An epic of Lean-ian proportions is delivered in this spectacular from director and co-writer Sam Mendes, who has developed a real-life story of heroism involving his grandfather, the novelist Alfred Mendes, and his first world war experiences on the western front in 1917.

10 January (All details marked are UK release dates)

A key event in the ongoing #MeToo movement is the case of TV executive, Republican media consultant and serial abuser Roger Ailes. This movie tells the story of three women at Fox News, played by Margot Robbie, Charlize Theron and Nicole Kidman, who set out to expose him for sexual harassment.

17 January

A much acclaimed portrait of an African-American family in Florida trying to stay together. Kelvin Harrison Jr plays Tyler, a teenager struggling under the fierce expectations of his demanding father, played by Sterling K Brown, while pursuing a relationship with Emily, a girl in his class played by Alexa Demi. The ensemble playing has been praised, as has the bold non-linear storytelling style.

17 January

Suited and booted … Dev Patel in The Personal History of David Copperfield. Photograph: Allstar

Armando Iannucci brings his masterly satirical touch to this classic, working with co-writer Simon Blackwell and bringing in a diverse cast headed by Dev Patel to tap into Charles Dickens’ humanity, optimism and fun.

24 January

Tom Hanks stars in this heartwarmer about the children’s TV star Fred Rogers – a legend in the US, though little known in the UK – who presented an afternoon show called Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood and was America’s answer to John Noakes, John Craven and Tony Hart all rolled into one.

31 January

For the followup to his much-admired chiller The Witch, Robert Eggers delivers a brutal, gripping nightmare. Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson give sledgehammer performances as two lighthouse-keepers on a remote island going slowly and then quickly mad.

31 January

Predators … Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite. Photograph: 2019 CJ ENM Corporation, Barunson E&A

South Korean film-maker Bong Joon-ho won the Cannes Palme d’Or for this satirical gem. It’s an invasion of the lifestyle snatchers about a wealthy family who hire live-in servants without realising that they are all one family, a cuckoo-in-the-nest gang of predators planning to take over.

7 February

A superbly elegant, enigmatic period drama from French film-maker Céline Sciamma. Adèle Haenel plays an 18th-century young noblewoman whose mother hires her a “companion”, Marianne (Noémie Merlant), without revealing that she is an artist who has been commissioned to paint a secret portrait of her young mistress. A tense relationship develops.

28 February

Gaby Chiappe and Rebecca Frayn are the screenwriters for this comedy about the 1970 Miss World competition in which Miss Grenada (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) won and, under controversial and chaotic circumstances, became the first black winner. Greg Kinnear plays the host, Bob Hope, horrified by a flour-throwing protest from feminist campaigners.

13 March

Sensation … The Perfect Candidate. Photograph: Razor Film

Saudi film-maker Haifaa al-Mansour comes from a country in which there are very few women working in cinema – or anywhere – so this is a personal project for her. It’s the story of a female doctor who causes a sensation by making a successful run for office in the local municipal elections.

13 March

Daniel Craig hangs up his Beretta, his tux and sky-blue swimming briefs and bows out as Bond. Veteran 007 screenwriters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade have teamed up with Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge for what is purportedly a funny, savvy last hurrah for Craig.

3 April

Screenwriters Theresa Ikoko and Claire Wilson and director Sarah Gavron team up to create a joyful film: a social realist adventure about a bunch of Year 11 girls at an east London secondary school. Newcomer Bukky Bakray is a Nigerian-British girl who has to look after her kid brother when her mum goes awol. There’s a rush of energy and creativity in this film.

10 April

Taking centre stage … Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow. Photograph: Marvel Studios

Cate Shortland, who made the great Australian film Somersault, takes the helm of this superhero movie, in which Black Widow from Avengers takes centre stage. Scarlett Johansson returns in the title role.

1 May

Possibly the strangest film of the year, from French film-maker, musician and DJ Quentin Dupieux, AKA Mr Oizo. Jean Dujardin stars as a serial killer who is obsessed with his vintage 60s deerskin jacket.

8 May

Wonder Woman 1984

This is another superheroine instalment in the DC Extended Universe, and features Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman in the 1980s who comes up against a new foe: Cheetah, an evil British archaeologist played by Kristen Wiig.

5 June

Whoever it is you were gonna call, you’d better call ’em again. This new Ghostbusters returns to the classic all-male template, in effect a sequel to Ghostbusters 2, with such veterans as Bill Murray and Sigourney Weaver reprising their roles and Jason (son of Ivan) Reitman directing.

10 July

Back on the bike … Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick. Photograph: YouTube

Still speedy, still needy, still eerily boyish, Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell returns – the US Navy pilot played by Tom Cruise who could be piloting a desk by now but is still a badass warrior of the skies. Jennifer Connelly is now Tom’s love interest, a mere nine years his junior.

