criterionforum.org

I think I've got enough of the year's releases under my belt to do this now.

BEST RELEASE:
1. A Brighter Summer Day - Total masterpiece; long, long overdue; world premiere, and Criterion don't drop the ball. This is what it's supposed to be all about.
2. The Kennedy Films - An important collection of films and an exemplary production from Criterion, with a wealth of varied and informative extras.
3. Wim Wenders: the Road Trilogy - I've had these films on DVD for so long I kind of took them for granted, but seeing just how magnificent the restored Kings of the Road looked brought my love for the film(s) flooding back.
4. Death By Hanging - Another long overdue masterpiece, with the exciting prospect of more ATG productions to follow.
5. One Eyed Jacks - For not screwing up the most stunning restoration I saw this year.

BOXED SET: Wim Wenders: The Road Trilogy. No real contest, as Criterion's Dekalog was a distant second to Arrow's, but I think this set would be the better production anyway.

MODERN FILM: Phoenix - I loved this on release and it didn't lose anything on a rewatch.

COMMENTARY: A Brighter Summer Day - No real contest here, as this is one of the strongest commentaries I've ever heard. Quite a feat to sustain this level of interest and detail over four hours.

BONUS FILM: A Short Film About Love - Again, no real contest (apart from its sister Short Film), as this is a major release masquerading as an extra, and these two features are arguably the raison d'etre for Criterion's Dekalog set, given the competition.

BOOKLET: I have to pass on this, as I haven't read most of them and would end up voting for the prettiest.

EXTRA: Lots I have yet to explore, but thanks to other voters jogging my memory, I have to go with the Sharon Malone / Eric Holder interview on The Kennedy Films. Fine interview, and it opened up an entirely new dimension on the best film in the set. I watched the Coens / Sonnenfeld interview on the strength of its support in the vote, and I found it very entertaining, but it was really just 101 variations on "omigod, we really had no idea about source lighting!", which didn't justify the hour-plus duration of the featurette for me.

REISSUE: Night & Fog

UPGRADE: Nothing especially rocked my boat this year.

BEST COVER: A Brighter Summer Day - such a great image, additionally valuable as an unknown Yang artwork.

WORST COVER: Some heated competition, but for me it had to be McCabe & Mrs. Miller. Grotesque text placement, exacerbated by that appalling 'peekaboo' effect. And I imagine Julie Christie having some words with her 1971 lawyer: "So, you made sure that my name had to have equal weight as Warren's on all publicity materials?" "Oh, most definitely." "And my head has to be the same size, naturally." "Your. . . head?" "Yes, when I appear on all the posters and publicity materials, my head should be the same size as Warren's." "You. . . wanted to appear on the poster and stuff?"

PACKAGING: Opening up the Guillermo Del Toro set was enchanting, but I'm not a big fan of the graphic design, so I'm going with the ingenious and amusing Dr Strangelove.

DISCOVERY: The Emigrants / The New Land. People have been singing the praises of these films on this forum for years, but this is one of the instances when they stood up to the advance hype.

UNNECESSARY RELEASE: Valley of the Dolls - I thought 3 Films By Whit Stillman was a shoo-in, because I'd be hard-pressed to think of three more unnecessary films, alone or together, but Valley of the Dolls has to be the winner: abysmal film, with banal extras that don't add much to the experience.

FLAWED RELEASE: Story of the Last Chrysanthemums - it has the unfortunate sound issues, and they didn't exactly compensate with copious extras: pretty slapdash treatment for such a major film and director. Dekalog definitely counts as flawed, but I think it would be a decent release in its own right if we didn't have the exemplary competition to compare it with.

MEMBER OF THE YEAR: Sloper. I think he's won before, but I don't think I voted for him that time, so my conscience demands that I compensate for that grievous oversight.

DICKHEAD OF THE YEAR: I can't believe I'm the only one voting for Alan Clarke! There were plenty of fine contenders, but this particular debacle was so surreal and elaborate that it's still hard to believe it wasn't some weird form of performance art.

NON-CRITERION RELEASE: I can only think of the obvious here, but I'll try to add more as they occur to me:

Alan Clarke: Dissent and Disruption (BFI) - Undreamt of riches, brilliant presentation, .
Marcel Hanoun: The Seasons (Re:Voir) - A major work of the post-New Wave / parallel-New Wave rediscovered. L'Hiver is a new personal favourite.
Dekalog (Arrow) - A far richer and more creative approach to this material than Criterion's, plus they aced it technically.
Colour Box: 19 Films by Len Lye (Govett-Brewster) - Damn near complete collection of Lye's visionary animation, as good as they've ever looked on DVD. What took so long?
Jacques Rivette Collection (Arrow) - A wacky selection of wacky films, none of them among my favourites by Rivette, but what a triumph to get them all out on BluRay.
It's Such a Beautiful Day (Hertzfeldt) - The biggest surprise for me is that the films ended up being even more entertaining than the crowdfunding. This is how you get money for uncommercial ventures, folks.

