Tom Cruise, Timothée Chalamet, Octavia Spencer, Anne Hathaway, and more major stars have potential awards contenders in the works. Super early 2027 Oscars contenders: Could Amy Adams finally win her first Academy Award? Tom Cruise, Timothée Chalamet, Octavia Spencer, Anne Hathaway, and more major stars have potential awards contenders in the works. :maxbytes(150000):stripicc()/JoeyNolfiauthorphotoba4923fec03a4027868306485696ef41.jpg) Joey Nolfi Joey Nolfi is a senior writer at . Since 2016, his work at EW includes RuPaul's Drag Race video interviews, Oscars predictions, and more.

Tom Cruise, Timothée Chalamet, Octavia Spencer, Anne Hathaway, and more major stars have potential awards contenders in the works.

Super early 2027 Oscars contenders: Could Amy Adams finally win her first Academy Award?

Tom Cruise, Timothée Chalamet, Octavia Spencer, Anne Hathaway, and more major stars have potential awards contenders in the works.

Joey Nolfi

Joey Nolfi is a senior writer at *. *Since 2016, his work at EW includes RuPaul's Drag Race video interviews, Oscars predictions, and more.

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March 19, 2026 7:07 p.m. ET

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Early 2027 Oscars contenders: Matt Damon, Timothée Chalamet, Amy Adams. Credit:

Melinda Sue Gordon/Universal; Warner Bros.; VALERIE MACON / AFP via Getty

- Early 2027 Oscars contenders have already popped up on the awards trail.

- Timothée Chalamet, Amy Adams, Tom Cruise, and Octavia Spencer have high-profile projects in the works.

- Returning Oscar-favorite filmmakers are also in the mix, including Alejandro González Iñárritu, Christopher Nolan, Marin McDonagh, and more.

Like Barbra Streisand surprise-singing the legacy of Robert Redford into the annals of the past, the 2026 Oscars season is now but a sweet memory. So, it's time to reignite the flames of contention as ** rounds up a list of super early 2027 Oscars contenders.

Perhaps more than last year at this point, a wealth of likely contenders (at least on paper) have captured early interest. From Tom Cruise's possible nod and Christopher Nolan's Best Picture follow-up, to the film that could finally win Amy Adams her long-overdue first Oscar, likely contenders for the 2027 Academy Awards include Hollywood heavyweights from all corners of the industry.

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But, we're not just singling out the most obvious, top-line players in the race ahead. EW has you covered for projections in the technical categories, too, as uniquely crafted works like *Undertone* and *Disclosure Day** *could stun the artisan branches for their standout approaches to the medium.

Though we're still a year away from next year's Academy Awards winners, see EW's roundup of *very* early 2027 Oscars contenders below.

*The Odyssey *

On paper, it's the most obvious Oscar contender of the year. Christopher Nolan as director? Major studio energy? Box office success guaranteed? High-profile stars in a huge ensemble (Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Lupita Nyong'o, Charlize Theron, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson)? It's big, it's buzzy, it's got a wealth of industry-favorite stars leading the charge, and it's primed for an epic takeover of awards season. The only problem it faces is expectations being *too* high for Nolan's *Oppenheimer* follow-up.

Wild Horse Nine

Martin McDonagh's name doesn't often come to mind when considering the best auteurs of the era, but his Oscars track record suggests that it certainly should. From *In Bruges*' lone nomination to *Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri *and* The Banshees of Inisherin *earning seven and nine nominations apiece (including in the Best Picture category), it's clear that affection for McDonagh's work is only growing among insider circles.

For his next project, he teams with a familiar face: Sam Rockwell (who previously won an Oscar for *Three Billboards*) returns to work with the filmmaker. It's likely that, pending any disasters on the critical front, Oscar voters will, too.

Klara and the Sun

Amy Adams and Jenna Ortega shaping up to be 2027 Oscars contenders for 'Klara and the Sun'.

Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic; Monica Schipper/Getty

We know, we know. You really want Amy Adams to win her first Oscar. Everyone (with taste) does! Willing this feat into existence, however, is easier said than done. Just when it seems that the odds are in her favor (*Arrival*, *Nightbitch, *etc.), the unthinkable happens, and something derails the pursuit.

The six-time nominee has been away from the awards circuit for a while despite a valiant effort for 2024's *Nightbitch* (her last nod came in 2019), and Adams is set to roar back in a highly anticipated adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's novel *Klara and the Sun*. Some might balk at the thought of Adams having to play "the mother" in a supporting role to achieve her first Oscar, but the path to greatness for the actress could be written in the most obvious lettering, versus the unorthodox roles that have gotten her *close — *but not fully over the line — in the recent past.

The Social Reckoning

Aaron Sorkin just kind of feels *above* sequels, right? Well, not if it's a continuation (of sorts) of a modern David Fincher masterpiece that Sorkin also wrote, apparently! *The Social Network 2 *doesn't quite have the same ring to it, so *The Social Reckoning *will do; and so will Sorkin's sensibilities, as he jumps into the director's chair to helm the second part of the story he and Fincher established in 2010.

*Reckoning* is also 2025 Best Actress winner Mikey Madison's first major release since taking the prize at last year's ceremony, and afterglow nominations are a real phenomenon. There's additionally a strong ensemble rounding out the cast (2026 nominee Wunmi Mosaku, 2025 nominee Jeremy Strong, Emmy favorite Jeremy Allen White, etc.), meaning *Reckoning* could sail through the season as both a strong writing *and* acting favorite.

