Hello, Death Racers 👋

It's been a busy year behind the scenes at DeathRaceTracking.com, the unofficially official home of many of the Death Races. Awards season is about to crank into gear, so here's a round-up of what's changed, what's coming, and a small (£1-a-month-sized) favour.

📬 First up: we've moved newsletter provider

The newsletter now lives on Kit (formerly ConvertKit). You don't need to do anything. If you're reading this, you've made the move. Unsubscribing is still one click at the bottom of every email, and your newsletter preference on the site stays in sync automatically.

Until the races really start, this newsletter will come out monthly. Once nominations begin landing, expect more frequent newsletters.

🗓️ New: the Awards Calendar

This is one of the features I'm proudest of this year (and spoiler, if I have time, there will be some potentially useful additions to it coming!) The calendar brings shortlist announcements, nomination days, voting windows and ceremonies into one place. It also shows cinema and streaming release dates for the films in contention, localised to your country, so you can plan your viewing before the nominations drop and don't end up scrambling for a screening the week before the Oscars.

Filter by race and year, and switch between agenda and month views. The calendar is currently a supporter perk for Donators and Subscribers, but I hope to open this up to all members around nomination time (but don't hold me to that - and I'd love any feedback!).

🏆 New races and a tidier sidebar

• Decade races: all Oscar nominations and winners of the 2000s, 2010s and 2020s, each as its own race. Perfect for a long-haul watch-through or recaps.
• Special races: BFI: The Greatest Films of All Time (2022), Highest Rated Films and, for the brave, The Worst of the Worst (these are dynamic races so will evolve as more ratings are added to the site).
• The Mega Death Race now go back to 2000, so you can chase the ultimate completionist badge across a quarter-century of awards. (The Mega combines every Oscar, BAFTA and Spirit Awards nomination).
• ​Canadian Screen Awards for 2026 join the Oscars, BAFTAs, Globes, Spirits, Razzies and more.
• The menus have been rearranged, with races grouped into Year, Decade and Special so it's easier to find where you're heading. The profile menu got a tidy-up too.

🔮 Get a head start on 2027

Two 2027 races are already live:

• ​Possibilities 2027: the films in the conversation, before anything is official.
• ​Best International Feature Film Submissions 2027: the films countries are putting forward for the Oscar. The submission deadline is 30 September, so the list is filling up right now. It's a great way to find world cinema you might otherwise miss.

✨ Everything else that's new this year

It's a long list, so here are the highlights:

• Friends: swap invite links and compare progress race by race.
• Picks and ballots: predict the winners, share your picks and see how you did.
• What should I watch? (premium feature) Set a few filters and get one recommendation from what you have left.
• Where to watch: film pages show where each film is streaming in your country.
• Film countries map (premium feature): a world map of where your watched films came from.
• Letterboxd import (premium feature), much improved: bring in your history from RSS or a full export, plus CSV list exports going the other way.
• Radarr lists (premium feature): for the self-hosters, a list URL Radarr can poll to grab a race's films automatically.
• Leaderboards: "jump to my position" button takes you straight to your spot, however long the list.
• Ceremony dates and times shown in your own timezone.
• Richer film data: fresher Letterboxd ratings and Rotten Tomatoes audience scores.
• More control: hide ratings, set your timezone and date format, or delete your account.
• A much better mobile experience, a faster site overall, and plenty of security and sign-in hardening.

🌱 A lighter, greener site

I've spent a lot of time trimming the site down, with smaller pages, fewer and lighter images, and leaner code. The homepage now weighs well under 200 KB and scores A+ on Digital Beacon, at roughly 0.06 g of CO₂ per page view, on hosting recognised as renewable. That puts it among the lightest sites out there. I'm really mindful that tracking your way through a bunch of films shouldn't cost the earth and want to be fully transparent about the carbon impact of the site, so will be looking at further ways to reducing and offseting it.

💛 A small favour

Straight talk: the site currently costs more to run than it brings in from subscriptions and donations (not even including the time taken to develop the site). Each new film, race and feature adds a little more to the cost of hosting, backing up and keeping everything secure.

I'd love Death Race Tracking to become self-sustaining, and I'd really love to remove the adverts altogether. They're a pain, and honestly they don't add much to the pot (though every bit helps!).

If you can chip in, there are two ways:

• ​Subscribe for £12 a year, which works out at £1 a month. You can now pay in your local currency at checkout.
• Donate any amount you like (£1 minimum), which unlocks supporter perks for 12 months and does not automatically renew.

Both options switch ads off for you and unlock the Awards Calendar, the countries map, Letterboxd import, "What should I watch?", a supporter badge and more.

👉 Support Death Race Tracking​

If you already support the site: a huge thank you. You're the reason it keeps growing.

📅 Dates for your diary

This month

• 30 Sep: International Feature submission deadline

November

• 12 Nov: Oscars final general submission deadline
• 15 Nov: Governors Awards
• 16 Nov: Golden Globes nomination voting opens

December

• 2 Dec: 🎬 Film Independent Spirits nominations
• 7 Dec: 🎬 Golden Globes nominations (13:00 GMT)
• 15 Dec: 🎬 Oscars shortlists announced. Death Race warm-up officially begins!
• 31 Dec: Oscars eligibility period ends

January 2027

• 7 Jan: 🎬 BAFTA longlists announced
• 10 Jan: 🏆 Golden Globes ceremony
• 19 Jan: 🎬 BAFTA nominations
• 21 Jan: 🎬 Oscar nominations. The Oscars Death Race officially starts here! 🏁

February–March 2027

• 21 Feb: 🏆 BAFTA Film Awards
• 6 Mar: 🏆 Film Independent Spirits
• 14 Mar: 🏆 The 99th Academy Awards. The chequered flag!

Supporters can see the full calendar, including voting windows and release dates, at deathracetracking.com/calendar.

See you next month

Until then, get stuck into the International Feature submissions, keep an eye on Possibilities, fill in your watch history and see where you stand on races since the start of the millenium, hit reply or send me feedback on Reddit or Discord!

Happy watching 🍿 Ian (aka SlightAstro), DeathRaceTracking