Looking for what to see in theaters? Our feature, updated weekly, highlights our top recommendations for films currently in theaters, from new releases to restorations receiving a proper theatrical run.

While we already provide extensive monthly new-release recommendations and weekly streaming recommendations, as distributors’ roll-outs can vary, this is a one-stop list to share the essential films that may be on a screen near you.

The 2026 Oscar-Nominated Short Films

Ahead of the Academy Awards, every short film in each category (Animation, Documentary, and Live Action) are now playing in theaters across the country. Read Jared Mobarak’s review of all 15 nominees here.

All That’s Left of You (Cherien Dabis)

A sprawling, gripping drama that starts with the foundation of the state of Israel and displacement of Palestinian families in Jaffa, then ends two years shy of October 7, writer-director-star Cherien Dabis’ All That’s Left of You considers generational trauma on both an intimate and epic scale. One of 2025’s most vital films, Dabis’ radical, heartbreaking epic serves a captivating ode to a homeland lost and a path forward—a timely call for peace and reconciliation. — John F. (full review)

Dreams (Michel Franco)

Watch an exclusive clip above.

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. – Savina P. (full review)

Ghost Elephants (Werner Herzog)

What opens Werner Herzog’s Ghost Elephants, even before we hear the German filmmaker’s distinctive cadence, is the National Geographic logo. While production credits are far from noteworthy in most cases, this one may stand out to the viewer by implying a certain documentary paradigm––call it “mainstream,” or simply: formulaic and easy-to-digest––at odds with Herzog’s streak of mysticism. A director so devoted to the most abstract and obscure parts of life, nature, and history, Herzog has nevertheless excelled in securing funding from sources like the French ARTE, BBC, and History Channel to tell the stories he finds fascinating. His documentaries are rooted in an innate, unadulterated fascination with people’s dreams and aspirations––in Ghost Elephants, National Geographic explorer and wildlife researcher Dr. Steve Boyes. – Savina P. (full review)

Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die (Gore Verbinski)

From the moment Sam Rockwell busts into a full diner clad in what can only be described as a do-it-yourself time-travel outfit comprising steampunk gadgets covered with a filthy clear raincoat, it’s clear you’re not in for a movie made by committee. What begins as a possible hostage situation quickly turns into a quest to save all of humanity from a rogue AI that is on the brink of total human takeover––if you can believe a word coming out of Rockwell’s mouth, among them a complicated scenario involving resetting the timestream with a very specific combination of companions pulled from this very diner. If he picks the right group of people, perhaps humanity can be saved. If not, he’ll just have to try again and again and again until he gets it right. – Eric V. (full review)

The Love That Remains (Hlynur Pálmason)

Carving out a rather immaculate body of work that continues to go in different directions, Hlynur Pálmason returned last year with The Love That Remains, which premiered at Cannes and is now coming to theaters following an awards-qualifying run. Luke Hicks said in his review, “Hlynur Pálmason’s fourth feature marks a soft, Malickian left turn for the man behind the icy-bleak dramas Winter Brothers, A White, White Day, and Godland. Up against the rest of Pálmason’s oeuvre––which weighs viewers down with a grave obstinance, whether emanating from the conflict between brothers, a perceived affair, or a suicidally zealous resolve to evangelize to the least habitable (or interested) corners of the Earth––The Love That Remains is a floating catharsis of love and loss that carries its audience like a cloud carries angels.”

My Father’s Shadow (Akinola Davies Jr.)

