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The first major nominations of awards season are here and everything is still coming up PTA. Thanks to a 2023 rule change that removed a $35 million budget cap on eligible films, One Battle After Another led the Gotham Awards nominations with a record total of six nods (Best Feature, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Outstanding Supporting Performance for both Benicio del Toro and Teyana Taylor, and Breakthrough Performer for Chase Infiniti). The points have been tallied and added to the leaderboard, but you’ll have to wait till next week’s newsletter for a full analysis of the Gotham noms and how they will affect the league. In the meantime, let’s just say you should be feeling pretty good if you bet on Rose Byrne’s performance carrying If I Had Legs I’d Kick You into the awards conversation.
If you’re not already signed up for the MFL, it’s not too late to join — you can still build a contending team with movies that haven’t yet been released. Joe Reid’s draft guide runs through each eligible film. The final draft deadline will be Thursday, December 18. If you don’t want to miss out, draft now.
Join us on Discord for expanded stats and discussions.
Leaderboard
Last updated October 28
The Basics
➼ The first step is to draft a team of eight eligible movies released in 2025 using a budget of 100 fake dollars. Each movie has been assigned a value based on its points-earning potential.
➼ New for This Season: In past years, we closed registration when the season started: If you didn’t sign up by that date, you couldn’t play. This year, we’re extending registration through December — with a catch: drafting after September 25 means you’ll be limited to only films that haven’t yet started accruing points (i.e. you can only draft unreleased movies that haven’t been nominated for any awards.)
➼ Starting on September 26, you’ll accrue points based on the box-office performance, awards haul, and critical reception of the movies you picked. Each week starting Tuesday, September 30, the updated leaderboard will be available on this page and in the weekly MFL newsletter.
➼ The teams that earn the most points when the game ends after the 2026 Oscars will win one or more of the great prizes below.
➼ If you want to compete against your friends, family, or co-workers, you can create a mini-league. Alternatively, you can join a mini-league associated with your favorite creator. You’ll find more details on that below.
➼ There’s a limit of one entry per email address. You can’t modify your team once it has been submitted, even if a movie you picked gets rescheduled to next year.
See the complete Official Rules. Questions? Need help? You can email us at moviesleague@vulture.com.
Mini-Leagues
The Creators Division: Dozens of our favorite culture-podcast hosts and producers, Substackers, and newsletter writers are competing in a subset of the MFL. When the leaderboard is live, you’ll be able to filter to see how the various creators are faring against each other. At the end of the season, the winner will receive an ostentatious championship belt, because why not?
Mini-Leagues: You can play against a set of friends in a mini-league. Have everyone in your crew enter the same league name on the ballot when you each register, and then you’ll be able to filter the standings to see how everyone in your group is doing. There will also be mini-leagues associated with most of the participants in the Creators Division; stay tuned for more info on those groups. You can only participate in one mini-league, so that may mean choosing between your friends and your favorite creator.
Prizes
Oh, look, it’s an array of fantastic prizes. Here’s what’s up for grabs:
Grand Prizes (1st–3rd Place)
The overall winner gets to select one of the following devices:
➼ 70-Inch Pioneer Roku 4K TV
➼ Xbox Series X
➼ Bowers & Wilkins Px7 S3 Noise-Canceling Headphones
The second-place finisher gets to choose between the remaining two, and third place will get the final item. You can’t go wrong.
Criterion Channel Subscription (1st–10th Place)
Everyone who finishes in the top ten will be rewarded for their efforts with a yearlong subscription to the Criterion Channel’s streaming library, otherwise known as Ben Affleck’s idea of heaven.
Pick Your Players
Registration is open for the 2025–26 season. Once you’ve done your research, you can select your team by clicking the ostentatiously colored button below. Now that the early draft window is closed, you’re limited only to unreleased films that haven’t started accruing points. Sign-ups will close for the season on December 18.
Not ready to draft yet? Sign up here for a reminder to build your team before the draft window closes for good.
Scoring Categories
Once your roster is selected, you will earn points in three categories:
1. Domestic Box-Office Performance
Movies will only be eligible for box-office points if they are released on or after September 26 (once the scoring window begins). Points will be awarded in the following manner (based on Box Office Mojo):
Every $1 million earned: 1 point
Clears $25 million: 10-point bonus
Clears $50 million: 15-point bonus
Clears $75 million: 15-point bonus
Clears $100 million: 20-point bonus
Clears $125 million: 15-point bonus
Clears $150 million: 15-point bonus
Clears $175 million: 15-point bonus
Clears $200 million: 25-point bonus
Reaches No. 1 at the domestic box office: 20 points per week spent at No. 1
2. Critical Performance
Points will be awarded in the following manner (based on the Metacritic “Metascore”):
0-19: -5 points
20-39: 0 points
40-49: 10 points
50-59: 20 points
60-69: 25 points
70-79: 40 points
80-89: 50 points
90-100: 100 points
Metacritic points will be awarded all at once on January 6 and will not be adjusted based on subsequent score fluctuations. Only movies that have been released and have a Metascore score at the time of scoring are eligible for Critical Performance points.
3. Awards
Points will be awarded for both awards nominations and wins. See the calendar below for points associated with each event.
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