82 Must-See New Films Arriving in 2023, from ‘Infinity Pool’ to ‘Barbie’ and Many More

With 2022 nearly on the books and 2023 nipping at our heels, it’s only fitting we take on the time-honored task of looking ahead at the movies (dozens of them, in fact) that we can’t wait to see in the year to come.

2023 will bring a hefty number of much-hyped studio films, including sequels like “Magic Mike’s Last Dance,” “Creed III,” “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” “Dune: Part Two,” and “A Haunting in Venice.” Want even more franchises? Boy, have we got those in spades, including new entries into both the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the DC Universe, a new “John Wick” feature, a new “Scream” film and a new “Saw” film, and even yet another “Fast and Furious” film.

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More edifying: Among even studio films, there are also plenty of original features, too, like “Oppenheimer,” “Cocaine Bear,” “Plane,” “Megan,” “65,” “Next Goal Wins,” “Strays,” “Challengers,” and “True Love.” And many of those films hail from some of our favorite directors, from Taika Waititi to Luca Guadagnino, Christopher Nolan and Elizabeth Banks. Dig still deeper, and more treasures await: a new film from Gareth Edwards! A big-screen take on “Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret”! What about Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” film, or a new spin on Dracula starring Nicolas Cage?

In the indie sphere, a wide variety of some of our best filmmakers awaits, including new films from Brandon Cronenberg, Jesse Eisenberg, Nicole Holofcener, Ari Aster, and Rebecca Lenkiewicz. A number of these titles are already bound for Sundance, so we’ll get a read on them soon enough. (And, never fear, even the indie space has room for sequels and world-building, like Ti West’s “MaXXXine,” which aims to complete his wild trilogy.)

Streamers won’t be ignored (per usual), with Apple bringing both a new Martin Scorsese and a new Ridley Scott, and Netflix already locking in films from Bradley Cooper, Wes Anderson, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, and David Fincher, with surely many new titles still to be announced.

For housekeeping purposes, please note: This list only includes films that have confirmed release dates in 2023 (TBD 2023 dates will be updated as firm dates are announced) and includes features from the “Big Five” studios (Disney/Fox, Sony, Paramount, Universal, and Warner Bros.), along with their specialty arms (like Searchlight Pictures and Focus Features); mini-majors like MGM and Lionsgate; plus streamers like Netflix and Amazon, and indie and boutique outfits like A24, Neon, IFC Films, Bleecker Street, Magnolia Pictures, Shout! Factory, Strand Releasing, and more. Bonus: Some of these titles we’ve already been lucky enough to see (and we’ll have a deeper dive into those titles next week).

All films listed below are debuting in theaters unless otherwise specified. Ahead, our preview of 82 — 82! — new films we can’t wait to see in 2023.

Sophie Monks Kaufman, Robert Daniels, Jude Dry, Christian Zilko, and Leila Latif also contributed to this article.

“Megan” (January 6, Universal)

An overprotective robot friend, a baffled Allison Williams, and the Blumhouse stamp of approval? This is the sort of film early January viewing was made for.

“Plane” (January 13, Lionsgate)

The kind of formula that’s been missing from recent studio-made action offerings: a tough guy who plays by his own rules (Gerard Butler) but is dedicated to his buttoned-up job (commercial pilot) finds himself and a ragtag bunch of weirdos in an insane situation (plane gets hit by lighting, they crash on an island run by violent militant separatists) where he, plus a hard-to-pin down maybe-compatriot (Mike Colter as an extradited murderer), need to fight their way out of an impossible situation. Even better? That’s only the tip of the cinematic iceberg that is “Plane”!

“Saint Omer” (January 13, Neon’s Super)

With “Saint Omer,” Alice Diop shows an unflinching gaze, yet while Truman Capote examined his subjects with a clinical detachment, the filmmaker distinguishes herself here by daring to empathize with her own. Not with her crime, but with the temporary insanity that afflicted a brilliant, marginalized Senegalese immigrant in Paris. The film was lauded in 2022, when it was picked as France’s entry for the Oscars’ Best International Feature Film, and will soon arrive for all audiences to ponder.

“Skinamarink” (January 13, IFC Films)

A festival sensation that was leaked, torrented, and then turned into a word-of-mouth hit big enough to warrant a theatrical release courtesy of IFC Midnight (before it arrives on Shudder), Kyle Edward Ball’s “Skinamarink” is a hardcore, micro-budget, fuzz-core freakout of a horror debut that effectively feels like staring at the last shot of “The Blair Witch Project” for 100 minutes. The story ostensibly follows two kids who wake up in the middle of the night to find that their father has disappeared (along with the exits to their house), but this twisted kaleidoscope of long hallways, disembodied voices, and creepy dolls is less interested in legible plot than abstruse petrification. Ball got his start running a YouTube channel where he would adapt people’s nightmares for them; with “Skinamarink,” he cuts out the middle man.

“When You Finish Saving the World” (January 20, A24)

First-time director Jesse Eisenberg has always displayed a knack for putting his own stamp on other people’s stories, whether humanizing a zombie iconoclast like Mark Zuckerberg or exhuming Greg Mottola’s acrylic memories of working at a rundown amusement park, and there isn’t a single line in “When You Finish Saving the World” that you can’t hear coming out of his mouth — his presence behind the camera is so palpable that it would have been redundant for Eisenberg to cast himself. (This is a compliment.)

