Spielberg, Nolan And Minions Light Up Oscar Race At CinemaCon

The search for surefire Oscar contenders at CinemaCon continues, and joining my list after the Universal presentation on Wednesday are The Odyssey, Disclosure Day, and — wait for it — Minions & Monsters. But more on the latter in a moment.

Christopher Nolan opened Universal’s CinemaCon presentation and Steven Spielberg closed it. If you were worried this exhibitors convention was going to be short on Oscar heat you can rest assured that the footage shown from their respective films, The Odyssey and Disclosure Day, both more than met the promise of helping to ignite the nascent 2026 movie awards season. That torch was already lit Tuesday with Warner Bros and its upcoming Alejandro G. Iñárritu-Tom Cruise dark comedy Digger, and Monday with The Social Reckoning at Sony’s kickoff.

At the Nobu party immediately following yesterday’s showcase, Universal marketing chief Michael Moses told me this is the kind of year he dreams of, having arguably the two most successful filmmakers in the business both with very big movies opening this summer and, likely, based on what I saw, to be genuine contenders all the way to next March. Both directors got massive standing ovations when they hit the Colosseum stage, and the sneak looks they brought with them certainly played well.

At the party, Spielberg was still pumped about the reaction to his first-ever visit to CinemaCon and to the biggest preview we have seen so far from Disclosure Day, which brings him back to the territory he covered so well in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial, and War of the Worlds. But as he says this time what was merely science fiction leans closer into science plausibility.

He is being very careful though about revealing too much, even as he sets out to launch Disclosure Day all the way up to its June 12 opening. To put it in Vegas context, he strikes me as a guy who knows he is holding a hot hand. I told him it also looked like it could be very emotional, and he agreed that it does get there.

“But I don’t want to tell you anything more about it because you are a real movie goer,” he said, wanting the experience to be everything. I agreed. The less I know the better, especially after spending this week watching one presentation after another touting sequels, prequels and remakes. Tthat we still can get original movies is more important for the health of the industry (and the Oscars).

“I’m not knocking other filmmakers for doing (sequels). After all I am on to my eighth Jurassic film, but it is vital to have original films,” the legendary filmmaker told me.

As someone who has mastered just about every genre, I mentioned I was intrigued about his hint during his onstage interview with Disclosure Day co-star Colman Domingo that a Western was next. He has never done one.

“Considering we all know you got some early advice from one of the masters of the genre, John Ford, is that something you are really going to do?”I asked. He said it could be possibly next but he’s not sure yet about that; the rollout of Disclosure Day is front of mind now. He definitely wants to do one at some point. “I haven’t done a Western since I was a kid in Arizona making my own little movies,” he laughed.

Nolan opened his presentation onstage by saying he was just happy he didn’t have to follow Spielberg. At Nobu, I told him I was at a brunch Sunday with three well-known film veterans — an actress, a director and a film editor — who were lamenting the movies today. “Where is Lawrence of Arabia, where is The Bridge on the River Kwai?” they complained. I told Nolan after seeing the epic look of The Odyssey, I might have an answer for them. David Lean may be gone, but his spirit lives on with this kind of huge global moviemaking and star-studded cast that only a Christopher Nolan could possibly get greenlit these days. It opens on July 17, his lucky day where his Oscar-winning Oppenheimer, among other films of his, have also opened. We all know what happened to that.

Producer Emma Thomas also guaranteed this epic film will come in under three hours, but wasn’t quite sure of the actual running time yet since they are still in post production.

So I went into this presentation on my hunt for Oscar contenders in this Vegas madhouse, knowing both The Odyssey and Disclosure Day would be the most likely prospects. The unexpected find, at least based on the footage, was something else entirely: Illumination’s Minions & Monsters. Yes, that is right, and now based on the footage shown at CinemaCon, which was every bit as epic as The Odyssey, I am starting the drumbeat for this animated franchise which, it appears, has got another winner with this film that is all about movies itself, with clever and lovely tributes to the likes of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, silent films and cinema itself.

I told that to Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri at the Nobu reception and he brought over Minions creator Pierre Coffin to hear my enthusiasm for what they showed, and especially the stunning visual look of the film that puts these lovable Minions right in the heart of movie-making. They both talked about achieving this visual fantasia using light, just like the pioneers of the industry way back when.

Illumination, if you ask me, has been overlooked and taken for granted by Oscar for much too long, but now with Minions & Monsters they may just have a movie that could be irresistible to filmmakers themselves, the very same ones who vote for Academy Awards. Move over Nolan and Spielberg.