BEST RELEASE:
1. A Brighter Summer Day
2. Wim Wenders: the Road Trilogy
3. Fantastic Planet
4. Here Comes Mr. Jordan
5. Dekalog

BEST BOXED SET
Wim Wenders: the Road Trilogy

BEST MODERN FILM
Inside Llewyn Davis

BEST "BONUS" FILM
Shogun Assassin

BEST REISSUE
Night and Fog

BEST UPGRADE
Night Train to Munich

BEST COVER
A Brighter Summer Day

WORST COVER
Clouds of Sils Maria

BEST PACKAGING
Trilogia de Guillermo del Toro

BEST DISCOVERY
A Brighter Summer Day

MOST UNNECESSARY RELEASE
Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words

BEST RELEASE
1. A Brighter Summer Day
2. The Emigrants/The New Land
3. The Kennedy Films of Robert Drew and Associates
4. The New World
5. Boyhood

BEST BOXED SET
Wim Wenders: The Road Trilogy

BEST MODERN FILM (within the last five years)
Phoenix - great to see Criterion moving into more contemporary world cinema again, as well as the classics and modern American films

BEST COMMENTARY
A Brighter Summer Day - quite a feat. The only thing that would have improved Tony Rayns' commentary would have been if Edward Yang were still around to do it with him, as on Yi Yi.

BEST "BONUS" FILM
Cloud Phenomena of Maloja (on Clouds of Sils Maria), if just for introducing an Arnold Fanck mountain film into the collection!

BEST BOOKLET
Dr Strangelove

BEST ON-DISC NON-COMMENTARY EXTRA
Christopher Faulkner's piece on Renoir's La chienne

BEST REISSUE
Carnival of Souls

BEST UPGRADE
Night Train To Munich

BEST COVER
A Brighter Summer Day (though I thought there were some great covers this year: I Knew Her Well, Phoenix, The Manchurian Candidate, One-Eyed Jacks, Only Angels Have Wings, Muriel, Inside Llewyn Davis, The American Friend, etc, etc)

WORST COVER
I'm still not that taken with Gilda's frame-grab feel of a cover, even if it is an iconic image

BEST PACKAGING
The New World

BEST DISCOVERY
I Knew Her Well

MOST UNNECESSARY RELEASE
I can see the brand-building reasons for releasing all of them, and appreciate the Blu upgrade in all cases but Cat People seemed a little unnecessary in terms of adding new material to the existing conversation about the film. Also Fantastic Planet. But I think in the end because I still cannot really stand the film, I'll have to go with Punch-Drunk Love! (But don't let Paul Thomas Anderson know about that, because I think every single other film he has made is 'Criterion-worthy', for whatever that's worth!)

MOST FLAWED RELEASE
I think I'll have to go back to The Kid at the beginning of the year, for only including the 1970s re-release version of the film in full and relegating the 1921 version to a collection of deleted scenes and titles.

BEST THREAD
I'll go with the International Blu-ray thread, which ties in with my next vote:

MEMBER OF THE YEAR
I voted for feihong last year as well, and this member has continued with many interesting contributions that have added so much to the forum over this year, particularly on Hong Kong cinema, international Blu-ray disc reports and comments on the 88 Films Shaw Brothers releases.

RICHARD CRANIUM AWARD
I've seen every single member here many times over, but Alan Clarke has to be the winner of this category!

I think it is important to underline a few times that it has been a fantastic year overall for films getting released that had long been discussed but had always seemed mythical for home video releases! I felt incredibly spoilt this year in all areas. Criterion got in on the action with A Brighter Summer Day, their edition of A Touch of Zen, the Orson Welles Shakespeare films, One-Eyed Jacks and Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams, but to have imagined a few years ago that we’d have copies of Napoleon, Jacque Rivette’s films, Alan Clarke’s films, Thundercrack!, The Killing of America and two complimentary editions of Dekalog would have been overwhelming. Plus the long presumed lost Symptoms! (Or the chance to finally see Abel Ferrara's Body Snatchers film in its original widescreen ratio!)

