From David Fincher to Martin Scorsese, to the much-anticipated return of Jonathan Glazer, 2022 is destined to deliver an abundance of cinematic riches. We’ve expanded our list to 40 titles this year because, quite frankly, why shouldn’t we? This coming cinematic year looks completely packed to the rafters, that is if studios are willing to embrace streaming or, at the very least, have patience until things get back to normal, whenever that may be. With vaccinations helping curb fears, filmmakers/actors going back to work and an inevitable boom of films headed our way, we are in for a cinephile’s delight in 2022. If we select our anticipated 2022 films solely on the billed directors, this will be a very busy year for movie fans. The below films have either started production or are in post-production, so, unless some kind of bad luck arises for one of them, they will very much be released in 2022. So let’s roll through some of the possible must-sees of the year.
1) “Killers of the Flower Moon” Director: Martin Scorsese
A new film by Martin Scorsese is always a movie event and this one is no exception. After a lengthy seven-month shoot in Oklahoma, cinephiles worldwide are ready for “Killers of the Flower Moon.” The film is an adaptation of David Grann’s grisly murder-mystery novel, it stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro. The screenplay, written by Eric Roth, takes place in 1920s Oklahoma and tells the story of a corrupt FBI investigation on Osage Indians who suddenly start to get murdered. There is currently no release date for the film, but one assumes the possibility of a 2022 release primed and ready for Oscar season.
2) “The Killer” Director: David Fincher
Just a few months after the release of “Mank,” it was announced that David Fincher was again teaming up with Netflix for a movie. This time it’s “The Killer,” an adaptation of Alexis Nolent’s graphic novel series. ”Seven” screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker is adapting Nolent’s novels and Michael Fassbender has been confirmed as the lead. Cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt — who just won an Oscar for Mank — is confirmed to be reteaming with Fincher on a film that follows a cold-blooded assassin who begins to have a psychological crisis in a world with no moral compass.
3) “Asteroid City”Director: Wes Anderson
Bill Murray let it slip recently that the name of Wes Anderson’s next film will be “Asteroid City.” The highly anticipated film will also star Tilda Swinton, Tom Hanks, Margot Robbie, Scarlett Johansson, Adrien Brody, Bryan Cranston and Jeffrey Wright. Anderson shot “Asteroid City” in Spain since August. Plot details have been kept very hush-hush, but we do know that the film is said to take place in Arizona and not Spain. This would be Anderson’s second film in as many years after “The French Dispatch. A Cannes world premiere would be more-than-welcome.
4) “The Zone of Interest” Director: Jonathan Glazer
Director Jonathan Glazer is one of the true visionaries to have emerged in the film circuit the last decade. Glazer has been shooting a new film since August in Auschwitz, Poland. This is stunning news given that this project has been delaying its production for quite a few years now. What we do know about this new project, a holocaust-set story, is that Glazer has been working on it for nearly five years, with A24 attached to produce. The film is said to be based on author Martin Amis’ novel “The Zone Of Interest.” The book synopsis tells the story of a Nazi officer who finds himself falling for the wife of the camp’s commandant. The plot follows their torrid, love affair, while the spurned husband begins to suspect his wife.
5) “Babylon” Director: Damien Chazelle
Said to take place during the transition from silent films to talkies, and featuring a mix of real-life and fictional characters, Damien Chazelle’s “Babylon” will star Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt. Pitt would portray a fictional character that is a star of silent films who is unable to make the transition to the new era of Hollywood. Robbie, on the other hand, would play Clara Bow, who is widely recognized as the first “It” girl of Hollywood. Chazelle is one of the few filmmaking whiz kids to have come out of American cinema the last decade. Not many directors have broken out within the American studio with the kind of buzz he’s had. It will be very exciting to see what he does next with “Babylon.”
6) “Disappointment Blvd.” Director: Ari Aster
Ari Aster wrapped filming “Disappointment Boulevard” in Montreal this summer. The director of “Midsommar” and “Hereditary” will be re-teaming with A24 for this new project. Joaquin Phoenix is set to star in the mysterious film which originally went by the title of “Beau is Afraid.” In 2011, Aster directed a short film titled “Beau.” Described as a “surrealist horror film set in an alternate present,” Phoenix’s character would play an “extremely anxious but pleasant-looking man who has a fraught relationship with his overbearing mother and never knew his father.” When his mother dies, he makes a journey home that involves some wild supernatural threats.
