After a rather staggering October when it comes to new releases, November continues the trend, delivering my favorite film of the year, a concert doc for the ages, a number of stellar international offerings, Sundance’s top award winners, and more. There will also be a number of films getting one-week, qualifying runs this month, but we’ll save highlighting those for their proper theatrical releases next year.
15. zi (kogonada; Nov. 6)
Following his lovely debut Columbus and strange, stirring sci-fi tale After Yang, Kogonada entered the big-budget filmmaking arena with A Big Bold Beautiful Journey, a misguided romantic fantasy that, despite having its heart in the right place, failed to connect. In an attempt to create something more spontaneous and free from complex studio logistics, he ventured to Hong Kong with just a few of his closest collaborators to shoot a new film off the cuff and in secret. I said in my Sundance review, “Not a return to form so much as a diversion into purely instinct-based experimentation, the resulting zi feels different from anything he’s made before, a free-flowing fount of passions and fears examining both the past slipping away and an uncertain future, while also doubling as a poetic city symphony. While not fully engaging on a narrative level, the project at least demonstrates Kogonada hasn’t lost his filmmaking mojo, crafting a movie that may seem more personal to him than most viewers.”
14. Victorian Psycho (Zachary Wigon; Nov. 13)
While Maika Monroe recently shot a sequel to her breakout feature with They Follow, she can next be seen in a horror film of the gothic variety. Sanctuary director Zachary Wigon brought Victorian Psycho to Cannes earlier this year, and it will now arrive this month. Savina Petkova said in her Cannes review, “In 1858, pre-Freud times, a castle in the Yorkshire moors of Northern England by the name of Ensor House becomes the new dwelling place for young governess Winifred Notty (Maika Monroe, on a horror streak from Longlegs). What awaits her is a predictably stilted family of huge wealth, the Pounds, comprising Mrs. Pounds (Ruth Wilson), Mr. Pounds (Jason Isaacs), the heir Andrew (Jacobi Jupe), and their teenage daughter Drusilla (Evie Templeton), but the script—based on Virginia Feito’s novel of the same name—has more than a few surprises in store for all. By following the erotic thriller Sanctuary with a period piece and a mysterious premise, director Zachary Wigon makes the most of this turn towards gothic horror: the delightfully wacky Victorian Psycho can be a testament to both his adaptability and commitment to genre.”
13. Nuisance Bear (Gabriela Osio Vanden and Jack Weisman; Nov. 6)
Winner of the US Grand Jury Prize for Documentary at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival 2026, Gabriela Osio Vanden and Jack Weisman’s visually stunning Nuisance Bear will now get a release this winter. Oliver Weir said in our Sundance review, “Gabriela Osio Vanden and Jack Weisman’s Nuisance Bear is an expansion of their 2021 short film of the same name, which followed a polar bear on its annual migration through Churchill, Manitoba, the “Polar Bear Capital of the World.” Through visual storytelling alone, they captured not only the behavior of the animal but also the increasingly politicized environment that bears have had to adapt to in modern times. One aspect of this environment is the Churchill wildlife management program, which rounds up Avinnaarjuk, or “nuisance bears,” and keeps them in a holding facility until they are ready to be transported north. Another aspect is the town’s booming tourism industry, which offers people the chance to see polar bears in the wild, and which was beautifully encapsulated in a slow-motion tracking shot of a bear nonchalantly crossing a road while a dozen or so tourists scrambled to get the perfect picture. This tension between profit and protection, between exploitation and conservation, is explored in much more depth in Vanden and Weisman’s latest feature, thanks to yet more stunning compositions and some crucial historical context provided by Inuit narrator Mike Tunalaaq Gibbons.”
12. Wild Horse Nine (Martin McDonagh; Nov. 6)
Following up 2022’s The Banshees of Inisherin, Martin McDonagh is returning with John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell for Wild Horse Nine, which is as funny and biting as his best work without necessarily reinventing the wheel. Luke Hicks said in his review, “The trailer for Wild Horse Nine looks like nothing more than a parody of Martin McDonagh’s well-established and celebrated style. “How many times did the line about killing a guy in/spelling Czechoslovakia have to play during World Cup hydration breaks before you lost it?” is the new “How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop?” Yet no matter how much confidence the trailers instilled in its potential tedium, Wild Horse Nine is anything but derivative, tedious, kitschy, unfunny, or phoned-in. It is, in a way, exactly what you’re expecting, exactly what’s advertised. But as always, McDonagh delivers as effectively as ever, proving that fame and filmmaking success haven’t diluted his artistry at all.”