It is wonderful to be able to clear a bit of space from the 'wants' list to add new titles now. Like when will we get the 200 minute version of Agitator, or a decent Blu-ray (or just watchable anamorphic DVD) edition of Shinji Aoyama’s Eureka? Or how about getting more Erich von Stroheim like The Wedding March or Greed done now! Or Force of Evil! [-(

1. Napoleon (BFI)
2. Man With A Movie Camera (Moc) - what a fantastic package of films. It seems unfair to class everything else as 'extras', but the main feature still towers as a masterpiece above them
3. The Human Condition (Arrow)
4. Nikkatsu Diamond Guys Collection Volume 1 & 2 (Arrow) - I'll get to writing about these eventually I promise. But this was one of the most commercially daring releases of the year. Only matched by:
5. The Jacques Rivette Collection (Arrow) - the other uncommercial release of the year that treated difficult works with full respect
6. Dekalog (Arrow) – the Criterion set is wonderful in itself for the film versions and interviews, but this one is the essential set just for adding new material into the Kieslowski conversation
7. Dissent & Disruption: Alan Clarke at the BBC (BFI) – speaking of adding something new to the conversation, just these films getting a release helps expand our view of Clarke’s career
8. It’s Such A Beautiful Day (Don Hertzfeld Kickstarter Productions) - a brilliantly handled Kickstarter of some absolutely adorable (if harrowing) works
9. Thundercrack! (Synapse Films) – how long has this been in production? Five years or more? Wonderful (and eye-popping) to finally see this ‘mythical’ film!
10. The Killing of America (Severin) – this was a film that I’d been tempted to pick up in the late 90s on UK VHS and missed my opportunity. That was released on the old Exploited label run by David Gregory along with the other infamous mondo-doc Hated: G.G. Allin and the Murder Junkies (that was directed by the future director of the Hangover films and shows what a performer going off the rails really looks like!). While I missed it, it was a film lingered in the mind (inevitably as a mondo documentary using real life footage of gun deaths in the United States to suggest a ingrained casualised culture surrounding violent death), and apparently this Blu relase by Severin represents the first time the film has ever been made available in the US. It not only has the 95 minute theatrical feature but also a longer 115 minute version prepared for Japan called “Violent America”. Plus a commentary by the director. This is probably the ultimate version of a film that will probably (like most mondo movies) be impossible to watch through just the once!

By the way The Killing of America was produced by Leonard Schrader and Mata Yamamoto and co-written by Leonard and Chieko Schrader! (All later collaborators on Mishima: A Life In Four Chapters) I had never realised that connection before, but it certainly holds its own as the exterior, ‘real world’ violence set against Paul Schrader’s more interior, brooding meditations on violence.
___

And while that’s already a top ten, I’m going to annoy domino and keep on listing other great releases from the year:

11. Body Double (Indicator)
12. Mysterious Object At Noon / Horse Money (Second Run) – for the label's first foray into Blu-ray production
13. Three Brothers (Arrow) / The Paolo and Vittorio Taviani Collection (Arrow)
14. Pioneers of African-American Cinema (BFI/Kino)
15. Belladonna of Sadness (Cinelicious Pics)
16. Pieces (Grindhouse) / I Drink Your Blood (Grindhouse)
17. Symptoms (BFI) (and the return of the Flipside series in general: Psychomania, Beat Girl and Expresso Bongo!)
18. Ken Russell: The Great Composers / Ken Russell: The Great Passions / Valentino / Women In Love (BFI)
19. The Professional: Golgo 13 (1979) / Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie (1994) (Discotek/Eastern Star) – two classic anime films getting the Blu-ray treatment they deserve
20. Cosmos (Arrow)
21. Shooting Stars (BFI)
22. Outlaw Gangster VIP: The Complete Collection (Arrow)
23. That’s Sexploitation! (Synapse) – probably the best way to pay tribute to recently deceased producer David F. Friedman (as well as Mike Vraney of Something Weird Video)
24. The cheeky dual Kino releases of German silent classic Gold (1924) (with Brigitte Helm from Metropolis!) and The Magnetic Monster (1953), a US monster movie that uses stock footage from Gold!
25. Cemetery of Splendour (Strand Releasing) / Mountains May Depart (Kino Lorber) / Arabian Nights (Kino Lorber) – three US Blu-ray releases of films somewhat neglected in the UK with only DVD releases (so far!)
26. Blood Bath (Arrow) – probably the best piece of archival research and presentation of multiple versions of a neglected film this year. Just beats out Criterion’s treatment of The New World and MoC’s take on Shane’s aspect ratios!
27. Love & Peace / Uzumasa Limelight (Third Window)
28. On The Beach (Signal One)
29. On The Black Hill / Akenfield (BFI)
30. Dead-End Drive In (Arrow) / Turkey Shoot (Severin) – Brian Trenchard-Smith getting lavish attention!

