A full dance card: What to watch, read and hear for the rest of 2026

If you thought the first half of the year was a whirl of unmissable cultural moments, prepare yourself for what’s to come between now and December. Here’s our guide to the films, books and music events we’ll all be talking about …

July

Film: The Odyssey

In a word, it’s big. Christopher Nolan’s take on Homer’s ancient Greek epic about a warrior making his long and arduous way home cost $US250 million ($362 million) to make and, at nearly three hours, might just be as exhausting as the rigorous training schedule (and gluten-free diet) Matt Damon signed up for. Of course, any new film from the double-Oscar-winning director of Oppenheimer and Interstellar will excite cinephiles, and the trailer’s swoon-worthy scenery and suitably gruesome battle scenes don’t disappoint. But will the doubters be persuaded that casting Hollywood stars (American accents intact) as ancient Greeks was a good idea? Or is this ocean-going odyssey headed for the rocks? In cinemas July 16. Lindy Percival

Book: Cool Machine by Colson Whitehead

The much-anticipated final instalment of Whitehead’s Harlem Trilogy – after Harlem Shuffle and Crook Manifesto – catches up with protagonist Ray Carney in the 1980s, a time of transition in New York City. Carney, successful business owner and reluctant criminal, finds himself taking another risk – “one last” heist in 1981, after his wife Elizabeth is knocked back for a bank loan for her travel agency. Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Whitehead’s novel follows Carney, his family and associates through to the end of the ’80s, on both sides of the law, from Harlem to the East Village art scene and into his retirement, in the final chapter of the acclaimed crime saga that began in the civil-rights era. Doubleday, July 21. Kylie Northover

Music: Charli XCX: Music, Fashion, Film

Charli XCX has been making art from her contrarian streak since she signed her first record deal at 16, soured on the industry’s commercial expectations, and spent the next decade making brain-churning experimental pop that both terrorised her label and made her an underground icon. After the miraculous coronation that was Charli’s Brat summer, mainstream tension was always going to follow. On early singles from Music, Fashion, Film – its title referencing the holy trinity pictured on its cover: John Cale, Marc Jacobs, Martin Scorsese – Charli’s been toying with the post-Brat attention. On Rock Music she’s declaring “the dance floor is dead”, right after she got an entire generation to the clubs to act out their own indie-sleaze fantasies. On Wink Wink she’s prodding those who pigeonhole her over her provocative image by suggesting she might’ve “f—ed your dad”. Expect public friction – and glorious pop. Out July 24. Robert Moran

August

Film: Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma

Heaped with accolades at the Cannes Film Festival, Jane Schoenbrun’s celebration of trash cinema (and trash food) gives Gillian Anderson the chance to run gloriously amok as Billy Presley, the elegantly faded star of a long-ago slasher franchise, Camp Miasma. Imagine the surprise of fan and tyro filmmaker Kris (Hacks star Hannah Einbinder) when she discovers her idol’s address is, in fact, the old Miasma set. Here Billy watches her single hit film by candlelight, eats junk food and awaits the return of her fictional killer, Little Death. Fictional? The line between the real and unreal evaporates in a swirl of meta casting, cinematic allusions, juicy decapitations and imaginary merchandise. It is made to be what it already is: a cult hit. In cinemas August 6. Stephanie Bunbury

Book: The Castle by Jon Ronson

In his first book in 11 years, investigative journalist and author Jon Ronson turns his unique eye on modern masculinity and internet culture – or, as he describes it, “piecing together the reasons why I think many men have been unravelling in the 21st century”. The Castle is much more than a straightforward investigation; written over three years, it takes in several stories. The initial impetus was a mysterious invitation sent to Ronson’s son Joel to a party in the forests of New England, which set Ronson snr off into the world of disaffected men, where, he says, many questions came to light: What is “princessing”? Why did a lawn-care influencer dress as a baby for billions of online viewers? And why are two recently released murderers paying him a visit? Viking, August 25. KN

Music: Massive Attack: Live 2026 tour

Dim the lights and nod your head solemnly because Massive Attack – the Bristol trip-hop legends famed for their enduring 1998 hit Teardrop – are touring Australia for the first time in 16 years. Earlier this year the band (Robert Del Naja and Grant Marshall) released their first new single in a decade, the terrifying Boots on the Ground with Tom Waits, which further integrated the political activism that’s led to them making headlines in recent months, including pulling their music off Spotify in protest at former chief executive Daniel Ek’s reported investments in military AI. At Primavera in Portugal last month the band’s live show was similarly charged, featuring a video made with cult British filmmaker Adam Curtis that satirised the overreach of tech companies like Palantir. They play at Brisbane’s Entertainment Centre on August 6, Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena on August 9 and Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena on August 11. RM

