Welcome back, movie fans!  Even though we are still 188 days away from the 86^th Academy Awards ceremony, it is not too early to start getting prepared.  So far in 2013, a great batch of films have been released, but we all know that the bulk of the films that are nominated each year usually come out during the Fall Movie Season—September 1 through the end of the year.  To get everyone excited for the slew of award-quality films scheduled to hit your local theater very soon, I have compiled a list of my most anticipated movies of the season, and this list has manifested itself as my Fall Preview 2013.  Over the next couple of days, I will be releasing my Top 10 list, starting with films 10-6 and concluding with 5-1.  But for an introduction to my Fall Preview 2013, I am beginning with five films that just missed out on cracking my Top 10, so make sure to be on the lookout for these movies in the coming months.

About Time

In About Time, a young man, Tim Lake (Domhnall Gleeson), receives a life-changing revelation from his father (Bill Nighy): the men in their family can travel through time.  Throughout the film, Tim must use this newfound ability to figure out what really matters in his life, especially love.  Before you start thinking this movie will be just another time-travel film, the director, Richard Curtis, actually states the opposite: “It’s actually an anti-time-travel time-travel movie.”  The movie appears to have chick-flick elements, but after watching the trailer, it looks like it has a lot more to offer than your everyday, run-of-the-mill romantic dramedy, and with Rachel McAdams starring alongside Gleeson and Nighy, it is sure to be a great movie.  About Time is set for a US theatrical release on November 1, 2013.

Director: Richard Curtis (Love Actually, Notting Hill)

Starring: Domhnall Gleeson (Anna Karenina), Rachel McAdams (The Notebook), and Bill Nighy (Love Actually)

Captain Phillips

Captain Phillips is the true story of the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama cargo ship by Somali pirates in April 2009.  The crew of the ship is held for ransom, and an unlikely hero emerges in Captain Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks).  In preparation for the role, Tom Hanks consulted the actual Captain Phillips, and according to Phillips, he hopes the release of this movie will show everyone that “[people] are truly stronger than we know.  We can do more than what we think we can do.”  Another interesting point to draw about the film is in regards to the director, Paul Greengrass.  Greengrass is no stranger to films about real-life hijackings, as he directed the 2006 movie United 93, a film about the 9/11 attacks.  This story is sure to an intense experience on the screen, and given that Tom Hanks is the lead, it will definitely be a movie with award-winning implications.  Captain Phillips is set for a theatrical release on October 11, 2013.

Director: Paul Greengrass (United 93, The Bourne Supremacy)

Starring: Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump, Saving Private Ryan)

Don Jon

Don Jon follows Jon (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a Jersey Shore-like, guido-esque bodybuilder from New Jersey.  According to the trailer, all he cares about in life are his body, his pad, his ride, his family, his church, his boys, his girls, and his porn!  His love for that last item, however, is called into question when he meets the girl of his dreams, Barbara (Scarlett Johansson), who is obsessed with the love stories in modern rom-coms.  The film features a stellar cast that is bound to put on an incredible show, and the film is written and directed by its lead, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who is rapidly becoming one of today’s biggest stars in Hollywood.  The trailer is fantastic, and anytime Marky Mark Wahlberg’s “Good Vibrations” can be included somehow, I know the movie is about to be a lot of fun.  Don Jon is set for a theatrical release on September 27, 2013.

Director: Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Don Jon is his full-length feature film directorial debut)

Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt (500 Days of Summer, Looper), Scarlett Johansson (Vicky Cristina Barcelona, The Avengers), Tony Danza (Angels in the Outfield), and Julianne Moore (The Kids Are All Right, Crazy, Stupid, Love)

The Fifth Estate 

The Fifth Estate is a biopic about WikiLeaks, a controversial online site that publishes classified information and secret documents by anonymous sources.  The film follows the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange (Benedict Cumberbatch), and his partner and friend, Daniel Domscheit-Berg (Daniel Brühl).  Although the production of the film has received significant criticism from Julian Assange himself, director Bill Condon disagrees with Assange on his outrage, stating, “this is not remotely an attack on him.  In its own strange, dark, journalistic-thriller kind of way, this is a buddy movie.”  Like most people in this generation, I remember everything surrounding the WikiLeaks controversy and how the government reacted to the scandal; recently, the site found itself back in the news after former US soldier Bradley Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison for his disclosure of nearly 700,000 classified government documents to WikiLeaks.  With the real-life story so relevant today, this film should captivate audiences all across the world, and I look forward to seeing everything play out on the silver screen.  The Fifth Estate is set for a theatrical release on October 18, 2013.

Director: Bill Condon (Dreamgirls, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Parts 1&2)

Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), Daniel Brühl (Inglourious Basterds, Rush)

Gravity

Gravity is a techno-thriller film set in outer space.  The film follows two astronauts: Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock), taking part in her very first Space Shuttle mission, and Matt Kowalsky (George Clooney), a seasoned veteran conducting his final mission.  When debris from a satellite destructively collides into their space shuttle, the two astronauts become stranded in space with no communications with Earth.  From the very first time I saw this trailer in theaters, my interest was instantaneously piqued.  The movie looks like a wild and crazy adventure that will undoubtedly leave every viewer on the edge of his or her seat for the duration of the film.  The sophisticated special effects and astonishing cinematography are already creating a massive wave of Oscar buzz, but with big players like Alfonso Cuarón, George Clooney, and Sandra Bullock involved in the project, there is bound to be significant attention paid to the intricate skills of the movie’s directing and acting efforts.  Gravity is set for a theatrical release on October 4, 2013.

Director: Alfonso Cuarón (Y Tu Mamá También, Children of Men, Pan’s Labyrinth)

Starring: Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side, The Heat), George Clooney (The Descendants, The Ides of March)