2009 Wrapup | Criterion Forum Awards

[Tommaso]

As there was some confusion about it last year: will Murnau-Borzage-Fox still be eligible for the Best Non-Criterion-Release category?

[tartarlamb]

Release of the Year (5 choices) (Eclipse titles eligible)
1. Jeanne Dielman
2. Science is Fiction
3. Dusan Makavejev: Free Radical
4. My Dinner With Andre
5. Last Year at Marienbad

Best Eclipse Release
Dusan Makavejev: Free Radical

Best Reissue
Seventh Seal

Best Package Design (including DVD menus)
Golden Age of Television

Best (Re)Discovery (for a film you knew little or nothing about before the Criterion release)
Last Days of Disco

Forum Member of the Year
Tommaso

Best Non-Criterion Release (5 Choices)
1. Daisies (Second Run)
2. A Grin Without a Cat (Icarus)
3. Treasures IV (Image)
4. Jeanne la pucelle (AE) -- Both of them. Just glad to see it released regardless of quality.
5. L'important c'est d'aimer (Mondo Vision)

EDIT: Assuming that most people just read this to mine the best non-Criterion releases that others list and don't really care about the voting, I'll add that I've gotten around to seeing both The Battle of Chile and From the East, and they're two of the most important films I think I've seen or purchased this year. Icarus is shaping up to be one of the more impressive R1 labels.

[Tribe]

He used metropolis_forever2 on the adult swim boards when he posted about how he knew so much about classic films and reviewed one (link posted on facebook under his name). Sound familiar?

I saw that link on Facebook...what a doofus.

[anvilscepe]

He doesn't post here, does he? No, he can't be...he would have been banned quite some time ago. But he is deserving of the award, no doubt about that.

Don't you usually have words with him over on Facebook Tribe? Even though Goldberg doesn't post here, that shouldn't stop him from at least being nominated for the Richard Cranium award. I'd vote for him.

[Tribe]

Don't you usually have words with him over on Facebook Tribe? Even though Goldberg doesn't post here, that shouldn't stop him from at least being nominated for the Richard Cranium award. I'd vote for him.

I've been doing my best to ignore him...but, alas, he can be easy target for ridicule.

[LQ]

Releases of the Year
1 Wings of Desire
2 Repulsion
3 Last Year at Marienbad
4 My Dinner With Andre
5 Science is Fiction

Best Reissue
Seventh Seal

Best Cover
The Human Condition

Best Package Design (including DVD menus)
Repulsion Blu-Ray

Best (Re)Discovery (for a film you knew little or nothing about before the Criterion release)
Last Year At Marienbad

Most Disappointing Release
Danton

Forum Member of the Year
swo17

Richard Cranium Award
Swimming Horses et al

Best Non-Criterion Releases
1 Mabuse box set (MoC)
2 Une femme mariée (MoC)
3 Daisies (Second Run)
4 The Joy of Sex Education (BFI)
5 Celia (Second Run)

[mfunk9786]

Releases of the Year
1 Repulsion
2 Science is Fiction
3 Hobson's Choice
4 In the Realm of the Senses
5 Magnificent Obsession

Best Eclipse Release
Dusan Makavejev, Free Radical

Best Reissue
The Seventh Seal

Best Commentary
Tony Rayns on In the Realm of the Senses

Best Single Supplement
The Sounds of Science on Science is Fiction

Best Cover
In the Realm of the Senses

Best Package Design (including DVD menus)
Repulsion Blu-Ray

Best (Re)Discovery
Hobson's Choice

Most Disappointing Release
Homicide

Forum Member of the Year
colinr0380

Richard Cranium Award
Donald Brown

Best Non-Criterion Release
The Complete Fritz Lang Mabuse Box Set [MoC]
The Joy of Sex Eduction [BFI]
Wizard of Oz Emerald Edition Blu-Ray [Warner]
The State: The Complete Series [Paramount/MTV]
Fawlty Towers The Complete Collection Remastered [BBC]

[GringoTex]

Does anybody want to take over the tallying of the votes from me?

[knives]

Release of the Year (5 choices)
1. The Taking of Power by Louis XIV
2. Pigs, Pimps and Protitutes
3. The Human Condition Trilogy
4. Last Year at Marienbad
5. Repulsion

Best Eclipse Release
Rosselini's History Films

Best Reissue
Seventh Seal

Best Package Design
The Last Metro

Best (Re)Discovery (for a film you knew little or nothing about before the Criterion release)
Travels with Hiroshi Shmizu (especially Mr. Thank You though)

Forum Member of the Year
Colinr

Richard Cranium
Swimminghorses a.k.a. So lightly There a.k.a.visually Impaired

Most Disappointing Release
Bergman Island (made all the more embarrassing by the similar doc on Science is Fiction)

Best Cover
Il Generale Della Rovere

[mfunk9786]

Madame de - this seems to have been totally ignored by everyone

It wasn't ignored last year - it was released on September 16, 2008.

[Napier]

Christ! I guess I didnt buy it until mid this year!

Don't feel bad David, they're still on my wish list.

