most anticipated movies

Julianne Moore had a banner year in 2014, scooping up Best Actress honors in Cannes for Maps to the Stars before finally breaking her Oscar duck for a moving turn in Still Alice. Perhaps she ll keep the hot streak going with this true life story (based on an Oscar winning doc short from 2007) of a cancer stricken New Jersey police detective fighting to secure pension benefits for her domestic partner a potentially punchy role for Ellen Page. Screenwriter Ron Nyswaner knows his way around LGBT themed drama, having penned Soldier s Girl and Philadelphia.

Cannes sprang a surprise when Hungarian director L

Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks are one for three with Oscar so far. Saving Private Ryan was, of course, a piece of modern cinematic iconography, while Catch Me If You Can and The Terminal didn t tickle the Academy s fancy. Bridge of Spies looks almost rigidly handsome from afar, and Disney certainly isn t banging the gong (it was announced as part of the New York Film Festival line up as almost an afterthought). But this Cold War era drama about a Brooklyn lawyer negotiating the Soviet release of a U 2 spy plane pilot certainly looks like a player on paper. Sometimes, though, that s more like a caveat.

No need to be coy about where I stand on this one. While Australian helmer Justin Kurzel s stripped back, mood driven take on The Scottish Play prompted some bludgeoned critical dismissals at Cannes, my own Variety review described it as scarcely improvable fearsomely visceral and impeccably performed. I stand by that claim Michael Fassbender fulfills his ideal casting as the blood lusting Highland warlord, while Marion Cotillard, in her startling first crack at Shakespearean acting, embodies a Lady M for the ages. Both merit an awards push from The Weinstein Co.

Last year s Pacific Rim may have been a proficiently noisy, technically crunchy blockbuster, but it wasn t the creative comeback that fans of Guillermo del Toro s darker side were hoping for. Could this Victorian Gothic haunted house thriller be a more characteristically perverse return for the Mexican fantasy merchant? Things could go either way, but with sumptuous production values and a cast including Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska and Tom Hiddleston, there s more than enough to lure us in.

Denis Villeneuve has been on an impressive tear as of late with the Oscar nominated foreign pic Incendies, moody thriller Prisoners and penetrating character study Enemy. With Sicario, which bowed at the Cannes Film Festival in May and is set for Toronto, he tackles the drug trade and all the ennui conjured in its wake. With celebrated lenser Roger Deakins on board again and stars Emily Blunt, Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro in front of the camera, it s a dark subject matter that could land the right blows this season.

Ron Howard s partnership with DP Anthony Dod Mantle bore fascinating fruit with 2013 s Rush. Together again for a yarn about the real life events that inspired Herman Melville s Moby Dick, another visual feast appears to be in the cards. Howard hasn t had a serious brush with the season since 2008 s FrostNixon, but he seems to be pushing himself into new terrain as of late. Warner Bros. bumped this one from a March release to December, maybe signaling they have a player on their hands.

Angelina Jolie s Unbroken crashed on the rocks of the season last year after looking bonafide on paper. She ll be back with hubby Brad Pitt for a swoony tale of artists on holiday navigating their troubled relationship and a film said to be inspired by European cinema of the 1960s and 1970s. That sounds like an alluring mixture, to be sure. The film will open AFI Fest in November, a slot that it should be noted hasn t been much of a lucky charm for hopefuls such as Love & Other Drugs, J. Edgar, Hitchcock, Saving Mr. Banks and A Most Violent Year in recent memory.

Filmmaker Ryan Coogler made a significant splash with his debut feature Fruitvale Station two years ago, a film that also introduced much of the world to actor Michael B. Jordan. The pair will be back for what, at first blush, might appear to be mere capitalization on a franchise. But Creed, a spin offsequel to the Rocky series, could pack an unexpected punch.

Encouraging awards chatter for John Crowley s lovely, wistful Irish immigrant romance began following its Sundance premiere in January, but Fox Searchlight has cannily kept the film under its hat since then. Expect the conversation to resume at Toronto. Saoirse Ronan, whose expressive silent cinema features have never had a more besotted showcase than this, has been the chief beneficiary of the buzz so far, but Emory Cohen a revelatory delight as her scrappy Italian American suitor deserves equally serious consideration.