2019 Criterion Forum Awards

News on Criterion and Janus Films.
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domino harvey
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Re: 2019 Criterion Forum Awards

#26 Post by domino harvey » Tue Dec 10, 2019 1:40 pm

knives wrote:
Tue Dec 10, 2019 12:42 pm
Legit don't get the votes against Godzilla. I get if that's not your jam, but decent transfers of the whole era is fairly disqualifying as worst.
As the first post says, the Unnecessary category can be for films people don’t think deserved the Criterion treatment. Perfectly fair game

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Never Cursed
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Re: 2019 Criterion Forum Awards

#27 Post by Never Cursed » Tue Dec 10, 2019 1:51 pm

Literally any large boutique label could have done the same or better with regards to the set itself, and Criterion isn't responsible for the transfers (from what I understand, didn't Toho restore the films internally?). Again, I see no reason why it has to be or should be a Criterion release other than because it will allow Criterion to do other, more interesting things with the profits. For what it's worth, I thought the same about the previous Godzilla Criterion.

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Re: 2019 Criterion Forum Awards

#28 Post by DarkImbecile » Tue Dec 10, 2019 2:02 pm

domino harvey wrote:
Tue Dec 10, 2019 1:40 pm
knives wrote:
Tue Dec 10, 2019 12:42 pm
Legit don't get the votes against Godzilla. I get if that's not your jam, but decent transfers of the whole era is fairly disqualifying as worst.
As the first post says, the Unnecessary category can be for films people don’t think deserved the Criterion treatment. Perfectly fair game
Exactly... definitely not the worst release of the year, just the last one that I would buy.

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domino harvey
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Re: 2019 Criterion Forum Awards

#29 Post by domino harvey » Tue Dec 10, 2019 2:33 pm

movielocke, look literally two posts up from yours. While Criterion calls it a commentary, zedz points out it’s really a series of video essays that play out over stills, not the film— ie isn’t actually a commentary as we use the term. You can still vote for it as best extra

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swo17
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Re: 2019 Criterion Forum Awards

#30 Post by swo17 » Tue Dec 10, 2019 3:48 pm

Best Release
1. The Koker Trilogy
2. To Sleep with Anger
3. Japón
4. War and Peace
5. Matewan

Best Boxed Set
The Koker Trilogy

Best Modern Release
Let the Sunshine In

Best Commentary
And Life Goes On

Best Bonus Film
Homework

Best Book/Booklet
Godzilla: The Showa Era

Best Other Supplement
Detour restoration featurette

Best Reissue
Do the Right Thing

Best Blu-ray Upgrade
Häxan

Best Cover
Image

Best Packaging
The Koker Trilogy

Best Rediscovery
Wanda

Most Unnecessary
Betty Blue--even if you like the film (which I don't) a collector's edition should include both cuts

Most Flawed
Godzilla: The Showa Era--most of these films are new to me and they're a lot of fun but I gather this set is only maybe 80% of what it could have been--more English dubs, more alternate versions, more ancillary kaiju films. Criterion was obviously eager to make this a showcase set but Toho seemed to want to leave it lacking

Best Thread
Michel Deville

Best Other Releases
The Best of the British Transport Films (BFI)
The Extraordinary World of Charley Bowers (Flicker Alley)
The Films of Jan Švankmajer (Athanor)
Hale County This Morning, This Evening (Cinema Guild)
Khrustalyov, My Car! (Arrow Academy)
King of the Children (Diskino)
Léon Morin, Priest (Kino)
Marlene Dietrich & Josef von Sternberg at Paramount, 1930-1935 (Indicator)
The Triple Echo (Indicator)
World on a Wire (Second Sight)

Forum Member of the Year
therewillbeblus

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soundchaser
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Re: 2019 Criterion Forum Awards

#31 Post by soundchaser » Tue Dec 10, 2019 3:51 pm

I think there might be a bonus film missing from the list: "One Hundred a Day" from the My Brilliant Career release. It wasn't in the original list of supplements, which may be why it was left off.

