2014 Criterion Forum Awards

[domino harvey]

If the set is the Complete Jacques Tati, then they're not bonuses but part of the main content

[domino harvey]

Okay, now you may vote

[tenia]

BEST RELEASE
1. 707 Il sorpasso
2. 699 A Brief History of Time
3. 725 Eraserhead
4. 726 Macbeth
5. 701 Persona

BEST ECLIPSE
41 Kinoshita and World War II

BEST BOXED SET
737 Les Blank: Always For Pleasure

BEST MODERN FILM
695 Blue is the Warmest Color

BEST COMMENTARY
X

BEST "BONUS" FILM
Hôtel des Invalides (Judex)

BEST BOOKLET
711 A Hard Day's Night

BEST ON-DISC NON-COMMENTARY EXTRA
X

BEST R1 RESCUE
722 Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!

BEST REISSUE
133 The Vanishing

BEST UPGRADE
198 Ali: Fear Eats the Soul

BEST DISCOVERY
705 Breaking the Waves

BEST COVER
696 Foreign Correspondent

WORST COVER
Awfully tough choice between awful contestants but 2 Westerns by Monte Hellman wins

BEST PACKAGING
729 the Complete Jacques Tati

MOST DISAPPOINTING RELEASE
Obviously 720 the Big Chill for its filler aspect : a movie not so good, slapped with a bland cover and basically no new extras

BEST THREAD
N/A

MEMBER OF THE YEAR
Eddie Larkin

RICHARD CRANIUM AWARD
Collective award for all the whining-DF-people

[TMDaines]

Do we have list of all the new commentaries in 2014?

[swo17]

Preface: If you're going to become the label that mostly only puts out definitive editions of readily available films, then you'd better remember to actually make your releases definitive! There were a few titles this year (you know which ones they are) that stood a good chance of making my ballot below if not for subpar transfers/extras in comparison to competing editions from other labels/my imagination.

Best Release
1. Les Blank: Always for Pleasure
2. The Shooting/Ride in the Whirlwind
3. Eraserhead
4. Judex
5. Persona

Best Eclipse Release
Late Ray

Best Boxset
Les Blank: Always for Pleasure

Best Modern Release
Like Someone in Love

Best Commentary
Stephen Prince for The Hidden Fortress

Best Booklet
Eraserhead

Best Bonus Film
The Alphabet

Best Other Supplement
Jour de fête: In Search of the Lost Color

Best R1 Rescue
The Shooting/Ride in the Whirlwind

Best Reissue
PlayTime

Best Title Concatenation
PlayTime

Best Blu-ray Upgrade
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul

Best (Re)Discovery
Les Blank: Always for Pleasure

Best Cover


Worst Cover


Best Packaging


Best Father's Day Present
It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World

Most Disappointing
1. Alternate versions of films getting inferior presentations (especially when the alternate cuts are historically significant). See: the Tati set, My Darling Clementine. Do not see: It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World.
2. The abandonment of dual format/introduction of foldout inserts, and just when they'd figured out the perfect solution for a 3-disc plastic case.

EDIT: If my vote has to be cast for a single release instead of just a general idea, I guess it can go to the Tati set.

Best Thread
1980s List Discussion

Forum Member of the Year
Sloper

Richard Cranium Award
Amazon Marketplace

Best Non-Criterion Releases
The Atom Egoyan Collection (Artificial Eye)
Camera Obscura: The Walerian Borowczyk Collection (Arrow)
Deseret/Four Corners/natural history/Ruhr (Edition Filmmuseum)
Faust (Kino's release of the Sokurov film)
Jean Epstein (Potemkine)
Los Angeles Plays Itself (Cinema Guild)
Pee Wee's Playhouse: The Complete Series (Shout)
Peter Tscherkassky: Attractions, Instructions and Other Romances (Index)
Twin Peaks: The Entire Mystery (Paramount)
The Werner Herzog Collection (BFI)

[swo17]

BEST "BONUS" FILM
Hôtel des Invalides / Le Grand Méliès (Judex)

I know I listed out the bonus films this way (with multiple films from a single release grouped together), but I believe we're only supposed to vote for a single film. Anyway, it's domino's call.

