The leaves are falling, and at least one of the strikes looming over the film season has been resolved. From Wiseman to Wonka, Beyoncé to Ferrari, here is a select list of the films you need to know about this winter. Release dates and platforms are subject to change.
November
DREAM SCENARIO An evolutionary biologist (Nicolas Cage) begins turning up in random people’s dreams, an inexplicable phenomenon that first intrigues the dreamers, then freaks them out. Julianne Nicholson also stars. Kristoffer Borgli wrote, directed and edited. (Nov. 10 in theaters)
THE KILLER Michael Fassbender plays a hyper-punctilious hit man who is forever checking his pulse and who soothes his nerves by listening to the Smiths. But his careful plans are upended when a job goes awry. The film reunites the director David Fincher and the screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker, who together gave us “Seven” (1995), and here adapt the graphic-novel series by Matz and Luc Jacamon. (Nov. 10 on Netflix)
THE MARVELS Captain Marvel (Brie Larson), Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani) and Captain Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) join forces to take down whoever is threatening the Marvel Cinematic Universe these days. Nia DaCosta (the 2021 “Candyman” remake) directed. (Nov. 10 in theaters)
ORLANDO, MY POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY In this nonfiction feature, the philosopher Paul B. Preciado uses Virginia Woolf’s “Orlando” as a lens for exploring issues of gender identity, enlisting transgender and nonbinary people to play the character and reflect on their lives. (Nov. 10 in theaters)
STAMPED FROM THE BEGINNING The academic and activist Ibram X. Kendi’s 2016 book, “Stamped From the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America,” becomes a documentary film with commentary from Kendi and others, including Angela Davis and the poet Honorée Fanonne Jeffers. Roger Ross Williams directed. (Nov. 10 in theaters, Nov. 20 on Netflix)
A STILL SMALL VOICE A nonfiction highlight at Sundance, this documentary from Luke Lorentzen (“Midnight Family”) follows a hospital chaplain during a residency as she discovers whether she has the fortitude for the job. (Nov. 10 in theaters)
YOUTH (SPRING) Known for documentaries with lengthy running times and an unobtrusive style, the acclaimed Chinese filmmaker Wang Bing (“Dead Souls”) chronicles the lives of migrants toiling in the textile workshops of Zhili, China. (Nov. 10 in theaters)
THE LADY BIRD DIARIES The latest nonfiction feature from Dawn Porter (“John Lewis: Good Trouble”) draws on archival audio of the first lady Lady Bird Johnson and assesses the part she played in President Lyndon B. Johnson’s administration. (Nov. 13 on Hulu)
BEST. CHRISTMAS. EVER! Mary Lambert (the original “Pet Sematary”) directed this holiday movie about a woman who tries to puncture her friend’s carefully cultivated aura of good cheer. Heather Graham and Brandy star. (Nov. 16 on Netflix)
DASHING THROUGH THE SNOW Magic helps restore the Yuletide spirit for a social worker (Chris Bridges, a.k.a. Ludacris) and his 9-year-old (Madison Skye). Lil Rel Howery and Teyonah Parris also star; Tim Story directed. (Nov. 17 on Disney+)
THE DISAPPEARANCE OF SHERE HITE Nicole Newnham (a director of “Crip Camp”) made this documentary on the work of Shere Hite, who in 1976 published “The Hite Report: A Nationwide Study of Female Sexuality,” which advanced the then-radical notion that women could achieve sexual satisfaction without intercourse. (Nov. 17 in theaters)
FALLEN LEAVES The latest from the Finnish treasure Aki Kaurismaki won the jury prize at the Cannes Film Festival; the award scanned as an affectionate third place. It’s a love story — in an unusually bittersweet and low-key register — between lonesome members of the working class (Alma Poysti and Jussi Vatanen), and between Kaurismaki and cinema. (Nov. 17 in theaters)
THE HUNGER GAMES: THE BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS & SNAKES Set before the events of the Jennifer Lawrence films, this screen installment from Suzanne Collins’s books casts Tom Blyth as a teenage tyrant in the making and Rachel Zegler as the tribute he tries to prepare for the deadly games. Francis Lawrence returns to direct. (Nov. 17 in theaters)
MAXINE’S BABY: THE TYLER PERRY STORY Normally, Perry projects begin with “Tyler Perry’s” this or that in their titles. But this biographical documentary bears his mother’s name, and traces how Perry built his universe of film and TV shows. Gelila Bekele and Armani Ortiz directed. (Nov. 17 on Amazon Prime Video)
MAY DECEMBER Todd Haynes investigates what constitutes realistic acting — and what attracts viewers to tabloid sensationalism — in this drama, which casts Natalie Portman as a TV star shadowing her latest role’s infamous real-life inspiration (Julianne Moore), a woman whose past is not dissimilar from Mary Kay Letourneau’s. With Charles Melton. (Nov. 17 in theaters, Dec. 1 on Netflix)
NEXT GOAL WINS Smarting from a record-breaking loss, American Samoa’s soccer team braces for another try at the World Cup qualifying matches, this time with a new, curmudgeonly coach (Michael Fassbender). Taika Waititi directed. The team’s story was also told in a documentary with the same title. (Nov. 17 in theaters)
RUSTIN Colman Domingo plays the civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, who was a principal organizer of the 1963 March on Washington and whose legacy has received renewed attention. (In 2020, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California granted him a posthumous pardon for a 1953 conviction on a charge that had been used to criminalize homosexual activity.) George C. Wolfe directed. Chris Rock, Glynn Turman and Audra McDonald co-star. (Nov. 17 on Netflix)
SALTBURN The writer-director Emerald Fennell’s first feature behind the camera since “Promising Young Woman” centers on a student at Oxford (Barry Keoghan) who becomes taken with the lifestyle of a classmate (Jacob Elordi) and accepts an invitation to his lavish home. (Nov. 17 in theaters)
THANKSGIVING Sixteen years is a long time from trailer to release. But the tongue-in-cheek coming attraction that Eli Roth made for the midpoint of “Grindhouse” (2007) is now a feature film in its own right. Patrick Dempsey stars. (Nov. 17 in theaters)
TROLLS BAND TOGETHER The Troll universe expands again as Poppy (voiced by Anna Kendrick) and Branch (Justin Timberlake) seek out Branch’s brothers, with whom he previously formed a boy band. Who knew the Trolls universe had one? (Nov. 17 in theaters)
LEO Adam Sandler lends his inimitable vocal stylings to a lizard in an elementary school classroom; it only has a year to live. Bill Burr and Cecily Strong also star. (Nov. 21 on Netflix)
THE BOY AND THE HERON Ten years after “The Wind Rises,” which had been billed as a final feature, the master animator Hayao Miyazaki gives us this story of a boy who moves from Tokyo after his mother’s death during World War II. An enigmatic tower that stands near his new home becomes a gateway to a parallel world — a quintessentially Miyazakian realm. (Nov. 22 in theaters)
LEAVE THE WORLD BEHIND Julia Roberts plays a misanthropic New Yorker who ropes her husband (Ethan Hawke) and children into an impromptu getaway on Long Island. But after strange things start to happen, and the family who owns the rental house (Mahershala Ali and Myha’la play father and daughter) turns up, the atmosphere gets tense. Barack and Michelle Obama are among the executive producers. Sam Esmail directed. (Nov. 22 in theaters, Dec. 8 on Netflix)
MAESTRO In the director’s chair again after “A Star Is Born” (2018), Bradley Cooper also stars as the legendary conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein, in a biopic that focuses in particular on his marriage. A top-billed Carey Mulligan plays