“Missing” (January 20, Sony)

Five years after Aneesh Chaganty’s John Cho-starring mystery thriller “Searching,” the clever screen film gets a sequel. It’s a natural enough idea in our true crime- and social media-obsessed world, an idea “Missing” niftily plays off of. This one follows new characters (including Nia Long and Storm Reid as a mother and daughter) but exists firmly inside the “Searching” universe. The pedigree is there, too: the first film’s editors, Nick Johnson and Will Merrick, make their directorial debut on the feature, with their own script inspired by an original idea from Chaganty and his “Searching” co-writer Sev Ohanian. Details are under wraps, but we’re guessing fans of the original film will not be disappointed.

“Close” (January 27, A24, following a one-week qualifying run in December)

“Close” is the second feature by Belgian director Lukas Dhont, whose 2019 debut “Girl” — another lucid, involving, and acutely observed coming-of-age drama — was understandably controversial both for its casting of a cisgender boy in the role of a trans ballet dancer and for the way its final moments weaponized the film’s clarity toward a violent ending that verged on the emotionally pornographic. This time, he doesn’t save the violence, but he does unspool another deeply affecting portrait of children on the cusp: in this case, two boys who have been best friends forever.

“Infinity Pool” (January 27, Neon)

Brandon Cronenberg (“Possessor”) continues to follow in the footsteps of his body horror director-dad with his third feature, which follows a young, rich and in love couple (Alexander Skarsgård and Mia Goth) on vacation who have the time of their lives at an all-inclusive resort until they find something dangerous — but seductive! — just beyond the resort walls. The cast and crew should be enough to stoke plenty of interest on their own, but a splashy Sundance debut, the threat of an NC-17 rating (which Cronenberg successfully appealed down to an R), and a gung-ho theatrical release from NEON will all contribute to making “Infinity Pool” one of the first must-see movies of 2023.

“One Fine Morning” (January 27, Sony Pictures Classics, following a one-week qualifying run in December)

This effervescent slice-of-life story, as palpable and alive as a gust of summer air rustling the trees along the Seine (Denis Lenoir’s typically vibrant 35mm cinematography makes sure of that), is never didactic in a way that makes “One Fine Morning” feel like a clichéd story about how a woman on the edge (Léa Seydoux) gets her groove back. On the contrary, filmmaker Mia Hansen-Løve has traced her own paternal grief into an illuminatingly honest sketch about how loss is necessary for rebirth, guilt inextricable from self-fulfillment, and the present worth savoring for its role in bringing the past and the future together — rather than as a buffer for keeping them apart.

Universal Pictures

“Knock at the Cabin” (February 3, Universal)

Once tipped to be the next Spielberg, M. Night Shyamalan seems to have instead found his true calling as a sort of ultra-earnest dad-brain Rod Serling; after mercy-killing the “Unbreakable” trilogy with 2019’s “Glass,” the increasingly prolific Shyamalan has pivoted into a new phase of his career that focuses on putting normal families in unimaginable situations. That trend started with “Old,” and it continues with the awkwardly titled but deliciously appealing “Knock at the Cabin,” in which Jonathan Groff and Ben Aldridge play a couple whose woodsy vacation with their young daughter (Kristen Cui) is turned upside down when Dave Bautista, Rupert Grint, Abby Quinn, and Nikki Amuka-Bird show up at their door and insist that the world will end if our heroes don’t make “the ultimate sacrifice.” It’s probably safe to assume that’s not an empty threat.

“Baby Ruby” (February 3, Magnolia Pictures, in theaters and on VOD)

Despite its title, writer/director Bess Wohl’s debut feature “Baby Ruby” isn’t primarily about the titular infant. It instead takes interest in her beleaguered mother, Jo (Noémie Merlant of “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”), a lifestyle influencer for an online magazine. Her husband, Spencer (Kit Harington, “Game of Thrones”), is an “ethical” butcher. The pair, living in a lavish cabin, on paper, is the kind of seemingly perfect couple who put their idyllic baby pictures online to stir envy. They show the best parts of motherhood and sanitize the strain. But the bitter truth that Jo discovers is that you can’t hide the arduous parts.

“Body Parts” (February 3, Shout! Factory, in theaters and on VOD)

A clever and damning documentary about the history of nudity, sex scenes, and women’s bodies on film. Objects become subjects in Kristy Guevara-Flanagan’s sweeping yet focused analysis that exposes the truth about the power of images to shape the world’s views of women.

“Magic Mike’s Last Dance” (February 10, Warner Bros.)

Possibly the most important movie ever made in the pre-“Barbie” era, this long-anticipated sequel to 2015’s “Magic Mike XXL” (almost certainly the most important movie ever made in the pre-“Barbie” era) finds Channing Tatum’s puppy-like stripper taking his banana hammock to London in order to gyrate atop Salma Hayek and put on a show similar to the Vegas revue this franchise has already inspired in real life. Steven Soderbergh successfully lobbied Warner Bros. to give this HBO Max project a proper theatrical release, and it’s our solemn duty as cinema lovers and citizens of Earth to reward that effort several times over.

“The Blue Caftan” (February 10, Strand Releasing)

When an aging couple operating a struggling Moroccan dress shop hires a dashing young apprentice, some of the first words out of his mouth are “I work fast.” That also describes the approach of “The Blue Caftan” director Maryam Touzani, who sets up its straightforward premise so quickly that you’d be forgiven for thinking you had the entire film figured out within five minutes. A closeted gay tailor, who fights with his wife about money, begins mentoring a young man who’s more beautiful than any item in his shop. Gee, what could possibly happen here?

