HOLLYWOOD’S awards season is quickly approaching, which means pirated versions of nominated films are starting to flood illegal torrent and streaming websites.

The issue of leaked ”screener” films given to judges ahead of the Oscars, BAFTAs and Golden Globes is something that plagues filmmakers annually.In previous years, piracy sites have been flooded with screeners from December onwards and while this year has been a little slower, the leaks have finally started to appear.

The Denzel Washington movie Fences was the first to emerge online in early January. In the weeks that followed, DVD screeners of historical NASA film Hidden Figures, Boston Bombing thriller Patriots Day, romantic musical La La Land, coming of age story Moonlight and alien first contact flick Arrival all found their way online. There is no single source responsible for the content being uploaded to the internet, with various Peer to Peer piracy groups sharing the workload.

Interestingly enough, the collective responsible for leaking Moonlight and La La Land was Hive-CM8 — the pro-piracy group that made headlines last year after releasing Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight a week before it went into cinemas.

After the controversy, Hive-CM8 said it would no longer leak any films before their theatrical release date.
While this promise appears to have been kept, the piracy group isn’t shying away from trying to get its hands on more screeners from the awards season.

“We are looking for the guys sitting at home with all the 30 discs and posting pictures all over the net, but not sharing with anyone,” the group wrote in the release note of La La Land.

“Not sure why you are hiding it can be done safe and secure, for private viewing only if requested. Just MSG us if you need help, we don't bite.” It is unclear of how many more films will be leaked online in the coming weeks, although its safe to say Hollywood studious would be happy with the slow uptake.