> Tangentially, it would be extremely funny to see our year end polls if we
> were restricted to 'Stuff we heard in context.' Heck, it might even end up
> looking a lot like the Oscar nominees!

The biggest challenge for me is it takes time to catch up on films (sometimes years), while I frequently hear most of the scores I end up loving within a few months of release. You're right about the Oscar nominees comment - just like I start with what I expect to be the best scores, I'm inclined to first watch what sound like the best films, and the correlation between the two is unpredictable.

Just for fun, here's what would be in contention for my top 10 this year:

Young Woman and the Sea
The Wild Robot
...that's it

If not for interviews, there's a good chance I'd have nothing in contention yet. And the previous couple of years don't look much better. But in that time period I did firm up my 1992 (Sneakers), 2020 (Da 5 Bloods), 2015 (Bridge of Spies, Spotlight), 2017 (Murder on the Orient Express), 2005 (Kingdom of Heaven), 1974 (Chinatown), 2016 (Moana, Sing Street), and 2011 (Drive) lists! Keeping up with movies is hard haha