Oscar Seasoning: A Way Too Early Look at Films to Expect in the 2027 Awards Race
And with that, the 2025/6 awards season is over. Wow, this felt like a long one, right? It seemed to last for months, but I can’t complain too much. We got through this year with a really good slate of Best Picture nominations and a ton of wins that are pretty dang good. If I get to the end of an Oscars ceremony and think, “well, that could have gone a lot worse”, I consider it a success. And 2025/6 had me going, “wait, was that really good?” That never happens!
Can we repeat it in 2026/7? Let’s not push our luck. But hey, it’s a new tradition of mine to look at possible candidates for the coming awards season. My hit rate is not terrible, and the speculation is the fun part. So, here are a few movies to keep an eye on over the coming months.
DISCLOSURE DAY
Spielberg’s back, baby! The man who essentially invented the Summer blockbuster is returning to that realm with the highly mysterious Disclosure Day. It’s rare that we get a film with some sort of mystique around it, even this early in the process. Nowadays, the trades report on every agonizing detail of a film’s plot months before anyone can pay to see it. Just check out how we seemingly know every twist of the new Avengers film already. Yawn. So hell yeah to Spielberg for using his clout to make audiences wait. We know this is a first contact film, and we know that it stars Josh O’Connor, Emily Blunt, Colman Domingo, and Wyatt Russell. Other than that, I hope I find out as little as possible about Disclosure Day.
THE ODYSSEY
If anyone has a legitimate claim to Spielberg’s crown as the biggest director on the planet, it’s Christopher Nolan. Oppenheimer was yet another reminder of his clout as someone who can make a big-budget non-IP property and have it turn an insane profit. Now that he has his long-sought-after Best Director Oscar, he’s got even more power, and he’s using it to adapt one of the original sagas: The Odyssey. This thing has a cast to die for, a $250 million budget, Ludwig Göransson on music duties, and a July 17 release date set for IMAX and 70mm. Tickets for select IMAX 70 mm screenings were made available a year before its release, and many of them are already sold out. That's power. This seems to be the undisputed Event of 2026.
FJORD
Cristian Mungiu is one of the most acclaimed filmmakers in Romania. He won the Palme d'Or in 2007 for 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, a gut-wrenching drama about two women trying to procure an abortion during the Ceaușescu dictatorship. He's making his kinda English-language debut with Fjord, starring Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan. Now that Stan is in his freaky character actor era, he's making an effort to work in his native Romanian, which is objectively amazing (he's also set to make a Frankenstein movie with Radu Jude.) In Fjord, he and Reinsve will play a couple who move to a remote Norwegian village and face scrutiny as their kids begin to exhibit disturbing behaviour. Expect this one to play at Cannes.
DIGGER
Tom Cruise has retired from jumping off skyscrapers and saving the world. Now, he wants to be an actor again. Reinventing himself as an invincible stunt icon with the Mission: Impossible movies made Cruise beloved once more after audiences got the ick with his Scientology zealotry. Will they follow him into this new “I can do whatever I want” era with the multi-Oscar winner Alejandro G. Iñárritu? The Academy loves Iñárritu, even though they all but blanked his last film, Bardo. For me, he's a technically proficient filmmaker who gets good performances out of actors and I still hate almost everything he does. But of course I'm intrigued by the prospect of Cruise in character actor mode with this black comedy Digger, and with an ensemble that includes Jesse Plemons, Sandra Hüller, Riz Ahmed, Michael Stuhlbarg, and John Goodman. Could we FINALLY get an Oscar vehicle for the never-nominated Goodman?!
THE BUNKER
Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem are the first couple of Spanish cinema (and a top ten “hottest celebrity couple ever” contender.) They’ve worked together many times over the years, and now they’re reuniting for The Bunker, written and directed by French playwright turned filmmaker Florian Zeller. He did big business at the Oscars with The Father but The Son flopped. This one, sadly not called The Holy Spirit, is about an architect who is hired to design a survivalist bunker for a tech bro billionaire, a move that leads to tensions in his marriage.
