With only the American Cinema Editors Awards left on the bingo card (March 14th), the long awards season campaigning towards Oscars in finally over which means: filmmakers can return to their day jobs. Among the swath of sixteen films from the major nominated categories, we take a look at who might jump out of the gate first.
Jacques Audiard
Working on a film per every three-four years pace since 2001’s Read My Lips, the septuagenarian hasn’t slowed down and with scribe Thomas Bidegain within arm’s reach he’ll likely surface somewhere in 2028 with a new project. Audiard keeps his projects on the lowdown so it’ll be at least a couple of years of writing before an announcement is made. We bet he’ll move into a new genre again – Emilia Pérez had followed drama romance Paris, 13th District which had followed his comedy western The Sisters Brothers.
Sean Baker
The three to four year range is also applicable here with Baker when we take a look at the drop date Cannes premieres for The Florida Project, Red Rocket and Anora. What we do know is that he’ll shoot a little bit under the radar and we wouldn’t be surprised if he goes street casting once again. We expect Neon to want to re-partner with the American indie filmmaker who’ll likely want to take his time after criss-crossing the globe since last May. We’d bet on a 2027 shoot working on original material.
Edward Berger
All Quiet on the Western Front was that major calling card that made the German filmmaker as an in-demand director for hire. We’ve noted several news projects are being discussed but as we already know, shortly after Conclave, he quickly moved onto direct The Ballad of a Small Player with Colin Farrell and Tilda Swinton. Look for a major film premiere splash for the Netflix-backed film at the Venice Film Festival or TIFF where Berger is well-received.
Brady Corbet
During the press tour, Corbet let it slip that there are other projects in the works – which means that even if The Brutalist took a full seven years to materialize that he was also developing other projects along the way. Most likely written alongside partner Mona Fastvold, Brady mentioned a 1970s set horror-western and another project that spans 150 years. Don’t be surprised if one of these two films gets packaged in the fall after Fastvold’s Ann Lee receives its premiere run.
Robert Eggers
Since breaking out with The Witch in 2015, Eggers has been on a travels creatively at breakneck speed with an output of The Lighthouse (2019), The Northman (2022), and Nosferatu (2024) in a five-year run. A sequel to Labyrinth is in the works, but it is Werwulf – a horror film set in 13th-century England is his next – Focus Features already dated with a Christmas 2026 playdate.
Jesse Eisenberg
He has been taking on less acting jobs focusing on When You Finish Saving the World and then A Real Pain in almost back to back years. It was announced that he was working on a musical comedy with Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti. Topic Studios and Fruit Tree are behind this project which we predict could move into production as early as this or next year.
Coralie Fargeat
We bet that the wait between her sophomore feature and eventual third will be half the time between her 2017 debut Revenge and The Substance. While she has not hinted at anything we would not be surprised if she does a stint in television or works on her own material — once again in the genre lane.
Magnus von Horn
Sweat premiered (mostly online) in 2020 and so that would make it about four year between films with The Girl with the Needle dropping in May. With all the buzz generated from this dire portrait, we imagine von Horn will be putting together a new project in less time and with more Euro partners. We could expect to here from him as early as 2027.
Greg Kwedar
More of a scribe (he had Train Dreams featured at Sundance), Kwedar took eight years between his debut Transpecos and Sing Sing. We expect him to work on more writing assignments before possibly moving onto NAR – which was announced in 2022 with Hilary Swank to star as a downed pilot.
Pablo Larraín
Beginning this current decade with television’s Lisey’s Story, Spencer (2021), El Conde (2023) and Maria (2024), we expect to see a new Larraín title as early as 2026 and we don’t believe it’ll be The True American (based on the true story of Rais Bhuiyan – a Bangladeshi immigrant who survived a hate crime in Texas after 9/11) – which he was attached to direct back in 2017.
James Mangold
Mangold has been attached to direct a lot of projects (see here) but its a prequel to Star Wars: A New Hope called Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi that might be next in line for the director.
Mohammad Rasoulof
Now that the Iranian filmmaker is free of censorship (and free to move), he’ll likely work on a Euro-backed project for his next project – as was the case for The Seed of the Sacred Fig. There Is No Evil premiered in 2020, so we’re thinking another four years to develop his next (and not shot in the backdrop of Iran).
RaMell Ross
Half dozen years between his masterwork docu Hale County This Morning, This Evening and Nickel Boys, Ross mentioned that he wants to stay in the indie-sphere with two projects he developed for a combined economical cost of ten million.
Walter Salles
He did work in the docu and short form in the dozen years that passed between On the Road and I’m Still Here but we don’t see the filmmaker rushing to make another film anytime soon. Of course, we might be wrong when the iron is suddenly hot again.
Aaron Schimberg
Six years separated the Chained for Life (2018) and A Different Man (2024), but we don’t see how at this juncture in his career that Schimberg will wait just as long.
Denis Villeneuve
A filmmaker who has a lot on his plate and several big tentpole options, Villeneuve is returning to the Dune world for one last sand adventure with filming set for this summer for Dune Messiah. Apart from that he has been mentioned for Cleopatra, Rendezvous with Rama and an undisclosed project.
