No sooner have we said goodbye to g 2025, thoughts are now turning to what 2026 will bring.
The first few months will be dominated by awards season fare.
There will also be plenty of sequels.
But what are the movies on Pomona's watchlist this year?
HAMNET (January 9)
Chloe Zhao's adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's 2020 novel is shaping up to be one of the big awards season rivals to Paul Thomas Anderson's 'One Battle After Another'.
Jessie Buckley, in particular, has been getting rave reviews in the US for her performance as Agnes Shakespeare, the wife of Paul Mescal's William in a story about how the couple coped with the death of their 11 year old son.
Billed as a gut wrenching but ultimately uplifting drama, Buckley and Mescal are joined by Emily Watson, Joe Alwyn, David Wimot, Louisa Harland and real life brothers Jacobi and Noah Jupe.
The Critics Choice Awards and Golden Globes on January 4 and 11 will tell you exactly where Zhao's film sits in the race for the Oscars.
THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB (January 16)
Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at last September's Venice International Film Festival, it'll be interesting to see how Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania's docudrama lands with Western audiences.
The story of how a Red Crescent emergency response team reacted to a call from a six year old girl in Gaza caught in a car under fire from Israeli Defence Forces, the film has been championed by Brad Pitt, Rooney Mara, Joaquin Phoenix, Alfonso Cuaron amd Jonathan Glazer who came on board as executive producers to help it fund a wider audience.
Ben Hania's film earned a standing ovation in Venice that lasted nearly 24 minutes.
With critics acknowledging its brilliance, it'll be fascinating to see how Tunisia's entry for Best International Feature fares during awards season.
28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE (January 16)
'28 Years Later,' Danny Boyle's return to the world of '28 Days Later' was one of the most entertaining and original movies of 2025.
American filmmaker Nia Da Costa takes over the reins for this sequel which follows Alfie Williams' Spike's encounter with Jack O'Connell's Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal and his gang of ninja warriors.
With the shell suited, Jimmy Savile wig wearing Crystal the focus of Da Costa's sequel which was shot back to back with Boyle's film, expect loads more political allegory amid all the zombie gore.
Ralph Fiennes returns as the hermit medic Dr Ian Kelson in a movie where Cillian Murphy is dur to reprise his '28 Days Later' role of Jim, Boyle's original hero.
THE HISTORY OF SOUND (January 23)
Not content with rave reviews for one movie, Paul Mescal teams up with Josh O'Connor for another in Oliver Hermanus' romantic period drama.
Mescal and O'Connor play men who fall in love while traveling around Maine, recording traditional folk songs in the post First World War period.
Well received at Cannes and by American critics, Hermanus' drama screams like decent Oscar bait and it moves along at a languid pace.
With Hadley Robinson, Molly Price and Chris Cooper on board, this will need strong word of mouth, though, to propel it right into awards contention.
NOUVELLE VAGUE (January 30)
Richard Linklater's black and white comedy drama about the French New Wave comes hot on the heels of his Rogers and Hart drama 'Blue Moon'.
Guillaume Marbeck, Adrien Rouyard and Antoine Besson play the Cahiers du Cinema trio of film critics who shook up 1950s and 60s cinema - Jean-Luc Goddard, Francois Truffaut and Claude Chabrol - by directing their own groundbreaking films.
Concentrating on the making of Godard's most celebrated work 'Au Bout de Souffle/Breathless,' Zoey Deutsch and Aubrey Dullin play the two stars of the film, Jean Seberg and Jean-Paul Belmondo.
An affectionate tribute to one of the most dynamic movements in cinema history, critics have been effusive in their praise for Linklater's film which eas almost entirely shot in French and also in Academy ratio.
CRIME 101 (February 13)
Barry Keoghan is reunited with his 'American Animals' director Bart Layton for an adaptation of a 2010 Don Winslow novella.
The story of a jewel thief and a detective squaring off along the LA freeway, Layton has assembled a cast that aincludes Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Halle Berry, Monica Barbaro, Nick Nolte, Corey Hawkins and Jennifer Jason Leigh.
Hemsworth is the thief and Ruffalo the detective in a cat and mouse thriller which has been acquired by Amazon Prime.
Don't wait for it to land on the streaming service, though. Give it a lash in your multiplex and see Layton's film as it was intended.
WUTHERING HEIGHTS (February 13)
Emerald Fennell's adaptation of Emily Bronte's classic 1847 novel has been setting tongues wagging for some time.
To say the casting of Australians Margot Robbie as Catherine Earnshaw and Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff has been controversial would be a huge understatement.
A trailer which augmented the sensuality also got fans of Bronte's novel and critics sharpening their knives for a movie whose cast also includes Hong Chau, Alison Oliver, Martin Clunes and Owen Cooper of 'Adolescence' fame.
With Charlie XCX contributing original songs, expect Fennell's film to generate a lot of heated debate just like her previous two films 'Promising Young Woman' and 'Saltburn'.
THE SECRET AGENT (February 20)
Walter Salles' political and family drama 'I'm Still Here' flew the flag for Brazilian cinema in 2025, capturing the Best International Feature Oscar.
Following in its slipstream is Kleber Mendonca Filho's enthusiastically received political thriller 'The Secret Agent' which also focuses on the final years of the country's dictatorship in the early 1970s.
'Narcos' and 'Dope Thief' star Wagner Moura has been earning rave reviews as a former professor caught in the political turmoil in his country.
However Mendonca Filho's movie has also been earning plaudits for its cinematography and grindhouse style.
Brazil's entry into the Best International Feature race at the Oscars, don't be surprised if Moura figures in the battle for Best Actor after picking up the award at Cannes as well as Critics Choice and Golden Globe nominations.
