When February comes to a close, so too does Oscars season. All the films that desperately wanted to get their hands of those golden statues have already been released, leaving us three months of releases that play neither to the Oscars crowd nor the bored school children during their summer holidays. There’s a general assumption that this is dry period for film, where studios release all the films that could be described as 'curveballs'. However the complete opposite is true: if you look closely, there are some weird, wacky and wonderful films coming out in the next month. Dive in – I dare you!

Hail, Caesar! - Friday 4th March

The Coen Brothers’ directorial follow-up to 2013’s melancholy effort Inside Llewyn Davis seems to promise a return to more farcical tone. Another example of Hollywood’s favourite topic being… Hollywood, this film stars George Clooney as witless 1950s leading man Baird Whitlock who gets kidnapped, leaving sturdy studio boss Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) with the mammoth task of negotiating his return. Stuffed with cameos from the likes of Channing Tatum, Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton and Ralph Fiennes playing an array of larger-than life luvvies, this film is a gloriously giddy tribute to Hollywood’s Golden Age.

High Rise - Friday 18th March

This surreal dystopian drama instantly divided critics upon its premiere in Toronto last September, making an already titillating set-up all the more intriguing. Directed by rising auteur Ben Wheatley of Sightseers and Kill List fame, High Rise is an adaptation of J. G. Ballard’s novel about a tower block whose floors are segregated by class and income. The story acts as an allegory about what happens when simmering class tensions run rampant, and as the lower classes ascend the tower block towards to elites, the fragility of maintaining the social order in a divided society is brutally exposed. Violence, amorality, and Tom Hiddleston in a suit. What more could you want?

Anomalisa - Friday 11th March

Who would have guessed that a film that included scenes of stop-motion animation intercourse would be hailed as one of the most beautiful and life-affirming films of the year? Innovative talent Charlie Kaufman brings us an animation about a depressed motivational speaker (David Thewlis) who starts to find meaning in his life again when he meets Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh.) Crucially, every other character is voiced by the same actor using the same voice and with the same face, creating the sense of a repetitive and alienating world. If you fancy a heartfelt meditation on the human condition in a rather unexpected form, come along.

The Club - Friday 25th March

This Chilean drama won the Jury Prize and the Berlin Film Festival last year, but like many foreign-language offerings, is only being released in the UK now. Director Pablo Larraín is notable for films that comment on society and politics in Chile, and this looks no different. This film is a complex drama about a group of Catholic priests who live together under the supervision of a housekeeper, overlooking a bleak, grey coastline. Given Larraían’s ever skillful control over setting, aesthetic and character in his films, The Club looks to be a fascinating exploration of contemporary Catholicism.

Zootopia - Friday 25th March

The trailer for Zootopia shows the keen rabbit police officer Judy Hopp’s efforts to rapidly track down a vehicle number being repeatedly frustrated by the fact that all the workers in the Department of Mammal vehicles are sloths, who only seem to operate in slow motion. If the finished film is anywhere near as fun, we are all in for a treat, with Disney’s first big film of 2016 bound to please the young and young-at-heart alike.