January 2026: A Curated Look at Film, TV, and Music
January arrives not as a quiet restart but as an assertive opening salvo for film, television and music. This month pairs returns from established voices with risk-taking debuts, and it sets the tone for awards season and industry conversations that will shape the year.
Film: Visionary Directors and Anticipated Returns
Gus Van Sant’s Gripping New Drama
Dead Man’s Wire finds Gus Van Sant revisiting intimate human fracture with a spare, observational style. Anchored by a compact ensemble, the film trades spectacle for texture, asking how memory and technology rewrite accountability. For filmmakers and critics this is Van Sant at his most quietly unsettling.
Stewart’s Directorial Debut and Franchise Evolution
Kristen Stewart’s The Chronology of Water marks a notable pivot from performer to auteur. The adaptation leans into elliptical storytelling and personal politics, signalling Stewart’s appetite for formally ambitious work. Meanwhile, 28 Years Later returns to the infected-genre with a tone that tests franchise legacy and contemporary anxiety about contagion and control.
Television: Awards Season, Returning Hits, and New Worlds
Kicking Off Awards Season
The Golden Globes reopen the calendar as a cultural barometer. Early nominations and surprise winners will influence momentum for critics and guilds, while red carpet choices frame how projects are discussed in industry circles.
Acclaimed Series Back on Screen
The Pitt Season 2 sustains its political satire with deeper character fractures and sharper moral questions. Industry Season 4 returns with its trademark intensity, exploring post-crash power dynamics and the ethical cost of ambition. Both series remain indispensable viewing for makers and commentators.
Epic Fantasy Expands
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms arrives with high expectations for world-building and serialized scale. Its success will be measured by how it balances spectacle with thematic weight.
Music: Echoes of the Present, Sounds for the Future
Lucinda Williams and Indie Highlights
Lucinda Williams’ World’s Gone Wrong revisits Americana with a weathered clarity that speaks to political unease and personal endurance. On the indie front, Dry Cleaning’s latest EP continues to pair literate lyricism with jagged post-punk arrangements, making both releases worthy of attention from songwriters and tastemakers.
Cultural Outlook for the New Year
January 2026 privileges voice over volume. Directors and musicians who choose restraint or formal risk are setting the cultural agenda. For creatives and industry observers the month is less about sheer output and more about which artists will define narrative and sonic priorities for the months ahead.
