FAQs/Rules

GENERAL

What is Red Carpet Rosters?

Think fantasy football meets film awards season. If you’ve done fantasy sports before, instead of drafting quarterbacks, running backs, and wide receivers, you draft films, actors, actresses, and crew members. And instead of touchdowns and yards, your team gets points from nominations and wins at ALL the ceremonies in the film awards season. All you have to do is join a league and we take care of the rest!

But wait, I’ve never done fantasy sports before. Can you explain it for someone like me?

If you’ve never done fantasy sports before (which is totally okay!), think of it like this: you pick which films, cast, and crew you think will get your team a lot of points. Leagues start with a draft, where everyone in your league takes turns picking players (i.e., films, cast, and crew members) to build their team. Once a player is selected, they’re off the board; if someone picks, say, Tom Hanks, no one else can have him. Everyone keeps picking until every team is full. Then your team scores points based on how many total nominations and wins your players earn.

So whichever team gets the most points wins?

Sort of. After the draft, the regular season begins. What’s unique about Red Carpet Rosters is a head-to-head matchup structure, just like any other fantasy sport. Each matchup, you’re paired against a different opponent. Whoever scores more points wins that matchup, resulting in a win, loss, or tie for each team. The regular season has nine matchups, with standings updated after each one, so the best your team can do in the regular season is 9-0.

What is the schedule of matchups?

Last year’s matchup schedule incldued here for reference:

Matchup 1: 10/28/2025 – 11/29/2025 (33 days)
Matchup 2: 11/30/2025 – 12/05/2025 (6 days)
Matchup 3: 12/06/2025 – 12/08/2025 (3 days)
Matchup 4: 12/09/2025 – 12/17/2025 (9 days)
Matchup 5: 12/18/2025 – 12/21/2025 (4 days)
Matchup 6: 12/22/2025 – 12/31/2025 (10 days)
Matchup 7: 01/01/2026 – 01/06/2026 (6 days)
Matchup 8: 01/07/2026 – 01/12/2026 (6 days)
Matchup 9: 01/13/2026 – 01/21/2026 (9 days)
First Round of Playoffs: 01/22/2026 (1 day)
Semifinals: 01/23/2026 – 03/14/2026 (51 days)
Championship: 03/02/2026 (1 day)

This schedule will be updated when the matchups for the 2026-2027 season are finalized. However, Red Carpet Rosters has completely overhauled the playoffs. So instead of three rounds of playoffs, there are now FIVE rounds of playoffs. More on that later…

Why do the matchups have uneven durations?

Unlike fantasy football where each matchup is the same duration (Thursday to Monday), Red Carpet Rosters matchups are of varying duration with a minimum of two days. Immediately after the Gotham Awards nominations, the first ceremony of the regular season and early in the season, awards are scarcer. In December it really picks up, then a lull over the holidays, and picks back up in January. To make sure that each matchup has comparable point potential, some matchups last longer than others, especially that first matchup. Be mindful of this when preparing for your matchup. The first matchup will last a few weeks whereas late season matchups may last only two days.

What are divisions?

For larger leagues (8 or more teams), your commissioner has the option to split the league into two divisions. If your league uses Divisions, you’ll see which one your team belongs to on your Standings page.

Divisions affect two things: your regular-season schedule will include a mix of matchups against teams in your own division and teams in the other division, and (this is the one that surprises people) each division’s #1 team automatically earns one of the top two playoff seeds, regardless of overall league record. That means it’s possible for a team with a better overall record to end up seeded lower than a division winner with a worse record. Once seeding is set, though, the playoffs work exactly the same for everyone from there.

How is the overall winner of my league determined?

Let’s say your team went 9-0 in the regular season. That should mean you won the league, right? Not so fast! Just because you went undefeated in the regular season doesn’t mean you’re the winner of the league! After the regular season, ALL teams advance to the playoffs. This is where things REALLY heat up. In fact, the entire regular season happens BEFORE the nominations for the Academy Awards! The first round of the playoffs is the same day as the Oscars nominations. So you think you have the best team and deserve to win the league? Prove it in the playoffs!

Regular season record determines seeding, with total points as the first tiebreaker and later first-round draft pick as the second tiebreaker (an extremely rare scenario). If your league has Divisions enabled, each division’s top team automatically earns one of the top two seeds, regardless of overall record, while everyone else is seeded by the usual record/tiebreaker rules. From there, it’s a five-round ladder: win your round and you move up a rung; lose and you move down. The team at the top rung after the fifth and final round (the Academy Awards themselves) is your league champion, meaning even a lower seed has a real path to the championship by climbing the ladder, not just a single elimination bracket.

“Playoffs? You kidding me? Playoffs??” -Jim Mora, 2001

That is correct. In our quest to make Red Carpet Rosters as much like other fantasy sports, we can’t NOT have playoffs! And we’ve gone a step further than most to keep the excitement going for the entirety of the playoffs: instead of a single-elimination bracket where one bad round knocks you out for good, Red Carpet Rosters uses a five-round ladder.

After nine matchups in the regular season, every team, not just the top few, advances to the playoffs. Your regular season record seeds you into a rung: the top two seeds start at the top rung, the next two at the second rung, and so on down the ladder.

