Short Cut: The Must-Watch Movies For 2025

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If this year has proven anything, it’s that cinema is so back. After years of reboots, sequel films and epic adaptations, studio executives are seemingly prioritising stirring original content again—much to the delight of Letterbox users around the world.

As we head into awards season, we’re reminded of the ambitious endeavours and inspiring films produced by the emerging and established cast of creatives dominating Hollywood. (Halina Reijn’s Babygirl! Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley’s double billing in The Substance! Sean Baker’s Palme D’Or-winning modern Cinderella story Anora!)

And while we’ll continue to toast these feats well into the new year at ceremonies like the annual Academy Awards, there’s no better time to take stock and see what’s on the slate for the next twelve months. While you catch up on the Oscar buzz films over the festive break, it’s worthwhile looking ahead to the upcoming new releases bound to pique your interest.

From conclusions to beloved franchises to reimagining of classic fables, keep scrolling below for GRAZIA’s guide to the must-watch movies you have to see in 2025.

The Most Anticipated Film Releases For 2025

Nosferatu

Lily-Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult and Bill Skarsgård go face-to-fang in Nosferatu, a haunting reimaging of the 1922 German Expressionist silent film of the same name. In Robert Eggers’ contemporary rendition, the film leans further away from the source material, Bram Stoker’s 1897 gothic novel Dracula, into something more horrifying and rooted in Transylvanian folklore. In a true possession horror, Depp is caught in the enthralling dominion of Skarsgård’s Count Orlok, a creature of the night who becomes obsessed with her. In his crazed infatuation, the undead predator unleashes a reign of terror and nightmare.

Release Date: January 1

Companion

“From the moment we locked eyes, there was just…a spark,” says Sophie Thatcher’s Iris to Jack Quaid’s Josh in a new twisted love story. From the studio that delivered The Notebook and the brains behind the monstrous thriller The Barbarian, Companion arrives in the new year as a psychological horror that defies the romance genre into something altogether frightening. How far would you go for a bad date?

Release Date: January 9

A Complete Unknown

Timothée Chalamet is electric as the freewheelin’ Bob Dylan in James Gold’s biopic A Complete Unknown. Charting his meteoric rise as a drifting vega bond turned folk luminary and ultimately music deity, Chalamet gives a performance of his lifetime capturing the essence of an overnight sensation who refuses to be dictated to. Chapters of Dylan’s early days unfold with stirring supporting roles from Monica Barbaro, who plays music legend Joan Baez, and Elle Fanning, who portrays a fictionalised version of Dylan’s first girlfriend and muse, Suze Rotolo.

Release Date: January 23

We Live In Time

A warranted reminder of life’s cruel fleetingness, Academy Award nominees Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh are dynamic in the ultimate modern love story, We Live In Time. Chronicling the relationship of their on-screen counterparts, Tobias and Almut, from meet-cute to domestic partnership and parenthood, their romance gives new significance to the phrase “in sickness and health”. Taking place over a decade and following a non-linear storyline, this is one film you’ll want to bring tissues for.

Release Date: January 23

Maria

Angelina Jolie returns to the spotlight in a considered portrait of the opera’s original diva, Greek-American soprano Maria Callas. The biopic is the finalé in Pablo Larraín’s trilogy of films centred on rich and misunderstood women. In Maria, the Chilean director focuses on Callas’ final years in 1970s Paris. Away from the stage and mostly in solitude, Jolie paints a picture of a fierce icon who must face her life as someone who once commanded an audience but is now delivering their swan song.

Release Date: January 30

Babygirl

In this highly-anticipated erotic thriller, one that won Nicole Kidman the ‘Best Actress’ award at the 2024 Venice Film Festival, carnal desire rises to the top as the central crux of a film described as an explosion of seduction. Written and directed by Halina Reijn in her sophomore English-language film, Babygirl follows Kidman as a high-powered CEO who becomes entangled in an affair with her much younger intern, portrayed by British upstart Harris Dickinson. With sex scenes Kidman characterises as being so guttural it almost caused her to burn out while filming, this release is not for the faint of heart. (Or NSFW, either).

Release Date: January 30

Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy

Everyone’s favourite diarist Bridget Jones, played by the incomparable Renée Zellweger, returns for the fourth and final chapter, Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy. After finding her happily ever after with Mr. Darcy (Colin Firth), an unexpected tragedy plops Bridget back into the dating pool. As this isn’t the turn of the millennium anymore, romance is unlike anything she’s ever experienced. But from the sea of eligible bachelors available on dating apps come two unlikely suitors. Enter: the dangerously handsome and much younger Roxster, played by Leo Woodall, and former childhood sweetheart turned her children’s school teacher Mr. Wallaker, portrayed by Chiwetel Ejiofor. With Hugh Grant and Emma Thompson reprising their roles, this epilogue is the perfect Valentine’s Day treat.

