Regal is bringing back Month of Masterpieces in September 2026, and this time the second annual edition comes with four guest curators: Chloé Zhao, Rian Johnson, Gina Prince-Bythewood and Edgar Wright. Each filmmaker handpicked five films, turning the monthlong series into a 30-title run built around their creative influences rather than Regal’s in-house picks alone.
That is why Zhao is drawing attention now. She said she wanted to share “three things I love very much — anime, the Old West, and a film that sets us free,” and her five selections trace that idea across The Truman Show, A Silent Voice: The Movie, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, The Last Picture Show and Hud. Her picks begin Sep 6, after Regal opens the series on Sep 1 with The Bridge on the River Kwai and rolls through the month to Sep 30.
The series first appeared the previous September, when Regal returned 30 celebrated movies selected by its own film team to the big screen. This new edition keeps that setup but widens it, adding four filmmakers whose choices are meant to show what shaped their voices. Regal said the point is to celebrate films that remind audiences why they fell in love with movies in the first place, and to give moviegoers a rare look at the titles that influenced some of today’s most distinctive storytellers.
That mission sits alongside a small contradiction built into the lineup. Regal is selling Month of Masterpieces as a chance to experience films where they belong, on the big screen, yet some of the titles on the schedule are already familiar home-viewing staples. The pairing is deliberate: a crowd can change the feel of a movie people already know, and Regal is leaning on that difference as much as on rarity.
By the end of September, the question is not whether the program is bigger. It is whether Regal can turn a curated nostalgia play into a habit. With 30 films spread across the month, including Zhao’s run starting Sep 6 and closing titles from Edgar Wright on Sep 30, the chain is betting that familiar movies still have room to surprise when they move back into a theater.