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Re: 2019 Criterion Forum Awards

#32 Post by swo17 » Tue Dec 10, 2019 3:52 pm

Yep, good catch

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zedz
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Re: 2019 Criterion Forum Awards

#33 Post by zedz » Tue Dec 10, 2019 5:05 pm

BEST RELEASES:
The Koker Trilogy - Well, duh. Three of the most important films in cinema history, never released in English-friendly editions with decent transfers before now. This should be Criterion's core business, and they did the films proud.
To Sleep With Anger - Well, double duh. One of the most important American films of all time, ditto ditto.
The Flavor of Green Tea over Rice - A personal favourite getting lovely care and attention. This slot was a toss-up with Diamonds of the Night, but the Second Run edition diluted Criterion's impact.
Swing Time - Not my favourite Astaire / Rogers, but this is a superb edition with every extra adding to the quality with very little overlap. A really well-curated and produced edition (see also Matewan)
Do the Right Thing - If you're going to reissue something for the umpteenth time, you have to pull out all the stops (and get it looking correct).

BEST BOX SET:
The Koker Trilogy - no competition this year.

BEST MODERN FILM:
Let the Sunshine In

BEST COMMENTARY:
In a surprise twist, it's The Baker's Wife!!!

Nah, And Life Goes On

BEST BONUS FILM:
Homework

BEST EXTRA:
Well, I've made an effort to go through the bulk of these this year, and I've seen some fine ones, but the one that immediately springs to mind is:
Lucille Carra's interview on The Inland Sea.

I might change this if my memory is prompted by other suggestions.

BEST REISSUE:
Do the Right Thing

BEST UPGRADE:
3 Silent Classics by Josef von Sternberg - Mainly because I wasn't expecting it at all.

BEST COVER:
Image

It was actually not a bad year at all, compared to some. Very nearly went for L'Humanite (sorry, swo).

WORST COVER:
I actually spent more time on this topic than any other, because I didn't want to go with the obvious choice, but goddamn if Cluny Brown didn't fall out of the Ugly Tree and hit every branch on the way down. I'm not going to post it again here and increase the amount of sadness in the world.

BEST PACKAGING:
The Koker Trilogy - Criterion's most innovative packaging: and it's handsome, ingenious and thematically dead-on.

BEST DISCOVERY:
Cluny Brown - Don't judge a book by its cover.

MOST UNNECESSARY RELEASE:
I Wanna Hold Your Hand - Lame film compounded by an irritating commentary where the filmmakers guffaw at their own miserable jokes and whine about those pesky unions.

I was very tempted to vote for Godzilla, but if the profits from that go towards more Koker Trilogies, then it's an absolutely necessary release.

MOST FLAWED RELEASE:
All About Eve - Haven't even looked at the discs yet, but that sticky knob debacle is a calamitous own goal. Opened it up and both covers of the booklet were stuck to them. Is this supposed to be a dry run for the pop-up packaging on the forthcoming Zeman set, I wondered?

BEST THREAD:
The Music Video Mini-List - Mainly because it alerted me to a bunch of great videos and a bunch of great music, not always at the same time.

MEMBER OF THE YEAR:
therewillbeblus - Well, obviously.

RICHARD CRANIUM AWARD:
I reserve the right to change this when somebody reminds me of a more epic flame out, but Donald Brown's literal inability to write something substantial about a movie to save himself is one of the most hilarious exits from this forum that I've ever seen.

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soundchaser
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Re: 2019 Criterion Forum Awards

#34 Post by soundchaser » Tue Dec 10, 2019 5:25 pm

BEST RELEASE
1. Until the End of the World
2. To Sleep With Anger
3. Do The Right Thing
4. Now, Voyager
5. My Brilliant Career

(Honorable Mention to Mikey and Nicky, which I really wanted to vote for despite the supplements being not quite as stellar.)

BEST BOXED SET: The Koker Trilogy
BEST MODERN FILM: Cold War

BEST COMMENTARY: The only one I listened to this year was The Baker’s Wife...whoops.
BEST "BONUS" FILM: One Hundred a Day
BEST BOOKLET: Do The Right Thing
BEST ON-DISC NON-COMMENTARY EXTRA: The Restoration of Detour -- as I mentioned in the Criterionforum BAFTAS thread last year, I’m an absolute sucker for restoration features, things that trace the material history of film prints, etc. This one was no less fascinating for me.

BEST REISSUE: Do the Right Thing
BEST UPGRADE: Magnificent Obsession - mostly for the film itself. I realize Haxan probably merits this more, but it’s going to get a lot of love regardless.

