Hamaguchi, Fincher and a Godzilla Sequel: November's 15 Must-See Films

Ryusuke Hamaguchi's All of a Sudden, the Cannes Best Actress winner for Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto, tops The Film Stage's ranked list of 15 films opening in November 2026. It's a crowded month. The site's preview calls it a continuation of a "staggering October," with Sundance's top award winners, international offerings and "a concert doc for the ages" all landing before Thanksgiving.

What's at the top of the list?

Hamaguchi's latest arrives November 25, and the site's critic Leonardo Goi doesn't hold back. "Few directors working today have so consistently and perceptively interrogated the possibilities and limits of language," Goi wrote in his Critic's Pick review from Cannes, calling it "the most humanist of Hamaguchi's features." The film shifts that inquiry toward the body, shot by Alan Guichaoua. The Film Stage argues there may be no living filmmaker on a better run, citing Happy Hour, Drive My Car and Evil Does Not Exist.

At number two sits Paul Thomas Anderson's Cameron Winter at Carnegie Hall (November 20), shot on 35mm and premiered at this year's New York Film Festival. The site describes framing that is "affectionately timeless and fittingly playful," with sound recorded by producer Ariel Rechtshaid. It calls the film one of 2026's essential cinematic experiences.

James Gray's Paper Tiger (November 13) takes third place. Adam Driver, Miles Teller and Scarlett Johansson deliver "a trio of the year's finest performances" in the New York crime drama, lensed by returning cinematographer Joaquín Baca-Asay.

Which heavy hitters return this month?

Andrey Zvyagintsev's Minotaur (November 20) marks his first feature since 2017's Loveless, after severe COVID and exile in Paris. The Cannes Grand Prix winner was shot entirely in Latvia. Goi calls it "Zvyagintsev's most searing indictment yet" of the Putin regime, comparing it to Sergei Loznitsa's Two Prosecutors.

David Fincher directs a Quentin Tarantino script, The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth (November 25 in theaters, December 23 on Netflix). The 1977-set drama gets an IMAX-exclusive Thanksgiving run. The site notes the film arrives "with a peculiarly muted buzz" — a Tarantino-Fincher pairing would have caused fervor 20 years ago.

Takashi Yamazaki follows his Oscar-winning Godzilla Minus One with Godzilla Minus Zero (November 6), a sequel whose villains include the American military and the kaiju Ghidorah. Martin McDonagh reunites with John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell for Wild Horse Nine (November 6), his first film since 2022's The Banshees of Inisherin.

Pedro Almodóvar's Bitter Christmas (November 13) reaches North America after Spain and Cannes. Alistair Ryder's verdict: "It will be nobody's favorite Almodóvar film, but offers some simple delights because it might be the most Almodóvar film."

What about the festival winners?

The Sundance slate lands hard. Josephine by Beth de Araújo, this year's top Sundance winner, opens November 20, starring Mason Reeves in a debut performance alongside Channing Tatum. Nuisance Bear, winner of the US Grand Jury Prize for Documentary, follows a polar bear's migration through Churchill, Manitoba, with narration by Inuit storyteller Mike Tunalaaq Gibbons.

Jordan Firstman's Club Kid (November 6) opened in Un Certain Regard at Cannes. Rory O'Connor wrote that it feels "less the work of a dilettante than a natural."

The rest of the list:

• Mouse (Alex Thompson and Kelly O'Sullivan, Nov. 6), the Berlinale standout starring Sophie Okonedo and David Hyde Pierce
• When a Witness Recants (Dawn Porter, Nov. 17 on HBO Max), on three men who spent nearly four decades imprisoned for a murder they didn't commit, backed by Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Kogonada's zi (Nov. 6), shot secretly in Hong Kong
• Zachary Wigon's Victorian Psycho (Nov. 13), with Maika Monroe and Ruth Wilson

Additional November releases include Being Heumann (Nov. 6 in theaters, Nov. 13 on Apple TV), Yeon Sang-ho's Paradise Lost, I Play Rocky, Elsinore (Nov. 20) and 14th (Nov. 27 in theaters, Dec. 4 on Netflix). The site also flags several one-week awards-qualifying runs, deferring coverage to their proper 2027 theatrical releases.