September

Film: Resident Evil

The critics haven’t always been kind but any franchise that has taken more than $US1.2 billion ($1.7 billion) at the box office has already earned some water-cooler cred. The arrival of Zach Cregger as writer and director of instalment No.8 adds a level of interest that few here-we-go-again horror instalments could muster. This, after all, is the man who brought us one of last year’s surprise hits, the spooky small-town mystery Weapons. Cregger says his take on Resident Evil will be closer to the wildly successful Japanese video game than the earlier films (which he’s never watched), and with Weapons alumnus Austin Abrams playing a hapless medical courier caught up in the horror, the franchise might just be back in play. In cinemas September 17. LP

Book: The Newer World by Sebastian Barry

Another trilogy finale, A Newer World follows Barry’s acclaimed 2016 novel Days Without End, the moving tale of John Cole and Thomas McNulty, secret lovers who met in the US Army in the 1850s and adopted an orphaned Sioux girl, Winona, and the 2020 follow-up, A Thousand Moons, which continued Winona’s story into the 1870s. The Newer World focuses on one man’s life in the aftermath of the Civil War. Tennyson Bouguereau is a former slave, a conflicted soldier and a wanted man, looking for belonging and meaning as he flees Tennessee in a perilous journey through the shifting landscapes of America. Early synopses don’t reveal how The Newer World connects to Barry’s other books but I can’t wait to find out. Faber, September 8. KN

Music: Julia Jacklin: The Gem

A new release from Australia’s top purveyor of emotionally wrenching indie anthems is always a cause for celebration (and/or crying with your headphones on) but this one offers an added intriguing wrinkle: The Gem is Julia Jacklin’s first album since signing with the revered UK label 4AD, which brings both aura and expectation. If the album’s fantastic lead single Get Away From Me (I Think I’ll Love You Soon) – with its ringing, Flying Nun-inspired guitars, cascading harmonies and delightfully complicated semantics – is any indication, we’re in for a good one. Fun fact: it’s named for the pub in Collingwood where Jacklin recorded the album. Listen closely, you might hear yourself ordering a $10 Bloody Mary. Out September 25. RM

October

Film: Digger

The pre-release secrecy surrounding this unlikely collaboration between Tom Cruise and indie director Alejandro G. Inarritu has the cinema world abuzz. The “sneak peek” imagery shows Cruise in a burgundy suit and cowboy hat, face either obscured by type or distorted by what looks like a worrying case of hype-induced bloat. What’s coming, we’re told, is the story of “the most powerful man in the world as he embarks on a frantic mission to prove he is humanity’s saviour before the disaster he’s unleashed destroys everything”. Can Cruise finally bury the reputational disaster of the couch-jumping incident? Will this be a cinematic resurrection to rival John Travolta’s Pulp Fiction rebirth? And what’s with the shovel? Consider us curious. In cinemas October 1. LP

Book: Partita by Barbara Kingsolver

October is always a busy month in publishing, when heavyweight releases land ahead of Christmas. Near the top of this year’s pile is Barbara Kingsolver’s Partita, the latest novel from the Pulitzer Prize winner and the only author to have won the Women’s Prize twice. Returning to the rural Appalachia of 2022’s Demon Copperhead, Kingsolver’s 11th novel follows Livia Bohusz, a prodigy whose life is transformed by a music scholarship after the death of her elder brother. Music has always been her escape but as she moves between the worlds of her family farm and college she’s forced to reckon with questions of memory, ambition, class and belonging. This is one of the big literary events of the year, and one of the books everyone will want under the Christmas tree. Faber, October 6. Melanie Kembrey

