From Greek gods to green ogres, what to watch out for in 2010

Throw in the worthies of the Oscar season and a smattering of smart offerings by an array of auteurs and there should be enough to tease the palate of even the most discerning cinaste. The roll call of characters is intriguing in itself: honourable outlaws, teenage wizards, Greek gods, lost little girls, mercenaries, mad scientists, lycanthropes, vampires and giant green ogres.

And if the names don't mean much, the movies themselves might just.

How about Robin Hood with Russell Crowe? Or a double-bill of Harry Potter adventures as our scarred hero fulfils his destiny in the two-part finale of JK Rowling's saga? Or remakes of Clash of the Titans, Alice in Wonderland, The A-Team and The Wolfman? Or the latest in the Twilight and Shrek franchises? It's going to be a busy time...

January and February are traditionally the months when us Brits are treated to the final offerings in the Oscar race. Precious, the story of a teenage girl abused by her parents and left holding a baby fathered by her own dad, is destined for glory.

Critics have been falling over themselves to praise this raw slice of working-class Americana, with plaudits going in particular to rap star Mo('Nique as the monstrous mother at the heart of the tale. Mariah Carey (I kid you not) gives a revelatory performance as a social worker.

Fans of intelligent foreign cinema should check out Jacques Audiard's A Prophet, a brutish expos of life on the inside of a tough French jail that has already been hailed as the finest prison movie ever made. I wouldn't go that far, but it is without doubt an impressive portrayal of the corrosive effects of career criminals on naive youngsters. Tahir Rahim stars.

Clint Eastwood's Invictus is gathering steam as another potential gobbler of awards. Morgan Freeman is a front-runner for Best Actor

playing Nelson Mandela in the story of how he planned to unite his

divided nation by urging the national rugby team to win the world cup. Simple yet wholly inspirational, Invictus may surprise many by cleaning up several major gongs.

Peter Jackson's The Lovely Bones, from Alice Sebold's novel, centres on a young girl (Saoirse Ronan) who has been murdered and who narrates her story from beyond the grave. The heavyweight cast includes Susan Sarandon, Stanley Tucci, Rachel Weisz and the underrated Mark Wahlberg. Early reviews have not been kind but the film is still likely to provoke debate among lovers of literate flicks.

George Clooney is also a serious contender for his performance in Up in the Air, an existential comedy from Jason Reitman that casts Gorgeous George as an unsentimental charmer who fires people for a living. Watch out too for Crazy Heart, starring Jeff Bridges as Bad Blake, an alcoholic, chain-smoking country singer reduced to playing dives and sleazy bars.

The first of the year's big blockbusters, The Wolfman, is released on February 12. Starring Benicio Del Toro and Anthony Hopkins, it promises to be a fast-moving re-brand of Universal's 1940s horror classic.

Horror effects guru Rick Baker handles the transformation via his incredible make-up skills, so this one may actually be better than one suspects.

Liam Neeson leads the gods in the remake of Ray Harryhausen's Clash of the Titans (out March 26), with Sam (Avatar) Worthington as Perseus enduring all manner of travails including the Medusa and the Kraken.

The completed film is still under wraps but Harryhausen's trademark stop-motion is likely to have been superseded by state-of-the-art CGI.

A companion piece is Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, a weird phantasmagoria with Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter and Helena Bonham-Carter as the Red Queen. Expect a creepy little fairytale rather than a comic book rendering. The impressive ensemble cast includes Michael Sheen, Timothy Spall, Stephen Fry, Anne Hathaway, Crispin Glover, Alan Rickman, 87-year-old Christopher Lee and 95-year-old Michael Gough. Mia Wasikowska plays Alice.

Mel Gibson returns to the screen for the first time in six years as the vengeful father seeking his daughter's killers in Edge of Darkness, a big-budget remake of the 1980s TV drama. Martin (Casino Royale) Campbell takes the tiller on the film version of his own original telly project.

From April through to August, Hollywood will wheel out its brand names. Don't expect originality. Instead expect Wall Street 2 (April 23),

Iron Man 2 (April 30), A Nightmare on Elm Street (May 7), Robin Hood (May 14), Sex and the City 2 (May 28), Footloose and The Karate Kid (both June 18), Shrek Forever After 3D (July 2), The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (July 9), Toy Story 3 (July 23) and The A-Team (July 30).

Harry Potter aficionados will have to wait until November for part one of Deathly Hallows. Part two follows in July 2011 and concludes this particular phenomenon.

In among these lumbering box office behemoths is a modicum of brain candy.

Look out for Leaving, a French drama starring Kristin Scott Thomas as a middle-class wife who dumps husband and kids for an affair with a Spanish builder; When You're Strange, a new documentary (from Tom DiCillo) on '60s supergroup The Doors; The Last Station (a dry biopic of Tolstoy that is nevertheless causing ripples); and, best of all, a reissue of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho to tie-in with its 50th anniversary. Now that's class.

See you at the movies.

TOP FIVE IN 2010

Up in the Air: Comedy starring George Clooney.

Invictus: Clint Eastwood's Mandela biopic.

Alice in Wonderland: Tim Burton version of the Lewis Carroll classic.

When You're Strange: Tom DiCillo documentary.

The Wolfman: Lycanthropic remake.