New Movies 2026: Notable Picks Worth Tracking This Year

This rundown pulls from mid-year best-of lists and August 2026 release calendars, so it mixes movies already in the conversation with ones arriving soon. Each pick notes what it does well and which temperament should probably skip it, rather than declaring an absolute ranking.

The Odyssey

Christopher Nolan adapts Homer with Matt Damon as Odysseus, threading cyclopes, sirens, and transmutation through seas, cliffs, and castles. Empire praised the film for capturing the epic's fantastical scale in real locations, then landing an emotional gut-punch in the final reel. Skip it if you found Oppenheimer austere or prefer your mythology small and intimate.

Project Hail Mary

Phil Lord and Christopher Miller turn Andy Weir's space saga into a tonal balancing act: sci-fi spectacle, comedy, and full-hearted alien buddy movie. Ryan Gosling plays Ryland Grace, a middle-school science teacher sent to save a dying sun, while the alien Rocky is performed by James Ortiz and a team of puppeteers. AP News noted it is streaming on Prime Video from July 3, so steer clear only if extraterrestrial friendship irritates you.

Tony

Matt Johnson directs this biographical comedy-drama drawn from Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential, with Dominic Sessa playing the aspiring writer at nineteen during a summer in a Cape Cod restaurant. Emilia Jones, Antonio Banderas, and Leo Woodall also star; Screen Rant reports a limited release on August 7 and a wider expansion on August 21. Those already saturated with kitchen-table coming-of-age stories may want to wait.

Colony

Yeon Sang-ho returns with a South Korean action-horror set at a biotech conference where a mutating virus turns attendees into unpredictable zombies. Jun Ji-hyun stars as a biotechnology professor trying to keep survivors moving; Screen Rant lists the US theatrical release as August 28. Avoid if shaky outbreak chaos and rapidly shifting monster rules fray your patience.

Insidious: Out of the Further

The sixth Insidious film is a direct sequel to The Red Door, following Gemma (Amelia Eve), a young mother who discovers she can enter the Further and bring lost souls back. Brandon Perea, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, and Lin Shaye fill out a cast aimed at longtime franchise devotees. If astral-plane mythology no longer frightens you, this is an easy pass.

Coyote vs. ACME

Dave Green's live-action and animated comedy is finally seeing release in August 2026 after Ketchup Entertainment rescued it from Warner Bros.'s earlier shelving. Will Forte plays a washed-up billboard attorney representing Wile E. Coyote in a lawsuit against ACME, opposite John Cena as the company's intimidating lawyer. The premise is pure Looney Tunes absurdity, so anyone allergic to cartoon slapstick framed as legal satire should keep walking.

The Dog Stars

Ridley Scott's The Dog Stars lands in August with a stacked ensemble: Jacob Elordi, Margaret Qualley, Allison Janney, Guy Pearce, Benedict Wong, and Josh Brolin. Early trailers suggest a gritty, dark tone that JustWatch flagged as a possible early awards-circuit contender. Pass if you are looking for Scott in full-scale spectacle mode rather than grounded, brooding character drama.

Obsession

Curry Barker's horror spins the monkey-paw premise into a nightmare about obsession and consent, starring Michael Johnston as a young man whose wish for his crush's devotion backfires spectacularly. Empire praised it as an instant classic unafraid to go hard, with Inde Navarette delivering a standout turn. If you dislike body-horror-adjacent relationship dread, look elsewhere.