7) “The Fablemans” Director: Steven Spielberg
Here’s what will likely be Steven Spielberg’s most personal film. “The Fablemans” will tell the story of Sammy (Gabriel LaBelle), a character based on the mid-teenaged Spielberg, a striving young filmmaker living with his family in early ’60s Arizona. We already know Michelle Williams is set to play a character inspired by Spielberg’s mother, Seth Rogen is also onboard playing the director’s uncle and Paul Dano will play a character inspired by the filmmaker’s dad, Arnold. Most of the cast of the new film will be younger, unknown actors, including LaBelle.
8) “Crimes of the Future” Director: David Cronenberg
I Tweeted the first image from David Cronenberg’s upcoming “Crimes of the Future.” This is the Canadian director’s first movie since 2014’s “Map of the Stars.” Cronenberg may have been hinting at retirement these last six years, but the legendary 78-year-old director is not done with cinema. He’s teaming up with an incredible cast that includes Viggo Mortensen, Léa Seydoux, Kristen Stewart, Scott Speedman, Welket Bungué, Don McKellar, Lihi Kornowski, Tanaya Beatty, Nadia Litz, and Yorgos Karamichos. Although this new movie borrows the same name as Cronenberg’s 1970 feature it will have a different plot altogether.
9) “Poor Things” Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Lanthimos has become a verifiable cinematic force with “Dogtooth,” “The Lobster” and “The Favourite.” In the highly-anticipated “Poor Things,” he reteams with Emma Stone for a Victorian tale of love, discovery and scientific daring. Based on Alasdair Gray’s novel of the same name, this is the story of Belle Baxter, a young woman brought back to life by an eccentric but brilliant scientist. Also starring Willem Dafoe, Ramy Youssef, Mark Ruffalo, Jerrod Carmichael and Christopher Abbott.
10) “Bardo” Director: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Alejandro González Iñárritu won back-to-back Best Director Oscars for 2014’s “Birdman” and 2015’s “The Revenant.” Seven years later, he’s back with “Bardo.” Shooting his comeback vehicle in his native Mexico City, with a colossal production, the drama is said to be a political and social statement on Mexico. No further story details have been divulged. Inarritu wrote the film himself and a crew member confirmed that it is being shot in Spanish. The lead actor is said to be played by Daniel Giménez Cacho, with Oscar-nominated Darius Khondji (“Amour,” “Seven,” “Uncut Gems”) hired as Cinematographer.
11) “Armageddon Time” Director: James Gray
“Armageddon Time” comes after Gray’s long-delayed “Ad Astra” finally hit theaters two Septembers ago to positive reviews. This new project will bring Gray back to his native New York. If you remember, Gray’s first 5 movies ( “Little Odessa,” “The Yards,” “We Own the Night,” “Two Lovers,” and “The Immigrant”) were all set in the Big Apple. The film stars Anne Hathaway and Jeremy Strong in “an autobiographical drama about growing up in mid-1980s Queens, New York.” More intriguingly it seems as though Donald Trump and his late father Fred will be one of the characters involved in the story. We all know who Donald is, but his less-famous father Fred was a Queens-based real estate developer who mentored Donald into the eventual real estate mogul that he would become.
12) “Showing Up” Director: Kelly Reichardt
I’m hearing Cannes really wants Kelly Reichardt’s “Showing Up” as part of their 2022 competition lineup. It could happen. IMDB has the plot as being about “an artist on the verge of a career-changing exhibition. As she navigates family, friends, and colleagues in the lead up to her show, the chaos of life becomes the inspiration for great art.” Reichardt regular Michelle Williams has been cast as the lead. After “First Cow,” we’re itching to find out if Reichardt can top what was the best film of her, so far, very impressive career.
13) “Nope” Director: Jordan Peele
I will follow writer-director Jordan Peele whichever direction he chooses to go next in his career. After all, his first two films, “Get Out” and “Us,” weren’t just box-office smashes, but worthy examples of top-tier socially-conscious horror. Peele has already shot his third film, this one, again, will likely be surrounded by an insane amount of secrecy. Even more intriguingly, Peele has enlisted the services of Oscar Nominated DP Hoyte Van Hoytema. It could turn out to be the film that everyone talks about next summer.
14) ”Pinocchio” Director: Guillermo del Toro
After this year’s film noir experiment, “Nightmare Alley,” Del Toro has signed on with Netflix to write, direct, and produce a stop-motion version of his long-time passion project, “Pinocchio.” “The film is a project that del Toro has been painstakingly trying to get off the ground for a decade now, and it looks like he’s found a studio that will give him the sufficient budget to do so. “Adventure Time” writer Patrick McHale is on board to co-write the film with del Toro. Mark Gustafson, who did excellent work on “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” will co-direct alongside del Toro. A holiday season release is inevitable.
