60. “Damsel”
Director: The Zellner Brothers (“Kumiko The Treasure Hunter”)
Cast: Robert Pattinson, Mia Wasikowska, David Zellner, Nathan Zellner
Synopsis: A businessman goes West to join his fiancée in the mountains.
What You Need To Know: If there were any doubters still left that his talents were legit, one-time “Twilight” star Robert Pattinson firmly dispelled them in 2017, first with a wonderfully characterful supporting turn in “The Lost City Of Z,” then with a barnstormer of a lead performance in “Good Time,” genuinely one of the year’s best. For his next trick, the artist formerly known as R-Patz is teaming up with some more acclaimed indie filmmakers, the sibling duo behind the excellent “Kumiko The Treasure Hunter” for this semi-Western, described by the star himself intriguingly as a “slapstick comedy,” also starring the ever-reliable Mia Wasikowska.
Release Date: Sundance
59. “The Land Of Steady Habits”
Director: Nicole Holofcener (“Enough Said”)
Cast: Ben Mendelsohn, Edie Falco, Connie Britton, Thomas Mann, Elizabeth Marvel
Synopsis: After paying off his son’s college tuition, a recently retired man in his 50s leaves his wife and hopes to transform his life.
What You Need To Know: Quietly for the last two decades, Nicole Holofcener has become one of the great comic chroniclers of the American upper-middle-class, and her last film, “Enough Said,” finally helped her to connect with the larger crowd she’s always deserved. She’s been busy with TV the last few years (most notably Tig Notaro’s “One Mississippi”), but returns to feature-length with this adaptation of Ted Thompson’s novel, once homed at Fox Searchlight but now being released by Netflix. The cast is stacked with performers who feel like perfect fits for Holofcener’s vibe, but we’re most excited about seeing a lead role for Ben Mendelsohn here, getting a break from tentpole villainy to flex his dramedy muscles a bit.
Release Date: Unless it’s added later to Sundance, TIFF looks likely.
58. “The Wild Pear Tree”
Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan (“Once Upon A Time In Anatolia”)
Cast: Hazar Ergüçlü, Murat Cemcir, Ercüment Balakoglu
Synopsis: An aspiring writer returns to her native village in rural Turkey, but becomes overwhelmed by her father’s debts.
What You Need To Know: After winning the Grand Jury Prize twice (for 2002’s “Uzak” and 2011’s “Once Upon A Time In Anatolia”) and Best Director once (for 2008’s “Three Monkeys”), Turkish helmer Nuri Bilge Ceylan cemented his status as one of world cinema’s major figures by finally picking up the top prize in Cannes, winning the Palme D’Or for his epic “Winter Sleep.” As such, all eyes will be on his follow-up, which sounds like it’ll be in similarly Chekhovian terrority. Little’s known beyond that, but given Ceylan’s usual form, he’s certainly one of the Palme D’Or front-runners this time as well.
Release Date: Cannes for sure
57. “The Little Stranger”
Director: Lenny Abrahamson (“Room”)
Cast: Domhnall Gleeson, Ruth Wilson, Will Poulter, Charlotte Rampling, Kate Phillips
Synopsis: In post-war England, a doctor befriends a wealthy family in decline living in an old estate, who may or may not be plagued by supernatural events.
What You Need To Know: Thanks to films like “Garage,” the powerful “What Richard Did” and the bizarre, beautiful “Frank,” Lenny Abrahamson had already established himself as one of the most interesting and chameleonic filmmakers around before he made the much-acclaimed “Room,” which not only picked up a Best Picture nomination, but also a surprise nod for Abrahamson as Best Director. For his follow-up, he’s switching gears again for a gothic ghost story adapted from the Man Booker Prize-nominated novel by Sarah Waters (whose “Fingersmith” also served as the basis of Park Chan-Wook’s “The Handmaiden”). Expect an old-school “Turn Of The Screw”-style ghost story with a prestige twist.
Release Date: Focus will release on August 31st, 2018.
56. “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”
Director: Marielle Heller (“Diary Of A Teenage Girl”)
Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Richard E. Grant, Jane Curtin, Jennifer Westfeldt, Dolly Wells
Synopsis: The story of Lee Israel, a writer of biographies who, when he work fell out of favor, began forging letters from famous people.
What You Need To Know: Marielle Heller’s “Diary Of A Teenage Girl” is one of our favorite directorial debuts in recent years — an incisive, visually gorgeous, surprisingly sharp-edged picture that made the coming-of-age movie feel fresh again. Since its success, Heller’s had a number of high-profile projects come her way, including, briefly, the aforementioned Ruth Bader Ginsburg biopic, documentary adaptation “The Case Against 8,” and J.J. Abrams-produced supernatural thriller “Kolma,” which will star Daisy Ridley. But the first out of the gate is this intriguing true-life tale, a one-time Nicole Holofcener project (Holofcener retains writing credit) that looks to give Melissa McCarthy her biggest test as a dramatic performer so far.
Release Date: Shot late in 2016, so we imagine this is headed for a late spring/early summer release from Fox Searchlight, unless they hold for awards season.
