Is The Sheep Detectives the best movie of 2026 so far?

From talking sheep to incel horror, here are the best movies of 2026 so far Wed 1 Jul 2026 at 5:12am It's officially halfway through 2026 and the year so far has brought cinematic delights, as well as its fair share of silver screen stinkers. Even after frosty critical receptions, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and Michael lead the global box office with the former being the only movie of 2026 to crack $US1 billion so far, and the latter not far behind. Locally, intellectual property (IP) fodder continues to reign supreme with The Devil Wears Prada 2 and Avatar: Fire and Ash both landing within the top five of the 2026 Australian Box Office. Proving there is still appetite for original stories, and puppets, sci-fi charmer Project Hail Mary rounded out the top five of both box offices pulling in $US683 million globally. Horror continues to dominate with gen Z genre films Backrooms and Obsession both breaking $US300 million globally on tiny budgets. But box office isn't everything, so we asked our critics for the best movies they've seen so far in 2026. Here's what they said. 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple Perhaps the most surprising element of Trainspotting director Danny Boyle's return to a Rage-ravaged UK with 28 Years Later was just how compassionate its reckoning with mortality and the cost of survival was. That, and a cliffhanger ending with what appeared to be a track-suited clan of parkouring Jimmy Savilles. How could Candyman director Nia DaCosta up the ante, taking on the baton with the also-written-by-Alex-Garland follow-up, The Bone Temple? By once again thrusting us in wild directions. The story is more squarely focused on Ralph Fiennes's rock-out resistance fighter against meaningless death, Dr Kelson, whose ability to tame the beast that is a towering Chi Lewis-Parry's infected Samson — and his enormous wotsit — astounds. The stoner-bro comedy, with Samson now addicted to blissing out on the tranquilliser darts Kelson uses to keep him chill, is adorkable, only heightening the horror once Sinners baddie Jack O'Connell strikes with his aforementioned gang of ninja neds. That torture-happy troupe's menace manages to make the mindless zombies seem comparably polite. And yet, even within this humans-are-the-real-monsters crew, the bond struck up between Alfie Williams's plucky young hero, Spike, and Erin Kellyman's clued-up Jimmy Ink adds to this majestic film's unexpected tenderness. Once again ending with a 'next time on' tease, this skull-cold contemporary classic leaves us as hungry for the forthcoming conclusion as Samson is for a trophy spinal cord. But The Bone Temple's most audacious move is making the apocalypse feel hopeful again, in ways the real world can't quite seem to manage. - Stephen A Russell Backrooms Is nothing more humbling to the aging millennial than a 20-something dude making a number one hit film based on the era you grew up in — an era that he wasn't even alive for? When I first learned that 20-year-old YouTuber Kane Parsons would be directing A24's next horror film, and that it would be based on a meme, I was naturally sceptical. But after sitting alone in a dark cinema, experiencing the horrors of Backroom's era-specific liminal space for the first time on the big screen, I realised that we were dealing with no ordinary youth. The conceit works so well because we all have our personal version of the backrooms. It could be a shopping centre you loitered in as a teen, with faded posters of fashion models and dried up water fountains. It could be a swimming pool with a windy waterslide you visited in the summer, which seemed so big when you were a kid, but now lies cracked and rusty under dusty fluorescents. Or maybe, like the chosen locale for Backrooms, it was the yellowing showrooms at the local furniture outlet that no longer exists. Either way, you get the sneaking sense that if you went back to those places now, it would be folly to try to capture those exact same feelings from the past. That alone is an elusive terror, but Parsons nails it. The look, feel and sound of Backrooms is so sophisticated, with some great performances from Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve, that one could easily mistake it for the work of a more experienced director. 'Wunderkind' has been thrown around in the same breath as Parsons' name a few times, and while I'm holding out to see more of his feature work before bequeathing him such a title, I can't say there isn't some truth in it. The biggest surprise of Backrooms was the way it so deftly used a physical, labyrinthine space (that was built for real) to evoke a dangerous nostalgia for a memory misremembered — that soon warps into something horrifically unrecognisable. Consider me humbled. - Silvi Vann-Wall Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie If you haven't heard of Nirvanna the Band the Show, you're not alone. Initially conceived as a web series in 2007 by best friends Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol, this livewire mockumentary — shot on the streets of Toronto with hidden cameras — has remained a strictly cult phenomenon. Amid a tidal wave of online IP making a splash in Hollywood this year, Nirvanna came roaring back in one of the most chaotically inventive movies of 2026 so far. Newcomers will quickly get the gist: Matt and Jay (playing fictionalised versions of themselves) are a musical duo intent on booking a show at a local Toronto club through the most outlandish means possible. Twenty years on, however, and Jay has soured on the band's failure to launch — but when Matt cooks up a new scheme inspired by Back to the Future, they both accidentally end up trapped in 2008. Beginning with a jaw-dropping aerial stunt that rivals anything from the Mission: Impossible series, the anarchic energy of their schemes are paralleled by the ingenuity of filmmaking on display. In essence, it's Nathan Fielder in the world of Looney Tunes on a shoestring budget. Unlike other online creators who've recently made it to the multiplex, Johnson and McCarrol have