Oscars 2026: First Blind Predictions Including Timothée Chalamet, Emma Stone, ‘Wicked: For Good’ and More

variety.com:

Variety tradition of blindly forecasting awards season is meant to be fun and expectation-free. Last year’s edition correctly predicted three of the 10 best picture nominees — “Conclave,” “Dune: Part Two” and “Nickel Boys” — but the actual winner, “Anora,” wasn’t even on our radar.

That unpredictability is part of the joy of this type of piece. Speaking of joy, by the sheer looks of the theatrical road ahead, one thing I see is: Movies are back, baby!

The upcoming film slate looks packed as Hollywood emerges from pandemic-era production disruptions. Major studios, streamers and indie powerhouses are rolling out prestige dramas, daring auteur projects and a few big-budget crowd-pleasers — all with the potential to excite the global film-loving community.

Sight unseen, Focus Features appears to have the most stacked lineup of prestige films. The specialty label has lured three-time Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis out of retirement for “Anemone,” a family drama directed by his son, Ronan Day-Lewis, which the pair co-wrote.