15) “White Noise” Director: Noah Baumbach
“White Noise” is now the title for the upcoming Netflix film directed by Noah Baumbach. We already knew that Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig were attached to play the two lead roles in the film, which is an adaptation of a Don DeLillo novel. “White Noise” has been deemed “impossible to film” ever since it was published back in 1985. It is said to be a plotless postmodernist exploration of death, consumerism, and suburban malaise. Dealing with Jack and Babette Gladney, a college professor of “Hitler studies” and his mostly-loving wife, DeLillo’s novel deals with this couple’s social anxieties, but, more specifically, their unabashed fear of death. My take on this project is simple: Trust Baumbach.
16) Canterbury Glass” Director: David O. Russell
David O. Russell’s last film was the 2015 movie, “Joy,” starring Jennifer Lawrence. His comeback vehicle, rumored to be titled “Canterbury Glass,” test-screened a month or so ago and we can confirm the cast includes Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Robert De Niro, Anya Taylor-Joy, Rami Malek, Michael Shannon, Zoe Saldana, Chris Rock, Mike Myers and Taylor Swift. Filming began in January of 2021 and wrapped in March. Plot details remain mum, but IMDB has the following synopsis: “Revolves around a doctor and lawyer who form an unlikely partnership”.
17. “Blonde” Director: Andrew Dominik
Andrew Dominik hasn’t released a movie since 2012’s scathing indictment of America, “Killing Them Softly.” That movie has only aged better over time and whet our appetite for a new film from the New Zealand-born director. Enter “Blonde,” Dominik’s first film in over 8 years and a fictionalized chronicle of the inner life of Marilyn Monroe. The film has received major boosts in the wake of its star, Ana De Armas’, meteoric rise in popularity since the release of her star-making performance in “Knives Out”. And she is no doubt primed to deliver another killer role in Dominik’s re-imagining of one of Hollywood’s first megastars.
18) “The Whale” Director: Darren Aronofsky
The last film Darren Aronofsky directed was the polarizing “Mother!” back in 2017. His rumored return to small-scale filmmaking, with “The Whale,” would mean something along the lines of “Black Swan,” “Requiem For A Dream,” “The Wrestler,” and his 1998 debut film “Pi.” Based on Samuel D. Hunter’s divisive play, “The Whale” stars Brendan Fraser as a 600-hundred-pound recluse hiding away from the world and slowly eating himself to death. Talk about an insane concept.
19) “The Way of the Wind” Director: Terrence Malick
In 2019, Terrence Malick wrapped up shooting his next movie in Rome, this one was originally titled “The Last Planet” and is now called “The Way of the Wind.” The film will reportedly convey passages “in the life of Christ” through thr representation of evangelical parables. The cast includes the likes of Matthias Schoenaerts (as Saint Peter), Géza Röhrig (as Jesus), Ben Kingsley, Joseph Fiennes, and Mark Rylance (as Satan). A Cannes bow this May has been heavily rumored on this site.
20) “Kitbag” Director: Ridley Scott
We haven’t gotten many big studio takes on Napoleon Bonaparte’s outrageous life, which is why I’m excited to see what Ridley Scott will deliver with “Kitbag. What we know about Scott’s epic is that it will be a personal look at the life of Napoleon. The IMDB synopsis claims that it will track his “swift, ruthless climb to emperor through the perspective of his ‘addictive and often volatile’ relationship with Josephine. Joaquin Phoenix will play Napoleon. Jodie Comer will be Josephine.
21) “The Northman” Director: Robert Eggers
After the modestly-budgeted “The Lighthouse,” Robert Eggers’ “The Northman” will surely be a very expensive and bloody Viking adaptation of “Hamlet.” I have been a fan of Eggers’ filmmaking ever since I saw “The Witch” at Sundance more than 7 years ago. “The Northman,” Eggers’ upcoming third film, finished production in early 2021. It stars Nicole Kidman, Alexander Skarsgård, Anya Taylor-Joy, Bill Skarsgård, and Willem Dafoe. A few test screenings have already happened around the country the past year.
22) “Tar” Director: Todd Field
Writer-Director Todd Field hasn’t made a film since “Little Children” (2006) and, before that, his incendiary debut “In the Bedroom” (2001). Whatever happened to him since 2006 is a mystery. Both films garnered eight Oscar nominations in total, the former actor was heralded as a major new voice and then, poof, he was gone. Regardless, Cate Blanchett is set to team up with Field for the filmmaker’s next picture. In it, she stars as world-renowned musician Lydia Tár, who is just days away from recording the symphony that will take her already formidable career to the next heights.
