Films to see in January 2026

You Man-su (Lee Byung Hun, “that” by Squid Game) has been working in paper production for 25 years. He has a beautiful family and financial security, and nothing can go wrong. At least until the company suddenly fires him. There, everything he had achieved seems destined to fade away in the blink of an eye. Then the frantic search for a new job begins. And, if You doesn’t succeed, he won’t leave out any solution, not even the most radical ones… The new, beautiful film by Korean master Park Chan-wook opens the year (Old Boy), recently passed since the last Venice Exhibition.

Se The Brutalist had it not been filmed by Brady Corbet and had it been set in early 1980s France, perhaps we would have immediately gotten Stéphane Demoustier’s new film. Whose events revolve around the construction of the first European business district in Paris (la Défense), and the unknown Danish architect who wins the tender. In his fifth film, the director adapts the book by Laurence Cossé The Great Arch and tells a true story. One in which ideals and aspirations are forced to come to terms with harsh reality. The cast includes, among others, Claes Bang and Xavier Dolan.

Based on the 2022 novel of the same name by Freida McFadden, Paul Feig’s new film stars Sydney Sweeney as Millie Calloway, a young woman with a painful past who takes a job as a maid in the home of the wealthy Winchester family. What seems like a simple job will soon turn out to be more complicated than expected. The Winchesters have their secrets too, and their intentions towards Millie are anything but clear. Also in the cast are Amanda Seyfried, Brandon Sklenar and, drum roll… Michele Morrone.

A father and son travel from rave to rave, in the Moroccan desert, to find their daughter (and sister), who has been missing for a few months. The research film and about research by Óliver Laxe is produced among others by Pedro Almodóvar, and soon the reflective and investigative thread turns into a road movie to the sound of electronics (by Kangding Ray). Jury Prize at Cannes 2025, Cry it is a film that deviates from expectations. And that’s why it’s worth saying: I saw it.

Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson are Mike and Claire Sardina, aka Lightning & Thunder, a Neil Diamond tribute band. Inspired by a true story, Brewer’s film follows two struggling musicians who decide to lift themselves up with a new project, proving that there is always a way out of the quagmire. Feelgood-musical movieit seems he could give a new Oscar nomination to Kate Hudson after the one obtained for the always musical (and ultra-cult) Almost Famous – Almost Famous.

Petra and Jure are brothers and live in a very cold village, speaking not only climatically, but also spiritually. But to leave the mountains that seem to keep them trapped, they need one thing above all: the money to rebuild their lives somewhere else. The solution seems to come by itself: a dog, Marlowe, has disappeared, and the owners offer a handsome reward. Matteo Oleotto returns behind the camera next Zoran, my stupid nephew to tell another province of whites and blacks: extreme peace, and extreme pain. Also in the cast is Giuseppe Battiston.

After Kafka a Teheranthe Iranian Ali Asgari returns with the fourth film, Divine Comedypresented in the Orizzonti section in Venice 82. It is not strictly about metacinema, but we are still faced with a film that talks about cinema, or rather, about the condition of cinema in Iran under the regime of the ayatollahs. The protagonist, Bahram, is a director whose works have never obtained authorization to be shown in the country. Then he gets fed up, and together with his producer Sadaf he begins a clandestine journey to screen his films underground and off the beaten track.

Coppa Volpi to Toni Servillo at the latest Venice Film Festival for his interpretation of the (invented) President of the Republic Mariano De Santis in Paolo Sorrentino’s new film. De Santis is a jurist, widower, Catholic, and has a daughter, Dorotea (Anna Ferzetti), who has undertaken the same professional career as him. The President’s mandate is coming to an end, and only two thorny issues remain on his desk: both have to do with a pardon that he must decide whether to grant. These are not “simple” cases, but moral dilemmas that will be intertwined with his private life.

Best screenplay at Sundance for Eva Victor’s directorial debut, the film tells the terrible story of violence suffered by the protagonist Agnes, played by Victor herself. At his side, on set and in fiction, Naomi Ackie in the role of his trusted friend Lydie. It is through her, and with her affection, that Agnes will find the strength to dig inside herself and process what, in all respects, is a loss for herself. A new author is born.

The fourth chapter of the acclaimed saga that began in 2002 with 28 days then he saw the director’s scepter pass to Nia DaCosta, after having been given to Danny Boyle, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo and again, only last year, to Boyle again (with 28 years later). Written by Alex Garland, the new chapter of the franchise sees Ralph Fiennes (aka Dr. Kelson) trapped in an unexpected relationship with catastrophic consequences; while Spike’s (Alfie Williams) meeting with Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell) turns into a nightmare. It is precisely here that the real enemy lurks: no longer those infected by the virus, but the inhumanity of those who survived.

