I know that December seems really far away, especially since most of the country is sweltering, and while I’m sure I will hate my winter coat and my boots by December, I sure won’t hate the AMAZING women that are going to onscreen that month.

Each year a kind of narrative emerges surrounding the Oscars. Two years ago it was Kathryn Bigelow and the first woman to win best director and last year it was the battle of the men: The Social Network vs The King’s Speech. I know we also had Black Swan, and Winter’s Bone held strong through the awards season, but maybe this year the talk about women won’t only be the talk about the performances, it will also be about the movies they are in.

Movies that have strong female performances usually get noticed for their strong female performances and that’s where most of them get stuck, especially if they are directed by women. But who knows, this year could be different. Maybe some of these performances by the women will propel a movie that has many good parts into the Oscar best picture race. I remain optimistic since it’s July and nothing has been seen yet. By mid September things will change. But as of this moment one of the strongest things about this fall will be the great women on screen.

Back to December. Every week there is a movie that I can’t wait to see.

We Need to Talk About Kevin — directed by Lynne Ramsey — December 2
Young Adult — Charlize Theron — written by Diablo Cody — December 9
The Iron Lady- directed by Phyllida Lloyd — December 16
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo — December 21

And also we can’t forget there is My Week with Marilyn coming out November 4. WE which is directed by Madonna and starring Abbie Cornish comes out on December 9. Albert Nobbs starring Glenn Close doesn’t have a release date but will come out this year after premiering in Toronto and another one to watch without distribution is The Lady a biopic on Aung San Suu Kyi.

What I also love about the films is that these are some tough ass women. Not your happy go lucky upbeat women who take care of everyone. Not all of them are likeable and that’s going to challenge audiences which is so great.

So while you are slogging through the heat of the rest of the summer keep in mind that in a few months we will be living in a world where two 60 year old plus women — Glenn Close as a woman pretending to be a man and Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher — will be duking it out with many others for those coveted Oscar slots. That alone is exciting. Can’t wait.