Each round, you’re matched against whomever’s on your same rung. Win, and you move up a rung (or stay at the top if you’re already there). Lose, and you move down a rung (or stay at the bottom if you’re already there). There are five rounds total, matching the same five key stretches of the tail end of awards season. It starts with Oscar Nomination Day as Round 1, and ending with the Oscars themselves as the Championship round.

That means even a lower seed has a genuine path to the title. Climb the ladder round by round, and you could find yourself in the Championship facing off against a team that finished at the very top of the regular season. On the flip side, a #1 seed that stumbles early can still fight their way back up. Every round matters, all the way through the Oscars.

What if there is a tie in the playoffs?

In case of a tie in a playoff matchup, the tiebreaker chain is:

1. Regular-season head-to-head record. If you and your opponent played each other during the regular season, whoever won more of those matchups advances. (Only regular-season meetings count. If you’ve faced each other in an earlier playoff round too, that doesn’t factor in here.)
2. Total regular-season points. If your regular-season head-to-head was even (or you never played each other), whoever scored more total points during the regular season advances.
3. Later first-round draft pick. In the extremely unlikely event the first two tiebreakers are also even, whoever picked later in Round 1 of the draft advances, a small consolation for not getting an earlier pick.

I won the championship in my league. Do I get a prize?

The only prize that Red Carpet Rosters will give you is respect and admiration. Talk to all the people you beat and maybe you can convince them to give you a prize.

How do I get started?

Just click on Login/Signup and then click “Signup” to join or create a league after you verify your email. From there, head to “Join or Create a League” to choose your path:

Join a public league — free, open to anyone, no waiting required. Pick from the currently open public leagues and you’re in. Just make sure you select a league with a live draft time that works for you. Alert your friends to join the same one!

Join a private league — if a friend already has a league going, just enter their league’s password to join instantly.

Start your own private league — want to be the commissioner? You can set up your own private league in minutes, right from the site without waiting on us. It’s best played with 10 teams, so gather nine friends (or open it up to more. Leagues can range from 2 to 14 teams).

ROSTERS

How many players can be on my team?

The default is 16 players: 10 in your starting lineup, 6 on your bench. This can vary by league, since your total roster size always matches your league’s number of draft rounds. Check your league’s specific settings on the League Settings page.

What’s the difference between starting lineup and bench?

For any matchup, ONLY players in your starting lineup can score points for your team.

For example, Tom Cruise is in my starting lineup but Jesse Plemons is not. That means any points that Tom Cruise gets will go towards my team’s point total for this matchup, but Jesse Plemons’s points will not. However, no one else can have Jesse Plemons as long as he’s on my team, so maybe I want to start him in a later matchup.

How do I get players on my team? (Draft)

The draft is arguably the single most important event in fantasy leagues, and Red Carpet Rosters is no exception.

There are several ways to get players on your teams. However, the first event of the season is the draft. This is where you and the rest of the managers of the league will get together and take turns selecting players. The draft order is set before the draft by your league commissioner. The draft is a serpentine draft, meaning the order of picks reverses each round. For example, if you have the first pick of the first round, you’ll have the last pick of the second round, first pick of the third round, and so on. Another example assuming a 10-team league, if you have the 6th pick in the first round, you’ll have the 5th pick in the second round, 6th pick in the third round, and so on.

Once a player gets selected, no one else can stake claim on that player during the draft. Unless you drop that player later in the season, no one else can have that player on their team.

Private League Drafts

Red Carpet Rosters offers online drafts for your league. Your league commissioner will set the draft time for your league. We can also run the draft for your league, if you want us to. Drafts can also be conducted offline and the results of the draft entered later, which works well if everyone can’t meet at the same time. The commissioner can choose whether to use the Basic Draft module or the Live Draft module.

Public League Drafts

All public leagues participate in a LIVE draft at a scheduled time. Check the specific league’s draft time before joining, since this can’t be changed once you’re in. (If you can’t make the draft time and would like to move to another public league that has a draft time that fits your schedule AND hasn’t started yet, just reach out to admin@redcarpetrosters.com to be placed in another league.) As your draft time approaches, you’ll see a banner across the site letting you jump straight into the draft, no need to wait on an email to tell you it’s your turn.

Inside the Live Draft Module, you can search directly for the player or movie you want (no more relying on your browser’s own find feature), sort by Rank or alphabetically, and build a queue of players you’re targeting so you’re ready the moment it’s your turn. Click a player to select them, then click Draft Player to confirm.

If you miss two picks in a row, your team automatically switches to Autodraft mode so the draft keeps moving. You can switch yourself back to Active any time you return.

Do you have pre-draft rankings?

Yes. Default pre-season rankings load before the season starts. You can customize your own rankings directly from the Draft page on My Team. Just type in the rank you want a player at, and the list reorders around it. You’ll also see Overall Rank, a live, in-season value-based ranking that updates as points come in throughout the year, which is genuinely useful for waiver-wire and late-draft decisions, not just before Draft Day. And since a league can technically start at any point in the season, Overall Rank is especially useful if you’re drafting late because it reflects real, current performance rather than pre-season guesswork.

Wait, there’s an Overall Rank? What’s that about?

The pre-draft ranking is a single, static guess made before the season starts, which is useful for draft day, but it doesn’t know anything about what’s actually happened once real points start coming in.