Music: Lily Allen: Lily Allen Performs West End Girl tour

By the time British singer Lily Allen takes the stage in Australia in October it will have been exactly one year since she released her audacious West End Girl, a shockingly intimate chronicle of the breakdown of her four-year marriage to actor David Harbour. If the album launched a thousand tabloid headlines it also reinvigorated Allen’s songwriting muse, spinning emotionally affecting (and painfully detailed) pop from heartbreak and betrayal. Bitingly funny in a way only Allen could deliver – guys, she “thought it was a dojo” – reviews of the show’s UK run have praised its “humour and high-camp”, so expect a fun night for all – except perhaps David Harbour. She performs at Brisbane’s Entertainment Centre on October 23, Sydney’s TikTok Entertainment Centre on October 25-26 and Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena on October 28-29. RM

November

Film: The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping

The Australian fan base already had a strong appetite for this sixth instalment (and second prequel) long before we knew that 20-year-old Sydneysider Joseph Zada had been cast as the young Haymitch Abernathy. Knowing that his character grows up to become Katniss Everdeen’s mentor (played by Woody Harrelson in the earlier films) might spare us any concerns about his chances of surviving the brutal spectacle of youngsters fighting to the death but anyone who has read Suzanne Collins’ 2025 novel will know to bring tissues (this is Panem, after all). What were the odds that, 14 years after the first film, a story about propaganda, state cruelty and totalitarianism would be more relevant than ever? We can’t say we weren’t warned. In cinemas November 19. LP

Book: One for Sorrow by Favel Parrett

Favel Parrett’s 2011 debut Past the Shallows announced a remarkable new Australian talent, earning a place on the Miles Franklin shortlist, the Dobbie Literary Award and an Australian Book Industry Award. She has since published two more exceptional novels, When the Night Comes and There Was Still Love. Her latest, One for Sorrow, is set in Norway in 1939, where young Einar Halvorsen discovers a love of words through a teacher whose lessons become a source of comfort and strength when the Nazis invade. Seventy years later he still has something to teach Einar. The publishers are comparing this one to Claire Keegan and Sarah Winman, so prepare the tissues. Hachette, November 3. MK

Music: Robyn: The Sexistential Tour

If you’ve ever shrugged off despair through wanton abandon on the dance floor you likely have Robyn to thank. In the 14 years since the Swedish pop icon last toured Australia she’s become a generation’s most enduring touchpoint, her philosophical footprint all over sad bangers by the likes of Taylor Swift, Charli XCX, Lorde, Ariana Grande and more. Eight years since her last release the singer returned in March with her acclaimed Sexistential, an album that somehow spun club classics from topics such as IVF, single motherhood and middle-aged dating. We’ll be dancing on our own when she hits Sydney’s Qudos Bank Arena on November 21 and Melbourne’s Rod Laver Arena on November 24. RM

December

Film: Dune: Part 3

Denis Villeneuve will need to summon all his considerable creative chops to turn Frank Herbert’s dark Dune sequel Messiah into the kind of dazzling cinematic experience he delivered in the first two films. Herbert’s novel – actually the second of six – centres on palace intrigue as Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet) presides over an endless, devastating war, shores up his position as a god-king and plots his succession. Herbert intended to dismantle the hero narrative, showing the corrupting nature of power at intergalactic scale; Villeneuve is reportedly doing the same. Knowing him, it will be brilliant, but how something so essentially Shakespearean – with Chalamet, now somewhat out of favour with the fandom, in the lead – will fare on the multiplex circuit is another question. In cinemas December 17. SB

Book: Wish You Were Here by Bernadette Eden

By December the blockbuster releases have packed up their deckchairs for the year. But if your beach bag still has room, Bernadette Eden’s Australian debut Wish You Were Here could be the last one you slip in this summer. The novel follows widow and mother-of-two Sally as she tries to keep her late husband’s struggling caravan park afloat while a new resort opens nearby. But balancing the books (and the blocked toilets) is only the start when his charismatic long-time friend Jagger returns to town with secrets of his own. Best read with a glass of champagne. HQ Fiction, December 1. MK

Music: Harry Styles: Together, Together tour

Harry Styles, newly engaged to the – let’s face it – infinitely cooler Zoe Kravitz, has had a discombobulating time of late: the Brit’s recent album, the “I-turned-30-and-went-to-Berghain”-inspired Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally, proved polarising upon its release in March and failed to spawn the sort of lingering radio ubiquity his work might expect. And yet demand to see Styles perform it live has been so intense that he’ll be essentially living inside Australian stadiums to see out the year. May your streets be covered in feather boas when Styles performs at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium on November 27-28 and December 2 and 4, and at Sydney’s Accor Stadium on December 12-13. RM