The books, exhibitions, plays, TV shows and films our critics are most excited about in 2026

If you’re planning a culturally rich 2026 – dashing off to cinemas, galleries and theatres, contrasted with long, luxurious stints on the sofa watching telly or getting lost in a book – then you’ve come to the right place.

The Independent’s culture team have put together a list of the biggest moments in the arts calendar over the next 12 months. That new diary you got for Christmas? Now’s the time to get ink on its pages, and start jotting down important dates for exhibitions, book releases, films, theatre and TV.

Read on to find our top 25 picks for the year ahead.

Tracey Emin: A Second Life

Tate Modern, 27 February – 31 August 2026

Can the once hugely controversial YBA bad girl really be 40 years into her career, and a dame to boot? This largest ever Emin survey exhibition can’t fail to be a major draw, with its opportunity to chart her transition from public enemy to national treasure. How will tabloid-baiting early works such as Everyone I’ve Ever Slept with and the infamous My Bed, with its used condoms, empty vodka bottles and dirty underwear, stand up beside the Munch-inspired melancholy of her recent paintings? At 32, Emin seemed impossible to take seriously; now she’s 62, we can’t not take her seriously. Mark Hudson

David Hockney

Serpentine North, 12 March – 23 August 2026

Following on from his vast Paris retrospective last year, Britain’s best-loved artist returns to London with a modestly scaled, free exhibition that brings his visions of the Normandy countryside to one of the city’s most glorious parks, Kensington Gardens. The 88-year-old painter’s 90-metre-long frieze A Year in Normandy will be unfurled around Serpentine North’s rectangular corridor, alongside new works specially created for the exhibition. Timeless responses to nature are helped out with iPad drawing and playful juxtapositions of style and tone that take us straight back to Hockney’s classic Pop Art period. MH

The 90s

Tate Britain, 1 October 2026 – 14 February 2027

The pace of retro nostalgia seems to be speeding up. Barely a year after two exhibitions that showcased the previous decade – The 80s: Photographing Britain and Leigh Bowery, focused on the iconic Eighties club entrepreneur – Tate opens The 90s, curated by ex-Vogue editor Edward Enninful. Where The 80s was lambasted for its “drab” view of the Thatcher decade, this exhibition’s upbeat perspectives on the “boundless opportunity” and “audacious renewal of the British spirit” represented by the era of Kate Moss, Damien Hirst and Alexander McQueen sound positively triumphalist in comparison. If I appear sceptical, I can’t wait to see how it all pans out. MH

Painting the French Riviera

Royal Academy, 2 October 2026 – 31 January 2027

With winter on its way, it’s hard to imagine a more life-enhancing escape than the Royal Academy’s Cote d’Azur-based blockbuster. Looking at the ways in which the French Riviera became a “catalyst for creativity”, the show takes in some of the most exhilarating moments in the creation of modern art: Matisse in Nice, Cezanne at L’Estaques near Marseille, Monet and Picasso, both in Antibes at various times, and Renoir at Cagnes-sur-Mer. The sense of art on an extended sun-blasted holiday, compounded in Monet’s description of life in the south as like “swimming in blue air”, does nothing to detract from the profundity of the art they produced. MH

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Van Eyck: The Portraits

National Gallery, 21 November 2026 – 11 April 2027

Jan van Eyck invented the portrait as we know it today, bringing his 15th-century subjects before us with unprecedented intimacy and realism. This historic exhibition brings together all nine of the Flemish painter’s surviving portraits for the first and – the National Gallery claims – only time. Stellar loans from Vienna, Berlin and Bruges, seen alongside the National’s enduringly popular Arnolfini Portrait and flinty-eyed Portrait of a Man, believed to be a self-portrait, will demonstrate Van Eyck’s mastery of the newly developed medium of oil paint to create a sense of human fallibility, while evoking physical textures in sumptuous detail. MH

Light and Thread by Han Kang, translated by e. yaewon, Maya West, and Paige Aniyah Morris

