After highlighting the best films from the first half of this year, it’s time to venture into the second leg of 2026 with July’s lineup. Topped by a sure-fire selection for my year-end list, there’s also a samurai yarn by one of the world’s greatest directors, the return of a beloved cult filmmaker, and, of course, the biggest spectacle of the summer.
12. The Last Picture Shows (Rustin Thompson; July 5)
Travelling 10,825 miles through America to capture 123 movie theaters scattered across small towns, Rustin Thompson has shaped the journey into his elegiac feature documentary, The Last Picture Shows. A moving ode to movie houses and the workers and audiences keeping them alive, as well as an investigation into the stranglehold major studios have on these small, often single-screen movie houses to prevent them from playing independent films, it’ll start rolling out in theaters across the country this week.
11. The Kidnapping of Arabella (Carolina Cavalli; July 17)
After earning acclaim for her debut feature Amanda, Italian director Carolina Cavalli is returning with The Kidnapping of Arabella, which premiered at Venice Film Festival last fall to a strong response and recently opened this year’s edition of Open Roads. Now rolling out to theaters this month, the drama follows a woman who encounters a child that changes her perspective on life (with a brief appearance from Chris Pine).
10. Do You Love Me (Lana Daher; July 10)
In what could’ve also been called Lebanon Plays Itself, Lana Daher’s ambitious, all-archival Do You Love Me captures some 70 years of Lebanese history, curated from a search that began with more than 20,000 potential sources. Consolidated to just 76 minutes, the resulting feat of montage is an experiment as playful as it is informative, showing a country in turmoil and citizens who still find happiness in everyday life.
9. Dead Souls (Alex Cox; July 2)
Repo Man, Sid and Nancy, and Walker director Alex Cox makes his return with a Western adaptation of Nikolai Gogol’s classic novel Dead Souls. In his interview with the director, Jackson Diianni said, “Having read Dead Souls, it’s not surprising that it would appeal to Cox. For one thing, there’s a very self-referential quality to the writing. The narrator often speaks directly to the reader about the novel itself, calling to mind some of Cox’s well-known postmodern touches: the generic food labels of Repo Man (1984), the intentional anachronisms of Walker (1987), Malcolm McLaren’s finger guns and Sid Vicious’ fantasy of shooting the audience in Sid and Nancy (1986). Reimagining a classic of Russian literature as a Spaghetti Western is a suitably offbeat and imaginative choice for Cox, and he’s not the first punk to embrace this particular novel—it inspired a Joy Division song of the same name.”
8. Jimmy (Yashaddai Owens; July 31)
My favorite discovery at the 2024 New York Film Festival was Yashaddai Owens’ Jimmy, a jazzy, French New Wave-esque portrait imagining James Baldwin’s (Benny O. Arthur) arrival to Paris in November 1948. With a plethora of biographical dramas seemingly rinsing and repeating key moments of a famous subject’s life in a formally familiar fashion, Owens radically rethinks the form of the biopic, one that transports the viewer with the fresh sights and sounds of a new city that would go on to shape the author’s work. Shot on grainy, evocative 16mm in black-and-white, it’s an adventurous gamble that succeeds on every front.
7. Barrio Triste (Stillz; July 10)
A directoring-debut standout on the festival circuit last year, Stillz’s Venice, TIFF, and NYFF selection Barrio Triste is now arriving in theaters in a fitting July slot. Executive produced by Harmony Korine, with an original score by Arca, C.J. Prince said in his review of the first feature from the Bad Bunny collaborator, “Exhilarating, tense, personal, and enigmatic, Barrio Triste is a compelling look at a lost generation in search of salvation, and among this year’s best first features.”
