Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey enters Oscar race with Damon in tow

Christopher Nolan’s new swing at Homer is already being framed as an Oscar threat, with Variety awards editor Clayton Davis arguing that Universal Pictures’ The Odyssey has the reviews, craft credentials and star power to crash the best picture race.

Davis reports that Nolan’s adaptation is sitting at 96% on Rotten Tomatoes and 89 on Metacritic, making it a rare summer tentpole with an awards-season case built in from the jump.

The film stars Matt Damon as Odysseus, with a broad ensemble that includes Samantha Morton, Robert Pattinson, John Leguizamo, Himesh Patel, Tom Holland, Jon Bernthal, Anne Hathaway, Charlize Theron, Zendaya, Lupita Nyong’o, Elliot Page, Corey Hawkins and Benny Safdie, according to Davis.

A genre looking for a comeback

Davis places the film in a long Oscar tradition of ancient-world and mythic spectacle. Ridley Scott’s Gladiator won best picture for the 2000 film year, while William Wyler’s Ben-Hur took 11 Oscars for 1959, including best picture, director and actor for Charlton Heston.

He also points to earlier epics such as The Ten Commandments and Spartacus, plus Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, as examples of large-scale adventure breaking through with Academy voters when the movie has prestige heat behind it.

Nolan enters this campaign with fresh Academy muscle. Oppenheimer brought him his first best director Oscar and a best picture win shared with Emma Thomas, his wife and longtime producing partner, Davis notes.

Damon’s acting bid gets louder

Davis identifies Damon as the film’s safest acting prospect. Damon has five Oscar nominations across acting, writing and producing categories, and won original screenplay for Good Will Hunting with Ben Affleck, but he has not won an acting Oscar.

Variety’s column says The Odyssey is Damon’s first leading role for Nolan after supporting parts in Interstellar and Oppenheimer. Davis describes the role as a strong awards vehicle for Damon, who plays Odysseus as a warrior shaped by survival, loss and fatigue.

The supporting races look less settled. Davis says early reactions have not produced one clear favorite across the ensemble, though he singles out Morton as a possible standout for her brief appearance as Circe. Morton has two Oscar nominations, for Sweet and Lowdown and In America.

Davis also flags Pattinson, who plays Antinous, and Leguizamo, who plays Eumaeus, as potential supporting actor contenders. He notes Leguizamo has not received an Oscar nomination despite a long screen and stage career.

Records, songs and guild politics

The film’s campaign could stretch across multiple categories. Davis writes that The Odyssey is in play for craft prizes and, for the first time in a Nolan film, original song. He reports that Travis Scott recorded the end-credits track “When I’m Home,” featuring James Blake and Ludwig Göransson, with Nolan reportedly helping on the lyrics.

Davis calculates that the film could reach 13 nominations before acting races are fully counted, if Nolan lands bids for picture, director and adapted screenplay alongside technical and other categories. A Damon nomination would take the total to 14, matching the old record held by All About Eve, Titanic and La La Land. Davis says Ryan Coogler’s Sinners set the current record last year with 16 nominations.

There is also a guild wrinkle. Nolan became president of the Directors Guild of America in September 2025, after winning the DGA feature-directing prize and the Oscar for Oppenheimer in 2024, Davis notes.

Davis says the central awards question is whether Academy voters will return so quickly to Nolan after Oppenheimer. For now, Variety’s latest predictions list The Odyssey among the best picture contenders and Nolan among the director contenders.

This story draws on original reporting from Variety.