“Black Widow” (Director: Cate Shortland)
Marvel’s femme fatale spy returns for one more swansong in “B Widow.” Wait, didn’t ex-Russian assassin and spy Natasha Romanoff (Scarlet Johansson) sacrifice herself in “Avengers: Endgame”? Yes, but this prequel, set after the events of ‘Civil War’ when all the heroes were fugitives from the law, finds the Black Widow, on the run, and coming face to face with her dark past as a trained killer. Florence Pugh David Harbour and Rachel Weisz play her old Russian pals, O-T Fagbenle is the Taskmaster villain and William Hurt and Ray Winstone co-star. Shortland has only directed small indies up until this point (the psychological thriller “Berlin Syndrome,” being the closest thing to something like this movie), but clearly Marvel believes in her and is willing to make this big bet on her first step up to the plate. ‘Widow’ arrives May 1, 2020. – RP
“Candyman” (Director: Nia DaCosta)
Thank God for Jordan Peele, whose love of classic horror shines through not only in his work as a director, but in his choices as a producer. The upcoming “Candyman” is easily the best example of this. A project via Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions, with a script by Peele and Win Rosenfeld (executive producer, “BlacKkKlansman”), “Candyman” is a sequel to the 1992 classic of the same name, which tackles issues of race and class in Chicago’s Cabrini-Green public housing development. But while the leads of that film were white and its villain black, this “Candyman” envisions a predominantly black cast in now-gentrified Cabrini-Green. Nia DaCosta, whose feature debut “Little Woods” was scooped up by Neon after the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival, directs Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (“Us,” “The Get Down”), Teyonah Parris (“If Beale Street Could Talk,” “Dear White People”), and Tony Todd (reprising his role as the Candyman). It’s difficult to imagine a universe in which this won’t be completely awesome, and it’s great to see Peele select a black female director to take over such a high-profile project. Get ready to scream on June 12 when Universal gives this one a wide release.
“Mulan” (Director: Niki Caro)
After a slew of lowkey projects (most recently the Jessica Chastain-led “The Zookeeper’s Wife”), “Whale Rider” director is stepping up to the big-budget plate to helm Disney’s live-action “Mulan” remake. Easily the most kick-ass of all the O.G. Disney women, Mulan (for those of you in a Rumplestiltsken-esque slumber for the last 20 years) follows a young Chinese woman as she goes to war posed as a man. The similarities end there, though, as this reboot marks a major departure for the original storyline and for Caro’s career, yielding an action-packed war drama tragically devoid of talking dragon Eddie Murphy. After the runaway success of “Crazy Rich Asians” and years of audiences calling for better racial representation in cinema, the “Mulan” cast is teeming with Chinese talent: Liu Yifei plays our lead, alongside Donnie Yen (“Rogue One”), Jason Scott Lee (“Seventh Son”), and Yoson An (“Mortal Engines”). Get ready for this one to break the box office on March 27. –LW
“Wonder Woman 1984” (Director: Patty Jenkins)
Fast-forwarding nearly 70 years into the future from the events of WWI depicted in 2017’s “Wonder Woman,” Gal Gadot and director Patty Jenkins team up for the totally radical, 80s-set “Wonder Woman 1984.” Not that much is known about the plot, nor how or why Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) is back, given he died in the original film. Not only that, Trevor, like the Amazonian warrior goddess Diana, hasn’t aged a day since 1918. Clearly, there’s some ‘splaining to do. This much we know, Kristen Wiig plays the villain Cheetah, Pedro Pascal plays the evil business magnate Maxwell Lord, and Robin Wright, Connie Nielsen, Natasha Rothwell, Ravi Patel, Gabriella Wilde, Kristoffer Polaha and Amr Waked all have roles in the movie. Deeply ailing at the time, Jenkins rescued DC/Warner Bros with the original “Wonder Woman” and this colorful, seemingly more playful sequel, sure hopes to repeat the entertaining formula when it arrives June 5, 2020. – RP
“Shirley” (Director: Josephine Decker)
A psychological drama starring Elisabeth Moss and Michael Stuhlbarg, prolific indie filmmaker Josephine Decker (“Madeline’s Madeline”) returns with “Shirley,”about famed horror author Shirley Jackson and her Bennington College professor husband. Logan Lerman and Odessa Young play a young couple that moves in with the eccentric older couple in the hope of starting a new life but instead find themselves fodder for a psycho-drama that inspires Shirley’s next novel. Based on the novel by Susan Scarf Merrell, Decker is perhaps picking up the thread where Miranda July left off when she was active (though, coincidentally enough, she returns this year): evocative, ethereal movies with an experimental bent that always challenges the conventions of narrative. We’ll expect nothing less this time out when it debuts at Sundance in January and then presumably comes out later this year when a distributor is found. – RP
“Never Rarely Sometimes Always” (Director: Eliza Hittman)
After Eliza Hittman won the Directing Award at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival for her low-fi gay coming-of-age film “Beach Rats,” she pretty much had carte blanche to do whatever she wanted. And thus her next project, “Never Rarely Sometimes Always,” a film about two teenage girls traveling from rural Pennsylvania to New York City to find an abortion clinic, was born. With austere cinematography from “Beach Rats” camerawoman Hélène Louvart and minimalist performances from newcomers Sidney Flanigan and Talia Ryder, this is shaping up to recapture the uniquely dour, adolescent enchantment of “Beach Rats.” And luckily we won’t have to wait long to see it – Focus Features has already bought “Never Rarely Sometimes Always” before it’s even hit the festival, and the film is slated for a March 13 release. –LW
Honorable Mention
Well, for one check our Most Anticipated Films of 2020 feature, there’s honestly a lot of overlap, but there’s probably a few picks that might not have crossed over. Obviously, there’s more than just 52 women making film in the world and if we knew the schedule for Tribeca, Cannes, TIFF, Venice, Telluride and more we could probably add at least another 50 names to the list (one hopes), but then it wouldn’t have that fun #52FilmsByWomen hashtag would it. Speaking of the SXSW Film Festival was announced in the middle of completing this list so a lot of good picks there couldn’t be squeezed in. But let’s shout out a few we’re looking forward to. Emma Seligman‘s “Shiva Baby” sounds terrific, as does Angel Kristi Williams‘ “Really Love,” Celine Held & Logan George’s “Topside,” to name just a few. Sundance is teeming with female directors too, Shana Feste (‘Country Strong”) has a thriller in the midnight section, “Run Sweetheart Run,” Ekwa Msangi‘s “Farewell Amor,” and Phyllida Lloyd‘s “Herself,” just to name just a few. The great journeywoman and Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland has “Charlatan” arriving sometimes this year and while we love Aussie filmmaker Jennifer Kent, the filmmaker behind “The Babadook” and the brutal, but underrated, “The Nightingale,” her next film, the so-called, lesbian murder thriller “Alice + Freda Forever,” it doesn’t appear that casting is even in place yet, so it sounds more like a 2021 film at this point. Regardless, lots to anticipate, lots to watch.
