Coraline (May 8)

One of the first new 3-D films on the runway, it’s based on the bestseller by Neil Gaiman about a bored little girl who finds an alternate home full of lovely food and furnishings. But her family have been replaced by button-eyed lookalikes . . . If you think 3-D is overrated, think again. This is a brilliantly inventive visual treat, though perhaps a tad too scary for very young children.

Synecdoche, New York (May 15)

Charlie Kaufman, screenwriter of Adaptation and Being John Malkovich, moves behind the camera for the first time. If you like his surreal, brain-wrenching scenarios peopled by the world’s greatest character actors, you will love this one, in which theatre director Caden (Philip Seymour Hoffman) creates a giant “set” in an NYC warehouse that’s a facsimile of his actual world, and starts developing an epic play about his life. But soon fiction and reality merge. Samantha Morton, Emily Watson and a host of others excel.

Terminator Salvation (June 3)

McG takes on the mighty franchise for its first big-screen outing sans Arnie. It’s now 2018, and a grown-up John Connor (Christian Bale) has arrived at the hellish future he was fated to save from the evil machinations of Skynet. He meets a stranger (Aussie Sam Worthington): man or machine? Do we care? Just bring on the mayhem. Terminator Salvation trailer

Katyn (June 19)

Leading Polish director Andrzej Wajda lost his father in the Soviet massacre of Polish officers and soldiers in Katyn forest in 1940. His film is a powerful re-creation of the event.

Rudo y Cursi (June 26)

Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna play brothers from a poor background, one an aspiring musician, the other a wannabe football star. Both end up on the books of a leading soccer talent scout, but, with success and money, their friendship teeters. A must for Y Tu Mama Tambien lovers.

Public Enemies (July 3)

Johnny Depp teams up with masterly director Michael Mann for the first time, as John Dillinger, America’s first Public Enemy No 1. Pitted against J Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup), Dillinger is nevertheless a folk hero to a public worn down by the Depression. It all ends badly, of course. In the cast are, as his glamorous girlfriend, Piaf’s Marion Cotillard, and, as the agent on his trail, the inevitable Christian Bale. Public Enemies trailer

Brüno (July 10)

Sacha Baron Cohen is set to become America’s Most Wanted all over again. Conservative folk will howl as Brüno, his gay Austrian fashionista character, cuts swathes through their sensitivities; the rest will howl for a different reason as he subverts a chat show, invades a Milan catwalk and grapples with his former lover in an extreme-fighting bout, where the (real) punters turn hunter, baying for his blood. Bruno trailer

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (July 17)

Finally, the penultimate chapter, with a really big shock-horror number as its climax, and rising levels of teenage romantic crises. Joining the usual ensemble will be two more excellent British actors, Jim Broadbent as new potions master Horace Slughorn, and Helen McCrory as boo-hiss Mrs Malfoy. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince trailer

Inglourious Basterds (Aug 21)

What can you say about a film that casts Rod Taylor as Winston Churchill and spans the thespian universe from Brad Pitt to Mike Myers? Only that it’s a Quentin Tarantino film and, by the sound of it, an ungodly mix of The Dirty Dozen and Theatre of Blood. Inglourious Basterds trailer

Broken Embraces (Aug 28)

Being talked about as Almodovar’s best in ages, this is the story of a film-maker blinded in a terrible car crash that claimed the life of his lover; 14 years later, he is a successful screenwriter, but the memory of his loss still haunts him. Starring Penelope Cruz.

Correction: In a previous version of this article, it was wrongly stated that Katyn was about the German massacre of Polish officers. The massacre was, in fact, by Soviet troops. We apologise for the error.

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