Look out for these must-watch titles this year, whether they make it to our cinema screens or only the DVD store, writes Edmund Lee

Che: Part One & Two (Dir Steven Soderbergh)
Could this be the best film ever adapted from a T-shirt? The man immortalised by Albert Korda’s 1960 photo provides the subject for Soderbergh’s four-hour-plus biopic. Benicio Del Toro is magnificent – and suitably hairy, considering his next starring role in The Wolf Man – in this detached, elliptic, and highly confounding portrait of the revolutionary symbol, which respectively recounts Guevara’s part in the Cuban Revolution and the Bolivian fiasco, in its first and second chapters.

Frost/Nixon (Dir Ron Howard)
It’s a testament of how things have gone these past few years that Richard Nixon (Frank Langella) now looks plausibly presidential in this dramatic recount of his legendary 1977 interviews with the ‘lightweight’ British TV personality, David Frost (Michael Sheen). A compelling character drama; even for those who don’t give a damn about American history. (Mar 5)

Hunger (Dir Steve McQueen)
One of the most critically acclaimed movies to have premiered in 2008; this debut feature by Turner Prize-winning artist Steve McQueen takes a realistically grotesque look at the last six weeks of the life of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands (Michael Fassbender), who died in Northern Ireland’s Maze Prison in 1981.

I Come with the Rain (Dir Tran Anh Hung)
Who’d have thought that the first English-language outing by the Vietnamese auteur (Cyclo and The Scent of Green Papaya) would turn out to be a twisted psychological thriller filled with excessive sex and gore? Josh Hartnett stars as a traumatized ex-LA cop who travels to Hong Kong in search of a billionaire’s missing son. A pan-Asian cast of Shawn Yue, Takuya Kimura, Lee Byung-hun round out the roster.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (Dir Terry Gilliam)
When compared to his fantastical vision, Gilliam is perhaps more famous for the long series of unfortunate events befalling his projects. And this, his latest film, is no exception, with the death of Heath Ledger midway through production. Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell, and Jude Law have since stepped in to play alternate versions of the character: the mysterious new member of a travelling theatre troupe.

Inglourious Basterds (Dir Quentin Tarantino)
Question: what can you expect from the director who can’t spell a word correctly in his movie title? Answer: a Spaghetti Western set in occupied France during WWII, which the man himself has in a recent interview likened to Pulp Fiction, True Romance and Reservoir Dogs, “but with Nazis”. He says, “Every 20 minutes it’s like, ‘What the fuck movie is this?’” Brad Pitt plays the leader of a Jewish-American soldier unit known as ‘The Basterds’, whose mission is to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by brutally killing Nazis. Our own Maggie Cheung makes a cameo appearance.

Jennifer’s Body (Dir Karyn Kusama)
After photos of a very revealing Megan Fox were ‘leaked’ onto the Internet earlier last year, people started to ponder the big question: how much of Jennifer’s body will you actually get to see in Jennifer’s Body? For the record, Fox plays a possessed cheerleader, who devours guys, in this Diablo (Juno) Cody-scripted cannibal flick.

Let the Right One in (Dir Tomas Alfredson)
Beneath the gory display of this terrific Swedish vampire flick lies a bittersweet relationship between two lonely souls: one a 12-year-old boy who dreams of taking revenge on his aggressive bullies at school, the other a ‘girl vampire’, who is “more or less” the boy’s age. This macabre tale sparkles – with both horror and poetry – even if its bloodsucking character doesn’t.

Milk (Dir Gus Van Sant)
Sean Penn smooches James Franco and gives an acting master class in this stirring portrait of one man’s fight against institutional hatred: the charming and flamboyant Harvey Milk; the first openly gay activist elected to public office in America, assassinated soon afterwards. (Feb 19)

Rachel Getting Married (Dir Jonathan Demme)
In this brutally honest domestic drama, Anne Hathaway plays an institutionally-damaged neurotic returning home on a day pass for her sister’s wedding. Demme, who once gave new meaning to the word ‘psychotic’ with The Silence of the Lambs, vividly depicts the dysfunctional family, underpinned by America’s oft-misrepresented culture of rehab. (Mar 5)

Revolutionary Road (Dir Sam Mendes)
So you wish the ship hadn’t sunk? In this adaptation of Richard Yates’s devastating 1961 novel, Titanic stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet reunite in two spellbinding performances, as a married couple drowning in unhappiness in 1950s suburban Connecticut. (Feb 12)

Slumdog Millionaire (Dir Danny Boyle)
Shot on location in Mumbai with an all-Indian cast, this impressive Dickensian drama follows an orphan boy’s rise from a Mumbai ghetto to win the top prize in the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, only to be accused of cheating and be crudely interrogated by police. (Feb 26)

Taking Woodstock (Dir Ang Lee)
After “making six tragedies in a row”, Lee goes rock ‘n’ roll in this rousing true story about interior designer Elliot Tiber and his neighbour Max Yasgur, who offered their hotel and farm to the 1969 Woodstock organisers. The rest is tripping history.

Terminator: Salvation (Dir McG)
In this fourth instalment of the Terminator franchise, Christian Bale takes a break from the bat suit to play underground leader John Connor, a messianic figure who struggles to prevent the machines from eliminating humanity after the apocalyptic events of Judgment Day. Set ten years after the nuclear apocalypse that concluded the third film, Terminator: Salvation is being compared by McG with The Dark Knight (whose writer, Jonathan Nolan, also wrote this film) and the recent Bonds, as movies that brought popular franchises “back to basics”. Our worries? The director has a popular franchise of his own, the terrible Charlie’s Angels. (May 28)

Vengeance (Dir Johnnie To)
To is a prolific director for a reason. Alongside his local thriller Death of a Hostage and the English-speaking Le Cercle Rouge remake, the man is currently shooting – and will soon wrap up – Vengeance, a Hong Kong-set thriller featuring French singer Johnny Hallyday and actress Sylvie Testud (whom the Milkyway crew jokingly refer to as “the Sam Hui and Karen Mok of France”). Hallyday plays an assassin turned chef seeking revenge for a murder.

Waltz with Bashir (Dir Ari Folman)
Directed by an ex-soldier, this extraordinary anti-war ‘animated documentary’ recollects and explores soldiers’ haunted memories from Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, chronicling atrocities that are no less surreal or hallucinatory than Folman’s stylistic presentation.

Watchmen (Dir Zack Snyder)
The wait is over. Alan Moore’s graphic novel bible finally sees its big-screen adaptation following years of re-shuffling at the pre-production stage. The film is about a group of former superheroes teaming up to fight evil after one of them is murdered. Synder has stated that he doesn’t want this to be a regular superhero movie; he wants it to be a real, “serious” film. Let’s say we’re intrigued… (Mar 12)

The Wrestler (Dir Darren Aronofsky)
Golden Lion winner at last year’s Venice Film Festival, Aronofsky’s compassionate (and gimmick-free) character study on a past-it professional wrestler is unforgettably enacted by a past-it actor, Mickey Rourke, tracing the character’s heartbreaking decline into anonymity. An instant classic featuring a faded star.

Other films and events to watch out for:

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Your year in art
Your year in stage
Your year in music
Your year in film
Your year in food