Another season in the record books. It’s been my eleventh. How has it been for you?

Customarily, after a quick Off the Carpet recap, I circle back to considering the film awards season at the end of this day. So here I am with a handful of such considerations.

I still find myself seeing the year as something it really wasn’t in the eyes of Academy. I think of “Margaret.” I think of “Martha Marcy May Marlene.” I think of “Shame.” I think of the films that popped for me but not for AMPAS and I think, wow, my year was better than theirs. And that’s fine. That’s the subjectivity of it all. That’s what it’s all about.

But I also think about the transition to HitFix, which happened five months and one week ago today and couldn’t have been smoother.

I’ve just come back from a dinner with members of the team here and I’m still very pleased with the arrangement. I think of the readership that followed and stepped things up, the conversation more encouraging and substantial than ever, as well as the added readers we gained in the move who helped expand the horizon of that conversation. It has been, I feel, an unqualified success. And I don’t mind admitting to you that I was a little nervous about it at first.

I think of Gerard, just wrapping up his sixth season of covering the crafts categories, a driving identifier of In Contention and a special one to my heart. I think of Guy, finishing his fourth season with me, and wonder what on earth I’d do without him. And I think of Roth, whose added voice is a unique one not only within our ranks, but on the net in general, I’d wager, always looking (as I asked of her to start) for different angles on film, different considerations, different ways to have this conversation we have throughout the year.

I think of the artists I’m happy to have met this season and the others I’m happy to have seen again. On the former, the Gary Oldmans, the Nic Refns, the Viola Davises, the George Clooneys, the Bennett Millers, the Marty Scorseses. On the latter, the Greg Russells, the Leo DiCaprios, the Michael Shannons, the Bob Richardsons. I think of the moments they had throughout the year and, of course, I’m happy for them.

I think of the wild ride, and I steel myself for the next.

And with that, the season ended. But In Contention isn’t going into a slumber. Indeed, we haven’t taken the full off-season off in ages so I doubt you expected much of a lull anyway, but we’ll be charging on through.

We’re looking at adding SXSW and Tribeca to our already broad and far-reaching festival coverage and we want to keep the conversation going. I’ll be busy tying the knot and celebrating that in the next few weeks, but things won’t die down too much. I hope you’ll keep coming back and engaging us, because you’re why we keep writing this stuff.

Many thanks to you. And here’s to 2012.

For year-round entertainment news and awards season commentary follow @kristapley on Twitter.

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