Tom Holland is having quite a month. He appears in two of July's most anticipated releases, one as the newest iteration of your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man, and the other as the son of Matt Damon's Odysseus in Christopher Nolan's most ambitious film yet. Between those two events alone, July already has the feel of a month worth paying attention to. But there is plenty more beyond them, from gory horror to a Disney live-action remake, a streaming debut from one of the year's best science fiction films, and a Victorian mystery from the director of Adolescence. Here are the ten films to keep on your radar this month.
1. Evil Dead Burn, In Cinemas From 8 July
Sam Raimi's Evil Dead franchise came roaring back in 2023 with Evil Dead Rise. Now there is Evil Dead Burn, directed by Sébastian Vaniček, who stated in Variety that his goal was to craft a powerful, singular, almost personal story that could stand on its own while still resonating deeply within the rich, complex world that Sam Raimi has built. The film stars Souheila Yacoub as a woman who goes to dinner with her late husband's family shortly after he dies in a car accident. It's already uncomfortable. Then the family starts mutating into demonic zombies called Deadites. Vaniček wants audiences to feel physically drained when they leave. Given the franchise's track record, that seems achievable.
2. The Odyssey, In Cinemas From 15 July
Christopher Nolan's latest is a near three-hour adaptation of Homer's Odyssey, shot entirely on 70mm IMAX film, the first feature film ever to do so. Matt Damon plays Odysseus, the king of Ithaca, making the long and dangerous journey home to his wife Penelope, played by Anne Hathaway, after the Trojan War. The star-studded cast also includes Charlize Theron, Robert Pattinson, Zendaya, Tom Holland, and Lupita Nyong'o. Damon described it on 60 Minutes as the most ambitious thing Nolan has ever attempted, which is saying something from the man who made Inception and Oppenheimer. IMAX screenings are selling out fast. Book early.
3. Spider-Man: Brand New Day, In Cinemas From 29 July
This is the fourth Spider-Man film with Tom Holland, but it genuinely is a new start, the first chapter of a proposed new trilogy. Destin Daniel Cretton, who directed Shang-Chi, takes over from Jon Watts. Peter Parker finds himself in a situation where, following a spell cast by Doctor Strange, none of his friends remember that he exists. Cretton described it as that time in your mid-twenties when the harsh realities of life slap you in the face, and Peter, for the first time, has to deal with his problems entirely on his own. He also has to deal with the Hulk, the Punisher, and a gang of ninja assassins. As fresh starts go, it is a complicated one.
4. Enola Holmes 3, Netflix From 1 July
Millie Bobby Brown returns as Sherlock Holmes's younger sister in a chapter written by Jack Thorne and directed by Philip Barantini, the team behind Adolescence. Enola is now a grown woman about to marry Lord Tewkesbury, played by Louis Partridge, but Sherlock, played by Henry Cavill, has been kidnapped, and she has to rescue him with the help of Watson, played by Himesh Patel, and their mother, played by Helena Bonham Carter. Thorne noted the film also works as a Victorian history lesson, this time examining British colonial history. Henry Cavill, clearly busy across multiple franchises, is as watchable as ever.
5. Minions and Monsters, In Cinemas From 1 July
The seventh Despicable Me film places the yellow Minions in 1920s Hollywood, where they decide to make their own monster movie, which means venturing to a remote island to find a real live monster. Director Pierre Coffin told Empire that all the Minions material is heavily inspired by silent movie stars, because the point is that you don't understand them when they speak, but you understand them nonetheless. The setting gives the franchise's love of slapstick a new and surprisingly well-suited home. Already tracking toward the billion-dollar mark globally.
6. Moana, In Cinemas From 8 July
Disney's live-action Moana is unusual among the studio's remakes: the original animated film was released only ten years ago, and Dwayne Johnson, who voiced the demigod Maui in the cartoon, plays him again in person. Director Thomas Kail, who comes from theatre, argued that the idea of taking a text and letting it evolve is entirely natural, and promised a film with significant new dialogue, new jokes, and genuine reasons to see it beyond nostalgia. Whether it needs to exist is a fair question. Whether it will be entertaining is a safer bet.
7. Project Hail Mary, Prime Video From 3 July
Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and based on Andy Weir's novel, Project Hail Mary stars Ryan Gosling as Ryland Grace, a middle school teacher and former biologist who wakes aboard an interstellar spacecraft with no memory of how he got there. He is tasked with saving the world from a substance that is slowly dimming the sun. Along the way, he meets a being from another planet facing exactly the same problem.
BBC Culture named it one of the best films of 2026, touching, inspiring and surprisingly fun, with Gosling bringing all of his goofball charm to an amnesiac biologist trying to save everything. Arrives on Prime Video after a hugely successful theatrical run.
8. Hamnet, Netflix From July
Chloé Zhao's adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's bestselling novel stars Jessie Buckley in an Oscar-winning performance as Agnes, wife of William Shakespeare, played by Paul Mescal. Set during the bubonic plague in 1580s England, the film follows the couple as they grapple with the devastating loss of their young son.
It earned eight Oscar nominations including Best Picture and Best Director. Buckley is heartbreaking throughout. One of the most quietly devastating films of the year, now available at home.
9. The Drama, Streaming From July
Zendaya and Robert Pattinson star in this A24 dark comedy written and directed by Kristoffer Borgli. In the week before their wedding, one half of the couple reveals their deepest, darkest secret to friends at dinner, and the relationship unravels in ways neither of them expected. It drew intense audience reactions when it hit cinemas earlier in the year, some found it brilliant, others found it deeply uncomfortable. Both reactions suggest it is doing exactly what it intended. Zendaya, Pattinson, and Borgli together is a combination worth investigating.
10. Blue Heron, Selected Cinemas
Canadian filmmaker Sophy Romvari's quite miraculous first feature has been named one of the best films of 2026 so far. It extracts both devastating drama and a radically inventive formal inquiry into the boundaries between memory, memoir and imagination, wearing its ambitions with humility, and its broken heart with a gauze of wise, measured perspective. It does not lead with trauma, but with richly specific domestic detail and a vivid awareness of how children see and process the world around them.
It is the quietest film on this list and the one most likely to stay with you after everything else has faded. In a month that belongs largely to blockbusters, this is the reminder that cinema can do something else entirely.