2026 Awards Season Thins Out: Netflix's "Here Comes the Flood" and "Saturn Return," A24's "The Riders" Slide to 2027
Several films that studios had positioned for the 2026 awards conversation are slipping out of the year entirely, reshaping an already competitive field. Variety reported on 10 August 2026 that a handful of high-profile titles pencilled into this year's race are not likely to arrive before 2027, with causes ranging from tight post-production schedules to still-open distribution deals. Some have firm new landing zones. Others are still in motion.
Netflix's Here Comes the Flood leads the list. Directed by Fernando Meirelles from a Simon Kinberg script, the film is a nonlinear heist thriller built around a bank guard, a teller and a master thief caught in a web of cons and double-crosses. Denzel Washington headlines a cast that also includes Robert Pattinson, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Danai Gurira and Sean Harris. Production ran in New Jersey into late January, leaving a narrow window for editing and finishing before Netflix's crowded year-end slate — the combination has the film widely expected to debut in 2027 rather than crash the 2026 race. No release date has been confirmed.
Another Netflix title, Saturn Return, faces a similar shift. Greg Kwedar's follow-up to the Oscar-nominated Sing Sing is a Chicago-set romance told across two timelines, tracing a decade in the lives of three college friends. Charles Melton, Rachel Brosnahan and Will Poulter star, with Plan B producing. Rather than push for a 2026 release, the film could launch at South by Southwest in Austin this March, folding it into the following year's awards cycle instead.
A24's The Riders, a psychological thriller directed by Edward Berger, is also moving beyond 2026. David Kajganich adapted the screenplay from Tim Winton's 1994 novel, and Brad Pitt leads a cast featuring Julianne Nicholson, Danny Huston and Camille Cottin. Production only began across Europe in early 2026, making a finished film by year-end unlikely. No new date has been announced.
Not every awards hopeful is retreating. A24 has set a late September theatrical release for Primetime, a crime thriller also starring Pattinson, positioning it for an early awards-season bow. The date places it squarely in the autumn corridor — the window, roughly September through November, when distributors release prestige titles they want voters and critics to see fresh.
What this means for the 2026 race is a narrower field. When films starring Denzel Washington and Brad Pitt exit the calendar, the films that remain face less competition for attention, screens and, ultimately, nominations. The shifts also crowd 2027, where Here Comes the Flood, Saturn Return and The Riders could land alongside titles already scheduled for that year. For now, Netflix and A24 have not confirmed replacement dates for the three delayed films, and the SXSW launch for Saturn Return remains a possibility rather than a firm plan.