Overall Rank is different: it’s a live, in-season ranking that recalculates continuously as ceremonies announce their results. And it’s smarter than just sorting by total points, because raw points aren’t a fair way to compare players across different categories. Some categories (like Sound) have a much shallower pool of scoring players than others (like Picture), so a modest point total in a shallow category can genuinely represent more value than a bigger total in a stacked one.

Overall Rank accounts for this by measuring each player’s points against a “replacement level,” which is essentially how many points a readily-available, unowned player in that same category is scoring. A player who’s meaningfully outperforming their replacement level in a shallow category can rank higher than someone with more raw points in a deep one.

This makes Overall Rank especially useful for waiver-wire decisions and any draft happening after the season’s already underway. It reflects real, current value rather than pre-season guesswork.

What happens to all the players which don’t get drafted?

All unowned players become available for other teams to pick up. Depending on your league’s settings, this works one of two ways: Waivers, where priority determines who gets a player if multiple teams want them, or Free Agents, where it’s simply first-come, first-served. Check your league’s specific setting on the League Settings page.

Transactions

What are waivers?

Waivers (or free agency) are all the players that are not on any team. Waivers are a very important part of fantasy sports, Red Carpet Rosters included. Waivers give teams an opportunity to drop a player from their team in favor of another player that is offering more value. Last year, Amy Madigan, eventual Oscar winning actress for her role as the chilling Aunt Gladys in Weapons, went undrafted in several leagues, but savvy managers picked her up from waivers where she got quite a few points despite being undrafted.

How do waivers work?

This describes leagues using the “Waivers” setting — if your league uses “Free Agents” instead, requests are simply granted instantly, first-come-first-served, with no priority queue at all.

After the draft, all unowned players are available. To add a player, go to My Team → Waiver Wire and click “Request a Player,” then click Request Player next to whoever you want.

If your roster is full, you’ll need to select someone to drop as part of the request. If you have an open roster spot, you can select “None” instead and add without dropping anyone. You can also drop a player at any time, with no request needed at all. Jjust use the Drop button directly on your My Team page. That takes effect immediately.

If you have multiple pending waiver requests, which is common, set your own priority order for them right from the Waiver Wire listing by typing in the priority you want, with 1 being your top choice. If a higher-priority request can’t be filled (say, another team already claimed that player), the system automatically falls back to your next-priority request.

For example, let’s say your first choice is Olivia Wilde’s film The Invite but you only want to drop an underperforming production designer if you actually land The Invite. Your backup choice is the movie Obsession. You’d submit both requests, setting The Invite as priority 1 and Obsession as priority 2. If another team with higher league-wide waiver priority claims The Invite first, your Obsession request is processed instead. If two teams ahead of you claim both players, you won’t get either.

Once waivers are processed each cycle, there’s a brief window right before the next matchup begins where any remaining unowned players become instantly available, first-come-first-served, even in a Waivers league. So if something opens up right before your matchup, you don’t have to wait for the next full cycle.

When are waivers processed?

Waivers are processed once per matchup, at 8:00 pm Eastern Time the night before each new matchup begins, including before Matchup #1. You’ll receive an email notification letting you know which of your waiver requests were approved or rejected.

Because of the timing, we recommend checking your starting lineup no later than the morning of the first day of the new matchup and submitting any changes needed to reflect your new players.

What if other managers want the same player on waivers?

This is where waiver priority comes into play. To add parity to your league, teams with worse records will have higher waiver wire priority. For owners who submit multiple waiver wire requests, the waiver priority cycles through each team in rounds where each team’s next-highest-priority request gets a chance before moving to the next team, then it loops back around for a second round, and so on, until everyone’s requests are either approved or exhausted.

For example, if Team1 has a worse record than Team2, Team1 has higher waiver priority. Assume Team1 wants, in order of preference, the Pictures The Invite, Obsession, and Motor City, while Team2 wants the exact same three, in the same order. Team1 acquires The Invite in Round 1. Team2, next in priority, tries for The Invite too but it’s already taken, so their request falls through to Obsession instead — also Round 1. Now Round 2 begins: Team1 is up again and acquires Motor City, their next-priority request.

One exception: before any matchup has been scored yet (including the very first waiver round of a new season), there’s no team record to base priority on. In that case, priority is instead based on reverse Round 1 draft order (i.e., whoever picked last in the draft gets first waiver priority.)

I added a player off waivers. Can I get retroactive points applied to my team?

No. Any points gained from the dropped player up until the dropping will be kept by your team, but any future points by that player will not be credited to your team. Likewise, any points gained by an added player up until the add won’t be credited, but any future points by that add will be credited to you. In other words, free agency and waiver pickups are not retroactive.

Are trades allowed?

Yes, and it’s even encouraged! From My Team, click Trades, choose the team you’d like to trade with, then add the players you want to offer and request. Trades don’t have to be even. You can propose something like a 3-for-2, and the team receiving the extra player(s) will need to specify a drop to balance their roster before the trade goes through.

How long is a trade offer valid?

When you submit a trade, you choose how many days the offer is valid for. If the other team accepts within that window, the trade processes automatically; after that, it expires on its own.

Unlike some fantasy platforms, players in a pending trade aren’t locked; you can still drop them, trade them elsewhere, or claim them off waivers while a trade involving them sits pending. But if that happens, the original trade will automatically cancel the moment the other team tries to accept it, since the system checks that every player is still where they’re expected to be right before finalizing anything. You’ll see a clear message explaining why if this happens to a trade you’re trying to accept.

