The 50 Most Anticipated Movies of Fall 2026

Every fall, studios trot out their big prestige-drama titles, film festivals roll out the red carpet for gala premiers, and big-name talent starts hitting the for-your-consideration circuit. For the next few months, a lot of oxygen will get sucked up over whether this title or that has a good chance of going all the way, or whether a veteran actor is campaigning enough to nab a long overdue Oscar. Do a lot of great films, the kind that populate best-of lists, come out in the back fourth of any given year? Yes. Is the experience of having to consume all pumped-up serious movies more or less back-to-back exhausting? Also yes. Forget it, Jake, it's awards season.

2026 is no different — and from Labor Day to Christmas Day, viewers will indeed get the chance to check out biopics, social-issue explorations, A-list period dramas and procedurals, and hoity-toity literary adaptations. But you'll also get the chance to see a few long-awaited sequels, a couple of star-studded franchise blockbusters (ready or not, here comes Dune 3 and Avengers: Doomsday , both being released on the same day !), some nutty sounding genre exercises, and few once-in-a-lifetime collaborations. Seriously, it's not like David Fincher directing Brad Pitt in a movie written by Quentin Tarantino is, like, a normal everyday occurrence.