With the fall festivals gearing up for launch and studios locking in their year-end release plans, a handful of high-profile titles that many had penciled into the 2026 awards conversation are not likely to drop this year. Some are moving to 2027, others are still searching for a distributor and a few need more time in the edit bay.
None of this is a referendum on the work, and it should not be read as such. In an awards ecosystem that increasingly rewards a clean runway and a well-timed festival launch, holding a film can be the savvier play, and a packed slate can force even a strong contender to wait its turn. Here is a look at the titles poised to sit out this year’s race, several of which Variety has confirmed exclusively, and the thinking behind each.
Greg Kwedar’s follow-up to the Oscar-nominated “Sing Sing” is a Chicago-set romance that unfolds across two timelines, tracing a decade in the lives of three college friends. Charles Melton, a 2026 Emmy nominee for the Netflix anthology series “Beef,” stars alongside Emmy winner Rachel Brosnahan and the always remarkable Will Poulter, with Plan B producing. Once expected to bow this year, the drama could instead set its sights on a March launch at South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, the same festival that introduced “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” That would fold it into the next awards conversation rather than this one.
Fernando Meirelles, the Oscar-nominated director of “City of God” who also helmed “The Two Popes,” steers this unconventional heist thriller from a Simon Kinberg script, described as the story of a bank guard, a teller and a master thief caught in a deadly game of cons and double-crosses, told in a nonlinear fashion. Denzel Washington leads a cast that includes Robert Pattinson (this would have been his fifth film of the calendar year, alongside “The Drama,” “The Odyssey,” “Primetime” and “Dune: Part Three”), Daisy Edgar-Jones (who also stars in the upcoming “Sense and Sensibility” remake), Danai Gurira and Sean Harris. The production shot in New Jersey into late January, leaving a tight post-production window, and with Netflix’s year-end film slate already stacked, the smart money has “Flood” debuting in 2027.
Netflix’s slate is already fairly stacked, anchored by Cannes acquisitions “La Bola Negra,” which shared the festival’s best director prize, and “Gentle Monster,” starring French star Léa Seydoux. And still to come from the streaming giant are the untitled sequel to “Once Upon a Time in…Hollywood” from director David Fincher, scheduled to be released in IMAX on Nov. 25, the war drama “The Mosquito Bowl” from Peter Berg, and the Venice Film Festival opener “Ink” from Danny Boyle.
Edward Berger, coming off “Conclave” and “All Quiet on the Western Front,” teams with Brad Pitt for a psychological thriller adapted by David Kajganich from Tim Winton’s 1994 novel. This would have been a third 2026 title for Pitt, who also has the “Once Upon a Time in…Hollywood” sequel from Fincher and David Ayer’s “Heart of the Beast” on the docket.
Emmy winner Julianne Nicholson, Danny Huston and Camille Cottin round out the ensemble. Production only got underway across Europe in early 2026, which makes a finish this year a stretch and points the film toward 2027.
Two-time Palme d’Or winner Ruben Östlund’s English-language satire strands an ensemble on a long-haul flight between London and Sydney, where the failure of the in-flight entertainment system forces passengers to confront the horror of boredom. Keanu Reeves, Oscar nominee Kirsten Dunst, Daniel Brühl, Nicholas Braun and two-time Oscar nominee Samantha Morton headline a sprawling cast shot around a real Boeing 747 the director acquired for the production. Östlund reportedly pulled the film from the 2026 Cannes lineup and has said he does not expect to finish before year’s end, with a Cannes premiere now eyed for 2027.
A24, by contrast, is adding rather than subtracting. Even with two of its titles above sliding out of 2026, the distributor is running a deep bench this year, starting with the already-released summer comedy hit “The Invite” from Olivia Wilde. Still to come: Jesse Eisenberg’s original musical “The Debut,” Chris Rock’s Hollywood drama “Misty Green,” Lance Oppenheim’s “To Catch a Predator”-inspired “Primetime” and Jordan Firstman’s “Club Kid,” which the company acquired at Cannes.
According to sources, A24 is also expected to slot one more film into its 2026 roster. Among the undated candidates, Jody Hill’s “Famous,” with Zac Efron, Phoebe Dynevor and Nicholas Braun, reads as one of the likeliest additions. Henry Dunham’s crime thriller “Enemies,” with Jeremy Allen White and Austin Butler, is not expected to be the one, with that title more likely to surface in 2027.
We could also speculate whether any of its 2027 films would be one that could make early appearances, such as Sean Durkin’s “Deep Cuts,” an adaptation of the novel by Holly Brickley, which stars Cailee Spaeny and Drew Starkey, with Josh Safdie, Ronald Bronstein and Eli Bush among the producing team.
Two prestige packages still without a home are also unlikely to surface this year.
Tom Ford’s “Cry to Heaven,” the designer-turned-filmmaker’s first feature since 2016’s “Nocturnal Animals,” adapts Anne Rice’s 1982 novel set in the ruthless world of 18th-century Italian opera. Ford writes, directs and produces, with a cast that includes Nicholas Hoult, Colin Firth, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Grammy winner Adele in her acting debut. Filming began in January in London and Rome, and with no distributor yet attached, the film is expected to land a buyer and arrive in the next calendar year.
Academy Award winner Joel Coen’s “Jack of Spades,” meanwhile, wrapped in Glasgow late last year and has screened for several prospective studios. The gothic mystery, set in 1880s Scotland, marks Coen’s second solo directorial outing after “The Tragedy of Macbeth” and stars Josh O’Connor, Frances McDormand, Lesley Manville and Damian Lewis, with regular collaborators Bruno Delbonnel behind the camera and Carter Burwell on the score. Sources tell Variety that the initial cut ran nearly 150 minutes but showed immense promise, and a tighter second version has screened in recent weeks, and appears to have hit the sweet spot. An acquisition announcement is expected sooner rather than later.
Already known, but worth mentioning again: Neon’s “A Place in Hell,” director Chloe Domont’s follow-up to her Sundance sensation “Fair Play,” was once positioned for a Christmas Day release, but Neon has since moved the adult thriller to April 23, 2027. The film stars Michelle Williams as a cutthroat criminal defense attorney on the verge of making partner whose ambitions are upended when a younger lawyer, played by Daisy Edgar-Jones, is brought in to replace her, with the rivalry escalating to dangerous extremes. Andrew Scott also stars, who has the highly anticipated “Elsinore” coming later this year.
Paramount Pictures’ “Children of Blood and Bone,” Gina Prince-Bythewood’s long-gestating adaptation of Tomi Adeyemi’s bestselling “Legacy of Orïsha” fantasy, locked for Jan. 15, 2027, a prime Martin Luther King Jr. weekend slot, and the date immediately raised the prospect of whether Paramount would mount a late-2026 qualifying run. Sources at the studio say it will not: the ensemble epic is being positioned to launch fresh at the start of a new calendar year rather than chase this season. The starry cast includes Thuso Mbedu, Damson Idris, Amandla Stenberg, Cynthia Erivo, Lashana Lynch, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Regina King, Idris Elba and Viola Davis. The decision is not a surprise given the off-screen turbulence that has trailed the production, with Adeyemi, who co-wrote the screenplay, publicly distancing herself from the film and saying she had blocked its star, Stenberg, on social media, according to the L.A. Times.
For awards handicappers, the takeaway is that slates get crowded, edits run long and a strategic hold can be worth more than a rushed cut just to “be in the conversation.”