By Rebecca Thomas
The Academy Awards 2020 are done and dusted and the winners are flying high on champagne bubbles.
But if they want to capitalise on their Oscars success, time is of the essence.
To make the most of the public and movie moguls’ interest, the successful stars need to get back to the grindstone.
With that in mind, here’s what we can hope to look forward to from the triumphant actors, actresses and director.
Bong Joon-ho
Won: Best director for the darkly comic South Korean social satire Parasite, which also won him the coveted best picture award – the first time a non-English language film has done so.
How many Oscars is that now? One for best director, although with Parasite winning in three other categories, including best picture, you could argue that Bong won four golden statuettes in a single night – a feat only previously achieved by Walt Disney in 1953.
What’s next? Bong says he has two projects up his sleeve: One is a Korean feature he’s been honing for the last decade, the other is an English project, which he is in the process of researching, he told CNN. Speaking backstage at the Oscars, he declined to give further details, but said: “I do have a plan. I have to work. It’s my job.”
Brad Pitt
Won: Best supporting actor for Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. Pitt played Cliff Booth, stuntman-turned-sidekick to Leonardo DiCaprio’s fading TV star Rick Dalton.
How many Oscars is that now? Two. He won in 2014 for producing 12 Years A Slave but had never won an acting award before now, despite several nominations.
What’s next? He’s got a number of projects on the boil as producer, including a screen version of Mark Haddon’s novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. On the acting front, he’s thought to be starring alongside Emma Stone in Damien Chazelle’s Babylon, another movie set in the Hollywood of a bygone era. This time the story takes place in the late 1920s, during the movie industry’s transition from silent films to talkies.
When will it be in cinemas? Variety magazine says Babylon is set for release on 25 December, 2021, a prime position for awards season.
Laura Dern
Won: Best supporting actress for playing a tough-talking, hotshot divorce lawyer in Marriage Story.
How many Oscars is that now? One but she’s been nominated twice before – for best supporting actress in 2014’s Wild, and for best actress in 1991’s Rambling Rose.
What’s next? She’s set to resume her role as paleobotanist (yes, that’s a real job) Dr Ellie Sattler in Jurassic World, the third instalment of the rebooted dinosaur franchise.
Who co-stars and directs? Fellow Jurassic stalwarts Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum, alongside Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard join Dern on-screen, while director Colin Trevorrow returns after 2015’s Jurassic World.
When will it be on screen? It’s currently scheduled for release in June 2021.
Renee Zellweger
Won: Best actress for recreating Judy Garland’s final run of concerts in the musical biopic Judy.
How many Oscars is that now? Two. After nominations for three years in a row from 2002 to 2004, she finally won the Oscar for best supporting actress for the American Civil War drama Cold Mountain.
What’s next? She has nothing on the agenda (that’s known about, at least). Helen Fielding is writing a new Bridget Jones book so maybe a return to her kooky character lies on the horizon. Let’s just hope she doesn’t take another six years off, as she did from 2010 – 2016.
Joaquin Phoenix
Won: Best actor for his mind-bending performance in Joker.
How many Oscars is that now? One, but he’s been nominated three times before. He received best actor nominations for The Master in 2013 and for playing country singer Johnny Cash in Walk the Line in 2006 and was up for best supporting actor in 2001 for Gladiator.
What’s next? C’mon C’mon.
What’s it about? It’s a drama in which he plays the uncle of a gifted and sensitive boy, whose father struggles with bipolar disorder.
Who co-stars and directs? Co-stars include Gaby Hoffman, known for the comedy series Girls, and dancer Kenneth Kynt Bryan. Mike Mills, known for 2010’s Beginners, directs and also wrote the screenplay.
When will it be in cinemas? Later this year.
Sharon Choi: An Oscar-winner in the making?
Won: No official film awards, but Bong Joon-ho’s trusty interpreter claims the trophy for winning hearts. She became a social media phenomenon, thanks to her poise, humour and dignified dedication to her job.
The 25-year-old has accompanied Bong since the Cannes film festival last year (where Parasite won the Palme d’Or) and they seem to have developed a symbiotic relationship. Choi’s skill has been to communicate the emotional essence of the director’s words, rather than providing a literal translation. At the Oscars, she three times conveyed the director’s messages of gratitude to the whole of Hollywood, unfazed by the glitzy audience.
What’s next? Choi has plans to make her own movie… about the awards season.
“She’s a film-maker, and she studied film at university,” said Bong, backstage at Sunday night’s ceremony. “She’s writing [a] feature-length script. I’m so curious about it.”
Taika Waititi
Won: Best adapted screenplay for the Nazi satire Jojo Rabbit – an off-the-wall drama which makes you laugh and wince simultaneously as it skates the thin line of good taste.
How many Oscars is that now?: This is his first Oscar win and, in another first for the night’s proceedings, he’s the first Maori to win an Academy Award.
What’s next? Waititi is currently filming an unspecified role in the sequel to 2016’s The Suicide Squad alongside Margot Robbie, Viola Davis and Idris Elba, which is based on the DC Comics supervillain team of the same name.
Also on his to-do list is directing Next Goal Wins, with Elisabeth Moss and Michael Fassbender. It’s an adaptation of the 2014 British football documentary about Dutch coach Thomas Rongen who attempted to turn the American Samoa soccer team from established losers into winners.
He’ll then co-star in comedy Free Guy (led by Stranger Things director Shawn Levy) alongside Ryan and Jodie Comer, before returning to direct the Marvel film Thor: Love and Thunder. Waititi, who previously helmed 2017’s Thor: Ragnarok, will transform Natalie Portman into a female Thor, presumably replacing Chris Hemsworth’s iteration of the superhero.
When will they be in cinemas? Free Guy is due out in July, followed by The Suicide Squad in August. Next Goal Wins is yet to secure a release date and Thor: Love and Thunder is due on our screens in November 2021.