Awards Season / Oscar Predictions Update: What’s Left to See in 2026?

Folks, believe it or not, we’re just about out of unseen Oscar contenders. With fall film festival season largely in the rearview mirror, the titles that could hope to make Academy Award plays that no one has seen are in the low single digits. We’re in the middle of October and the movies are largely known quantities. When has that ever happened this early? As we ponder that, I wanted to use today’s predictions update to also look at the couple of flicks still left to see in 2026 that have at least potential ambitions for awards season love…

There are five films that I list below that, almost exclusively, have remained unseen outside of publicists and studio executives. One of them is sure to end up amongst the biggest titles of 2026, but when you see the movies listed, you’ll understand why it seems like the lineups we’re mulling over are probably not going to get much in the way of new additions. Make of that what you will, but let’s move on to the flicks themselves and see what we’ve got.

The biggest one, obviously, is Dune: Part Three. Denis Villeneuve‘s conclusion to his cinematic Dune trilogy is hoping to follow in the footsteps of the first two films and score a Best Picture nomination. Villeneuve also hopes to crack the Best Director lineup this time around, to go along with a presumed healthy below the line nomination haul. If it’s as good as hoped, could it actually be a challenger in Picture to win? Trilogy conclusions are a baity concept for voters to consider, even if it really has only seen one go the distance in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Still, this is an across the board contender for Oscar nominations.

The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth represents a formerly massive potential contender that seems to have absolutely no buzz currently. Earlier in the year, I was all-in on this David Fincher / Quentin Tarantino hybrid charming voters. Now? I think the complete silence surrounding it, alongside some middling trailers, make it seem almost already forgotten about. Brad Pitt won Best Supporting Actor for this role, so it would have been a great story to see him contend in Best Actor, but right now? I need to see something, really anything, that makes me think this is a player for more than a technical citation or two, and that’s a shame.

Consider Madden a real long shot, and almost certainly not the type of thing to be a serious player, but it’s one of the unseen flicks left, so I wanted to include it. Once upon a time, Christian Bale was almost an automatic inclusion in Oscar predictions, though this doesn’t seem like it’s meant to be. Doubly so for filmmaker David O. Russell. Amazon MGM Studios is going to be busy with I Play Rocky and especially Project Hail Mary, so this could only hope to be, at best, a third priority for its distributor, and that rarely translates to any notable success. So, back this one at your own risk…unless it turns out to be great. Then, who knows?

If you want an interesting X factor, look no further than Mr. Irrelevant. Rumors of insanely high test screening scores and a recent celebrity tastemaker screening that went over like gangbusters have fueled the notion that we might have an unlikely party crasher. The obvious comparison, inspirational true sports story wise, is The Blind Side, and a Best Picture nomination, alongside an acting nomination for David Corenswet, would certainly be interesting to consider. I’m not saying to throw this into your predictions, at least yet, but if there’s a surprising late breaking contender, it could be this one.

Finally, we have Werwulf, which would love to build upon what Nosferatu was able to achieve with the Academy. This still feels like tech categories or bust, though considering how horror is continuing to get more respect from voters, quality could be the driving force here. Robert Eggers is his own unique brand of genre, and while that’s not catnip for voters just yet, he certainly could get there before long.

I’m still of the opinion that The Odyssey is pacing the field to win Best Picture. That being said, I do agree that the main competition right now for the win seems to be from La bola negra. Now, could Dune: Part Three make it a three horse race? Certainly. Is Wild Horse Nine also the sort of thing that could be a factor up top in Picture? I think so. Besides those three? Keep an eye on Project Hail Mary, especially if voters are yearning for something positive to embrace. My Oscar predictions currently don’t have Dune: Part Three in Picture, though that’s mainly so I can wait for the early consensus, quality wise, to form. If I had to guess as to whether it would be nominated or not, I’d say yes. Remember, I actually had it as my Year in Advance pick to win. That may wind up being silly when all is said and done, but with limited things left to see in 2026, it stands out as the title with the biggest ability to affect the race, up and down the line.

My prior early prediction article (found here) is available for your perusal, and can see some more of the changes I’ve been making along the way, as some real changes have hit my picks as I made my way through the festivals. Now, we’re very much in the thick of it all, with precursor season closer than you might realize…

Folks, as always you can see my newest crack at Oscar predictions right here at Awards Radar (look for initial Golden Globe predictions to drop potentially next time). The changes are coming, and will continue to come, especially as we see more from studios in terms of their potential campaigning. So, sit tight!

Stay tuned for another update to these Oscar predictions in a few weeks!