Penguin Random House, 12 March

The prolific South Korean author is back with her first book since winning the Nobel Prize for literature in 2025. In Light and Thread, Kang recalls a poem she wrote at eight years old in which she imagined that “gold thread” of connection, language. Here she uses that thread to tie together essays and poems, her life and her work, beginning with “Nobel lecture”, in which the author discusses her writing process and the myriad questions that drive her work. Annabel Nugent

London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe

Picador, 7 April

From investigative journalist Patrick Radden Keefe comes a new deep dive into the mysterious death of Zac Brettler. After the teenager fell from a luxury apartment building in 2019, his grieving parents were shocked to learn that he’d been posing as the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch. The book is an extension of Keefe’s thoughtful and thrilling essay on the subject, which was published in The New Yorker in 2024. The award-winning author of the non-fiction book about the IRA Say Nothing and the opioid crisis-focused Empire of Pain (both adapted into TV shows), Keefe will surely do this knotty and sensitive subject justice. AN

Famesick: A memoir by Lena Dunham

4th Estate, 14th April

Audiences have already glimpsed a look inside Lena Dunham’s mind with HBO’s Girls, a series she created in her twenties inspired by that period of her life, and more recently Netflix’s Too Much, which drew from her experience as an expat in London with a British husband and a cute rescue dog. Her new memoir Famesick follows on from her 2014 collection of autobiographical essays, Not That Kind of Girl. Seven years in the writing, Famesick is an account of how Dunham’s health troubles intersected with her life in the spotlight. AN

I’ll Take the Fire by Leïla Slimani

Faber, 23 April

The author of Lullaby – that tense, taut book about a “perfect nanny” that everyone was reading in 2018 – is back with I’ll Take the Fire. Her new novel, which takes its title from a Jean Cocteau quote about choosing passion over safety, promises to be every bit as intense as her last, telling the story of two Arab sisters struggling to make a new home in Paris after fleeing Morocco in the politically and socially turbulent 1980s. A family fresco driven by themes of rediscovery and a reclamation of the past. AN

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John of John by Douglas Stuart

Picador, 21 May

The bestselling author of Shuggie Bain and Young Mungo is back with John of John, about a young man out of art school and out of money returning to his hometown, where he is caught between his father John, a sheep farmer and pillar of the local church, and his Glaswegian grandmother Ella, whose relationship with her son-in-law is precarious at best. If Stuart’s previous books are anything to go by, it’ll be a heartbreaking tale, as brutal as it is tender. AN

‘Wuthering Heights’

13 February

It felt as if everyone had an opinion about this even before we saw its first trailer, such is the power of Saltburn filmmaker and master discourse-spinner Emerald Fennell. Margot Robbie is Catherine. Jacob Elordi is Heathcliff. Charli xcx is doing the soundtrack. You can practically hear the outrage already.

But what’s with those mysterious quote marks around the title? Could it be that Fennell has taken quite extreme liberties with her adaptation of Emily Brontë’s sumptuous novel? And that we shouldn’t get too angry about a movie that, according to an early test screening report, features... um... “stylised depravity” and “clinical masturbation”? This will inevitably break our collective brains this Valentine’s Day, but hopefully in a good way. Adam White

The Drama

3 April

It’s still a little unclear how indie-cool production company A24 will promote their black comedy The Drama, which revolves around Robert Pattinson discovering a maddeningly TMI secret about his new bride Zendaya on the eve of their wedding. If the rumours swirling around online are to be believed, said secret is legitimately very, very dark and very, very funny – so it’d make sense for them to keep it under lock and key until the last minute. AW

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The Devil Wears Prada 2

1 May

This is a terrifying prospect, frankly, with the original Devil Wears Prada a bonafide modern classic that’s never quite fallen out of memory despite having been released 20 years ago. So the stakes are incredibly high for the sequel, which sees Meryl Streep once again strap on her ice-white swoop of a wig to boss people about and tell them they look bad. Anne Hathaway, Emily Blunt and Stanley Tucci are all back, too, along with newcomers including Lucy Liu and Kenneth Branagh. We are excited. Tentatively. AW