55. “Psychokinesis”
Director: Yeon Sang-ho (“Train To Busan”)
Cast: Ryu Seung-ryong, Shim Eun-kyung, Park Jung-min, Kim Min-jae, Jung Yu-mi
Synopsis: A father accidentally gains superpowers, and uses them to try and help his daughter.
What You Need To Know: With no film in the genre cracking the billion-dollar mark this year, and“Justice League” looking like it’ll lose a fair bit of money, we wonder if the long-promised superhero fatigue might finally be upon us. And lord knows we don’t really need another film about someone getting superpowers. But then, we thought we didn’t need any more zombie movies before Yeon Sang-ho’s terrifically executed “Train To Busan” last year, so the idea of the filmmaker turning his hand to superheroics certainly makes us think that there might be room for one more. It’s apparently described as a ‘black comedy,’ so don’t expect your usual fare (as is often the case with Korean genre pictures), but it sounds like it’ll also have some international appeal too: Netflix has picked up the worldwide rights.
Release Date: February in Korea, so hopefully that means everywhere else too.
54. “Untitled Chris Morris Project”
Director: Chris Morris (“Four Lions”)
Cast: Anna Kendrick, Danielle Brooks, Denis O’Hare, Kayvan Novak, Pej Vahdat
Synopsis: Unknown
What You Need To Know: Chris Morris is an almost mythic figure in comedy: the co-creator of “The Day Today,” and later “Brass Eye,” “Jam” and “Nathan Barley,” has never been prolific, and he’s much less well-known in the U.S. than sometime collaborators Armando Iannucci and Charlie Brooker. But since his daring, hilarious feature film debut “Four Lions” nearly eight years ago, Morris has been honing his directorial talents working on Iannucci’s “Veep,” and his secretive latest project looks to break him out to his widest audience yet. Not much is known about it right now, but it’s got some A-list talent involved with Anna Kendrick toplining, and we’re guessing from an Instagram photo from Kendrick that the Caribbean shoot involves some kind of cop/military stuff.
Release Date: Shot back in the summer – Cannes or TIFF?
53. “Piercing”
Director: Nicolas Pesce (“Eyes Of My Mother”)
Cast: Christopher Abbott, Mia Wasikowska, Laia Costa, Maria Dizzia, Wendell Pierce
Synopsis: A man attempts to fulfill his long-held desire to kill a prostitute, only for her to turn the tables on him.
What You Need To Know: It divided us in the office a bit, but even those who didn’t like it agreed that Nicolas Pesce striking black-and-white horror “Eyes Of My Mother” marked him as one of the most interesting talents to enter the genre. The studios have been paying attention — he’s going to be rebooting “The Grudge” franchise soon — but first comes this second feature, again produced by Antonio Campos, Josh Mond and Sean Durkin’s Borderline, and adapted from Ryu Murakami’s 1994 novel. It seems like a turn towards the thriller rather than the horror genre, but the cast, led by the omnipresent Abbott and Wasikowska, and also including “Victoria” breakout Laia Costa and “Christine” stand-out Maria Dizzia, give it some real cred, and we’re interested to see what Pesce can do with bigger names.
Release Date: Sundance.
52. “E-Book”
Director: Olivier Assayas (“Personal Shopper”)
Cast: Juliette Binoche, Guillaume Canet, Vincent Macaigne, Christa Theret, Pascal Gregory
Synopsis: A comedy set in the French publishing world.
What You Need To Know: We don’t always love the films (Team Playlist has mostly been cool on his last few, though we’re glad they have fans), but we’re always fascinated to see what Olivier Assayas is up to: few directors are as ever-shifting and unpredictable as the veteran French helmer. His latest, “E-Book,” marks a return to pure French-language cinema after “Clouds Of Sils Maria” and “Personal Shopper,” but it does seem him working again with the great Juliette Binoche (who’s having a busy year between this and team-ups with Claire Denis and Naomi Kawase), for a film that’s apparently about “How we adapt or don’t adapt to the way the world’s changing,” and is “Part film, part narrative, part essay.”
Release Date: Cannes isn’t impossible, but it didn’t shoot until last fall, so Venice could be more likely.
51. “Proxima”
Director: Alice Winocour (“Disorder”)
Cast: Eva Green, Lars Eidinger
Synopsis: An astronaut prepares for a one-year mission to the International Space Station, which will mean being separated from her young daughter.
What You Need To Know: Alice Winocour had a hell of a Cannes in 2015: the French writer/director (whose debut “Augustine” had won acclaim at the festival three years earlier) didn’t just unspool her second feature, thriller “Disorder,” to much acclaim (an American remake is in the works from James Mangold and Taylor Sheridan), she also co-wrote the César-winning, Oscar-nominated “Mustang.” Winocour’s next move looks to bring her to a much bigger audience: fitting in with a post-“Gravity”/“The Martian” vogue for astronaut-themed films, and with an international cast toplined by Eva Green. Expect something more grounded here: this looks to deal with themes of separation and motherhood as Green’s character prepares to go into orbit.
Release Date: Filming doesn’t get underway until January, so Cannes is probably out — Venice or TIFF, maybe?