Cinematic Highlights for Autumn 2018

The remainder of 2018 has some real cinematic delights in store, with stories and styles to cater for every audience. In the lead-up to Christmas, there are Halloween treats, festive favourites, genre thrills and independent productions, plus much more.

Much-anticipated blockbuster titles include Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald, the Harry Potter spin-off sequel starring Into Film ambassador Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander, set to be released on 16 November. Ralph Breaks the Internet, the sequel to hit animation Wreck-it Ralph, arrives on 30 November, and is set to include characters from Disney, Pixar and Marvel films, among others. And a follow-up 54 years in the making enters cinemas just before Christmas, with Emily Blunt taking on the iconic eponymous role of the magical nanny in Mary Poppins Returns on 21 December.

Elsewhere, Johnny English Strikes Again (5 October), Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween (12 October), Bohemian Rhapsody (26 October) and The Grinch (9 November) all look to draw in mass audiences with their appeals to fans of spy films, horror, music and animation respectively. And while the remainder of September boasts releases such as The Little Stranger, Faces Places and Skate Kitchen to enjoy, here we look a little further ahead to highlight six equally exciting titles which cater to Into Film audiences of different ages in the lead-up to Christmas.

A Star is Born

Release Date: 5 October
Age Rating: 15 (14+)

There have been several versions of this story since its original release in 1937, with the likes of Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand taking on the lead performance in subsequent incarnations. In the most recent remake - which is actor Bradley Cooper's directorial debut - music icon Lady Gaga takes on the starring role of Ally, an aspiring singer and actress mentored by an aging musician whose own alcoholism begins to take its toll. The film received rave reviews upon premiering at Venice Film Festival, and is set to be a major contender in the upcoming awards season at the start of 2019.

First Man

Release Date: 12 October
Age Rating: TBC - expected 12 (11+)

Another film which made a positive debut in Venice and may well make a splash during the BAFTAs and Academy Awards is Damien Chazelle's latest film, tracking the extraordinary space mission which resulted in Neil Armstrong becoming the first man to walk on the Moon in 1969. The Whiplash and La La Land director re-teams with Ryan Gosling, who plays Armstrong, with Claire Foy cast in the role of his wife Janet. We've been spoiled with a glut of terrific space movies in recent years - Gravity, Interstellar and The Martian to name just a few - so let's hope First Man can follow this high standard.

Mirai

Release Date: 2 November
Age Rating: TBC - expected PG (7+)

Popular anime films of recent years include Your Name, A Silent Voice and Mary and the Witch's Flower, with individuals and studios keen to fill the big shoes left vacant by the dissolution of Studio Ghibli. Director Mamoru Hosoda (The Boy and the Beast, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time) tells the story of a 4 year-old boy who is struggling to adjust to the arrival of his new baby sister when, one day, he stumbles upon a magical garden which allows him to travel through time, meeting relatives from different eras on his adventures.

The Workshop

Release Date: 16 November
Age Rating: 15 (16+)

Laurent Cantet, director of the stimulating docu-drama The Class, returns to similar subjects in this provocative French language story, co-written by 120 BPM (Beats Per Minute) filmmaker Robin Campillo. The Workshop follows a group of seven young people who attend a summer writing retreat aimed at helping to integrate them into the world of work. Mentored by a well-known novelist, the group are asked to each create a work of fiction linked to the industrial past of their hometown. But when one boy's story becomes increasingly disturbing - recounting a mass murder through the eyes of the perpetrator - he begins to clash with his peers.

Shoplifters

Release Date: 23 November
Age Rating: TBC - expected 12A (14+)

Previewing for free in locations around the UK as part of our Into Film Festival, this Japanese drama from acclaimed director Hirokazu Koreeda (Our Little Sister) won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. Featured within our Mental Wellbeing strand, the film adopts a slightly darker tone than the filmmaker's previous titles, focusing on a Tokyo-based family who supplement their part-time jobs by stealing from local businesses, simply to make ends meet. But when they take in a young girl out of the cold, their close bonds are disrupted and their challenging pasts are revealed in this ethically complex story.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Release Date: 14 December
Age Rating: TBC - expected PG (7+)

There have been numerous film versions of the web-slinging superhero, especially in recent years, from the Tobey Maguire-led trilogy around the turn of the century to the reboot starring Andrew Garfield, and most recently Tom Holland's take on the story, set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe (a follow-up to Spider-Man: Homecoming - titled Spider-Man: Far From Home - is set to arrive in cinemas in July 2019). Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse attempts to differentiate itself from its predecessors, being an animation that plays to younger audiences than its blockbuster relatives. With a star-studded voice cast, the film sees Spider-Man team up with Spider-Men of alternative dimensions to protect the universe.