From space cadets to bone temples and more, the Top 25 of the year so far • Journal • A Magazine • , Life in canada

Can anything take Project Hail Mary’s crown? Well, there are some massive behemoths on the horizon, to be sure. One look at our Official List HQ’s monthly tracking of the most anticipated films of the year by members shows that Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey doesn’t need a Trojan Horse to sneak its way into this race when it releases later this month. Of course, the biggest threat coming down the way is Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Three, the epic conclusion to his series which handily took the crown for our 2024 Year in Review the last time it had a release (Dune: Part Two still ranks above Hail Mary).

Speaking of follow-ups to former Year in Review winners, Spider-Man: Brand New Day would surely love to be taken in by the community to the same level as 2022 champion No Way Home. And no, you’re not seeing triple—the three most anticipated films by the community do all feature Zendaya, and two of them also star her The Drama screen partner Robert Pattinson. If ever there were locks for our Most Watched Actor and Actress of the year, 2026 would be it.

Elsewhere on the way, Tom Cruise returns to non-franchise filmmaking with his still mysterious leading role in Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Digger that could potentially put him in pole position in the Oscar race, and the community’s beloved Robert Eggers is back in his deeply unsettling wheelhouse with Werwulf, whose recently dropped trailer promises to extend the horror high that this year is riding. All of that, plus who knows what’s around the bend as the fall festival season launches awards campaigns for many of this year’s inevitable Oscar contenders, and this race is anything but set in stone.