Disclosure Day

12 June

Steven Spielberg is directing aliens again! Disclosure Day feels like the filmmaker’s most conventionally Spielbergian blockbuster in maybe 20 years, its first trailer grand in scale and filled with striking images of end-of-the-world dread. We still know little about the plot, but it seems to be an ensemble piece about an alien invasion, with Emily Blunt playing a TV reporter and man-of-the-moment Josh O’Connor playing a conspiracy-brained UFO hunter. AW

The Odyssey

17 July

You’d think that Christopher Nolan might have wanted a rest after finally winning an Oscar on the heels of making absolute bangers for more than two decades. Instead, he only went bigger. The filmmaker’s Oppenheimer follow-up is his take on Homer’s Greek epic, and is led by Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Tom Holland, Zendaya and a plethora of other stars – all of whom were clearly chomping at the bit to work with the maestro. Intrigued to see how Nolan – a fan of practical effects over CGI – pulls off his version of a Trojan horse and the one-eyed Cyclops? We are too. Jacob Stolworthy

Dracula

Noel Coward Theatre, 4 February 2026 – 31 May 2026

Playing a velvet-voiced witch in two Wicked films has cemented Cynthia Erivo’s status as an all-powerful force in musical theatre. Now, she’s staging another supernatural acting masterclass with this one-woman horror story, in which she’ll play each of the novel’s 23 characters.

Evoking the world of this dense gothic novel single-handed is a big ask. But director Kip Williams has already shown he knows his way around a one-woman show. His wildly successful 2024 hit The Picture of Dorian Gray surrounded Sarah Snook with an ingenious array of digital screens that created decadent Victorian interiors. This time, he’s taking aesthetic cues from early horror cinema. It looks like this February’s going to be even more chilly than usual. Alice Saville

Teeth ’n‘ Smiles

Duke of York’s Theatre, 13 March 2026 – 6 June 2026

Long before she broke out as award-winning introspective singer-songwriter Self Esteem, Rebecca Lucy Taylor was an aspiring actor who was crushed by a rejection from drama school. Now, she’s finally realising her theatrical ambitions. After getting considerable buzz around her turn as Sally Bowles in Cabaret two years ago, she’s taking centre stage in a 50th anniversary revival of David Hare’s cynical 1975 play about an embittered, booze-addled female rock star who’s watched her dreams of rebellion die. And jaded though its protagonist might be, this production is likely to breathe some fresh pop-concert energy into a classic. AS

Les Liaisons Dangereuses

Lyttelton at National Theatre, 21 March – 6 June 2026

The centrepiece of the National Theatre’s lineup this year is this big-hitting revival of a slick, sexy French classic. NT regular Marianne Elliott is putting her spin on Christopher Hampton’s stage adaptation of the scandalous 18th-century pageturner (and inspiration for 1990s teen classic Cruel Intentions). This production stars Lesley Manville and Aidan Turner as lovers-turned-foes, manipulating and scheming their way through high society. This should be a seriously big-budget affair, plus it’ll be refreshing to see a female director put her stamp on this sometimes-uncomfortable battle of the sexes. AS

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Kimberley Akimbo

Hampstead Theatre, 28 August 2026 – 7 November 2026

Less than five years since West End hit The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, we’ve got another musical with a protagonist who is born with a rare condition that makes them look several decades older than they are. Who would have thought? Still, this surreal coming-of-age story sounds like it’s got a lot to recommend it beyond its premise.