been stalwarts of the indie film scene for years — both collaborated on the upcoming A24 Anthony Bourdain biopic — but it's nice to know that the cinematic legacy of millennial web comedies hasn't ended with Smosh: The Movie. - Jamie Tram Obsession Obsession is going gangbusters in this golden age of gen Z horror and for good reason. Produced on a budget of $US750,000 and having already netted a $US370 million international box office, Curry Barker's directorial debut specialises in a newly emergent undercurrent of incel horror. Bear (Michael Johnston) is in love (or so he thinks) with his co-worker Nikki (Inde Navarrette). Too shy to make a move and too self-obsessed to see her as anything more than fodder for his unexpressed feelings, Bear cracks one night and snaps a One Wish Willow, wishing for her to "love him more than anything else in the world". His wish is the keepsake's command, but Nikki's resultant "love" for him spirals far beyond what Bear could've ever envisioned. Navarrette is a revelatory talent as the effectively possessed Nikki, with the real Nikki lurking far beneath the surface of the new entity which has taken over her person-hood in slavish devotion to Bear. Whether she's lurking creepily in the corner as Bear sleeps or inching sideways like a haunted centipede, Navarrette excels at the physical personification of horror that will linger in your mind long after the credits roll. As the unhinged violence of Nikki's actions ratchet up in intensity and scale, what emerges as the most terrifying aspect of Obsession is not the malevolent spirit reigning over Nikki's body, but Bear's continued inaction as he refuses to surrender the obsessive love of Nikki, even as it compromises the lives of those closest to him, hell, even himself. So scant are his sense of self-preservation and actual care for Nikki that Bear remains an incomprehensible vacuum of morals until the very end. As the film hurtles towards its foregone conclusion, Obsession observes that being desired by a seemingly nice guy may just be the worst thing that could ever happen to you. - Sonia Nair Pillion Full of butt plugs, erotic wrestling, collars, gags and arseless leotards, Pillion is the sweetest and most affecting romantic drama to grace 2026 so far. Twenty-something parking officer Colin (Harry Melling, working the most from his massive, twinkling eyes) is in a state of arrested development. His loving parents are supportive of his sexuality, his mum even setting him up on dates with well-meaning but uninspired men. He still lives at home and his only hobby is performing in a barbershop quartet alongside his father and brother. One night at the pub, he's summoned to a back alley meeting by Ray (Alexander Skarsgård, perfectly cast), an Adonis biker who barely speaks beyond commanding Colin to get on his knees. Discovering his "aptitude for devotion", Colin enters into a BDSM relationship with Ray, initially luxuriating in the concept of belonging. For the non-bikers in the room, Pillion refers to the passenger seat on a motorcycle and Leighton certainly plays on images of arms wrapped tightly around a driver's waist — all control willingly and gloriously given to the leader. It's dizzying watching the isolated Colin revel in not just his first relationship, but in the new-found community of Ray's close-knit BDSM biker gang (who are real life members of the UK Gay Bikers Motorcycle Club, grounding a concept which would be foreign to much of the audience). Leighton never betrays the BDSM community for shock value. Instead he treats the subculture with such care and kindness it becomes crystal clear why someone as identity-less as Colin would be attracted to the alternative lifestyle. Ultimately Ray's control gives Colin the freedom to decipher his own wants and needs. A third act knife twist from Leighton strips Ray's humanity naked, uprooting his careful dom/sub power play. Pillion might be 50 per cent erotica but it's 100 per cent human. Don't beat yourself up if you missed the mere weeks it appeared in very select Australian cinemas but do hurry to watch it on any platform available to you. - Velvet Winter The Sheep Detectives From the moment the trailer for The Sheep Detectives dropped it faced an uphill battle because how could a movie about a flock of sheep who solve the murder of their shepherd be anything but irritating school holiday cinema filler? But those who had faith were rewarded with a charming and snappy whodunnit that is all but guaranteed to delight children and adults. We don't get to spend much time with George Hardy (Hugh Jackman), the doting shepherd who reads his sheep to sleep, before he's bumped off by an unseen assailant. Small-town cop Officer Tim (Nicholas Braun, a masterclass in slapstick) and blow-in journalist Elliot (Nicholas Galitzine) aren't great shakes at cracking the case, so George's sheep step up to sniff out the killer from a line-up of hilarious suspects. It's a non-stop delight watching wise leader Lily (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and devoted offsider Mopple (Chris O'Dowd) guide the flock on a wild goose chase trying to trick bumbling humans into recognising the clues right in front of their faces. While The Sheep Detectives, with its bright cinematography and penchant for background gags, excels as an entertaining murder-mystery, writer Craig Mazin goes further, infusing CGI sheep with real pathos. You see, Lily and the gang have a tendency to intentionally forget horrible things, like the death of their shepherd, in an attempt to skip over negative emotions. Through black sheep Sebastian (Bryan Cranston), Mazin manages to elegantly untangle grief, memory and why these are intrinsic aspects of being alive. The Sheep Detectives shouldn't work, but somehow all the improbabilities add up to a sparkling example of what children's cinema can achieve when it doesn't underestimate its audience. - Velvet Winter Vote for your favourite movie below Did any of these movies make your list? We'd love to hear what you think is a movie of the year contender below by voting in our poll. We've added a few more notable titles into the mix as well.