“Sharper” (February 10 in theaters, February 17 streaming, A24 and AppleTV+)

Hot off a run of directing episodes of the much-loved “Andor,” first-time feature filmmaker Benjamin Caron assembles an enviable cast — Julianne Moore, John Lithgow, Sebastian Stan, Justice Smith, and Briana Middleton — to tell a stylish tale of a Manhattan con artist who takes on a big (too big?) mark.

“Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey” (February 15, Fathom Events)

“Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey” is a story about what happens when a beloved little bear from children’s literature grows homicidal after his best human friend goes away to college, but — more fundamentally — this cheap horror curio is a story about what happens when iconic texts fall into the clutches of the public domain. Shot in 10 days and armed with the rights to A.A. Milne’s first “Winnie-the-Pooh” book (but not to the visually identifiable version of the character that Walt Disney has popularized over the last several decades), Rhys Frake-Waterfield’s opportunistic film begins shortly after Pooh and Piglet have eaten Eeyore out of hunger, and it only promises to get more childhood-ruining from there. Those planning to see this should keep in mind that it will only be in theaters for one night, and that “Magic Mike’s Last Dance” will likely be playing on the next screen over.

“Pacifiction” (February 17, Grasshopper Film and Gratitude Films)

The art film of the year. Last year and this one.

“Return to Seoul” (February 17, Sony Pictures Classics, following a one-week qualifying run in December)

Few movies have ever been more perfectly in tune with their protagonists than Davy Chou’s jagged, restless, and rivetingly unpredictable “Return to Seoul,” a shark-like adoption drama that its 25-year-old heroine wears like an extra layer of skin or sharp cartilage. The film spans eight years over the course of two hours, but you can feel its bristly texture and self-possessed violence from the disorienting first scenes.

“Emily” (February 17, Bleecker Street)

A ravishing period drama that plays fast and loose with the facts of Emily Brontë’s remarkable life in order to paint a portrait of the author that bleeds with the same heart-in-its-hands emotionality she had to suffuse into her work.

“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” (February 17, Disney)

They made another “Ant-Man” movie, and Wikipedia promises that Gregg Turkington reprises his iconic role as the Baskin-Robbins manager from the first one. If that’s not enough to get your blood pumping, we might also mention that “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” introduces mega-franchise villain Kang the Conquerer (Jonathan Majors), meaning that you basically have to see it if you want to have any idea of what’s happening at your local multiplex for the next few years.

“Cocaine Bear” (February 24, Universal)

The butterfly effect in action: On September 11, 1985, a drug smuggler dropped 40 plastic containers out of a private plane somewhere over Georgia before dying from a parachute malfunction later that night; on February 24, 2023, a dark comedy about a large woodland creature who ingests an entire “Boogie Nights” worth of blow will be released in multiplexes across the country, fulfilling the Lumière brothers’ lifelong dream of seeing Brooklynn Prince and Ray Liotta (in one of the late actor’s final performances) team up to fight a jittery CGI black bear. The trailer left a lot to be desired, but the wacky premise — along with the impressive team of producers that brought this timeless story to the screen, which includes Lord and Miller, Brian Duffield, and director Elizabeth Banks — demands the benefit of the doubt.

“We Have a Ghost” (February 2023, streaming on Netflix)

Comedy horror maestro Christopher Landon (“Freaky,” the unimpeachable “Happy Death Day 2U” series) brings his skills to something touch new: a family horror comedy. Based on a Vice short story (which is still available to read right now) from executive producer Geoff Manaugh, the David Harbour-starring film follows a family that a) finds a ghost, b) becomes social media stars, and c) well, you’ll just to have to wait for the film.

“Creed III” (March 3, MGM)

Everybody loved “Creed,” and apparently there was also a “Creed II.” Even on the heels of a forgettable sequel, however, interest is high in the “Rocky” successor’s latest return to the ring, as “Creed III” boasts a story co-conceived by Ryan Coogler, a heel turn by Jonathan Majors, and a chance to watch star (and producer) Michael B. Jordan step behind the camera for his directorial debut. One way or the other, it’s always exciting to see what happens when one of Hollywood’s brightest young talents auditions to be an auteur, and Jordan has learned from some of the best.

Paramount Pictures

“Scream 6” (March 10, Paramount)

After resurrecting the long-dormant “Scream” franchise with their clever “Scream” requel, the Radio Silence dudes are looking to continue the lineage with a brand-new sequel. A twist, sort of, as this one moves far, far away from California, taking the terrors of Ghostface right to the Big Apple.

“65” (March 17, Sony)

Thanks to a recent trailer, the secretive new film from “A Quiet Place” writers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods has revealed itself to be, OK, fine, a pretty secretive new film, but maybe with aliens and astronauts? At least it definitely stars Adam Driver, and we definitely want to see more.

“Shazam! Fury of the Gods” (March 17, Warner Bros.)

Despite the endless woes of the DCEU, 2019’s warm and funny “Shazam!” managed to overdeliver on virtually all fronts. Now, director David F. Sandberg returns for the rare superhero sequel that doesn’t feel like the stuff of pure obligation, as Billy Batson and his foster siblings and forced to fight against the Daughters of Atlas (the incredible trio of Lucy Liu, Helen Mirren, and Rachel Zegler) in order to save the world and — fingers crossed — prevent the hierarchy of power in the DC Universe from changing yet again.

“John Wick: Chapter 4” (March 24, Lionsgate)

Yeah, we’re thinking he’s still back. Somehow, there are still bad guys who John Wick hasn’t killed. Even more improbably, there are still bad guys who are willing to fight him. It doesn’t make a ton of sense, but the promise of Donnie Yen and Rina Sawayama joining the action is too good to question.

