The 10 best films to see in cinemas this winter

Stanley Kubrick’s Napoleon is generally reckoned to be the best film never made – the American director planned to shoot it after 2001: A Space Odyssey, but the budget was so enormous he never got beyond writing a screenplay, scouting locations and securing a commitment from the Romanian army to lend him 40,000 soldiers for the battle scenes. Which brings us to Ridley Scott’s two and a half hour 2023 version. Joaquin Phoenix takes the title role in a film which follows the French leader through six pivotal battles. Vanessa Kirby plays the Empress Josephine and there are roles for Rupert Everett (as the Duke of Wellington) and Guilt’s Mark Bonnar as fellow general Jean-Andoche Junot. November 22

Anthony Hopkins in One Life (Image: unknown)

One Life

This debut feature from veteran TV director James Hawes assembles a stellar cast to tell the story of Nicholas Winton, who helped rescue nearly 700 Jewish children from Czechoslovakia on the eve of the Second World War. Anthony Hopkins is Winton alongside Helena Bonham-Carter, Jonathan Pryce, the great Lena Olin, a regular in Ingmar Bergman’s later films, and Johnny Flynn as the young Winton. January 5

Saltburn

This second feature from actress-turned-writer-turned-director Emerald Fennell stars Rosamund Pike, Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi and Richard E Grant in a psychological thriller dished up with more than a dash of black comedy. Elordi, soon to be seen playing Elvis Presley in Sofia Coppola’s upcoming biopic Priscilla, is flamboyant, glamorous and aristocratic Oxford University student Felix Catton. Keoghan is fellow student Oliver Quick, who’s drawn into Felix’s world like a moth to a flame – or like a Charles Ryder to a Sebastian Flyte, if you want the obvious Brideshead Revisited reference. Grant and Pike play Felix’s parents, Sir James and Lady Catton, owners of the family pile – Saltburn. November 17

The Eternal Daughter

Following their collaborations on The Souvenir and its sequel, British filmmaker Joanna Hogg and actor Tilda Swinton reunite for another intense study of mother-daughter dynamics, this time in a film described as a Gothic mystery thriller. Swinton plays both middle-aged filmmaker Julie and her mother Rosalind, and the set-up has the two of them relocating to a fog-drowned hotel in the middle of nowhere to grieve the death of Julie’s father/Rosalind’s husband. November 24

Timothee Chalamet as Willy Wonka in Wonka (Image: unknown)

Wonka

Timothée Chalamet picks up where first Gene Wilder and then Johnny Depp left off in bringing Roald Dahl’s eccentric (and not always nice) chocolatier to the big screen. In this version from Paul King, director of Paddington and Paddington 2, we’re presented with a sort of origin story as we follow young Willy as he dreams of opening his own confectionery shop. Paddington stars Hugh Grant and Sally Hawkins join the fun, as do Peep Show alumni Paterson Joseph, Olivia Colman and Isy Suttie. Elsewhere there are parts for Matt Lucas, Jim Carter and (drum roll, please) Mr Bean himself, Rowan Atkinson. December 8

Femme

Billed as a drag queen revenge drama, this debut feature from Sam H Freeman and Ng Choon Ping builds on their BAFTA-nominated short of the same name but replaces its stars – Paapa Essiedu and Harris Dickinson – with Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and Sunshine On Leith’s George McKay. Stewart-Jarrett is drag queen Jules, victim of a homophobic attack by closeted Preston (McKay). When they meet up again with Jules unrecognisable in his civvies (sort of: they’re in a gay sauna), he exacts his revenge. December 1

Priscilla (Image: unknown)

Priscilla

Using Priscilla Presley’s 1985 memoir as her guide, acclaimed director Sofia Coppola returns to the themes of 2006 hit Maria Antoinette – a young woman thrown into an alien environment – for a take on the well-trodden Elvis story as viewed from the other side of the marital bed. Covering a period from the late 1950s to the early 1970s, it stars relative unknowns Cailee Spaeny and Jacob Elordi in the lead roles. January 5

Next Goal Wins

Jojo Rabbit director Taiki Waititi teams up with Michael Fassbender, Elisabeth Moss and a cast of largely Samoan and/or Maori actors for this adaptation of the Netflix documentary of the same name. Made by British pair Mike Brett and Steve Jamison, it told the story of the American Samoa football team as they sought to salvage their pride after a 31-0 skelping by Australia by hiring Dutch-American coach Thomas Rongen to get them to the World Cup Finals. Fassbender is Rongen. December 26

The Three Musketeers: Milady

No matter if you missed the first instalment in this two-part French epic, released in April. All you need to know is there are fine horses, finer hats and swordplay aplenty as a cast of Gallic A-Listers pull out all the stops and then some. Top of the billing are Vincent Cassels, Roman Durris and Pio Marmara as Ethos, Arabis and Porth’s respectively, while the role of the dashing Tartaraghan goes to Call My Agent’s François Civil. Eva Green plays Milady de Winter and there’s also room for current art-house darling Vicky Kreps, who’s able to speak French on screen for once. En grade! December 15

Tina Fey in Mean Girls (Image: unknown)

Mean Girls

Saturday Night Live comedian and 30 Rock creator Tina Fey has made a good living out of Mean Girls. She wrote the original 2004 high-school-is-savage comedy which starred Lindsay Lohan (remember her?) as newbie Clady Heron, then updated the story for Broadway in 2017, adding songs. And now to mark the 20th anniversary here’s a movie version of the stage show, with Bangour Rice as Clady and René App as Regina George, chief mean girl of the title (Rachel McAdams in the original). Replacing Liz Caplin’s Janis is Beaulieu Carvalho and Raquel Spiney comes in as her gay best friend Damien. What’s not to like? January 17