The most anticipated movies of the holiday season

With the holiday movie season underway, that means a rush of Oscar contenders in theaters. This holiday movie guide will help you sort through the clutter.

Note: Opening dates are subject to change.

‘Ella McCay’

Dec. 12, PG-13. After a 15-year hiatus, Oscar-winning writer-director James L. Brooks (“Terms of Endearment”) delivers a dramedy centering on a 34-year-old lieutenant governor (Emma Mackey), who steps into the role of governor when her predecessor (Albert Brooks) resigns. Ella’s sudden advancement occurs against a swirl of family drama involving her father (Woody Harrelson), mother (Rebecca Hall), aunt (Jamie Lee Curtis), husband (Jack Lowden) and younger brother (Spike Fearn).

‘Goodbye June’

Dec. 12, available Dec. 24 on Netflix, R. Four estranged adult siblings (Kate Winslet, Toni Collette, Johnny Flynn and Andrea Riseborough) and their exasperating father (Timothy Spall) are brought together just before Christmas when the family’s ailing matriarch (Helen Mirren) takes a turn for the worse. Winslet makes her directorial debut here, working from a screenplay her 21-year-old son, Joe Anders, drafted for a writing class. “He was like, ‘Mum, it’s not supposed to be a real thing,’” Winslet told the Mirror, “and I was like, ‘Well, it’s going to be a real thing, and this is what we’re going to do, so let’s literally write down who are our dream people to play these parts.’”

‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’

Dec. 19, PG-13. The 21st-century version of the movie disclaimer has arrived: “No generative AI was used in the making of this film.” (I first spotted this at the end of last year’s “Heretic.”) Now director James Cameron has announced, without irony, that the third installment of his sci-fi franchise — as notable for its heavy use of CGI as for its clunky dialogue — will boast a similar pledge. Set on the fictional moon Pandora, one year after “The Way of Water,” “Fire and Ash” introduces a new villain: Varang (Oona Chaplin), a violent and vengeful sorceress from the Mangkwan, or Ash, clan. Also starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang and more.

‘The Housemaid’

Dec. 19, R. Based on novelist Freida McFadden’s twisty 2022 bestseller, this psychological thriller from director Paul Feig centers on tensions between Millie (Sydney Sweeney), a live-in housekeeper with a criminal past; Millie’s unstable new boss, Nina (Amanda Seyfried); and Nina’s creepy husband (Brandon Sklenar). Feig has described the chemistry between Sweeney and Seyfried as “through the roof.”

‘The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants’

Dec. 19, PG. The fourth animated feature based on Nickelodeon’s absurdist undersea series is also the first U.S. theatrical release for the franchise in 10 years, with 2020’s “Sponge on the Run” going straight to Netflix. The new story follows SpongeBob (voice of Tom Kenny) and sidekick Patrick Star (Bill Fagerbakke) as they venture to the underworld to confront a recurring nemesis: the ghostly Flying Dutchman (voice of Mark Hamill, replacing regular Brian Doyle-Murray). Series veteran Derek Drymon handles directing duties in the absence of creator (and marine biologist) Stephen Hillenburg, who died in 2018.

‘Anaconda’

Dec. 25, PG-13. Full disclosure: Amid all the prestige, Oscar-baity holiday fare, this is probably the movie I am most excited about. (Have I lost all credibility yet?) Paul Rudd and Jack Black play childhood best friends who, in the midst of midlife crises, decide to remake their favorite movie: the 1997 reptile creature feature “Anaconda.” Thandiwe Newton and Steve Zahn play friends assisting on the jungle set, where an accident involving a prop snake forces the filmmakers to seek out a larger, much scarier one. The duo behind the well-received “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent,” director Tom Gormican and co-writer Kevin Etten, reteam here, in a second attempt to strike meta-comedy gold.

‘Is This Thing On?’

Dec. 25, R. As with “A Star Is Born” and “Maestro,” Bradley Cooper pulls double duty in this dramedy, directing and performing as the best friend of Will Arnett’s protagonist, Alex Novak, a troubled man who accidentally discovers the therapeutic benefits of stand-up after stumbling into an open mic night as his marriage falls apart. Early reviews laud the naturalistic performances of Arnett and Laura Dern, who plays Alex’s wife, in a story loosely based on the life of English comedian John Bishop. (Arnett, who met Bishop at a dinner party, co-wrote the screenplay with Cooper and TV writer Mark Chappell, who worked with Arnett on “Flaked.”)

‘The Choral’

Dec. 25, R. From writer Alan Bennett and director Nicholas Hytner, the distinguished British filmmakers behind “The Madness of King George,” “The History Boys” and “The Lady in the Van,” comes the story of an atheist music director (Ralph Fiennes) who must use creative measures to assemble a competent church choir in the midst of World War II. The Guardian calls it “a quiet and consistent pleasure: an unsentimental but deeply felt drama which subcontracts actual passion to the music of Elgar and leaves us with a heartbeat of wit, poignancy and common sense.”

‘Marty Supreme’

Dec. 25, R. Director and co-writer Josh Safdie, one half of the now-defunct sibling filmmaking duo behind “Uncut Gems,” makes his solo feature debut with a story about a cocksure table tennis prodigy (Timothée Chalamet) intent on proving his greatness in a disrespected sport. Loosely inspired by the career of real-life table tennis pro Marty Reisman, the film garnered early raves after a surprise screening at the New York Film Festival and was born out of Safdie’s childhood obsession with the sport.

‘Song Sung Blue’

Dec. 25, PG-13. An obscure 2008 documentary about Milwaukee husband and wife Mike and Claire Sardina, who in the late 1980s and 1990s performed as the Neil Diamond tribute act Lightning & Thunder, won both the audience and grand jury prize for documentary at that year’s Slamdance Film Festival. So it’s a little surprising that it’s hard — but not impossible — to find Greg Kohs’ nonfiction feature on streaming. But “Song Sung Blue” made an impression on Craig Brewer. The “Hustle & Flow” director first caught the film at the 2009 Indie Memphis Film Festival and decided to turn it into a narrative feature starring Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson. The Hollywood Reporter calls “Song,” which charts the couple’s relationship and career triumphs and tribulations, “a sweet serve of feel-sad, feel-glad corn done right.”

‘The Plague’

Jan. 2, R. Inspired by source material like “The Shining” and “Full Metal Jacket,” writer-director Charlie Polinger’s debut screenplay — a psychological thriller set at a boys’ summer water polo camp — caught the attention, via Polinger’s agent, of actor-director Joel Edgerton. The filmmaker (“Boy Erased”) immediately wanted to direct it himself. But Polinger, who based the film on his personal experiences, demurred. Edgerton ultimately agreed to take a small part and produce. Edgerton “basically just said, ‘Look, I’m happy to produce the film and act in the film, and do anything I can to help get this made,’” Polinger told IndieWire.