As the end of the year approaches, a number of promising films are set to premiere and make your spirits bright. December starts off with a spate of exciting releases, including “The Shape of Water,” which stars Sally Hawkins as a mute woman who befriends a mysterious aquatic creature being held in the laboratory in which she works. Also premiering on December 1 is “The Tribes of Palos Verdes,” a touching family drama starring Maika Monroe as a teen who takes up surfing in order to cope with her fractured home life.
“I, Tonya,” out December 8, is a star-studded biopic about disgraced Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding. The TIFF darling features performances from Margot Robbie and Allison Janney. “Permanent,” which premieres December 15, tells the story of an eccentric ‘80s family that struggles with fitting in, standing out, and having bad hair. Also in theaters December 15 is “The Last Jedi,” the latest addition to the “Star Wars” franchise. Daisy Ridley will again take center stage as her character, Rey, learns about her powers and her background.
The month will close out with a slew of highly-anticipated films. On December 22 we’ll see the return of the Barden Bellas as they go on a European tour in Trish Sie’s “Pitch Perfect 3.” “The Post,” also out December 22, tells the true story of famed Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham (Meryl Streep) as she and editor Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks) race to break the story of a massive government cover-up. Finally, “Molly’s Game,” the Jessica Chastain-starrer about a former Olympian who begins a high-stakes, underground poker ring, opens on Christmas Day.
Here are all of the women-centric, women-directed, and women-written films debuting in December. All descriptions are from press materials unless otherwise noted.
December 1
“The Shape of Water” — Co-Written by Vanessa Taylor (Opens in NY; Opens in LA December 8)
Elisa (Sally Hawkins) is a mute, isolated woman who works as a cleaning lady in a hidden, high-security government laboratory in 1962 Baltimore. Her life changes forever when she discovers the lab’s classified secret — a mysterious, scaled creature from South America that lives in a water tank. As Elisa develops a unique bond with her new friend, she soon learns that its fate and very survival lies in the hands of a hostile government agent and a marine biologist.
“The Tribes of Palos Verdes” — Written by Karen Croner (Also Available on VOD)
When teenager Medina (Maika Monroe) moves with her family to the picture-postcard perfect paradise of Palos Verdes, California, they seem headed for a happy new chapter in their lives. But old troubles soon catch up to them, as Medina’s parents’ marriage disintegrates, her mother (Jennifer Garner) spirals into an emotional free fall, and her twin brother (Cody Fern) turns to drugs. Caught in the middle of it all, Medina must rely on her inner strength to become the stabilizing force in her family, while finding refuge in a new passion: surfing.
“Love Beats Rhymes” — Written by Nicole Jefferson Asher (Also Available on VOD)
When struggling rapper Coco (Azealia Banks) enrolls in a poetry class, she thinks her rhymes will impress her teacher, Professor Dixon (Jill Scott). Instead, Dixon challenges Coco to seek real meaning in her lyrics, setting her on a journey of discovery that takes her to rap clubs and poetry slams, leading her to find her true voice — and true love.
“Daisy Winters” — Written and Directed by Beth LaMure
“Daisy Winters” is about an 11-year-old girl’s unconventional, yet deeply loving relationship with her mother and what happens when this essential mother-daughter bond is harshly broken. Along her journey, including her quest to discover her father, the courageous, resourceful, and precocious Daisy (Sterling Jerins) learns about embracing every moment with determination and an unrelenting belief in herself.
“The Dancer” — Directed by Stéphanie Di Giusto; Written by Stéphanie Di Giusto and Sarah Thiebaud
In 1887, after the death of her father, 25-year-old Marie-Louise (Soko) leaves her life in the American West to join her mother in New York and pursue her dream of becoming an actress. On stage one night, she avoids falling by spinning the fabric of her long dress in a graceful gesture, and the Serpentine Dance is born. The dazzled audience calls out for more. Marie-Louise becomes Loïe Fuller and leaves New York, where imitators try to steal her radical innovations, for Paris.
“32 Pills: My Sister’s Suicide” (Documentary) — Directed by Hope Litoff (Opens in NY)
She’s beautiful, artistic, loved, and can’t stand to be alive. “32 Pills” traces the fascinating life and mental illness of director Hope Litoff’s sister, New York artist and photographer Ruth Litoff, and Hope’s struggle to come to terms with Ruth’s tragic suicide.
“Badsville” — Directed by April Mullen (Opens in NY and LA)
A violent greaser gang is ripped apart when their leader (Ian McLaren) finds love and is determined to leave Badsville, a forgotten town on the outskirts of LA where love doesn’t exist, in order to fulfill the promise he made to his dying mother.
