The 2027 Oscars race is beginning to take shape, and an early industry forecast has placed Dune: Part Three, Tom Cruise and Julianne Moore at the center of the conversation months before Academy voters choose the official nominees.

Variety’s Awards Circuit predictions, updated August 13, currently list Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Three as the predicted Best Picture winner and Villeneuve as the directing favorite. Tom Cruise leads the Best Actor forecast for Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Digger, while Julianne Moore is the early Best Actress pick for Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut.

These are not Oscar nominations. They are an early snapshot of an awards season that can change after festival reactions, reviews, box-office performance and campaigning give voters a clearer picture of the field.

Dune: Part Three leads a broad early Oscar forecast

Dune: Part Three stands out because its predicted strength goes well beyond Best Picture. The current forecast also puts the Warner Bros. film first in directing, Adapted Screenplay, Production Design, Cinematography, Costume Design, Film Editing, Makeup and Hairstyling, Sound, Visual Effects and Original Score.

That range matters in an Oscar race. A film supported across directing, writing and several craft branches can build a stronger Best Picture case than one relying on a single performance or category. Villeneuve’s previous two Dune films also established the series as a major technical awards player, although past success cannot guarantee how Academy members will respond to the final chapter.

The projected Best Picture lineup is much wider. It includes Being Heumann, The Debut, Cannes Palme d’Or winner Fjord, La Bola Negra, The Odyssey, Project Hail Mary, Tender Loving Care, Wild Horse Nine and Laika’s Wildwood.

Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey remains one of the most formidable alternatives. Nolan appears in the directing race, Matt Damon is among the Best Actor contenders and Anne Hathaway is the predicted Supporting Actress winner. The film is also forecast in screenplay, casting, production design, cinematography, editing, sound, visual effects and score. For additional context on the film and its lead performance, the first look at Matt Damon as Odysseus showed how Nolan’s adaptation was positioned as a large-scale theatrical event.

Tom Cruise and Julianne Moore headline the acting races

Cruise’s position is one of the season’s biggest early storylines. Variety currently places him ahead of Matt Damon for The Odyssey, John Malkovich for Wild Horse Nine, Andrew Scott for Elsinore and John Turturro for The Only Living Pickpocket in New York.

Digger is especially notable because it moves Cruise away from the franchise-led action roles that have defined much of his recent career. The project pairs him with Iñárritu and an ensemble including Sandra Hüller, John Goodman, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jesse Plemons, Sophie Wilde and Emma D’Arcy. The early look at Tom Cruise in Digger highlighted how deliberately different the performance appears from his familiar screen persona.

Moore leads Best Actress for The Debut, ahead of Marion Bailey for Tender Loving Care, Rosalind Eleazar for Misty Green, Sandra Hüller for Fatherland and Inde Navarrette for Obsession. The film has wider support in the forecast: Jesse Eisenberg appears in directing, Paul Giamatti is the predicted Supporting Actor winner, and The Debut also features in Best Picture, Original Screenplay, Film Editing, Original Score and Original Song.

The supporting categories add more major names. Giamatti’s early rivals include Andrew Garfield, John Goodman, John Leguizamo and Sam Rockwell. Hathaway leads Supporting Actress over Penélope Cruz, Samantha Morton, Kate O’Flynn and Sophie Okonedo.

Wild Horse Nine, Wildwood and international contenders widen the field

Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine is another film with significant early support. It is projected for Best Picture and directing, with John Malkovich in Best Actor and Sam Rockwell in Supporting Actor, while McDonagh is the current predicted Original Screenplay winner.

In other headline categories, Being Heumann leads the early Casting forecast and Wildwood is predicted to win Animated Feature ahead of Forgotten Island, Ray Gunn, Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom and Toy Story 5. Wildwood is notable because it also appears in the projected Best Picture lineup.

The international race currently favors Spain’s La Bola Negra, with Japan’s All of a Sudden, Romania’s Fjord, France’s Minotaur and South Korea’s Possible Love also listed. Alex Gibney’s Musk leads the Documentary Feature forecast, while The Debut is the early Original Song pick.

2027 Oscar nominations and voting dates

The calendar is the clearest reason not to treat August predictions as settled. The Governors Awards are scheduled for November 15, 2026. Preliminary voting runs December 7-11, followed by the Oscar shortlist announcement on December 15. The eligibility period ends December 31.

Nominations voting will run January 11-15, 2027, and the official nominations are due January 21. The nominees luncheon follows on February 16, with final voting scheduled from February 25 through March 4.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has confirmed that the 99th Oscars will take place Sunday, March 14, 2027, at the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood. The ceremony begins at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT, with Conan O’Brien returning as host.

For now, the most useful way to read the 2027 Oscars predictions is as a map of early momentum rather than a list of future winners. Dune: Part Three has the broadest projected support, but the strength of The Odyssey, The Debut, Wild Horse Nine and several international contenders means the race still has plenty of room to move before nominations voting begins.

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