Keanu Reeves returns to the big screen with 47 Ronin.

Summer has given way to autumn; school is back in session and the winter routine is beginning to set in (let’s ignore the fact it’s still horribly hot and humid).

The offerings at the cinema also make a subtle change as the summer event movies fade frommemory and we begin to head towards the final phase of thecinematic year.

KRS Film Distributors have a number of films lined up until December, including some blockbusters, naturally, some strong family Christmas fare and, of course, the more prestigious titles as award season approaches.

Dramas feature heavily; among them a series of films which will undoubtedly feature in many critics’ top 10 lists and award nominations come the year end: Tom Hanks on great form in the real-life story Captain Phillips which opened on Friday. Brad Pitt teams up with actor Michael Fassbender and director Ridley Scott for crime drama The Counselor; fan favourite Benedict Cumberbatch takes on the role of controversial WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in The Fifth Estate; while after Naomi Watts embodied an iconic princess in Diana, her pal Nicole Kidman takes on the role of another royal favourite in Grace of Monaco.

November sees the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F Kennedy. Parkland, starring Zac Efron, recounts those chaotic events from the perspective of many ordinary individuals.

Acting legend Judi Dench stars alongside Steve Coogan in Philomena, about a woman seeking the child she gave up for adoption 50 years ago; and following his Oscar glory in March, Ben Affleck steps in front of the camera and teams up with Justin Timberlake in Runner Runner.

Typically, the action-adventure genre also dominates the list and 1980s action film buffs can look forward to veteran stalwarts Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger teaming up for the high-concept Escape Plan which finds Stallone attempting to break out of an ultra-secret, high-tech prison facility.

Another familiar face, albeit one we haven’t seen for a while, is Keanu Reeves, who stars in47 Ronin, a mythical samurai-themed story.

The sci-fi/fantasy geeks have more than their fair share to look forward to with Ender’s Game, starring Harrison Ford and Asa Butterfield; and critics’ darling Gravity, which finds George Clooney and Sandra Bullock stranded in space… and seems favourited to pick up a glut of awards.

Sequels abound with the eagerly-awaited Thor 2 – The Dark World, starring Chris Hemsworth as the Marvel Comics hammer-wielding hero; Oscar-winner Jennifer Lawrence returns to kick more butt in Hunger Games: Catching Fire; while once again, we return to Middle Earth for The Hobbit – The Desolation of Smaug.

The romantics haven’t been forgotten what with About Time, starring Domhnall Gleeson and Rachel McAdams in which Gleeson discovers that he can travel in time and Drinking Buddies with Olivia Wilde and Jake Johnson as co-workers at a Chicago brewery.

In the comedy stakes Michael Douglas, Robert De Niro, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Kline play buddies who come together in Las Vegas to celebrate the wedding of Douglas’s character. In other words, The Hangover for oversixties…

De Niro also stars in The Family in which he plays a mafia boss in hiding in a sleepy French town with his wife (Michelle Pfeiffer) and his family.

Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne reprise their roles from horrorsuccess Insidious with Chapter 2; while fans of the genre can also look forward to low-budget success story You’re Next.

Christmas is coming, and the run-up to the holiday season will see a number of family-oriented films filling the cinemas. Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson headline Disney’s Saving Mr Banks, where Hanks’ Disney attempts to persuade Thompson’s Ms P.L. Travers to sell him the rights to turn her book Mary Poppins into a film. Black Nativity is a musical drama starring Oscar-winners Forest Whitaker and Angela Bassett.

There are myriad animated titles in the offing – the success of 2009’s Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs has spawned a sequel; Owen Wilson and Woody Harrelson lend their voices to Freebirds, dubbed “the greatest turkey movie of all time”; Frozen has the residents of the Kingdom of Arendelle trapped in eternal winter; and we witness more car racing shenanigans in Turbo, about a super-fast snail.

Of further interest may be the street dance-themed Battle of the Year or Walking with Dinosaurs, a 3D experience that puts audiences in the middle of a prehistoric world.