And that’s without adding the dual Signal One Roger Corman releases of Gas-s-s-s and The Trip. Or Cinema Guild’s release of Jajua!

(P.P.P.S. : Oh, and here are some late arrivals: MichaelB's rampage through Eastern European cinema continues unabated with Mondo Macabro's Blu-ray release of Miklós Jancsó's Private Vices, Public Virtues; Vinegar Syndrome continues its Wakefield Poole collection with a DVD of Take One and Moving!; and Blue Underground's Blu-ray edition of Jess Franco's 99 Women that in its limited edition form contains the notorious French version on another Blu-ray and the soundtrack on CD!)

(P.P.P.P.S.: By the way, it was also strange, but wonderful, to find that the most Ballardian film experience of the year wasn't the adaptation of High-Rise, but instead Terrence Malick's Knight of Cups!)

___

I'll also throw in that the scariest horror experience I had this year was with the video game Anatomy by Kittyhorrorshow. There are a few videos worth watching if anyone is interested. The first place to go is probably The Sw1tcher's playthrough of the game, then if interested into looking into things further Errant Signal's episode, or the Gaming Symposium piece. If the new Amityville Horror film gets half as close to capturing a sense of 'house terror' as Anatomy does, then it'll be great!

BEST RELEASE
1. Death By Hanging
2. A Brighter Summer Day
3. Akira Kurosawa's Dreams
4. La chienne
5. The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum

BEST BOXED SET
Wim Wenders - The Road Trilogy

BEST MODERN FILM
Clouds of Sils Maria

BEST "BONUS" FILM
Cloud Phenomena of Maloja (Sils Maria): Extremely beautiful short by Arnold Fanck, with brilliant new music by Paolo Fresu.

BEST COVER
The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum

WORST COVER
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

MOST UNNECESSARY RELEASE
Le Amiche
(nothing against the film nor against CC's release, of course, but from the comparison caps I just can't see much of a surplus over the MoC; probably no film released by CC this year was really unnecessary, though...)

Best other releases:
Apart from the BFI "Napoleon" and the Arrow Rivette Box, the following three releases got me particularly excited this year:

The Student of Prague (Hanns Heinz Ewers/Stellan Rye 1913, Edition Filmmuseum): Fantastic new restoration of what can easily be regarded as the most important German silent of the 1910s. The first 'artistic horror' film, and endlessly influential, and not just talking about its two equally excellent remakes. Edition Filmmuseum as usual provide the full package: two different versions of the film with different music, slightly different fps and some differences regarding tinting and intertitles; lots of extra materials in the DVD-ROM part, and a bonus short with Ernst Lubitsch in a small role. English subs included, of course.

Opfergang (Veit Harlan 1944, FWMS/Concorde): my most desired film finally released on blu/dvd, and in a new restoration that looks so glorious that it leaves me speechless. Truly fantastic Agfacolor, and the film itself is one of the most downright unbelievable things ever made in German film history. This will definitely be high on my all-time-list. No English subs provided, though, so let's hope that MoC or someone else will pick this up. If they dare.

Chamissos Schatten (Ulrike Ottinger 2016, Good Movies): Fascinating 12-hour documentary about the landscape of the Bering Strait and the people living there. Admittedly, this sometimes feels more like an installation in its extreme slowness and length, but it totally sucked me in when I watched it in the cinema this summer. The new release is one of the very few Ottinger films released on a normal label at a normal price for a 4-disc-set. I haven't even watched it yet, but the cover promises English subtitles. So no need to hesitate if you want to see something meditative and unique. And no, it's not too long.

