It may only have been a few weeks since Anora was the big winner of the night at the 2025 Academy Awards, but already speculation is growing about who will be in contention next year.
It looks like being a vintage year for films, with new releases from some of the biggest hitters of the movie business including Paul Thomas Anderson, Yorgos Lanthimos, James Cameron, Spike Lee and Guillermo del Toro.
Here are the early favourites for Hollywood’s biggest award in 2026.
5. After The Hunt
'After the Hunt', directed by 'Call Me By Your Name' filmmaker Luca Guadagnino is also a 10/1 shot for Hollywood's biggest award. Starrring Julia Roberts (pictured), Ayo Edebiri, Andrew Garfield, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Chloë Sevigny, it sees a college professor forced to grapple with her own secretive past after one of her colleagues is faced with a serious accusation. | Getty Images
6. Matthew McConaughey
Matthew McConaughey (pictured) stars in English director Paul Greengrass' new film 'The Lost Bus', which is another movie priced at 10/1. Based on a book by Lizzie Johnson, it's a true story about a bus driver who has to navigate a bus full of schoolchildren through the deadlist fire in Californian history. | Getty Images
7. Highest 2 Lowest
The final 10/1 Oscar Best Film shot is kidnap drama 'Highest 2 Lowest', directed by Spike Lee. A reinterpretation of Akira Kurosawa's 1963 Japanese film High and Low, it stars Denzel Washington, Ilfenesh Hadera, Jeffrey Wright, Ice Spice, and ASAP Rocky. | Getty Images for SiriusXM
8. The Life of Chuck
A hit at last year's Toronto International Film Festival, 'The Life of Chuck' is directed by horror specialist Mike Flanagan and is based on a novella by Stephen King. It's the story of a man's life in reverse, starting with his death and stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Tom Hiddleston (pictured), Annalise Basso, Benjamin Pajak, Karen Gillan, Jacob Tremblay, and Mark Hamill. The bookies reckon it has a 14/1 chance of a Best Picture Academy Award. | Canva/Getty Images