There was a time when you needed to have a Cineplex monthly pass and a lot of spare time on your hands if you wanted to get up to speed with the nominated films, performances and best in costume design during awards season. But the film industry is undergoing seismic changes.

New players such as Netflix and Amazon are muscling in on Hollywood’s territory, snapping up film rights and waving blank cheques in front of A-list stars and crew to produce cinema they can call their own. This year, Netflix lured one of US moviemaking’s finest directors, Mr Martin Scorsese, away from the traditional studios to make The Irishman, the veteran filmmaker’s three-and-a-half-hour mob epic.

The business model means more bums on sofas, but both Netflix and Amazon are also in it for the prestige. Neither has made a secret of the fact it wants to muscle in on awards season, too. The upshot of all this is that audiences are increasingly able to see the most garlanded films of the year much earlier, much more easily.

There’s really no excuse for not being in on the cultural conversation. It’s already well under way with bellwether awards such as the Gothams and Critics’ Choice both pointing the way before the main events, the Golden Globes (5 January), the Baftas (7 January) and the Oscars (9 February). Here’s how to watch the cinema most likely to win.

There’s no need to leave the marital home for Mr Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story (streaming, Netflix), a divorce drama that leads the Golden Globes race with six nominations, including Best Drama. Competition comes from another Netflix title, The Irishman (streaming, Netflix), which has secured 14 nominations in the Critics’ Choice awards, including Best Picture. Mr Scorsese is a good bet to take home the Best Director trophy come Oscars time, but he will need to stave off competition from Mr Quentin Tarantino, who is banking on Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (streaming, Amazon) for his own fairytale ending.

Last year, the Oscars followed the Baftas in awarding Free Solo, the vertigo-inducing profile of climber Mr Alex Honnold, Best Documentary. This year, the one to watch is For Sama (streaming, All 4), Syrian filmmaker Ms Waad Al-Kateab’s harrowing first-hand account of life during the siege of Aleppo. A winner at Cannes and picking up gongs ever since, it is also unlike any war film you’ve ever seen. A Channel 4 News production, it should do well on home turf at the Baftas. At the Oscars, competition comes from American Factory (streaming, Netflix), a film about blue-collar workers in the US rust belt. It’s the streaming giant’s first film from the Obamas’ production company, which might make the film irresistible to voters keen to see the former First Couple on the Academy Awards red carpet. Apollo 11 (streaming, YouTube), a glorious reconstruction of how Nasa got the first man on the Moon, may also prove irresistible to voters who want to wish away the current administration for a couple of hours.

The annual parade of global film festivals, all of which hand out prizes, means many films have already earned an accolade by the time the Oscars come around. World cinema that will be competing in the Oscars newly named International Feature Film category (formerly Foreign Language Film) include Atlantics (streaming, Netflix), a Senegal-set realist drama with a supernatural twist directed by Ms Mati Diop, which has already won the Grand Prix at Cannes. The Palme d’Or winner on the Côte d’Azur is also likely to stick around until Oscar time. Parasite, Mr Bong Joon-ho’s much talked about film centred on class in South Korea, is not out in the UK until February, but a staggered release globally has turned it into the one to catch on in-flight entertainment. The breakout film at the Sundance Film Festival way back in January, The Farewell (cinemas) is a comedy drama about a Chinese-American family saying goodbye to its matriarch. _The Farewell’_s charms are such that writer director Ms Lulu Wang and lead Awkwafina can expect to figure on Bafta and Oscar shortlists exactly one year on from the film’s premiere.

Awards voters love big performances and none comes larger than Mr Joaquin Phoenix’s turn in Joker (cinemas; Amazon from 17 December). He’s already on the Golden Globes Best Actor shortlist, alongside Mr Antonio Banderas, who plays a director in Mr Pedro Almódovar’s Pain And Glory (cinemas), and Mr Adam Driver for Marriage Story. His co-lead, Ms Scarlett Johansson, faces strong competition from Ms Renée Zellweger in the Best Actress category at the Oscars. Her turn in Judy (cinemas; Amazon from 20 January), the end-of-career biopic of the late Ms Judy Garland, is worth the price of entry alone. You’ll also have to leave the comfort of your sofa to see Bombshell (cinemas from 20 December), about the real-life #MeToo women of Fox News, and catch Ms Charlize Theron’s performance, which has Oscar winner written all over it.