BEST COVER:

Image
CLUNY BROWNIEST COVER: Not throwing a monkey wrench into this one - Cluny Brown
BEST PACKAGING: The Koker Trilogy

BEST DISCOVERY: To Sleep With Anger - what a discovery! As zedz says above, it’s clearly a milestone (pun perhaps intended) in American film, and the whole package is gorgeous. (A definite contender in the Best Cover category)
MOST UNNECESSARY RELEASE: All About Eve - A transfer basically identical to the Fox release and extras previously available elsewhere, plus the awful packaging. Absolutely no reason to pick this one up other than a spine number.
MOST FLAWED RELEASE: Godzilla: The Showa-Era Films - as others have said, this release could have been so much more than it turned out to be. The lack of English versions, a serious dearth of academic content, and splice-ridden outdated transfers make the films seem almost secondary compared to everything else this year. Ironic, given the big spine number status and emphasis Criterion has put on the set.

BEST THREAD: The Music Video Mini-List -- what a fun thread! These List projects are always a little daunting, but this one was an enjoyable experience the whole way through
MEMBER OF THE YEAR: Therewillbeblus -- as others have said, he became one of the most valuable members of the forum this year. I’d like to mention specifically his contributions to the Peter Bogdanovich thread, his recent reading of Under the Sun of Satan, and his stellar rundowns in the List Project threads.
RICHARD CRANIUM AWARD: It feels mean to kick Donald Brown while he’s down, but what a spectacular moment. I almost respect it, in a way.

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swo17
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Re: 2019 Criterion Forum Awards

#35 Post by swo17 » Tue Dec 10, 2019 5:35 pm

zedz wrote:
Tue Dec 10, 2019 5:05 pm
Very nearly went for L'Humanite (sorry, swo).
Actually, seeing the Ozu cover that large is making me second guess myself

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domino harvey
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Re: 2019 Criterion Forum Awards

#36 Post by domino harvey » Tue Dec 10, 2019 6:04 pm

BEST RELEASES OF THE YEAR
01 To Sleep With Anger
02 War and Peace
03 the Daytrippers
04 A Face in the Crowd
05 Cold War

Best Modern Film:
Cold War
Best Non-Commentary Extra Discussion between PP and AGI on Cold War

Reissue: Do the Right Thing
Upgrade: Haxan

Best Cover:

Image

Worst Cover: Cluny Brown

Most Unnecessary Release: the Story of Temple Drake
Most Flawed Release: All About Eve

Best Thread: Michel Deville - I hope one day some enterprising home video labels take a leap of faith and allow the rest of you to discover what TWBB and I documented this year in our exploration of one of the world’s best directors of all time, a would-be towering figure of the medium left to rot on a shelf in some distro's closet. Film scholars, movie lovers, boutique labels, and supposed taste-makers all failed us for decades on end in their silence, ignorance, and/or dismissal of these films and their auteur.

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zedz
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Re: 2019 Criterion Forum Awards

#37 Post by zedz » Tue Dec 10, 2019 7:24 pm

The British version of this thread has just been opened over here.

This year, the ballot is determined by your nominations, so literally use it or lose it.

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Therewolf
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Re: 2019 Criterion Forum Awards

#38 Post by Therewolf » Wed Dec 11, 2019 12:38 am

BEST RELEASE -
1) Detour
2) War and Peace
3) The Circus
4) Swing Time
5) The Kid Brother

BEST BOXED SET - Police Story
BEST MODERN FILM - Cold War
BEST COMMENTARY - The Circus
BEST "BONUS" FILM - Edgar G. Ulmer: the Man Off-Screen (Detour)
BEST BOOKLET - Detour
BEST REISSUE - Notorious
BEST UPGRADE - Magnificent Obsession

BEST COVER - The Inland Sea (followed closely by Cold War and Now Voyager)
CLUNY BROWNIEST COVER - You know, when seen in person, the Cluny Brown cover isn't that bad. It's not good, but there are several that are worse. The worst of the bunch: Death in Venice
BEST PACKAGING - Do the Right Thing

BEST DISCOVERY - The Story of Temple Drake
MOST UNNECESSARY RELEASE - Betty Blue
MOST FLAWED RELEASE - All About Eve

BEST OTHER RELEASES -
The Tough Ones (Grindhouse)
Khrustalyov, My Car (Arrow)
Requiem for Gringo (Wild East)

RICHARD CRANIUM AWARD - Me, for lurking without contributing. I just wish I had something interesting to say.
Last edited by Therewolf on Sat Dec 14, 2019 7:31 pm, edited 4 times in total.

