With the 97th Academy Awards behind us, it is time to look ahead to the 98th ceremony taking place in 2026. Here at DanLovesFilm I believe it can never be too early to get your predictions out and is usually quite interesting to see how my predictions may change over the course of 12 months. Last year, I managed to predict two of the eventual Best Picture nominees a year in advance, “Dune: Part Two” and “Conclave”, with a number of the nominees occupying my possible contender and outsider mentions. I hope to improve on two this year, and off the bat can say I will be backing “Wicked: For Good” this year having left out the first film in my predictions last year. Another film that I have to include at the moment is “The Life of Chuck”, as the Stephen King adaptation surprisingly won the people’s choice award at TIFF in September, only to be have its release date pushed back to the following year.
Major releases from acclaimed directors include: “Marty Supreme” and “The Smashing Machine”, by Josh and Bennie Safdie respectively; “One Battle After Another”; “The Ballad of a Small Player” ; “Hamnet” ; “After the Hunt”; “Sentimental Value”; “Frankenstein”; “No Other Choice”; “Highest 2 Lowest”; and the third film in James Cameron‘s “Avatar” franchise, both previous films scored Best Picture nominations.
So with very little to off other than release dates of potential Awards friendly titles, on top of a couple of possible players that have been released already, here are my way-to-early Best Picture predictions for 2026.
Strong Contenders
- “Wicked: For Good” | Universal | dir. Jon M. Chu
- “Avatar: Fire and Ash” | 20th Century | dir. James Cameron
- “Marty Supreme” | A24 | dir. Josh Safdie
- “One Battle After Another” | Warner Bros. | dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
- “The Ballad of a Small Player” | Netflix | dir. Edward Berger
- “Deliver Me from Nowhere” | 20th Century | dir. Scott Cooper
- “Hamnet” | Focus Features | dir. Chloe Zhao
- “The Life of Chuck” | Neon | dir. Mike Flanagan
- “Michael” | Lionsgate | dir. Antoine Fuqua
- “After the Hunt” | Amazon MGM | dir. Luca Guadagnino
Possible Contenders
- “Sentimental Value” | TBC | dir. Joachim Trier
- “Jay Kelly” | Netflix | dir. Noah Baumbach
- “Bugonia” | Focus Features | dir. Yorgos Lanthimos
- “The Rivals of Amziah King” | TBC | dir. Andrew Patterson
- “No Other Choice” | TBC | dir. Park Chan-wook
- “Frankenstein” | | dir. Guillermo del Toro
- “Highest 2 Lowest” | Netflix | dir. Spike Lee
- “Ann Lee” | TBC | dir. Mona Fastvold
- “The Smashing Machine” | A24 | dir. Benny Safdie
- “F1” | Warner bros. | dir. Joseph Kosinski
Outsiders
- “Die, My Love” | TBC | die. Lynne Ramsay
- “Materialists” | A24 | dir. Celine Song
- “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” | Netflix | dir. Rian Johnson
- “The Lost Bus” | Apple TV+ | dir. Paul Greengrass
- “The History of Sound” | Focus Features | dir. Oliver Hermanus
- “Mickey 17” | Warner Bros. | dir. Bong Joon-ho
- “Rental Family” | Searchlight | dir. Hikari
- “Untitled Kathryn Bigelow Political Thriller” | Netflix | dir. Kathryn Bigelow
- “Sorry, Baby” | A24 | dir. Eva Victor
- “Train Dreams” | Netflix | dir. Clint Bentley
More predictions in other categories to follow in the near future.
Dan Loves Film 
A terrific early look….”Wicked pt.2″ is a lock, as the goodwill behind the first one, and the fact it was all filmed at one time, so NOT a sequel, will certainly benefit it. “The Life Of Chuck” is the big dark horse…it is apparently GREAT, much love din early screenings AND a HUGE Stephen King thumbs up will help…as for “Mickey 17” – there is NO WAY it will be nominated. ZERO. The Academy doesn’t reward massive box office failures….anyway, we will see!
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I dont think Mickey 17 will get in. It is one of only a coupke films to have been released so have it as an outsider in case all above cone out to poor reviews
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👍👍👍
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Great💚
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❤️💕
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