2022 Criterion Forum Awards

[Noiretirc]

Has this annual thread ever been this devoid of ballots?

[DarkImbecile]

Without checking the older threads, I can only speak to last year, when we had 23 ballots to this year’s 8 so far. Just means anyone who submits over the next week and a half can have an outsized impact on the results!

[tenia]

BEST RELEASE :
1. 'Round Midnight
2. Rouge
3. Malcolm X
4. Love Affair
5. Buck and the Preacher

BEST BOXED SET :
Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project No. 4

BEST MODERN FILM :
Sound of Metal

BEST "BONUS" FILM :
Yang ± Yin: Gender in Chinese Cinema

BEST BOOKLET :
Malcolm X

BEST UHD RELEASE :
Shaft

BEST REISSUE :
Summertime

BEST UPGRADE :
Le corbeau

BEST COVER :
Miller's Crossing

WORST COVER :
Mr Klein

BEST PACKAGING - NON-BOXED SET INDIVIDUAL RELEASE :
The Celebration

BEST PACKAGING - BOXED SET :
The Infernal Affairs Trilogy
(Such a poor year for boxed sets packagings, and a choice by default since out of the 4 sets, 2 are what are to me cheapened-down 3-discs Scanavos and 1 the standardized WCP set)

BEST DISCOVERY :
'Round Midnight

MOST UNNECESSARY RELEASE :
As usual, a few US studio titles still feel like stuff that could perfectly have been released by the studios themselves if they weren't so lazy with releasing their catalogues on physical media.
While Arsenic and Old Lace could have been my choice, I'll actually go to Raging Bull instead. Not only it doesn't advance technically so much over the previous master, but it doesn't feel like adding that much in terms of editorial content compared to what MGM included in the past (which Criterion don't port over entirely, on top of that).

MOST FLAWED RELEASE :
In The Mood For Love (even more so in the UK, which don't even get the UHD !)

[ryannichols7]

Has this annual thread ever been this devoid of ballots?

as with the list project, I'm meticulously going through every release and will submit my ballot right before the deadline!

I think many of these categories will have near unanimous winners, but the "overall release" one is wide open

[bottlesofsmoke]

BEST RELEASE
1. The Girl Can’t Help It
2. Malcolm X
3. Boat People
4. ‘Round Midnight
5. Love Affair

BEST BOXED SET
Infernal Affairs Trilogy

BEST MODERN FILM
The Worst Person in the World

BEST COMMENTARY
Mississippi Masala

BEST "BONUS" FILM
Yang ± Yin: Gender in Chinese Cinema (Rouge)

BEST BOOKLET
The Girl Can’t Help It

BEST ON-DISC NON-COMMENTARY EXTRA
Conversation between director Kiyoshi Kurosawa and filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Cure)

BEST UHD RELEASE
Malcolm X

BEST REISSUE
Written on the Wind

BEST UPGRADE
The Tales of Hoffman

BEST COVER
Written on the Wind

WORST COVER
Miracle in Milan

BEST PACKAGING - NON-BOXED SET INDIVIDUAL RELEASE
The Girl Can’t Help It

BEST PACKAGING - BOXED SET
Infernal Affairs Trilogy

BEST DISCOVERY
Eve’s Bayou

MOST UNNECESSARY RELEASE
Miracle in Milan

MOST FLAWED RELEASE
In the Mood for Love 4K

BEST THREAD
The Euphoria thread made me appreciate that show so much more than I already did, with so many interesting, different perspectives.

MEMBER OF THE YEAR
So many options, but I have to recognize Stefan Andersson, who tracks down so much interesting news and information I’d have no idea how to find on my own

RICHARD CRANIUM AWARD
Cinephile1

[DarkImbecile]

VOTING CLOSES: JANUARY 16, 2023[/size]

One more week for participating in democracy, after which thousands of the losing films' supporters will storm and ransack cdnchris' house in an attempt to overturn the results.