“Master Gardener” (March 30, Magnolia Pictures)

After the recent existential nightmare of “First Reformed” and last year’s stunningly cruel psychodrama “The Card Counter,” Paul Schrader returns with another gritty tale of redemption for his loose trilogy. It is with those built-in expectations, and knowing how dark Schrader is capable of going, that his loyal audience will be bracing themselves for cruelty when “Master Gardener begins. But, while the central character’s arc will likely launch a dreaded “discourse,” there is a tenderness to “Master Gardener” that may prove its biggest surprise.

“Palm Trees and Power Lines” (March 2023, Momentum Pictures, in theaters and on VOD)

Lea knows the difference between wrong and right. Wrong: the way dudes treat her mom. Wrong: her friends running out on their bill at a local diner. Wrong: getting into a strange man’s truck. But, as has forever been the human condition — and in the case of Jamie Dack’s uncomfortably honest “Palm Trees and Power Lines,” the teenage human condition — knowing is only half the battle, and Lea (a breakout Lily McInerny in a remarkable first feature role) is about to endure quite a battle indeed. The festival hit expands Dack’s own short of the same name, with thrilling results.

“R.M.N.” (April 7, IFC Films)

Chekhov’s gun has seldom fallen into hands as steady and menacing hands as in Cristian Mungiu’s poorly titled, expertly staged “R.M.N.,” which finds the elite Romanian auteur extrapolating the personal tensions that gripped his previous work (e.g., “Beyond the Hills” and the Palme d’Or-winning “4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days”) across an entire Transylvanian village. The result is a socioeconomic crucible that carefully shifts its weight to the same foot that Mungiu always loves to rest on your throat; a slightly over-broad story of timeless xenophobia baked full of local flavor and set right on the cusp of a specific moment in the 21st century.

“Renfield” (April 14, Universal)

It was a major bummer to see director Chris McKay follow his brilliant “The LEGO Batman Movie” with Amazon’s ultra-bland wannabe-blockbuster “The Tomorrow War,” but the Adult Swim alum appears to be appealing to his strengths with an action-comedy about Count Dracula’s favorite lackey (Nicholas Hoult) falling in love with a New Orleans traffic cop (Awkwafina). Did we mention that Dracula is played by Nicolas Cage? Because of course he is.

“Mafia Mamma” (April 14, Bleecker Street)

The official synopsis sells this one perfectly: The film “follows an American woman (Toni Collette) who inherits her grandfather’s mafia empire in Italy. Guided by the firm’s trusted consigliere (Monica Bellucci), she hilariously defies everyone’s expectations, including her own, as the new head of the family business.” Mafia Mamma Toni Collette? Brilliant.

“Evil Dead Rise” (April 21, Warner Bros.)

This brand-new “Evil Dead” feature comes with Sam Raimi’s very own stamp of approval: He handpicked director Lee Cronin for a fresh exploration of what happens when very nice, very normal people raise the dead. While the franchise has grown more unwieldy over time, thanks to sequels, series, and remakes, Cronin’s film sounds like its own thing, but with the lineage to make it a real scream.

“Polite Society” (April 28, Focus Features)

“We Are Lady Parts” creator Nida Manzoor’s actioner is bound for Sundance and will hit wide release just three months later. Per its official logline, it “follows martial artist-in-training Ria Khan, who believes she must save her older sister Lena from her impending marriage. After enlisting the help of her friends, Ria attempts to pull off the most ambitious of all wedding heists in the name of independence and sisterhood.”

“Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret” (April 28, Lionsgate)

“The Edge of Seventeen” writer and director Kelly Fremon Craig has proven she knows her way around a charming, messy, totally original coming-of-age story, so it’s only fitting she next take on a classic tale chock-a-block with her usual obsessions. Fremon Craig adapted the beloved Judy Blume novel herself and promises to deliver another funny, sweet, and very believable tale of fraught adolescence.

“Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman” (April 2023, Kino Lorber and Zeitgeist Films)

Haruki Murakami’s novels may be all but unadaptable (not that anyone has really tried since Tran Anh Hung’s “Norwegian Wood”), but the Japanese author’s short stories have provided the source material for two of the best movies of the last 20 years in “Burning” and “Drive My Car.” Pierre Földes’ “Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman” looks to split the difference with an animated film that borrows its title — but not all six of its segments — from Murakami’s anthology of the same name. The film premiered to positive notices on the festival circuit last year and seems poised to increase Murakami’s presence beyond the page.

Disney

“Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3” (May 5, Disney)

James Gunn closes out his big-hearted, candy-colored, rock ‘n’ roll Marvel trilogy before he moves over to run DC’s own comic book movie arm full time. (Salute emoji here.)

“Fast X” (May 19, Universal)

The “Fast & Furious” series has been on a steady decline since the glory days of “Fast Five,” and not even Justin Lin — who’s helmed all of the franchise’s best films — has been fully able to regain control of the wheel. His discord with Vin Diesel peaked with Lin walking away from “Fast X” just a week after production began, and the decision to replace him with “The Incredible Hulk” director Louis Leterrier doesn’t exactly fill us with confidence that the final chapters of Dominic Toretto’s family saga will start with their foot on the gas. Even so, these movies are bigger than any reservations we could possibly have about them, and this one promises to be the biggest one yet.

