For many Academy members, the holidays are not just about celebrating with family and friends. The Christmas through New Year's Day break has another important purpose: screener viewing. Yes, this is the time of year when the membership catches up on all the films they wanted to see in the theater and missed or have been told they really need to watch. Most members probably got through a significant portion of their screener pile over the Thanksgiving weekend, but this is the week where many of the December releases finally get their chance to prove their worthiness on the small screen.

One of our missions at In Contention is to inform cinephiles, the industry and movie fans of the achievements that have or are about to take place in the world of cinema. That happens to include the Academy members who frequent our site. And we hope they're paying attention, as there are a number of possible nominees we passionately hope stay on their radar. With the screener holiday season beginning, there is no time like the present to deliver the always necessary “don't forget these possible nominees” feature.

You can check out the 15 contenders we feel need the spotlight the most in the embedded gallery at the bottom of this post.

Do you think any of these potential nominees will actually get nominated? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.