The Invite to The Odyssey: 12 of the best films of 2026 so far

BBC film critics Caryn James and Nicholas Barber pick their cinema highlights of the year – from Christopher Nolan's epic blockbuster to a farcical sex comedy.

The Invite is a rarity: a US comedy aimed at grown-ups. Based on a Spanish film, which was in turn based on the writer-director's own stage play, it features just four characters in one apartment during one evening. Seth Rogen and Olivia Wilde (the film's director) play an unhappily married couple; Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton are the loved-up neighbours who drop in for dinner. The contrast between the bickering hosts and their laidback guests makes for a hilariously awkward farce, but the screenplay, by Will McCormack and Rashida Jones, is genuinely moving when it lays bare the characters' wounds and resentments. All four actors are superb (Cruz has never been more magnetic), and Wilde proves herself to be a master of tone and pacing. If Oscar-voters can get over their aversion to comedies, The Invite should be a contender. (NB)

The long wait, amid a torrent of hype, was worth it. This beguiling, epic adaptation of Homer's centuries-old poem is pure Christopher Nolan, whose characteristic style is everywhere – from the morally challenged hero to the non-linear narrative and the rare way he builds stunning action-adventure on top of a script far more thoughtful than most Hollywood blockbusters. As Odysseus, Matt Damon is at his intelligent best, with a natural, modern delivery that makes the king relatable and sympathetic. The other major stars, including Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Tom Holland and Zendaya, fit eloquently into the story. And as Odysseus journeys home to Ithaca from the Trojan War, Nolan uses IMAX cameras to make every episode feel immersive and intimate, whether the scene is as large-scale and volatile as the battle in Troy or as cramped as the table where the witch Circe turns Odysseus's soldiers into pigs. Although Nolan's film is filled with magic – visual and thematic – it also leaves viewers with a timely social theme: that civic duty, governance and moral choices intertwine. That issue is as old as Homer and, as this enthralling and layered film suggests, worth remembering today. (CJ)

What if someone remade Back to the Future, but its main characters were Bill and Ted from Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, and it had the guerrilla feel of Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat? OK, so it's not a question that many people have asked, but the answer is Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, a ludicrously inventive, proudly Canadian comedy written by and starring Matt Johnson (who also directs) and Jay McCarrol (who composes the music). They have taken footage they shot in 2008, and new footage shot on (and above) the streets of Toronto, and woven it all into a fast-moving adventure about two buffoonish, would-be superstars who accidentally travel back in time. It's one of the year's daftest films, but also a sincere love letter to their home city and a heartfelt tribute to long-term friendship. (NB)

This entirely delightful hybrid of live action and CGI animation has a story suitable and engaging for children and a wit and cleverness that make it just as captivating for adults. Hugh Jackman departs the film early as George, a kind shepherd who reads mystery novels to his flock every night. When he is murdered, the sheep, steeped in all those detective stories, set out to track the clues and find their beloved George's killer. The human cast is deft and game, notably Nicholas Braun as the bumbling police officer in the village and Emma Thompson as a high-powered city lawyer. But the sheep steal the film, with their distinct, often childlike qualities. Julia Louis-Dreyfus gives a heartbreakingly tender performance as the voice of Lily, George's favourite and the smartest of the flock. Other sheep standouts are Chris O'Dowd as Lily's loyal best friend, Bryan Cranston as a battle-scarred veteran and Brett Goldstein as twin rams. A comic romp and an affectionate twist on cosy mysteries, this gem is one of the year's sweetest, best surprises. (CJ)

In 2002, director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland helped to revive the zombie-apocalypse sub-genre with 28 Days Later. In 2025, they did it again with 28 Years Later. Amazingly, this sequel to the latter is even better. Scripted by Garland, with Nia DaCosta taking over as director, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple delivers all of the gore and terror you want from a zombie film, but it's wonderfully idiosyncratic, too. It constructs its own elaborate folk-horror mythos; features the unlikely buddy-comedy pairing of a kindly mad scientist (Ralph Fiennes) and a hulking cannibal (Chi Lewis-Parry); and it's uncompromisingly British in its references, from its cheeky use of Duran Duran and Iron Maiden songs to its unforgettable villain (Jack O'Connell), a cult leader inspired by notorious television presenter and sex offender Jimmy Savile. An eccentric masterpiece. (NB)

Set in Nigeria in 1993, Akinola Davies's film about a father and his two small sons is eloquent, warm and fiercely honest as it moves gracefully from the personal to the political. Sope Dirisu gives a quiet, strong, immensely moving performance as the father, who spends most of his time away working to support the family. With pitch-perfect intimacy, the story follows him through a single day as he takes his sons along to Lagos, where they go to his workplace and he tries to get the money he's owed. Their day gradually reveals the tumultuous backdrop of the presidential election, the results of which are nullified by a military dictatorship. The director and his brother, Wale Davies, wrote the film loosely based on their childhood memories, but its achievement goes beyond that. Winner of the Bafta for outstanding British debut, it stunningly captures the bold colours of Lagos. Its sophisticated narrative gives us the children's perspective. But it also lets us see the father's concern and the danger all around, with militia on the streets, which we understand far better than the boys do. There is not a false step, right through to the film's heartbreaking coda. (CJ)