BFFs Matt Damon and Ben Affleck reunite on screen in a crime thriller set in Miami. The detonator of everything: the discovery by the two of millions of dollars hidden in an abandoned warehouse. The discovery throws the city’s law enforcement department into turmoil, and will reveal hidden tensions that could bring the city to the brink of catastrophe. Directed by Joe Carnahan, action movie veteran: see Smokin’ Aces e The Grey.

Reading the synopsis one would think that if Martin Scorsese had been born in the same decade as Josh Safdie (i.e. the 1980s), he would have made the latter’s films his own. Titles like Marty Supreme: set in New York in the 1950s, it centers on shoe salesman Marty Mauser, who has an unbridled passion for ping pong. This places him in a vortex of bets and forbidden passions. Timothée Chalamet, who plays him, makes it larger than lifeand is aiming straight for an Oscar nomination. Also in the cast are Gwyneth Paltrow, Odessa A’ Zion and Abel Ferrara. The soundtrack remains to be seen…

Timur Bekmambetov (remember that 2008 film of his, Wantedwith Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy…) directs Chris Pratt in a mixed project detective storyfeelings of guilt and future dystopia linked to the uncontrolled progress of artificial intelligence. Pratt’s character is in fact on trial accused of killing his wife. His fate will be decided by a highly advanced non-human (Rebecca Ferguson) that he himself helped develop. And he will only have 90 minutes to convince the magistrate of his innocence.

The Spaniard Carlos Marqués-Marcet directs the story of a “sweet death”. The protagonist, Claudia (Ángela Molina), is a professional dancer who discovered she has a terminal illness. He then decides not to watch his body wither away, but to undertake the extreme journey towards an assisted death clinic together with his forty-year-old companion Flavio (Alfredo Castro). Not only that: not being able to think of living apart, Flavio also decides that he will undergo the procedure. It will be the children they have together who forcefully enter into their decision, forcing them to reconsider both the present and the past.

Three Oscar shortlists (best casting, best cinematography, best international film) and the Grand Prix of the Cannes Film Festival for Joachim Trier’s latest film, the second chapter of a new “human” trilogy that the Norwegian director dedicates to human emotions (the previous segment, you will remember, was the beautiful The worst person in the world). Renate Reinsve, protagonist of the latter film, returns to the screen alongside Elle Fanning, Stellan Skarsgård and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas in a story of complicated family legacies and uncomfortable truths. Two sisters welcome their father, a successful director and absent parent, back into their lives. But…

Toni Chichiarelli had arrived in Rome with the desire to be a painter. But fate – and his artistic ability – had something else in store for him: soon, he was co-opted by the system of state politics and introduced to the country’s secrets. This story intertwined between art and politics is directed by Stefano Lodovichi (The process e Christian in Tv, At the bottom of the forest at the cinema), while the cast includes Pietro Castellitto, Giulia Michelini, Andrea Arcangeli, Pierluigi Gigante, Aurora Giovinazzo, Edoardo Pesce and Claudio Santamaria.

This month, also the return of the excellent Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho, who, almost six years after Bacurau and two from Pictures of Ghosts returns with his magic-realist cinema steeped in political (history). Recife, 1977, Carnival week. A man, Marcelo (Wagner Moura), arrives in town. He is a researcher in the sciences, but his real occupation is to escape: from the police, from persecution, from himself. Unexpected help will come from a mysterious woman named Elza, and her fellow citizens. Double trophy at Cannes 2025: best director and best male performance.

Carlo and Elisa love each other, or maybe not anymore. They have a teenage daughter and incredibly successful careers. As if it were a habit, they embark for Morocco with their friends Anna and Paolo. But what started out as a simple vacation will turn out to be the perfect storm to bring all the tensions to the surface. Which will only increase with the arrival on the scene of Blu, Carlo’s student who Elisa is unable to frame. Gabriele Muccino’s new film arrives with an all-star cast: Stefano Accorsi, Miriam Leone, Claudio Santamaria, Carolina Crescentini, plus the young Beatrice Savignani and Margherita Pantaleo.

To close the month, a new film by Sam Raimi with Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien as Linda and Bradley, a brilliant employee and her domineering boss. During a business trip, the plane they are both traveling on makes an emergency landing on a desert island, and they are the only survivors. Forced to ignore the office’s logic and work together to survive, the relationship between the two slowly begins to change.