[bigP]

Release of the Year
1. Pigs, Pimps and Prostitutes
2. Simon of the Desert
3. The Human Condition
4. Z
5. Dodes'ka-den (Whilst better films came out, I was appreciative of the chance to see this and in such good standing)

Best Eclipse Release
Dusan Makavejev, Free Radical (Although Nikkatsu Noir gets a =D> from me also)

Best Cover
In the Realm of the Senses

Best Package Design
Z

Best (Re)Discovery
Dusan Makavejev, Free Radical

Most Disappointing Release
A commentary on Dodes'ka-den was missed

Best Non-Criterion Release
1. Tokyo Sonata [MOC]
2. Comrades [BFI]
3. L'important C'est D'aimer [Mondo Vision]
4. Three Films by Marc Isaacs [Second Run]
5. La Tête contre les murs [MOC]

[Minkin]

Releases of the Year
1 Science is Fiction
2 Repulsion
3 Human Condition
4 Z
5 The Exterminating Angel

Best Eclipse Release
Nikkatsu Noir

Best Reissue
The Seventh Seal

Best Single Supplement
AK 100 book

Best Cover
Science is Fiction

Best Package Design (including DVD menus)
The Human Condition

Best (Re)Discovery
Simon of the Desert

Most Disappointing Release
Bergman Island

Forum Member of the Year
ianungstad (Excellent Facebook work)

Richard Cranium Award
so Lightly Here

Best Non-Criterion Release
The Complete Fritz Lang Mabuse Box Set [MoC]
O Sangue [Second Run]
Magick Lantern Cycle [BFI]
Sunrise [MoC]
Lone Wolf and Cub boxset [Eureka]

[Finch]

Biggest disappointment the Blu Playtime which has source based image softeness and what looks to me like EE. (...) Member of the year - the mods for keeping this joint together. (...) Hopes for next year - Blu Ray Stagecoach

david, I noticed the softness on the DVD - is it still such an issue on Blu? Surely, the Blu is still worth double-dipping in spite of it? Can others weigh in too? That'd be much appreciated (perhaps this could be split off into the Playtime thread?).

Shout-out to the Mods much seconded by me - fantastic work from matt, chris et al

I'd love Stagecoach on Blu - guess, we'll know more in a month or two (I reckon it'll be a May release). I'm also hoping for a release of In the Mood For Love and Early Summer on Blu (maybe some Melville in the fourth quarter?) as well as Island of Lost Souls on DVD at least in late 2010.

[fiddlesticks]

Does anybody want to take over the tallying of the votes from me?

It'd be my pleasure, if you don't have any better candidates. Just let me know.

[Finch]

david thanks for the quick reply - very much appreciated! Looking at Playtime's screengrabs, I think the BR still justifies the upgrade for me. May indeed get it for cheap at the next B&N sale (and hope that Royal Mail don't fuck up the delivery of my orders again like this year).

By the way, you can all drop the Mr and just call me Finch. The salutation sounds too formal.

[swo17]

I noticed the softness on the DVD - is it still such an issue on Blu? Surely, the Blu is still worth double-dipping in spite of it? Can others weigh in too?

I kind of feel the same way about the Playtime BD. Sure, it looks better than the DVD, and I assume Criterion did the best they could with the source materials, but I wasn't quite as blown away by the 1080p image as I was for, say, Pierrot le fou or The Seventh Seal. Granted though, my expectations were extraordinarily high.

[tenia]

Release of the Year (5 choices) (Eclipse titles eligible) :

Science is Fiction
Repulsion
Pigs, Pimps and Prostitutes
Nikkatsu Noir
Wings of Desire

Best Eclipse Release :

Nikkatsu Noir

Best Reissue :

The Seventh Seal

Best Cover :

Wings of Desire

Best Package Design (including DVD menus) :

Last Year At Marienbad

Best (Re)Discovery :

Repulsion

Most Disappointing Release :

That Hamilton Woman

Best Non-Criterion Release (5 Choices) :

Mabuse Boxset (MoC)
Fellini au travail (Carlotta)
Nikita Mikhalkov boxsets (Potemkine)
Appunti per un'orestiade africana (Carlotta)
Sunrise (MoC)

These non CC releases are hard to choose. There were so many good stufs released in here like the Ophuls boxset (Gaumont), the Scarlett Street / Woman in the window boxset (WS), or even the Koji Wakamatsu boxset (Blaq Out).

[domino harvey]

Does anybody want to take over the tallying of the votes from me?

I don't mind, if no one else steps up

[Tribe]

Does anybody want to take over the tallying of the votes from me?

I don't mind, if no one else steps up

I can also.

[domino harvey]

Quick, everyone add a category to your tallies: Who do you most want to count the votes?

[tajmahal]

Quick, everyone add a category to your tallies: Who do you most want to count the votes?

Isabelle Huppert just emailed me, saying she is willing to take over the count, as long as Michael Haneke wins every category.

[swo17]

Quick, everyone add a category to your tallies: Who do you most want to count the votes?

Given the gravity of the results, you should each keep a separate count and then compare results at the end. Hell, I'll even count votes here on my end. Just so long as we're all agreed in advance that the winner will be Benjamin Button.

[domino harvey]

In a stunning, unexpected turn of events, Border Radio sweeps in all categories

[fiddlesticks]

Not being nearly clever enough to compete in such august company, I hereby withdraw my nomination to tally votes.