EXCLUSIVE: After garnering a 93% fresh Rotten Tomatoes score off its Toronto International Film Festival premiere, Aaron Sorkin’s feature directorial debut, Molly’s Game, is moving out of the crowded Thanksgiving corridor for a limited launch on Christmas Day.

Originally the STX Entertainment release was expected to go wide on Nov. 22, but it will now be teed up during the year-end holidays to spur word of mouth in the heat of the awards season. STX will then take Molly’s Game wide on January 5. It’s an ideal plan for a potential awards contender that has plenty of heat on it.

Jessica Chastain stars as Molly Bloom, an Olympic-class skier turned high-stakes poker game host, who then became an FBI and Russian mob target. Idris Elba plays Molly’s attorney Charlie Jaffey while Kevin Costner is her wise, therapist father. Sorkin adapted the screenplay from Molly Bloom’s book. Mark Gordon, Amy Pascal and Matt Jackson produced. Leopoldo Gout and Stuart M. Besser are executive producers. Coming away from TIFF, both Chastain and Elba are being praised for their performances.

Molly’s Game leaves behind on Thanksgiving Disney/Pixar’s Coco, Entertainment Studios’ Chappaquiddick and Weinstein/Dimension’s Polaroid. That said, it’s been a very busy news day when it comes to wide release date changes over the harvest holiday.

Among those limited holiday releases on the Christmas Day four-day, Molly’s Game joins 20th Century Fox’s Steven Spielberg movie The Post, Sony Pictures Classics’ Happy End, and Focus Features’ untitled Paul Thomas Anderson movie.