Environmental issues related to the use of plastic packaging have sparked a growing interest in the development of more sustainable solutions. Biopolymers, used alone or in combination with other materials, have been considered a potential alternative to conventional fossil-based plastics. Hence, this study aimed at unraveling the potentiality offered by polysaccharides for food packaging applications. To that purpose, an extended characterization of the barrier (to oxygen and water vapor), mechanical and optical properties (transparency and UV-blocking ability) of nine different polysaccharide films (hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, methylcellulose, hydroxypropyl cellulose, low-methoxyl pectin, cationic starch, sodium alginate, kappa-carrageenan, chitosan, and pullulan) was performed to provide a broad overview of their main physicochemical properties under standardized conditions. In addition, the properties of the film-forming solutions, such as viscosity and surface tension, were also evaluated. All polysaccharides obviously presented low water vapor barrier performance due to their hydrophilic nature (water vapor permeance from 10−6 to 10−8 mol.m-2.s-1.Pa-1). Among all the polysaccharides studied, chitosan, low-methoxyl pectic, kappa-carrageenan, pullulan, cationic starch and sodium alginate, displayed medium to very high oxygen barrier performance in semi-dry (50% RH) and humid (80% RH) conditions (oxygen permeance from 10−13 to 10−15 mol.m-2.s-1.Pa-1), contrarily to cellulose derivatives which showed the poorest performance (oxygen permeance >10−12 mol.m-2.s-1.Pa-1). This opens on interesting perspectives for the use of polysaccharides as coating materials for high oxygen barrier packaging.