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Re: 2019 Criterion Forum Awards

#39 Post by AfterTheRain » Wed Dec 11, 2019 2:44 pm

BEST RELEASE
1. War and Peace
2. Until the End of the World
3. Swing Time
4. The Circus
5. Godzilla: The Showa Era Films

Honorable Mentions: Blue Velvet, Local Hero, In the Heat of the Night, The Heiress

BEST BOXED SET
Godzilla: The Showa Era Films

BEST MODERN FILM
Cold War

BEST COMMENTARY
The Circus

BEST BONUS FILM
"Blue Velvet" Revisited

BEST BOOKLET
All About Eve (as long as its not damaged by the packaging)

BEST ON-DISC NON-COMMENTARY EXTRA
It's a Strange World: The Filming of "Blue Velvet"

BEST REISSUE
Do the Right Thing

BEST UPGRADE
Magnificent Obsession

BEST COVER
War and Peace

WORST COVER
Cluny Brown (is there really any doubt here?)

BEST PACKAGING
Godzilla: The Showa Era Films

BEST DISCOVERY
War and Peace

MOST UNNECESSARY RELEASE
Betty Blue (the lack of the second cut is very disappointing)

MOST FLAWED RELEASE
All About Eve (if only for the knob debacle on the packaging)

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swo17
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Re: 2019 Criterion Forum Awards

#40 Post by swo17 » Wed Dec 11, 2019 4:12 pm

I get the hate against the All About Eve packaging, but it seems kind of petty when Criterion quickly addressed the issue and offered to fix it for everyone for free

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domino harvey
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Re: 2019 Criterion Forum Awards

#41 Post by domino harvey » Wed Dec 11, 2019 4:14 pm

Shouldn’t have come up in the first place

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swo17
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Re: 2019 Criterion Forum Awards

#42 Post by swo17 » Wed Dec 11, 2019 4:19 pm

Sure but in the end it doesn't affect my life in the slightest whereas Criterion will take a moderate financial hit for it, which is punishment enough as it is

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DarkImbecile
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Re: 2019 Criterion Forum Awards

#43 Post by DarkImbecile » Wed Dec 11, 2019 4:24 pm

They changed the Cluny Brown cover for free, too

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Minkin
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Re: 2019 Criterion Forum Awards

#44 Post by Minkin » Wed Dec 11, 2019 6:17 pm

BEST RELEASE
1. Polyester
2. Local Hero
3. The Kid Brother
4. Blue Velvet
5. Hedwig and the Angry Inch

BEST BOXED SET
Police Story I & II

BEST MODERN FILM
24 Frames

BEST "BONUS" FILM
Soul Power

BEST BOOKLET
Polyester (for including the Odorama card)

BEST REISSUE
Notorious

BEST UPGRADE
Haxan

BEST COVER
Polyester
(runners up): Klute, The Inland Sea, Japon, and The Magic Flute

CLUNY BROWNIEST COVER
Let the Sunshine In

BEST PACKAGING
Koker Trilogy

BEST DISCOVERY
The Baker's Wife

MOST UNNECESSARY RELEASE
All of the Bergman films being re-released outside of the boxset

MOST FLAWED RELEASE
Godzilla set. Toho or not, this was a huge letdown: missing dubs; alt versions; worse transfers; and even missing some of the Kaiju films they own

BEST THREAD
Exploring the World Through Cinema Project

MEMBER OF THE YEAR
theflirtydozen - for helping me with the decades list projects + being a great resource!

Best of Year
-Finally ditching cable
-Sold more movies than I bought
-finished cataloging our films
-Am still alive

Worst of Year
-the Godzilla set
-Didn't participate in list projects as much as I had hoped
-No more TCM for me
-Have a 2TB harddrive full of movies I need to watch (great, now I have digital kevyip)

Hopes for 2020
John Waters (Pink Flamingos), the Jacques Cousteau films, Keaton's Cameraman, Busby Berkeley musicals, Flaherty, return of Studio Canal / OOP titles, some Avant-Garde shorts set

JakeStewart
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Re: 2019 Criterion Forum Awards

#45 Post by JakeStewart » Fri Dec 13, 2019 10:19 am

BEST RELEASE
1. The Koker Trilogy
2. To Sleep With Anger
3. Detour
4. A Face in the Crowd
5. War and Peace

BEST BOXED SET
The Koker Trilogy

BEST REISSUE
Notorious

BEST UPGRADE
The BRD Trilogy

BEST COVER
Image

WORST COVER
Image

BEST DISCOVERY
The Cloud-Capped Star

MOST UNNECESSARY RELEASE
All About Eve

MOST FLAWED RELEASE
Death in Venice

Rupert Pupkin
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Re: 2019 Criterion Forum Awards

