From Thom Yorke’s Shakespearean score to 25 years of Tate Modern, Bridget Jones to Leigh Bowery, our writers anticipate the most exciting shows, releases and events of the yearAmerican auteurs returnA new film from one of the heavy hitters of US cinema is always cause for celebration, and with projects from Kathryn Bigelow, Noah Baumbach and Paul Thomas Anderson on the horizon, there’s plenty to whet cineaste appetites in the coming year.Details on all three are scant at the moment.Kathryn Bigelow’s film, her first since Detroit in 2017, is a political thriller set in the White House, following staffers as they scramble to respond to an imminent missile strike on America.The cast includes Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson and Jared Harris.Even less is known about Noah Baumbach’s new film, which, like Bigelow’s, is a Netflix production.

Baumbach’s recent work includes the adaptation of Don DeLillo’s White Noise, and a co-writer credit on Barbie.This one, which Baumbach co-wrote with Emily Mortimer, has a starry cast: George Clooney, Adam Sandler, Jim Broadbent, Isla Fisher and Laura Dern are among the names listed on the credits of a picture described as being a “funny and emotional coming-of-age film about adults”.Perhaps the most hotly anticipated of all is Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest, which is currently untitled but had the working title of The Battle of Baktan Cross.Unsubstantiated rumours suggest that it might be an adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s 1990 novel Vineland (Anderson previously adapted another Pynchon novel, Inherent Vice, in 2014).What we know for certain is that the film is scheduled for release in August and stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Regina Hall, Benicio Del Toro, Teyana Taylor and Anderson’s Licorice Pizza star Alana Haim.

Wendy IdeThe Gallaghers get it togetherThe guns fell silent,The stars aligned,Not seen on a stage together since 2009 – the year Barack Obama became the first black president of the US, Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swift and Bitcoin was launched – the warring Gallagher brothers are set to finally reunite this summer for a tour marking the 30th anniversary of their 1995 album, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?,It would not be an Oasis endeavour without controversy,Already marred by outrage and inquiries over “dynamic pricing” and Liam Gallagher’s initial surly, on-brand reaction to fans’ complaints – plus accusations of gatekeeping by grouchy old-timers bemoaning the pressure on tickets from younger fans – the Oasis reunion looks set to remain a talking point from here to July and beyond.

Did Noel Gallagher’s costly divorce change his mind? Do we have Liam Gallagher to thank for keeping the spirit of Oasis alive through his more recent solo success? Will it be the set list people want – first two albums, back to-back, cheers, as you were – or will fans have to endure late-career filler? Answers may be forthcoming at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium on 4 July.Kitty EmpireBlockbusters and big statementsThe suspended drama and mystery of Sienese painting finally has its due in the National Gallery’s long-awaited Siena: The Rise of Painting 1300-1350 (8 March-22 June).This is art’s golden moment, when bodies step into motion and faces become expressive; when stories begin to stream across exquisitely coloured panels.Jointly organised with the Met in New York, and including masterpieces by Duccio, Martini and Lorenzetti, this is the revelatory blockbuster of the year.Tate Modern turns 25, celebrating with the return of Louise Bourgeois’s monumental spider Maman, which towered over the Turbine Hall when the building first opened a quarter of a century ago.

The British Museum is mounting the first Hiroshige show in its entire history, with enthralling woodblock prints of Edo Japan, including snowfall over Fuji, the famous Sudden Shower over Shin-Ōhashi Bridge and Atake, and bustling shops, boats in full sail and eagles in flight.Advance booking is definitely required for Hiroshige: Artist of the Open Road (1 May-7 September).It feels as if I have been waiting my whole life for a Millet retrospective, and I may have to wait a bit longer.But the National Gallery’s Millet: Life on the Land (7 August-19 October) is a strong start, centring on the intensely moving L’Angélus, borrowed from Paris.Toil and harvest, labour, dusk and loss: the great poet-painter of French peasants.

