The holiday season lies ahead, and that means a seasonal break on the site. So we’re profiling the next three Fridays of notable cinema releases in South Africa now. Bookmark this article if you need a refresher in the coming few weeks.

20 December

Apart for the Throwback release of Jim Carrey’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and a recorded production of Puccini’s Tosca, you may want to check out Kate Beckinsale in action hero mode for Canary Black.

Our movie pick of the week, though, is Mufasa: The Lion King, which is being positioned as Disney’s big blockbuster release for the holiday season. A prequel to 2019’s “live-action” The Lion King reimagining, Mufasa: The Lion King explores the origins of Simba’s father, who grew from outcast orphan into the leader of the Pride Lands, and earned the ire of his adopted brother Taka in the process. The voice cast includes the likes of Aaron Pierre, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Mads Mikkelsen, Kagiso Lediga and Tiffany Boone, with returnees Donald Glover, Thandiwe Newton, Seth Rogen, Billy Eichner, and John Kani.

Here’s our review of Mufasa: The Lion King, which is screening at IMAX, 4DX and in 3D.

27 December

Leading the pack for the last set of big screen releases of 2024 is hybrid live-action-CGI-animated adventure Sonic the Hedgehog 3. In this third instalment of the hit film series based on the video game franchises, Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz), Knuckles (Idris Elba), and Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey) reunite against a powerful and mysterious new enemy, Shadow (Keanu Reeves). To stand a chance, Team Sonic must seek out an unlikely alliance. On the human front, you have key roles filled by Jim Carrey, Krysten Ritter, James Marsden and Tika Sumpter.

Other than Sonic The Hedgehog 3, there’s B-grade horror actioner Werewolves, starring Frank Grillo, Bollywood action thriller Baby John, and Back to the Future Part III to cap off the year.

Meanwhile, if you’re musing over your good and bad choices as 2025 approaches, maybe you’ll be interested in A24 erotic thriller Babygirl, where Nicole Kidman’s high-powered CEO puts her career and family on the line when she begins a torrid affair with a young intern (Harris Dickinson). This highly acclaimed release also stars Antonio Banderas.

3 January

Choices and the whims of fate are a strong theme going into the new year too. Apart for Throwback screenings of Interstellar, there’s Pandora’s Box-themed thriller Cellar Door, and Woody Allen’s French-language comedy drama Coup De Chance about a woman who begins an affair with a former classmate, triggering deadly jealousies.

More significantly, audiences can check out tearjerker drama We Live in Time, out of the UK, which explores the relationship of an up-and-coming chef (Florence Pugh) and a recent divorcée (Andrew Garfield) in a non-chronological manner over the course of a decade. Complicating matters is the emergence of terminal illness to threaten their happiness.