They say write about what you know, and Hollywood has historically taken that advice to heart. From Sunset Boulevard and Singin’ in the Rain to The Player and La La Land, the movie business has long been fascinated with making movies about show business.
2026 hasn’t done anything to dispel the notion. Several potential Oscar contenders are the epitome of self-referential, focusing on performers, filmmakers, and the entertainment industry itself. Here’s a look at the most notable culprits.
I Play Rocky
Perhaps the most literal example is I Play Rocky, Peter Farrelly’s dramatization of the making of Rocky. The film follows a young Sylvester Stallone, then a struggling actor, as he fights to get his screenplay produced while refusing to give up his insistence that he play Rocky Balboa himself. In other words, it is an Oscar contender about the making of an Oscar-winning movie — a Hollywood origin story about one of Hollywood’s ultimate underdog stories. Written by Peter Gamble, the film casts another newcomer, Anthony Ippolito, as the younger Sly as he tries to break into Hollywood. The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival to strong reviews and arrives as the original Rocky approaches its 50th anniversary.
The Debut
Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut, starring Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti, takes on the entry point for many a performer: the world of community theater. Moore plays Mona, a middle-aged New Jersey housewife who unexpectedly lands a role in a local musical and becomes increasingly consumed by acting and the demands of a Giamatti’s eccentric director. What begins as a story about finding a new passion becomes a satirical look at the intoxicating, obsessive nature of performance.
The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth
Then there is David Fincher’s The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth, which returns Brad Pitt to the character he played in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Set in 1977 Los Angeles, the film finds the former stuntman working as a Hollywood fixer. With Fincher directing, Tarantino writing the screenplay, and Pitt reprising his Oscar-winning role, it is perhaps the most meta entry of the bunch — a movie about a character who already exists inside a Hollywood fantasy about Hollywood.
Behemoth!
Behemoth! approaches the entertainment industry from a different angle: music. Tony Gilroy’s film stars Pedro Pascal as a gifted cellist who returns to Los Angeles after two decades on the road. His return pulls him into a new chapter of his life as a composer of Hollywood film scores. With Olivia Wilde, Will Arnett, and Hank Azaria among the supporting cast, the film offers a look at another part of the entertainment ecosystem — the composers and musicians whose work helps create the emotional tone of movies, even when they remain largely invisible to audiences. Wilde recently explained on the Smartless podcast that the drama about film composers is, “kind of a love letter to that world, and they show that process, which is so cool.”
Primetime
Robert Pattinson stars as Chris Hansen, the newsman who became a household name confronting men attempting to hook up with a minor. The film traces the origins of To Catch a Predator, the Dateline NBC franchise that turned Hansen into an unlikely TV phenomenon in the mid-2000s. The film, which has faced criticism from Hansen (who called it “bizarre”), premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where Pattinson addressed the backlash. “There’s something electrifying about [Hansen],” Pattinson said. “I would hope the amount of inspiration his character has given a lot of people for years is some kind of compliment.”
Misty Green
Chris Rock’s latest directorial effort offers a portrait of Hollywood through the lens of fictional Emmy-winning actress Misty Green. Slow Horses actress Rosalind Eleazar plays the titular lead, a fading star struggling to regain fame, alongside a supporting cast that includes Adam Driver, Daniel Kaluuya, Anna Kendrick, Topher Grace, and Rock himself. After its TIFF premiere, Rock said he wrote the film to show the challenges and disparity Black women face in the industry. He recalled earlier in his career, he’d see budget allotment sheets from studios, which would show the pay range scales for different demographic groups.
“The lowest was always Black women. It was the lowest pay scale,” Rock said. “Whenever one of my friends is having a hard time casting a part, I always say, ‘Get a Black woman. You can get the most famous one you want. She’s probably available.’ There’s a much better chance of her being available than chasing this white boy for a part.”
Michael
Antoine Fuqua’s Michael takes a look behind the curtain of the music industry to tell the story of one of the world’s most legendary singers. Starring Jaafar Jackson as his late uncle, the biopic doesn’t just chronicle Michael Jackson’s meteoric rise from child prodigy to global icon — it also serves as an insider look at the machine that powers pop culture. Featuring an ensemble supporting cast playing real-life industry titans, including Larenz Tate as Motown founder Berry Gordy and Kendrick Sampson as iconic producer Quincy Jones, the film spends much of its running time recreating historic studio sessions and music video shoots.
Whether these films will follow in the footsteps of showbiz-about-showbiz Oscar contenders like Birdman, The Artist, and La La Land remains to be seen. But for now, they’re generating plenty of awards buzz and all sit in the Top 30 of Gold Derby’s Best Picture leaderboard. At least at this stage, the signs suggest Hollywood still can’t resist watching itself on screen.
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The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth
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