Celebrating The Contending Year One

On Monday, August 26, 2024, Joey Moser, Megan McLachlan, and I launched The Contending.

Yes, it followed a tough month, but challenging times inspired us to basically get off our asses. Launching our own site was something we’d talked about for several years. We were encouraged on multiple occasions by our previous boss, Awards Daily’s Sasha Stone, to strike out on our own and build our own voices. One year ago today, we finally drummed up the courage to take the leap.

And it’s been an incredibly wild ride.

I vividly remember this time last year when I was up until 2am putting the final polishes on the site while ranking all of Taylor Swift’s music videos. That was right before we hard launched content at the 2024 fall festival season. So, I couldn’t let our one year anniversary pass without recognizing it. When I thought about what I wanted to write, I realized nothing else felt more appropriate than a note of gratitude to all who took this journey with me.

First and foremost, Joey and Megan have been incredible co-founders and partners since pre Day One. Megan remains the most optimistic of all of us — our rabidly “we can do it!” cheerleader. Her boundless energy and enthusiasm for all things Yellowjackets, The Pitt (her interview with Isa Briones was most popular interview in Year One), and documentaries she wants to elevate as awards contenders provided some of our most viewed content in our first year. She understands how to build an audience. She taught all of us how to frame our stories to build traffic. She represents the very best in positivity with a very infectious vibe. Plus, little known fact: she printed business cards complete with QR codes to hand out at the many film and television festivals she attended across the year to help build our brand. I wish I had an eighth of her energy and her happy vibe.

Across our first year, Joey continued to expand his footprint in this niche little world of ours. He finally started The Shorts King, something he’s talked about for years. That unique corner of the awards game exploded with filmmakers and other artists regularly sharing his reviews and reporting on the short film industry as few other sites have. After all, that’s why we started The Contending — to elevate the voices of underserved or under-recognized artists. They’ve responded in kind, and this year, Joey represented The Contending by serving on his first festival jury. Like Megan, Joey’s contributions across the year were innumerable, but I’m most personally thankful for his support across the year. It was one of the most challenging years of my life personally and professionally, and Joey helped keep me grounded. Praise be to The Shorts King!

But we didn’t make this journey alone. Three other writers chose to make the leap with us. I don’t personally thank them enough, so here’s what they’ve each meant to me and to the site across the year.

To quote one of his most recently reviewed productions, Frank J. Avella definitely has “fingers in dozens of different pies.” Of our writing team, he most broadly contributes in film, television, and theater. We have a theater page thanks to Frank’s passion (and admittedly access to) of the theater. I’m always impressed at how hard Frank works to conduct insightful interviews with artists that inspire him, no matter the medium. Our YouTube site has seen significant growth in recent months thanks, in part, to his many video interviews. He loves art in all of its forms, and it shows in all of his interactions with the site.

Ben Morris brought his passionate love for animation (primarily anime) to the site. That allowed us to cover a market that we’ve previously not served, and we’ve seen a tremendous response since then. Across the year, Ben twice traveled to California this year to attend both Disney / Pixar and Netflix Animation Studios. What gradually evolved over our first year was an understanding of how each of us have our own passions and focuses on projects within the awards race. Yes, Ben contributes in many other ways across film and television, but his focus on animation brings a unique perspective to our community.

Last but certainly not least (I’m doing these alphabetically), David Phillips is a beast of content delivery. If he loves a piece of art, then he will cover every single aspect of it from performances to direction to sound design. He’s always thinking of new projects to highlight with a strong focus on sports-related (re: boxing) films and television shows. He also brings his deep love of music to cover an array of projects that wouldn’t necessarily appeal to others on the site. He’s also the site Grim Reaper, cornering the obituary market as fast as he can churn them out. Magic happens when he’s able to combine his great loves and honor the passing of someone who meant something to him. Case in point: his obituary for Marianne Faithful became our second most popular post across Year One.

Before I go, I’d like to thank two contributors to the site. Mark Johnson approached us early in our gestation. He wanted to contribute to two sites, so we agreed on a split of responsibilities. He developed our Top Ten Tuesday series, which often serves as a point of debate for many of our readers. Fun fact, his piece on “The Best War Films of All Time” is our highest rated post so far. He also represents The Contending as a Gold Derby expert (although good luck if you can find his predictions thanks to their site redesign). Jalal Haddad joins in all of our official predictions and frequently guests on our podcast, bringing his LA-based perspective to our coverage of the awards race. Like me, he’s had a tough year, so he hasn’t been able to contribute as much writing as we’d welcome, but nearly everything I write about the awards race is vetted through Jalal.

Finally, I have to thank each and every one of you who continue to read and discover us on a daily basis. You make this all worthwhile. We love your feedback, your opinions, and your support as we continue this journey of breaking out on our own. Keep challenging us in our second year!

As I close this note of thanks, I look forward to what Year Two brings us. In just a few days, we will kick off our 2026 Oscar coverage with the Venice and Telluride Film Festivals. You’re probably sick of hearing about it, but Telluride 2025 marks the first time that Megan, Joey, and I have been together since April 2017 when we jointly attended Joey’s Oscar party in Miami. That’s the infamous La La Land / Moonlight night. Who knows what will happen this time?

So, keep reading, keep sharing, keep spreading the word as we build The Contending more and more each day. It hasn’t been a perfect ride, but The Contending is honestly something of which we’re extremely proud.

Until Year Three…