Deaths

• January 19 – Hilary Bailey, writer, critic and editor (The Fall of Frenchy Steiner, Frankenstein's Bride, Mrs Rochester, Fifty-First State)
• January 25 – John Hurt, English actor (Alien, Contact, Snowpiercer, Nineteen Eighty-Four, V for Vendetta)
• February 7 – Richard Hatch, American actor (Battlestar Galactica)
• February 10 – Edward Bryant, writer
• February 25 – Bill Paxton, American actor (The Terminator, Weird Science, Aliens, Predator 2, Edge of Tomorrow)
• March 22 – Daisuke Satō, writer (Highschool of the Dead, Imperial Guards, Seito, Red Sun Black Cross)
• March 26 – Marie Jakober, writer (The Mind Gods, The Black Chalice)
• April 5 – Huang Yi, writer (A Step into the Past)
• April 22 – William Hjortsberg, writer (Gray Matters, Legend)
• April 28 – Grania Davis, writer and editor (The Boss in the Wall, a.o.)
• June 9 – Adam West, American actor (Batman, Robinson Crusoe on Mars)
• July 15 – Martin Landau, American actor (Space: 1999)
• July 27 – H. A. Hargreaves, writer, professor
• August 3 – Jack Wodhams, writer (Ryn, Mostly Meantime)
• August 13 – Victor Pemberton, scriptwriter, television producer (Doctor Who)
• August 19 – Brian Aldiss, English writer (Super-Toys Last All Summer Long)
• August 31 – Richard Anderson, American actor (The Six Million Dollar Man, The Bionic Woman, Forbidden Planet)
• September 8 – Jerry Pournelle, writer, scientist, journalist
• September 10 – Len Wein, American comic book writer (Swamp Thing, Wolverine)
• September 15 – Harry Dean Stanton, American actor (Alien, Escape from New York, Repo Man, The Avengers)
• September 24 – Kit Reed, writer (The Attack of the Giant Baby, Thinner Than Thou, The Night Children, The Baby Merchant)
• October 9 – ElizaBeth Gilligan, author, former secretary for the Science Fiction Writers of America board of directors
• October 9 – Yoji Kondo aka. Eric Kotani, writer, editor and astrophysicist (Star Trek: Death of a Neutron Star, Requiem)
• October 17 – Julian May, writer (Saga of Pliocene Exile, Galactic Milieu Series)
• November 25 – Rance Howard, American actor (Independence Day, Cocoon, Mars Attacks!)

Original

• Attraction, by Fyodor Bondarchuk
• Battle of Memories, by Leste Chen
• Before We Vanish, by Kiyoshi Kurosawa^[3]
• Dance to Death, by Andrei Volgin
• Life, by Daniel Espinosa
• Orbita 9 by Hatem Khraiche
• OtherLife, by Ben C. Lucas
• Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, by Luc Besson

Sequels, spin-offs and remakes

• Alien Covenant, by Ridley Scott
• Blade Runner 2049, by Denis Villeneuve
• Ghost in the Shell, by Rupert Sanders
• Star Wars: The Last Jedi, by Rian Johnson
• War for the Planet of the Apes, by Matt Reeves

Hugo Award

• Best dramatic presentation (long form) – Arrival
• Best dramatic presentation (short form) – The Expanse

Locus Award

Best Science Fiction Novel – Death's End by Liu Cixin

Saturn Award

• Best science fiction film: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
• Best Science Fiction Television Series: Westworld

Academy Award

• Arrival for Best Sound Editing.

Nobel Award for literature

• Kazuo Ishiguro, author of 2005 science fiction novel Never Let Me Go.