And anyone who thinks of Munch as a hardcore miserabilist will be astonished by his Portraits at the National Portrait Gallery (13 March-15 June).Depicting lovers, artists, writers, patrons, even proud plutocrats, shy children and big-bellied industrialists, these works are sociable, sunny and dramatically original.Laura CummingMuch ado about ShakespeareIt promises to be springtime for Shakespeare, with a great glut of productions.Most explosively, Hamlet Hail to the Thief is billed as a collision between the Bard and Radiohead, in which a “frenetic distillation” of Shakespeare’s tragedy is infused with a score by Thom Yorke.The production is co-created by Yorke with Steven Hoggett and Christine Jones, who together choreographed and designed Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and Let the Right One In.

Co-produced by Factory International and the Royal Shakespeare Company, the show will be at Aviva Studios in Manchester (27 April-18 May).The elusive, ever-intriguing Luke Thallon will become Hamlet for the RSC in Stratford-upon-Avon (8 February-29 March); Rupert Goold, who worked with Thallon on Patriots, directs.From 10 February-10 May, Jonathan Bailey – of Bridgerton and Wicked – will star, directed by Nicholas Hytner, in Richard II at the Bridge in London.Tom Hiddleston and Hayley Atwell will spar as Benedick and Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, Jamie Lloyd’s latest Shakespearean re-creation, at London’s Theatre Royal Drury Lane (10 February-5 April).At the Theatre Royal Bath, Harriet Walter will redefine the Seven Ages of Man speech when she becomes the sardonic Jaques in Ralph Fiennes’s production of As You Like It (15 August-6 September).

Susannah ClappThomas Vinterberg’s Festen is transformed for the stageBased on the Danish film by Thomas Vinterberg, also a Broadway and West End play, this world premiere of Festen (11-27 February; Royal Ballet and Opera, London) is a commission by composer Mark-Anthony Turnage, with librettist Lee Hall of Billy Elliot fame.The creative lineup includes Edward Gardner, conductor; Richard Jones, director; and a star cast led by Allan Clayton, Stéphane Degout, Gerald Finley, Natalya Romaniw and Rosie Aldridge.Festen – meaning Celebration – centres on a rich family and the patriarch-businessman’s 60th birthday party, at which a secret is revealed.This dark comedy explores issues of violence and abuse, and is sure to be a tense, challenging and gripping evening.Fiona MaddocksCrystal Pite and Simon McBurney’s Figures in ExtinctionFor the past four years, visionary choreographer Crystal Pite has been collaborating with Complicité’s co-founder and artistic director Simon McBurney to create a dance trilogy called Figures in Extinction (Aviva Studios, Manchester; 19-22 February), a meditation on the natural world and our position in it.

The dancers of Nederlands Dans Theater have already brought to the UK Figures in Extinction [1.0], a haunting catalogue of all the species being lost to climate change.The second part, about humanity’s need for connection in a separated world, has only been seen in the Netherlands.Now the entire trilogy, with a newly created final section, comes to Factory International, using video, dance and the spoken word to offer provocation, thoughtfulness and perhaps a little hope.Sarah CromptonReal-life TV talesWe had not one but two dramatisations of Prince Andrew’s calamitous Newsnight interview last year.

Now for a variation on the theme.Brian and Margaret (Channel 4, February) portrays journalist Brian Walden’s infamous 1989 grilling of Margaret Thatcher – a pummelling for which the PM never forgave him.It set in motion events that led to her resignation the following year.The two-part drama has high-class credentials, with Steve Coogan and Harriet Walter as the combatants, James Graham writing and Stephen Frears directing.An equally complex woman is explored in Miss Austen (BBC One, spring).

Marking 250 years since Jane Austen’s birth, this fascinating four-parter, adapted from Gill Hornby’s bestselling literary mystery novel, stars Keeley Hawes as Cassandra Austen, elder sister of Jane.It begins in 1830 and explores why Cassandra burned all of Jane’s personal letters after her death – a decision that has bewildered academics and readers for centuries.Strong support comes from Jessica Hynes and Rose Leslie, while Olivier award-winner Patsy Ferran plays the novelist herself.Michael HoganChalamet channels early Dylan in A Complete UnknownThe buzz surrounding this Bob Dylan biopic by James Mangold – and in particular, the central performance by Timothée Chalamet – suggests that the latter is likely to be the one to beat in the Oscar best actor race.And deservedly so: it’s an uncannily accurate impersonation that captures both that distinctive voice and performance style, and the prickly persona behind the shades and black denim.

