Unbelievable. One year ago on this very day, Films Fatale launched. We started things off right away, by celebrating 2018’s finest films, and predicting 2019’s possible greatest works. Thank you all so much for sticking around an entire 365 days with us. Seeing as it is January 1st, we must not let our guard down. We have to keep going. It’s time to look forward. Let’s cut to the chase. Here are ten of our most anticipated films of 2020, in alphabetical order.

Dune

After David Lynch made his only bad film, and Alejandro Jodorowsky never got to complete his version, it’s time to see if Denis Villeneuve can break the Dune curse, with his own version. Seeing as Villeneuve has yet to make a bad film, perhaps Dune 2020 can be the one to break the spell, and fulfill the dreams of literary fanatics after decades of waiting.

Ema

We missed Pablo Larrain’s Ema at the Toronto International Film Festival, and we await its international theatrical distribution. Larrain is an expert at visceral, captivating filmmaking. After No, Neruda, and his opus Jackie, his take on the complications of adoption in his familial hyper drama seem highly intriguing.

Last Night in Soho

We love the Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy (it’s one of the better mainstream trilogies out there) and all of its silliness, but we’re also glad Edgar Wright is out of the confinements of this loosely-linked series. After Baby Driver, we saw what capabilities he had within genre films. Last Night in Soho is his stab on the psychological horror genre, and we have to see what scary Wright looks like.

The Last Thing He Wanted

Sundance will premiere Dee Rees’s upcoming political thriller, and it’s about time we see something new from this promising filmmaker. We placed this film on our anticipated works of 2018, for crying out loud! We’re ready. Featuring a star studded cast (Anne Hathaway, Willem Dafoe, Ben Affleck to name a few), The Last Thing He Wanted is a split story between the 1984 Reagan election, and a character’s need to tend to a family emergency. Sign us up now!

Mulan

I know. I know. Between this being the next-in-line of Disney’s conveyer belt of live action regurgitations, and the political controversy surrounding Liu Yifei, putting Mulan here may turn some heads. Hear us out. It’ll be so refreshing to see a live action take that deviates from being a carbon copy of Disney’s cartoon, plus Niki Caro’s wuxia angle leads us to believe that Mulan is capable of being the best film in Disney’s recent lineup.

Rocks

After Brick Lane and Suffragette, it’s easy to be excited for Sarah Gavron’s next film. Having missed out on this film at TIFF as well, Rocks will luckily be out soon, in April. Focusing on the struggles of a young girl that needs to be the guardian for her sibling after their mother leaves home, I can only imagine how Gavron approaches the topic. This will be a heavy film, folks.

Soul

Considering Inside Out is one of the strongest Pixar films (let’s also not forget Up), who wouldn’t want to know what Pete Docter’s return to the big screen would look like? We have an abstract concept in Soul, with the film surrounding the inner spirits of people, rather than the people themselves. I’m hoping for some more boundary pushing by Pixar’s most exciting filmmaker.

TENET

Christopher Nolan is able to have art film nerds and common movie goers in the same room time after time. TENET is his take on an espionage thriller (wait, so what was Inception?), and the promotional work is already grabbing us by the necks. Although these trailers may give away a little too much already (we have our theories we will keep to ourselves), if our predictions are right, we can’t wait to see how Nolan will pull off something this gargantuan.

Untitled Paul Thomas Anderson Project

We know very little about Paul Thomas Anderson’s upcoming film, outside of it being 1) a period piece (duh, excluding Magnolia and Punch Drunk Love), 2) set in California (also duh, excluding Phantom Thread), and 3) set around a child star in high school. The last time we were this in the dark about a PTA film this early in the year, we got The Master. The other time, we knew a bit more (Daniel Day-Lewis would star in some film), and we got Phantom Thread. We know nothing, but we’re still strapping in for this one.

Wendy

Finally, Benh Zeitlin is going to return after Beasts of the Southern Wild (eight years later). Even though the story of Peter Pan has been run into the ground, it’ll be interesting to see what magic Zeitlin can toss in to make this version a little bit more different. Plus, we must find out what else he has in store for us; was he a one-hit-wonder, or a master director that works slowly?

Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.

10 Anticipated Films of 2020