🎧 Recklessly Early Oscar Predictions for 2027
From ‘Project Hail Mary’ to ‘The Odyssey,’ it’s never too soon to start thinking about next year’s top contenders
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How do you predict the Oscar winners a year in advance? Well, technically speaking, you really don’t. For a full decade now, I’ve been putting my way-too-early Oscar predictions on the record, and I’ve learned the hard way that the movies that feel unbeatable on paper all too often fall flat, while the true sensations can be the ones you never see coming.
And yet, that won’t stop me, nor my esteemed guests, from trying. After all, when one Oscar season is finally over, another begins. And there’s almost nothing more exciting than looking at the release calendar ahead — because for all we know at this point, all of the upcoming movies could be masterpieces! So I’m dedicating the entirety of today’s super-sized Prestige Junkie podcast to some wildly early predictions about the next Oscar race, along with my colleague Christopher Rosen and friends and returning guests, This Had Oscar Buzz co-hosts Joe Reid and Chris Feil.
There’s a surprising amount of major contenders we’ve already gotten at least brief glimpses of, from splashy new trailers for Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Three and Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine to certified blockbuster Project Hail Mary, which Chris Rosen and I are already hyping big time. Add in practically guaranteed Oscar contenders like Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Digger with Tom Cruise, and you might be able to fill up a best director category right there. But then you look at potential Cannes contenders (like, perhaps, new movies from Drive My Car director Ryusuke Hamaguchi and 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days filmmaker Cristian Mungiu), new projects from Greta Gerwig, David Fincher and Luca Guadagnino and potential wild cards like Sundance prize winner Josephine, and it feels impossible to even limit your predictions to a best picture lineup of 10.
We get into all of it, and end the episode with our bold, almost certainly incorrect best picture predictions. Two of us are very high on Behemoth!, the Los Angeles-set film from Andor creator and Michael Clayton director Tony Gilroy, starring Pedro Pascal. (Not that we even know for sure if it’s coming out this year.) There’s also a big bet on Netflix’s The Adventures of Cliff Booth, the sequel to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, with the possibly unbeatable combo of a script from Quentin Tarantino and direction from Fincher. And you’ll have to listen to find out who’s all-in on A24’s still-untitled new musical from director Jesse Eisenberg, starring Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti.
Hear it all on today’s episode, and for much more from us, now is a great time to join us over on Prestige Junkie After Party. This Friday, we’re kicking off the first installment of what we’re calling The 2006 Canon, in which Chris and I are joined each week by a different guest to decide which of four films deserves a spot in our canon for that year. First up: the blockbusters! See ya there.