Its Broadway run landed the 2023 Tony Award for best musical, as well winning hordes of fans with its bittersweet musings on growing up and growing old. Plus, it’s got songs by Jeanine Tesori, the composer who got everyone sobbing into their white wine with her heart-melting scores for musicals Fun Home and Caroline, or Change. Best of all? Director Michael Longhurst’s production is landing at the intimate Hampstead Theatre, meaning affordable tickets and an auditorium small enough that you won’t miss a note. AS

Man to Man

Royal Court, 5 September 2026 – 24 October 2026

Androgynous acting legend Tilda Swinton hasn’t set foot on the UK’s stages for 30 years, so her decision to drop in at the Royal Court this year is, to put it mildly, a pretty big deal. Part of the Royal Court’s 70th anniversary season, this revival will see her return to a role she first played in 1987. It’s a surreal story from playwright Manfred Karge that plunges us into the world of a German housewife who takes on her deceased husband’s job and identity.

In an interview at the time, Swinton said she loved the role so much she wanted to do it “til [she was] 60”. Now’s her chance to do five years better than that, and I couldn’t be more excited. AS

How to Get to Heaven from Belfast

Netflix, February

No one gets to the messy heart of female friendships like Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee. Her follow-up to the brilliant Channel 4 sitcom is set to introduce us to another tight-knit group of pals. TV writer Saoirse (Roísín Gallagher), glam mum Robyn (Sinéad Keenan) and carer Dara (Caoilfhionn Dunne) are well into their thirties, but they’re still as close as they were during their school days. The arrival of an unexpected email, informing them of the death of the long-estranged fourth member of their girl gang, starts them off on an adventure that will take them across Ireland and beyond. Think Derry Girls 20 years on. Katie Rosseinsky

Pride & Prejudice

Netflix, 2026 TBC

Every generation has their Pride and Prejudice. Gen X had the Nineties TV adaptation, featuring Colin Firth wading through a lake in a soggy white shirt. Millennials had Matthew Macfadyen, Keira Knightley, and a dreamy Dario Marianelli score. And now Gen Z are set to get their very own Netflix version, with Emma Corrin as Elizabeth Bennet and Jack Lowden as Mr Darcy.

Dolly Alderton is on script duties, and has promised that her take on Jane Austen’s classic will balance “both familiar and fresh ways of bringing this beloved book to life”. Oh, and Olivia Colman is playing Mrs Bennet, which feels like a role she was born for. KR

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Dear England

BBC, 2026 TBC

After a wildly successful run at the National Theatre, the ever-prolific James Graham is adapting his take on Gareth Southgate’s tenure as England manager for the small screen. Joseph Fiennes, who starred in the original play, is once again donning his waistcoat to play Southgate (the likeness is utterly uncanny in the photos that have been released so far) and is joined by Jodie Whittaker as sports psychologist Pippa Grange, plus a sprawling ensemble cast playing the squad. It’s perfectly timed for a World Cup year – could it be the dose of sporting optimism we need? KR

Legends

Netflix, 2026 TBC

An enviable cast populate this Netflix crime thriller, with Tom Burke, Steve Coogan, Hayley Squires, Charlotte Ritchie and more whizzing back to the Nineties for a true-life story about undercover customs workers infiltrating Britain’s most dangerous drug gangs. It’s a fascinating tale, about ordinary men and women put through some fairly basic training and sent off to build new identities and work as, well, actual spies. It comes from the mind of Neil Forsyth, creator of Eighties-set Brink’s-Mat robbery drama The Gold, so I’ll bet that, like that show, it will feel authentically retro – and be a proper, edge-of-the-seat caper. Ellie Harrison

Believe Me

ITV, 2026 TBC

This hard-hitting drama will tell the story of three victims of one of the most prolific sex attackers in British history, “black cab rapist” John Worboys. Aimée-Ffion Edwards (Slow Horses), Miriam Petche (Industry) and Aasiya Shah (Raised by Wolves) play the women Worboys drugged and assaulted in his taxi, with Des’s Daniel Mays taking on the role of Worboys.

It’s the latest in a string of true-crime series from screenwriter Jeff Pope, who was also attached to acclaimed dramas Little Boy Blue and Appropriate Adult, and is set to focus on how dehumanising the process of reporting the crimes was for the women, and how the police’s lack of belief in them only traumatised them further. EH