BEST RELEASE
01 Wim Wenders: the Road Trilogy
02 the New World
03 Chimes at Midnight
04 the Kennedy Films of Robert Drew & Associates
05 Muriel

BEST BOXED SET
Wim Wenders: the Road Trilogy

BEST COMMENTARY
Chimes at Midnight

BEST BONUS FILM
Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words

BEST REISSUE
Night and Fog

BEST UPGRADE
the Exterminating Angel

BEST COVER



Runners Up: (in order) I Knew Her Well, Phoenix, Here Comes Mr Jordan, the Naked Island

WORST COVER



Runners Up: (in order) Gilda, the Squid and the Whale, McCabe & Mrs Miller, Cat People, Punch-Drunk Love, In A Lonely Place

BEST PACKAGING
the New World

BEST DISCOVERY
Bitter Rice

MOST UNNECESSARY RELEASE
Cat People— this could have come direct from the Warner Archives and looked nearly identical apart from the MSRP

MOST FLAWED RELEASE
All of the white line fever releases. Pick one mentally so it’s not a tie

BEST THREAD
2000-2004: Favorite Records (obscure or otherwise)

BEST RELEASE
1. Blood Simple
2. A Brighter Summer Day
3. La Chienne
4. A Taste Of Honey
5. Inside Llewyn Davis

BEST BOXED SET
Wim Wenders Road Trilogy

BEST COMMENTARY
A Brighter Summer Day

BEST "BONUS" FILM
I'm A Stranger Here Myself

BEST ON-DISC NON-COMMENTARY EXTRA
Sonnenfeld/Coen Brothers Scene Commentary for Blood Simple

BEST REISSUE
Carnival Of Souls

BEST UPGRADE
Bicycle Thieves

BEST COVER
Here Comes Mr. Jordan

WORST COVER
A Touch Of Zen

BEST DISCOVERY
Bitter Rice

MOST UNNECESSARY RELEASE
Dr. Strangelove

MOST FLAWED RELEASE
It's incredibly frustrating that Criterion include alternate versions of films in far less than optimal presentations, so this year I go with The New World for having poor, old transfers of the cuts of the film people were already familiar with! The Kid is a close second for not including the original cut at all.

BEST THREAD
Talking records 2000-2004

MEMBER OF THE YEAR
Knives

RICHARD CRANIUM AWARD
Alan Clarke

Taste of Cherry?

A Taste Of Honey! Sorry.

Bought more stuff this year because of Criterion UK, but virtually all of them feel like releases that should have come from elsewhere. Criterion, like MoC, feel so conservative and unambitious for the most part nowadays, althought at least it feels as if Criterion are putting more films out first on Blu-ray.

BEST RELEASE
1) 801 I Knew Her Well
2) 813-816 Wim Wenders: the Road Trilogy
3) 796-797 the Emigrants / the New Land
4) 840 the Executioner
5) 802 Paris Belongs to Us

BEST BOXED SET 813-816 Wim Wenders: the Road Trilogy

BEST MODERN FILM 828 Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words

BEST "BONUS" FILM Cloud Phenomena of Maloja (Clouds of Sils Maria)

BEST REISSUE 197 Night and Fog

BEST UPGRADE 523 Night Train to Munich (it's not coming elsewhere)

BEST COVER


WORST COVER


BEST PACKAGING
(Criterion boxsets are so flimsy so give me these nice amarays for 2-disc releases)

BEST DISCOVERY 840 the Executioner

MOST UNNECESSARY RELEASE 809 Phoenix (turnaround time on contemporary releases needs to improve)

MOST FLAWED RELEASE 799 the Kid

BEST THREAD Dissent & Disruption: Alan Clarke at the BBC

MEMBER OF THE YEAR MichaelB

RICHARD CRANIUM AWARD Alan Clarke

TMDaines wrote:Bought more stuff this year because of Criterion UK, but virtually all of them feel like releases that should have come from elsewhere. Criterion, like MoC, feel so conservative and unambitious for the most part nowadays, althought at least it feels as if Criterion are putting more films out first on Blu-ray.

Surely this year was *far* superior to the last few on this front, though? Troell, Rivette, early Renoir, the Kennedy Films, Berlanga, and probably most significantly Yang don't seem like they're exactly sure-fire bestsellers. 2017 already has *at least* one "ambitious release" in terms of commercial prospects each month so far (Something Wild, Tree of Wooden Clogs, Canoa). I just feel like this is no a year to look down at Criterion for, considering it brought us a ton of stuff I'd not have imagined we'd get by this time last year.

Maybe. But when you release the amount the Criterion does and you can still list them on one hand, or two, doesn't that reveal a lot? I just look at what I've bought from Criterion this year (their UK offshoot admittedly) and it's nearly all classic Hollywood.

I mean, I had to discontinue the Best R1 Rescue category after over 80% of the titles Criterion put out in a year were already released, so maybe bringing back the color coding for it would help highlight how much Criterion has turned into an Art House Shout Factory

TMDaines wrote:Maybe. But when you release the amount the Criterion does and you can still list them on one hand, or two, doesn't that reveal a lot? I just look at what I've bought from Criterion this year (their UK offshoot admittedly) and it's nearly all classic Hollywood.

