Now, Toronto Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, and New York Film Festival are coming up, around this time of the year, we start to see some Oscar contenders, so we decided to pick Top 3 movies that we expected to see this year.

Abe Friedtanzer

1. Dune
2. West Side Story
3. Parallel Mothers

2021 has been a year of mostly avoiding big movies and just a few (recent) trips to the movie theater for me. The hope is that all that will change with two high-profile, big-budget blockbusters that couldn’t be more different. I remember reading Frank Herbert’s book Dune back when I read books at the rate I watch movies now, and I’m not sure there’s a better fit to take on directing duties for the sci-fi epic than Denis Villeneuve, who has already done well with the genre in smaller productions like Enemy and Arrival. Similarly, Steven Spielberg has made so many films over the course of his career, and the idea of him remaking West Side Story is truly appealing.

Plus, the musicals that have come out this year, like In the Heights, Vivo, and Annette, have all been well worth watching, and they don’t have the classic music that comes from the tried-and-tried Broadway musical and Best Picture-winning 1961 film adaptation. And then there’s something of a different nature, which is Pedro Almodovar’s latest. Its poster is certainly sensational enough, and I’m reminded of some of his less prominent works, like Broken Embraces and Julieta, that show just how talented and creative this auteur really is. I can’t wait to see what he does next.

Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi 

1. The Last duel
2. The French Dispatch
3. Downton Abbey 2

Ridley Scott has always embraced cinematic challenges, as proven by the way he reshot in haste, but effectively, All The Money In The World. As someone who is fond of period films, I’m excited to see his The Last Duel, with Jodie Comer, that conquered me in Killing Eve, and whom I enjoyed in Free Guy. I look forward to watching her in Edwardian robes, alongside Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. The French Dispatch wowed audiences in Cannes and, as an avid reader of The New Yorker Magazine, I can’t wait to see Wes Anderson’s “love letter to journalists,” in his star-studded cast. I’m a sucker for anything connected to the U.K. and was literally addicted to the Downton Abbey television series, and was tickled pink by the acerbic wit of the first film. I’m eager for the return of Maggie Smith’s Lady Violet!

Karen Banardello 

1. Halloween Kills
2. Dear Evan Hansen
3. Nightmare Alley

Some of this fall’s most anticipated movies will surely engage audiences through their extreme conflicts, no matter how isolated the protagonists may end up feeling from their families and peers as a result. Halloween Kills will force Jamie Lee Curtis’ detached final girl, Laurie Strode, and her estranged daughter and granddaughter to stop the masked serial killer, Michael Myers, once again after they trapped him in a fire at the end of its predecessor, 2018’s Halloween. Ben Platt is reprising his Tony Award-winning titular role in the screen adaptation of the hit Broadway musical, Dear Evan Hansen, which follows the withdrawn high school student as he gets caught in a complicated lie after one of his classmates commits suicide. Nightmare Alley is a psychological thriller that stars Bradley Cooper as Stan Carlisle, an ambitious carny with a talent for manipulating people, who falls prey to Cate Blanchett’s Dr.

Lilith Ritter, a psychiatrist who’s even more dangerous. While not many people are forced to confront their deadly nemesis or their social anxieties through a tragedy in their community, audiences will surely feel engaged in the ways the main characters of these three films overcome their feelings of isolation through their intense emotional journeys.

Karen Butler 

1. The French Dispatch
2. The Many Saints of Newwark
3. Ghostbusters : Afterlife

Wes Anderson is my favorite filmmaker working today, so I cannot wait to see The French Dispatch, his uniquely rose-colored view of hard-working journalists. The comedy brings back regulars from the Anderson oeuvre — Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Liev Schreiber, Edward Norton, Willem Dafoe and Saoirse Ronan — and enlists several other immensely talented stars like Benicio Del Toro, Timothee Chalamet and Jeffrey Wright to help tell Anderson’s latest quirky story. As a huge fan of both the superb HBO mob drama, The Sopranos, and the iconic supernatural comedy, Ghostbusters, I am excited to see how these worlds will be expanded in new movies beyond the riveting characters and memorable settings that are already seared into our collective consciousness.

Matthew Schuchuman

1. The Last Night in Soho
2. The French Dispatch
3. Lamb

I’m the type of person who tries not to get too excited about upcoming releases. I honestly do my best to avoid trailers, news, mentions of pretty much anything I see. The less I know before seeing a film, the better. That doesn’t mean there is nothing out there I am waiting to see. As a stout Edgar Wright supporter, I of course cannot wait for Last Night in Soho to drop. Same goes for Wes Anderson, I’ve been following the man since Bottle Rocket and it would be really nice to have a break from all the madness in the world right now with a quick trip through the wondrous world of Wes. And, as much as I try to stay blind to things coming out, I have caught wind of A24’s Lamb and I am thoroughly intrigued.

Nobuhiro Hosoki

1. Dune
2. Ghostbusters : Afterlife
3. Gift of Fire

The special drama “Gift of Fire” commemorating the 75th anniversary of the end of the war has appeared on the screen this time as a Japan-US collaboration movie. Against the backdrop of the development of the atomic bomb, the anguish and youth of young people who are at the mercy of the times are depicted from a different angle than the drama. The lead is Yuya Yagira. In addition, Haruma Miura and Kasumi Arimura are listed as co-stars. Haruma Miura’s untimely death, makes it more endearing to us. The movie “Ghostbusters : “Afterlife, which depicts scholars struggling to exterminate ghosts in New York, is revived after more than 30 years.

Ivan Reitman, who was directed previous two films, is passed down the torch to his son, Jason Reitman, the film is set to follow the original’s film perspective, which sounds great. The movie “DUNE” is a magnificent action-adventure that depicts the fate of the main character, Paul, and the turmoil of the space world, set in the sand-covered planet “Dune.” I am simply curious to see how the vast works of Frank Herbert were captured in the movie by a visionary director like Denis Villeneuve.