Release Date: February 13

Snow White

Rachel Zegler is the fairest of them all in Disney’s long-awaited live-action adaptation of the classic animation, Snow White. After several delays and controversies, the beloved fairytale comes to life with more definition, a modern feel and new original music.

Release Date: March 20

Mickey 17

Parasite and Snowpiercer director, Bong Joon-Ho, returns with his latest science-fiction, Mickey 17. Based on a 2022 novel by Edward Ashton, Robert Pattinson leads the production as the titular character, a pseudo soldier who is signed up as an “expendable” during a space colonial mission. Given that the Korean director’s works often scratch beneath the surface, we can expect this film to tackle themes of technological advancement and the calamity of governmental intervention over bodily autonomy, but with a campy, black comedy edge.

Release Date: April 18

Thunderbolts*

In the biggest superhero crossover since the Avengers series, Marvel forges a new supergroup with Thunderbolts*, a group of anti-heroes who band up to go on missions for the American government. Starring Florence Pugh, David Harbour, Sebastian Stan and Wyatt Russell among others, the next phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is off to a blast.

Release Date: May 1

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning

illed as a legendary send-off to Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning picks up after the literal cliffhanger ending of the franchise’s seventh instalment. With the fictional spy coming off the back of an action-packed mission that took him from the Arabian Desert to Abu Dhabi to Rome and Venice, there’s no telling where this film will go. Well, perhaps 40,000 feet in the air to another adventurous dive like the base jump from a motorcycle he undertook in the big stunt sequence in the penultimate film.

Release Date: May 22

Brad has a need for speed in Warner Bros. Pictures and Apple Original Films’ blockbuster sports drama, F1. Motorsports has firmly cemented its place in the cultural zeitgeist thanks to shows like Netflix’s Drive to Survive and the performances of athletes like Lewis Hamilton. Now, the actor will take audiences from the paddock to the pit stops and into the driver’s seats in a fictional story of a former champion who comes out of retirement to mentor a rookie prodigy. Think: Moneyball meets Ford v Ferrari.

Release Date: June 26

The Fantastic Four: First Steps

In what will be Marvel’s first-ever adaption of the cult-favourite Fantastic Four series, the film’s cast, Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Ben Grimm /The Thing), Joseph Quinn (Johnny Storm / Human Torch), Vanessa Kirby as (Sue Storm / Invisible Woman) and Pedro Pascal as (Reed Richards / Mister Fantastic) takes us to a 1960s-inspired retro-futuristic Earth to tell us about their titular first steps as a supergroup. With appearances from Robert Downey Jr. as Dr. Doom and Julia Garner as the Silver Surfer, except this one to dominate theatres come its July release date.

Release Date: July 24

Freakier Friday

Time to go back to the 2000s with Freakier Friday. In this already beloved sequel, Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan reprise their roles as Tess and Anna in this campy body-swap comedy. Oh, and relive your childhood crush with Chad Michael Murray returning to the film, too.

Release Date: August 7

Bugonia

The dynamic trio of Yorgos Lanthimos, Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons returns with a new take on the 2003 South Korean film Save the Green Planet! by Jang Joon-hwan. The English-language remake, Bugonia, will see a conspiracy-obsessed Plemons kidnap the high-powered CEO of a major company after becoming convinced that she is an alien intent on destroying planet Earth. If you loved the Texas native as his incel role-play gamer character in Black Mirror’s “USS Callister”, we can bet you’ll love this one too. Not much about the film has been revealed, though its speculated Stone has shaved her head for the role. We’re buzzing with excitement.

Release Date: November 6

The Running Man

After wrangling tornados alongside Daisy Edgar-Jones, stealing Sydney Sweeney’s heart and taking to the skies with Tom Cruise and Miles Teller, Glen Powell has found his next role in Edgar Wright’s remake of The Running Man. The original 1987 action film saw Arnold Schwarzenegger star as a criminal “runner” starring on a television show where they must escape death at the hands of professional killers. With the Baby Driver and Hot Fuzz director at the helm, we’re anticipating this one to be a raucous affair irrespective of the thrilling material.

Release Date: November 20

Wicked: Part Two

Prepare to look to the Western skies in Jon M. Chu’s epic conclusion to the world’s highest-grossing. movie musical. With Wicked: Part One already taking the culture by storm, we suggest blasting the soundtrack and continue heading to the theatres till we find out exactly what went down before Dorothy blew in. As Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande reprise their roles, we’ll hold space for this release.

Release Date: November 21

topics: film, Film News, Nosferatu, Lily Rose Depp, Nicholas Hoult, Companion, Sophie Thatcher, Jack Quaid, A Complete Unknown, timothee chalamet, Elle Fanning, Monica Barbaro, We Live In Time, Florence Pugh, Andrew Garfield, Maria, Angelina Jolie, Babygirl, Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson, Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, Renee Zellweger, Leo Woodalll, Snow White, Rachel Zegler, Mickey 17, Robert Pattinson, F1, Brad Pitt, Wicked, Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo

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