2015 Criterion Forum Awards

[domino harvey]

VOTING NOW OPEN: LISTS DUE BY JANUARY 15th

IMPORTANT NOTE
The last release of 2015 will be released on December 15th. You may post in this thread before that date but there will be no voting posts allowed until after the 15th. Do not post just to say "Saved" and then edit it later. This is not the Land Run and you are not Tom Cruise or Nicole Kidman. In the event you are Tom Cruise or Nicole Kidman and/or this is in fact the Land Run, my humblest apologies. Any lists posted before December 15th will be deleted and your message will be edited to contain Gossip Girl GIFs.

Please either post your votes in this thread or PM me, domino harvey. You may or may not vote in most categories, but you must provide a ranked Top Five to be counted at all. No ties will be counted in any category, so make the hard decision if you want your vote to matter.

And your 2015 Criterion Awards categories are...
BEST RELEASE Numbered in order from 1-5. Must vote for five titles to have your ballot counted
BEST ECLIPSE
BEST MODERN FILM "New" (within the last five years) films released by Criterion
BEST COMMENTARY New commentaries only, not ports of existing discs from other labels/studios (see list below)
BEST "BONUS" FILM See list below
BEST BOOKLET
BEST ON-DISC NON-COMMENTARY EXTRA
BEST REISSUE
BEST UPGRADE
BEST DISCOVERY For the film that is, as the NBC commercials used to say, new to you
BEST COVER
WORST COVER The hardest decision many of us will make this year
BEST PACKAGING
MOST DISAPPOINTING RELEASE For Criterion's treatment, not the film itself

BEST THREAD The discussion or topic which generated the most interesting discussion this year. Wait, people contribute more than one-liners and bitching to this forum? Links pls

MEMBER OF THE YEAR Past winners of this award are, in order: David Hare, HerrSchreck, zedz, domino harvey, Cold Bishop, Michael Kerpan, swo17, MichaelB, Mr Sausage, Sloper. All of us would love nothing more than to win again, and golly, if you insist we'll take your votes and/or campaign donations, but you are encouraged to spread the love to other deserving members who have not yet won this ultra coveted made-up internet honor.

RICHARD CRANIUM AWARD It took me an embarrassing number of years to get the wordplay inherent here. Once you figure it out for yourself, you'll know what kind of poster deserves to be damned with this designation.

MIA Categories (non-eligible)
BEST BOXED SET is not a voting category this year, as the Apu Trilogy was the sole non-collection boxed set released this year and thus wins in an uncontested bout
BEST R1 RESCUE Films already released in R1 by a label other than Criterion-- when the vast majority of titles released are R1 Rescues, there is no sense in singling them out for special distinction


2015 RELEASES
740 the Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant
741 My Winnipeg
742 the Palm Beach Story
743 La Cienaga
744 Every Man For Himself
745 Don't Look Now
746 A Day in the Country
747 Fellini Satyricon
748 Watership Down
749 the Soft Skin
750 Ride the Pink Horse
751-2 Gates of Heaven / Vernon, Florida
753 the Thin Blue Line
754 Odd Man Out
755 Le silence de la mer
756 Limelight
757 the Rose
758 the Merchant of Four Seasons
759 the Confession
760 State of Siege
761 Valerie and Her Week of Wonders
762 A Master Builder
763 the Bridge
764 the Fisher King
765 the Black Stallion
766 Here is Your Life
767 My Beautiful Launderette
768 the French Lieutenant's Woman
769 Day for Night
770 Dressed to Kill
771 Two Days, One Night
772 Blind Chance
773 Breaker Morant
774 Mister Johnson
775 A Room With a View
776 Moonrise Kingdom
777 the Brood
778 A Special Day
779 Mulholland Drive
780 Code Unknown
781 In Cold Blood
782-785 the Apu Trilogy
786 Don't Look Back
787 Jellyfish Eyes
788 Speedy
789 Burroughs: the Movie

REISSUES
090 Kwaidan
101 Cries and Whispers
118 Sullivan's Travels
196 Hiroshima mon amour
200 the Honeymoon Killers
274 Night and the City
276 the River
280 the Sword of Doom
289 Hoop Dreams

UPGRADES
176 the Killers
221 Ikiru
277 My Own Private Idaho
446 An Autumn Afternoon
475 the Friends of Eddie Coyle
479 My Dinner With Andre
494 Downhill Racer
505 Make Way For Tomorrow

ECLIPSE
42 Silent Ozu-- Three Crime Dramas
43 Agnes Varda in California
44 Julien Duvivier in the Thirties

BONUS FILMS--VOTE FOR ONE FILM, NOT ONE RELEASE
(Compiled by swo17)
My Winnipeg - Puberty / Colours / Elms / Cold / Spanky: To the Pier and Back / Sinclair / Only Dream Things / The Hall Runner / Louis Riel for Dinner
The Palm Beach Story - Safeguarding Military Information
Every Man for Himself - Scénario de "Sauve qui peut (la vie)"
Odd Man Out - Home, James
Le silence de la mer - 24 Hours in the Life of a Clown
Limelight - A Night in the Show / The Professor
The Confession - You Speak of Prague: The Second Trial of Artur London
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders - Uncle / Footprints / The Hall of Lost Footsteps
The Black Stallion - Pigs! / The Perils of Priscilla / Rodeo / Seems Like Only Yesterday / Crystallization
Here Is Your Life - Interlude in the Marshland
Two Days, One Night - When Léon M.'s Boat Went Down the Meuse for the First Time
The Brood - Crimes of the Future
A Special Day - Human Voice
In Cold Blood - With Love from Truman
Dont Look Back - 65 Revisited / Baby / Lambert & Co.
Speedy - Bumping into Broadway

COMMENTARIES
(Compiled by swo17 & Jean-Luc Garbo)
Fellini Satyricon
Ride the Pink Horse
Kwaidan
Moonrise Kingdom
Speedy
Burroughs: The Movie
Sword of Doom

VISUAL AID



(Courtesy of Minkin)

[zedz]

La Cienaga and Blind Chance are R1 rescues as well. The former was released by HVE and the latter by Kino.

