“Happening”
Audrey Diwan’s second film won the Golden Lion when it debuted at Venice last year. After it finishes its illustrious festival run – including a showing at Sundance this month – the film is set for a wider release in the U.S. this spring. “Happening” is an adaptation of Annie Ernaux’s eponymous novel, which chronicles her experience with abortion in France in the 1960s, when it was still illegal. The film is nominated for four Lumiere awards: Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress (Anamaria Vartolomei), and Best Cinematographer (Laurent Tangy). Do we need to keep convincing you that this is a movie worth seeing, or are we good? Okay, good.
Release date: Premieres in January at Sundance, then May 6 via IFC Films.
“Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul”
Adamma Ebo wrote and directed her first feature, “Honk for Jesus, Save Your Soul” and her twin sister, Adanne Ebo, produced it. This satire on for-profit religion is sure to cause a bidding war after its Sundance debut this month – it’s already garnered lots of buzz thanks to a fantastic cast led by Regina Hall and Sterling K. Brown, who play husband-and-wife megachurch leaders looking to make a comeback after a scandal. Definitely keep an eye out for more news after the festival concludes – the Ebos already seem well on their way to becoming household names.
Release date: Premieres in January at Sundance, then TBD.
“Hope”
We unconditionally stan Kiwi comedy directors Jackie van Beek and Madeleine Sami. We will yell about how overlooked “The Breaker Upperers” was to anybody who will listen. And now we have another opportunity to do just that, since van Beek and Sami are reportedly working on their second film together. “Hope,” starring Aubrey Plaza, is slated for Netflix. Unfortunately, we haven’t heard anything about it since 2019 – like, it doesn’t even have an IMDB page – so we’re starting to get a little terrified that it’s stuck in development hell. Alas, we believe in keeping hope alive, so on the list it goes.
Release date: TBD via Netflix. Join our prayer circle in the meantime.
“I Wanna Dance with Somebody”
“Eve’s Bayou” and “Harriet” director Kasi Lemmons will be taking another swing at the awards season this year with “I Wanna Dance with Somebody,” a biopic on none other than Whitney Houston. Lemmons is adapting a screenplay by “Bohemian Rhapsody” scribe Anthony McCarten, and the cast includes Naomi Ackie (“Lady Macbeth,” “Small Axe”) as Houston, alongside Stanley Tucci (“Supernova”), Tamara Tunie (“Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”), and Clarke Peters (“The Wire”). It doesn’t take a film degree to identify this as grade-A Oscar bait.
Release date: December 23 via Sony.
“Lady Chatterley’s Lover”
“The Mustang” director Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre is taking on one of history’s most infamous texts, “Lady Chatterley’s Lover,” with Emma Corrin (“The Crown”) as the titular character and Jack O’Connell (“Little Fish”) as her love interest, Oliver Mellors. Netflix is backing this one as part of their new deal with Sony, and it’s notably the first American film adaptation of the text. With Corrin in the lead and loads of other prestige film greats behind the scenes – David Magee (“Life of Pi,” “Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day”) penned the screenplay and Benoît Delhomme (“At Eternity’s Gate,” “The Theory of Everything”) is on board as cinematographer – this is shaping up to be quite a noteworthy title. Keep an eye out for more – perhaps later in the year, circa awards season.
Release date: TBD via Netflix.
“Lucy and Desi”
Amy Poehler will get her Sundance directorial debut and documentary directorial debut with “Lucy and Desi,” which chronicles “the rise of comedian icon Lucille Ball, her relationship with Desi Arnaz, and how their groundbreaking sitcom ‘I Love Lucy’ forever changed Hollywood, cementing her legacy long after her death in 1989.” Interview subjects include Lucie Arnaz Luckinbill, Bette Midler, Carol Burnett, and Charo. It’s difficult to think of a better film for comedy nerds. Luckily you won’t have to wait long – Amazon Prime will stream it starting this spring.
Release date: Premieres in January at Sundance, then March 4 via Amazon.
“Master”
“Master,” writer-director Mariama Diallo’s first feature, was snapped up by Amazon way back in 2019, but it’s finally debuting at this year’s Sundance Film Festival before a wider release. (It also just showed at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, where Diallo took home the Directors to Watch award.) The horror-thriller, starring Regina Hall, takes place at “an elite New England university built on the site of a Salem-era gallows hill,” and follows three Black women – a dean, a first-year student, and a professor – as they “encounter increasingly terrifying manifestations of the school’s haunted past… and present.”
Release date: Premieres in January at Sundance, then TBD via Amazon.
“Millie Lies Low”
New Zealand director Michelle Savill will screen her first feature, “Millie Lies Low,” at this year’s Berlin Film Festival. The film centers on Millie (Ana Scotney), an anxious architecture grad who, after missing her flight to New York for a prestigious internship, fakes having made it to the Big Apple while secretly scrounging up funds for another ticket in her hometown.
Release date: Mid-February via Berlin, then TBD.
“Mis dos voces” (“My Two Voices”)
Another Berlin debut, “Mis dos voces” marks the first documentary feature from Colombian/Canadian filmmaker Lina Rodriguez. It tells the story of three Latin American women who immigrated to Canada – Ana Garay Kostic, Claudia Montoya, and Marinela Piedrahita – in their own words. As most popular Latin American immigration stories focus on acclimating to life in the States, it will be refreshing to see a Canadian take on the subject, particularly from a filmmaker who can identify with her subjects so strongly.
Release date: Mid-February via Berlin, then TBD.
“The Mother”
The “Whale Rider” and “Mulan” director Niki Caro is set to return to the big screen with “The Mother,” a Jennifer Lopez-led action flick set to wrap filming this month. The film also stars Gael García Bernal and Joseph Fiennes, with Lopez playing an assassin who comes out of hiding to protect the daughter she left years before. Netflix is also set to release this one, as part of their new partnership with Lopez’s Nuyorican Productions. That means we can probably expect lots of glossy visuals and big-budget action sequences – and who doesn’t want to see Jennifer Lopez at the center of a bunch of big-budget action sequences?
Release date: TBD via Netflix.