2020 movies: All the new releases this autumn
2020 is officially the weirdest movie year on record. Coronavirus wiped out spring and summer closing cinemas for months on end, but now they’re back in business, and autumn is here boasting a stellar line up of new movies to get excited for.
From No Time Die and Black Widow to Bill and Ted Face The Music and Peter Rabbit 2, there are plenty of familiar favourites to ease us into winter, alongside a host of exciting original movies from brilliant filmmakers to keep true cineastes happy too.
Here are the most exciting movies coming to cinemas autumn 2020.
Bill & Ted Face The Music
Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter return as the iconic time-travelling slackers for a new adventure, which sees them tasked with saving the world once again having failed to write the song that will save humanity. William Sadler returns as Death for the threequel which introduces the duo’s daughters Billie (Brigette Lundy-Paine) and Thea (Samara Weaving). It’s already been released in America earning strong reviews.
Read more: Tom Cruise’s most dangerous stunts
In cinemas 16 September.
Rocks
Directed by Sarah Gavron (Suffragette, Brick Lane) and written by Theresa Ikoko and Claire Wilson, the film explores the resilience, joy and spirit of girlhood through a group of inner city teenage girls, and has won critical acclaim on the festival circuit.
In cinemas 18 September.
Enola Holmes
This Netflix exclusive, based on Nancy Springer’s book series, stars Stranger Things’ Millie Bobby Brown as the younger sister of Sherlock Holmes (Henry Cavill), who finds herself following in her sleuthing brother’s footsteps as she investigates the disappearance of her mother (Helena Bonham-Carter). The first reviews have hailed it as a fresh take on Arthur Conan Doyle’s story.
On Netflix 23 September.
Becky
King of Queens star Kevin James is unrecognisable as a tattooed convict who meets his match when he messes with the wrong teenager after escaping from prison. This Home Alone-esque thriller won critical acclaim on release in America earlier this year.
On digital platforms 28 September.
David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet
In his 93 years, Attenborough has visited every continent on the globe, exploring our planet and documenting the living world. Now, for the first time he reflects upon both the defining moments of his lifetime as a naturalist and the devastating changes he has seen, in this new documentary.
Read more: Is Mulan based on a true story?
In cinemas 28 September, and on Netflix later this year.
Eternal Beauty
Shape of Water star Sally Hawkins returns to our screens for the second feature film from actor turned director Craig Roberts. She plays a woman whose life spirals out of control when she is jilted at the altar, and the film has been praised for its portrayal of mental health.
In cinemas and on demand from 2 October.
On The Rocks
On the Rocks reunites Sofia Coppola, director of The Virgin Suicides, Marie Antoinette and The Beguiled with film icon Bill Murray, star of her Academy Award winner Lost in Translation. Murray plays the charming and impulsive father of Rashida Jones’ Laura who worries that her husband (Marlon Wayans) may be cheating on her.
In cinemas from 2 October prior to its global release 23 October 23 exclusively on Apple TV+.
Saint Maud
Morfydd Clark gives a star making turn as a devoutly religious community nurse troubled by her past, who becomes besotted with a former dancer (Jennifer Ehle) in her care. This feature debut from director Rose Glass is haunting, terrifying and not to be missed.
In cinemas 9 October.
Connected
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse producers Christopher Miller and Phil Lord return with a new animated adventure, which sees a family who have to save the world from a technological threat while they’re supposed to be bonding on a road trip. Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph and Olivia Colman star.
In cinemas 9 October.
Death on the Nile
Sir Kenneth Branagh has assembled another all-star cast for his second Agatha Christie adaptation. Branagh is strapping on the fake tache once again as acclaimed sleuth Hercule Poirot, and he’s joined by Gal Gadot, Letitia Wright, Armie Hammer, Annette Bening, Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French for another densely plotted whodunnit.
In cinemas 9 October.
Kajillionaire
Miranda July’s surreal new film was snapped up by Focus Features after wowing critics at 2020’s Sundance Film Festival. It stars Evan Rachel Wood, Richard Jenkins, Debra Winger, and Gina Rodriguez and tells the story of an unconventional family who scratch a living in LA.
In cinemas 9 October.
The Trial of the Chicago 7
Master script writer Aaron Sorkin follows the excellent Molly’s Game with his second directed feature film, based on the true story of the Chicago 7. The period courtroom drama is a Netflix exclusive and boasts an all-star cast including Sacha Baron Cohen, Eddie Redmayne, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jeremy Strong, Mark Rylance, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and more.
Read more: Christopher Nolan’s films ranked
On Netflix from 16 October.
Rebecca
Armie Hammer reunites with his Free Fire director Ben Wheatley for a new adaptation of Daphne De Maurier’s gothic thriller Rebecca. He plays the rich and mysterious widower Maxim De Winter, a man haunted by the memory of his first wife. Lily James is the young woman who marries De Winter after a whirlwind romance, but finds strange things afoot when they return to his ancestral home.