[DarkImbecile]

BEST RELEASE
1. 725 Eraserhead
2. 701 Persona
3. 698 King of the Hill
4. 098 L'avventura
5. 712 Scanners

BEST ECLIPSE
Not much point in voting here, right?

BEST BOXED SET
729 The Complete Jacques Tati

BEST MODERN FILM
702 The Great Beauty (I'm holding out on Blue is the Warmest Color until the Deluxe Edition, foolishly)

BEST COMMENTARY
Embarrassingly, for someone who owns, let's see... 27 of this year's releases, I have yet to listen to more than two of the commentary tracks, and will therefore be abstaining from this category. In my defense, I have a 19-month-old, and it's all I can do to just watch the films the first time...

BEST "BONUS" FILM
The Underneath (King of the Hill)

BEST BOOKLET
725 Eraserhead

BEST ON-DISC NON-COMMENTARY EXTRA
725 Eraserhead timeline supplements (especially 1979, 1997, 2014)

BEST R1 RESCUE
691 Thief

BEST REISSUE
098 L'avventura

BEST UPGRADE
396 Ace in the Hole

BEST DISCOVERY
698 King of the Hill

BEST COVER


WORST COVER


BEST PACKAGING


MOST DISAPPOINTING RELEASE
I guess I'll go with The Big Chill too, though none of Criterion's treatments really seem to jump out as crimes against the film or the concept of physical releases.

BEST THREAD
Can I vote for the List Projects threads in general? If not, I guess I'll go with the War List, but even as a lurker who has yet to submit a list himself, all of these List Project Threads provide so many new titles to add to my watchlists and arguments for revisits of films I've maybe overlooked...

MEMBER OF THE YEAR
I don't like this category, because there are too many people doing good work keeping this forum rolling to single out one, but in the interest of pointing out someone who hasn't won before: mfunk9786, mostly for noticing that there wasn't a dedicated PTA thread and doing something about it.

RICHARD CRANIUM AWARD
This one's easier: "rrenault"

[swo17]

Do we have list of all the new commentaries in 2014?

These are the only 2014 releases described as having "new audio commentaries" on Criterion's website.

It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World
Riot in Cell Block 11
Love Streams
My Darling Clementine
The Hidden Fortress

[TMDaines]

BEST RELEASE:

• 1) Il sorpasso (world first on Blu-ray and first English-friendly release at all)
  2) Sundays and Cybele (first non-Japanese Blu-ray)
  3) The Essential Jacques Demy (mostly world first on Blu-ray )
  4) Foreign Correspondent (world first on Blu-ray)
  5) Judex (world first on Blu-ray)

BEST BOXED SET: The Essential Jacques Demy - I can't let Lola alone tarnish this great box.

BEST MODERN FILM: The Great Beauty - We need all of Sorrentino's back catalogue in HD.

BEST "BONUS" FILM: Le sourire on Sundays and Cybele

BEST BOOKLET: The Essential Jacques Demy - although it is slim pickings now Criterion only deals in token gestures.

BEST ON-DISC NON-COMMENTARY EXTRA: Radio adaptation of Foreign Correspondent from 1946, starring Joseph Cotten. I know these are easily obtainable online, but radio adaptations should be mandatory extras for films that have them. Great fun.

BEST R1 RESCUE: Foreign Correspondent - a Hitchcock world first on Blu-ray.

BEST REISSUE: L'avventura - a classic film and world first on Blu-ray.

BEST UPGRADE: Ali: Fear Eats the Soul - a classic film and a world first on Blu-ray.

