We look forward to the best films of 2008 and 2009

The Baftas have passed. The Oscars are over. And Daniel Day-Lewis isn’t working. So what’s there to look forward to? Well, judging by this list, quite a lot. As Cannes fast approaches, Time Out’s critics anticipate the most exciting films currently in production

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British
Terence Davies’
‘Of Time and the City’
The director of ‘Distant Voices, Still Lives’ is making this autobiographical documentary as part of a scheme linked to Capital of Culture year in Liverpool, his home city.

Julian Jarrold’s
‘Brideshead Revisited’
The big-screen adaptation of Evelyn Waugh’s 1945 novel about a family of aristocratic Catholics sees Ben Whishaw as Sebastian, Hayley Atwell as his sister Julia and Matthew Goode as the outsider who falls under the siblings’ spell. Much was filmed at Castle Howard, chief location of the celebrated 1981 ITV adaptation.

Saul Dibb’s
‘The Duchess’
Keira Knightley plays Georgiana, the notorious eighteenth-century Duchess of Devonshire in this adaptation of Amanda Foreman’s biography, from the director of ‘Bullet Boy’.

John Maybury’s
‘The Edge of Love’
The director of ‘Love is the Devil’ directs Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller in this film about the love life of poet Dylan Thomas (Matthew Rhys).

Steve McQueen’s
‘Hunger’
The Turner Prize-winning artist turns his hand to the story of Bobby Sands, who died on hunger strike in 1981.

Michael Winterbottom’s
‘Genova’
The British director shot this grief-tinged ghost story in Italy last summer. Written by Laurence Coriat (‘Wonderland’), it stars Colin Firth
and Catherine Keener.


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American
Darren Aronofsky’s
‘The Wrestler’
Following ‘The Fountain’, the director of ‘Pi’ will direct Mickey Rourke as a deadbeat pugilist making ends meet on the wrestling circuit.

The Coen brothers’
‘Burn After Reading’
The Coens return to a lighter, glossier vein with this comedy drama about a missing CIA memoir. George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Tilda Swinton star.

Jim Jarmusch’s
‘The Limits of Control’
Jim Jarmusch’s latest reunites Bill Murray and Tilda Swinton in an offbeat crime caper partly set in Spain.

Charlie Kaufman’s
‘Synecdoche, New York’
The directorial debut of the ‘Being John Malkovich’ screenwriter, this boasts a typically bizarre scenario: as his life falls apart, a New York director constructs a life-size mock-up version of the city in a local warehouse. Philip Seymour Hoffman is the lead.

Spike Lee’s
‘Miracle at St Anna’
Set in Italy during World War II, this focuses on four black infantry soldiers trapped in a Tuscan village.

Kelly Reichardt’s
‘Train Choir’
‘Train Choir’ is the upcoming movie from Kelly Reichardt, who melted hearts with 2006’s splendid ‘Old Joy’.

Gus Van Sant’s
‘Milk’
Sean Penn plays Harvey Milk, the gay politician who was assassinated in San Francisco in 1978. Is the director of ‘Elephant’ and ‘Paranoid Park’ moving on from the fractured, intimate style of those teen stories?

The Wachowski Brothers’
‘Speed Racer’
The brothers’ first since the ‘Matrix’ films adapts a Japanese cartoon series from the 1960s about a young racing car driver.


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European
Laurent Cantet’s
‘Between the Walls’
A school-based drama set in those troubled Parisian banlieux, directed by Laurent Cantet (‘Time Out’, ‘Heading South’) and starring French TV anchorman, ex-rockstar, Cahiers du cinéma critic and prize-winning author François Bégaudeau.

The Dardenne brothers’
‘The Silence of Lorna’
If, as expected, the Belgian brothers’ new film screens at Cannes in May, they’ll be chasing their third Palme d’Or after ‘Rosetta’ and ‘L’Enfant’.

Claire Denis’
‘White Material’/‘35 Rhums’
Not one, but two new films are en route from superlative French filmmaker Claire Denis: the first, ‘White Material’ stars Isabelle Huppert and is set on a coffee plantation in Cameroon, while the second, ‘35 Rhums’ is about a widower (Alex Descas) bringing up his child alone.

Srdjan Dragojevic’s
‘St George Shoots the Dragon’
The upcoming film from Serbian director, Srdjan Dragojevic (‘Pretty Village, Pretty Flame’) is another war drama, this time WWI.

Agnès Jaoui’s
‘Parlez-moi de la Pluie’
Agnès Jaoui’s third film is an urbane comedy of middle-class manners in a similar mould to her delightful previous films, ‘Comme une Image’ and ‘Le Goût des Autres’.