Real-life brothers Godwin Chiemerie and Chibuike Marvellous Egbo play the young siblings Akin and Remi, often left to their own devices when their father is always away for work and mother far too busy running the household to spend much time with them. One morning, their dad Fola (Gangs of London star Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù) briefly shows up, and after protesting that he never spends time with them, agrees to take them on a day trip to Lagos, where he needs to collect money owed from a security guard shift and try securing some more hours––the process of getting to the big city from their village, however, isn’t a straightforward one. Not enough that the bus is many miles away; national fuel shortages due to an economic crash mean they don’t even get the whole way there, and when they do, they’re more exposed to Fola’s desperation to get paid, even though the whole country appears to be collapsing around them. – Alistair R. (full review)

Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie (Matt Johnson)

The funniest, most unpredictable, “no, seriously, how the fuck did they do that???” movie of the year is about two guys, an RV, and a dream to play the Rivoli. Matt Johnson and Jay McCarroll’s big screen take on their cult-classic web (and later cable) series is perfectly legible for newbies, throwing off enough gags across the spectrum that something will land, be it a particular movie seen in a theater to a stray comment from a passerby. As much a triumph of low-budget/mockumentary filmmaking as it is one of sheer audacity, it simply must be seen to be believed. – Devan S. (full review)

Pillion (Harry Lighton)

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. – Zhuo-Ning Su (full review)

A Poet (Simón Mesa Soto)

One of the great character studies of the year, Simón Mesa Soto’s Cannes Un Certain Regard winner A Poet follows a down-and-out writer trying to find his way through a complicated situation attempting to mentor a young student. I said in my Cannes review, “Far removed from the mournful yearnings of A Quiet Passion––much less the quotidian, calming rhythms of Paterson––Simón Mesa Soto’s Medellín-set second feature finds unexpected poetry in the jagged, pained misery of dashed dreams and misinterpreted, career-ending good intentions. A Poet’s Oscar Restrepo (Ubeimar Rios), though 2,000 miles south of the down-on-their-luck, desperate characters often captured by Sean Price Williams’ camera, would find some recognition in the shared Sisyphean struggle of striking out at every opportunity life offers up. This Un Certain Regard jury prize winner is a darkly humorous, cautionary character study in letting one’s long-lost creative dreams drive every decision––one in which Soto, more often than not, finds empathy as his protagonist circles the drain.”

The President’s Cake (Hasan Hadi)

Among the best things in The President’s Cake are the colors. There’s the deep red of a rooster’s comb as it peeks out from a young girl’s carrying pouch; there’s the white decorations that adorn her uncle’s blue car; and then there is the opening vista, in which a deep evening sky is disturbed by the roar of two American fighter jets. We’re somewhere in the ’90s, the country is Iraq, and the decorations are for its president, Saddam Hussein. Soon the camera will peel away to reveal a group of villagers lining up for water. If this is the length people are going for basic requirements, you soon begin to wonder: what chance does anyone have of finding baking soda? – Rory O. (full review)

Sirat (Oliver Laxe)

For the French-Spanish filmmaker Oliver Laxe, a competition berth in Cannes has been a long time coming. Laxe was here in 2010 (You All Are Captains), 2016 (Mimosas), and 2019 (Fire Will Come) without once going home empty-handed, and he now rises to the occasion with Sirat, his grandest, most adventurous work yet: the kind of bold, auteurist arrival that seems to happen more here than any other festival. The story takes place in Morocco, which provided the backdrop of Laxe’s first two films, and follows a father searching for his daughter amidst the dust and drugs of an illegal rave scene in and around the Atlas Mountains. There’s a delicious touch of Paul Schrader’s Hardcore to that setup, but Sirat is more in the lineage of William Friedkin’s Sorcerer, even Mad Max: a story about a ragtag group attempting to move some monstrous vehicles over a landscape so unforgiving it might actually be hell. If I see a better film in Cannes, it will have been a very good year. – Rory O. (full review)

What Does That Nature Say to You (Hong Sangsoo)

The last time Hong Sangsoo failed to feature in a Berlinale program, Childish Gambino’s “This is America” was in the charts and Green Book was on its way to beating Roma at the Oscars. (2019 notwithstanding, you have to go back to the Obama years to find a selection without the South Korean’s name.) In just those six years, the festival has witnessed three different creative directors, weathered a global pandemic, and buckled under the weight of its own political fealty. Which is to say: 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. – Rory O. (full review)

More Films Now Playing in Theaters

Read all reviews here. For our NYC-specific repertory round-ups, including many films that will tour the country, bookmark NYC Weekend Watch.

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