#46 Post by Rupert Pupkin » Sat Dec 14, 2019 12:36 am

BEST RELEASE
1. War And Peace
2. The Kid Brother
3. La Vérité
4. Swing Time
5. Betty Blue

BEST BOXED SET
The BRD Trilogy / A Film Trilogy by Ingmar Bergman

BEST REISSUE
Notorious

BEST UPGRADE
The BRD Trilogy / Do The Right Thing

BEST COVER
War And Peace (too bad it was not a beautiful digiback)

WORST COVER
Death in Venice

BEST DISCOVERY
Cold War

MOST UNNECESSARY RELEASE
Let the Sunshine In

MOST FLAWED RELEASE
Death in Venice

Hopes for 2020 : Crash (David Cronenberg) (I know a X4 restoration is coming in Germany), Kechiche's Mektoub My Love box set, Kechiche's Blue Is The Warmest Colour with bonus (although I highly doubt that we will see it), Kechiche "L'Esquive" on blu-ray, and pendant qu'on y est "La Faute à Voltaire" (well, a Kechiche box set), Turkish Delight (Paul Verhoeven), Exotica (X4 restoration Atom Egoyan), L'Ete en Pente Douce (after "Betty Blue", why not Pauline Lafont ?), The Mirror (Tarkovsky) X4 """real restoration""", Roman Holiday.

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Re: 2019 Criterion Forum Awards

#47 Post by colinr0380 » Tue Dec 24, 2019 2:06 pm

BEST RELEASE Numbered in order from 1-5. Must vote for five titles to have your ballot counted. Boxed sets can also be voted on in this category
1. To Sleep With Anger
2. The Koker Trilogy
3. L’humanite
4. Wanda
5. Until The End of the World

And just because it was too good a year to leave it at that:
6. Japon
7. Hedwig And The Angry Inch
8. Diamonds of the Night
9. Europa, Europa
10. Detour

BEST BOXED SET
The Koker Trilogy

BEST MODERN FILM "New" (within the last five years) films released by Criterion
24 Frames

BEST COMMENTARY New commentaries only, not ports of existing discs from other labels/studios (see list below)
The Daytrippers

BEST "BONUS" FILM See list below
One Hundred a Day on My Brilliant Career

BEST BOOKLET
1984, which doubles as a great propaganda poster to hang on the wall and unnerve visitors!

BEST ON-DISC NON-COMMENTARY EXTRA
The discussion between Amat Escalante and Carlos Reygadas on Japon

BEST REISSUE
Do The Right Thing

BEST UPGRADE Former DVD titles upgraded without new features
3 Silent Classics by Josef von Sternberg

BEST COVER
So many strong covers this year. I know only one counts but I have to throw out a top five anyway:

1. Death In Venice
2. L’humanite
3. To Sleep With Anger
4. The Daytrippers
5. Until The End of the World

Any one of those could have been top (and many others: for instance the cover for Shame and The Magic Flute seriously made me crazily consider picking up the discs just for them, despite having the Bergman boxset! But relatively calmer heads prevailed on that one. And I love the way that the style of the Old Joy cover pairs with Certain Women), but I just keep coming back to the sickly looking beauty of the bust in Death In Venice.

CLUNY BROWNIEST COVER
Cluny Brown

BEST PACKAGING
Godzilla: The Showa-Era Films 1954-1975 (though I’m keeping my earlier copy of Godzilla for the pop up packaging!)

BEST DISCOVERY For the film that is, as the NBC commercials used to say, new to you
Matewan – I missed a rare television screening of it in the mid 90s and had been kicking myself over it ever since. More John Sayles please! (Eight Men Out? Limbo? City of Joy? Return of the Seacaucus Seven?)

MOST UNNECESSARY RELEASE For the film that didn’t need to join the Collection, either for personal reasons (you hate it) or because Criterion’s additions added little to already available editions
Nothing really stood out to me this year as unnecessary so I will cheat and just say Shame, since we already have the boxset, and nothing was done to take advantage of a standalone release (see 'Flawed Release' below)

MOST FLAWED RELEASE For Criterion's treatment, not the film itself
Probably Shame again for the issues over not taking the opportunity to do a stand alone release to increase the bit rate on the disc and make it a worthwhile standalone purchase in its own right, no matter how enticing that cover looks!

