2024 Fall Movie Preview: What Film Are You Most Looking Forward To?

Fall film festival season is less than a month away. I’ve narrowed down the hundreds upon hundreds of films that will likely screen in September (and October) at Venice, Telluride, Toronto and New York, to the bare essentials.

Now that we, more or less, know what’s showing up at these fests, with Venice and TIFF having announced their lineups, and the assumption that a few titles — including Reitman’s “Saturday Night” — will be added shortly, here’s a poll question to end the week. What is the one film, set to premiere in the fall, that has you the most excited to see?

There’s a lot of talk about this being a weak year for cinema, and Oscar-buzzed titles, and maybe it is, but there’s still a lot to look forward to. I found many films that show great promise, from esteemed filmmakers like McQueen, Almodovar, Eggers, and Guadagnino.

Some noteworthy films from Cannes will also be released in the fall: Sean Baker’s “Anora,” Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Perez,” Coraline Fargeat’s “The Substance,” Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis,” Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” and Payal Kapadia’s “All We Imagine As Light.”

Then there’s four big titles that will be skipping Toronto, Telluride and Venice. They’re all getting released in November/December and will be hidden from critics and audiences until we get closer to their release dates:

Robert Eggers’ “Nosferatu”
James Mangold’s “A Complete Unknown”
Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator II”
Robert Zemeckis’ “Here”

Then you have the follow 30 titles, set to be unveiled at one, if not all, of the September fests. Many of these you will likely be hearing a lot about in the coming month or two.

Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer”
Steve McQueen’s “Blitz”
Pedro Almodovar’s “The Room Next Door”
Todd Phillips’ “Joker: Folie a Deux”
Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist”
Edward Berger’s “Conclave”
Jason Reitman’s “Saturday Night”
Justin Kurzel’s “The Order”
RaMell Ross’ “Nickel Boys”
Pablo Larrain’s “Maria”
Marielle Heller’s “NightBitch”
Halin Reijn’s “Babygirl”
Morgan Neville’s “Piece by Piece”
Walter Salles’s “I’m Still Here”
Ron Howard’s “Eden”
Malcolm Washington’s “The Piano Lesson”
Mike Leigh’s “Hard Truths”
Joshua Oppenheimer’s “The End”
Jon Watts’ “Wolfs”
McGee and Siegel’s “The Friend”
Michael Gracey’s “Better Man”
David Gordon Green’s “Nutcrackers”
Harmony Korine’s “Baby Invasion”
Mike Flanagan’s “The Life of Chuck”
Gia Coppola’s “The Last Showgirl”
Beck and Woods’ “Heretic”
Chris Sanders’ “The Wild Robot”
Tim Burton’s “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice”