The 100 key films of 2013: Nos 11-20

Calvary: John Michael McDonough’s The Guard (pictured) – a comedy blacker than a pint of Guinness and mealier than a peat bog – was our favourite first film of last year. Since the success of the London-Irish writer/director’s debut, McDonagh’s been hot property. He could have stretched the canvas, packed up the paints and followed brother Martin to LA. Instead he’s chosen to repeat the trick, casting The Guard's Brendan Gleeson as a goodly priest beset by the evils of his congregation. 'It’s in the same darkly comedic vein as The Guard, but with a much more serious and dramatic narrative,' says McDonagh. We can’t wait to peer into the gloom Photograph: PR

Captain Philips: Tom Hanks sets sail on Paul Greengrass’s version of the true story of Captain Richard Phillips (pictured above), who heroically offered himself up as a hostage when his cargo ship, the Maersk Alabama, was boarded by Somali pirates in April 2009. Phillips was kept at gunpoint until a dramatic rescue by a US navy special forces team, who used sniper rifles to kill three of the four pirates during a night attack on rough seas. Zero Dark Floaty maybe?
Photograph: Reuters

Carrie: 'You Will Know Her Name.' Don’t be surprised that the tagline for this remake of Brian De Palma’s 1976 horror assumes ignorance. This is Carrie for a new generation – bigger, bolder (have a look at what the little madame has done in the trailer, but potentially less bloody given the age of star Chloë Grace Moretz’s fanbase. Julianne Moore plays Mom, hoping to coax Carrie out of the notion that no means 'pop school bully’s head with telekenetic powers' Photograph: PR

Catching Fire: In which Katniss Everdeen, having emerged victorious from the bloody tsunami of her first Hunger Games, takes a moment to put her feet up … OR embarks on a celebratory tour, becomes the leader of a revolutionary cult, dodges a marriage proposal, meets up with veteran contestants from games past and goes back into battle to contest the Quarter Quell – a fight to the death between a new crop of teens gathered from the districts of the post-apocalyptic United States
Photograph: Lionsgate/Everett/Rex Features

The Counselor: Fassbender! Pitt! Cruz! Bardem! We haven’t seen a cast this dazzling since Soderbergh’s Haywire way back last January, and look how well that turned out! Er, anyway. The Counselor, the story of a successful lawyer (Fassbender) who gets tangled up in a drug trafficking operation, is directed by Ridley Scott from the first original screenplay by Cormac McCarthy. So it sounds like a sure thing to us. Until next December at least … Photograph: Martin Argles/Guardian

The Coup: Owen Wilson (here in You, Me and Dupree) ziplines back into drama as the protective papa bear of an American family trapped in the middle of a violent rebellion in – as the advance publicity has it – a 'southeast Asian country'. Director John Erick Dowdle has also recruited Michelle Monaghan and Pierce Brosnan, though few details of their roles have emerged as yet. We’re guessing Grizzled Consulate or Grizzled UN Inspector for Pierce. Grizzled Rebel Leader at a stretch …
Photograph: Universal/Everett/Rex Features

The Dallas Buyers Club: Matthew McConaughey stars in the real-life story of Ron Woodroof, an HIV-Aids sufferer who became a drug smuggler in the late 80s to gain access to illegal alternative therapies. McConaughey's surprisingly assured performances in Killer Joe hinted that there was more to the actor than a great set of abs (and a lovely pair of bongos). This role (for which he lost 40lbs to look convincingly ill) paired with his turn in Jeff Nichols’s Mud, should tip the balance in Serious Acting’s favour Photograph: Gero Breloer/AP

The Devil's Knot: A dramatisation of the story of the West Memphis Three – the teens imprisoned for 20 years after being convicted of murdering three young boys in 1994 and released, but not pardoned, last year. Director Atom Egoyan will focus on the mother of one of the victims (Reese Witherspoon) and a investigator who worked for the trio’s defence team (Colin Firth). His version of events looks set to take a different path to Berlinger and Sinofsky's Paradise Lost documentaries, which investigated weaknesses in the evidence used to convict the trio. 'It’s ripe for dramatic retelling,' Egoyan told the Wall Street Journal earlier this year Photograph: PR

Diana: The auteur’s actor plays the people’s princess. Naomi Watts dons pink suit and pearls to tell the story of Diana’s last two years. Downfall director Oliver Hirschbiegel’s biopic hones in on the romantic relationship between the princess of Wales and Hasnat Khan, the heart surgeon she befriended and then some. Douglas Hodge co-stars as loose-lipped Paul Burrell, the go-between for much of the couple’s illicit affair Photograph: PR

Diablo Cody Project: Juno writer Diablo Cody makes her directorial debut with a comedy-drama (on-off title: Lamb of God) about a rightwing Christian who learns to live a little after surviving a plane crash near Las Vegas. Footloose’s Jennifer Hough plays our newfound free spirit, while Octavia Spencer, Holly Hunter and – cripes! – Russell Brand are on hand to dole out the life lessons Photograph: Dan Macmedan/WireImage