11. Bitter Christmas (Pedro Almodóvar; Nov. 13)
After premiering in Spain and then coming to Cannes Film Festival, Pedro Almodóvar’s latest feature Bitter Christmas will finally be coming to North America this fall. Alistair Ryder said in his review, “Bitter Christmas announces that Pedro Almodóvar has entered his late era, returning once again to the metafiction well for another structurally ambitious analysis of the creative process with at least one character to whom he bears a passing resemblance. It will be nobody’s favorite Almodóvar film, but offers some simple delights because it might be the most Almodóvar film; its deconstruction of a director’s writing routine feels oddly comforting, despite attempts to confound each time it pulls the rug back to reveal a new layer in its Russian doll of character perspectives. An autofictional exploration of creation has been a recurring interest since 1995’s The Flower of My Secret, with 2019’s Pain and Glory feeling like the definitive statement in this regard, featuring his most barely concealed director surrogate to date (Antonio Banderas’ Salvador Mallo) and a direct address of the various chronic conditions which have affected his work. His latest doesn’t add a profound new perspective that justifies going back to such similar subject matter; the familiarity of this preoccupation means it becomes more of a surface pleasure than another revelatory look at how a master auteur gets inspiration.”
10. When a Witness Recants (Dawn Porter; Nov. 17 on HBO Max)
Spending nearly four decades in prison for a murder they did not commit, Andrew Stewart, Ransom Watkins, and Alfred Chestnut work through the psychological toll of wrongful imprisonment in Dawn Porter’s powerful documentary When a Witness Recants. Backed by Ta-Nehisi Coates, who is featured making a personal connection to the story, it’s a maddening, thorough look at the failures of the American justice system, with an unforgettable finale.
9. The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth (David Fincher, Nov. 25 in theaters and Dec. 23 on Netflix)
If arriving 20 or even 10 years ago, one can only imagine the fervor that would surround the concept of a Quentin Tarantino-scripted, David Fincher-directed film. However, in 2026, after years of Fincher slumping it at Netflix and the project in question being a sequel of sorts to a film that doesn’t necessarily demand a continuation, The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth is arriving with a peculiarly muted buzz. As with any film, however, we hope it delivers the goods as the 1977-set drama prepares for an IMAX-exclusive run this Thanksgiving before dropping on Netflix for Christmas.
8. Josephine (Beth de Araújo; Nov. 20)
Perspective is everything in Beth de Araújo’s Josephine, a stomach-churning drama focused on the loss of innocence and the ill-equipped guidance—both parental and bureaucratic—that can compound enduring trauma. We first meet eight-year-old Josephine (Mason Reeves, in a remarkable debut performance) through her own eyes while heading for early-morning soccer training with her father Damien (Channing Tatum). While this first-person approach is sporadically returned-to, Araújo stays close with her lead character for nearly the entirety of the film. This formal bridge to Josephine’s fragile emotional state—rattled as she witnesses a horrific act and endures the unfathomable aftermath—is the strongest quality of Araújo’s blistering feature, which can hit a snag when such focus is disrupted. Continue reading my review of this year’s top Sundance winner.
7. Club Kid (Jordan Firstman, Nov. 6)
A standout hit at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year (and a step above some of the films actually in competition), Jordan Firstman’s raucous and moving directorial Club Kid is now arriving this month. As Rory O’Connor said in our Cannes review, “For fans who’ve followed Firstman’s career from Rotting in the Sun to I Love LA, this duck-to-water move behind the camera will come as a welcome surprise. It’s notable that the movie opened in Un Certain Regard, a sidebar the festival’s programmers have often used as a testing ground for movie stars looking to try their hand at the tiller for the first time. The difference with Firstman’s confident arrival is that it feels less the work of a dilettante than a natural.”
6. Godzilla Minus Zero (Takashi Yamazaki, Nov. 6)
After Takashi Yamazaki’s smash, Oscar-winning hit Godzilla Minus One, he’s back with Godzilla Minus Zero, a rousing sequel that packs a surprisingly emotional punch. Michael Frank said in his NYFF review, “Blockbuster films in America often have faceless, nameless enemies. Villainous, fictional countries attempt to rule the world, steal nuclear codes, or set off a bioweapon, only to be taken down by one of our aging Hollywood stars. Takashi Yamazaki’s Godzilla Minus Zero, the director’s sequel to 2023’s acclaimed Godzilla Minus One, takes a different approach. Its villains range from the American military (and government) to the kaiju Ghidorah, both of which are destructive. The geopolitical underpinnings of the film work as a reminder of what war causes and continues to cause. But it’s still a Godzilla movie, and Yamazaki scales up the action to blaring, symphonic proportions.”