23) “The Banshees Of Inseherin” Director: Martin McDonagh
Over the course of 15 years, director Martin McDonagh has only released three films ( “In Bruges,” “Seven Psychopaths” and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”). “The Banshees of Inisherin” will reunite him with “In Bruges” stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, as well as Oscar Isaac, Sam Rockwell, and Christopher Walken. It’s unclear what the plot of the untitled film from McDonagh will look like, but the fact that it’s already started production means that it’s a cinch for a fall 2022 release.
24) “Decision to Leave” Director: Park Chan-Wook
If you’ve directed “Oldboy,” “The Handmaiden” and “Lady Vengeance” then whatever film you do next should be paid attention to. That’s Park Chan-Wook, whose next film is already confirmed for Cannes 2022 and deals with a detective falling for a mysterious widow after she becomes the prime suspect in his latest murder investigation set in the mountains.
25) “Kimi” Director: Steven Soderbergh
Steven Soderbergh seems to be churning out a film per year ever since coming out of retirement in 2017. His latest, dubbed a mystery thriller, was written by veteran screenwriter David Koepp, and is about an “agoraphobic tech worker that stumbles on some evidence of a violent crime over the course of a routine work project.” Zoe Kravitz stars as the lead with Soderbergh describing the film as essentially a psychological techno-thriller in the same vein as Francis Ford Coppola‘s “The Conversation.” Consider us highly intrigued.
26) “The Batman” Director: Matt Reeves
Principal photography on Matt Reeves’ “The Batman” began in January 2020, but was suspended on March 14th due to the COVID shutdown. Filming eventually resumed on September 3, only to be put on pause again after Robert Pattinson (who plays Batman) tested positive for COVID-19. Filming was finally completed on March 13th, 2021 more than a fully year after it began. RBatz aside, “The Batman” cast also includes Zoë Kravitz as Selina Kyle aka The Catwoman, Paul Danoas Edward Nashton aka The Riddler, and Colin Farrellas Oswald Cobblepot aka The Penguin. The film is said to be a 3-hour film noir.
27) “Men” Director: Alex Garland
Expect twisty sci-fi when it comes to Alex Garland’s “Men.” The writer-director of “Ex-Machina” and “Annihilation” is to reunite with A24 for his latest film. Jessie Buckley (I’m Thinking of Ending Things” is set to play a woman who goes on a solo vacation to the English countryside after the death of her ex-husband. Not much else is known about the film, but the filmmaker has revealed that he was working on a “low-budget horror movie” which was going to be set in the UK. Perhaps it’s “Men.”
28) “Bones and All” Director: Luca Guadagnino
Luca Guadagnino’s latest stars Taylor Russell (Waves) with Timothee Chalamet in a secondary role. The film is said to be a survival tale set in the ‘80s with a Cannibalism component added in for good measure. I know the elephant in the room must be mentioned, and it’s Guadagnino’s last film, the ill-received “Suspiria,” which totally went against the summery, romantic and Italian-set films the director was known for churning before it. “Bones and All” seems to be another Suspiria-type risk.
29) “Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Adventure” Director: Richard Linklater
Here is an animated film heavily influenced by the Richard Linklater’s experience living in Houston during the Apollo 1969 mission. Linklater’s film is told from two perspectives, one of an astronaut and the other of a child that is entranced by the events as he listens to the mission on radio and watches it on TV. The film stars Jack Black and is said to have been painted over in rotoscope animation ala Linklater’s 2001 groundbreaker “Waking Life.”
30) “The Stars at Noon” and “Fire” Director: Claire Denis
Claire Denis will have not one, but two films released in 2022. “Fire,” starring Juliette Binoche and Vincent Lindon, is set to world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in February. Meanwhile, the Margaret Qualley-starring “The Stars at Noon” is aiming for a Cannes debut in May. Both films will likely continue to prove just how important of a presence Denis has been in world cinema since her breakthrough 1988 classic, “Chocolat.”
31) “Women Talking” Director: Sarah Polley
Acclaimed Canadian filmmaker Sarah Polley hasn’t made a film since the acclaimed 2012 documentary “Stories We Tell.”Before then, she had made two powerful original dramas, “Away From Her,” and “Take This Waltz.” Polley finally returns with “Women Talking” and an incredible cast that includes Frances McDormand, Claire Foy, Rooney Mara, Jessie Buckley, and Ben Whishaw. The film centers on an isolated Mennonite religious colony in Bolivia as the women struggle with their faith in God after a string of sexual assaults committed by the colony’s men.
