The 2026 Oscars may have just wrapped up, but with our expanded weekly conversations on The Awards Tape, the award season has already turned the calendar into the next cycle. Soon enough, on April 9, we're going to get the Cannes announcement lineup, which will kickstart the first Oscar rumors, but until then we're discussing potential contenders in a draft style format to keep things fun. 

Each of us is going to draft 8 potential award contenders we believe will be big value plays come next award season and the Oscars. Those selections will be graded and accumulate points throughout the year based on the following criteria:

• Critic and audience scores (Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, and Letterboxd)
• Box office reception
• Festival awards, precursor nominations, and Oscar nominations

We also instituted a couple of special rules to add to the competition:

• A player can only draft 3 films with a budget of $100 million or more
• One of your 8 films has to be a No Guts No Glory pick. A film you have little-to-no faith in will be an awards contender but you are willing to roll the dice. Should this film receive any (even one) Oscar nomination, it will net you an automatic 30 points for your pick.

On this episode:
Danny Jarabek
Paul Rai
Gabe Lillianthal

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Credits:

• Theme music: Eugene Rocco Utley & Karl Vincent
• Artwork: Danny Jarabek
• Editor: Danny Jarabek
• Assistant Producer: Evan Miller