{"id":346757,"date":"2026-01-01T17:57:28","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T17:57:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/346757\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T17:57:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T17:57:28","slug":"the-best-films-to-watch-in-2026-chosen-by-the-critics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/346757\/","title":{"rendered":"The best films to watch in 2026 chosen by the critics"},"content":{"rendered":"

The gloves are off. After a commercially robust yet mildly depressing year in which garish and mostly soulless kiddie films dominated the global multiplex (Lilo & Stitch, A Minecraft Movie, Zootopia 2 etc), the cinema slate of 2026 is crowded with high profile \u201cmovies for grown-ups\u201d designed to redress the balance. From Hamnet to Wuthering Heights, and The Bride! to Disclosure Day, the most anticipated titles of the next 12 months are not simply babysitter substitutes aimed at the under eights. But don\u2019t worry parents, there are plenty of those too. Who isn\u2019t going to see Toy Story 5 after all?<\/p>\n

This Shakespeare biopic and Oscar frontrunner arrives at the heart of awards season, just in time for everyone to watch Jessie Buckley scoop up every available best actress gong for a landmark performance. In an exquisite adaptation of Maggie O\u2019Farrell\u2019s bestseller, she plays Shakespeare\u2019s wife, Agnes Hathaway, the focal point of a harrowingly sad story of parental grief. Jan 9<\/p>\n

\u2022 Hamnet director relied on Paul Mescal to grasp Shakespeare\u2019s words<\/a><\/p>\n

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple<\/p>\n

One of the most intriguing, original and downright entertaining zombie franchises continues with this sequel to last year\u2019s Danny Boyle masterpiece 28 Years Later. Boyle is back as producer this time, handing directorial duties over to Nia DaCosta (Candyman), who builds an entire film around the brilliantly unhinged performance of Ralph Fiennes as a postapocalyptic zombie-dodging doctor. Jan 16 <\/p>\n

Wuthering Heights\"Margot<\/p>\n

What\u2019s left to say about Wuthering Heights? Plenty, apparently. After seven major movie adaptations, including versions by William Wyler, Peter Kosminsky and Andrea Arnold, along comes Saltburn\u2019s posh provocateur Emerald Fennell. She has a white-hot cast that includes Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi, a disruptor\u2019s instincts and a teasing trailer that suggests this Bront\u00eb version will be a thumpingly delirious pop-art fever dream. Feb 13 <\/p>\n

\u2022 The pop culture moments everyone will be talking about in 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

The Bride!<\/p>\n

Maggie Gyllenhaal, who made a promising directorial debut with The Lost Daughter, casts a star of that film, Jessie Buckley, in a reboot of Bride of Frankenstein. Buckley plays the bride, with Christian Bale as the lonesome monster who asks Annette Bening\u2019s Doctor Euphronius to build him a girlfriend. Expect Gyllenhaal to give us a witty feminist spin on James Whale\u2019s 1935 original. Mar 6<\/p>\n

Michael<\/p>\n

Umpteen years and a couple of court cases and reshoots in the making \u2014 Michael is the story of pop\u2019s greatest entertainer. No, not Bubl\u00e9 \u2014 it is Jackson time. This biopic surely has to tackle not only the songs but the sordidness. Apr 24<\/p>\n

\u2022 Jarvis Cocker: The Michael Jackson thing messed my life up<\/a><\/p>\n

The Devil Wears Prada 2<\/p>\n

More glossy-mag malevolence in a sequel that reunites the original stars, the director David Frankel and the screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna. If it follows the plot of Lauren Weisberger\u2019s Revenge Wears Prada: The Devil Returns, it will have Anne Hathaway\u2019s Andy and Emily Blunt\u2019s Emily running a successful bridal magazine, only for Meryl Streep\u2019s demonic Miranda Priestly to reappear. Sydney Sweeney and Kenneth Branagh are the newbies. May 1 <\/p>\n

The Mandalorian and Grogu<\/p>\n

One of Disney\u2019s better Star Wars series gets a big-screen spinoff with Pedro Pascal returning as the shiny-helmeted bounty hunter with a \u201cbaby Yoda\u201d sidekick called Grogu. Directed by Jon Favreau, who created the original show and knows his way around a blockbuster, having helmed Elf and Iron Man, it co-stars Sigourney Weaver as a New Republic leader and Jeremy Allen White (The Bear) as Rotta the Hutt, son of Jabba. May 22 <\/p>\n

\u2022 Read more film reviews, guides about what to watch and interviews<\/a><\/p>\n

Disclosure Day\"Josh<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you found out we weren\u2019t alone, if someone showed you, proved it to you, would that frighten you?\u201d is the tagline for this UFO extravaganza from Steven Spielberg. The film is based on an original script by the screenwriter David Koepp, who worked on several Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park films, and features a lip-smacking cast: Emily Blunt, Josh O\u2019Connor, Colin Firth, Colman Domingo and Eve \u201cdaughter of Bono\u201d Hewson. O\u2019Connor has described it as \u201clike old-school Spielberg\u201d. Jun 12 <\/p>\n

Toy Story 5\"Illustration<\/p>\n

We thought the heartbreaking part three would be the end, but Toy Story 4 proved there\u2019s life in the old dolls yet and this fifth instalment embraces the digital age with a sinister tablet called Lilypad, voiced by Greta Lee (Past Lives). Written and directed by Andrew Stanton, the Pixar genius behind Finding Nemo and Wall-E, the film bolsters the core cast \u2014 Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack \u2014 with Conan O\u2019Brien, who voices a toilet-training tech aid called Smarty Pants. Jun 19 <\/p>\n

The Odyssey<\/p>\n

After his seven-Oscar haul for Oppenheimer at the 2024 Oscars it seemed as if there were no worlds left for Christopher Nolan to conquer. He\u2019s done space (Interstellar), comic books (the Batman franchise), war (Dunkirk) and time itself (Tenet). What remains? Well, the biggie of course. The mother of all stories. Step forward Matt Damon as Odysseus, Tom Holland as Telemachus and Anne Hathaway as Penelope. Possibly the year\u2019s most anticipated movie. Jul 17 <\/p>\n

Avengers: Doomsday<\/p>\n

It\u2019s strange but true that the year\u2019s greatest cinematic gamble is this comic book adaptation with an alleged budget of roughly $500 million, starring Robert Downey Jr and a galaxy of Lycra-clad superheroes. After a string of commercially unsuccessful Marvel movies (Thunderbolts*, Captain America: Brave New World) and outright flops (The Marvels), Hollywood is here asking itself an extremely expensive question: is there even an audience for this stuff any more? Consider all breath held. Dec 18 <\/p>\n

Two-for-one cinema tickets at Everyman<\/p>\n

Times+ members can enjoy two-for-one cinema tickets at Everyman each Wednesday. Visit thetimes.com\/timesplus<\/a> to find out more.<\/p>\n

Which films have you enjoyed at the cinema recently? Let us know in the comments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The gloves are off. After a commercially robust yet mildly depressing year in which garish and mostly soulless…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":346758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,2839,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-346757","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-movies","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/346758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}