Tomorrow's the day awards-freaks, January 5th, 2017. Oscar nomination balloting begins. Where the buzz falls now is where the buzz settles. AMPAS branch voters have just 8 days to finalize their ballots (they're due by the 13th). January 14th through 23rd then becomes our awards purgatory and on the 24th when nominations are read we learn who goes to heaven and who is cast out for good, forever doomed to be considered a "snub" to their future fans. Pardon the tortured analogy but the Oscars are our religion!
This past week has been a very strong week for La La Land and Fences with fantastic box office grosses for each as they went wide. The hottest titles from October and November (Manchester, Moonlight, Arrival) can also feel pretty safe about their potential nomination hauls. But there are several titles that are a bit harder to read in terms of possible Oscar love. Those are the titles that expanded too late for a definitive take from the precursors (20th Century Women, Lion, Silence, and Hidden Figures) and their counterparts, the titles that were too "old" (i.e. released before October like Sully, Hell or High Water, Florence Foster Jenkins, Captain Fantastic, Zootopia, Love & Friendship) for precursor season's problematic but blatantly obvious "shiny new toy" syndrome in which everything that's just opened must be prioritized above all else.
If you had three FYCs and three FYCs to impress on Oscar voters this week, what would they be?