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Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n AAA<\/p>\n Hollywood\u2019s annual awards season is finally done<\/a>. No more winners\u2019 speeches, and the stylists can finally exhale<\/a>. What that also means, for moviegoers, is a ripe new selection of titles. The next few months are when the movie business tries to have it all: family franchise sequels, buzzy horror counter-programming, stars getting their arthouse groove on, and billion-dollar grossing blockbusters are all on the release schedule. Mark your calendars \u2013 the cinemas are calling us.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n THE SUPER MARIO GALAXY MOVIE<\/p>\n Video games have supplanted comic books as Hollywood\u2019s favourite intellectual property in recent years, and it was the huge success of 2023\u2019s The Super Mario Bros. Movie that kickstarted the trend. The sequel to the animated hit brings back everyone that matters, including directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, plus voice actors Chris Pratt (Mario), Anya Taylor-Joy (Princess Peach), Charlie Day (Luigi), and \u2013 as the undoubted X-factor of this interstellar adventure \u2013 Jack Black (Bowser). Will he contribute a song as catchy as the first film\u2019s Peaches? I wouldn\u2019t put it past him. April 1<\/p>\n<\/p>\n THE DRAMA<\/p>\n Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, who will also share the screen in December\u2019s sci-fi epic Dune: Part Three<\/a>, turn New York couple Emma and Charlie\u2019s wedding week into an unhinged reckoning when an innocuous game with friends results in one of them making a shocking confession. Everything the happy couple thought true of each other gets blown up, which is the ideal entry point for Norwegian filmmaker Kristoffer Borgli, who did absurdly good things with Nicolas Cage in 2023\u2019s Dream Scenario. The film has the potential to show both stars in a hitherto unseen light. April 2<\/p>\n<\/p>\n BEAST<\/p>\n Featuring fight scenes shot before 10,000 fans at a major mixed martial arts tournament in Thailand, this Australian drama is a hard-hitting tale of sacrifice and redemption \u2013 there are painful blows of all kinds \u2013 that follows a retired fighter, Patton (Daniel MacPherson), back into the cage after his brother\u2019s career is brought to a brutal end. Patton has to convince his doubtful trainer, Sammy (Russell Crowe, also a co-writer), to prepare him once more, as well as rediscovering a side of himself he\u2019d long buried. There are Rocky vibes, but also more. April 23<\/p>\n<\/p>\n THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2<\/p>\n The gang\u2019s all here! Two decades after the original fashion magazine comic-drama introduced us to Meryl Streep\u2019s imperious editor Miranda, Anne Hathaway\u2019s scrappy assistant Andy, and the importance of cerulean blue, they return \u2013 along with Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci \u2013 to a luxury brands world where the finance and clothes are different, but the immaculate insults stay the same. This is the kind of fan service we should encourage and, yes, that\u2019s Colin from Accounts mainstay Patrick Brammall<\/a> providing an Australian presence as Andy\u2019s new love interest<\/a>. April 30<\/p>\n<\/p>\n STAR WARS: THE MANDALORIAN AND GROGU<\/p>\n There hasn\u2019t been a Star Wars film since 2019\u2019s disappointing The Rise of Skywalker, but that\u2019s been rectified now that the key characters of streaming hit The Mandalorian<\/a> \u2013 stoic bounty hunter Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) and his mischievous ward and future Yoda, Grogu \u2013 have graduated to the big screen. This will be a family-friendly Star Wars, an anti-Andor<\/a>, with the show\u2019s creative team of director Jon Favreau (Iron Man) and writer Dave Filoni in charge as the duo help the fledgling New Republic fight the Empire\u2019s remnants. If the audience cheers, that means it\u2019s working. May 21<\/p>\n<\/p>\n BACKROOMS<\/p>\n Budding filmmaker Kane Parsons was just 16 years old in 2022 when he began posting a series of acclaimed short films<\/a> online about \u201cthe Backrooms\u201d, an online concept about a creepy extradimensional expanse of empty rooms and unknown inhabitants. Internet obsession has fuelled the idea, with Parsons now taking it into the mainstream with this highly anticipated horror film.<\/p>\n It starts with an inexplicable door in a furniture showroom and goes \u2026 somewhere else. The cast includes Chiwetel Ejiofor<\/a> and, fresh from her success in Sentimental Value<\/a>, Norwegian actress Renate Reinsve<\/a>. May 28<\/p>\n<\/p>\n DISCLOSURE DAY<\/p>\n Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind? Having made his coming-of-age memoir The Fabelmans<\/a>, Steven Spielberg gets back to blockbuster business with this science-fiction thriller about the race to reveal \u2013 or equally cover-up \u2013 the possible public confirmation of extraterrestrial life on Earth. Caught up in this world-changing event is a television weather forecaster with an otherworldly connection (Emily Blunt), a haunted whistleblower (Josh O\u2019Connor) and a mysterious figure intent on shutting them down (Colin Firth). The trailer goes creepy and then full-bore action \u2013 Spielberg is definitely taking a shot at the heavyweight belt for cinematic car chases. June 11<\/p>\n<\/p>\n TOY STORY 5<\/p>\n Much to Disney\u2019s delight, the young fans who went to Pixar\u2019s groundbreaking digital animation in 1995 can now take their children to the latest instalment.<\/p>\n Tom Hanks and Tim Allen return as the respective voices of Woody and Buzz Lightyear, who are still squabbling, with the various secretly alive toys under threat as their latest child, eight-year-old Bonnie, falls under the spell of the educational tablet Lilypad (Greta Lee). There\u2019s an anti-tech subtext in all of this, but more importantly silly visual gags and toy-sized derring-do. June 18<\/p>\n<\/p>\n SUPERGIRL<\/p>\n Australian star Milly Alcock debuted her chaotic Kryptonian, Kara Kor-El, a.k.a. Supergirl, in last year\u2019s cape-reboot Superman<\/a>, where she delivered a very different energy to her dedicated cousin. Her spin-off feature, directed by Australian filmmaker Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya), sends her on an intergalactic road trip, as Kara\u2019s 23rd birthday celebration turns from partying to vengeance as she is recruited by a young girl with a (literal) axe to grind. There\u2019s definitely some Guardians of the Galaxy in this mix of mayhem and self-discovery, which is most welcome. June 25<\/p>\n<\/p>\n MOANA<\/p>\n Just 10 years after the original Moana was an animated hit \u2013 and somehow an even bigger success on streaming \u2013 the Polynesian seaborne adventure gets a live action remake. Dwayne Johnson returns as the demigod Maui, who must accompany the titular princess (Australian actress Catherine Laga\u2019aia<\/a>) on a dangerous quest to save her community.<\/p>\n What\u2019s crucial is the songs. Original hits How Far I\u2019ll Go and You\u2019re Welcome will be heard once more, but their writer, Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, has reportedly penned some new tunes as well. July 8<\/p>\n<\/p>\n THE ODYSSEY<\/p>\n