Though that’s even a strategy that films released in the traditional later year timeframes tend to employ, as once big ticket nominations drop for something like the Academy Awards, it triggers a film like Get Out or American Sniper to put itself back into theaters.
The awards bump is a nice way of reminding folks that your movie does exist, and it’s pretty qualified for the honor you’re potentially going to bestow upon it.
Which means that if Universal really wanted to, it could have put Yesterday into more theaters this past weekend and made a huge deal about how the film should be considered for end of year honors.