EDIT: Oh, and A Special Day as well, apparently.

Let's just assume that Jellyfish Eyes is the only genuine new release this year.

[criterion10]

Aren't Ikiru, The Honeymoon Killers, and Hoop Dreams all upgrades?

[Gregory]

Mister Johnson had a North American DVD release as well, as seen in the Worst DVD Covers Ever thread.

[movielocke]

Hoop dreams definitely is an upgrade. I like the nomenclature of "second edition" and " format upgrade" myself.

On the bonus films, "Uncle" is probably my favorite so far, an elegant little story pulled off beautifully. And it's only like three minutes, so everyone should be able to find time to watch it.

[swo17]

How many of these retreads are really "rescues" at this point? I'd rather vote between the severed handful of films in the inverse category--best rescue from obscurity.

[Minkin]

EDIT: Oh, and A Special Day as well, apparently.

The DVD on Amazon was put out by a firm called Televista, aka JEF Films, both of which are apparently bootleggers (Amazon for whatever reason stocks their products despite the legal issues - see the Cover Art thread from a while ago). While I don't think this therefore exactly qualifies as an R1 release, I suppose its about similar to Facets and Valerie.

[Arthur House]

The Soft Skin was one of the long OOP R1 Fox Lorber Truffauts.

[domino harvey]

I have removed the R1 Rescue category on the grounds that Criterion has done little else but that of late and it makes no sense to single out one title when all but a dozen mainline films released this year had earlier R1 releases

[swo17]

Plus what's the point of any category where Jellyfish Eyes is ineligible?

[jwd5275]

Doesn't Hoop Dreams qualify as a reissue with the new documentary?

[zedz]

I have removed the R1 Rescue category on the grounds that Criterion has done little else but that of late and it makes no sense to single out one title when all but a dozen mainline films released this year had earlier R1 releases

Makes sense, but please retain that incredibly revealing colour coding on the list. With all that green, maybe Criterion's aiming for some kind of recycling award?

[domino harvey]

Doesn't Hoop Dreams qualify as a reissue with the new documentary?

Yes it does, thanks and thank you to everyone else's helpful corrections to the first post!

[Mr Sausage]

Wasn't last year's member of the year Sloper rather than Shrew?

[domino harvey]

[Shrew]

I wish I could put out thoughtful, quality content on Sloper's level.

Also, we could do a "Best R1 Debut" category, or a "Best RA Rescue" --though that may only apply to the future, hopefully not platicized and blue-tinged releases of Spartacus and Do the Right Thing.

[lacritfan]

Why did you choose a picture of jellyfish?

[mizo]

Why did you choose a picture of jellyfish?

Because domino's love of Spongebob runs far too deep to not occasionally reveal itself in the strangest of places. Why, one time he PM'ed me a book-length diatribe about his obsession. The strangest part was that otherwise, to my knowledge, we've only ever spoken once or twice. Hmm...

[HerrSchreck]

Ah, the memories of Criterion Forum awards gone by. I still have a hangover and the bloody handkerchief that plugged up zedz' cuts from David Hare's doinking zedz on the shoulders with the magic ANglo Sword on the night of the 2008 ceremonial Transition of Power. And Michael Kerpan using words that managed to universally signify " ;-} " (as well as the little _underline_ on some words) to all who heard them. Wild nights in Flump County, they was. . . .

[swo17]

I believe these are all the releases this year with new audio commentaries:

Fellini Satyricon
Ride the Pink Horse
Kwaidan
Moonrise Kingdom
Speedy
Burroughs: The Movie

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

There's also Stephen Prince's select scene commentary on Sword of Doom.

[swo17]

Didn't check that one because it was merely in the upgrade category. Should it be moved to the reissues?

[isakborg]

I must have been asleep when the distinction was made between a reissue and an upgrade. Could someone please enlighten me?

[tenia]

I must have been asleep when the distinction was made between a reissue and an upgrade. Could someone please enlighten me?

A reissue usually comes with very different extras (and also often a new cover) than the previous DVD release, ending being very different from what was released the previous time. It most often also means the DVD will have a new release too to allow non-equipped customers to have access to the fresh editorial content.

An Autumn Afternoon or Downhill Racer are typical upgrades while Kwaidan obviously is a reissue (being even a different cut compared to the older DVD !), like Night & The City which now includes the British cut.

A debatable title in the 2 lists here would be The Honeymoon Killers which I would tend to class as a reissue because 2 thirds of the extras present on the BD weren't on the old DVD and it lead to a new DVD release alongside the BD one.

Your mileage may vary, though.

[domino harvey]

Didn't check that one because it was merely in the upgrade category. Should it be moved to the reissues?

I hate it when Criterion adds features but keeps the cover the same! Updated