The 87th Oscars will be held Feb. 22. Nominees will be announced Jan. 15.

It’s awards season in Hollywood, and all the "good stuff" they’ve held back all year is suddenly flooding forth. Hence the glad-handing of the great unwashed (film journalists) by the beautiful people at cocktail receptions to keep the perfume of this great performance or that fresh in the nostrils.

This is, of course, because of the freshness date on most voters’ memories — so much worthy material from earlier in the year gets steamrollered in favor of flavors of the month. The very fact that so much work is touted for Oscars sight unseen is testament to this.

Still, towering indies "Boyhood" and "Whiplash" are hanging around. "Boyhood" has lasted in theaters for four months — a stunning achievement in today’s cinematic-carousel world. Both should snag major nods. Patricia Arquette of the former and J.K. Simmons of the latter may be the current front-runners in the supporting categories, and deservedly so.

"Boyhood" may even be the favorite for best picture. The $4 million, 12-year project has actually scored $43 million around the world in a smashing victory for brave, innovating filmmaking. It would be shocking if director Richard Linklater were not at least nominated.

Others still in theaters and in strong contention are "Birdman" (likely nominee for actor, director and cinematography, and this writer would advocate for Edward Norton’s wild supporting turn), "Foxcatcher" (best actor for Steve Carell, and this writer would strongly tout Mark Ruffalo’s wonderful, transformative supporting performance), and "Nightcrawler," which might be a bit too dark and indie for voters but surely deserves consideration for its twisted screenplay and perhaps Jake Gyllenhaal’s finest performance to date.

To be sure, those are the exceptions that prove the rule.

This is the season for all the Oscar bait to be thrown into the shark pool like so much chum, with most of the major contenders about to be released or just coming out now. (Release dates are subject to change.)

"A Most Violent Year" by J.C. Chandor ("Margin Call") is getting just the right kind of buzz to land nominations. The crime drama set in New York City, 1981, stars Oscar Isaac, Jessica Chastain and David Oyelowo (pronounced "Oh-yellow-oh," apparently). It opens Dec. 31.

Historical crusader pics often smell of gold.

"Selma," the Brad Pitt/Oprah Winfrey-produced chronicle of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. (Oyelowo, also appearing in "Interstellar," by the way) and President Lyndon Baines Johnson (the always-nominatable Tom Wilkinson), is due Jan. 9.

Meanwhile, Angelina Jolie weighs in with her sophomore directorial effort, "Unbroken" (Dec. 25), about American Olympic champ Louis Zamperini, who spent two years in a Japanese POW camp during World War II. The screenplay is by the Coen brothers.

THE BRITISH BIOPICS ARE COMING!

"The Imitation Game" (now playing in mainland theaters) stars Benedict Cumberbatch as British World War II cryptanalyst Alan Turing, who cracked the Nazi Enigma code and helped father artificial intelligence, but was later persecuted for his homosexuality. If you thought Cumberbatch’s Sherlock Holmes was a convincing portrait of a socially awkward genius, wait until you get a load of him in this. Slam-dunk nominee.

Eddie Redmayne ("Les Miserables") stars as Stephen Hawking in "The Theory of Everything" (now playing). Not only is Hawking a beloved figure, but this brief history focuses on his romance with eventual wife Jane, played by the always-intriguing Felicity Jones.

A slew of films with highly touted female performances are on the horizon.

In "Still Alice," due in January, four-time Oscar nominee Julianne Moore plays "a renowned linguistics professor who starts to forget words." In an oddity (as pointed out by Indiewire), should Moore win, it would be the second consecutive year in which Alec Baldwin has played the husband to the Oscar-winning role (Cate Blanchett in "Blue Jasmine.")

"Wild" (now playing in mainland theaters) stars Oscar winner Reese Witherspoon getting hurt and walking it off. Under the direction of Jean-Marc Vallee ("Dallas Buyers Club"), Witherspoon’s work is getting surefire buzz.

Hilary Swank is in her wheelhouse as a strong, independent woman with pluck in "The Homesman" (opens Friday), an unabashedly feminist Western directed by Tommy Lee Jones, who doesn’t like calling it a Western, despite the big hats and horses. Swank’s character undertakes the impossible task of returning emotionally damaged frontier women to civilization with the help of Jones’ roguish scoundrel. The work by the two leads is layered and rich, deserving of consideration — though not getting the buzz that usually leads to noms.

Marion Cotillard is a previous winner, and should have been nominated for "Rust and Bone." Her work in the Dardenne brothers’ "Two Days, One Night" (opens Dec. 24) is gritty, spare, stripped-down acting — no glitz, glamour or violins to tell us what to feel. It’s just a woman in a tough, tough situation battling both chronic depression and management to keep her job. The question is, will enough voters see the Belgian (French-language) release? It worked for her before with "La Vie en Rose," but she had music and the biopic factors going for her then.

In the lesser-known recent history department, Amy Adams is being talked up as a contender for "Big Eyes" (Dec. 25), as American painter Margaret Keane. Acting nominations are rare for Tim Burton’s films — Martin Landau did win for "Ed Wood" — but Adams is already a five-time nominee.

"Into the Woods" opens Christmas Day, and Emily Blunt is rumored to be the lead submission. She has a previous nod (for "The Devil Wears Prada," also with La Streep) and voters sure like some musical performers, so she has to be considered a contender. Of course, La Streep could get nominated for breathing — no knock, of course, on perhaps the greatest actress in screen history — and she’s singing and transforming yet again, so she’s in the running.

SOME NOTABLE WORK FROM BEFORE AWARDS SEASON

A few performances from spring have a chance, but not many — Ralph Fiennes’ wonderful, bizarrely heroic turn in Wes Anderson’s "The Grand Budapest Hotel" is still mentioned here and there.

Fall’s "Gone Girl" lingers, sort of (Rosamund Pike’s name is floating about as a lead actress contender), largely because it was an actual hit.

But others — Viggo Mortensen’s complex, suave, slimy, chilling work in "The Two Faces of January" comes to mind — just aren’t talked about anymore. The excellent "Pride," likewise, simply came out too soon. So to speak.

Also, Jessica Chastain’s fine work in "The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby" is likely to go unmentioned, although she may get hers for the soon-to-be-released "A Most Violent Year."