With the awards season well under way, now is the best time for the serious movie-lover to pay a visit to the cinema.

Former Turner Prize-winner Steve McQueen’s 12 Years A Slave, released next Friday, January 10, is certain to be in Oscar contention, telling its story of free black man Solomon Northup being abducted and sold into slavery in pre-Civil War US.

Martin Scorcese returns to New York with his topical true life story The Wolf Of Wall Street on Friday, January 17. Leonardo DiCaprio plays the wealthy stockbroker Jordan Belfort brought down to earth by crime and corruption.

And the Coen Brothers make a welcome return on Friday, January 24, with their recreation of the early 1960s Greenwich Village folk scene which gave birth to Bob Dylan. Inside Llewyn Davis follows a fictional folk singer for a week battling against the odds and a cast including Justin Timberlake, Carey Mulligan and John Goodman.

The coming weeks have more interesting creations ahead of the usual slew of comic book adaptations, remakes and sequels.

Being John Malkovich director Spike Jonze’s Her sees Joaquin Phoenix as a lonely writer who develops a romantic relationship with a newly-developed operating system designed to meet his every need (from Friday, February 14).

Matthew McConaughey stars in the Dallas Buyers Club, out Friday, February 7, as a redneck electrician in 1985 Dallas fighting to get fellow AIDS sufferers vital medication.

Former Brighton City Read, Marcus Zusak’s The Book Thief finally makes it to the big screen, under the helm of director Brian Percival, starring Roger Allam, Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson, with youngster Sophie Nelisse as Liesel.

And The Double, the second film by The IT Crowd’s Richard Ayodade, following his excellent Submarine, has an April release date. Jesse Eisenberg’s timid office clerk is driven to the brink of insanity by a new co-worker who looks exactly the same, but has a totally different approach to life.

Remakes on the way include a reboot of Robocop on February 7, an animated Tarzan, and another attempt at Godzilla in May after the last woeful version where a giant lizard somehow got lost in New York.

Sequels include a follow-up to the big swords and bare chests of 300, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier in March, a second Amazing Spider-Man in April, X Men: Days Of Future Past in May, and more in the Transformers and The Expendables franchises over the summer.

Youngsters should love the return of Rio and How To Train Your Dragon, while kids of all ages will get excited about The Muppets: Most Wanted in March, featuring Ricky Gervais, a jewel heist and Kermit’s evil doppelganger.

Also in the works is a second Inbetweeners movie in August, The Hunger Games takes a lead from the Harry Potter series by splitting final book Mockingjay in half, and Peter Jackson concludes his epic Hobbit trilogy in December.

There’s a late surprise too, with Michael Bond’s bear from darkest Peru, Paddington, making his cinematic debut in November.

Meanwhile with potential to be either awful or brilliant are Event Horizon and Resident Evil director Paul WS Anderson’s recreation of the eruption of Vesuvius in the big budget Pompeii.

And Russell Crowe plays the title character in Darren Aronofsky’s Noah due out at the end of March. Just imagining Crowe saying “I shall take two of every animal” banishes the January blues...