Here comes the fall quality movie season! Only twelve more Zendaya and Anne Hathaway films and two more Robert Pattison ones before we close out 2026. Just kidding. I think.
Spring and summer have already given us Oscar frontrunners in The Odyssey, Project Hail Mary, The Invite and Toy Story 5, plus a wild card in Obsession. But any true Oscarphile knows it’s a long journey, and the real contenders don’t come out to play until September through December.
Right now, La Bola Negra looks like one of the strongest potential challengers to The Odyssey. Netflix is giving it a rare theatrical run and putting real money behind its awards campaign, which suggests they think they’ve got something more than a participation trophy on their hands.
Grab your fall calendar; here's a roundup of films to keep your eyes on as well as my early bold picks that you should probably put on your watchlist.
Way too early Best Picture nominee list predictions. In order of likelihood.
1. The Odyssey (summer)
2. La Bola Negra
3. Dune
4. Wild Horse Nine
5. Fjord
6. All of a Sudden
7. Project Hail Mary (spring)
8. The Debut
9. The Invite (summer)
10. Digger
La Bola Negra
In a nutshell: The film most likely to put up a non-epic indie challenge to The Odyssey for Best Picture, assuming we get tired of Odyssey wins by March 2027. Across three periods of Spanish history, interconnected generations of queer men navigate desire, repression, pain, and inheritance in a story inspired by the legacy of Federico García Lorca — and Penélope Cruz.
Director: Javier Calvo & Javier Ambrossi (Los Javis)
Featuring: Penélope Cruz, Glenn Close, Miguel Bernardeau
Studio: Netflix
Festival: Cannes
October 16 (select theaters)
Wild Horse Nine
In a nutshell: Expected to be one of the big five films in discussion (Including The Odyssey and Project Hail Mary, both not from the fall). Shortly before Chile’s 1973 coup, two CIA agents sent to Easter Island find their partnership tested by old secrets, political conspiracies and an unexpected connection with two rebellious students. Right now, this is one of the big three.
Director: Martin McDonagh (Banshees of Inisherin, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri)
Featuring: Sam Rockwell, John Malkovich, Parker Posey, Steve Buscemi, Tom Waits
Festival: Venice, Telluride
Studio: Searchlight
November 6
Dune: Part Three
In a nutshell: Wrapping up the likely locks is the conclusion to the three-part epic, our hero confronts the devastating consequences of his rule as enemies conspire to overthrow his increasingly ruthless regime. Likely to earn as many as 12 nominations and perhaps, like The Lord of the Rings, be the final film of an epic three-parter that takes home a prize for them all. Or not.
Director: Denis Villeneuve (Blade Runner 2049, Dune, Sicario, Arrival)
Featuring: Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Robert Pattinson
Studio: Warner Bros.
Festival: None
Release: Dunesday, December 18
Fjord
In a nutshell: Not as assured as the first few, but in its favor, this is a well-reviewed, primarily English-language film. In addition to being Romania's Oscar submission, this could be our International film that breaks through. A deeply religious Romanian-Norwegian family living in a remote Norwegian community comes under investigation after their children show signs of possible abuse, setting off a conflict over faith, culture and parental authority. It has one thing others don't: the Palme d'Or.
Director: Cristian Mungiu (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, Graduation)
Featuring: Sebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve
Studio: Neon
Festival: Cannes
October
All of a Sudden
In a nutshell: The manager of a Paris care facility and a terminally ill Japanese theater director form an unexpected bond through their shared determination to preserve dignity and human connection in the face of mortality. Efira and Okamoto jointly won Best Actress at Cannes. It's also Japan's Oscar submission for Best International Feature.
Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car)
Featuring: Virginie Efira, Tao Okamoto, Kyozo Nagatsuka
Studio: Neon
Festival: Cannes
November 25
The Debut
In a nutshell: In his musical, a shy housewife cast in a tiny community-theater role becomes an obsessive method actor who goes to increasingly extreme lengths to defend her newfound artistic calling.
Director: Jesse Eisenberg (A Real Pain)
Featuring: Julianne Moore, Paul Giamatti, Halle Bailey, Jesse Eisenberg
Studio: A24
Festival: Telluride
December 11 (likely)
Behemoth!
In a nutshell: The film centers on Alex Serian, played by Pedro Pascal. Alex is a talented cellist who returns home to Los Angeles after spending twenty years traveling on the road.
Director: Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton, The Bourne Legacy,)
Featuring: Pedro Pascal, Olivia Wilde, Eva Victor, Will Arnett
Studio: Searchlight
Festival: New York Film Festival, Centerpiece
December 4 (likely)
Ink
In a nutshell: In 1969 London, Rupert Murdoch takes control of The Sun and recruits an unconventional editor to transform the struggling newspaper into a provocative populist phenomenon.
Director: Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire, Trainspotting, 127 Hours)
Featuring: Jack O'Connell, Guy Pearce
Festiveal: Venice
Studio: Nerflix
December 11 (limited)
Elsinore
In a nutshell: Chariots of Fire actor Ian Charleson battles AIDS while preparing what would become his acclaimed final performance as Hamlet at London’s National Theatre. And Olivia Colman.
