Major Oscar Contenders ‘La La Land,’ ‘Arrival,’ ‘Moonlight’ & More Being Pirated

The industry likes to paint movie pirates as guys in trenchcoats smuggling camcorders into multiplexes or as clandestine hackers taking down the industry with each 1 and 0 they plug into the matrix. And while it’s certainly true that piracy remains a problem, it’s not just coming from those outside the machinery of Hollywood.

The Independent reveals that Oscar season contenders like “La La Land,” “Arrival” and “Moonlight” are all being openly pirated on certain corners of the internet, with the source for high quality rips coming from For Your Consideration screeners. Yep, those DVD and Blu-ray copies that get sent to Academy members, press, and more are finding their way online.

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It’s not the first time that has happened, nor will it be the last, but it’s a disheartening development for movies like “Moonlight,” which struggle to get made, and need every box office dollar they can to encourage producers and studios to keep making things that just don’t have spandex and explosions. Some might argue that Hollywood is to blame for sticking by traditional platform release models that sees these kinds of awards season movie opening in New York and Los Angeles first, before rolling out elsewhere, sometimes weeks and weeks later. But movies like this can only afford to go slowly, because they just don’t have the kind of money behind them to put them in cinemas across the country all at once. Just because you want to see something right away, doesn’t justify ripping it from the web, and only hurts the chances for a movie like “La La Land” or “Manchester By The Sea” from playing your city in the future.

All that said, Hollywood also needs to find a solution to a problem that’s not going away. Whether that means discontinuing using physical screeners and turning to a private online screening system that can better track who is watching which title, or something else, it needs to be done. Sadly, you can’t send out hundreds of DVDs and not expect some movies to wind up online. It’s an unfortunate reality of the current times. And it perhaps explains why studios are looking to shrink the window to between theatrical and VOD release dates.

Thoughts? Let us know below. And really, if you call yourself a supporter of cinema, don’t rip “Silence” from the internet.