2018 Criterion Forum Awards

[domino harvey]

Indicator probably merits their own list!

[Drucker]

The fact that we get 5-6 releases a year with an encode problem or booklet whose pages are out of order is actually kind of a miracle when they are all listed like that.

[movielocke]

Good lord look at the Indicator and Arrow releases. That must be what it feels like to be in a band with a prolific output. One day those folks will look back and feel like "how did I do that?!"

On the other hand arrow USA only had four releases which seems incredibly low.

[domino harvey]

That's four US-only, not total

[Murdoch]

I'll have to abstain from this year since I didn't buy any Criterions released but what a great year for Arrow. My purchasing habits have slowed for films but I made sure to buy up nearly all of their boxsets. Their Suzuki output has been to die for.

[domino harvey]

For me the greatest non-Bergman home video release this year is BFI's Woodfall set. That box is just packed with smart and relevant extras and it looks great (I haven't seen anyone post the interior covers, but they're wonderful). Indeed, Criterion's output this year is rather pathetic against some of these other "smaller" labels... but also their Bergman set is, barring some disaster, the single greatest home video release of anything ever, so, the average gets brought up!

[soundchaser]

There are a few bright spots in Criterion’s lineup this year, but looking back at it all in one place, it’s surprisingly light on releases I really want to pick up. I just hope some of their more adventurous projects were pushed back to accommodate the Bergman set, and we’ll be seeing more things like Cold Water and Panique in 2019.

[DarkImbecile]

This Criterion slander seems pretty hyperbolic... I'm loving Indicator's slate this year (currently working my way through the Fuller set) but I thought this was also a really good year for Criterion, from major box sets to interesting Eclipse releases to some upgrades and reissues that had some really good work put into them. Their slate of new releases was solidly eclectic as well, with obscurities and major classics, and some major investments like the new Tree of Life cut. I know it's easy to get jaded with them, but I have a hard time seeing how this is a pathetic year for them. [/svet]

[domino harvey]

Well, in trying to make a prelim Top 5, only one non-reissue/upgrade/Bergman release made the cut, so for me it's an unbelievably dire year for the label (so far, at least)

[Murdoch]

For me a lot of the high profile releases are newer American films that I've seen a number of times and have no interest in revisiting - Bull Durham, Bowling for Columbine, Princess Bride, Breakfast Club, etc.

The Dietrich/von Sternberg and Bergman boxes are triumphs, but little else musters up much excitement from me sadly.

[Boosmahn]

I've only been following this label since 2015, so I don't have as much background on whether or not this year was a flop as other members, but a cursory browse on Criterion's 2018 releases show a decent amount of high-profile films. In order of release date: The Breakfast Club, Night of the Living Dead, The SIlence of the Lambs, The Passion of Joan of Arc, Dead Man, The Virgin Suicides, Midnight Cowboy, sex, lies, and videotape, The Tree of life, Andrei Rublev, The Princess Bride, True Stories, and The Magnificent Ambersons all seem like big hits to me.

[domino harvey]

Number of those thirteen movies you singled out that were new to Blu-ray: 2

[movielocke]

One of criterion’s best years ever for me, at least in the sense that two of my favorite films, a matter of life and death and princess bride got treated to releases by the label. The rest of the slate has been pretty superb and the enormous and constant amount of extras on them has made most of the releases pretty spectacular. True there are twenty films from 2018s releases I haven’t seen, but in comparison to the other slates I’d choose criterion’s in every head to head.

Which of the arrow uk releases are uk exclusives? Or conversely which ones were also released in the us?

[zedz]

Good lord look at the Indicator and Arrow releases. That must be what it feels like to be in a band with a prolific output. One day those folks will look back and feel like "how did I do that?!"

Even though I have a lot of those releases, I hadn't realised what a killer year Arrow Academy has had. (And we haven't even got the Jissoji box yet.)

[zedz]

Indicator probably merits their own list!

