What films are coming out in September 2021?

Annette, dir. Leos Carax

Ron and Russell Mael, who together make up the pop-rock duo Sparks, have been making music for five decades. Their story was recently captured in Edgar Wright’s energetic documentary The Sparks Brothers. But Sparks' new movie musical Annette marks their first successful foray into narrative filmmaking, after failed efforts with Jacques Tati and Tim Burton.

Collaborating with the French arthouse director Leos Carax (Holy Motors), Sparks composes a dark and tragic love story. Annette follows the relationship between a provocative stand-up (Adam Driver) and a well-respected opera soprano (Marion Cotillard), which slips between sensual and toxic. They conceive a child, Annette – portrayed in the film in puppet form – who displays an unexpected talent. The film opened this year's Cannes Film Festival.

Photo: EPK/Amazon

Herself, dir. Phyllida Lloyd

Despite being mostly produced by British companies, Herself has taken a deplorably long time to reach UK shores. The film premiered at a pre-pandemic Sundance in January 2020 and screened later at the London Film Festival, where Culture Whisper gave it four stars. Finally, Phyllida Lloyd’s excellent social drama is on release this September. And it's worth the wait.

The story follows Sandra (Clare Dunne), a survivor of domestic violence, who manages to escape her fraught living situation and takes the kids with her. After she’s refused a new home, she decides to embark on an unusual project: building her own house. Seeking help from charitable hands, Sandra begins to construct her dreams.

Respect, dir. Liesl Tommy

In recent months, there’s been a sharper focus on the Black women who reshaped music. Just this year, we’ve had a Billie Holiday biopic and an in-depth documentary about Tina Turner. The BFI Southbank even reopened its doors with a film season dedicated to Black female musicians. A new biopic about Aretha Franklin, coming three years after the acclaimed concert film Amazing Grace, was only inevitable.

In Respect, Jennifer Hudson plays Aretha – tracing her affluent origins and early talents, especially in the church. You see her difficult childhood, giving birth to her first child at 12 years old and facing the abuses of a patriarchal world. Even after she’s grown up and made several albums, she still can’t make a hit. Then Respect comes along, shooting her to stardom.

Photo: EPK/MGM

The Many Saints of Newark, dir. Alan Taylor

The Sopranos creator David Chase has had to field questions about the ending for years, but he’s never revealed its true meaning. And the new movie prequel The Many Saints of Newark, set in the late 60s, clearly doesn’t want to unveil those answers. But doubtless it will serve as a curious, fascinating, and formative chapter in the story of Tony Soprano, played for eight years by the late James Gandolfini.

Michael Gandolfini – James Galdolfini’s real-life son – plays the teenage Tony, who's growing up among the Italian-American Mafia during the Newark race-riots in 1967. From the trailer, you see his close relationship with Dickie Moltisanti (Alessandro Nivola) as well as the emotionally abusive friction that his mother (Vera Farmiga) creates.

Photo: Warner Bros.

No Time to Die, dir. Cary Joji Fukunaga

How long have we been hearing about Bond 25? No Time To Die has had a tumultuous history, even before the pandemic. Director Danny Boyle and his regular screenwriter John Hodge were initially on board. And then they exited the project due to ‘creative differences’, a classically elusive excuse.

But Cary Fukunaga, of True Detective fame, replaced Boyle and everything seemed to be going well… until the pandemic. After three delays, No Time To Die looks set to finally be released at the end of September – becoming a suave and heavenly light of hope for cinemas everywhere. That is, as long as the Delta variant doesn’t scupper those plans.

As always with a franchise as big as Bond, plot details are scarce. We know that Bond has gone into hiding (again) following the events of Spectre, and an old friend seeks him out for a new job. This leads him to a new supervillain, Safin (Rami Malek), who’s armed with a dangerous new technology.

Also: the Venice Film Festival 2021

La Biennale di Venezia was one of the only film festivals to open publicly when Covid hit the world last year. The festival is still going strong for 2021, and with a sumptuous selection, too.

Returning auteurs include Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog), Pedro Almodóvar (Parallel Mothers), Paul Schrader (The Card Counter), and Paolo Sorrentino (The Hand of God). Pablo Larraín’s new Princess Diana biopic Spencer is also in the competition, and stars Kristen Stewart in the titular role. Stewart's portrayal follows Emma Corrin’s lauded performance in The Crown season four and precedes Elizabeth Debicki’s depiction for season five.

Actor Maggie Gyllenhaal makes her filmmaking debut with The Lost Daughter, adapted from the Elena Ferrante novel, which stars Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal.

Denis Villeneuve’s eagerly anticipated sci-fi epic Dune is premiering out of competition, alongside Edgar Wright’s giallo-inspired horror film Last Night in Soho (starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Thomasin McKenzie) and Ridley Scott’s medieval drama The Last Duel with Jodie Comer, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon.

TV also makes a rare appearance. Hagai Levi’s five-part HBO remake of Ingmar Bergman’s Scenes From A Marriage, starring Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac, is also premiering at the festival.