14 Must-See Movies Coming to Theaters This Fall
It's only August, but anyone who's set foot in a movie theater in the last month (basically everyone given the success of "Barbenheimer") has seen the barrage of trailers for fall movies. The film festivals of Venice, Telluride, Toronto and New York will set the stage for next year's Oscars race. Horror films will start rolling out pre-Halloween and then, of course, the big budget studio flicks will arrive in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Dozens of movies will be showing up in theaters and on streaming platforms between Labor Day Weekend and New Year's Eve. (Yes, the end of December is technically winter, but we're still lumping it into our fall lineup.) Of those films, here are the 14 we're most excited to see. From big budget superhero flicks to tiny international dramas, the fall has something for everyone. Take a look.
Must-See Movies Coming to Theaters Fall 2023
1. A Haunting in Venice (Sept. 15)
Let's hope that Hercule Poirot is returning with "enough champagne to fill the canal!' Because after he solved his last case in Egypt, he's headed to Italy to crack the case of a shady seance gone wrong. This is the third in Kenneth Branagh's series of films based on Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot novels, and while the first was a bit underwhelming and the second was a so-bad-it's-good disaster, we're optimistic for this adaptation of her Hallowe'en Party novel. The cast includes Jamie Dornan, Tina Fey, Jude Hill and Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh.
Related: Everything We Know About the Latest Hercule Poirot Film, ‘A Haunting in Venice’
2. Dumb Money (Sept. 22)
You may remember a time back in 2021 when GameStop was in the news for its stock market drama. Well now that whole ordeal is getting the Big Short treatment with an all-star cast that includes Paul Dano, Pete Davidson, America Ferrera, Nick Offerman, Anthony Ramos, Sebastian Stan, Shailene Woodley and Seth Rogan. Should the SAG strike end by September, this will certainly be one of the starriest premieres at TIFF.
Related: The Most Anticipated Movies from the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival Lineup
3. Killers of the Flower Moon (Oct. 20)
Martin Scorsese's latest film has been a long time coming. The drama, based on a true crime bestseller by David Grann, was filmed in early 2021. The release was delayed due to COVID and a reworking of the material by Scorsese. It premiered earlier this year at the Cannes Film Festival and is now headed for theaters in October despite it being an Apple TV+ title. Oscar buzz is already building for Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro and Lily Gladstone, who based on early reviews has a star-making turn and steals the film out from under her powerhouse co-stars.
Related: 'Killers of the Flower Moon' Movie Release Date, Cast and More Details
4. Priscilla (Oct. 27)
Yes. We did just get an Elvis film last year, and yes it did sweep up a ton of Oscar nominations and perhaps cause some Elvis fatigue. We're still thrilled to be getting another rendering of the man's life told from the point of view of his wife Priscilla. Sofia Coppola (an amazing director fwiw) will certainly be giving us a less hagiographic version of the king of rock 'n' roll as she focuses on the fact he started dating Priscilla when he was an adult and she was just 14 (something Elvis glazed over). The film will play at both the Venice and New York film festivals before arriving in theaters.
5. Rustin (Nov. 3)
Another of this year's biopics stars Colman Domingo as Bayard Rustin, a gay civil rights attorney. This Netflix movie from longtime director George C. Wolfe and produced by Barack and Michelle Obama already has a lot of buzz with whispers of a Best Actor run for Domingo. Chris Rock also stars. The movie will be making its debut at TIFF before it arrives on Netflix in November.
6. The Marvels (Nov. 10)
The Marvel Cinematic Universe is in a bit of a slump with both Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 failing to break big at the box office in ways their predecessors did. All eyes are on The Marvels, a three-hander featuring stars from Captain Marvel, Ms. Marvel and Wandavision to see if Marvel fatigue is real or if the franchise can bounce back. Brie Larson returns for a galactic mission, and we get one step closer to the next Avengers movie in Phase Six.