Mangold is an old hand when it comes to getting into the skin of notoriously abrasive music legends, having previously profiled Johnny Cash in Walk the Line.Here, Mangold has slightly less booze-sodden chaos and drama to work with, but he vividly evokes the time and the spirit of New York’s early 1960s folk explosion.WIHere come the girls, againIf 2024 was “the year of the woman” – Grammy wins for Boygenius, Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Victoria Monét and SZA; cultural ubiquity for Chappell Roan, Charli XCX and Sabrina Carpenter – 2025 looks set to showcase new work from several female solo talents, both mainstream and outlier.First is Ethel Cain, whose celebrated debut, Preacher’s Daughter (2022), put the southern gothic songwriter on the map.Her second album, Perverts (8 January), is billed a standalone project, full of ambient textures and slow builds.

South African superstar-in-waiting Moonchild Sanelly, meanwhile, melds pop, kwaito and hip-hop on her exuberant third album, Full Moon (10 January), which features tunes about the perils of tequila and flexes like her single Scrambled Eggs.Last year, Sanelly collaborated with Self Esteem on a one-off two-hander, Big Man.Four years on from her acclaimed Prioritise Pleasure album and a successful swerve into acting roles, Self Esteem – AKA Rebecca Lucy Taylor – is finally putting the finishing touches to its “horribly honest” sequel.“It’s not what you think,” she told one interviewer, intriguingly.An “abundance of emotional honesty” also features on Eusexua (24 January), the forthcoming third album by multi-hyphenate FKA twigs, whose sound is partly inspired by eastern European techno.

Songs released so far, including Perfect Stranger, hint at a mainstream breakthrough,Lana Del Rey’s long-awaited country-tinged album, previously known as Lasso, is now called The Right Person Will Stay,It arrives in May, shortly before Del Rey hits the UK for a stadium tour in late June,KEAll eyes on Bradford“Overlooked” and “underestimated” were words that cropped up many times three years ago when Bradford won the bid to become the UK’s city of culture 2025; now, the West Yorkshire town has a chance to prove its merits,The programme certainly looks promising.

It kicks off on 10 January with an open-air extravaganza in City Park called RISE, weaving together music and wizardry from local magician Steven Frayne (formerly known as Dynamo).Also this month, striking photographs by Ethiopian artist Aïda Muluneh go on show at Impressions gallery, while the National Science and Media Museum is reopening following a £6m development and will present David Hockney: Pieced Together, exploring the Bradford-born artist’s use of film and photography.Hockney also supports DRAW!, a nationwide project encouraging drawing for all ages.The Akram Khan Company comes to Bradford to perform Jungle Book reimagined at the Alhambra theatre, repositioning Mowgli as a refugee during the climate crisis, and Asian Dub Foundation will unleash their soundtrack to French thriller La Haine live at St George’s Hall on 15 January.Killian FoxIn celebration of the outlandishly inventive Leigh BoweryLeigh Bowery was the most influential performance artist of the late 20th century, a colossal figure of huge inventiveness.

Born in Australia in 1961, Bowery was already storming London by his early 20s with outlandish drag, bizarre scenarios and grotesque makeup.Standing 1.91 metres (6ft 3in) without his soaring platforms, he was described by his friend Boy George as “modern art on legs”.Tate Modern’s Leigh Bowery! (27 February-31 August) presents him through photographs, films and interviews, and, of course, Lucian Freud’s famous nude portraits.Expect a nightclub inside a museum, with special emphasis on Bowery’s costumes, performances and collaborations with RuPaul, Andrew Logan, Trojan, Lady Bunny and Michael Clark.

This embrace of a brief but fearlessly wild life promises to be a spectacular exhibition.LCThe Greeks are in townGreek tragedy is shaking up the London theatre, helping to change the idea of a West End play.From 24 January-12 April, Brie Larson (Captain Marvel) stars as Elektra at the Duke of York’s.Daniel Fish – director of a revelatory production of Oklahoma! – will stage the play via a translation by the poet and classicist Anne Carson.Robert Icke’s adaptation of Oedipus was one of last year’s theatrical highlights.

