The coming year gives us some reasons to hope for another more inclusive (in some ways, at least) Oscars in 2019. At the Sundance Film Festival in January, 37 percent of the feature films screened were directed by women; not where the number ideally should be, but some progress nonetheless. Despite still lopsided proportions, female filmmakers were the focus of many panels, dinners, discussions, etc. throughout the festival. Sundance was making an effort to address pressing and long-standing issues, even if film distributors dismayingly were not—a fact pointed out in a must-read piece by BuzzFeed’s Alison Willmore.

Perhaps the most startling and, in its grim way, electrifying film to come out of Sundance this year was Jennifer Fox’s The Tale, a deeply autobiographical film that navigates the shiftiness of memory as it investigates past sexual abuse. Laura Dern is commanding in the film, and broke out early as a potential Oscar contender (because we’re monsters and we start talking about these awards even before the previous year’s have been handed out). She and Fox will have to settle for Emmys consideration, though, as HBO bought the challenging project and will air it on television presumably sometime later this year. On the one hand, that means the film is guaranteed to be beamed into millions of people’s homes, which is a good thing. On the other, it means The Tale loses out on some of the buzz that, despite TV’s golden age, movies still enjoy in a more heightened way.

Also premiering at Sundance was Tully (April 20), the collaboration between star Charlize Theron, writer Diablo Cody, and director Jason Reitman. The film, broadly about motherhood and friendship, doesn’t have quite the same bite as the trio’s last fruitful project, Young Adult, but it’s a wonderful showcase for Theron and her co-star Mackenzie Davis. If some canny operator at Focus Features can stage the right campaign, it’s possible Theron could be a dark-horse best actress contender—but it’s a long road to February 2019, and a best-picture nod seems unlikely.

Looking forward to May and the Cannes Film Festival—where some awards-season narratives, like for 2015’s Carol, are born—perhaps highest on my list of potential selections (other than the rumored premiere of Ocean’s 8) is The Favourite, a period piece about Queen Anne, starring Rachel Weisz, Emma Stone, and the great Olivia Colman as Anne. It’s directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, a past Oscar nominee for Dogtooth and The Lobster. Maybe this historical drama-comedy could prove enticing enough to the Academy that they’ll nominate it in more categories than just screenplay or acting. Two of the three leads are Oscar-approved already, after all.

Some promising women-led films are awaiting us in the second half of the year, all looking to be positioned as awards vehicles. The Academy appreciates a big splashy musical once every few years, and one may not get bigger or splashier than A Star Is Born (October 5), starring Lady Gaga and directed by Bradley Cooper, who also co-stars. Of course, the film could be a total mess (like the 1976 A Star Is Born starring Barbra Streisand)—but if it hits a particular nerve, it’s absolutely the kind of movie musical the Academy has embraced in the past (flashy, navel-gazing about fame and showbiz). The question, of course, is how much will the story be Gaga’s and how much will be Cooper’s.