WILD HORSE NINE
Martin McDonagh has become an Oscar favourite thanks to films like Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and The Banshees of Inisherin. I prefer him in Irish mode over American, which might be a problem with Wild Horse Nine, the plot of which IMDb describes as, "CIA agents Chris and Lee face a trust-testing mission from Santiago to Easter Island during 1973 Chile." But I also can't resist Sam Rockwell, Parker Posey, Steve Buscemi (another never-nominated actor well due his moment), and Tom f**king Waits.
PRIMA FACIE
Suzie Miller's one-woman play Prima Facie, about a defence lawyer whose world is torn apart after she's sexually assaulted by a colleague, won Jodie Comer every theatrical award on the planet. Surprisingly, she hasn't returned for the film, directed by Susanna White. Instead, Cynthia Erivo, no slouch when it comes to stage-stealing performances, is playing the lead. If it’s anywhere near as impactful as the play is, expect this one to be an emotional rollercoaster and a startling platform for Erivo’s dramatic chops.
JACK OF SPADES
The Coen brothers are still friends, apparently, but they remain focused on working apart from one another for the time being. As Ethan makes modern-day lesbian noirs, Joel is making a gothic mystery (hetero, I believe.) This one's apparently largely set in Scotland, and most of it was filmed here, which I am obviously thrilled by. I cannot wait to point at the screen, Leo meme-style, every time I recognise a location. Does Joel just really like Scotland, between this and The Tragedy of Macbeth? Josh O'Connor could dominate 2026 as much as he did last year. His co-stars include Lesley Manville, Damien Lewis, and, of course, Frances McDormand.
A LONG WINTER
Andrew Haigh is one of those filmmakers who always seems like he's on the cusp of being an awards favourite. Works like 45 Years and All of Us Strangers got mainstream recognition from places like the Academy and BAFTA, but have never fully broken through (really, All of Us Strangers should have swept the Oscars.) With A Long Winter, Haigh is adapting a story by Irish writer Colm Tóibín. Goodreads informs me that it’s about a boy and his father trying to survive a harsh winter in the Pyrenees after his mother leaves them. It seems unlikely that there will be an emotionally devastating Pet Shop Boys needle-drop, but I still expect to cry a lot with this one, as is typical with me and Haigh films.
JOSEPHINE
One of the most talked-about films out of Sundance this year was Josephine. Beth de Araújo won the Grand Jury Prize in the U.S. Dramatic competition and the Audience Award for U.S. Dramatic feature at the fest. The Josephine of the title is an eight-year-old girl who witnesses a brutal assault and must deal with the fear and trauma that accompanies it. Her parents are played by Gemma Chan and Channing Tatum, and Tatum is getting the reviews of his career with this one. Hey, wouldn't a Channing Oscar run be fun? So much dancing.
THE ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM IS DOWN
Two-time Palme d'Or winner Ruben Östlund was a surprise Oscar nominee with Triangle of Sadness. I say "surprise" because it's still kind of shocking to me that this subtle-as-a-brick satire of class and wealth featuring an extended puking scene was embraced by the Academy. The Entertainment System Is Down seems like it might cover similar territory, albeit on a plane. The passengers of a long flight go mad as the entertainment system breaks, and they're forced to, gasp, amuse themselves. Östlund's increased clout is evident here, with a starry cast that includes Keanu Reeves, Kirsten Dunst, Daniel Brühl, Samantha Morton, and Vincent Lindon. No word on how much vomit will be in this one. A Cannes premiere seems likely, especially if the director wants to try and become the first person to win three Palme d’Ors.
NARNIA: THE MAGICIAN’S NEPHEW
Greta Gerwig is a star. She’s building up her empire and hasn’t been shy about how much she wants to be a big-name commercial director. That may be bad news for people who preferred Lady Bird to Barbie, but the latter made a billion dollars and is the best possible version of that film, so Greta gets to do what she wants. And what does she want to do? She wants to see if she can finally crack the code on the Chronicles of Narnia. Disney made three movies in the series, which were good but not great. Gerwig is doing what everyone bypasses and adapting the first chronological book in C.S. Lewis’s series, The Magician’s Nephew. Netflix is giving it a brief theatrical run, mercifully, before putting it on their service for Christmas Day. I'm fascinated to see Emma Mackey as the White Witch.