BEST DISCOVERY: Kinoshita and World War II. It's pretty rare nowadays that Criterion releases works that are obscure by any measure, but all of these are in the bottom 25 of films that Criterion have released that have the fewest ratings on IMDB.com. None have more than 100 ratings. More of the same please and less re-releases and retreading of the same old ground.

BEST COVER: Sundays and Cybele

WORST COVER: Y tu mamá también

BEST PACKAGING: Anything in a sturdy keepcase, instead of the pathetically weak and thin boxsets that Criterion issues.

MOST DISAPPOINTING RELEASE: Master of the House for the mandatory English intertitles on what is likely to be its one and only Blu-ray release worldwide.

BEST THREAD: Art films should look bad, just like poor people

MEMBER OF THE YEAR: swo17 for organising The Lists Project and generating all the statistics.

RICHARD CRANIUM AWARD: Moe Dickstein. TT could hike up their prices tenfold, have limited print runs of 10 and we'd still be told that they are doing all that they can.

[Mr Sausage]

Forum Member of the Year
Sloper

Yes. This is a guy whose contributions make you wonder why you even bothered posting. As someone who works to make even two or three good points per discussion, it's sure something to watch Sloper rattle off a good dozen of them per post.

He ought to win this. Read through the past film club discussions if you need convincing.

[Drucker]

Glad to see Judex getting so much love. I enjoyed Eyes Without A Face when I first saw it, but Judex really blew me away. I was genuinely giddy with excitement while watching it. It'll definitely be on my top 5.

[TMDaines]

Do we have list of all the new commentaries in 2014?

These are the only 2014 releases described as having "new audio commentaries" on Criterion's website.

It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World
Riot in Cell Block 11
Love Streams
My Darling Clementine
The Hidden Fortress

Cheers, swo. I didn't think there was many and there's only very few.

---

I was gonna start a new thread for this but I'll ask here first: do people have any interest in voting on the best DVD/Blu-ray releases from around the world, in order to (A) to champion the work that others other than Criterion have done, and (B) to highlight releases that people may have otherwise missed? There's so much good stuff out there that needs sharing. I was thinking of keeping it relatively simple and restricting it to a half-dozen or so categories:

Label of the Year
Best Blu-ray Boxset
Best Blu-ray Release
Best DVD (-only) Boxset
Best DVD (-only) Release
Best Extras

I was thinking that it would be best to do it in a few months, so people have had their chance to get their hands on releases that have come out in the latter part of the year.

[swo17]

I think the general line on that is that you are free to mention those things in your ballot (see my "Best Non-Criterion Releases" section) but that domino isn't necessarily going to tabulate those votes. (This is Criterion Forum after all.) And besides, we all know the winner would be Arrow.

[TMDaines]

Yeah, I didn't wish to hijack this thread. I was just trying to gauge interest in people voting on the best releases from 2014 from around the world in a few months time in a separate thread. One of the best things about this forum is finding out about lesser known stuff from around the world from people willing to import from all manner of places. There doesn't seem to be a better resource than this forum for that kind of stuff.

If no-one cares, I'll just add my favourite non-Criterion stuff here later.

[tenia]

BEST "BONUS" FILM
Hôtel des Invalides / Le Grand Méliès (Judex)

I know I listed out the bonus films this way (with multiple films from a single release grouped together), but I believe we're only supposed to vote for a single film. Anyway, it's domino's call.

I'll edit my post.

[ordinaryperson]

Might as well get this over with.

BEST RELEASE: 1. The Essential Jacques Demy
2. Eraserhead
3.It Happened One Night
4.Fantastic Mr. Fox
5.A Hard Day’s Night

BEST ECLIPSE: Eclipse Series 40: Late Ray

BEST BOXED SET: The Essential Jacques Demy

BEST MODERN FILM: Blue Is The Warmest Color

BEST COMMENTARY: Wes Anderson-Fantastic Mr. Fox

BEST “BONUS FILM”: Rock Hudson’s Home Movies (All That Heaven Allows)

