oscar, goes, um, gaga for Lady Gaga in this sequel to the 2019 smash. From the trailer, Gaga appears to be playing Harley Quinn. Todd Phillips is back as director. Will the staircase put in an appearance? (Oct. 4; in theaters)
‘THE OUTRUN’ Saoirse Ronan plays a recovering alcoholic who returns to the Orkney Islands in Scotland, where she grew up. Nora Fingscheidt directed this adaptation of the memoir by Amy Liptrot. (Oct. 4; in theaters)
‘WE LIVE IN TIME’ Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield play a couple who meet after her character hits his with a car. This drama from the director John Crowley (“Brooklyn”) charts their relationship over many years. (Oct. 11; in theaters)
‘ANORA’ Sean Baker (“The Florida Project”) won the Palme d’Or at Cannes for this raucous (but also serious) comedy largely set in southern Brooklyn, about a sex worker (Mikey Madison) who may or may not have it made after she meets a Russian oligarch’s son (Mark Eydelshteyn). (Oct. 18; in theaters)
‘RUMOURS’ The Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin, directing with his frequent collaborators Evan and Galen Johnson, takes a break from pastiches of anachronistic film styles to make a comedy set at, of all places, the G7 summit. The leaders of the seven nations struggle to put out a statement responding to a vaguely explained global calamity. Cate Blanchett leads the cast as the chancellor of Germany. (Oct. 18; in theaters)
‘UNION’ Two years ago, the workers at Amazon’s warehouse on Staten Island, N.Y., voted to unionize. The documentarians Brett Story and Stephen Maing captured their efforts and disagreements in the period leading up to the vote. The Amazon Labor Union’s founding president, Christian Smalls, figures prominently. (Oct. 18; in theaters)
‘BLACK BOX DIARIES’ The Japanese journalist Shiori Ito is both the reporter and the subject of this documentary, an account of her efforts to obtain justice after a sexual assault. One of the few women to speak out about rape in her country, Ito is considered a feminist icon there. (Oct. 25; in theaters)
‘DAHOMEY’ Mati Diop’s documentary, which follows the process of returning artifacts from Paris to Benin, won the top prize at Berlin. Writing in The New York Times, Jessica Kiang called it “some kind of miracle, packing an extraordinary amount of information, inquiry and wild, persuasive imagination into a slim, 68-minute runtime.” (Oct. 25; in theaters)
‘NICKEL BOYS’ Based on Colson Whitehead’s novel, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 2020, the first non-documentary feature from RaMell Ross (“Hale County This Morning, This Evening”) follows two Black teenagers at a brutal and racist reform school in Florida. It will open this year’s New York Film Festival. Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor and Daveed Diggs star. (Oct. 25; in theaters)
‘THE REMARKABLE LIFE OF IBELIN’ After a gamer from Norway died at 25, his parents discovered a large group of online friends they never knew he had. Alissa Wilkinson wrote that of all the Sundance documentaries she saw in January, this one “feels most destined to live in my memory.” (Oct. 25; Netflix)
November
‘BLITZ’ Last year, in the documentary “Occupied City,” Steve McQueen mapped the history of Amsterdam during World War II. This drama is set in Britain and concerns a boy’s efforts to return to London from the countryside, where his mother (Saoirse Ronan) hoped to keep him safe from the war. Elliott Heffernan and Harris Dickinson also star. (Nov. 1 in theaters; Nov. 22 on Apple TV+)
‘CONCLAVE’ Ralph Fiennes plays a cardinal organizing the process of electing a new pope. Because the movie is adapted from a novel by Robert Harris, there are secrets and power plays afoot. Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow and Isabella Rossellini also star. Edward Berger, of the bombastic 2022 version of “All Quiet on the Western Front,” directed. (Nov. 1; in theaters)
‘HERE’ Thirty years ago, visual effects allowed Tom Hanks to be inserted into major moments in history in “Forrest Gump.” Now they’ll enable him and his “Gump” co-star, Robin Wright, to play various ages in an adaptation of a graphic novel by Richard McGuire. The book is set in one location over billions of years. The “Gump” filmmaker Robert Zemeckis directed. (Nov. 1; in theaters)
‘A REAL PAIN’ Jesse Eisenberg wrote, directed and stars in this film about two cousins (Kieran Culkin plays the other) who travel to Poland, where their grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, came from. The critic Manohla Dargis called it “a touching, beautifully acted, laugh-laced drama” when it played at Sundance, where it won the screenplay prize. (Nov. 1; in theaters)
‘EMILIA PÉREZ’ Four actresses — Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz — shared a prize at Cannes for their performances in this unlikeliest of musicals, about the friendship between a Mexican cartel kingpin (Gascón) and a lawyer (Saldaña) hired to arrange the kingpin’s gender transition. Jacques Audiard directed. (Nov. 13; Netflix)