“The Little Mermaid” (May 26, Disney)

Disney’s push into turning some of its most beloved animated properties into live-action spectacles gets even more splashy with Rob Marshall’s take on the iconic mermaid/maybe hoarder. Actual singer Halle Bailey steps into the role of the dare-to-dream-for-more Ariel, plus Melissa McCarthy as the villainous Ursula, Jacob Tremblay as Flounder, and Awkwafina as Scuttle. We want to be part of this world!

Sony/screenshot

“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” (June 2, Sony)

“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” blew minds and sparked a whole new excitement for everyone’s favorite neighborhood web-slinger when it swooped into theaters in 2018 and swung away with the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. Much of the same creative team returns for the first installment of a two-part sequel that promises to be bigger and more psychedelic in just about every way, as it finds Miles Morales teaming up with an even wider array of Peter Parkers (including Oscar Isaac’s Spider-Man 2099, and Daniel Kaluuya’s Spider-Punk) in order to save the multiverse from a mysterious supervillain known as The Spot (Jason Schwartzman). If it’s even half as good as its predecessor, every other comic book movie coming out next year will have to fight amongst themselves for second place.

“Strays” (June 9, Universal)

Just when it seemed like streaming had sucked the laughs out of the movies forever, 2023 suggests that comedy might be legal at the multiplex, again! At least that’s what Universal is hoping for when it releases the third Lord and Miller film on our preview so far, a live-action adult animated comedy about an abandoned dog (voiced by Will Ferrell) who teams up with some other strays (including Jamie Foxx and Isla Fisher) to get revenge on his former owner (Will Forte). It might sound a little iffy on paper, but director Josh Greenbaum — of the “Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar” Greenbaums — has more than earned himself the benefit of the doubt.

“Elemental” (June 16, Disney)

Following on the heels of three strong direct-to-streaming features (“Soul,” “Luca,” “Turning Red”) and a disastrous return to theaters with last summer’s “Lightyear,” Pixar finds itself with a bit of an identity crisis on its hands, along with an unusually urgent need for the studio to remind people that it’s capable of creating must-see multiplex events. That puts an unfair amount of pressure on the flickering shoulders of next June’s “Elemental,” a high-concept story of love and friendship about the relationship that forms between a girl made out of fire (Leah Lewis) and a guy made out of water (Mamoudou Athie). It sounds like some classic Pete Docter anthropomorphism, but this metaphor-rich modern fairy tale actually comes from “The Good Dinosaur” director Peter Sohn, who conceived it as a tribute to his immigrant parents’ experience of starting a new life in New York City.

“Asteroid City” (June 16, Focus Features)

Little is known about Wes Anderson’s latest film, beyond the fact that it’s billed as a romance, features literally every famous actor you can name off the top of your head (including WesWorld newcomer Tom Hanks), and takes place at a Junior Stargazer convention in a fictional American desert town circa 1955. That description alone is enough to summon dreams of “Moonrise Kingdom,” which only makes us more excited to take another look at the world through Anderson’s telescope.

“No Hard Feelings” (June 23, Sony)

Jennifer Lawrence’s return to regular acting gigs continues with this R-rated coming-of-age dramedy from the director of “Good Boys,” in which the mega-wattage “Red Sparrow” star plays a woman who — for whatever reason — responds to a Craigslist ad that a mother wrote in search of someone to date her Large Adult Son (20-year-old actor Andrew Barth Feldman). Matthew Broderick, Natalie Morales, and Ebon Moss-Bacharach help round out the cast for this mid-summer original, which should be crude and tender and allow Lawrence to showcase a natural aptitude for comedy that not even David O. Russell and Adam McKay’s least funny movies have been able to obscure.

Untitled Adele Lim film (June 23, Lionsgate)

“Crazy Rich Asians” scribe Adele Lim makes her directorial debut with a comedy that “follows the journey of four Asian-American women traveling through Asia in search of one of their birth mothers.” It stars “Everything Everywhere All at Once” breakout Stephanie Hsu, plus Ashley Park, Sherry Cola, and Sabrina Wu.

Walt Disney Studios

“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” (June 30, Disney)

Forget about “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom the Crystal Skull” and focus on what seems to be the real final chapter in Indy’s story, complete with a clearly revitalized Harrison Ford, a kooky mystery, and Phoebe Waller-Bridge to boot. Mutt who?

“Extraction 2” (June 2023, streaming on Netflix)

Three years after Sam Hargraves’ actioner was a smash hit for the streamer, the filmmaker returns for a sequel. Sure, sure, that sounds normal enough, but do you remember how the first film ended? With star Chris Hemsworth’s mercenary with a heart of gold being very much killed? Surprise: He’s back for this next one!

“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Part 1” (July 14, Paramount)

Based on the stunts that have been revealed so far, the first half of the two-part sequel to the best pure Hollywood action movie this side of “Fury Road” will temporarily make you forget that Tom Cruise survived the process of filming it. “Mission: Impossible” is the rare franchise that continues to get better as it goes along, and we’re in for an all-time blockbuster experience if that pattern continues here.

“Barbie” (July 21, Warner Bros.)

The cinematic event of the summer. The year. Maybe the decade? Greta Gerwig seems bound and determined to break the curse of the “what if this toy was a movie” elevator pitch, bolstered by her own gimlet eye for comedy and human emotion, stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, and what looks like frankly perfect production design.

