The best films to see in cinemas in March: from ‘Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man’ to ‘Project Hail

You mean, like, ‘Aaaaaaaaaah’? Actually, not far off. Indeed, Mascha Schilinski’s brutally bleak drama deals with some harrowing stuff, tracing intergenerational family trauma across a century, all centred within the same German farmhouse. Unsurprisingly, it won’t be for everyone, but purveyors of arthouse cinema will be rewarded with a superbly crafted meditation on inherited pain that’ll shake you to your core.

In cinema Mar 6

Steven Knight takes the Shelbys to the big screen in a 1940-set expansion of the hit Netflix crime saga. Cillian Murphy is back as Birmingham’s capo di tutti capo Tommy Shelby as Britain goes to war with the Nazis and loyalties are stretched as never before. Is it possible to carry on running a secret criminal underworld with Adolf out there dropping bombs on your favourite boozer? Rebecca Ferguson, Tim Roth, Stephen Graham and Barry Keoghan will be helping him decide.

In cinemas Mar 6. On Netflix Mar 20

Smartly pushed back to avoid competing with Guillermo del Toro, Maggie Gyllenhaal’s second directorial effort now gets to siphon off the Frankenstein renaissance he launched, while telling a very different kind of story involving Mary Shelley’s monster – specifically, a 1930s gangster musical starring Christian Bale as an undead greaser monstrosity and the likely Oscar-bound Jessie Buckley as his revivified lover. It’s a big swing, but Gyllenhaal proved she’s got the goods behind the camera with 2021’s The Lost Daughter.

In cinemas Mar 6

Pixar goes full Attenborough (David, not Dickie) with a wildlife action caper that borrows from everything from John Carpenter to Planet of the Apes. Mabel, a teenaged animal lover, fights to save a beloved habitant from a planned freeway overpass. Via a tech invention with Avatar-esque properties, she’s ‘hopped’ into the body of a robot beaver and goes undercover in the animal kingdom to lead the fightback. As always with the animation house, expect the unexpected. 

In cinemas Mar 6

The Glenlightenment continues. Hollywood has been pushing Glen Powell as its next leading man and, judging by the performance of The Running Man, audiences are yet to be fully convinced. His latest starring turn is in this soft remake of Ealing classic Kind Hearts and Coronets in which he plays a distant heir to a massive fortune who gets less distant to it with each estranged relative he bumps off. Margaret Qualley is the childhood friend with femme fatale energy. 

In cinemas Mar 13

Chinese auteur Bi Gan’s epic is the ultimate rush for Letterboxd heads. A cinephile fantasia set in a world where humans have lost the ability to dream, it’s an intricate, immaculately crafted and seductive headtrip that leads you down a rabbit hole of film references. Shu Qi plays a woman helping an opium-addled monster rediscover his past life in a series of film projections. The result is a mythical big-screen experience. 

In cinemas Mar 13

If humanity is going to make first contact with alien races, we might as well send our most charming representative. Step forward Ryan Gosling who plays Ryland Grace, the portentously-named scientist at the heart of Andy Weir’s much-loved 2021 sci-fi novel. The sun – and by extension, humanity – is imperilled by a interstellar force and only Grace can save it – and us. And he’s got a Rocky, the most adorable alien since E.T., to help. Phil Lord and Chris Miller, Hollywood’s gifted court jesters, get serious. Well, serious-ish.

In cinemas Mar 20

The first Ready or Not was a sadistically fun take on The Most Dangerous Game genre of human sport hunting, with Samara Weaving as a bride forced to survive the night against her husband’s Satanic family before tying the knot. In the sequel, she’s back, now targeted by some of the richest families in the world. Sarah Michelle Gellar and, yes, David Cronenberg join the bloodbath this time. 

In cinemas Mar 20

City children discover a tree full of wonders in the countryside in a family film directed, promisingly, by Horrible Histories and Paddington legend Simon Farnaby. It’s adapted from Enid Blyton’s classic book series and shifts the setting from wartime evacuation to our tech-challenged times. Adventures with Silky (Nicola Coughlan), Saucepan Man (Dustin Demri-Burns), Moon Face (Nonso Anozie) and the other arboreal eccentrics should make for the ultimate screen break. Claire Foy and Andrew Garfield play the grown-ups on the ground.

In cinemas Mar 27

A little Judd Apatow, a little Woody Allen and prone to sudden outbursts of slapstick violence, the second feature from co-writers and stars Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin is one of 2026’s great surprises, a romcom about two schlubs with improbably gorgeous wives (Dakota Johnson and Aria Arjona) who decide to open their respective marriages, with disastrous consequences. Jokes come flying from all angles, but the centrepiece is an absurd house-destroying brawl that might be the best fight scene of the year.

In cinemas Mar 27