On Netflix from 21 October.
The Secret Garden
Prolific writer Jack Thorne (His Dark Materials/Enola Holmes/Radioactive) is behind this handsome new adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s 1911 novel, which stars Dixie Egerickx as Mary Lennox, the young girl who discovers a magical garden on her uncle’s estate when she’s sent to live with him. Fun for all the family.
In cinemas and on Sky Cinema from 23 October.
Black Widow
Coming 16 months after Spider-Man: Far From Home, this is the longest we’ve had to wait for a new entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since it began, and so Scarlett Johansson’s return as Natasha Romanoff feels long overdue. Set after the events of Captain America: Civil War, it sees the super spy returning to her roots to tackle her greatest foe yet: the Taskmaster.
In cinemas 28 October.
Relic
Relic is the debut feature from writer-director Natalie Erika James who brings a fresh and profoundly human twist to the horror genre. Following its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, where it terrified audiences and received widespread critical acclaim – the film, which stars Emily Mortimer, arrives just in time for Halloween.
In cinemas and on digital platforms 30 October.
Train To Busan: Peninsula
The sequel to 2016’s outstanding Korean zombie thriller Train To Busan was due to debut at Cannes Film Festival before it was cancelled by a deadly virus of another sort. It’s since been released in Asia where it’s been a huge hit. More of a world expansion than a straight sequel, Peninsula promised to up the undead action to insane new levels.
Read more: The movies that are so bad they’re good
In cinemas 6 November.
No Time To Die
Daniel Craig returns for one final adventure as Ian Fleming’s James Bond 007. The much-delayed film sees Bond drawn out of retirement by Felix Leiter (Jeffrey Wright) to tackle a new threat from a mysterious new foe - played by Oscar-winner Rami Malek - who, we’ve been warned, offers Bond his most serious challenge to date. Lea Seydoux returns as Madeleine Swann, alongside Bond regulars Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris and Ben Whishaw.
In cinemas 12 November.
Another Round
Thomas Vinterberg and Mads Mikkelsen famously collaborated on the hard-hitting drama The Hunt, in which Mikkelsen played a teacher accused of sexual abuse. The subject matter of Another Round, in which director and star reunite, is a little lighter, following four friends who decide to maintain a constant level of alcohol in their blood to see if it will lead to a happier life. There’s plenty of room for both comedy and tragedy here.
In cinemas 27 November.
Soul
Pixar’s master of the cerebral, Pete Docter, follows Inside Out with another emotionally potent journey into the human psyche. This time around, Jamie Foxx voices a music teacher and aspiring jazz star whose soul is separated from his body in the wake of an accident. What follows is a journey into the bizarre world of soul training that, if we know Pixar at all, will feature as many moments of tear-jerking emotional turmoil as it does big laughs.
In cinemas 27 November.
Free Guy
With the very hooky premise of a computer game NPC (non-player character) gaining sentience and fighting back against his game, Free Guy is an interesting proposition from Night at the Museum director Shawn Levy. Ryan Reynolds is the ordinary bank teller who discovers his world isn’t quite what he thought and subsequently rages against the, quite literal, machine.
In cinemas 11 December.
Peter Rabbit 2
James Corden hops back into the world of Beatrix Potter to once again voice the mischievous bunny who Domhnall Gleeson just can’t shake. In this sequel, subtitled The Runaway in some territories, Peter emerges from the garden he calls home in order to carry out his pranks and pratfalls somewhere else. Naturally, his friends and family are right on his fluffy little tail.
In cinemas 11 December.
Dune
Blade Runner 2049 director Denis Villeneuve is taking on one of the most beloved, gargantuan sci-fi works of the 20th century with this new take on the power struggle for control of the desert planet Arrakis. The cast is a mix of social media-friendly young stars — Timothée Chalamet is heir Paul Atreides — and Hollywood gravitas, with Josh Brolin and Oscar Isaac among the ensemble. This looks big, spectacular and distinctly Villeneuve.
In cinemas 18 December.
West Side Story
Steven Spielberg makes his first foray into the world of musicals with this remix of the Stephen Sondheim play, previously filmed to Oscar-winning success in 1961. Ansel Elgort and newcomer Rachel Zegler will play star-crossed lovers Tony and Maria, struggling as their rival gang affiliation threatens to scupper their romance. It’s Romeo & Juliet, but with a lot more finger clicking.
In cinemas 18 December.
Wonder Woman 1984
After many delays, DC superhero Diana Prince returns to our screens for a new 1980s-set adventure. Gal Gadot’s lasso-wielding Amazonian faces the twin threats of Kristen Wiig’s Cheetah and Pedro Pascal’s Maxwell Lord, while Chris Pine’s Steve Trevor has to face a greater foe: 1980s fashion.
In cinemas December (TBC).