“Oppenheimer” (July 21, Universal)

Christopher Nolan has flirted with true stories before (“Dunkirk” abstracted a pivotal moment of World War II, “The Prestige” featured a cameo from Nikola Tesla, “Tenet” was a vérité documentary told in real-time, etc.), but a full-on biopic is new territory for the world’s reigning king of the summer box office. Nevertheless, J. Robert Oppenheimer — father of the atom bomb, becomer of death, destroyer of worlds — is a fittingly explosive subject for Nolan’s style, and the recently released teaser trailer suggests that the parameters of a single human life haven’t stopped the director from indulging in all of his usual tics, such as IMAX cinematography, mega-scaled practical effects, Cillian Murphy, a non-linear sense of time, and a nuclear explosion recreated without CGI (?). Even diehard Gerwig heads will have a hard time only seeing one movie at the multiplex come July 21.

“The Marvels” (July 28, Disney)

Filmmaker Nia DaCosta joins the Marvel Cinematic Universe with a much-anticipated sequel to 2019’s “Captain Marvel,” which pulls together some of the MCU’s most exciting female superheroes: not just Captain Marvel, but also Kamala Khan and Monica Rambeau in a film absolutely built to be powerful.

“Meg 2: The Trench” (August 10, Warner Bros.)

Here’s the pitch: It’s directed by Ben Wheatley. Take our money!

“Challengers” (August 11, Lionsgate)

There are few things Luca Guadagnino loves more than making wonderful films than talking about the wonderful films he’s gonna make. Thank goodness the filmmaker’s schedule actually allowed for this one: a tennis drama wrapped up in a romance that stars some of our favorite rising talents, including Zendaya, Mike Faist, and Josh O’Connor.

Untitled Please Don’t Destroy film (August 18, Universal)

The nepo babies responsible for the surreal, lo-fi sketches that have reliably become the funniest part of “Saturday Night Live” made a movie. It doesn’t have a title, but it does have a supporting performance of some kind by Conan O’Brien, which is reason enough to be optimistic that this feature-length debut finds a way to maintain the same warped energy of Please Don’t Destroy’s viral shorts.

“Lift” (August 25, streaming on Netflix)

Will 2023 end up being the year of the great plane movie? Mere months after the arrival of the Gerard Butler-starring “Plane,” Netflix gives us F. Gary Gray’s “Lift,” which follows a topnotch criminal crew (the massive cast includes Kevin Hart, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Vincent D’Onofrio, Úrsula Corberó, Billy Magnussen, Jacob Batalon, Jean Reno, Sam Worthington, Viveik Kalra, Yun Jee Kim, Burn Gorman, and Paul Anderson) who take on a daring new gig: save the world from a terrorist attacking by pulling off a heist…mid-flight.

“A Haunting in Venice” (September 15, 20th Century Studios)

Kenneth Branagh’s third Hercule Poirot film finds the mustachioed super-sleuth in retirement (sure), only to be pulled back into a murder that takes place at a seance. The Agatha Christie tale (published as “Hallowe’en Party”) has previously been adapted for radio and television, but not the big screen. Branagh’s take again assembles a starry cast to crack (and probably also hinder) his next great case, including Kyle Allen, Camille Cottin, Jamie Dornan, Tina Fey, Jude Hill, Kelly Reilly, and Michelle Yeoh.

“Next Goal Wins” (September 22, Searchlight Pictures)

Shot more than three years ago with the intention of being Taika Waititi’s follow-up to “Jojo Rabbit,” “Next Goal Wins” was extensively retooled after Armie Hammer self-destructed in strange fashion, and Will Arnett was brought in to reshoot his role, a swap that either caused or contributed to a rather dramatic series of delays for what sounds like a charming little sports movie about a Dutch-American man. Michael Fassbender plays football coach Thomas Rongen, who’s hired to transform the woeful American Samoa national team into a World Cup-worthy squad. At this point, it seems safe to assume that “Next Goal Wins” will either hit its firm September release date or disappear forever.

“True Love” (October 6, 20th Century Studios)

Post his “Rogue One,” filmmaker Gareth Edwards has stayed mostly under the radar, which makes his return to the big screen, a secretive “science fiction drama thriller crime comedy” (thanks, Wikipedia) all the more intriguing. What we don’t know about the film, beyond its apparent ability to span multiple genres, is helped a great deal by its impressive cast: The film stars John David Washington, Gemma Chan, Ralph Ineson, Allison Janney, Ken Watanabe, Anthony Ramos, and Joey King.

Untitled “The Exorcist” film (October 13, Universal)

For his next trick, post-“Halloween” ending and such, David Gordon Green turns his attention to “The Exorcist” mythos. Details are slim, but however this one shakes out, we expect it to be as divisive among the horror devout as his last trilogy.

“Saw X” (October 27, Lionsgate)

Brace for yet another chapter in “The Book of Saw,” which at this point is about as hard to get rid of as “The Babadook” (the book or the monster). This one was shot in Mexico City instead of Toronto, so that’s different!

“Pain Hustlers” (October 27, streaming on Netflix)

David Yates takes on big Pharma in a drama that would sound been-there, done-that (a woman takes a gig in pharmaceutical sales, is shocked), except for its starry cast, including Emily Blunt, Chris Evans, Andy Garcia, Catherine O’Hara, Jay Duplass, Brian d’Arcy James, and Chloe Coleman.

“Dune: Part Two” (November 3, Warner Bros.)

Hard as it is to believe that the rousing climax of “Dune” — in which Timothée Chalamet fought one random guy and then walked off into the desert with some voiceover trailing behind him — wasn’t the epic conclusion that fans always imagined from a new adaptation of Frank Herbert’s famous spice opera, Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation will continue with the second half of Paul Atreides’ origin story. It promises to end with Timothée Chalamet and Austin Butler dueling to the death for the title of ultimate Gen Z heartthrob.

