After a summer in which movies like Oppenheimer, Megalodon 2, Elementary, Summer Vacation and above all Barbie have managed to attract viewers to movie theaters, next season is not far behind. Despite the fact that there have been titles that have jumped to 2024 affected by the strike of writers and actors in Hollywood, such as Rivals, by Luca Guadagnino, Kraven the hunter or Dune: Part 2 was announced yesterday, the next few months will be full of stories for all audiences, from the superheroes of The Marvels or the sequel to Aquaman, to the expected new films by veterans such as Martin Scorsese (The Moon Killers), Ridley Scott (Napoleon), Woody Allen (Stroke of Luck) or Víctor Erice (Close your eyes) going through the works of Isabel Coixet (A love) and Juan Antonio Bayona (The snow society). A varied offer for all types of public of which we highlight 20 productions.
After Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile, Kenneth Branagh reprises his role as Belgian detective Hercule Poirot in a story set in post-World War II Venice with a retired Poirot reluctantly attending a seance. When one of the guests is murdered, the protagonist will have to unmask the murderer. In this new installment, directed once again by Branagh, Michelle Yeoh and Jamie Dornan join the cast.
Víctor Erice had not made any feature film for three decades. The last one was El sol del quince, winner of the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. This year, although he did not attend, this wonderful ode to a cinema that was and will not return, premiered in that same contest. An old cinema, on celluloid, in which Miguel Garay (Manolo Solo) participates as director of a film in the nineties that could not be finished due to the mysterious disappearance of the leading actor and friend, played by a superb José Coronado.
Woody Allen premieres his 50th film, shot entirely in French, in which he tells a story of romance, passion and violence set in contemporary Paris and starring Lou de Laâge, Niels Schneider and Melvil Poupaud. The film will have its world premiere at the Venice Mostra and Allen himself will present it in Barcelona at the preview that will take place on September 17 at the Aribau Cinema.
Half a century after the recently deceased William Friedkin took terror to heights never seen before with The Exorcist, David Gordon Green – the creator of the latest installments of the Halloween saga – now dares with an atrocious story that serves as a direct continuation of the original . Ellen Burstyn, who played the mother of the possessed girl Regan in the 1973 film, returns to help a desperate widowed father with her experience.
The philosopher Paul B. Preciado makes his film directing debut adapting Virginia Wolf’s 1928 novel to which the title refers, although turning it into a choral story about trans and non-binary identities. In a hybrid genre between documentary and fiction, the film is based on a letter from Preciado to Woolf in which he tells the English writer what has happened to Orlando, the trans character in her novel, in the last century.
The incombustible Martin Scorsese returns to the fray with a three and a half hour film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert de Niro that rescues one of the most shameful episodes in the history of the United States: the genocide committed against the Osage Indians in the Oklahoma of the twenties of the last century. The film dazzled in Cannes in its world premiere and, after its passage in cinemas, it will land on the Apple TV platform.
British director Ken Loach, a banner of social cinema par excellence, calls for solidarity and compassion in times of crisis in the last remaining pub in a town in the north-east of England, an ideal place for Syrian refugees.
The most romantic film of the year is made by the playwright Celine Song, who makes her debut in style as a feature film with this moving proposal full of pure feelings that has a lot to do with autobiography. Past Lives talks about love and missed opportunities, immediately catching the viewer’s attention. It dazzled at Sundance and the Berlinale and will be presented in the Perlas section of San Sebastián before landing in Spanish theaters.
Another story that is committed to moving the public is the new work by Danish director Lone Scherfig. With Antonio de la Torre and Bérenice Bejo leading the show, the film takes place in a mining town in Chile in the 1960s and narrates how the magic of cinema could reach viewers unexpectedly at a time when there were no platforms or no televisions, no videos, and it was not even easy to access the rooms.
Carol Danvers, aka Captain Marvel, has reclaimed the identity taken from her by the tyrannical Kree and has exacted her revenge on the Supreme Intelligence. But a series of unforeseen consequences force her to carry the weight of a destabilized universe. Brie Larson puts on the costume of the blonde superheroine under the orders of Nia DaCosta. “The worlds we go to in this movie are worlds different from others you’ve seen in the UCM,” said the director.
Isabel Coixet will compete for the Golden Shell at the San Sebastian Festival with her adaptation of the successful novel by Sara Mesa, published in 2020. Laia Costa plays Nat, a young woman who escapes from her life in the city and takes refuge in a town in which he decides to rebuild his life in a house in ruins, where he has to face the distrust of his neighbors, the hostility of his landlord and, in addition, he receives a disturbing sexual proposal from his neighbor Andreas (Hovik Keuchkerian).
Set almost seven decades before the events narrated in the saga of The Hunger Games, the film directed again by Francis Lawrence explains what happened during the reconstruction of Panem after the war, which in the first book by Suzanne Collins became known as the dark days. Rachel Zegler, Spielberg’s Maria in his West Side Story, joins a cast that also includes Viola Davis and Tom Blyth as a young Coriolanus Snow.
Carlota Pereda dazzled last year with her debut feature Cerdita, a rural horror thriller about bullying that won the Méliès de Oro award at the Sitges Festival. In the next edition of the fantastic contest, the Spanish filmmaker and screenwriter will be present in the official section with this supernatural production starring Belén Rueda.
Five years after the success of A Star Is Born, Bradley Cooper returns to the director’s chair in this biopic about the legendary Leonard Bernstein, American composer, pianist and conductor whom he also plays and who Netflix aspires to place as a serious contender for the Oscars. Carey Mulligan is Bernstein’s wife in this film that will have a limited theatrical release and will hit the platform on December 20.
A Ridley Scott in top form presents his new work, a Gladiator-esque epic focusing on the origins of the French military leader and his rapid and ruthless rise to emperor. The story is seen through the lens of the addictive and volatile relationship of the protagonist, played by Joaquin Phoenix, with his wife Josefina, played by Vanessa Kirby.
Disney celebrates its centenary with this film inspired by several of its most iconic titles and set in the kingdom of Rosas, a place where wishes come true and where Asha lives, an optimistic 17-year-old girl with her mother, her grandfather Saba and his pet, a nice goat named Valentino.
After Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp, Timothée Chalamet takes over to put on the costume of the character created by Roald Dahl in this new version that explores what his youth was like before he decided to set up his famous chocolate factory.
Jason Momoa performs wonderfully in the water. We checked it out as king of the seas in Aquaman under the baton of James Wan in 2018. And five years later the Hawaiian actor will live new adventures alongside Amber Heard, Patrick Wilson and Nicole Kidman in this sequel that promises a lot of humor. Of course, it remains to be seen how his character will fit in the future of DC Comics.
The new project of J.A. Bayona is produced by Netflix and is an adaptation of the book by Pablo Vierci with the testimonies of the survivors of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 that crashed into a glacier in the heart of the Andes in 1972. It will be the closing film of the Venice Festival and will also be seen in the Perlak section of San Sebastián.
The latest gem by Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival for his simple and powerful story about characters who look forward despite precariousness. Set in a 2024 Helsinki that seems to have stuck in the past and with the war in Ukraine still going on, the director advocates love as an antidote to global conflict.