Would it be unthinkable to conduct parallel awards for the UK labels? Indicator and Arrow on their own have both arguably outperformed Criterion this year, and when you factor in BFI, MoC, Second Run and other labels that haven't even been mentioned yet (e.g. Second Sight's magnificent Heimat), you've got a real horse race.

[domino harvey]

zedz, if that's you volunteering to organize and tabulate a UK Year-End Awards List, I say go for it!

A member of the Blu-ray forum whipped up a helpful infographic for all of Criterion's 2018 releases-- swo, your mantle of superior data-management is in jeopardy!

[swo17]

If it's made out of that flag thing, they can have it

[domino harvey]

Nike just signed swo

[Boosmahn]

How about everybody votes for The Godmonster of Indian Flats?

[zedz]

zedz, if that's you volunteering to organize and tabulate a UK Year-End Awards List, I say go for it!

I'm happy to tabulate the 2018 Criterion Forum BAFTAs, if there are enough people interested in participating in it (and since the eligible releases have pretty much already been compiled, thanks to tenia (Thanks, tenia!)) Should we run them from this thread, or start a new one?

I'd suggest keeping pretty much the same categories as the main awards with some possible trims (removing the Eclipse one, naturally, but see below for other queries), and it would probably make sense to move those existing non-American categories at the end to this side of the ballot, and maybe make the "Best Non-American Release" into a "Best International (Non-American / Non-UK) Release" category.

Which would mean the Categories are:

BEST UK RELEASE Numbered in order from 1-5. Must vote for five titles to have your ballot counted. Boxed sets can be voted on in this category
BEST UK BOXED SET
BEST MODERN FILM - Is this category worth preserving outside of the Criterion context?

BEST NEW COMMENTARY New commentaries only, not ports of existing commentaries
BEST "BONUS" FILM
BEST BOOKLET
BEST ON-DISC NON-COMMENTARY EXTRA

BEST REISSUE - not relevant?
BEST UPGRADE - not relevant?

BEST COVER
WORST COVER
BEST PACKAGING

BEST DISCOVERY For the film that is, as the NBC commercials used to say, new to you
MOST UNNECESSARY RELEASE - not relevant, since this is a much bigger field?
MOST FLAWED RELEASE For label's treatment

BEST ARROW RELEASE
BEST BFI RELEASE
BEST INDICATOR RELEASE
BEST MASTERS OF CINEMA or EUREKA RELEASE
BEST SECOND RUN RELEASE
- All of these categories could be extracted from the main vote, but we might get different answers if we have them as separate categories. For example, a voter might have all Indicator releases in their top 5, so they wouldn't be contributing at all to four of these votes, even if they had a valid opinion about them.

[domino harvey]

I think you could lose Upgrade/Reissue/Unnecessary/Modern categories with little uproar, they're all Criterion-specific. I would even say expand the ballot to ten, or offer a sliding scale from 5-10, since it's now encompassing multiple labels, but you're the tabulator now dawg, so your call. And yes, I think you should create a dedicated thread to the UK Vote

[zedz]

Sure.

Yes, ten ranked releases sounds appropriate, since we're dealing with vastly more titles than the Criterion list.

I'll set up a thread in the fullness of time (maybe once we're sure we've got news of all the major labels' 2018 releases). In the meantime, intended contributors can PM me any titles they think deserve consideration beyond the four labels tenia has already itemized above, so they can be included in the initial mega-list(s).

[swo17]

Second Sight has had a great year

[zedz]

Second Sight has had a great year

I've got them down for Colour of Pomegranates, Heimat and Berlin Alexanderplatz - any one of which could be the highlight of the year for a label. There's the forthcoming Take Shelter, as well. Anything else of theirs that seems like a contender?

StudioCanal's The Nun is a major release. Has anybody seen the deluxe edition of Existenz from 101 Films?

[swo17]

It's not at the same level but Second Sight's The Changeling is another handsome release.

I'm still waiting for eXistenZ to ship.