Can I protest trades? I have a feeling two managers are in cahoots.

Yes. If you and the rest of the league think a trade is too lopsided, you can protest it. The exact window varies by league. Check your league’s specific setting on the League Settings page.

My favorite [Film/Actor/Actress/Celebrity/Musician] is not in the player pool. What gives?

There are likely two reasons for this.

1. Your favorite [Film/Actor/Actress/Celebrity/Musician] did not work on a film this year. If that’s the case, they’re not going to get you any points, so why do you even want to draft them?
2. They got overlooked when the player pool was populated. We are continually adding movies each week, and we’ll inevitably miss some. There are literally thousands of movies made every year, and it would simply be too overwhelming for users if everything was included. We’re also not pulling every single cast member from the movies. Yes, there are no small parts, but it’s just impractical to include Security Guard #3 from the latest direct to video action thriller. To that end, if there is a good case to be made for inclusion (points are the BEST case), we can add them. Just email us at admin@redcarpetrosters.com.

LINEUPS

How many players are in my starting lineup?

The default is 10 players in your starting lineup, with the rest on your bench. This can vary by league. Check your league’s specific settings on the League Settings page.

What needs to be in my starting lineup?

Default starting lineups in Red Carpet Rosters consist as follows:

• 1 picture (PIC)
• 1 actor (ACTR)
• 1 actress (ACTRS)
• 1 director/screenwriter (DIR/SCRN)
• 1 animated feature/foreign language film/documentary (ANI/INT/DOC)
• 1 cinematographer/editor/casting director (CIN/EDIT/CAST)
• 1 production designer/costume designer/makeup & hairstyling team (PD/CD/MUAH)
• 1 score composer/song/sound team/visual effects (SCORE/SONG/SOUND/VFX)
• 2 flex (can be anything) (FLEX)

The slashes mean that the player in that starting lineup slot can be any of those categories. For example, you can have either a cinematographer OR an editor OR a casting director in your CIN/EDIT/CAST slot. Commissioners can customize their league’s exact starting lineup requirements. Check your league’s specific settings on the League Settings page to see what your league actually uses.

How do I set my starting lineup?

Right after your draft concludes, your starting lineup is automatically set for you. The system tries to optimally fills your slots based on your draft picks, so you’re covered from day one without lifting a finger. However, it’s highly recommended you do a reality check yourself.

From there, though, it’s on you to manage it. As you make trades, waiver moves, and drops throughout the season, your lineup won’t automatically update to fill new gaps. You’re responsible for keeping it current for each matchup.

To review or change your starting lineup, go to My Team → Starting Lineup. Instead of picking a player for each slot, you’ll see each of your own players listed with a dropdown next to them; just choose which starting lineup slot to place them in (or leave them on the bench). Each dropdown only shows slots that player is actually eligible for. For example, a player with “ACTR” as one of their positions will show your Actor slot as an option. Picture-slot-eligible players include Picture, Animated, Foreign/International, and Documentary films. Your FLEX spots can hold anyone.

If you want your current lineup to carry forward automatically to future matchups too, check “Update all lineups for future matchups” before submitting.

You can’t start the same player twice in one matchup. If you try, you’ll see a warning right away, before you even submit.

Each matchup starts at PRECISELY 11:00 am ET with two notable exceptions:

1. The first round of the playoffs, the day the Oscars nominations announcement, which will start early in the morning, and

2. The Championship round, the day of the actual Oscars, which will start in the evening.)

Once the matchup begins, that matchup’s lineup locks which means that no more changes for that specific matchup are allowed, though you can still edit your lineup for future matchups.

When are starting lineups due?

Starting lineups are due before the matchup begins. Each matchup starts at precisely 11:00 am ET, with two exceptions: the first round of the playoffs (Oscar Nomination morning, which starts early) and the Championship round (Oscars night, which starts in the evening). Starting lineups are set for the ENTIRE matchup. Once the matchup begins, your lineup for that matchup locks, preventing any changes for that specific matchup, but you can still set your lineup for future matchups.

One of my players has a position of “ACTR-DIR-SCRN.” Does that mean he can be in either my Actor slot or my Director/Screenplay slot?

Yes. Some players have cross eligibility.

Can my ANI, INT, or DOC film be put into my PIC slot?

Yes. Any film with ANI, INT, or DOC as their category can also fill your PIC starting slot, as long as you have another ANI/INT/DOC in that slot. For example, you could have the animated movie Hoppers in your PIC slot and foreign film La Bola Negra in your ANI/INT/DOC slot. However, PIC’s can NOT fill your ANI/INT/DOC slot.

My ACTR-DIR-SCRN is in my ACTR slot. Does that mean he can only score points for acting?

No. The category only means where in your starting lineup the player can be. Players earn points for ANY nomination or win they get. For example, Chloe Zhao had DIR-EDIT-SCRN as her position last year for her film Hamnet. Even though she could be in the CIN/EDIT/CAST slot, she would still earn points for directing and writing.

Think of it like Patrick Mahomes scoring a rushing touchdown. That’s still allowed in fantasy football, so we’re allowing it here at Red Carpet Rosters.

Points follow the player, not the position!

Wait a minute. I have The Odyssey in my PIC slot, and Christopher Nolan got a directing award. Why didn’t I get points?