Director: Simon Stone (The Dig)
Featuring: Andrew Scott (Pressure), Olivia Colman
Studio: Focus Features
Festival: Telluride, TIFF, London Film Festival opening night
November 20, Thanksgiving wide
Paper Tiger
In a nutshell: In 1986 Queens, two very different brothers become entangled in a shady scheme involving the Russian mafia, putting their family, their integrity and their relationship at risk.
Director: James Gray (Ad Astra, The Lost City of Z, Armageddon Time)
Featuring: Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson, Miles Teller
Studio: Neon
Festival: Cannes, New York Film Festival, Opening Night
November 13
Digger
In a nutshell: The world’s most powerful man desperately tries to convince humanity that he can save it from the very catastrophe he helped create.
Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu (Birdman, The Revenant, Babel)
Featuring: Tom Cruise, Riz Ahmed and John Goodman
Studio: Warner Bros.
Festival: None, but the CinemaCon preso and Tom Cruise push is underway positioning Cruise's performance as a career culmination
October 2
The Social Reckoning
In a nutshell: In the sequel to The Social Network (2010), a Facebook engineer joins forces with a Wall Street Journal reporter to expose the company's closely guarded secrets, igniting a reckoning over the social network’s impact on society.
Director: Aaron Sorkin (Molly's Game, The Trial of the Chicago 7)
Featuring: Jeremy Strong as Mark Zuckerberg, Mikey Madison, Jeremy Allen White
Studio: Sony
Festival: None
October 9
Sense and Sensibility
In a nutshell: Despite Ang Lee creating a perfect movie with Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet, here we go again. Jane Austen's classic. After their father's death leaves their family financially displaced, sisters Elinor and Marianne Dashwood navigate love, heartbreak and social expectations. Oopsie, Daisy.
Director: Georgia Oakley (Blue Jean)
Featuring: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Esmé Creed-Miles, Caitríona Balfe, George MacKay, Fiona Shaw
Studio: Focus
Festival: none
October 16
Club Kid
In a nutshell: A hard-partying New York club promoter is forced to reconsider his chaotic lifestyle when the 10-year-old son he never knew existed suddenly enters his life
Director: Jordan Firstman
Featuring: Jordan Firstman, Diego Calva, Cara Delevingne
Studio: A24
Festival: Cannes
November 6 (limited)
Artificial
In a nutshell: The wild cards start here. This one by Luca Guadagnino. A darkly comic dramatization of the 2023 OpenAI crisis that saw CEO Sam Altman abruptly fired by the company's board, only to return days later after a chaotic power struggle.
Director: Luca Guadagnino (Call Me by Your Name, Challengers)
Featuring: Andrew Garfield as Sam Altman, Ike Barinholtz as Elon Musk, Monica Barbaro, Yura Boriso
Studio: Neon. Amazon MGM originally made the film but dropped it in June; Neon subsequently acquired it for distribution.
Festival: None announced yet
Release: TBD, expected 2026.
I Play Rocky
In a nutshell: Not a joke, gonna fly now. Farrelly is looking for his second Best Picture winner with a film about a Best Picture nominee. A little-known Sylvester Stallone risks everything to star in the screenplay he refuses to sell without himself in the lead, leading to the unlikely creation of Rocky. Adrian!
Director: Peter Farrelly (Green Book, There’s Something About Mary)
Featuring: Anthony Ippolito as Sylvester Stallone, Matt Dillon
Studio: Amazon
Festival: Hamptons International Film Festival
November 6, November 20 wide
Clarissa
In a nutshell: In a contemporary Lagos reimagining of Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway, a society hostess preparing for a party reconnects with people from her youth, stirring memories of love, desire and roads not taken.
Director:Arie Esiri & Chuko Esiri (Eyimofe)
Featuring: Sophie Okonedo, David Oyelowo, Ayo Edebiri, India Amarteifio
Studio: Neon
Festival: Cannes
Release Month: December
Primetime
In a nutshell: Inspired by the rise of To Catch a Predator, a television journalist builds a sensational hidden-camera crime series that blurs the boundaries between journalism, entertainment and exploitation. I think Pattinson is overhyped as film talent; this may not work.
Director: Lance Oppenheim (Some Kind of Heaven)
Featuring: Robert Pattinson, Phoebe Bridgers
Studio: A24
Festival: Venice
September 25
Tender Loving Care
In a nutshell: Mike Leigh returns with an intimate ensemble drama examining family relationships, ordinary lives, and the complicated ways people attempt to care for one another.
Director: Mike Leigh (Secrets & Lies, Vera Drake, Topsy-Turvy)
Featuring: Kate O'Flynn, Marion Bailey, Brid Brennan
Studio: Bleecker Street
Festival: Telluride
December 4 (likely)
Wildwood
In a nutshell: Wildwood is a wild card. It's animated.Based on the novel by Colin Meloy, the story follows a young girl named Prue who enters a hidden, magical forest outside of Portland to rescue her kidnapped baby brother.
Director: Travis Knight
Studio: Bleecker Street
Festival: BFI London Film Festival
October 23
Werewulf
In a nutshell: The Frankenstein of this year. An Eggers period horror film has obvious potential in cinematography, production design, costumes, makeup and sound.
Director: Robert Eggers (The Witch, The Lighthouse, The Northman, Nosferatu)
Featuring: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Lily-Rose Depp, Willem Dafoe
Studio: Focus Features
Festival: None announced
December 25
