The Brutalist

In recent years, the presentation of movie awards has grown into an industry unto itself. And, awards season has expanded in duration to include more than the entire year. It starts in January with awards buzz erupting out of Sundance Film Festival — even before the previous year’s awards season has culminated with the Oscars gala presentation that’s staged in early March. It’s a struggle to keep up with the countless award-eligible movies that are are released throughout the year or seen at film festivals, and awards voters list, discuss and advocate for the titles they think are award-worthy. But the biggest rush release of high profile potential awards contenders occurs in the Fall, accompanied by invitations to special screenings, distribution of FYC screeners, scripts, music scores and other collateral — not to mention swag — to give awards voters lead time to see films before they make their nominations. The infusion of new titles can cut consideration of earlier releases as contenders and indie films without award campaign budgets all but disappear from view. At the height of the season, viewing potential nominees becomes a temporary full time job for awards voters, including AWFJ members. At AWFJ, determining our EDA Awards nominees involves the elimination of titles in order to reach consensus. But even after consensus is reached, everyone has personal favorites that may or may not have landed on the list of nominees. This week, Team MOTW members recommend their favorite award contenders for your watch list.