Now Ella Hickson, author of The Writer, has written a new version of Sophocles’s drama, which can be seen at the Old Vic from 21 January-29 March.Co-directed by Matthew Warchus and Hofesh Shechter, it will star Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody) and Indira Varma (Present Laughter).SClReturning dramasWe can look forward to a whole host of much-loved dramas coming back for more in 2025.It’s been a nine-year wait for The Night Manager (BBC One, summer) but Tom Hiddleston finally returns as John le Carré’s hotel worker turned spook.Just as excitingly, Olivia Colman joins him again as Foreign Office spymaster Angela Burr.

Highly contrasting but also hotel-based is The White Lotus (Sky Atlantic, 17 February).The third series of the spa resort satire is set in Thailand, with Jason Isaacs, Walton Goggins and Carrie Coon among the western guests in search of eastern spirituality.Two of Netflix’s biggest hits are back to give a timely boost to the streamer.Tim Burton’s gothic teen fantasy Wednesday dances back for season two (Netflix, spring), complete with Lady Gaga cameo.The fifth and final season of Stranger Things (Netflix, summer) promises to be epic, following the final battle for Hawkins in 1987.

Cue Kate Bush.Waffle parties all round, because acclaimed sci-fi head-scratcher Severance (Apple TV+, 17 January) clocks on for another office shift at the sinister Lumon Industries.HBO’s hit video game adaptation, The Last of Us (Sky Atlantic, spring) jumps forward five years to revisit zombie apocalypse survivors Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey.Finally, any orders for a fourth course of The Bear (Disney+, June)? Yes, chef.Even if the third serving disappointed some diners.

MHBurmese activist Htein Lin’s creativity in captivityBurmese painter, performance artist and activist Htein Lin’s work is rarely shown in this country.Many of his narrative paintings and prints draw on his six years as a political prisoner in a Myanmar jail, following his activism in the 1988 student uprising.The Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, will be showing many of these works, made on prison uniforms and scraps of coarse canvas, along with films of his courageous performances, some of them made in prison for fellow inmates.Lin is also working with inmates in HMP Grendon, Buckinghamshire during the course of this show.LCBridget Jones is back for a fourth feature in Mad About the BoyEveryone’s favourite klutzy serial dieter returns for a fourth instalment of pratfalls and romantic travails.

Bridget (Renée Zellweger reprises the role) has endured more than her fair share of upheaval and tragedy over the near quarter of a century since the first film.We rejoin her as a widowed fiftysomething single mother who is dipping her toe back into the shark-infested waters of the dating pool.Suitors include a man 20 years her junior (One Day star Leo Woodall plays the improbably named Roxster McDuff) and a teacher at her son’s school (Chiwetel Ejiofor).The good news for those who mourned his absence in the previous film is that Hugh Grant returns as slippery cad Daniel Cleaver.WIThe long-awaited debut album from one of UK hip-hop’s biggest namesAlbums may not be the definitive statements they once were, but Central Cee is probably the most important UK hip-hop artist without an official debut release.

In 2023, his Dave-assisted track Sprinter broke records for a UK rap release due to its tenure at No 1.He has won best male artist at the Mobos twice, and in 2024, the west London driller collaborated with Ice Spice, Lil Baby and J Cole, taking his unapologetically British rhymes – about his past as a dealer and his love life – international.Previous mixtapes (Wild West and 23) have charted high, but Cee’s very long-awaited album, Can’t Rush Greatness, finally drops on 24 January.KEThe ENO and WNO strike backLaunching soon are two key shows from the English National Opera and Welsh National Opera, companies facing uncertainty and upheaval.ENO is honouring the admired Scottish-American composer Thea Musgrave (b.

1928) with her 1977 opera Mary, Queen of Scots (15-18 February).Action focuses on the widowed Mary’s return to Scotland from France, until she flees to England hoping for protection from Elizabeth I.Directed and designed by Stewart Laing, conducted by Joana Carneiro, it stars soprano Heidi Stober as Mary, with tenor Nicky Spence as the Earl of Bothwell.Expect period Highlands atmosphere, a vivid and melodic score, passion and treachery.Spence then takes the title role for WNO in Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes (5 April-7 June; Cardiff and on tour), the tragic tale of a lonely fisherman outsider and one of the 20th-century’s operatic masterpieces