The shortest month of the year has a handful of cinematic highlights, including numerous films that qualified for awards last year but are now getting official roll-outs. Other notable releases include a contender for the funniest film of 2026, the latest from one of the most prolific directors working today, the long-awaited return of a master entertainer, and much more.
10. Scare Out (Zhang Yimou; Feb. 17)
After directing six (!) new films between 2020 and 2024, Zhang Yimou took a bit of a breather last year, but he’s back this month with a new spy thriller. The Chinese director’s latest feature Scare Out stars Jackson Yee (recently seen in Bi Gan’s Resurrection) alongside Zhu Yilong, Song Jia, Lei Jiayin, Yang Mi, Zhang Yi, Liu Shishi, and Liu Yaowen. Ahead of a reported global release beginning February 17 in China, North America, U.K., New Zealand, Australia, and more, we have yet to see showtimes appear for the U.S., so it’s unclear if that peculiar Tuesday opening date will stick, but expect to hear more very soon.
9. Dreams (Michel Franco; Feb. 27)
Following Memory, Michel Franco and Jessica Chastain reunited for Dreams, one of the most accomplished films of the director’s career, following a socialite who embarks on a dangerous affair with an up-and-coming ballet dancer. Savina Petkova said in her Berlinale review, “Some images have become metonymic by nature, reflecting the political problems of today with little to no context needed. Such a shot opens Michel Franco’s newest offering, Dreams, and it is one of a huge truck abandoned next to a railway: illegal border-crossing. It rattles and shakes with the screams of people locked inside, clamoring for help; one already anticipates the dire condition the fugitives all are in once the police break open the back door. One of those ‘illegals’ manages to escape amidst the chaos: a youngish, strong-looking man (Isaác Hernández) whose determination is made clear by every step he takes on that desolate road. We don’t know who he is, but he surely knows where he’s going, and there’s a fierceness to him that overpowers the pain he’s obviously in.”
8. The President’s Cake (Hasan Hadi; Feb. 6)
One of the breakout features at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight last year, Hasan Hadi’s directorial debut The President’s Cake picked up the section’s Audience Award and the Caméra d’Or. Acquired by Sony Pictures Classics, Iraq’s Oscar entry will now arrive this month. Rory O’Connor said in his Cannes review, “Hadi is New York-based these days (he works as an adjunct professor at NYU Tisch) but the story is drawn from personal experience of that time––particularly the ritual of celebrating Hussein’s birthday, which was compulsory for every citizen, regardless of means or U.S. sanctions. It’s a situation the film approaches with downbeat humor. One small part of this involved drawing names in the classroom, with the least-lucky student having to provide a cake. Fail to deliver and the consequences would be drastic.”
7. Kokuho (Lee Sang-il; Feb. 6)
Already a major hit in Japan, where it’s become the country’s highest-grossing live-action film of all-time, Lee Shang-il’s historical drama Kokuho will now be rolling out in U.S. theaters following an awards-qualifying run last year. The three-hour, decades-spanning epic, recently nominated for Best Makeup and Hairstyling at the Academy Awards, follows a teenager who dedicates his life to the art of kabuki theater.
6. My Father’s Shadow (Akinola Davies Jr.; Feb. 13)
Premiering in Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival, Akinola Davies Jr.’s acclaimed debut My Father’s Shadow went on to pick up a Special Mention for the Caméra d’Or. Recently awarded Breakthrough Director and Outstanding Lead Performance (for Sope Dirisu) at the Gothams, U.K.’s Oscar entry will now arrive in theaters this month. Alistair Ryder said in his review, “Children growing to understand their parents’ perspectives for the first time is a coming-of-age trope, but Davies Jr. handles this aspect subtly and elegantly. When their father fills them in on how he met their mother for the first time, a story they’d never been told, it’s a masterful moment in staging two children realizing their parents have interior lives and an entire life before them. These underplayed exchanges are the driving engine of the movie.”
5. Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die (Gore Verbinski; Feb. 13)
In his first feature since 2017’s A Cure for Wellness, Gore Verbinski has gone the indie route while still doubling down on his strange fascinations for this sci-fi time-loop oddity Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, which packs a smorgasbord of ideas and quite a bit of fun. Eric Vespe said in his review from the Fantastic Fest world premiere, “There’s something about the way he assembles a film––both populist and weird as hell––that feels so refreshing in this moment where most of our movie options seem dictated by a faceless board of execs. If it didn’t sound so pretentious I’d use the term “auteur,” which is usually reserved for film schools diving deep into French New Wave or Italian neorealism. Yet it’s accurate. There’s zero doubt, watching this film, that it was made by a madman.”
4. Pillion (Harry Lighton; Feb. 6)
A romance unlike any other you’ll see onscreen this year, Harry Lighton’s Pillion is as touching as it is shocking, exploring a dom-sub relationship within the gay biker milieu and led by Harry Melling and Alexander Skarsgård. Zhuo-Ning Su said in his review, “It wouldn’t be Cannes without a good scandal film. For 2025, British director Harry Lighton’s feature debut Pillion may be the one that sends the most people clutching their pearls. Centered on a dom-sub relationship within the gay biker milieu, it features depictions of fetishistic sex acts that could trigger a few sensitive souls. It would be a shame, however, if all attention is directed at the kinks and shocks––Lighton has made a truly provocative anti-romance that’s funny, honest, strangely touching. It’s an exceptional balance act that makes Pillion the unlikeliest crowd-pleaser.”
3. What Does That Nature Say to You (Hong Sangsoo; Feb. 27)
While Hong Sangsoo is hopefully gaining new admirers, fans need little (outside of the release date) to show up. You’ll nonetheless be pleased to know that the South Korean director’s latest U.S. arrival, What Does that Nature Say to You, is among his most entertaining of late, following a poet’s confrontation with his girlfriend’s family. Rory O’Connor said in his review, “Some things change, but the Hong remains the same. He is still tiring to his detractors. He is still a reassuring ever-presence to his devotees. If, like I, you happen to be one of the latter, you’ll probably find much to enjoy in What Does that Nature Say to You, the director’s latest comic melodrama and the closest he has yet come to remaking Meet the Parents.”
2. Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie (Matt Johnson; Feb. 13)
An early contender for the most fun you’ll have in a theater this year, Matt Johnson’s expansion of his web series and TV series, Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, is a time-travel mockumentary adventure that is best left unspoiled. Devan Suber called it in our 2026 preview, “As much a triumph of low-budget/mockumentary filmmaking as it is one of sheer audacity, it simply must be seen to be believed.”
1. Sirāt (Oliver Laxe; Feb. 6)
As Hollywood attempts to find new ways to shock audiences, it was an unlikely Cannes premiere that provided the most unforgettable cinematic jolts of the last year. Judging from his accomplished but more sedate earlier features Mimosas and Fire Will Come, I had no idea Oliver Laxe was capable of delivering such an uncompromising, intense vision with Sirāt. Yes, Wages of Fear and its remake Sorcerer are clear touch points for this rave-fueled desert journey of a father searching for his missing daughter, but Laxe takes those pieces and creates something even more unsparing and visceral. After seeing this with a full crowd, you’ll understand this is 2025’s prime example of why the theatrical experience is unparalleled. Read our review from Cannes for more.
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