The Odyssey's Biggest Oscars 2027 Competition Has Been Confirmed (& It Isn't Dune 3 Or Project Hail Mary)
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Published Sep 16, 2026, 2:30 PM EDT
Cooper Hood is the Associate Editor for all new movie releases, in theaters and on streaming. In addition to writing articles about these titles and upcoming releases, he also oversees content planning for each, ensuring that ScreenRant continues to cover major releases for months after their release.
He has written various reviews for ScreenRant that appear on Rotten Tomatoes, coordinated Oscars and San Diego Comic-Con coverage, appeared on CNN to talk about Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning, and done select interviews with talent over the years.
Discussions about the Oscars 2027 have been dominated by Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey. After a great showing in 2024 with Oppenheimer winning seven Academy Awards off 13 nominations, there were expectations that his adaptation of Homer's epic would be an awards contender from the second it was announced. The Odyssey's rave reviews and incredible reception overall have only solidified its standing.
The question for The Odyssey isn't if it will get any nominations or wins, but more so how many and in which categories. It's easy to think of Nolan's movie as the runaway favorite to win Best Picture. While that may wind up being true come March 2027 when the 99th Academy Awards are held, there is still room for the movie to falter and other films to rise to the top.
Based on the movies that have already been released, Project Hail Mary stands as one of The Odyssey's greatest challengers. However, the festival circuit and planned fall releases add a slew of additional contenders. Everything from I Play Rocky to Dune: Part Three has what it takes to win over Academy voters and try to keep Nolan's movie from winning Best Picture again.
When it comes to the movie that poses the greatest threat to The Odyssey, the real answer is not any of those titles. Looking at the current landscape of the Oscars 2027 races, the critically acclaimed foreign-language drama known as La Bola Negra holds the greatest chance at this stage of upsetting The Odyssey in Best Picture.
La Bola Negra Is A Certified Best Picture Frontrunner: What It's About & Why It's A Contender
Image via Netflix
La Bola Negra is a new Spanish film by directors Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi based on a script they wrote with Alberto Conejero. It is inspired by an unfinished book and follows the lives of three gay men across different time periods: 1932, 1937, and 2017. La Bola Negra's cast is led by lesser-known Spanish actors, but it has some name recognition thanks to Penélope Cruz and Glenn Close.
The movie became a Best Picture contender after its world premiere in competition at the 79th Cannes Film Festival in May. La Bola Negra earned rave reviews after this festival launch. Calvo and Ambrossi's sharp direction, the movie's seamless intertwining of three narratives, striking visuals, and more were frequently praised. While the movie didn't win the Palme d'Or, the directors did win the festival's award for Best Director.
That reception set La Bola Negra on a path to the Oscars. Netflix acquired the distribution rights to the film for $4-5 million after a bidding war. The streamer has already signaled that this will be their primary focus of the Oscars 2027 campaign season, too. La Bola Negra has been given Netflix's longest theatrical window at 47 days. It will release in theaters on October 16 and wait to debut on the streaming service until December 2.
While a grand Cannes reception isn't always predictive for the Oscars, it should be in La Bola Negra's case. The film received a huge standing ovation that lasted somewhere between 16 and 20 minutes. These ovations can be overblown at times, but La Bola Negra had the longest one of the whole festival, topping other Oscar contenders like Fjord.
The movie has continued to be showered in praise as its festival circuit expands, including a very strong showing at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival. It has even now been named as the Spanish entry for Best International Feature Film. La Bola Negra is almost assured to earn one of the five nominations in that category, which can lead to grander recognition by voters.
La Bola Negra Has To Defy The Odds To Beat The Odyssey
There is an inevitability to La Bola Negra's presence at the 99th Academy Awards, but it won't be easy beating The Odyssey. Nolan's movie is the definitive frontrunner, meaning the Spanish gay drama will need to overcome several obstacles to take down an epic from Hollywood's biggest director.
For as much love La Bola Negra has received, The Odyssey's reception has been even more favorable and widespread. It is a cinematic achievement that acts as the culmination of everything Nolan has been working toward, and his mastery of the craft is impossible to ignore. The same could be said of Calvo and Ambrossi, but their film needs to connect with more audiences this fall and winter to have a chance.
After all, The Odyssey is about as popular of a Best Picture contender as the Oscars can get. With $1.6 billion worldwide, only three James Cameron movies (Avatar, Avatar: The Way of Water, and Titanic) can say they got Best Picture nominations and earn more at the box office. The Odyssey is a dream frontrunner for the Oscars as a result, one that most people who watch the ceremony next year will have seen.
The same is not necessarily true of La Bola Negra. There is still plenty of time for the film to become a sensation in its own right, but history is not necessarily on its side when it comes to winning Best Picture. This is driven by its distribution by Netflix and being a foreign-language film.
Netflix has been in an unrelenting pursuit of winning Best Picture for nearly a decade. Lots of Netflix movies have earned the major Oscar nomination, but none have taken home the crown. The streamer has watched The Power of the Dog fall short to CODA, Emilia Pérez succumb to controversies, and on-paper sure-fire contenders like The Irishman go home empty-handed.
International movies have a historically poor win rate for Best Picture. Parasite is the only foreign-language movie to win the top category. Netflix has even felt the struggles in this capacity, with Roma, All Quiet on the Western Front, and Emilia Pérez all failing to win Best Picture despite seeming like the favorites at different points in their respective races.
That's not to say La Bola Negra can't defy the odds. Perhaps this will be a breakthrough piece of cinema that benefits from a voting body that has become more international over the years. Netflix's expansive theatrical release plan could help, too. After all, it would be foolish to consider The Odyssey as unbeatable.
Why The Odyssey Might Get Beat At The Oscars
There is obviously a strong case for The Odyssey to be another awards season juggernaut for Nolan. It will likely be the year's most nominated movie and contend mightily in most categories. Yet, the narrative push for The Odyssey to win Best Picture is lacking.
Nolan already got the proverbial monkey off his back with Oppenheimer winning so massively. He no longer has a narrative that he's "due" to have a movie win Best Picture, or he himself win Best Director. Voters clearly have no bias against his movies and are comfortable recognizing him in this fashion, but they could also look give other movies, like La Bola Negra, the prestigious honor.
It also hurts The Odyssey that it isn't the only major blockbuster vying for major Oscars consideration. Amazon MGM is going to give Project Hail Mary a major push. Warner Bros. will certainly campaign hard for Dune: Part Three. Both may have strong narratives to win, too.
Dune 3 ends the trilogy and hopes to get rewarded for three films of excellence like what happened with The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King's record Oscars night. Denis Villeneuve has the personal narrative of being overdue for an Oscar win as well. Project Hail Mary has been the most pleasant surprise in terms of its sheer quality and popularity, making it a feel-good story.
With those blockbusters, La Bola Negra, and other movies still to debut, like The Debut, there is ample competition for The Odyssey to stay ahead of. There hasn't been any substantial pushback against Nolan's film so far, but that will need to remain true for months to remain the frontrunner. If The Odyssey stumbles at all, the Oscars 2027 Best Picture race has enough strong contenders to usurp it.
Image via Netflix
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