That's odd, as only three of the 2016 Criterion titles I've bought (Dr. Strangelove, McCabe, and In A Lonely Place) are "classic" Hollywood. In fact, I'd say that between A Brighter Summer Day, La Chienne, El Verdugo, Paris Belongs to Us, Dreams, The Emigrants, the four Wenders titles, and several more I'm sure I've forgotten, the more memorable releases this year have very clearly not been classic Hollywood films. Remember, not all of the titles that came out on Criterion UK this year have actually been 2016 Region A releases.

BEST RELEASE
1. Dekalog
2. A Brighter Summer Day
3. In a Lonely Place
4. The Emigrants/The New Land
5. Chimes at Midnight

BEST BOXED SET
Dekalog

BEST MODERN FILM
Phoenix

BEST COMMENTARY
A Brighter Summer Day

BEST "BONUS" FILM
A Short Film About Love

BEST BOOKLET
Dekalog

BEST REISSUE
Short Cuts

BEST UPGRADE
Bicycle Thieves

BEST COVER
A Touch of Zen

WORST COVER
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

BEST PACKAGING
Dr. Strangelove

BEST DISCOVERY
Bitter Rice

MOST UNNECESSARY RELEASE
Valley of the Dolls

MOST FLAWED RELEASE
Carnival of Souls

MEMBER OF THE YEAR
MichaelB

RICHARD CRANIUM AWARD
Alan Clarke

BEST RELEASE
1. A Brighter Summer Day
2. A Touch of Zen
3. Inside Llewyn Davis
4. I Knew Her Well
5. The Executioner

BEST BOXED SET
Lone Wolf & Cub

BEST MODERN FILM
Inside Llewyn Davis

BEST COMMENTARY
A Brighter Summer Day

BEST "BONUS" FILM
Likely Consequence

BEST BOOKLET
Dr. Strangelove

BEST UPGRADE
Woman in the Dunes

BEST COVER
A Brighter Summer Day

WORST COVER
Clouds of Sils Maria

BEST PACKAGING
Dr. Strangelove

BEST DISCOVERY
A Touch of Zen

MOST UNNECESSARY RELEASE
Boyhood

MOST FLAWED RELEASE
The Exterminating Angel
This is one of the best titles in the collection, I really feel like they could've waited for a better master or new restoration.

Reminder that voting closes Friday (really Saturday morning when I wake up). You are free to edit your ballots up until I say in this thread that you can't. You may also vote secretly via PM. Be sure to cast your ballot so that at least one election in recent memory doesn't go south-- no one wants to be responsible for standing by during Crexit when Jellyfish Eyes somehow wins for a year it wasn't even released during

Best Release
1. A Brighter Summer Day
2. Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
3. Punch-Drunk Love
4. Dekalog
5. Chimes at Midnight

Best Boxed Set
Dekalog

Best Modern Film
Inside Llewyn Davis

Best Booklet
Dr. Strangelove

Best On-Disc Non-Commentary Extra
John Waters on Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (yes, of course I'd say that, but I'd be lying if I implied anything other than this was my favorite of the year's releases)

Best Reissue
Short Cuts

Best Upgrade
Bicycle Thieves (though as films go I prefer Woman in the Dunes, the presentation of Bicycle Thieves made me happier)

Best Cover
Dekalog

Best Non-Criterion releases
1. The Jacques Rivette Collection (Arrow)
2. Pioneers of African-American Cinema (Kino)
3. Mysterious Object at Noon (Second Run) (and yes, I'll all but definitely also buy Criterion's release of this this year)
4. Napoleon (BFI)
5. Joshua Oppenheimer: Early Works (Second Run)
6. Belladonna of Sadness (Cinelicious Pics)
7. Cemetery of Splendor (Strand)
8. River of Grass (Oscilloscope)
9. It s Such a Beautiful Day (Don Hertzfeldt / Kickstarter)
10. Underground (BFI)

(interesting that three of my top ten non-Criterion releases were crowdfunded; of those three (#s 2, 8, 9), I only personally contributed to #9...)

Raymond Marble wrote:10. Underground (BFI)

I know that you have the Kusturica film in mind, but the mentioning of a BFI release of a film called "Underground" reminded me that I've totally forgotten to mention another favourite release of mine of this year, namely "Shooting Stars", of which even after reading the booklet I'm still not quite sure how much Asquith really deserves to be credited as a co-director (or even main director, as the cover seems to indicate). Whatever, another stunning British silent film release which doesn't seem to have gotten the attention it clearly deserves, every way as good as Asquith's official first film, "Underground", and perhaps in its early portrayal of filmmaking itself even the more interesting one. Even if perhaps it was actually made by A. V. Bramble.

