Top films coming out in 2025

Lily-Rose Depp in the 2025 film Nosferatu

(Image credit: Focus Features)

published 27 December 2024

There are lots of movies to look forward to in 2025, including sequels and fresh new reels. Bridget Jones is set for a fourth outing, Cillian Murphy will reprise "28 Days Later" and Pixar is bringing out a new film about a "self-confessed wannabe alien abductee".

Nosferatu

Restoring "mystery and magic to the concept of an undead bloodsucker", "Nosferatu" is a remake of F.W. Murnau's 1922 silent classic, which was based on Bram Stoker's "Dracula", said BBC Culture. Written and directed by Robert Eggers, it stars Lily-Rose Depp and Nicholas Hoult. Bill Skarsgård (who is also returning as It the clown in a new TV series next year) will play the "horrible old vampire". Those oh-so familiar "vampire clichés" are absent and it's shot like an "arthouse period drama" with costumes and props appropriate for the 19th-century setting, "spectacular outdoor scenes" shot in the Czech Republic and Romania, and some indoor scenes "illuminated only by candlelight". It is, however, still a Dracula film, so "familiar things keep happening to familiar characters", and while it's less scary than sad it still has its "share of gruesome shocks". Not many Dracula films "give you so much to sink your teeth into".

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On 5 September 1972, 11 Israeli athletes were taken hostage at the Munich Olympics and then shot by Black September, a Palestinian militant organisation. Director Tim Fehlbaum retells the story through the eyes of the ABC Sports team as they "scramble to follow the tragedy" and in the process write "the rules of capturing a terrorist attack live on air", said Esquire. "We thought it would be interesting to take a step back, look at the first time a crisis like this was on live television, and reflect on how we consume media today," said Fehlbaum. Starring Peter Sarsgaard, it is however "more of a white-knuckled journalism thriller than a deep look into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict".

The fourth in the series featuring "loveable everywoman" Bridget Jones is "hotly anticipated", said Tatler. In line with the book, Bridget, played by Renée Zellweger, is "alone again" following – spoiler alert – her husband Mark's death. Balancing the demands of her career and bringing up two children, the "only area she's neglecting" is her love life. In store are "plenty of laughs" alongside "more touching moments".

Its planned release was delayed by the Hollywood writers' strike, but the "antihero biopic" looks to be "worth the wait", said London's Evening Standard. Florence Pugh's ex-Black Widow Yelena Belova finds her father Red Guardian Alexei Shostakov, played by David Harbour, "living in squalor". Both "depressed about what their lives have become" they set about changing things, with the help of a "group of misfits" from across the "Marvel multiverse".

The title of the eighth "Mission: Impossible" film suggests "it might be Tom Cruise's final mission", said The Guardian. Its budget of $400 million (£314 million) makes it the fourth most expensive film ever. "The Final Reckoning" follows on from 2023's "Dead Reckoning" and sees the return of Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Angela Bassett and Vanessa Kirby, joined by Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff and Hannah Waddingham. As Ethan Hunt, Cruise is "up against a dangerous AI program", The Entity, which "seems to predict his every move" and if it falls "into the wrong hands" could be disastrous, said Variety. He discovers The Entity is "stashed aboard" an old Russian submarine, but there's a "foe from Ethan's past" on its trail too…

"Expectations have been set sky high" for Pixar's latest offering after the success of their "highest-grossing animated film of all time", 2024's "Inside Out 2", said Empire. The "legendary animation studio" has aimed high with the narrative of "Elio", a "self-confessed wannabe alien abductee" who is "swept off to an interplanetary organisation's HQ" to discover who he is and how he fits into the universe. The hook "feels fresh" and visually the film evokes "expressive elasticity" and "intricately detailed world-building" of past Pixar offerings

Twenty-three years on, Cillian Murphy is to reprise his "28 Days Later" lead role in this "highly anticipated sequel" to the 2002 zombie tale, said Metro. Among other cast members are "some of Hollywood's biggest names" including Jodie Comer and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. No plot details have been released but Danny Boyle is back in the director's seat and the production is believed to have been filmed on iPhone.

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Adrienne Wyper has been a freelance sub-editor and writer for The Week's website and magazine since 2015. As a travel and lifestyle journalist, she has also written and edited for other titles including BBC Countryfile, British Travel Journal, Coast, Country Living, Country Walking, Good Housekeeping, The Independent, The Lady and Woman’s Own.