Tom Cruise and Alejandro González Iñárritu at the Academy Governors Awards.

Gilbert Flores/Getty

We saw the overdue narrative work (overwhelmingly) in Paul Thomas Anderson's favor this year, as *One Battle After Another* took the longtime nominee into the champions' circle three times over. Tom Cruise's work as an actor (including, funnily enough, in Anderson's *Magnolia*) has similarly long been nominated by the Academy. He finally got his flowers (sort of) when he received an honorary statuette last year, though his acting abilities haven't captured voters' attention in decades.

In his later career, Cruise has pigeonholed himself as a sort of action-legacy star, with his most recent successes combining established franchise familiarity (*Top Gun*, *Mission: Impossible*) with his inherent audience recognition. Now is Cruise's perfect chance to shock the industry with a stellar performance in the latest film by Alejandro González Iñárritu, an Oscar favorite whose past work includes *21 Grams*, *Babel*, *Biutiful*, *Birdman*, and *The Revenant* — all of which received at least one acting nomination.

Cruise's overdue narrative, coupled with baked-in goodwill for Iñárritu, could lead to awards season gold for the Hollywood staple.

Death of a Salesman

Chinonye Chukwu's work has hovered around the Oscars periphery for years (*Clemency* and *Till* garnered major critical support for stars Alfre Woodard and Danielle Deadwyler), and she could make her way into the contest with her adaptation of Arthur Miller's renowned play.

Co-written with four-time nominee Tony Kushner and starring past winner Octavia Spencer, *Death of a Salesman* is primed for a warm reception on status alone. If all goes smoothly (and the film releases in 2026, after all), expect the Academy to put multiple offers in on what could be Chukwu's biggest film yet.

Dune: Part Three

No, we're not done with Timothée Chalamet yet. Despite weathering late-season controversy at the end of the 2025-26 awards season, the *Marty Supreme* nominee is gearing up to traverse the circuit once again for *Dune: Part Three*, the epic cinematic conclusion to filmmaker Denis Villeneuve's beloved adaptation of Frank Herbert's sci-fi novels. The first two films in the series laid the foundation for a trio of successful awards entries, as both scored Best Picture nominations, with the first entry winning six Oscars at the 2022 ceremony.

This could go one of two ways, however: We could be looking at a* Lord of the Rings: The* *Return of the King*-style victory lap for Villeneuve's final installment in the cinema series, or industry fatigue might smash this one's chances down to spice-sized parcels as other epics rise in its place (see: *The Odyssey*).

Disclosure Day

Any time Steven Spielberg is in the director's chair, the resulting work is a likely Oscar contender in at least a technical sense. Across the last 15 years, only one of his nine films as a director hasn't earned at least a lone Oscar nod (apologies to* The BFG*). That puts the Emily Blunt-starring *Disclosure Day *in a good spot, as it stands to be both a huge commercial hit (its sci-fi dressings and ominous trailer, above, have garnered 28 million views and counting).

Even if the film overall ends up being a fun summer distraction, expect the level of artistry Spielberg demands from creatives working on his films to at least land with the Academy's below-the-line branches.

Given the "new," diversified Academy's penchant for horror (*Sinners*, *Weapons*, and *Frankenstein* all won big across the board at the 2026 ceremony), it's time to look at 2025 Fantasia Fest breakout *Undertone* as a potential technical player.

Lauded as an instant genre milestone for its ingenious, engrossing sound design, the film's narrative and scares incorporate intense orchestration of immersive sounds in a plot that follows a podcast host plagued by horrifying audio recordings.

While it might not contend above the line, *Undertone *is* *shaping up to be a major Best Sound contender in the race ahead.* ***

Toy Story 5

Buzz Lightyear and Woody in 'Toy Story 5'.

Courtesy of Disney/Pixar

Every entry in Disney's* Toy Story *franchise to date has received at least one Oscar nomination and/or win — including the original and its sequel, *Toy Story 2,* both of which were released before the Best Animated Feature category was implemented in 2001. *Toy Story 3* even earned a Best Picture nomination, a rare feat for animated films. With improved animation technology, a returning voice cast (Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, and more), and what appears to be a timely story about toys fighting back against digital devices invading the minds of the world's youth, *Toy Story 5* is a shoo-in (or, perhaps, boot-in, in Woody's case) for at least a nod in the animation-specific bracket.

Sundance proves time and time again to be a powerful launching pad for awards-bound projects. This year's Gemma Chan/Channing Tatum thriller, *Josephine*, earned rave reviews and the festival's Grand Jury Prize for dramatic features — a healthy sign for how it will play with audiences and critics once it (likely) rolls out wider later this year.

If there's one thing that has the Academy in a hold tighter than Michael Jackson dangling a child over a railing, it's music-oriented biographical dramas. The jury is still out on whether this — starring Jafaar Jackson as his famous uncle—is more *Walk the Line* and *Ray* material than *Back to Black*, but the enduring popularity of the film's central subject alone is strong enough to at least put this one at the forefront of the industry's mind at this early stage.

The Entertainment System Is Down

Though a release date hasn't been confirmed, let's be clear: It's Ruben Östlund. It's *probably* weird. It uses a single airplane ride (with, naturally, a broken entertainment system) as the backdrop of its societal microcosm. Everyone is still (rightfully) high on Kirsten Dunst, as they should be. And the Academy gobbled up Östlund's last two projects, *The Square* and *Triangle of Sadness. *With added star power boosting the bid, what makes anyone think this will be any different?

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Published: March 20, 2026 at 01:38AM on Source: RED MAG

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