In 2025, A24’s Oscar season strategy for the entire year was basically “Marty Supreme” or absolutely nothing, and it paid off until it lost all nine of its nominations on Oscar night. But in 2026, A24 would appear to have decidedly greater variety, as it already released “The Invite,” has “The Debut” likely premiering at Telluride with two potential acting favorites, has Chris Rock’s “Misty Green” looming at TIFF and NYFF, has already raved Cannes acquisition “Club Kid” set for a second wave during fall festivals, and has Robert Pattinson looking to make a run at Best Actor with “Primetime” starting at Venice.
One of the big storylines of fall festivals this year will be how A24 makes out with its four major entries, and how its Oscar season pecking order and priorities will be shaped as a result. But even if A24 has one or two or more new legitimate contenders after fall festivals, is it actually equipped to juggle them – and what will become of its one already established contender in “The Invite” if it can’t do it?
Although A24 swept all but one above-the-line Oscar in 2022 with two films, its ability to multitask hasn’t been very good since then. Even in 2022, when “Everything Everywhere All at Once” won six major Oscars and it still had time to get Brendan Fraser another one for “The Whale,” the one thing A24 couldn’t do that year was get two movies into Best Picture. And when it did so a year later, it was by the skin of its teeth, since it let early season contender “Past Lives” nearly slip out of Best Picture altogether by the end of the year while it was busy surging “The Zone of Interest” in.
A24 wasn’t so lucky in 2024, as it once again took its eye off the ball of a minority-led/directed film that looked like a major contender in the early season, but slipped to the bubble by the end. In that case, “Sing Sing” did ultimately lose out on a Best Picture nomination, yet by then it was a secondary priority for A24 as soon as it bought “The Brutalist” out of Venice. Although “The Brutalist” was a multi-Oscar winner, a top three contender and a Best Actor winner for Adrian Brody, A24 still left a lot more on the table once it neglected its initial contender for its shiner new toy.
A24 didn’t even bother with the pretense of having multiple options in 2025, as from the very beginning, it was clear its entire awards season campaign was just going to be devoted to “Marty Supreme.” To be fair, it did work in the beginning with nearly $100 million box office in America, across-the-board nominations, and a seemingly assured Timothée Chalamet Best Actor win. However, when Chalamet and “Marty Supreme” sank after the nomination phase, and when A24 had no other backups, it resulted in its first winless Oscar night since 2021.
Whether that consciously taught A24 a lesson or not, it seems it is keeping its options far more open this year. Like “Past Lives” and “Sing Sing” before it, “The Invite” has gone from a very early-season festival film to a presumed Best Picture nominee by summer. But like with “Past Lives” and “Sing Sing,” “The Invite” could easily be neglected and left to fall out of the running if A24 has other, newer and shiner priorities by the end of fall festival season – and this year it has up to four of those.
A24 was already presumed to have its top 2026 priority set for fall, in the form of “The Debut.” Since it is from “A Real Pain” writer/director Jesse Eisenberg, and already has Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti as the projected Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor favorites, the train of thought was that once it premiered at Telluride, it would take over as A24’s No. 1 from there. Afterward, it would be a question of whether A24 would bother to keep pushing “The Invite” from there and try to get two films in again – which it only barely did after letting its early season contender falter in 2023, and couldn’t do when its early season contender fell off completely in 2024.
Given that “The Invite” is the only projected contender so far from a female director, and that it could wind up the only hope to avoid a Best Picture field with no female-made films for the first time since 2018, the optics would look especially bad if A24 deprioritizes it for anything beyond a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination. Nonetheless, if “The Debut” actually lives up to preseason expectations and gives A24 a shot at major wins, it will reason that it should be prioritized over something like “The Invite” fighting for nominations only, à la “The Brutalist” over “Sing Sing” and “The Zone of Interest” over “Past Lives.”
But on the off chance “The Debut” underachieves at Telluride and elsewhere, that might not automatically mean “The Invite” becomes its undisputed No. 1 – especially with other options staking a claim at fall festivals lately.
“Misty Green” has been raising eyebrows not just as one of the highest-profile TIFF world premieres, but also when it was chosen to be in NYFF’s Main Slate as well. To this point, the highest awards expectations for “Misty Green” were that it could elevate star Rosalind Eleazar into the wide-open Best Actress field, and perhaps give A24 a second nominee in that category alongside Moore. But its prominent place at TIFF and NYFF has raised hope that if “The Debut” disappoints, maybe it leaves room for “Misty Green” to be A24’s big fall festival breakout and newest Oscar season priority, especially if it contends for the TIFF People’s Choice.
Another potential A24 TIFF challenger is “Club Kid,” which has actually already been seen and raved about at Cannes. Like with “Misty Green,” the most realistic awards chances for “Club Kid” are presumed to be in one category only, in this case as a possible hopeful for the last Best Original Screenplay slot. Yet if it is as much of a crowd pleaser in TIFF as it was in Cannes, a People Choice placement or higher could make “Club Kid” something that demands greater resources and backing from A24 as well.
As if this wasn’t enough, A24 also has “Primetime” to set the tone for fall festivals at Venice. Like both “Misty Green” and “Club Kid” all the awards potential for “Primetime” is assumed to be in one category, in this case for Pattinson in Best Actor. It may be the most likely place for him to get a collective nomination for his gigantic year – which includes the A24 spring hit “The Drama” – although “Primetime” may not otherwise be the kind of crowd pleaser that can ride his coattails into other nominations.
Even with all these options for A24, its most likely outcome may be the one that’s been picked from the beginning – for “The Debut” to be its top contender after Telluride, for “The Invite” to fight for a bubble Best Picture nomination and A24’s attention afterwards, and for “Misty Green,” “Primetime,” and “Club Kid” to each scratch and claw for one collective nomination. But what happens if one or all of those latter three films exceed all expectations at fall festivals, and what would that mean for A24’s priorities depending on what “The Debut” does? Or what if all four of them are letdowns and it clears the way for “The Invite” to be its one and only hopeful after all?
There is a world where this year is a vintage “comeback” season for A24, as it has more than one chance to be one of the biggest fall festival players of the season, has a major safety net in “The Invite” to fall back on if a few or all of those festival films fall flat, and maybe even has some of the few contenders this year not made by white male directors in “The Invite” and “Misty Green.” On the other hand, if their fall fest lineup becomes one of the biggest disappointments of the year, and/or they still manage to miscalculate with their Oscar season pecking order, it will turn a season of great promise for A24 into one it will struggle to live down.
In a time where A24 has made major inroads towards the mainstream with hits like “Marty Supreme” and “Backrooms,” where it can still push smaller films like “The Invite” into box office success, but where the glory days of “Moonlight” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once” have been somewhat hard to recapture as it becomes less independent, it could use a big performance this Oscar season – beyond just nominations only for one film – to prove it still has some true indie and awards magic left. At the least, it has up to four chances next month to show how magical its 2026 Oscar lineup can really become.
Which A24 film do you think will emerge from the fall film festivals as the studio’s biggest Oscar contender? Or is it already “The Invite?” Please let us know in the comments section below and on Next Best Picture’s X account, and check out Next Best Picture’s latest Oscar predictions here.