Pixar returns to form with a focused, fizzily energetic cartoon based on a conceit as old as big-screen animation itself: talking animals. The heroine of Hoppers, Mabel (voiced by Piper Curda), is an admirably tough and determined schoolgirl who has her mind "hopped" into a robotic beaver, a procedure which somehow allows her to understand animals' conversations (just go with it). She uses this fantastic ability to rally her furry friends against a corrupt mayor (Jon Hamm), but what happens when they go too far? Parents beware: Daniel Chong's film has nightmarish elements towards the end, but overall it's a sharply plotted, gloriously silly adventure that everyone can enjoy. It also has the kind of frank environmental message which live-action blockbusters tend to avoid. (NB)

Emerald Fennell's fearless reinvention of Emily Brontë's 1847 novel is not for Brontë purists, but it is an exhilarating take on the book and a striking example of Fennell's typical artistry and daring. Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi are fiery as Cathy and Heathcliff, the classic lovers made for each other but separated by class. Their connection is at once frankly sexual, romantic and caustic in the cruelty they often display toward each other. With that cruelty, Fennell restores the vehemence often overlooked in Brontë adaptations. Departing from prettified period pieces, the film's visual style is an enticing kaleidoscope of colour and fashion. Fennell drops in some comic moments, and at times dares to be over the top (Heathcliff on horseback, Elordi's bad wig flying in the wind) but its excesses are a small price to pay for such ambition. However much Fennell toys with the details – and why not? the book still exists – she captures the essential enduring passion of Wuthering Heights and its class-bound time. (CJ)

Project Hail Mary is an unusual science-fiction blockbuster in that it's mostly about people using their brains to solve problems. Yes, one of those people is an alien made out of rocks, and, yes, there's an action-packed space-walking set piece, but the film's main concerns, for over two-and-a-half hours, are knowledge, discussion and painstaking research. Does that approach sound a bit dry and academic? If so, rest assured that Project Hail Mary is touching and inspiring – and surprisingly fun. Adapted from a novel by Andy Weir, the author of The Martian, it's directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who take a complicated, potentially bleak narrative and make it as fast-paced and cheerful as their animated hit The Lego Movie. Meanwhile, Ryan Gosling brings all of his goofball charm to the role of an amnesiac biologist who is trying to save the world. (NB)

This bracing drama from the acclaimed Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa is set in 1937, during the height of Stalin's purges of his political enemies, and it wilfully echoes the creeping authoritarianism of today. The hero is Kornyev, an idealistic young Soviet lawyer, who receives a clandestine message written in blood from a political prisoner: the old man wants to reveal the torture he and so many others have been subjected to. The film unfolds with eerie calm and the feel of a low-boil thriller as Kornyev visits the prisoner and tries to circumvent the corrupt prison administrators and his own bosses to expose the injustice, naively believing that is still possible. Loznitsa, whose career includes documentaries and features, brings a master's eye to this visceral, harrowing story. As Kornyev spends time in the prison warden's austere waiting room, the scene conveys the claustrophobia and fear of the period. That is just the start of a tense, increasingly Kafkaesque journey that captures the inescapable, everyday grip of a dictatorship. (CJ)

Gus Van Sant's blackly comic thriller tells the stranger-than-fiction true story of Tony Kiritsis, an Indianapolis man who kidnaps the mortgage broker he blames for his financial woes. Kiritsis then becomes a minor celebrity by phoning a local radio station to update listeners on his state of mind. The media circus and the 1970s setting are reminiscent of Sidney Lumet's 1975 classic, Dog Day Afternoon, which could be why that film's star, Al Pacino, has a small role. But Dead Man's Wire is carried by Bill Skarsgård, who is terrific as the shotgun-wielding kidnapper. He adds farcical humour and pathos to a nerve-racking situation, but it's left to the viewer to decide who to sympathise with – Kiritsis or his traumatised hostage (Dacre Montgomery). (NB)

Zendaya and Robert Pattinson in a romcom as an engaged couple, Emma and Charlie, would have been fun in itself. But Kristoffer Borgli's wilfully provocative dramedy takes a sharp detour away from its charming early stages when Emma reveals a dark secret to Charlie a week before the wedding. This high-wire act of a film might not have worked with less charismatic and deft stars, but these two navigate the changes in tone beautifully. Zendaya gives Emma a touching sincerity and Pattinson makes Charlie's jumpy nerves thoroughly understandable when he begins to wonder, not without reason, if he is about to marry a sociopath. Even before the film's release, the details of Emma's confession caused a backlash, with claims that the film trivialises a deadly-serious issue. But the film's characters are aware of just how serious it is; they wouldn't be so horrified otherwise. Intentionally or not, this is a rare film that stands as both an example of sheer Hollywood star power and a thought-provoking comment on a troubling, hot-button issue. (CJ)

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