This is a common misconception. Pictures get points for the picture as a whole. The reason why you didn’t get points is because The Odyssey didn’t win best director, Christopher Nolan did. To that end, awards like Best Picture go to the producers of that picture. We’re not drafting producers, so those points go to the PIC.

Just remember, we’re drafting ALL films, cast, and crew, so those are the exact recipients of points for your team.

My player worked on two movies. Can they be nominated for both?

Yes. A few years ago Adam Stockhausen was the Production Designer for The French Dispatch and West Side Story, earning points for both and even getting an Oscar nomination for one. Jonny Greenwood composed music for THREE movies a few years ago: The Power of the Dog, Spencer, and Licorice Pizza, scoring points for all three, including his Oscar nomination for The Power of the Dog. Past years have seen the same person scoring multiple Oscar nominations for different movies. Remember Scarlett Johansson with her roles in Jojo Rabbit and Marriage Story?

I noticed that a movie has two writers. Do I have to draft both to get those points?

No. It’s very common for teams to be nominated for one movie, especially writers and songwriters. They’re separate people, so they’re both able to be on teams. If you happen to have both, say, Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi (co-directors of La Bola Negra) in your starting lineup and they earn a directing nomination, you get both those points. Points follow the player, not the position.

Think of it like if Patrick Mahomes passed a touchdown to Travis Kelce. Patrick Mahomes would get a touchdown and Travis Kelce would get a touchdown. Same principle here.

And just to make sure, the same person can get multiple nominations for the same movie, right?

Yes, absolutely! Paul Thomas Anderson won a whole bunch of points last year for writing AND directing One Battle After Another. The animated documentary Flee was a juggernaut a few years ago, earning points for being an animated film, a foreign film, AND a documentary in the same ceremony, even earning THREE Oscar nominations. Even The Secret Agent had two Oscar nominations.

Why are there no crew from documentaries?

For documentaries, only the documentary itself can be drafted, not the crew who worked on it. That’s because documentary crew members tend to get overlooked at mainstream awards ceremonies in favor of documentary-specific ones, so if a documentary is recognized in any category, the points go to the documentary as a whole rather than to an individual.

For example, the editor of Apollo 11 was nominated at one ceremony a few years ago, but the points went to Apollo 11 itself, not the editor. Guilds like the Cinema Audio Society (CAS) and Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE) that specifically honor documentary sound work the same way. This rule is unique to documentaries, whereas crew members are draftable for pictures, foreign films, and animated features.

At documentary-centric award ceremonies specifically, only the Best Documentary, Debut, Directing, and Genre Documentary categories actually earn points. This keeps documentaries from having an outsized scoring advantage over other film types, especially early in the season where many of these doc-centric awards have nomination announcements. (STRATEGY NOTE: Start a documentary in the first matchup!)

One exception: songwriters who wrote an original song for a documentary CAN be drafted, even though the rest of a documentary’s crew can’t. Notable recent examples include Pharrell Williams (Piece by Piece), Diane Warren (Diane Warren: Relentless), and Kristen Wiig (Will & Harper).

What about Makeup, Sound, and Visual Effects?

It’s often difficult to determine the makeup supervisor, chief hairstylist, sound team leaders (especially now that the Academy have combined sound mixing and sound editing into one award), and visual effects supervisor of films around draft time. Because of this, you are drafting the entire makeup & hairstyling (MUAH) team, sound team, or visual effects team for these movies. For example, you think that Project Hail Mary‘s visual effects will get a lot of points, so you would simply select VFX Project Hail Mary for your team.

All these categories are making my head spin.

Don’t worry, the site won’t let you break the starting lineup rules. And if you feel like your player should’ve earned points, just let us know at admin@redcarpetrosters.com.

SCORING

How does my team get points?

Scoring in Red Carpet Rosters will be computed each time nominations are announced and/or winners are announced. Players may only start at one position in any given week. Players will earn points for each nomination and win regardless of what those nominations and wins are. Paul Thomas Anderson won many awards for writing and directing One Battle After Another. All points earned will count towards your team.

In general, each film, cast, and crew will receive points for each critics’ award, industry award, and Academy Awards.

What’s the difference between critics awards, industry awards, and the Academy Awards?

There are LOTS of national and regional film critics associations, and they often give end of the year film awards. These critics associations are coast to coast and everywhere in between. If they vote on awards, it’s likely they’re represented here. Red Carpet Rosters heavily relies on Next Best Picture for ceremony results.

Industry awards are other film groups and guild associations. The Screen Actors Guild (SAG), Director’s Guild of America (DGA), Independent Spirit Awards, and the Golden Reel Awards are examples of industry awards.

The Academy Awards, or the Oscars, are the main event, representing the pinnacle of film awards season.

How many points is a critics award vs. an industry award vs. an Academy award?