BEST BOOKLET: A Hard Day’s Night

BEST ON-DISC NON-COMMENTARY EXTRA: Mark Lewisohn interview-A Hard Day’s Night

BEST R1 RESCUE: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

BEST REISSUE: All That Heaven Allows

BEST UPGRADE: The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou

BEST DISCOVERY: A Brief History Of Time

BEST COVER: Hearts and Minds

WORST COVER: Y Tu Mama Tambien

BEST PACKAGING: A Hard Day’s Night

MOST DISAPPOINTING RELEASE: Sundays and Cybele for just being a terrible film

BEST TREAD: Mystery of the Phantom Pages

MEMBER OF THE YEAR: Gregory

RICHARD CRANIUM: Domino Harvey for pissing me off through out the year and my disagreements with him (or her) are going to make me the Richard Cranium of the year

[swo17]

As a reminder, for the "most disappointing" and "Richard Cranium" categories, it's usually a good idea to include some explanation behind your choices (unless they go without saying). This is a time for constructive criticism, not revenge.

[mfunk9786]

I appreciate your post, swo, for getting us an insanely funny explanation from ordinaryperson

[domino harvey]

BEST RELEASE
01 My Darling Clementine
02 All That Heaven Allows
03 the Essential Jacques Demy
04 Red River
05 Foreign Correspondent

BEST ECLIPSE Kinoshita

BEST BOXED SET Jacques Demy

BEST COMMENTARY My Darling Clementine

BEST "BONUS" FILM the Underneath

BEST ON-DISC NON-COMMENTARY EXTRA Soderbergh getting too real on his two "failures" (King of the Hill)

BEST R1 RESCUE 2 Westerns by Monte Hellman

BEST REISSUE L'avventura

BEST UPGRADE George Washington

BEST DISCOVERY Les Blank

BEST COVER



WORST COVER



(This and Best Reissue were the only real competitive categories)

BEST PACKAGING



MOST DISAPPOINTING RELEASE It Happened One Night

BEST THREAD All of the List and Genre Project threads. My hats off to all of my fellow board members who actually actively participate and contribute. Yes, I know by virtue of my own rules this vote doesn't count, but it's still worth saying. So, I guess my vote goes to this instead

[jfish226]

BEST RELEASE
1. 726 Macbeth
2. 729 The Complete Jacques Tati
3. 705 Breaking the Waves
4. 701 Persona
5. 724 All That Jazz

BEST ECLIPSE
41 Kinoshita and World War II

BEST BOXED SET
729 The Complete Jacques Tati

BEST MODERN FILM
702 The Great Beauty

BEST COMMENTARY
N/A

BEST "BONUS" FILM
Rock Hudson's Home Movies (All That Heaven Allows)

BEST BOOKLET
725 Eraserhead

BEST ON-DISC NON-COMMENTARY EXTRA
Toil and Trouble: Making “Macbeth”

BEST R1 RESCUE
705 Breaking the Waves

BEST REISSUE
98 L’avventura

BEST UPGRADE
314 Pickpocket

BEST DISCOVERY
710 Judex

BEST COVER
701 Persona

WORST COVER
720 The Big Chill

BEST PACKAGING
729 The Complete Jacques Tati

MOST DISAPPOINTING RELEASE
720 The Big Chill - Rehash of existing supplements and a mediocre film.

BEST THREAD
N/A

MEMBER OF THE YEAR
N/A

RICHARD CRANIUM AWARD
N/A

[movielocke]

BEST RELEASE
1. Les Blank
2. It Happened One Night
3. A Hard Day’s Night
4. Persona
5. Hearts and Minds

BEST ECLIPSE
Kinoshita in WWII

BEST BOXED SET
Les Blank

BEST MODERN FILM
Blue is the Warmest Color

BEST COMMENTARY
-

BEST "BONUS" FILM
Running and Jumping and Standing Still

BEST BOOKLET
Persona

BEST ON-DISC NON-COMMENTARY EXTRA
Hearts and Minds unused footage

BEST R1 RESCUE
It Happened One Night

BEST REISSUE
Hearts and Minds

BEST UPGRADE
Vengeance is Mine

BEST DISCOVERY
Il Sorpasso

(because it’s a new release, Hearts and Minds and Vengeance is Mine were actually the best discoveries of the year, for me)

