From returning pop superstars to Oscar-ready films and big-time celebrity memoirs, here are our recommendations for what to watch, listen to and read for the rest of the year.

Wave goodbye to summer blockbusters, and say hello to prestige pictures. Awards season is upon us, which means that most of the films which will win 2026's Oscars are about to be released. And most of these films involve people who have won Oscars already. Julia Roberts could well bag another best actress trophy for starring as a steely philosophy professor in Luca Guadagnino's issue-driven campus drama, After the Hunt (October). Nuremberg (November) examines the international military tribunal that followed World War Two; one Oscar winner (Russell Crowe) plays Hermann Goering, the Nazi officer, and another Oscar winner (Rami Malek) plays the American psychiatrist interviewing him. Kathryn Bigelow, the first woman to win the Oscar for best director, has made A House of Dynamite (October), a chilling thriller exploring the US's potential responses to an inbound nuclear missile. And Chloe Zhao, the second woman to win the Oscar for best director, has made Hamnet (November), adapted from Maggie O'Farrell's bestselling novel about a grief-stricken William Shakespeare – Paul Mescal plays the Bard, with Jessie Buckley as his wife Agnes. In the best international film category, likely nominees include Jafar Panahi's It Was Just an Accident (October), a dark Iranian farce which won the top prize at Cannes in May; and another Cannes favourite, Kleber Mendonça Filho's The Secret Agent (December), starring Wagner Moura as a fugitive in 1970s Brazil.

Moving on to science-fiction and fantasy blockbusters, there is Wicked: For Good (November), the second part of the musical prequel to The Wizard of Oz, there is Avatar: Fire and Ice (December), the third of James Cameron's extra-terrestrial epics; and there is The Running Man (November), Edgar Wright's take on Stephen King's dystopian novel, starring Glen Powell as a contestant being hunted down on a television game show. None of these three blockbusters is the kind of stately heavyweight drama which is usually thought of as "Oscar bait", but judging by the talent involved, they could well win a few awards themselves. (NB)

Thought autumn was a time to get cosy? Well, that's not what Netflix will be offering with its new period epic House of Guinness (September), written by Peaky Blinders' Steven Knight, which will explore the history of the brewing dynasty, and promises to contain plenty of sex, violence and dark secrets. More soothing, however, will be the return of Netflix's hit rom-com Nobody Wants This (October), starring Adam Brody and Kristen Bell as a rabbi and the gentile object of his affection. And another of its big hitters, political thriller The Diplomat (October), is back for a third series, with Keri Russell's US ambassador to the UK set to butt heads with Allison Janney's nefarious new POTUS.

Expect more skulduggery in the returning Slow Horses (September), the brilliant London-set spy drama........

© BBC