“Inoperable”
A young woman (Danielle Harris) wakes up in a seemingly evacuated hospital with a hurricane approaching that has awakened malevolent forces inside. She realizes she must escape the hospital before the hurricane passes, or she will be trapped there forever.
“Kepler’s Dream” — Directed by Amy Glazer; Co-Written by Amy Glazer and Sylvia Brownrigg (Also Available on VOD)
An 11-year-old girl searches for a missing rare book from her grandmother’s (Holland Taylor) library and tries to understand why her family is fractured during a memorable summer at an isolated New Mexico adobe. While her mother (Kelly Lynch), like astronaut Michael Collins, goes to the dark side of the moon for a leukemia treatment, Ella (Isabella Blake-Thomas) must journey on her own to the strange moon of her grandmother’s world.
“Slumber”
Alice (Maggie Q) is a rational-minded sleep doctor, haunted by the mysterious nocturnal death of her younger brother. Whilst performing a routine examination on a traumatized family with sleeping problems, Alice is attacked by the father in his sleep. The father is arrested and blamed for causing the family’s sleep issues, but when he is thrown into jail and the problems get progressively worse, Alice is forced to abandon scientific rationale and accept that the family is being terrorized by a parasitic demon who feeds on the weak whilst they sleep: the Night Hag.
“Drawing Home” — Co-Written by Donna Logan
Boston in the 1920s. A young East Coast debutante (Julie Lynn Mortensen) is dating the most eligible bachelor in the world, John D. Rockefeller III. Her future seems set: a dream life in the upper echelons of society. But when she least expects it, she meets a young painter from one of the most beautiful places on Earth, the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Their worlds are polar opposites, and as their attraction turns their lives upside down, they soon face a universal question: Can you find “home” in another person?
“Rosa Chumbe”
Rosa Chumbe (Liliana Trujillo) is a seasoned police officer with both a gambling and a drinking problem. She lives with her daughter, Sheyla (Cindy Díaz), who has a little baby. One day, after a big fight between them, Sheyla steals her mother’s savings and storms out of the house, leaving her baby behind. Rosa is forced to spend some time with her grandson and something changes inside her heart of stone. However, everything takes a turn one night — only a miracle can save her.
December 5
“The White King” — Co-Written and Co-Directed by Alex Helfrecht
Djata (Lorenzo Allchurch) is a carefree 12-year-old growing up in a brutal dictatorship. When the government imprisons his father, Peter (Ross Partridge), and Djata and his mother, Hannah (Agyness Deyn), are labeled traitors, the boy will not rest until he sees his father again.
December 6
“Bill Frisell: A Portrait” (Documentary) — Written and Directed by Emma Franz
A character portrait of “musician’s musician” and anti-archetypal guitar hero Bill Frisell. This film traces the development of Frisell’s music and provides rare insight into the shaping of one of the significant musicians of recent decades. Full of live music and following various projects from development to fruition, the film features a variety of collaborators, including Paul Motian, Jim Hall, Hal Willner, Joey Baron, Jason Moran, Nels Cline, Mike Gibbs, Jack DeJohnette, John Zorn, John Abercrombie, Paul Simon, Bonnie Raitt, Lucinda Williams, Jim Woodring, Greg Cohen, and Tony Scherr.
December 8
“I, Tonya” (Opens in NY and LA)
Based on the unbelievable but true events, “I, Tonya” is a darkly comedic tale of American figure skater Tonya Harding and one of the most sensational scandals in sports history. Though Harding (Margot Robbie) was the first American woman to complete a triple axel in competition, her legacy was forever defined by her association with an infamous, ill-conceived, and even more poorly executed attack on fellow Olympic competitor Nancy Kerrigan. “I, Tonya” is an absurd, irreverent, and piercing portrayal of Harding’s life and career in all of its unchecked — and checkered — glory.
“Hollow in the Land”
With her father in jail and her mother having left when she was young, Alison Miller (Dianna Agron) is the matriarch of the family and the one watching over her only sibling, Brandon (Jared Abrahamson). But on the anniversary of their father’s crimes, their family is pushed to its limits: a dead man has been found in a trailer park and Brandon is missing.
“The Doll” — Written and Directed by Susannah O’Brien
When Chris and Andy (Christopher Lenk and Anthony Del Negro) order a model from an escort service, they find that something is wrong with Natasha (Valeria Lukyanova), something deadly wrong.