“The Killer” (November 10, streaming on Netflix)

Just as America is starting to get over “Mank” fever and go back to normal, David Fincher is coming back with another major Netflix movie, and this one — adapted from a slick and steely French graphic novel about an expert assassin losing his grip — appears to play right into the ice-veined director’s strengths. Michael Fassbender plays the killer, Tilda Swinton plays someone else, and the movie is reported to be more than two-and-a-half hours long… What more could you want? Actually, we’ll answer that one for you: a robust theatrical release.

Lionsgate

“The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” (November 17, Lionsgate)

Do we really need another “Hunger Games” film? Frankly, probably not, but considering how many big-budget YA adaptations have flamed out in recent years (hello, “Divergent”), we can’t quite hide our curiosity about what will play out in Francis Lawrence’s latest, which follows the early days of Panem and the titular Hunger Games.

“Leave the World Behind” (December 8, streaming on Netflix)

Rumaan Alam’s novel “Leave the World Behind” arrived at a truly wild time: published in October, mere months into the pandemic, the enthralling book follows a family whose Long Island vacation is interrupted by the arrival of two strangers, who basically tell them the world is ending. While it’s not COVID that’s sweeping this nation, the parallels are eerie, and anyone who read the novel during the early days of the pandemic likely still can’t shake its story, tone, and lessons. Sam Esmail adapts this one for the screen, with a cast that includes Julia Roberts, Mahershala Ali, Ethan Hawke, “Industry” breakout Myha’la Herrold, Kevin Bacon, and Farrah Mackenzie. We’re already scared.

“Wonka” (December 15, Warner Bros.)

It’s hard to imagine a less appealing movie than a Willy Wonka origin story that stars Timothée Chalamet as the demented candy-maker, and yet it’s hard to imagine a more appealing movie than literally anything directed by “Paddington 2” maestro Paul King. This will have to be a major homerun to make us feel better about King leaving the world’s greatest bear in someone else’s hands, but if anyone can overdeliver on an iffy idea, it’s the man who made a live-action Paddington sequel into something worthy of Sight & Sound consideration.

“The Color Purple” (December 20, Warner Bros.)

Blitz Bazawule’s feature puts a twist on the beloved Alice Walker novel, taking its cues not just from the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, but a 2005 stage musical that set the tale to music. Bazawule hasn’t skimped on loading up the big-time talent, too, assembling a cast filled with some of our best multi-hyphenates, including Fantasia, Colman Domingo, Taraji P. Henson, Corey Hawkins, Danielle Brooks, Aunjanue Ellis, H.E.R., Ciara, Halle Bailey, Jon Batiste, and Louis Gossett Jr.

“Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” (December 25, Warner Bros.)

The DCEU has been subjected to a lot of turbulence over the last few months, but our buddy Aquaman — bless his scaly heart — has probably been too many leagues under the sea to notice any changes in the hierarchy of power up on the surface. In other words, we expect this sequel to James Wan’s 2018 franchise starter to be just as goofy and on its own sunken wavelength as his mega-successful original, even if the rumors of an anachronistic Batfleck cameo ultimately prove true. It’s hard to think of a better, wetter way to spend the Christmas between “Avatar” sequels.

“Showing Up” (TBD 2023, A24)

“First Cow” may not have been anywhere near as soul-devouringly sad as “Wendy and Lucy,” but that bittersweet frontier comedy about two friends who get milked to death while trying to make an honest buck was still bleak enough to leave us very scared for the heroine of Kelly Reichardt’s latest film about desperate people and the animals with which they run afoul. Or, a fowl, as the case may be in the director’s feathery “Showing Up,” a slight knowing smile of a movie starring Michelle Williams as a stressed-out Portland ceramist with a pageboy haircut who reluctantly finds herself nursing an injured pigeon during the most important week of her not-quite career.

“The Iron Claw” (TBD 2023, A24)

Sean Durkin’s quietly stunning “The Nest” didn’t find the audience it deserved until several months after its Sundance debut, but we suspect that his latest film won’t fly under the radar in the same way (wherever it eventually premieres). A true story co-starring Zac Efron, Harris Dickerson, and “The Bear” sensation Jeremy Allen White as three members of a cursed wrestling dynasty who are forced to grapple with themselves and each other — inside the ring and out, and across the latter half of the 20th century — “The Iron Claw” boasts some of the most intriguing performances of the new year. It already seems like the kind of indie with a major shot at crossover potential.

“All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt” (TBD 2023, A24)

A Sundance-bound co-production between A24 and Barry Jenkins’ Pastel banner (which is flying mighty high in the wake of this year’s sensational “Aftersun”), Raven Jackson’s strange and sensorial — and, we hear, deeply affecting — feature debut follows a Black Mississippi woman from womb to tomb, charting a lifetime of love and loss.

“You Hurt My Feelings” (TBD 2023, A24)

Our beloved Nicole Holfocener returns for another well-considered dramedy about the pangs and pains and (maybe) pleasures of the real world. This time around, Julia Louis-Dreyfus stars as a famous novelist who discovers that her husband, gasp, doesn’t actually like her work. (Insert teeth-grating emoji here.)

“Beau Is Afraid” (TBD 2023, A24)

In the span of only two features, Ari Aster has quietly become one of the most iconic filmmakers of his generation (overused as that word may be, good luck finding a single pop-culturally literate person who doesn’t recognize “Hereditary” and “Midsommar”). Details are few and far between regarding Aster’s third film, which is said to veer away from the more conventional horror vernacular of his previous work, but this three-hour Joaquin Phoenix vehicle is the most expensive movie that A24 has ever produced, and industry scuttlebutt teases an unrestrained swing for the fences from one of the most gifted young auteurs we’ve got.

