After waiting weeks, pirates can celebrate as the first pirate copies of awards screeners appeared. After release of the first Arrival, Hidden Figures, Patriots Day, Moonlight and La La Land, more films are expected. At the end of each year, screeners are sent to insiders of the show industry to vote for the Oscars or other awards.
Usually, several of these movies start appearing on various pirate websites around Christmas, but this year none were observed movement.
At the beginning of January, however, the first pirated screener was presented, with one copy of the Denzel Washington film Fences.
It seems that some of the well-known groups that leak the movies become a little more careful with their release strategies. The famous team Hive-CM8, which released most screeners last year, announced that no more movies will be released before their theatrical release.
But this week the screeners started to appear and the first five DVDs are already online.
The first to appear was Hidden Figures and Patriots Day. La La Land, Moonlight and Arrival films ended last week.