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2025 has been a mixed year for Sci-Fi movies, but 2026 already looks like being a major improvement. This calendar year has had a few strong entries in the genre, such as Companion, but also some that were more divisive like Mickey 17, and a few expensive duds (e.g. TRON: Ares, The Electric State). Thankfully things should pick up before the year closes out with a few highly anticipated Sci-Fi releases to come, including Predator: Badlands, The Running Man, and what will likely be the biggest Hollywood movie of the year, Avatar: Fire and Ash. Still, it’s next year’s slate that is even more exciting.
There’s Dune: Part Three, new Sci-Fi movies from genre legends Steven Spielberg (an untitled UFO project) and Ridley Scott (The Dog Stars), and perhaps most exciting of all, Project Hail Mary. The film Ryan Gosling as a science teacher who awakens in space with no memory of how he got there, gradually learning he was sent on a mission to discover a solution to a potential cataclysmic event that will otherwise doom Earth. The movie doesn’t release until March, but Deadline‘s Justin Kroll recently posted on X that one 2026 release is already generating a lot of awards buzz after early screenings:
I know we are in the middle of this award season but looking ahead, a certain film coming out in the first half of 2026 has started screening around town for execs and reps and the early word is it’s not just in the mix but will be a top contender by years end. What could it be?
— Justin Kroll (@krolljvar) November 5, 2025
While Kroll doesn’t name the movie, the general consensus among the replies and quotes assumes that this is Project Hail Mary. Other options include The Drama (which stars Robert Pattinson and Zendaya), and Is God Is (Aleshea Harris’ directorial debut), but it’s Hail Mary that is getting the most attention following the post, with follow-ups from others supporting that notion:
From what I have heard, two possibilities. @projecthailmary or IS GOD IS from @AmazonMGMStudio . I hear both are exceptional. Going to be a big year for them and their all-in bet on theatrical. https://t.co/U5scj18esn
— EmpireCity Box Office (@EmpireCityBO) November 5, 2025
We all pleaded for it this year but we will all wait patiently for Project Hail Mary https://t.co/MTNNjJK3YL
— Scott Menzel (@ScottDMenzel) November 5, 2025
It Won’t Be Surprising If Project Hail Mary Is Incredible
It is, of course, still far too early to know if any 2026 movie is going to be an awards player in the 2026-27 season, but there are seceral good reasons to think that not only is Project Hail Mary the movie being discussed and generating that buzz, but that it will sustain it through to the 2027 Oscars. The trailer alone looked fantastic, promising a wonderful mix of hard science, thrilling sequences, emotional resonance, and irreverent humor, all of which is not only present in Andy Weir’s superb book of the same name, but will be carried by Ryan Gosling.
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As well as Gosling, who was Oscar nominated for Barbie, there’s Sandra Hüller, who recently starred in two major awards contenders (Anatomy of a Fall and The Zone of Interest). Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are directing and, while they don’t have previous with awards season as directors (though they were heavily involved in the Spider-Verse movies, which did get plenty of prizes), they’ve proved themselves as two of the most unique and exciting filmmakers around, so it wouldn’t be a surprise for them to deliver something on the level being discussed.
The previous adaptation of a Weir novel was Ridley Scott’s The Martian, the screenplay for which was written by Drew Goddard, who has also penned Project Hail Mary‘s. The former was one of the best Sci-Fi films of the 2010s, and picked up seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor (for Matt Damon), and Best Adapted Screenplay. So there’s certainly a very strong prescedent here that supports Project Hail Mary not only being one of the best Sci-Fi movies of 2026, but one of the year’s best period.
Project Hail Mary releases on March 20, 2026.
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