BEST THREAD For the discussion that yielded the most interesting insights or entertainment this year
I will second the Michel Deville thread, where domino really made an enormous contribution in championing a filmmaker’s work. As with zedz’s posts on Alexander Kluge years ago there is nothing really that I could contribute to the discussion but those posts are going to be invaluable to return to over and over again, and compare my reactions against when I do get to see more of this director’s work for myself.

MEMBER OF THE YEAR For the member with the best contributions to the forum this year
It really has to be therewillbeblus, as I have found their posts always interesting and willing to dive into a discussion of the themes of whatever film is capturing their attention.

But I want to have an honourable mention to Minkin too, for their sterling work in collating the Criterion rumours list, which has taken the forum’s monthly speculation over new titles and guesses from the yearly picture clue from something that I had just a passing interest in to an essential round up that I always look forward to. And the Exploring the World Through Cinema thread, which although I really did not feel I was in the position to really meaningfully contribute to, I think was a wonderful addition to the forum.

RICHARD CRANIUM AWARD For the member with the worst contributions to the forum this year
I’m not sure really. I mean even Kino Insider provided some press releases that brought titles that would otherwise have passed me by to my attention, so I cannot really even vote for them with a clear conscience!

____
Here's an overall top ten releases of the year, whatever region:

1. The Ring Trilogy (Arrow Films) - the epicentre of the whole Japanese horror cycle of the late 90s gets its due in a wonderfully comprehensive set. Indispensible.
2. The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On (Second Run) - I was too young to have seen this on its one and only UK television showing in the late 1980s, and I never thought that this would get a release, but Second Run comes through again (the five hour version of Until The End of the World is the Criterion equivalent pleasant surprise of the year)
3. Akio Jissôji: The Buddhist Trilogy (Arrow Films) - Arrow again manages to make a trilogy box set contain four films. Not that I am complaining in the slightest!
4. Demonlover (Arrow), and I'll double it up with getting to discover Terra Formars through the Arrow disc as well
5. The Hong Sang-soo corner: The Day After (Cinema Guild) / Hotel By The River (Cinema Guild), which nicely complement Cinema Guild's previous Blu-ray releases of On The Beach At Night Alone and Claire's Camera from previous years.
6. 80s anime space warfare: The US editions of Space Runaway Ideon: The Complete Series and Movies (Maiden Japan), but also an honourable mention to the three separate releases that together made up a comprehensive set of the Armored Trooper Votoms show: one set of the TV Series, and then two covering the OVA films. (I'm still waiting on a way to obtain Legend of the Galactic Heroes however. Maybe next year?). I'm going to triple this up with the Anime Limited release of Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade on Blu-ray in the UK.
7. The Vinegar Syndrome corner: Taking Tiger Mountain (an early role for Bill Paxton in a black and white film set in rural Wales that remained unfinished for decades. The most fasincating release of the year), and 9 Lives of a Wet Pussy (otherwise known as Abel Ferrara's first feature film before The Driller Killer)
8. Romance (Second Sight) - Catherine Breillat's most infamous film got a 20th anniversary edition. Will any enterprising label rescue the even better Anatomy of Hell (previously released by Tartan Video on DVD in the UK) for a Blu-ray release in the future?
9. All About Lily Chou-Chou (Film Movement)
10. Of Flesh and Blood: The Cinema of Hirokazu Kore-eda (BFI) and Shoplifters (Thunderbird)

I do not feel that it would be proper to vote for them since I contributed to their Indiegogo and Kickstarter campaigns respectively, but I'm absolutely besotted with the Blu-ray boxset collecting all of Jan Švankmajer features, and had the wonderful early Christmas present just on Monday of receiving a package containing the beautiful new edition of the early 90s Gunsmith Cats series from AnimEigo (Here's a video of another backer opening their edition). At the same time as backing Gunsmith Cats I picked up the series kickstarted in previous years, Riding Bean (which Gunsmith Cats kind of spun off out of) and the amazing animation crossed with documentary film Otaku no Video (I particularly like the VHS packaging styling on this one, which will sit nicely against Videodrome!), which came with all the patches and chipboard boxes, and Bubblegum Crisis in its standard Blu-ray edition.

