At last, the arrival of awards contenders

After a month of December in which I spent most of the time trying to choose between Daddy's Home 2 and Bad Moms 2, finally the awards contenders are starting to come out.

Last night's viewing of The Florida Project (on its opening night) kicked off a fecund period that will be followed by Call Me By Your Name (December 26^th), Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (January 1^st), All the Money in the World (January 4^th), The Post (January 11^th) and The Shape of Water (January 18^th).

I’m not listing the January 25^th releases (I, Tonya) because that will be after my ranking deadline, which is all I really care about. Which means I’m really not mentioning Phantom Thread (February 1^st) and I’m really REALLY not mentioning Lady Bird (February 15^th, which seems like cruel torture).

It happens every year, but I never fail to be amazed by the way that Australian distributors avoid the lead-up to Christmas for their prestige pictures. Even the December 21^st release of The Florida Project seemed strangely timed. I suppose they are not only competing with Christmas, but with summer, which carries with it a different mentality of what people might want to see.

At least the late Oscar nominees announcement date this year (January 23^rd) will mean I’ll get in most of the movies I need to see, with the few exceptions listed above. Unfortunately, it also means that neither of Paul Thomas Anderson’s last two movies will have come out in Australia in time for me to rank them, just as neither of Martin Scorsese’s last two films came out in Australia in time for me to rank them.

In these cases, the consistency of Australian distributors is maddening.

The Florida Project? What did I think?

Well, it's just about exactly a month until I release my rankings. Maybe I'll make you wait so you know how I feel.