THE BRIDE! (March 6)
Maggie Gyllenhaal is back behind the camera after 2022's 'The Lost Daughter' for a feminist reworking of the Bride of Frankenstein character.
Jessie Buckley plays The Bride of the title who gets plenty to say in this version unlike previous incarnations.
Christian Bale is Frankenstein's Monster, with Peter Sarsgaard, Annette Bening, John Magaro, Penelope Cruz, Jeannie Berlin and the director's brother Jake also in the cast.
Set in 1930s Chicago, the film has been shot by Lawrence Sher with IMAX certified cameras and if it delivers on its promise, it could become a cult classic.
PEAKY BLINDERS - THE IMMORTAL MAN (March 6)
Cillian Murphy cements his annual place on this list by returning as the Brummie gangster legend Thomas Shelby in this Netflix movie.
Having ended the BBC TV series by effectively going into exile, Shelby comes back as his family's legacy is threatened.
Series regulars Sophie Rundle, Ned Dennehy, Ian Peck, Packy Lee and Stephen Graham reprise their roles in Tom Harper's film.
However the addition of Barry Keoghan, Rebecca Ferguson, Tim Roth and Jay Lycurgo has got fans excited, even if writer Steven Knight's track record of late with 'This Town' and 'House of Guinness' has been very dodgy.
MICHAEL (April 24)
Given the appetite for music industry biopics, it was inevitable someone would make a movie about Michael Jackson.
Antoine Fuqua has stepped up to helm the film which stars Jermaine Jackson's son Jafar as his uncle.
Expect Fuqua's biopic, however, to provoke a fevered debate about Jackson's legacy as it addresses the allegations of child sexual abuse against the star.
With Colman Domingo playing his father Joe, Nia Long his mother Katherine and Miles Teller his entertainment lawyer and manager John Branca, music and film industry bossses will be watching closely to see if this $155 million film can attract audiences.
THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA 2 (May 1)
It seems David Frankel's 2006 original with Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep is rarely off our TV screens.
Now 20 years later, Frankel and 20th Century Studios are finally giving us a sequel to the fashion magazine comedy drama, with Hathaway and Streep reprising their roles as Andy Sachs and the much feared magazine editor Miranda Priestly.
Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci are also back as Emily Charlton and Nigel Kipling, with Kenneth Branagh joining the cast as Miranda's husband, Justin Theroux as Emily's spouse and Lady GaGa, Sydney Sweeney, Donatella Versace, BJ Novak and Lucy Liu also expected to appear.
With Frankel and his cast keeping details of the plot close to their chests, expect this to generate a lot of excitement among hardcore fans of the original but will it live up to their expectations?
THE MANDALORIAN & GROGU (May 22)
Speaking of hardcore fans, those who live and breathe the 'Star Wars' universe are beyond excited at the prospect of one of its popular TV spin-offs finally getting a shot at box office glory.
Actor director Jon Favreau goes behind the camera for this story which sees Pedro Pascal reprise his small screen role as The Mandalorian bounty hunter Din Djarin alongside his Yoda like sidekick Grogu.
With Sigourney Weaver playing the leader of the New Republic's Adelphi Rangers and Jeremy Allen White as Rotta the Hutt, son of the crime lord Jabba, expect loads of lasers in this action adventure penned by Favreau and Dave Filoni.
Should Favreau's movie perform well at the box office, don't be surprised if it inspires more spin-off films while Simon Kinberg and Kathleen Kennedy plan a new 'Star Wars' trilogy.
TOY STORY 5 (June)
With Tom Hanks' Woody leaving the gang in the previous instalment with Bo to help abandoned toys find owners, Andrew Stanton's follow up sees Joan Cusack's Jessie assuming his old leadership role in Bonnie's house with Tim Allen's Buzz Lightyear as her deputy.
However with Bonnie becoming enamoured with a new tablet, will the toys be pushed aside in the digital age?
John Ratzenberger returns as Hamm, with Ernie Hudson, Conan O'Brien, Greta Lee and Tony Hale joining the voice cast.
With Woody due to return in some capacity in the film, hopes for Stanton's movie will be sky high, as always, but can it possibly live up to the high standards of its predecessors?
THE ODYSSEY (July 17)
Not one to flinch at a challenge, Christopher Nolan has decided to take on Homer's Greek legend after sweeping the Oscars with 'Oppenheimer'
Matt Damon takes on the role of Odysseus who sets off on an epic and perilous journey home after the Trojan War.
Nolan's cast includes Anne Hathaway as Odysseus' wife Penelope, Robert Pattinson as one of her suitors Antinous, Tom Holland as Odysseus' son Telemachus, Zendaya as the goddess Athena, Charlize Theron as the witch Circe, Jon Bernthal as the Spartan king Menelaus, Himesh Patel as Eurylochus and Mia Goth as the maid Melantho.
Shot in multiple locations in Greece, Scotland, Morocco, Italy, Iceland and the western Sahara on 70mm IMAX cameras, this will as usual be very big on spectacle.
But with a rumoured $250 million budget - the largest of Nolan's career - a lot is also riding on it critically and especially commercially for Universal Pictures.
THE SOCIAL RECKONING (October 9)
If the thought of Aaron Sorkin returning to the world of 'The Social Network' excites you, this whistleblower companion piece with Jeremy Strong taking on the role of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg will be right up your street.
Fresh from her Best Actress Oscar victory for 'Anora,' Mikey Madison plays Frances Haugen, the scientist, data engineer and product manager who spilled the beans about Facebook's algorithm and its weak response to human trafficking, drugs cartels and vaccine misinformation.
Jeremy Allen White, Bill Burr, Betty Gilpin and Billy Magnussen are among the actors Sorkin has assembled for the film which he also directs.
But at a time when tech bros appear to have been given free rein, will Sorkin's film spark a genuine debate about their services and the need for effective regulation?
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