How to Win the Movies Fantasy League Without The Odyssey

Building a competitive roster in the Movies Fantasy League without The Odyssey requires a deliberate shift away from the traditional stars-and-scrubs drafting strategy, Vulture reported.

The Bottom Line

• Over a quarter of rosters initially included The Odyssey, but the film is now completely off the board for new league entrants.
• Drafting alternatives like Dune: Part Three at $40 or loading up on $15 to $20 contenders offers a viable path to aggregate points.
• The upcoming Gotham Awards nominations on October 27 will lock in the first official awards points and remove eligible titles from the draft pool.

Ditching the Stars-and-Scrub Strategy for Aggregate Power

It is logical to assume any team hoping to contend in the Movies Fantasy League needs to be built around The Odyssey. More than a quarter of MFL rosters feature the blockbuster because of its sheer awards potential, even though it was never eligible for box-office points. Vulture reported that the movie looks formidable, but there is more than one way to build a competitive roster.

The Movies Fantasy League has wrapped up its fifth season, and we’re winding down with an extravaganza of charts and other data, including the movies leaderboard, the hypothetical ‘dream team,’ and a timeline of the most drafted movies by week. https://t.co/G1Ald0O6xV

— https://x.com/vulture/status/2034668606928363531

When The Odyssey is unavailable, managers find their strategy disrupted for deploying the stars-and-scrubs method common in fantasy sports. Players typically take one or two massively expensive films expected to rake in un-Zeus-ly amounts of MFL points, then fill out remaining spots with cheap bargain buys. Upwards of 377 players went that route by selecting both The Odyssey at $45 and Dune: Part Three at $40. That specific combination is no longer available.

Players can still execute a modified stars-and-scrubs strategy centered on Dune: Part Three. The capper on the Arrakis trilogy is expected to contend for Best Picture and across craft categories. Pairing Dune with another expensive title like Avengers: Doomsday at $30 leans heavily on box office to carry the day. However, a word of warning applies to Dune: the first movie nabbed ten nominations and six wins, while the second movie received five nominations and only two wins.

Recreating Points in the Aggregate With Mid-Tier Contenders

To replace lost big-money players, managers can acquire multiple cheaper assets whose overall potential adds up to the departed superstars. Looking to films in the $15 to $20 range offers a clear path forward. Netflix’s queer war musical La Bola Negra ($20) is predicted to perform well in awards season, alongside the Jesse Eisenberg comedy The Debut ($20), Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine ($20), and Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Cannes hit All of a Sudden ($20).

Luca Guadagnino’s Artificial (debuting at year’s end) and Elsinore—highlighted by an Andrew Scott performance generating heavy buzz to compete against Matt Damon and Malkovich in Wild Horse Nine for Best Actor—stand out as choices at the $15 price point. South Korean film Possible Love and Laika’s animated film Wildwood sit at the $10 mark with solid Oscar chatter.

Film Title	Price	Projected Strengths
La Bola Negra	$20	Awards Season Contender
Elsinore	$15	Best Actor Buzz
Possible Love	$10	Oscar Chatter
I Play Rocky	$5	Best Picture / Actor Upside

Leveraging Box Office Powerhouses and Holiday Openers

Because The Odyssey lacks box-office point-earning eligibility, loading up on high-grossing titles balances a roster. The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping ($10) opens just before Thanksgiving. The last prequel, 2023’s The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, earned $166 million domestically, with talk this installment could nearly double that total.

Robert Eggers returns on Christmas Day with Werwulf at $20, attempting to repeat the pattern of his previous film Nosferatu, which opened on December 25 and grossed $95 million in the U.S. alongside four Oscar nominations.

Targeting Budget Value and the Upcoming Gotham Awards Deadline

Budget-conscious managers can utilize $5-and-under options to maximize returns. Festival hit I Play Rocky ($5) offers high upside if it cracks the Best Picture race or secures a Best Actor nod for Anthony Ippolito. Soft-horror folk-romance Wicker costs $3 and could pay off with costume or makeup and hairstyling nominations.

Documentaries remain fertile ground, highlighted by the Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim project You Can See Everything at $3. Other considerations include My Undesirable Friends: Part II — Exile ($2) and the Sundance hit Once Upon a Time in Harlem ($1).

The drafting window closes rapidly. Movies such as La Bola Negra, You Can See Everything, and Once Upon a Time in Harlem open tomorrow, after which point they become ineligible for selection. Furthermore, the Gotham Awards will break the glass on awards points when its nominations are announced on October 27, removing additional titles from the board.