December provides rich rewards for movie lovers in the run up to Oscar nominations.

Other than that highly-anticipated space movie (we’ll get there), the final few weeks of 2015 have some big and beautiful films in the hopper. There’s a lot of star power to be found in December releases, as directors and producers jockey for Academy Award attention.

First off is The Big Short, a real-life drama based on the book by Michael Lewis about four men who foresee the burst of the American housing bubble in the mid-2000s and take on the big banks when they find cracks in the system. Aside from tackling a major issue for Americans still, the film – directed by Adam McCay (Anchorman 1 and 2, and Step Brothers) packs a star-studded cast of Christian Bale, Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Brad Pitt and others.

Next, Jennifer Lawrence, fresh off her Hunger Games finale, stars as the title character in Joy.

Joy Mangano is real-life woman who created the Miracle Mop and built an empire out of its success. The film also stars Bradley Cooper and Robert DeNiro and follows Joy dealing with her wild family and the ups and downs of her personal life.

The world of dark, twisted romance is brought to the big screen in Carol, an adaptation of the Patricia Highsmith novel The Price of Salt. Here, a love affair in 1950s New York is sparked between Therese Belivet (Rooney Mara), a department store clerk in her 20s, and Carol (Cate Blanchett), an older woman in a loveless marriage. The film follows Carol as she breaks free from her boring, cookie cutter life and searches for love with Therese.

Finally, the first week of 2016 brings The Revenant, a new film by Birdman director Alejandro González Iñárritu. The Revenant follows Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio), a trapper in the 1820s who is left for dead after he is mauled by a bear. Glass vows vengeance on those who deserted him, including his former friend John Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy).

After a year of very highly-anticipated films (the finale to Hunger Games, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Martian and Jurassic World), arguably the biggest of the year is the seventh addition to the Star Wars world.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens takes off from the plot of 1983’s Return of the Jedi and the death of Darth Vader and opens Dec. 18. The Internet fandom has already ripped apart the film’s many trailers and analyzed every second of footage teased. The newest film, directed by sci-fi giant J.J. Abrams (who redid Star Trek a few years back), brings back cast members from the first three films Harrison Ford (Han Solo), Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker) and Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca).