I haven't really put together a proper "Most Anticipated" list in several years, but this year it has served as something of a much needed reprieve from everything else going on in life. Typically, I would feel rushed to post something like this immediately after the new year, but being able to comb through the 2026 calendar, discover projects I had no idea about prior, and contemplate what many of these titles might turn out like has made me really hopeful about what I can look forward to at the theater this year. Sure, movie-going is in a bigger state of flux than it's ever been in my lifetime and as much as the future of not just cinema but moreso - the cinemas - is unknown, it feels deeply difficult not to celebrate movies in the moment and be excited about where the trends and turns of the industry might take us next.
That all to say, it was quite difficult whiddling this list down to only ten titles given some of the huge releases slated for this year. The hardest cut was undoubtedly Avengers: Doomsday given I'm naturally excited to see what that film turns out to be, but after seven years of what has become an on/off and at times oversaturated relationship with the MCU, there is more anxiety around the latest Marvel Studios release than there is necessarily excitement. Other tough cuts include new films from Gore Verbinski, Andrew Stanton, Phil Lord and Chris Miller, Robert Eggers, Sam Raimi, Emerald Fennell, Ruben Östlund, David Lowery, Ridley Scott, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Boots Riley, Nicolas Winding Refn, Olivia Wilde, Zach Cregger, and Greta Gerwig. That's a wide range of types of filmmakers, many who are attempting something different than what they've done in the past - whether that be in genre, budget, or adaptation - but the truth of the matter is that each of their styles and/or past films have given whatever they touch going forward an immediate air of intrigue.