Abbas Kiarostami’s
‘The Certified Copy’
A rare excursion outside of his native Iran, Abbas Kiarostami’s ‘The Certified Copy’ tells of the relationship between a French gallery owner and an elder novelist as they travel the Tuscan countryside. Juliette Binoche is the gallerist, Sami Frey the writer.

Lukas Moodysson’s
‘Mammoth’
The first foray into international filmmaking from the Swedish director of ‘Lilya-4-Ever’ and ‘Together’ stars Michelle Williams and Gael García Bernal. The plot – American tourist in Thailand; family back home with Filipino maid; maid’s Filipino family are missing her – sounds like ‘Babel’.

Jerzy Skolimowski’s
‘Four Nights with Anna’
It’s been 25 years since Jerzy Skolimowski introduced the Polish plumber into British cinema with ‘Moonlighting’. Could this do the same for crematorium workers?

Paolo Sorrentino’s
‘Il Divo’
Julius Caesar’s nickname gives the title to the latest from the director of ‘The Consequences of Love’ – a film about seven-times PM Giulio Andreotti.

Bertrand Tavernier’s
‘In the Electric Mist’
Tommy Lee Jones heads the cast of this Louisiana-set adaptation of the James Lee Burke novel.

Tom Tykwer’s
‘The International’
The title is also a good description of the origins of its cast – including Brit Clive Owen, Australian Naomi Watts and German Armin Mueller-Stahl. This sees Owen’s Interpol agent investigate allegations of arms dealing and murder among the top echelons of our premier banking institutions.

Wim Wenders’
‘Shooting In Palermo’
Billed as a romantic thriller about a photographer (played by German rock star Campino) fleeing to Palermo from Berlin when his life falls apart, Wim Wenders’ new movie was shot in the Sicilian capital last October. With his recent output decidedly mixed, the pairing of Wenders and Dennis Hopper, star of ‘The American Friend’, maybe suggests a return to the bold, cool control of his early work.


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Latin American
Guillermo Arriaga’s
‘The Burning Plain’
The ‘Babel’ screenwriter directs his own screenplay, which sees Charlize Theron coming to terms with her difficult relationship with her mother (Kim Basinger).

Walter Salles’
‘Linha de Passe’
Walter Salles’ first film since ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’ (we're discounting the dreadful American horror, 'Dark Water') was shot in São Paulo and is about four brothers from a poor Brazilian family.

Fernando Meirelles’
‘Blindness’
‘The Constant Gardener’ director returns home to direct a version of the Portuguese novelist José Saramago’s ‘unfilmable’ 1990s novel. Another ‘Diving Bell…’?

Carlos Cuarón’s
‘Rudo y Cursi’
Reuniting ‘Y Tu Mamá También’ stars Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna, this Mexican comedy drama is about the rivalry between two professional football-playing bothers. Director Carlos is joined by his brother Alfonso (who produces here), with whom he wrote ‘Y Tu Mama Tambien’.

Steven Soderbergh’s
‘Guerilla’ and ‘The Argentine’
Now to be known as ‘doing an Eastwood’, Steven Soderbergh deals with the life of Che Guevara over two films. Starring Benicio del Toro as Che.


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Middle Eastern
Siddiq Barmak’s
‘Opium War’
The follow-up to ‘Osama’ (2003), this Afghan drama revolves around two US soldiers who encounter a farmer who has been driven to farming opium.

Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s
‘Day Dreams’
The Turkish auteur behind ‘Uzak’ and ‘Climates’ returns with a new film, which, if previous form is anything to go by, will most likely deal with male alienation in some form.


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Far Eastern
Hirokazu Kore-eda’s
‘Even If You Walk and Walk’
His samurai drama ‘Hana’, the last film from this sublime Japanese director, wasn’t released here – we’re hoping his latest bucks the trend.

Hayao Miyazaki’s
‘Ponyo on the Cliff’
Japanese master animator Hayao Miyazaki weaves his magic (with watercolours) on the story of a goldfish who wants to be human.

Barbet Schroeder’s
‘Inju’
Barbet Schroeder accompanies French leading man Benoît Magimel to Japan for ‘Inju’, which looks to be a return to themes explored in 1976’s ‘Maîtresse’.

Tran Ang Hung’s
‘I Come With the Rain’
The Vietnamese director of ‘The Scent of Green Papaya’, for his first English-language film, enlists Josh Hartnett to find a billionaire’s son in Hong Kong.

John Woo’s
‘Red Cliff’
Hollywood action maestro John Woo heads home for this historical epic.

Jia Zhangke’s
‘The Story of 24 City’
The latest from China’s greatest contemporary chronicler delves into three decades of his country’s past and is set in the 1950s, ’70s and the present as three women escape collectivisation in search of their ‘individual’ destinies.

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