25 Performances That Shouldn't Be Forgotten During Awards Season

The media might be focused on Bond and Katniss right now (and ever looking forward to “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” of course), but awards season ticks onwards. In fact, it’s ticking much closer: we’re just a couple of weeks away from the Spirit Award nominations, and the critics’ groups and precursor awards will start rolling out regularly from there.

There’s plenty still to come — especially with big-hitters like “The Danish Girl,” “Carol,” “Youth” and “45 Years” still to open, and potential juggernauts like “Joy,’ “The Revenant,” “The Hateful Eight” and “The Big Short” going unseen by anyone — but as ever, awards prognosticators are starting to set in certain narratives, declaring certain people locks, and others hopeless cases. But as ever, it feels like a chicken and egg scenario: are people talking about the same seven performances in each category because that’s what Academy members are talking about, or are Academy members only considering a small number because that’s...