At the close of 2014, we celebrated our favorite films of the year, and with the turn to a new year, it’s only fitting that we give our excitement an outlet with a glance at what to expect from the movies in 2015.

Directorial debuts, long-awaited sequels, reboots decades in the making, and the latest chapters in studio franchises are just a few of the films we’re anticipating most this year.

Still Alice
directed by Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland
February 13

Julianne Moore stars (in an Academy Award–nominated performance) as a linguistics professor whose professional and personal life is disrupted when she is diagnosed with Early-Onset Alzheimer’s.

Ex Machina
directed by Alex Garland
release

The line between humanity and machinery becomes blurred in novelist and screenwriter Alex Garland’s directorial debut.

Mad Max: Fury Road
directed by George Miller
May 15

George Miller is rebooting his own ’80s Mel Gibson–starring dystopian franchise with Tom Hardy in the driver’s seat—and it looks like a hell of a lot of fun.

Jurassic World
directed by Colin Trevorrow
June 12

After a decade and a half, the world of Jurassic Park returns with John Hammond’s vision come to life, Chris Pratt with a pack of raptors, and Bryce Dallas Howard with a large amount of hubris she’ll most likely come to regret. The park is open.

Inside Out
directed by Pete Docter
June 19

Directed by longtime Pixar collaborator Pete Docter (Monster’s Inc., Up), the studio’s new film explores the animated emotions of a tweenage girl, who has to deal with Amy Poehler (Joy), Bill Hader (Fear), Lewis Black (Anger), Mindy Kaling (Disgust), and Phyllis Smith (Sadness) all competing inside her head.

Ant-Man
directed by Peyton Reed
July 17

The second film of Marvel‘s 2015 calendar (after Avengers: Age of Ultron in May), the film has a lot of buzz (and drama) behind it, but we can’t wait to see how Paul Rudd fits into the role of the superhero…no matter how small.

The Hateful Eight
directed by Quentin Tarantino
November 13

There’s no official trailer out for Quentin Tarantino‘s on-then-off-then-on project, but there is a cast confirmed for Q’s next bloody revenge flick, which has apparently had additional drafts made since the original script leaked early last year.

SPECTRE
directed by Sam Mendes
November 6

Sam Mendes did a terrific job on the last Bond film, Skyfall, and is helming the twenty-fourth incarnation (and blond Bond Daniel Craig’s fourth in the role). Details are scant, but the title refers to the organization Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge, and Exortion. Sounds pretty nasty. Christoph Waltz, Léa Seydoux, Monica Bellucci, Andrew Scott, and Dave Bautista star, along with the return of Naomie Harris as Eve Moneypenny, Ralph Fiennes as M, and Ben Whishaw as Q.

In The Heart of Sea
directed by Ron Howard
December 11

Ron Howard has famously, excellently lensed the true story of mankind in shipwrecked crisis once before, in 1995’s Apollo 13, and at the end of 2015, his adaptation of Nathaniel Philbrick’s nonfiction account of the whaleship Essex will hit theaters. Said to be Melville’s inspiration for Moby-Dick, the real account of the early nineteenth century whaler was as well known a disaster at the time as the Titanic is to us today: an encounter with a furious sperm whale sunk the ship and left its crew adrift, thousands of miles from land, for over ninety days.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens
directed by J. J. Abrams
December 18

Need we say more?

FLOOD

Inside Out

MUSIC, ART + CULTURE,DELIVERED STRAIGHT TO YOUR INBOX

MUSIC, ART + CULTURE,
DELIVERED STRAIGHT TO YOUR INBOX