Autumn 2025’s cinema lineup brings a wide-ranging slate of high-profile releases, led by a Bruce Springsteen biopic and James Cameron’s next "Avatar" installment. The season includes star-driven dramas, festival favourites and franchise tentpoles set to reach UK and international screens from September through December.
Among the most anticipated titles are "Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere" (Oct. 24), which chronicles the making of Springsteen’s 1982 album "Nebraska," and "Avatar: Fire and Ash" (Dec. 19), the third Pandora-set film from director James Cameron. The season also features a Julia Roberts-led psychological drama, Guillermo del Toro’s long-gestating "Frankenstein," and a return from auteur Yorgos Lanthimos with Emma Stone.
The autumn schedule opens on Sept. 19 with the rom-com "A Big Bold Beautiful Journey," which pairs Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell as two singles who meet at a wedding and are swept together on a fate-driven odyssey. The film’s ensemble also reportedly includes Jodie Turner-Smith, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Kelly Klein.
Dwayne Johnson headlines the Oct. 3 release "The Smashing Machine," a biographical sports drama portraying former wrestler and MMA fighter Mark Kerr. The film, which premiered to a prolonged standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival, co-stars Emily Blunt as Kerr’s then-wife and Ryan Bader as a rival-turned-mentor.
On Oct. 10, director Luca Guadagnino returns with "After the Hunt," a psychological drama starring Julia Roberts as a Yale professor whose life is shaken when a student accuses a colleague of sexual assault. The story is reported to explore professional and personal repercussions that bring past secrets to light.
"Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere" arrives Oct. 24 with Jeremy Allen White portraying Springsteen on the cusp of global fame during the creation of "Nebraska." The cast is reported to include Jeremy Strong as manager Jon Landau and Stephen Graham as Springsteen’s father.
A trio of films is scheduled for Nov. 7. Guillermo del Toro’s long-gestating passion project "Frankenstein" is set for release and features Oscar Isaac and Mia Goth among the principal cast, with Jacob Elordi in a prominent role. Also on Nov. 7 is "Bugonia," an absurdist black comedy directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and starring Emma Stone as a high-profile CEO targeted by conspiracy theorists, a film that reportedly earned recognition at Venice. The same day sees Lynne Ramsay’s "Die My Love," a psychological thriller starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson about a couple struggling with postpartum depression after the birth of their child.
Stephen King’s dystopian tale is adapted in "The Running Man," due Nov. 14, with Glen Powell as Ben, a man who enters a televised survival competition to save his sick daughter. The film follows contestants known as Runners who must survive being hunted by assassins while the event is broadcast to a mass audience.
The holiday season includes "Wicked: For Good" on Nov. 21, the second film in the musical prequel series that continues the story of Elphaba and Glinda, played by Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande, and the closing-year spectacle "Avatar: Fire and Ash" on Dec. 19, which reunites Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver and Kate Winslet.
Exhibitors and audiences will see a mix of awards-season hopefuls and commercial blockbusters across the autumn calendar. Several titles arrive fresh from film festival play or carry awards-season buzz, while franchise entries are positioned for holiday box-office draws. The slate underscores studios’ seasonal strategy of balancing prestige pictures with mass-appeal spectacles as the industry heads toward year-end releases and awards consideration.