Each year Steven Soderbergh releases his screening / reading / watching log. And here's what he watched and read in 2020. These lists are very fun but they always freak us out a little because Soderberg is an Oscar winner and voter and yet he doesn't watch very many current movies though he does catch the big nominees...
This is probably more common than many of us Oscar-obsessives would like to admit and goes a long way in showing how 'narratives' and campaigns can become such sure things and how egregious snubs happen, too, since industry voters are taking in fewer new releases than those in the media whose job it is to write about the movies in some capacity.
But of the current contenders for various categories this coming season -- and we assume that he fills out nomination ballots for three fields (Director, Screenplays... since those are the branches he'd belong to) in addition to Picture. We know that he's already seen Promising Young Woman, On the Rocks, Collective, Another Round, Nomadland, Midnight Sky, The Nest, French Exit, and Mank twice (the first was several months before it officially began screening so perhaps he's friendly with David Fincher?)... but did he like them? We'll never know.
But the list is fun and interesting. On Valentine's Day he watched Paul Newman in The Verdict (1982) of all things. His idea or his wife Jules Asner's? He randomly watched Jacqueline Susann's Once is Not Enough (LOL!) in December a movie which only Supporting Actress and/or Brenda Vaccaro aficionados tend to have seen. He had a litle Bob Fosse moment in September watching Cabaret and All that Jazz back to back.
Oh and in case you havent heard or have forgotten, he'll be producing the Oscars this year with Jesse Collins and Stacey Sher so... that's fun.