6. I Want Your Sex (Gregg Araki; July 31)
Making his long-awaited return to feature filmmaking after a 12-year absence, Gregg Aaraki was back at Sundance this year to premiere I Want Your Sex, an erotic comedy that brings together Olivia Wilde, Cooper Hoffman, Charli XCX, Daveed Diggs, Mason Gooding, Chase Sui Wonders, Margaret Cho, and Johnny Knoxville. Caleb Hammond said in his Sundance review, “I Want Your Sex is Araki, at 66 years old, telling the younger generation that while life experiences can be painful and messy––and the flight instinct might scream at them to stay home and avoid at all cost––the alternative of being old and reflecting on missed opportunities is far more painful.”
5. Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass (David Wain; July 10)
In a summer movie season severely lacking major comedies, David Wain and Ken Marino are here to save the day. Kent M. Wilhelm said in his review, “As the world continues fermenting its vile culture, the gang behind The State and Wet Hot American Summer is back to save you from the merciless onslaught of bad news. At least for 90 minutes. The dynamic duo of director David Wain and screenwriter Ken Marino are now in their third decade of bringing a unique brand of irreverent comedy to cinema. In the wake of their MTV sketch comedy show The State, Wain and co. premiered their cult hit Wet Hot American Summer at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. This year, they return once more with Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass, a hilarious Hollywood farce in their signature absurdist voice.”
4. The Odyssey (Christopher Nolan; July 17)
Following the Best Picture-winning Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan is going back a few thousand years to adapt Homer’s ancient Greek epic. With a cast only the heavens could dream of, we’re curious how Nolan, in his time-twisting approach, can breathe new life into a tale as old as time. Regardless, seeing the director equipped with his greatest resources yet should provide the biggest spectacle 2026 cinema has to offer.
3. Night Nurse (Georgia Bernstein; July 10)
The best narrative film I saw at Sundance earlier this year, Night Nurse is a movie that very much walks to the beat of its strange drum. With shades of early Atom Egoyan, Georgia Bernstein’s directorial debut is a psychosexual drama following a nurse’s peculiar journey becoming connected to a strange patient’s perverse idea of fun. John Fink said in his review, “The perverse Night Nurse doesn’t quite qualify as a psychosexual thriller, despite underlying erotic tension; there is something more seductive and sinister under the surface.”
2. The Samurai and the Prisoner (Kiyoshi Kurosawa; July 31)
Apologies to what is the most-anticipated blockbuster of the summer for many, but the ensemble period epic that should be highest on your radar this July hails from Kiyoshi Kurosawa. The Samurai and the Prisoner is a knotty, fascinating samurai mystery that sees the Japanese director adopt an entirely different register from most of his work, yet still showcases a thrilling set of formal tricks. Leonardo Goi said in his Cannes review, “Like its protagonist, The Samurai and the Prisoner is a curious oddity. It’s a film that keeps bloodletting to a bare minimum and delights in subverting genre expectations to fascinating effects. Where other recent entries in the canon opted for bigger, action-packed spectacles—recall Takeshi Kitano’s gruesome 2023 Kubi—this is a much more stately, almost contemplative affair, a kind of throwback to mid-century masterpieces from Kenji Mizoguchi and Akira Kurosawa.”
1. Remake (Ross McElwee; July 10)
Though best-known for his landmark reflexive documentary Sherman’s March, Ross McElwee crafted his most aching, personal film yet with Remake, one of the very best films of 2026. Partially structured around McElwee’s process when a company hopes to adapt Sherman’s March (a new restoration of which rolls out in theaters this week), its true nature soon reveals itself: a tribute to the director’s son and self-reckoning as McElwee ponders his hand in his progeny’s path. It’s a nakedly confessional, deeply emotional work that will break any parent’s heart into a million pieces.
More Films to See
- Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World (July 3)
- Reeling (July 7)
- Familia (July 7)
- Westhampton (July 10)
- Coroner to the Stars (July 14)
- American Pachuco: The Legend of Luis Valdez (July 17)
- Her Private Hell (July 24)
- Rosebrush Pruning (July 24)
- Sheep in the Box (July 24)
- Lost Chapters (July 24)
- The Dink (July 24)
- A Sad and Beautiful World (July 24)