17 July

Last Night in Soho

One of Britain’s brightest movie talents, Edgar Wright, returns with a psychological London horror avowedly in the classic style of Nicolas Roeg, set in the glamorous and seedy world of swinging 60s London and co-written with Krysty Wilson-Cairns (who also co-scripted 1917).

18 September

The Trial of the Chicago 7

Renowned screenwriter and director Aaron Sorkin has created a comic crime thriller based around the story of the Chicago Seven — the counterculture protesters charged with conspiracy to riot. Sorkin is famed for his machine-gun dialogue, so a fast-talking defence of the seven could be on offer.

25 September

Mean streets … Michael Gandolfini, right, on set filming The Many Saints of Newark. Photograph: Startraks Photo/Rex/Shutterstock

David Chase has co-written a movie follow-up to his iconic HBO series The Sopranos, featuring Michael Gandolfini as the young Tony Soprano – Michael being the son of the late James Gandolfini who played the New Jersey crime boss on the small screen. But who will play the ruthless matriarch Livia?

25 September

Chloé Zhao is the film-maker lauded for her tough docu-realist picture The Rider. This couldn’t be more different. It’s a Marvel superhero film about a mighty race of aliens, featuring Angelina Jolie, Richard Madden and Gemma Chan.

6 November

Another adaptation of the classic sci-fi novel by Frank Herbert. It takes some chutzpah to take on a story last adapted by David Lynch, but this is what Denis Villeneuve has done – having already shown he has the sci-fi chops with his films Arrival and Blade Runner 2049. Oscar Isaac, Timothée Chalamet and Rebecca Ferguson star.

20 November

West Side Story

Steven Spielberg takes on the classic with its immortal Leonard Bernstein score … but will it follow the Broadway revival in dropping the song I Feel Pretty? Ansel Elgort and Rachel Zegler are the star-crossed lovers Tony and Maria.

18 December

News of the World

Paul Greengrass’s latest film is based on the western novel by Paulette Jiles about a young girl returning to her family in 1860s Texas after being kidnapped by the Kiowa tribe. Helena Zengel plays the girl, Johanna, and Tom Hanks plays the man who must look after her: Captain Kidd, an army veteran who makes a living reading newspapers to illiterate townsfolk and who is now in the middle of a very big news story.

25 December

Antebellum

Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz make their feature debut with this much-hyped new supernatural horror starring Janelle Monáe, with a story set both in a slave plantation and also in the present day. It’s a satirical chiller which could be in the same vein as Get Out.

Spring

An intriguingly Fowlesian story is on offer from writer-director Francis Lee (the author of God’s Own Country): in Victorian Britain, Mary Anning (Kate Winslet) is a geologist and fossil hunter who has fallen on hard times, and when a rich tourist asks her to look after his wife (Saoirse Ronan), a complex relationship ensues.

To be confirmed

It has to be one of the film world’s most unusual sequels, as well as one of the quickest to follow its original. Joanna Hogg has delivered a followup to her hugely admired autobiographical film about a young woman who wants to be a film-maker and falls into a destructive relationship. Honor Swinton Byrne and Tilda Swinton reprise their original roles.

To be confirmed

Found in La Mancha … Adam Driver and Jonathan Pryce in The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. Photograph: Allstar/Amazon Studios

For three decades, Terry Gilliam’s epically delayed attempt to make a film version of Don Quixote has been one of the great what-ifs and whens of film history, an ordeal of bad luck, wrecked sets and lost funding that has outlived two of the actors cast: John Hurt and Jean Rochefort. Now it is finally made, with Jonathan Pryce in the lead.

To be confirmed

Annette

The wild man of French cinema is back. Leos Carax (who made the freaky Holy Motors, with Denis Lavant and Kylie Minogue) has now attempted a musical, starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard as a comedian and singer whose daughter has a special gift. Tunes come from the 70s band Sparks.

To be confirmed

Let Them All Talk

Meryl Streep stars as a celebrated author in this film from Steven Soderbergh who takes a journey down memory lane with some old friends; Lucas Hedges is the nephew who gets involved with a literary agent played by Gemma Chan.

To be confirmed

Festival audiences have been traumatised by this harrowing, three-hour black-and-white movie from Czech director Václav Marhoul, based on the 1965 Jerzy Kosiński novel about the horrors of war-torn eastern Europe. Not for the faint-hearted.

To be confirmed

Supernova

Stanley Tucci and Colin Firth star as Tusker and Sam, life partners travelling across Britain in a camper van to see old friends and family members, their quest made bittersweet by the fact that one has early onset dementia.

To be confirmed