Points vary by ceremony tier and award type:

• Critics’ awards earn 1 point per nomination, plus a 1-point bonus for a win. If a critics’ group only announces winners (no nominations), the winner earns 2 points instead. The “Big Five” critics organizations — Critics Choice, New York, Los Angeles, National Board of Review, and National Society of Film Critics — are scored at the Industry level (below) rather than standard critics level, given their national prestige during the awards season.
• Industry awards earn 2 points per nomination, plus a 2-point bonus for a win. A film named to the AFI Top 10 earns a flat 4 points.
• Shortlisted/longlisted Academy Award and BAFTA categories earn 1 point per shortlist/longlist placement. Several Oscar categories use a shortlist before nominations: Documentary, Score, Song, International, Makeup & Hairstyling, Sound, Casting, and Visual Effects. BAFTA’s equivalent “longlists” score the same way.
• Academy Award technical categories (Cinematography, Costume Design, Editing, Makeup and Hairstyling, Score, Song, Production Design, Sound, Casting, and Visual Effects) plus Animated, International, and Documentary feature earn 4 points per nomination, plus a 4-point bonus for a win.
• Academy Award major categories (Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Director, Original Screenplay, Adapted Screenplay) earn 6 points per nomination, plus a 6-point bonus for a win.
• Best Picture earns 8 points, plus an 8-point bonus for a win.

A few special cases worth knowing: if a critics’ or industry group skips nominations entirely and announces only a winner, that winner earns 2 points (critics) or 4 points (industry). Some groups instead announce a winner alongside one or more runners-up with no prior nominations. In that case, the runner(s)-up earn 1 point and the winner earns 2 points. If nominations were already announced before the winner/runner-up reveal, no extra points go to the runner-up (they already got their nomination points).

Is there a calendar of awards?

Yes. The Calendar of Awards now lives entirely in the app, under the Ceremonies section. Just click Ceremonies → Calendar from the top menu. It’s searchable and filterable by matchup, and shows each ceremony’s date, whether that date is confirmed or estimated, and which award categories are in play. There’s also Ceremonies → Ceremony Results, which shows what’s actually been scored so far, including which team owns each scoring player.

What happens if there is an awards announcement that wasn’t on the calendar?

This is much more common than you’d think. A lot of the regional critics associations conduct a vote and release their awards without alerting anyone else the day on which they announce them. This is one of the main reasons why starting lineups are set for the entire matchup. Nonetheless, “surprise announcements,” as we like to call them, are included in Red Carpet Rosters, and add a little bit of unexpected excitement to matchups. For example, a regional critics organization could announce on the LAST day of a matchup, resulting in enough of a point swing to change some outcomes! Sure, fantasy football has the advantage of pretty much knowing when the games are going to be played each week, but this is better than fantasy football. This is fantasy film awards!

Also, it’s quite common for announcements to change schedules. We roll with the punches at Red Carpet Rosters. One year, a regional critics group were victims of a hotel conference room double booking, so they had to postpone their vote. Sometimes a postponement places a ceremony in another matchup. Generally, if a ceremony occurs within the matchup dates, that ceremony will be included for points.

How do I know when a ceremony’s points are reflected in my league?

Head to Ceremonies → Ceremony Results and navigate to your current matchup. Any ceremony that’s been scored will show up there automatically, along with every player who earned points and which team owns them. There’s no separate marker to check, since a ceremony simply won’t appear here until its points have actually been entered. If you don’t see a ceremony that’s already happened, it just hasn’t been processed yet.

Sometimes categories within a ceremony change year to year. These points will still be valid, even if that exact category doesn’t match what’s shown on the Calendar page. As long as it’s a competitive award (i.e., not a special mention, lifetime achievement, or similar honorary recognition) those points will be reflected in your league.

The maximum amount of time between ceremony announcements and those points being updated on Red Carpet Rosters is 24 hours, unless otherwise noted due to unforeseen circumstances.

CREATING YOUR OWN LEAGUE

I just created a league. What do I do now?

Head to your League Setup Checklist (it’ll be the first thing you see in the Admin area) and work through the items: Starting Lineups, Scoring, Teams, Invite, Divisions, Draft, and Schedule. Everything already has a sensible default, so your league is fully functional right out of the gate; the checklist just gives you an easy place to review and customize anything you want.

Once your teams have joined, you’re in charge of starting the draft whenever you’re ready. There’s no need to wait on us. Head to Admin → Draft when your league’s all set, create your draft order, and good luck!

Strategy

Okay, I’m sold. Let’s do this. Last question. How do I win?

Ah, the $10 million question! (Fun fact, it’s estimated Apple spent $10 million for CODA‘s Oscar campaign.)

You win by beating all the other managers who also want to win. Well, duh, but here are some important tips to give yourself an edge on your competition.

GROUP YOUR RANKINGS INTO TIERS

If you’ve ever done fantasy sports before, you know how important grouping players into tiers is. The same is true, but even more so, for Red Carpet Rosters. The concept of tiers simply means that there are natural groupings of players. If we ranked each player, the point difference between the, for example, first and second players is way different than the difference between the second and third players.

Having somewhat of a grasp on the tiers beforehand will help you in the draft. If it’s your turn to draft, and you can draft a top tier DIR/SCRN, ACTR, or ACTRS, do it. But don’t reach for that fourth Actor if he’s in the next tier. Instead, go after another top tier, even if it wasn’t your top choice. When you prepare for the draft, try to make your rankings into groups. Then when all of one group is selected you can concentrate on the next group, and so on.

One more thing: Overall Rank (see the FAQ above) is doing a version of this math for you automatically. It measures each player’s value relative to a replacement-level baseline in their category, which is essentially tier detection, quantified. It’s a great sanity-check against your own gut feel on draft day for late-season leagues.