Related: Captain Marvel Returns in the New Trailer for 'The Marvels'
7. The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (Nov. 17)
Cue the Rue whistle. Cue "Are you? Are you? Coming to the tree?" Cue "May the odds be ever in your favor." The Hunger Games are back baby! When Suzanne Collins wrote a Hunger Games prequel focused on the villainous Coriolanus Snow (a bold move), you knew they were turning that into a movie and here it is starring Tom Blyth and Rachel Zegler as the rich boy from the Capitol and the District 12 tribute he falls in love with. The original film franchise is one of few you could say were on par with or better than the books, so we've got high hopes for this one.
Netflix
8. May December (Nov. 17)
Another Cannes debut that's been held for the fall to court Oscar voters is Todd Haynes' May December. The meta film is loosely based on the Mary Kay Letourneau scandal in the '90s in which a 34-year-old teacher began an affair with her 12-year-old student only to then marry him once she'd been released from prison and he'd become an adult. In the film Julianne Moore and Riverdale's Charles Melton play the grown up, fictionalized versions of the teacher and student. Natalie Portman plays an actor who visits the couple in order to prepare for a filmed adaptation of their life that she is staring in. It's gonna be juicy and it's opening New York Film Festival.
Related: 15 Academy Award Contenders for 2024 That You Can Already Watch
9. Saltburn (Nov. 24)
Without a trailer or festival debut, we know relatively little about Saltburn other than it's the latest from Emerald Fennell, who directed Promising Young Woman to much acclaim a few years ago. The Thanksgiving release has been touted as a revamped Talented Mr. Ripley and stars Oscar nominee Barry Keoghan as a college student who becomes obsessed with an aristocratic classmate played by Euphoria's Jacob Elordi. Rosamund Pike, Richard E. Grant and Carey Mulligan round out a stellar ensemble.
Neon
10. Eileen (Dec. 1)
Eileen has been lurking in the awards race since it debuted at Sundance back in January. The lesbian drama based on a novel by Otessa Moshfegh arrived at the festival without distribution, but the reviews, especially of Anne Hathaway's supporting performance, were raves and it was acquired by Neon. Now Eileen is skipping the festival circuit for a December release that will be aimed squarely at an Oscars campaign. Fingers crossed that Hathaway gets another nom.
11. Poor Things (Dec. 8)
Yorgos Lanthimos is one of the oddest directors of our era, and we love him for that. After cult hits like Dogtooth, The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer, his costume drama The Favourite won big at the Oscars. Now he's back after a five-year hiatus with a surrealist drama about a woman resurrected from the dead by a mad scientist. It's sure to be an odd movie, but the cast of Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef, Jerrod Carmichael, Christopher Abbott, Margaret Qualley and Kathryn Hunter seem up to the task of executing his vision. After premiering at Venice and stopping at NYFF, the movie will be released in December.
A24
12. The Zone of Interest (Dec. 8)
Zone of Interest is loosely based on a novel of the same name by Martin Amis. The film from Jonathan Glazer received rave reviews coming out of Cannes in how it delicately handles Holocaust subject matter by focusing Rudolf Hoss, the commandant of Auschwitz and his family who live right outside of the genocidal facility. It will now be playing at both TIFF and NYFF as it gears up for a hefty awards campaign.
13. The Color Purple (Dec. 25)
The new adaptation of the stage musical adaptation of Alice Walker's novel is another film that has yet to be solidified as a 2023 contender. With a Christmas release, it is skipping the fall festivals, but with the strike overshadowing releases, it could also ultimately find itself bumped to a 2024 release. Musicals have been hit or miss at the Oscars in recent years, but the all-star lineup including American Idol winner Fantasia Barrino, Taraji P. Henson, Danielle Brooks, Colman Domingo and The Little Mermaid's Halle Bailey is fairly undeniable.
Related: All About the 2023 Remake of 'The Color Purple'
14. Ferrari (Dec. 25)
In a slightly confusing marketing move, this is not Ford v. Ferrari but a completely separate movie about Ferrari cars that wants Oscars. Ferrari is a biopic about Enzo Ferrari, the founder of the luxury car brand, who will now be played by Adam Driver (the puns write themselves here folks). The film will play both Venice and New York before it cruises to a Christmas release.