BEST COVER
My Darling Clementine
(this is the hardest category, Foreign Correspondent, Persona, Master of the House, Judex, Rififi, and Hearts and Minds are all fantastic)

WORST COVER
2 westerns by Monte Hellman

BEST PACKAGING
A Hard Day’s Night

MOST DISAPPOINTING RELEASE
Riot in Cell Block 11 - Inadequate Aspect Ratio representation

[Finch]

BEST RELEASE

1. Il Sorpasso
2. Red River (both cuts, the novel and stacked with extras)
3. Eraserhead
4. 2 Westerns by Monte Hellman
5. The Essential Jacques Demy (still a great set despite the botched Lola resto)

honourable mention for My Darling Clementine, Safe and Riot in Cell Block 11

(still to see: Master of The House)

BEST ECLIPSE n/a

BEST BOXED SET Jacques Demy (if only because it was less compromised than the Tati set)

BEST MODERN FILM n/a because I bought neither The Great Beauty or Blue...

BEST COMMENTARY n/a
BEST "BONUS" FILM n/a
BEST BOOKLET Eraserhead
BEST ON-DISC NON-COMMENTARY EXTRA extras on the Hellman release
BEST R1 RESCUE Safe (though Eraserhead ran it very close)
BEST REISSUE All That Heaven Allows
BEST UPGRADE Ali: Fear Eats The Soul
BEST DISCOVERY Il Sorpasso
BEST COVER Judex
WORST COVER It Happened One Night (close second Y Tu Mama Tambien)
BEST PACKAGING Jacques Demy
MOST DISAPPOINTING RELEASE n/a

BEST THREAD n/a
MEMBER OF THE YEAR Sloper
RICHARD CRANIUM AWARD rrenault

[EddieLarkin]

BEST RELEASE
1) Les Blank: Always For Pleasure
2) All That Jazz
3) The Essential Jacques Demy
4) Judex
5) Eraserhead

BEST ECLIPSE
Kinoshita and World War II

BEST BOXED SET
The Essential Jacques Demy

BEST MODERN FILM
Blue is the Warmest Color

BEST COMMENTARY
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

BEST BOOKLET
A Hard Day's Night

BEST R1 RESCUE
Eraserhead

BEST REISSUE
All That Heaven Allows

BEST UPGRADE
Pickpocket

BEST DISCOVERY
Judex

BEST COVER
Eraserhead

WORST COVER
Macbeth

BEST PACKAGING
Eraserhead

MOST DISAPPOINTING RELEASE
Riot in Cell Block 11

MEMBER OF THE YEAR
zedz (for being funniest; honourable mentions for swo and dom).

RICHARD CRANIUM AWARD
HJackson (for being unfunniest).

[Minkin]

Here is Criterion's 2014 covers (Criterion Cast usually does this, but I couldn't find one for this year, so I made it myself, if you can't already tell). This should help in finding those best/worst covers. MODS: If this image is too big, then perhaps could you resize it (I couldn't get any phpBB code to work to that end)?

Also perhaps an explanation - I took the images from Criterion's website and used the DVD image whenever possible (to show the full image), except when it was a blu-ray upgrade - thus indicating it was just a blu-ray upgrade. And yes, I know I should have cropped the edges better and planned the number of columns better (the compression artifacts are Imgur's blame).

[zedz]

Do we have list of all the new commentaries in 2014?

These are the only 2014 releases described as having "new audio commentaries" on Criterion's website.

It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World
Riot in Cell Block 11
Love Streams
My Darling Clementine
The Hidden Fortress

The Hellman commentaries are new as well, aren't they?