DRAFT PLAYERS WITH MORE THAN ONE CATEGORY DESIGNATION

If you have first pick of the draft, you better be picking someone with that DIR-SCRN by their name. Anytime your player can get you multiple points per ceremony, you need to take that opportunity. Think Paul Thomas Anderson last year with One Battle After Another. Every single ceremony, they were pulling down a directing nomination/win and a writing nomination/win. That’s huge upside. Chloe Zhao with Hamnet is another example, but she also EDITED the movie, potentially getting THREE nominations/wins per ceremony. If you can identify those that can get you multiple awards in a single award announcement, you’ll gain a significant edge on the competition.

This just doesn’t include work on a single movie. A few years ago Jonny Greenwood only was nominated for an Oscar for scoring The Power of the Dog, but for a LOT of other ceremonies he was also getting nominations for scoring Spencer, and throw in a few for Licorice Pizza. The animated foreign documentary Flee nabbed THREE Oscar nominations, and pretty much was guaranteed to at least get three nominations/wins everywhere else. And now with the Academy becoming more international, there are many foreign films that are dual threats for a Best International along with a Best Picture nomination or two.

And last tip regarding players with more than one category designation. The “below-the-line” categories don’t get you as many points as the “above-the-line” categories for a few reasons, the most major reason being that not all ceremonies even award some “below-the-line” categories but every single ceremony will award, say, Best Picture and Best Actress. If you can find someone that can fill a “below-the-line” slot in your starting lineup, that gives you a huge edge. Think Daniels as a DIR-SCRN-SONG, because they co-wrote an original song for the movie. Even though they didn’t get any awards at all for that particular song, points are points, and they can just camp out in your SCORE/SOUND/SONG/VFX slot.

Don’t get too fooled with multiple category designations though. They have to get points in general, so if you see someone with five categories but they worked on a movie that not many people have heard of, well, buyer beware.

Just remember: Points follow the player, not the position.

DRAFT LIKE YOU’RE PREDICTING THE OSCARS

The entire regular season, with NINE matchups, is played before the Oscars can give your team any points whatsoever, and that’s assuming if you make the playoffs. So why in the world is it a good strategy to draft like I’m predicting the Oscars? Two reasons: One, you are probably a beginner, and it’s a very solid beginner strategy.

And two: There is considerable overlap between the Oscar buzzworthy films, with the cast members in them and the crew members behind the scenes, and all those precursor awards. Granted, over 1,000 films, cast, and crew got at least one fantasy point last year, but the big point earners were from films that were getting some Oscar buzz back in October when it was draft time. Sure a LOT can change between October and March, but don’t overthink it.

Plus, if you draft like you’re predicting the Oscars, all you have to do is make the playoffs, and you’ve already got a good advantage when the Oscars are starting to give you points. And now, under the new ladder playoff structure, EVERY TEAM makes the playoffs. That Oscar-buzz strategy pays off for literally every team in your league, not just the top few who qualify.

On the other side of the coin, though, there are Oscar surprises that really don’t register anywhere else. Sure, if you draft Diane Warren, a perennial Oscar nominee, you’re happy on Oscar nomination day, but she barely registers anywhere else. Draft her, bench her, and plug her in for the playoffs.

THE MIDDLE AND LATE ROUNDS OF THE DRAFT ARE ALL ABOUT VALUE

Your top four picks should be your core. Your middle and late round picks are value. Scour the prognosticators to find the diamond in the rough. A perfect example from a few years ago is the Best Picture itself, CODA. The average draft position of CODA that year was in the NINTH round. That’s major value! It didn’t get a lot of points early in the regular season, but it gained a lot of momentum late. Not bad for a ninth round pick. Another example was Nicolas Cage for Pig. He became something of a sleeper pick to get an Oscar nomination, eventually getting snubbed, but he was also a late round pick for teams getting a whole bunch of regular season points for arguably his best performance of his career.

Speaking of snubs, there are always at least one actor and/or actress that gets a LOT of points in the regular season only to get snubbed when Oscar nominations come around. Recently, these included Nicolas Cage (Pig), Ruth Negga (Passing), Adam Sandler (Uncut Gems), Jennifer Lopez (Hustlers), Ethan Hawke (First Reformed), Danielle Deadwyler (Till), Viola Davis (The Woman King), Charles Melton (May December), and Charlotte Wells (Aftersun). All later round picks. All good value, even if they didn’t get that elusive Oscar nomination. Your late round picks should be getting you points, but maybe not so far as an Oscar nomination.

Last year, Eva Victor (ACTRS-DIR-SCRN) with Sorry, Baby had good late round value too, basically dominating the debut director points.

SPEAKING OF VALUE, “BREAKTHROUGH” OR “FIRST TIME” DIRECTORS, WRITERS, AND ACTORS HAVE VALUE AND ARE WORTHY OF A LATE ROUND PICK

Some awards, including the Director’s Guild, have a category of first time or breakthrough or youth performance or something like that. These may not necessarily get you Oscar nominations, but will certainly help you in the regular season. Charlotte Wells and Eva Victor, with their directorial debuts for Aftersun and Sorry, Baby, is an excellent example of this. So is Celine Song (Past Lives) and Cord Jefferson (American Fiction.) Other notable names in recent years include Rebecca Hall (Passing), Regina King (One Night in Miami), Florian Zeller (The Father), and breakthrough actors and actresses such as Frankie Corio (Aftersun), Alana Haim (Licorice Pizza), Emilia Jones (CODA), and even Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Power of the Dog), although he was snagged pretty early.