BEST RELEASE

Dekalog
Wim Wenders Road Trilogy
In a Lonely Place
Lone Wolf and Cub
Fellini's Roma

BEST BOXED SET

Dekalog

BEST MODERN FILM

Phoenix

BEST REISSUE

Short Cuts

BEST UPGRADE

Woman in the Dunes

BEST COVER

Blood Simple

WORST COVER

The Asphalt Jungle

BEST PACKAGING

Dr. Strangelove

BEST DISCOVERY

I Knew Her Well

MOST UNNECESSARY RELEASE

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls

MOST FLAWED RELEASE

Fantastic Planet

Tommaso wrote:

Raymond Marble wrote:10. Underground (BFI)

I know that you have the Kusturica film in mind, but the mentioning of a BFI release of a film called "Underground" reminded me that I've totally forgotten to mention another favourite release of mine of this year, namely "Shooting Stars", of which even after reading the booklet I'm still not quite sure how much Asquith really deserves to be credited as a co-director (or even main director, as the cover seems to indicate). Whatever, another stunning British silent film release which doesn't seem to have gotten the attention it clearly deserves, every way as good as Asquith's official first film, "Underground", and perhaps in its early portrayal of filmmaking itself even the more interesting one. Even if perhaps it was actually made by A. V. Bramble.

I was a bit underwhelmed with Underground so I held off on buying this. Is Stars better?

BEST RELEASE
A Brighter Summer Day
A Touch of Zen
Akira Kurosawa's Dreams
A Poem is a Naked Person
Death By Hanging

BEST BOXED SET
Dekalog

BEST MODERN FILM
Heart of a Dog

BEST COMMENTARY
A Brighter Summer Day

BEST "BONUS" FILM
A Short Film About Love

BEST BOOKLET
Dr Strangelove

BEST ON-DISC NON-COMMENTARY EXTRA
Kurosawa's Way

BEST REISSUE
Short Cuts

BEST UPGRADE
Woman in the Dunes

BEST COVER
Death By Hanging

WORST COVER
Squid & Whale

BEST PACKAGING
Dr Strangelove

BEST DISCOVERY
A Touch of Zen

Wasn't the deadline originally the 20th? I thought I had more time. Oh well, apologies then to many of the year's major releases.

BEST RELEASE
1. Kurosawa's Dreams
2. Lone Wolf and Cub
3. Roma
4. The Kid
5. The Naked Island

BEST BOXED SET
Dekalog

BEST MODERN FILM
Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words

BEST COMMENTARY
Primary

BEST "BONUS" FILM
Shogun Assassin

BEST BOOKLET / leaflet poster
Cat People

BEST ON-DISC NON-COMMENTARY EXTRA
Eric Holder interview on Kennedy films

BEST REISSUE
Carnival of Souls

BEST UPGRADE
Night Train to Munich

BEST COVER
I Knew Her Well
Runners up: Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, Emigrants / New land, Touch of Zen

WORST COVER
Immortal Story
Runners up: The Naked Island + Short Cuts reissue - for having an identical everything to the previous release. So my B&N had the old + new DVDs next to each other, and good luck easily distingushing them. (print date is the only savior).

BEST PACKAGING
Dr Strangelove - this wins the best packaging of all time award
although a close runner-up is Lone Wolf for the secret panel.

BEST DISCOVERY
Le Amiche

MOST UNNECESSARY RELEASE
Woman in the Dunes - for breaking up a boxset, now leaving those two films in limbo

MOST FLAWED RELEASE
Pan's Labyrinth - gone is my hope for there ever being a Bleak House tour 2

BEST THREAD
Awkward Movie-Watching Situations

MEMBER OF THE YEAR
Newsnayr + doh286 + jwd5275

-------------------------------
Best of Year
Getting three of my most wanted titles in two months + this being the most difficult top 5 I've had to assemble
Filmstruck + never having to deal with Hulu/Yahoo View (or whatever its called this week) again
Finding out Time-Warner has more than just TCM for movie channels (Sundance, MOVIES, etc)
Discovery of Our Miss Brooks + Car 54

Worst of Year
Barnes & Noble were absolutely miserable this year. Their Criterion sale is now dead to me, and all future Criterion orders will be placed at Criterion.com
Netflix for removing everything interesting, especially in comparison to Amazon's offerings
Still no return of Studio Canal, despite the endless hopes and speculation.
Seems like classic tv on blu-ray has already come & gone - and only Mill Creek bothers anymore.

