Just a week before the official announcement of Oscars 2017 nominations, a slew of big movies expected to compete for the golden statue have been leaked online. The leaked movies include La La Land, Arrival, Hidden Figures, Fences, Moonlight, and Patriots Day.
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The copies of the biggest movies leaking online at this time of the year are not new. Every year, the industry insiders get screener copies to watch the film so that they can cast their votes, but most of the movies find its way to torrent sites. This year was no different. Hidden Figures and Patriots Day were among the first to be leaked online, followed by the award-winning film La La Land, Moonlight and Arrival, according to Torrent freak.
Usually, these films are leaked online during Christmas period, but this time it made its way onto the torrent site by mid-January. The notorious piracy group Hive-CM8, which released major movies last year, has become "bit more cautious with their screeners release strategies" and said they would not release any screeners before the film's theatrical release. A few weeks later, they uploaded the first screener copy of the year.
"Finally first quality release, we do think this is a hot title and we decided to share it with the public," the group said in a press release and encouraged other Oscar insiders to share the copies.
"We are looking for the guys sitting at home with all the 30 discs and posting pictures all over the net, but not sharing with anyone. Not sure why you are hiding it can be done safe and secure, for private viewing only if requested. Just msg us if you need help, we don't bite," they added, according to Torrent freak.
Though the leaks will have no bearing on the award shows, it might cast a shadow over the box office collection at places where the movies are yet to be released.