32) “Don’t Worry Darling” Director: Olivia Wilde
In 2020, a studio bidding war occurred to nab Olivia Wilde’s “Don’t Worry Darling. The film was finally sold to New Line. Wilde is coming off her critically acclaimed debut “Booksmart,” a film that was somewhat overpraised by critics upon its release but generated enough buzz for her to realize this dream project. The film is said to be a psychological thriller about a 1950s housewife whose reality begins to crack, revealing a disturbing realization that she is being suppressed. The premise itself sounds intriguing and the relevance of its #TimesUp themes will no doubt be zeroed into upon release.
33) “Triangle of Sadness” Director: Ruben Ostlund
Ruben Ostlund will be returning to Cannes for the first time since premiering his 2017 Palme d’Or winner, “The Square.”His latest, “Triangle of Sadness,” is a dark comedy centering on a fashion model celebrity couple who are invited on a luxury cruise for the super-rich. The yacht –whose captain is a rabid Marxist– sinks, leaving the duo stranded on a desert island with a group of billionaire jetsetters and a cleaning lady.
34) “Elvis” Director: Baz Luhrmann
A test-screening for Baz Luhrmann’s upcoming Elvis biopic occurred last month. Of course, we all knew that “Bohemian Rhapsody” would just kick-start a whirlwind of Hollywood rock biopics. In “Elvis,” Austin Butler plays Elvis Presley. Tom Hanks stars as his manager Colonel Tom Parker. The film has a script by “Fifty Shades of Grey” scribe Kelly Marcel. Luhrmann hasn’t directed a feature-length film since 2013’s “The Great Gatsby.” Before that he had a time-capsule-worthy bomb titled “Australia”? Remember that one?
35) “The Son” Director: Florian Zeller
Hugh Jackman and Laura Dern will star in Florian Zeller’s sophomore effort, after his triumphant Oscar-winning “The Father.” Adapted by Zeller from his own acclaimed stage play, “The Son” focuses on Peter (Jackman), his new life with partner Emma and their baby. Peter’s world is quickly thrown into disarray when his ex-wife (Dern) turns up with their troubled, distant and angry teenage son, Nicholas.
36) “The Master Gardener”Director: Paul Schrader
This one would be way higher if it weren’t for it having not been shot yet. Paul Schrader’s upcoming crime thriller stars Joel Edgerton as Narvel Roth, the gardener of an American estate who is forced to confront his dark past. He panders to his employer, the wealthy dowager (Sigourney Weaver). When she demands that he take on her wayward and troubled great niece, it unlocks dark secrets from a buried violent past. Schrader has been on fire lately with “First Reformed,” and “The Card Counter” — will “The Master Gardener” complete his Bresson trilogy?
37) “3000 Years of Longing” Director: George Miller
It’s been seven years since George Miller gave us “Mad Max: Fury Road,” but before he boards “Mad Max: Wasteland,” Miller will be tackling romance with “Three Thousand Years of Longing.” Starring Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba, plot details have been kept hush-hush, but sources say it will be epic in scope and is said to be a fantasy-romance revolving around a genie.
38) “R.M.N”Director: Cristian Mungiu
Cristian Mungiu has been shooting R.M.N for over a month now, it’s his first film since 2016’s Cannes competition title “Graduation.” Plot details have been kept mum, but even Mungiu himself has hinted on Instagram that the goal is a Cannes 2022 world premiere. Best know for his landmark 2007 abortion drama “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,” we’ll get excited for just about any new film this Romanian filmmaker churns out next, plot details or not.
39) “Tori et Lokita” Director: Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
According to Cineuropa, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (“Rosetta,” L’Enfant”) completed their next film, “Tori et Lokita,” this past summer. The usual no-name actors have been cast in a film expected to tell the story of a friendship between two young people after traveling from Africa and becoming exiled in Belgium. The Brothers’ last film was 2019’s “Young Ahmed,” which almost won the Palme d’Or over Bong Joon-ho’s “Parasite.” A Cannes 2022 premiere is almost inevitable for this one.
40) “The Bubble” Director: Judd Apatow
Shot during the early stages of the pandemic, Judd Apatow’s “The Bubble” follows a group of actors and actresses attempting to complete a film while stuck inside a pandemic bubble at a hotel . The film stars Karen Gillian, Keegan-Michael Key, Leslie Mann and Pedro Pascal. Contribute Hire me
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