Hopes for 2017
Juzo Itami (Tampopo), the Jacques Cousteau films, Pre-60s German films, Flaherty, return of Studio Canal titles, some Avant-Garde set, and that Trump doesn't destroy everything I love.

Drucker wrote:

Tommaso wrote:

Raymond Marble wrote:10. Underground (BFI)

I know that you have the Kusturica film in mind, but the mentioning of a BFI release of a film called "Underground" reminded me that I've totally forgotten to mention another favourite release of mine of this year, namely "Shooting Stars", of which even after reading the booklet I'm still not quite sure how much Asquith really deserves to be credited as a co-director (or even main director, as the cover seems to indicate). Whatever, another stunning British silent film release which doesn't seem to have gotten the attention it clearly deserves, every way as good as Asquith's official first film, "Underground", and perhaps in its early portrayal of filmmaking itself even the more interesting one. Even if perhaps it was actually made by A. V. Bramble.

I was a bit underwhelemd with Underground so I held off on buying this. Is Stars better?

Difficult to say, as "Underground" is technically extremely accomplished in a way that "Shooting Stars" perhaps isn't fully. But I tend to like "Stars" better. I was also a bit left cold by "Underground", though I wouldn't call it 'underwhelmed', or perhaps only in comparison to "Dartmoor".

BEST RELEASE
A Brighter Summer Day
La chienne
Chimes At Midnight
The Emigrants / The New Land
Akira Kurosawa's Dreams

BEST MODERN FILM
Phoenix

BEST COMMENTARY
Stephen Prince on Dreams
BEST "BONUS" FILM
Pharos of Chaos
BEST ON-DISC NON-COMMENTARY EXTRA
John Waters on Russ Meyer

BEST REISSUE
Carnival of Souls
BEST UPGRADE
Woman in the Dunes

BEST COVER
Lone Wolf and Cub
WORST COVER
Valley of the Dolls

BEST DISCOVERY
I Knew Her Well
MOST UNNECESSARY RELEASE
Boyhood
MOST FLAWED RELEASE
Dekalog

NON-CRITERION RELEASE
Dissent & Disruption: Alan Clarke at the BBC (BFI)
Three Films by Paolo & Vittorio Taviani (Arrow)
Dekalog (Arrow)
The Shop on the High Street (Second Run)
The Rainer Werner Fassbinder Collection (Arrow)
Man With a Movie Camera and Other Works by Dziga Vertov (Eureka)

Already done my Criterion-related awards, but here is my highlights of the rest:

LABEL OF THE YEAR
We're pretty spoilt in the UK right now, and when you consider the ease of importing from the rest of Europe, it increasingly feels as if they're are fewer and fewer reasons to be envious of the US. That said Arrow are on another level right now and are comfortably label of the year.

NON-CRITERION HIGHLIGHTS

1) Gaumont - Pleins feux sur l'assassin: From dodgy backchannel VHS rip to beautiful Blu-ray. Expect this one to come from one of the big British labels or Criterion in 2017.
2) Arrow Academy - Three Films by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani: Bit of a joke how the Cohen release managed to finish so much higher up the Beaver poll.
3) BFI - Shooting Stars: Again from terrible backchannel rip to stunning Blu-ray. Superb work. Surely Dartmoor must be next given the excellent Arte HDTV broadcast.
4) Masters of Cinema - Rocco e i suoi fratelli: All they needed to do was port over the old DVD release to have a definitive Blu-ray. Still one of the highlights as a personal favourite of mine.
5) Masters of Cinema - Early Murnau: Five silent world firsts on Blu-ray from a master? Perhaps not the optimal presentation for one of the films, but still a stunning release.
6) Edition Filmmuseum - Jahrgang 45 & Drei von vielen, Der Sekretär & Ein Weimarfilm: Böttcher is surely one of the most important directors of DEFA so these releases are more than welcome.
7) Sinister Film - La donna del lago: Out in Germany too, but the excellent Italian release is a more affordable single release.
8) Pathé - Julien Duvivier Blu-rays: Pathé are one of the top labels about right now and these releases highlight why.
9) MaNDA - Everything from the Hungarian label MaNDA is a highlight. All dirt cheap and English friendly. Anyone with an interest in Eastern European cinema needs to import.
10) SFI - All the Slovak Blu-rays looks brilliant. Great to see more countries releasing the cream of their cinema in affordable, HD editions.