SPEND A DRAFT PICK ON A TOP TIER COMPOSER

The starting slot SCORE/SOUND/SONG/VFX favors those with SCORE designation, because they are much more represented in ceremonies than the others. If your top tier composers are gone, go for one with upside and/or go after a SONG, but wait until late in the draft. VFX and SOUND are worthy additions late in the draft, but they should be treated as plug and plays. They’re more of a draft and stash.

DON’T SLEEP ON THE WAIVER WIRE

Ryusuke Hamaguchi went undrafted in most leagues a few years ago, mostly because October is too early for foreign films, like Drive My Car, to generate a lot of Oscar buzz. However, he became the most valued waiver add, and if teams picked him up, it paid dividends. Amy Madigan was a huge value-add last year for her eventual Oscars winning performance in Weapons.

Scouring the waiver wire will also help you with “plug and plays.” Maybe one matchup is heavy with sound awards, so you go and pick up a SOUND player. Those extra points can only help you.

VALUE BASED DRAFTING

This is a good strategy in fantasy sports, and it applies here too. This is the notion that it’s not about selecting the player that get a lot of points, it’s about selecting the player that get MORE points than your opponent. Flee is a good example of this for the ANI/INT/DOC category. It pretty much cleaned up everywhere. The difference between Flee and the second ANI/INT/DOC (which was Summer of Soul, by the way) who got the second most amount of points is quite large. Much larger than, say, the top two actors. Remember tiers? Flee was in a tier by itself.

THE FIRST MATCHUP IS WAY DIFFERENT THAN THE NINTH MATCHUP

Don’t let the first matchup, with many ceremonies going towards independent features and documentaries, get you down. Don’t overreact. If anything, those first ceremonies may hint at some good waiver wires additions, but don’t get too enamored with them. Many Gotham Awards nominees pick up steam in the awards season, but others do not.

YOU WILL DRAFT FILMS THAT HAVEN’T EVEN BEEN RELEASED TO THEATERS YET

And that’s okay. Don’t let that deter you. Instead, look at film festival buzz from the major film festivals. CODA premiered at Sundance. Films are eligible if they’re released by December, and you draft in October. Again, don’t let that deter you from picking up a December release.

LET OTHER PEOPLE DO THE HARD WORK FOR YOU

There are a lot of Oscar prognosticators out there, and drafting for the Oscars is a strong strategy. An internet search will go a long way. Here are some great resources to help you on draft night:

a. goldderby.com – The site is a little hard to navigate, but you’ll get nice rankings from experts, editors, and a combined ranking with user polls. These rankings also include “odds,” which might help with your tiers. Even so, it puts a lot of different opinions into one ranking. What’s also nice about this site, is they also do predictions for some other awards like SAG, Golden Globes, etc.

b. indiewire.com – This site isn’t solely dedicated to Oscars predictions, but they have a fair amount that are pretty good and insightful

c. nextbestpicture.com – They offer predictions, but we heavily rely on this site for the awards ceremonies results

d. awardswatch.com – One guy’s predictions that always offer some surprises

e. variety.com/t/awards-circuit – Variety bought AwardsCircuit, and they have some good insights too.

f. hollywoodreporter.com/author/scott-feinberg/ – The “Feinberg Forecast” is a pretty notable, sometimes contrarian, prediction hub

User Accounts

I forgot my username / password. How do I log in?

Use “Forgot Password?” on the Login screen. This generates a new password and emails it to the address on your account. Once logged in, you can set your own password anytime from Profile → Change Password. If you’ve forgotten your username, or don’t receive the reset email, contact Red Carpet Rosters at admin@redcarpetrosters.com.

How do I update my information?

When you log in, click Profile. From here you can update your account information, such as email address, password, timezone (which affects how dates and times display for you across the site; the site tries to detect this automatically, but you can override it here), and your team name for whichever league you’re currently active in.

My Date/Time is incorrect

This is usually a timezone mismatch. The site tries to auto-detect your timezone from your browser, but if it’s showing the wrong time, go to Profile and set your timezone manually. Search for your city or region and select it. Once set, this override takes priority over auto-detection, and correctly adjusts for daylight saving time on its own with no need to update it periodically throughout the season.

Can I leave a league?

There’s no self-service “leave league” button. Instead reach out to your league commissioner, and they can remove you from the league. Your team itself stays intact (rosters, history, and all), so the commissioner can then hand it off to a new manager if someone else wants to take it over.

Can a friend and I co-manage the same team?

Yes. If you want to co-manage a team with a friend, ask your league commissioner to add them. They can do this from the Admin area using your email address. Once added, you’ll both have full access to that team: setting the starting lineup, making waiver requests, proposing trades, all of it. There’s currently no way for a second manager to add themselves without the commissioner’s involvement.

Privacy

Will you sell my information?

Absolutely not. To take it a step further, we won’t provide your email address and contact information to anyone outside of Red Carpet Rosters. Only Red Carpet Rosters admins have access to your contact information. League members never see your email or other contact details, besides your first name on your Team page.

Why do you need my email address?

Your email address is needed for password resets, signup verification, and notifications, such as draft reminders, trade proposals & cancellations, waiver approvals & rejections, and messages from other league members. We will NOT send you any other emails and will NOT give or sell your email address to any third parties. For more information, visit our Privacy page.