Another Awards Season is over and we have newly anointed champions of the Academy Awards to applaud and celebrate. As cinephiles, the best way we have of celebrating is surely to watch and appreciate these filmmakers' work. With that in mind, let's investigate the prospects of the Oscar Class of 2019, many of which already have their next movies lined up, some already in post-production even.
First up, we have the night's greatest star - the one and only Bong Joon-ho…
BONG JOON-HO
This South Korean master of cinema has blessed us with the glory of Parasite and reaped Oscar gold for his efforts. After what we assume was a wild night of partying "I'll drink till morning", Bong Joon-ho will be returning home to rest, a wish he has expressed many times during the Oscar race. As of right now, he doesn't seem to have a lot of concrete projects lined up, though he did mention two films in development during the backstage interviews on Oscar night, one in English the other in Korean. Apart from that, there are the TV adaptations of Snowpiercer and Parasite. While the latter is still very much in early development, the former is scheduled to premiere May 31st. The show stars Jennifer Connelly and Daveed Diggs with Bong Joon-ho as an executive producer.
JOAQUIN PHOENIX
Next up for our new Best Actor winner is a Mike Mills film titled C'mon C'mon. Little is known about the project, but the director's two previous projects – Beginners and 20th Century Women – bode well for the quality of this mysterious picture. This is also good news for Phoenix's fans since he tends to do his best work when challenged by creative auteurs like Lynne Ramsay, Paul Thomas Anderson, James Gray and now, Mike Mills.
LAURA DERN
The sole winner out of the Marriage Story team is set to reprise her famous role of Ellie Sattler in the third Jurassic World movie, scheduled to be released in 2021.
BRAD PITT
While he has many producing gigs in his future, Brad Pitt has only one acting project lined up for the next few years. That's Babylon, Damien Chazelle's next sojourn through Hollywood's past alongside Emma Stone. Considering Pitt just won for Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, we can't blame him for sticking to movies about tinseltown's troubled past. It certainly worked out for him this time.
TAIKA WAITITI
Out of this crop of Oscar winners, Taika Waititi is the busiest. On one hand, Jojo Rabbit's handsome director has been handed the reigns of more Disney properties with Thor: Love and Thunder and an, as of yet, untitled Star Wars film. He also has Next Goal Wins scheduled for a 2021 release, a sports comedy starring Elisabeth Moss and Michael Fassbender. There's also the rumored We're Wolves, a follow-up to his delightful vampire mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows, as well as a serialization of Terry Gilliam's Time Bandits. All of that and he's also supposed to write a new Flash Gordon movie. Everything's coming up Taika.
ANDREW BUCKLAND & MICHAEL MCCUSKER
The editors behind Ford v Ferrari's thrilling race scenes have a variety of projects coming up. Buckland is one of the editors in charge of the ever-delayed New Mutants and he's also done the cutting for The Empty Man, a horror movie starring Stephen Root and Marin Ireland. As for McCusker, he's also keeping things horror-adjacent with Daniel Lusko's Quandary.
NANCY HAIGH
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood's brilliant set decorator is the woman in charge of filling A Quiet Place 2 with the clutter of post-apocalyptic reality. While that gig is unlikely to bring her back to the Dolby Theatre you never know. Stranger things have happened.
JACQUELINE DURRAN
With two Oscars under her belt and an enviable filmography, Durran is one of Hollywood's top costume designers. The mind behind Little Women's modernized look at the 19th century is the one responsible for the next version of Batman. We can't wait to see what she does with the iconic hero now that he's played by Robert Pattinson. In the next Batman production, she'll be joined by 1917's Oscar-winning special effects supervisor Dominic Tuohy and sound mixer Stuart Wilson.
ANNE MORGAN
Bombshell's hair department head has a bizarre little collection of projects opening in 2020. First up, she's got Sonic the Hedgehog and the upcoming Top Gun sequel. More interesting, however, is her involvement in FX's Miss America. Morgan is the hair designer for the miniseries starring Cate Blanchett, Sarah Paulson, Rose Byrne, and many more wonderful actresses. Maybe she can add an Emmy to her Oscar next summer?
STEVEN BOGNAR & JULIA REICHERT
The American Factory directors have another promising project in the pipeline. The movie's called 9 to 5: The Story of A Movement and is set to open at South by Southwest Film Festival this March.
As for the nominees, many stars have a bunch of prestigious films opening in the next few years. If we're talking strictly Oscar, then Sir Anthony Hopkins is the one to look out for. The Welsh actor, nominated this year for his performance in The Two Popes, has been showered with luminous reviews out of Sundance for his work in The Father. Could he be a contender for next year's Best Actor statuette or is it way too early to start speculating?