December 13
“Miss Kiet’s Children” (Documentary) —Written and Co-Directed by Petra Lataster-Czisch
Kiet Engels is the kind of teacher one wishes every schoolchild could have. Many of Miss Kiet’s pupils are refugees who have just arrived in Holland. Everything is new and confusing. Some are quarrelsome and headstrong. But Miss Kiet’s firm but loving hand brings calm and awakens interest. By observation alone, without interviews or voice-over, the film focuses on four refugee children of different nationalities. Pursuing their perspective, the camera follows at close hand their struggles to learn a new language, their fights, their friendships, and their first loves.
December 15
“Permanent” — Written and Directed by Colette Burson (Also Available on VOD)
Set in 1982 small-town Virginia, “Permanent” centers around 13-year-old Aurelie Dixon (Kira McLean) and her parents, Jeanne and Jim (Patricia Arquette and Rainn Wilson). In this hilariously awkward and unique telling full of wit and wisdom of a hairstyle gone wrong, the Dixons are struggling through major life changes together all the while trying desperately to emerge intact on the other side.
“Star Wars: The Last Jedi”
Having taken her first steps into the Jedi world, Rey (Daisy Ridley) joins Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) on an adventure with Leia (Carrie Fisher), Finn (John Boyega), and Poe (Oscar Isaac) that unlocks mysteries of the Force and secrets of the past.
“The Rape of Recy Taylor” (Documentary) — Written and Directed by Nancy Buirski
Mrs. Recy Taylor was gang raped by six white boys in 1944 Alabama. Unbroken, she spoke up and fought for justice with help from Rosa Parks and legions of women.
“Killing for Love” (Documentary) — Co-Written and Co-Directed by Karin Steinberger (Opens in NY)
March 30, 1985: Derek and Nancy Haysom are discovered brutally murdered at their home in Lynchburg, Virginia. The subsequent arrest and conviction of the couple’s daughter Elizabeth, a wealthy scholarship student at the University of Virginia, and her boyfriend, Jens Soering, the brilliant son of a German diplomat, set off a media frenzy, becoming the first trial of its kind to be nationally televised. But what if the justice system got it all wrong? This gripping true crime tale untangles the web of romantic obsession and betrayal that may have led an innocent man to make the ultimate sacrifice for love: taking the fall for a murder he didn’t commit.
“Christmas Inheritance” — Written by Dinah Eng (Available on Netflix)
Before ambitious heiress Ellen Langford can inherit her father’s gift business, she must deliver a special Christmas card to her dad’s former partner in Snow Falls, the hometown she never knew. When a snowstorm strands her at the town inn, she’s forced to work for her keep, and in the process, finds romance and discovers the true gift of Christmas.
December 20
“The Greatest Showman” — Co-Written by Jenny Bicks
Inspired by the imagination of P.T. Barnum (Hugh Jackman), “The Greatest Showman” is an original musical that celebrates the birth of show business and tells of a visionary who rose from nothing to create a spectacle that became a worldwide sensation.
December 22
“Pitch Perfect 3” — Directed by Trish Sie; Written by Kay Cannon
After college graduation, the Barden Bellas are struggling with their own lives and jobs until former member Aubrey (Anna Camp) comes up with a plan to reunite the girls for one last chance to perform on tour in Europe. However, the girls must face the obstacle that their apparent competition comes with actual musical instruments.
“The Post” — Co-Written by Liz Hannah (Opens in Limited Release; Opens in Wide Release January 12)
Katharine Graham (Meryl Streep) is the first female publisher of a major American newspaper — The Washington Post. With help from editor Ben Bradlee (Tom Hanks), Graham races to catch up with The New York Times to expose a massive cover-up of government secrets that spans three decades and four U.S. presidents. Together, they must overcome their differences as they risk their careers — and very freedom — to help bring long-buried truths to light.
December 25
“Molly’s Game” (Opens in Limited Release; Opens in Wide Release January 5)
The true story of Molly Bloom (Jessica Chastain), an Olympic-class skier who ran the world’s most exclusive high-stakes poker game for a decade before being arrested in the middle of the night by 17 FBI agents wielding automatic weapons. Her players included Hollywood royalty, sports stars, business titans, and finally, unbeknown to her, the Russian mob. Her only ally was her criminal defense lawyer Charlie Jaffey (Idris Elba), who learned there was much more to Molly than the tabloids led people to believe.
December 27
“In the Fade”
Katja’s (Diane Kruger) life falls apart in the blink of an eye when two neo-Nazis kill her husband and 6-year-old son in a bomb attack. Her quest for justice soon pushes her to the edge as the two suspects stand trial for murder.
