93rd Academy Awards (2021)

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Too soon? Our ridiculously early predictions for 2021's Oscar contenders

Trophies are still freshly engraved, the plant-based cuisine is still digesting, and Netflix still is without a best picture win. Now that "Parasite" has conquered Hollywood's biggest night and made history, it's time to start looking ahead to the 93rd Academy Awards.

You might be thinking, isn't it way too early to be worrying about all that yet? We're months away from festival season and the deluge of Oscar bait, but you never can tell when a surprise contender might pop up. (It probably won't be "Birds of Prey" but this year's supporting actress nominee Margot Robbie is out to win someday!)

So what could cause a stir at the 2021 Oscar ceremony? Ready or not, here’s a way-too-early look at the major categories (with release dates for those films that have them):

Best picture

OK, "Cats" wasn't exactly an awards-season player but another big-time musical adaptation looms with some serious cred: a new version of 1962 Oscar winner "West Side Story" (in theaters Dec. 18) directed by Steven Spielberg that keeps its tragic love story set in 1957 New York City. For something a bit more musically modern, Ryan Murphy's "The Prom" brings the Broadway show to Netflix, revolving around four musical theater stars (Meryl Streep, James Corden, Andrew Rannells and Nicole Kidman) who travel to small-town Indiana to help a lesbian girl barred from bringing her girlfriend to their high school dance.

Martin Scorsese's "The Irishman" didn't live up to Oscar expectation, but Netflix has three other projects with A-list filmmakers locked and loaded: Spike Lee's war drama "Da 5 Bloods" follows four African American veterans who return to Vietnam to find their squad leader's remains; David Fincher's "Mank" centers on "Citizen Kane" screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman); and Ron Howard's "Hillbilly Elegy," based on the best-selling book and starring Amy Adams and Glenn Close, is about three generations of an Appalachian family seeking the American dream.

Sci-fi guru Denis Villeneuve's star-studded and anticipated adaptation of "Dune" (Dec. 18) might make some noise on a prime holiday release date, and Wes Anderson's latest ensemble film "The French Dispatch" (July 24) features American reporters working in France. Aaron Sorkin's "The Trial of the Chicago 7" (Sept. 25) is a period piece about the protests around the 1968 Democratic Convention. The super-secretive thriller "Tenet" (July 17) could snag Christopher Nolan a best picture nod just like his similarly puzzling "Inception." And Guillermo del Toro digs into the world of carnival-set film noir with a remake of "Nightmare Alley."

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via USA Today