5. Mouse (Alex Thompson, Kelly O’Sullivan, Nov. 6)
Just off their acclaimed 2024 feature Ghostlight, Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson continued their status as preeminent chroniclers of modern American life with the deeply moving Mouse. The film—starring Sophie Okonedo, Katherine Mallen Kupferer, Chloe Coleman, Tara Mallen, Iman Vellani, David Hyde Pierce—made a fine impression at this year’s Berlinale, and will open this month. As Savina Petkova said in our review out of Berlin, “What makes Mouse special is its attention to women’s friendship (and kinship) across generations. By zooming in on the complex relationship between a kid who’d rather consider herself motherless and a childless mother, Mouse takes on the responsibility to tell each story in full, splitting screen time between them individually and together as they grow closer, remembering Callie.”
4. Minotaur (Andrey Zvyagintsev, Nov. 20)
Nearly a decade after his last feature Loveless, and a great amount of personal and political strife in between as he dealt with severe COVID and living in exile, Andrey Zvyagintsev returned to Cannes with his latest drama. The Claude Chabrol-inspired Minotaur, which picked up the Grand Prix, is an acutely precise, insightful, and surprisingly entertaining drama. Leonardo Goi said in his review, “Minotaur is never so shattering as when it widens scope, sidelining the couple to embrace the have-nots around them, which is to say the throngs of civilians roped into a war none of them ever asked for. Where works like Loveless and Leviathan often relied on proxies to mount their critiques of the Putin regime—corrupt politicians or perfidious clerics—scenes like these combine to make Minotaur Zvyagintsev’s most searing indictment yet. The director decamped to Paris in the summer of 2022; like Sergei Loznitsa’s Two Prosecutors, his latest was shot entirely in Latvia, and often reads as an exiled son’s coruscating j’accuse to a motherland that’s drifting farther away from him each day.”
3. Paper Tiger (James Gray; Nov. 13)
Adam Driver, Miles Teller, and Scarlett Johansson give a trio of the year’s finest performances in James Gray’s New York crime drama Paper Tiger. No less important to note is cinematographer JoaquÃn Baca-Asay once again teaming with the director, crafting an aesthetic that is largely gone from the modern cinema. As Luke Hicks said in our Critic’s Pick review out of Cannes, “Paper Tiger isn’t quite the triumph that Gray managed in similarly set and themed work (The Yards still wears that gold, with We Own the Night taking silver), yet it’s certainly something to behold, the type of film that doesn’t take things so far as desired while lingering still. It plants seeds of lavish characterization, heart-wrenching drama, and gutting tension that leaves one thinking about these people, these places, and the world we live in with a raw sting, as if all of it, down to the bone, is culled directly from history, not a single shrewd detail made up.”
2. Cameron Winter at Carnegie Hall (Paul Thomas Anderson; Nov. 20)
One of the most spiritually transporting experiences I had at the New York Film Festival this year was the world premiere of Paul Thomas Anderson’s Cameron Winter at Carnegie Hall on 35mm. Shot with a vision at once affectionately timeless and fittingly playful, it’s truly something to behold how the One Battle After Another director frames Winter’s passionate performance. If you’ve also been listening to the live album on repeat, recorded by music producer Ariel Rechtshaid (a major force behind Vampire Weekend’s stellar catalogue), seeing it come to life is one of 2026’s essential cinematic experiences.
1. All of a Sudden (Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Nov. 25)
There may be no living filmmaker on a better run than Ryusuke Hamaguchi. With Happy Hour, Asako I & II, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, Drive My Car, Evil Does Not Exist, Gift, and now All of a Sudden, the Japanese director has brought a staggering level of humanity and insight to life’s mysteries—simply unparalleled in modern cinema. His latest, which won Best Actress for Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto at Cannes, is now finally arriving this month. Leonardo Goi said in his Critic’s Pick review, “Few directors working today have so consistently and perceptively interrogated the possibilities and limits of language as the ultimate conveyor of that kind of truth, and if All of a Sudden stands as the most humanist of Hamaguchi’s features, it is because it shifts that prerogative toward the body. A film that’s full of erudite conversations—about duty of care, the dangers of capitalism, the need to dream up alternatives to the world we’ve inherited—this is, perhaps most importantly, a profoundly tactile experience. Bodies take center stage, shot by Alan Guichaoua not as decomposing chrysalises but vessels that can communicate oceans of feeling.”
More Films to See
- Birds of War (Nov. 4)
- Being Heumann (Nov. 6 in theaters and Nov. 13 on Apple TV)
- Soul Patrol (Nov. 6)
- A. Rimbaud (Nov. 6)
- Paradise Lost (Nov. 6)
- I Play Rocky (Nov. 6)
- Hen (Nov. 6)
- Ramayana: Rise of a Legend (Nov. 6)
- Elsinore (Nov. 20)
- 14th (Nov. 27 in theaters and Dec. 4 on Netflix)
- In Waves (Nov. 27 in theaters and Dec. 11 on Netflix)
The post 15 Films to See In November first appeared on The Film Stage.
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