“MaXXXine” (TBD 2023, A24)

The promised third entry in Ti West’s daring, ambitious, hilarious, and often uneven “X” trilogy brings his star (and what a star she is) Mia Goth to ’80s-era Hollywood. Maxine has survived a bloody massacre, but is she really ready for Tinseltown? Please, they’re not ready for her.

“Enys Men” (TBD 2023, Neon)

A woman walks along a clifftop towards a stone cottage, the only structure as far as the eye can see. Struggling against the wind, she inches her way up a hill, trudging through the undergrowth, a reminder that grief slows the world down. Time and liminal space stretch and strain, minutes take longer to pass, the horizon reaches further away. It is lonely, it is mundane, and it is cruel. It is another singular vision from Mark Jenkin.

“Napoleon” (TBD 2023, Apple)

Formerly known as “Kitbag,” Ridley Scott stays riding (relatively) high on the historical beat post-“The Last Duel” with a drama about Napoleon (Joaquin Phoenix) and his wild relationship with his adulterous wife, Empress Josephine (Vanessa Kirby). The film will reportedly feature six major battle sequences, as opposed to the paltry one that played out in previous Napoleon feature “Waterloo.”

“Killers of the Flower Moon” (TBD 2023, Apple)

Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio’s first proper collaboration since 2013’s peerless “The Wolf of Wall Street” in 2013 (we’re choosing to overlook the short promotional film they made for a handful of Macau casinos in 2015), “Killers of the Flower Moon” revisits the murders of several wealthy Osage people in Oklahoma during the 1920s, shortly after a river of oil had been discovered beneath the victims’ tribal land. DiCaprio leads a cast of local residents and investigators that also includes Jesse Plemmons (as a no-nonsense lawman), Robert De Niro, Brendan Fraser, and the great Lily Gladstone, in her highest-profile role since “Certain Women.” Apple spent a fortune on the true-crime epic, which cost more than $200 million even without the financial demands of de-aging technology a la “The Irishman,” and Scorsese has been refining the film in post for ages now, so here’s hoping that we get to see it sooner rather than later.

“Untitled Roald Dahl/Wes Anderson” (TBD 2023, streaming on Netflix)

Talk about a natural pairing. Not content to just adapt one or even two Roald Dahl stories, Wes Anderson’s still somewhat secretive feature will adapt a number of them, including “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.”

“Rustin” (TBD 2023, streaming on Netflix)

Fresh off the success of acquiring Margaret Brown’s phenomenal documentary “Descendant,” the Obamas’ Higher Ground Productions is getting into the biopic game with this George C. Wolfe movie about gay civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, who organized the 1963 March on Washington. Co-screenwriter Dustin Lance Black (“Milk”) tends to be at his most effective in historical mode, but the real draw here is Colman Domingo’s performance in the title role, as one of America’s greatest and most frustratingly undersung actors will finally get a chance to stand bang in the center of the spotlight.

“Nyad” (TBD 2023, streaming on Netflix)

In search of a new challenge after perfecting the art of making breathlessly intense documentaries about fearless daredevil athletes, “Free Solo” and “The Rescue” filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin are moving into the scripted world with a biopic about… a fearless daredevil athlete (no point ignoring your strengths). Annette Bening will play Diana Nyad, the American woman who — at 64 years young — became the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida without the protection of a shark cage. We’re gasping for air already.

“Maestro” (TBD 2023, streaming on Netflix)

Everyone knows the legend of Lydia Tár, but what about the guy who mentored her? These days, when even a stray line of dialogue is enough to be the basis of its own spinoff, we suppose it shouldn’t come as a total shock that someone is making an entire movie about this “Leonard Bernstein” character, just as it tracks that Bradley Cooper — who can’t resist a good story about a seemingly played out music man — would leap at the chance to direct, co-write, and star in it. The facial prosthetics alone make “Maestro” seem like more of a gamble than “A Star Is Born” ever was, but the guy who helped bring “Shallow” into the world is innocent until proven guilty (fingers crossed this Bernstein fellow has some worthwhile songs of his own).

“Hot Milk” (TBD 2023, IFC Films)

Neither “Men” nor “Women Talking” quite managed to set the world on fire, but Jessie Buckley proved her bonafides (again and again) as one of the world’s most electric young actors in both, and any project she chooses to grace with her presence is still an automatic pick for any list of our most anticipated movies. Adding Vicky Krieps into the mix would almost seem to be overkill, but — lucky for us — that doesn’t seem to have stopped “Colette” screenwriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz from trying. Her directorial debut will star Buckley as a woman who brings her paralyzed mother (Fiona Shaw) to a Spanish clinic in search of a cure, and Krieps as the mysterious traveler who captures her attention along the way.

“How Do You Live?” (TBD 2023, Studio Ghibli)

How do you follow one of the greatest swansongs in cinematic history? Well, traditionally, you don’t. But Hayao Miyazaki is beholden to no one’s rules but his own, and — after recovering from the umpteenth retirement of his legendary career — the “My Neighbor Totoro” filmmaker threw himself into one, last, probably final animated feature, a fantastical epic inspired by a 1937 novel that has resonated with Miyazaki since he was a child. Originally intended to launch in tandem with the 2020 Olympics before a meticulous production schedule threatened to delay it for the better part of the next decade, Studio Ghibli delighted fans the world over with its recent announcement that “How Do You Live?” will be ready for release by next summer (in Japan, at least).

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