So it has been a very Japanese year all around! The following are the US "honorable" mentions that are the rest of the releases that caught my eye this year. If you want the UK hono(u)rable mentions, I focused on them specifically here:

Kino had a great year (off social media!) with Four Times That Night, letting Mario Bava's sex comedy take on Rashomon finally get its Blu-ray due. Also the Cattet and Forzani film Let The Corpses Tan and Godard's The Image Book. I was also particularly glad to get a widescreen edition of Fred Schepisi's film Iceman (making it a kind of Schepisi year with the Masters of Cinema release of The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith).

The other Kino release that caught my attention was the three separate disc releases of Emmanuelle, Emmanuelle 2 and Goodbye Emmanuelle. This was kind of a Just Jaeckin year too with the career-bookending releases of Kino's Emmanuelle and Severin's edition of Gwendoline (NSFW), or The Perils of Gwendoline In The Land of the Yik-Yak (aka the T&A version of an Indiana Jones or Romancing The Stone-style romp, with extra S&M). Hopefully we might get some editions of Girls or particularly the eye-popping The Story of O at some point in future years!

On Severin, they had an excellent year with the four hour giallo trailer compilation set All The Colors Of Giallo. Ecco & The Forbidden were two separate releases of Mondo film rarities. Joe D'Amato's Emanuelle and Fancoise added to the Em(m)anuelle deluge of the year. And it was great to finally see the 1996 Wax Mask film, that ended up being much more entertaining than I thought it would be!

Arrow did some great US only editions with Killer Nun and Who Saw Her Die? It is a bit too late for me to add their edition of Slaughterhouse Five to my list though!

And a lot of the smaller indie labels released valuable titles this year. The Film Movement edition of All About Lily Chou-Chou is my stand in for this trend on my top ten, but it was fantastic to also see: Bisbee '17 (Grasshopper Film), Knife + Heart (Altered Innocence), The Tough Ones (Grindhouse), Gebo and the Shadow (Cinema Guild), as well as the Cinema Guild edition of The Wild Pear Tree with its over six hour 'making of' documentary.

Also Blue Underground released an enormously deluxe edition of The New York Ripper and Two Evil Eyes, each with lenticular covers. What a world that we live in!

In US release terms, it was good to see Greta get a Blu-ray release, as that remains a DVD only release in the UK.

The other Vinegar Syndrome corner:
In The Cold Of The Night
Decoder, with added William S. Burroughs!

The weird world of Mondo Macabro :
The Killer of Dolls
Woman Chasing The Butterfly of Death, the wacky film from Kim Ki-young, better known for the 1960 arthouse classic The Housemaid. On this evidence we really need to see more of his films to see how he developed from one place to the other!

Then there is Shout! who had a very impressive year with:

The Harder They Come and the first release for Henzell's follow up film No Place Like Home
8mm
Quatermass 2 and Quatermass and the Pit (and The Abominable Snowman is due to have come out this month)
The Blob (1988) - finally I can see it outside of the limited Twilight Time edition
The Fly Collection - an amazing set collecting the three original films of the series along with the the remake and its sequel. That's almost the final word on all those films, at least until UHD!

And last but not least the ongoing Nikkatsu Roman Porno series continued on DVD, revealing new dimensions with eye-popping titles such as Lolita: Vibrator Torture, Flight Attendant: Scandal, Zoom Up: Seiko's Thigh, Woman In A Box: Virgin Sacrifice, Nun's Diary: Confession, Women In Prison and Nurse Girls' Dorm: Shamed Angel, and which all got released this year. Even Jasper Sharp appears to have thrown in the towel at this point, as his liner notes that the first twenty or so releases came with have stopped, although his Behind The Pink Curtain book on the films has been an invaluable research aid. In particular I am even more nervous to watch the sex-horror themed Woman In A Box film now that it seems that a lot of the action is pretty much unfaked hardcore (albeit still obscured with the required censorship blocks) from Sharp's write up of it.

It feels like another great year and this is without being able to find room to champion all the great UK releases more, from mentioning The Possessed, Donbass, the Oldboy set, A Case For A Rookie Hangman, Black Joy, the Flipside series continuing by the BFI, the American Horror Project Volume 2 (and associated releases of Toys Are Not For Children and Hitch Hike To Hell), Aniara, Bloody Terror, Scum, Track 29, The Andromeda Strain, Schramm, 90 Degrees In The Shade, The Fate of Lee Khan, The Legacy, Yakuza Law, In The Aftermath, etc, etc. But that is for another list...!

