Showroom Cinema selects five top films to look forward to in 2023

The end of 2022 brought lots of presents for film fans of all persuasions. British independent cinema felt extremely vibrant with wonderful successes including Aftersun and The Banshees of Inisherin and for the family and blockbuster fans, James Cameron’s 13 years in the making Avatar: The Way of Water took film technology and spectacle to a new level.

As we look ahead to 2023, there are already many films to be excited for. January and February are dominated by awards season big-hitters ahead of the Academy Awards in March. Steven Spielberg’sis an early favourite at the bookmakers for the Best Picture award. His career as one of Hollywood’s most successful directors is far from over with a remake of Bullitt on the horizon, but the semi-autobiographical tale of his journey into the film industry feels like something of a victory lap in the late period of his career.

The Oscars have typically enjoyed rewarding films about Hollywood and this in 2023, they’re spoiled for choice. Many directors have leaned towards self-reflection and nostalgia for the big screen post-COVID with Spielberg’s offering joined by a flurry of films about film including Sam Mendes’ Empire of Light and Damien Chazelle’s Babylon, a Gatsby-esque epic exploration of the excess of Hollywood in the 1920s with an all-star cast led by Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt.

Big favourites for performance awards trophies are Cate Blanchett’s tour-de-force performance as the titular composer in Todd Field’s and Brendan Fraser’s leading role in Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale, which saw him receive a five-minute standing ovation at the London Film Festival.

Outside of the awards, cerebral science looks to feature heavily in 2023 with Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, Bong Joon-Ho’s Mickey 17 and Denis Villeneuve’s Dune II all on the horizon. Elsewhere, Martin Scorsese returns with the epic Killers of the Flower Moon, an exciting prospect for many reasons, including that his pet actors Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio both feature. Steven Soderbergh concludes his Magic Mike trilogy with Magic Mike’s Last Dance, which promises a 30-minute long spectacular musical finale. Greta Gerwig’s Barbie has been setting social media on fire ever since it was announced and the inspired casting of Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling as Barbie and Ken is something that we can’t wait to see.

With all of this and so much more to come, 2023 looks to be another very strong year for cinema.

Tickets for Empire of Light, Tár, Babylon, The Fabelmans and The Whale are now on sale.

This article first featured in the Sheffield Telegraph on Thursday 29 December 2022.