Not many mentions of supposed contenders to be Joy, the Revenant and the Hateful Eight.

What's the point of :

1. Critics awarding results so early if they haven't seen all the potential movies
2. Movies not screening at all for critic groups

That said, I suppose, no one gives a shit about any of these, only the Oscars, and they announce next year.

However, there is that case of Selma last year, not getting screeners on time etc.

So, what's the point?

At this rate no Oscar contender should be released after the first week of December. Buzz wise it is too hard to come in that late. If it takes that long to finish a film, push it to next year's race

The only awards that matter towards box office are the Globes and Oscars. Studios do not care about critic lists. It is up to the critics if they want to make their list pointless.

I am pretty sure the critics have seen all the movies you mentioned, at least TH8 and The Revenant.

And Selma was seen by most critics in time too, demonstrated by the fact that it was nominated in BP for Washington DC critics awards, one of the early critic groups to give out awards. The screener issue was a total fuck-up by Paramount to academy voters, not the critics.

I feel the one guild the late December entries were mainly hurt is SAG, and as the actor branch and SAG taking more prominence over the years, missing out there isn't helpful to building the buzz, and the late entries need that since they're already late.

The Revenant, Joy, and The Hateful Eight have screened for critics in several/most major cities. The one "significant" film they have not seen is Star Wars. And they may not have seen, say, Daddy's Home.

This is true. The critics just haven't been going for them (at all, in Joy's case) the way they're going for Spotlight, Mad Max and Carol so far. The embargo on Joy ends tomorrow morning, by the way.

Will be interesting what happens with SAG and GG this week.

Joy is supposedly garbage. Revenant is winning for Director/Actor stuffs. Hateful Eight is probably middling.

The Joy embargo has lifted, and the overall response is pretty muted. Nowhere near as enthusiastic as Russell's last three films.

I still feel fairly confident that JLaw will get a Best Actress nomination, but at this rate it might be the film's only nod ala Gone Girl.

I would have been insane if Russell had delivered four major contenders in a row. No one can do that. I mean 11 acting nominations between his last three films!