‘ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT’ This film from Payal Kapadia (“A Night of Knowing Nothing”) was the first Indian feature to compete at Cannes in 30 years; it won the Grand Jury Prize, effectively second place. It concerns two women (Kani Kusruti and Divya Prabha) in Mumbai. One has a husband living abroad; the other is navigating an interfaith relationship that she strives to keep quiet. (Nov. 15; in theaters)
‘HERETIC’ In a rare villainous role, Hugh Grant plays a man who traps a pair of missionaries (Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East) and subjects them to a test of faith that sounds more like something that Jigsaw would devise than a spiritual debate. (Nov. 15; in theaters)
‘GLADIATOR II’ Were you not entertained?!? That is the question posed by Ridley Scott’s sequel to “Gladiator” nearly a quarter century later. Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal and Denzel Washington are among the stars populating Scott’s vision of antiquity. (Nov. 22; in theaters)
‘THE PIANO LESSON’ Samuel L. Jackson and John David Washington reprise the roles they played on Broadway two years ago — an uncle and nephew in a family torn over the fate of a piano with a history — in this screen adaptation of August Wilson’s Pulitzer-winning play. Danielle Deadwyler also stars. Malcolm Washington (John David’s brother) directed. (Nov. 22; Netflix)
‘WICKED’ Cynthia Erivo (as Elphaba) and Ariana Grande (as Glinda) try to defy the recent box-office gravity for musicals in this adaptation of the long-running Broadway smash, a “Wizard of Oz” origin story. Jon M. Chu (“In the Heights”) directed what is planned as the first of two movies. (Nov. 22; in theaters)
‘MOANA 2’ There’s just no telling how far she’ll go. Moana (voiced by Auli‘i Cravalho) ventures a great distance in this sequel to the 2016 animated hit; Dwayne Johnson is back as well. Lin-Manuel Miranda didn’t do the songs this time, however; the music is by Abigail Barlow, Emily Bear, Opetaia Foa‘i and Mark Mancina. (Nov. 27; in theaters)
‘THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG’ Mohammad Rasoulof attended the Cannes premiere of his film in May less than two weeks after announcing on Instagram that he had escaped Iran, where he had been sentenced to prison for his filmmaking. The movie itself is a tense drama about the political tensions within a family after the father is appointed an investigating judge. (Nov. 27; in theaters)
December
‘NIGHTBITCH’ Amy Adams plays a mother who gets in touch with newly discovered canine instincts in this adaptation of the novel by Rachel Yoder. Scoot McNairy and Jessica Harper co-star; Marielle Heller (“Can You Ever Forgive Me?”) directed. (Dec. 6; in theaters)
‘KRAVEN THE HUNTER’ Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays the titular Spider-Man nemesis, before meeting the superhero, in the latest installment of Marvel’s ever-expanding web of Spidey sagas. Russell Crowe plays Kraven’s dad. Ariana DeBose also stars. J.C. Chandor (“All Is Lost”) directed. (Dec. 13; in theaters)
‘THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE WAR OF THE ROHIRRIM’ Peter Jackson returns to Tolkien land — but strictly as executive producer. This animated feature is set more than a century before the other “Lord of the Rings” films at the fortress not yet known as Helm’s Deep. (Dec. 13; in theaters)
‘ON BECOMING A GUINEA FOWL’ In Zambia, as a death reverberates through an extended family, the deceased’s relatives begin to spill secrets they never spoke of when he was alive. Rungano Nyoni (“I Am Not a Witch”) directed this Cannes favorite, whose title alludes to the titular bird’s distinctive way of issuing warnings. (Dec. 13; in theaters)
‘MUFASA: THE LION KING’ Ah, here’s Lin-Manuel Miranda: He wrote the songs for this prequel to the 2019 version of “The Lion King.” The new movie, which also uses photorealistic animation, tells the story of how the orphan Mufasa (voiced by Aaron Pierre) came to be king. Blue Ivy Carter and Kelvin Harrison Jr. also star. Barry Jenkins directed. (Dec. 20; in theaters)
‘BETTER MAN’ Michael Gracey (“The Greatest Showman”) directed this musical biopic of the British singer Robbie Williams. (Dec. 25; in theaters)
‘A COMPLETE UNKNOWN’ Timothée Chalamet has the hair to play Bob Dylan; all he needs is the voice. James Mangold (“Walk the Line”) directed this biopic, which also stars Elle Fanning, Monica Barbaro (as Joan Baez) and Edward Norton (as Pete Seeger). (Dec. 25; in theaters)
‘THE FIRE INSIDE’ Barry Jenkins wrote the screenplay for this biographical film about the boxing and mixed martial arts star Claressa Shields, played by Ryan Destiny. Brian Tyree Henry also stars. The cinematographer Rachel Morrison (“Mudbound”) directed. (Dec. 25; in theaters)
‘NOSFERATU’ Can you revive something that’s undead? Robert Eggers (“The Northman”) updates the vampire lineage that gave us at least two great films, F.W. Murnau’s “Nosferatu” (1922) and Werner Herzog’s “Nosferatu the Vampyre” (1979). Bill Skarsgard embodies the bloodsucker of the title. Willem Dafoe, who played Murnau’s star, Max Schreck, in “Shadow of the Vampire,” here shifts to a professorial role. (Dec. 25; in theaters)
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