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criterionsnob
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 1:23 am
Location: Canada

Re: 2019 Criterion Forum Awards

#48 Post by criterionsnob » Sat Jan 04, 2020 4:23 am

BEST RELEASE (1-5)
1. The Koker Trilogy
2. To Sleep with Anger
3. Mikey and Nicky
4. Diamonds of the Night
5. L’humanité

BEST BOXED SET
The Koker Trilogy

BEST MODERN FILM
Cold War

BEST COMMENTARY
Haven’t listened to any.

BEST "BONUS" FILM
Homework [The Koker Trilogy]

BEST BOOKLET
Do the Right Thing

BEST ON-DISC NON-COMMENTARY EXTRA
Five Influences on "Diamonds" [James Quandt video essay on Diamonds of the Night]

BEST REISSUE
Notorious

BEST UPGRADE
The BRD Trilogy

BEST COVER
Until the End of the World

WORST COVER
Cluny Brown

BEST PACKAGING
Do the Right Thing

BEST DISCOVERY
To Sleep with Anger

MOST UNNECESSARY RELEASE
The Magic Flute

MOST FLAWED RELEASE
Godzilla: the Showa Era Films, 1954-1975

NON-CRITERION
A Bread Factory [Grasshopper]

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tenia
Ask Me About My Bassoon
Joined: Wed Apr 29, 2009 11:13 am

Re: 2019 Criterion Forum Awards

#49 Post by tenia » Sat Jan 04, 2020 8:07 am

BEST RELEASE
1. Do The Right Thing
2. War and Peace
3. Klute
4. Now, Voyager
5. Polyester

BEST BOXED SET
The Koker Trilogy

BEST MODERN FILM
24 Frames

BEST COMMENTARY
N/A

BEST "BONUS" FILM
A Loaf of Bread

BEST BOOKLET
Do the Right Thing

BEST ON-DISC NON-COMMENTARY EXTRA
Loved the Detour restoration featurette.

BEST REISSUE
Do the Right Thing

BEST UPGRADE
Haxan

BEST COVER
Polyester

CLUNY BROWNIEST COVER
Cluny Brown, though Betty Blue is a clear runner-up to me

BEST PACKAGING
The Koker Trilogy

BEST DISCOVERY
Do The Right Thing

MOST UNNECESSARY RELEASE
All About Eve. I suppose its extremely short lived packaging also opens the door for "most unnecessary packaging".

MOST FLAWED RELEASE
I don't want to pile on the Godzilla set's limitations, which, to me, makes it a disappointing boxset in the end, especially as an event release like this. Moreover, it'd be harsh to say it's the most flawed, but it does leave plenty to be desired. So I'll instead vote for Magnificent Obsession, a release whose bonus film has been newly restored but not the main feature... Criterion's upgrade policy often makes no sense, since they bother upgrading titles that don't have new restorations while leaving aside movies who do, but this makes it even sillier.

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Lowry_Sam
Joined: Mon Jul 05, 2010 3:35 pm
Location: San Francisco, CA

Re: 2019 Criterion Forum Awards

#50 Post by Lowry_Sam » Sat Jan 04, 2020 11:03 pm

BEST RELEASE
1 War And Peace
2 A Face in The Crowd
3 Europa, Europa
4 L'humanite
5 Matewan
BEST BOXED SET The Koker Trilogy
BEST MODERN FILM Cold War
BEST NEW COMMENTARY Circus (ok its the only one i listened too so far)
BEST "BONUS" FILM What Did The Lady Forget?
BEST BOOKLET Do The Right Thing
BEST ON-DISC NON-COMMENTARY EXTRA Bette Davis on The Dick Cavett Show
BEST REISSUE Do The Right Thing
BEST UPGRADE Haxan
BEST COVER Its truly a tie for me so the coin flipped for Polyester over L'humanite
WORST COVER I won't go into a rage about rigging the election here for one I agree is bad, but I find Death In Venice even worse.
BEST PACKAGING Polyester (poster & odorama card)
BEST DISCOVERY One Sings The Other Doesn't
MOST UNNECESSARY RELEASE Most competitive category this year, but I'll say Blue Velvet All About Eve & 1984 all cancel each other out & go with Wanda (but if The Strange One makes it into the collection too as a result, then Ill have to change my vote to one of the other 3, perhaps whichever makes it to UHD first).
MOST FLAWED RELEASE If I were a fan of the Godzilla clones, I'd say the box, but for me 1984 is the disappointment of the year
BEST THREAD Music Video List

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