DUNE: PART THREE
Denis Villeneuve pulled it off. He adapted Dune, and it worked. Now, he's taking on Dune Messiah (but not keeping the title, alas.) I am fascinated to see how they take on this book, which is a ferocious subversion of everything Frank Herbert set up in the first installment. It's politically radical and also just a lot weirder than the first book, which is saying something because Herbert was never the most hinged author. Timothée Chalamet is back, Anya Taylor-Joy is playing his sister Alia, and Robert Pattinson will undoubtedly have made a Choice with his accent. I welcome it.
OTHERS TO LOOK OUT FOR
A lot of the stuff I'm most intrigued by for 2026 are more likely to be festival features than mainstream Hollywood fare, but hey, anything could happen, so let's hedge our bets. English indie filmmaker Clio Barnard's I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning is an adaptation of a novel about a group of working-class friends, starring Anthony Boyle and Daryl McCormack. It probably won’t be ready for 2026 but I am eager to see Cry to Heaven, Tom Ford’s adaptation of an Anne Rice novel about the castrati (it’s my favourite thing she’s ever written that doesn’t have vampires in it.) Arthur Harari, the co-writer of Anatomy of a Fall (and partner of Justine Triet), is stepping behind the camera for L'inconnue, starring Lea Seydoux. Bitter Christmas brings Pedro Almodovar back to our screens. Married couple Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander play aliens in a town near the DMZ of the Korean border in Hope, directed by Na Hong-jin. Russian director Kantemir Balagov makes his English-language debut with Butterfly Jam, a drama about a Circassian circus troupe in New Jersey that features Barry Keoghan, Riley Keough, and Harry Melling.
Kornél Mundruczó could have two releases this year: After the Sea, starring Amy Adams as a woman readjusting to life after rehab, and Place to Be, with Ellen Burstyn and Taika Waititi as an unlikely duo who travel from Chicago to New York City to return a lost racing pigeon. The latter also stars Pamela Anderson, whose renaissance continues in 2026 with Rosebush Pruning, a tragicomedy satire with Callum Turner, Elle Fanning, and Tracy Letts. Sony decided to hold Klara and the Sun until 2026, perhaps to give Taika Waititi's sci-fi drama an easier run at awards season. Will we finally have a project worthy of Jenna Ortega's talent (and will we FINALLY get a real Amy Adams Oscar vehicle?)
Sisters Kate and Rooney Mara are teaming up for the first time for the delightfully titled Bucking Fastard, a Werner Herzog black comedy inspired by a real pair of twins who literally do everything together. The rise of the Murdoch stranglehold over the British media will be dramatized by Danny Boyle and James Graham in Ink, based on the latter's play, with Guy Pearce playing Satan/Rupert. Behemoth!, written and directed by Tony Gilroy of Michael Clayton fame, is being billed as “a love letter to the music of the movies and the people who make it,” and Pedro Pascal leads a cast that includes Eva Victor and Olivia Wilde. Julianne Moore will headline a musical by Jesse Eisenberg, about a shy woman who finds herself through community theatre. Robert Eggers is doing what all filmmakers should do after directing a vampire movie, and moving onto werewolves with Werwulf.
Dominic Sessa, who broke through in The Holdovers, is playing Anthony Bourdain in Tony (does he have the sauce for it? The jury's out.) Jerk and accused sexual harasser David O. Russell has Madden, about the NFL commentator, with Nic Cage in the lead role, swamped under prosthetics. James Gray's Paper Tiger might give Adam Driver his meatiest role in years. Fernando Meirelles has Denzel Washington on board for Here Comes the Flood, a heist thriller co-starring Robert Pattinson. Speaking of RPattz, he's in Primetime, an A24 production about the series To Catch a Predator. Sean Durkin will direct Cailee Spaeny and Drew Starkey in Deep Cuts, based on a novel about a student and a songwriter who fall in love. And the award for best movie title of 2026 will surely go to Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, Jane Schoenburn’s trippy meta horror starring Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson.
What movies are you most looking forward to in 2026? Let us know!