[Walter Kurtz]

BEST RELEASE
1. Mr. Klein
2. Exotica
3. Boat People
4. Round Midnight
5. Malcolm X

BEST COVER
Boat People

WORST COVER
The Worst Person in the World

[colinr0380]

Best Release (1-5)
1. Rouge
2. The Funeral
3. Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project Volume 4
4. The Celebration
5. Faya dayi

Best Boxed Set
Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project Volume 4

Best Commentary
Arsenic and Old Lace

Best “Bonus” Film
Divine Trash on Pink Flamingos

Best Booklet
I have only read a couple this year, so will go for John Wray on Michael Haneke: Trilogy

Best On-Disc Non-Commentary Extra
Calendar on Exotica

Best UHD Release
Okja – more Netflix and Amazon collaborations in general please Criterion! (If you are taking suggestions I would love to see those Nicholas Winding Refn series get a disc release somehow)

Best Reissue
I love Summertime, so may have been the only person to have been excited at this announcement (my fingers still remain crossed for The Killer and Hard-Boiled though, if just to help with my spine number OCD issues!)

Best Upgrade
Le cercle rouge to UHD, just for the seeming randomness of that decision (I guess that Criterion are testing the waters in seeing how different formats and eras of film stand up in the UHD format?). To have Le cercle rouge go from OOP to now UHD is a very amusing sight to see!

Best Cover
I thought that this was a really strong year for covers (yes, The Worst Person In The World included!), and especially liked the visual pairings of the two Jane Campion covers for releases bookending the year, the shot-countershot boxed-in imagery of Adoption and the classic simplicity of the Love Affair (and love jones, for that matter) cover. The release of WALL-E for me is very much justified by that wonderful cover for the Criterion edition. I also very much liked the seeming theme of the year of images within heads Russian-dolled inside each other, as exemplified by the beautiful Faya dayi cover, but which works really well with the farewell amor cover (and with a neat twist on the aesthetic in the Sound of Metal and Cure covers a few months later) too.

Plus the busy yet simultaneously austere and confined cover for Drive My Car, the fun metatextual post-modernism appropriateness of the Celebration and Pink Flamingos covers, the head explosion of Chan Is Missing. The cover for Shaft is beautiful too, even if arguably a bit misrepresentative of what has always felt like an intentionally visually muted film.

I also really like the Raging Bull cover, which is such a simple and obvious image but is really made special by the black border with the text inside it, which gives it both a portrait quality and also to my eyes seemed to harken back to those early Criterion Laserdisc days of letting the image speak for itself. I thought that was going to be my choice for the longest time but in the end (and after a run of painted covers this year that I was much cooler on how well the aesthetics worked for, although I loved that cover for the reissue of Written On The Wind!) the extremely striking cover for La Llorona had to be my final choice. That’s an evocative, provocative and somewhat mysterious image that will play an important role in attracting curious audience members into picking the film up for years to come.

Worst Cover
This one was easy for me: I know it is based on an original poster but it had to be the reissue cover for Walker, mostly because of throwing away that beautifully playing into the anachronisms original DVD cover.

(I would also mention that there were a few releases where the titles felt a bit too obviously ‘digitally superimposed’ on the image in a bit of an ugly way that rather ruined (or crudened?) otherwise fine covers too much: Dick Johnson Is Dead comes to mind, but it was much worse and rather ruined the classical look of Double Indemity too. Hotel Du Nord was much the same, but instead of the text it was the too digitally defined superimposed shadow heads that rather ruined the otherwise good concept there)

Best Packaging – Non-Boxed Set Individual Release
It would be a three way tie between The Celebration, Pink Flamingos and WALL-E, because I really like appropriate playing into a film’s concept. I discounted Pink Flamingos purely just because in the end its just a (albeit beautifully designed to pair with my Blue Underground DVD of Snuff!) slipcover. So then I was left with the polarising extremes of austerely transparent manifesto brandishing of The Celebration and WALL-E’s deluxe bespoke box. I think I will go with WALL-E just because the package is so beautiful, and I would approve of more of these well-produced boxsets over the standard cases, despite the damage they will be doing to the environment!

Best Packaging – Boxed Set
I am going to discount the World Cinema Project set from qualifying since it is a unified design with the previous volumes. I like the execution of the Michael Haneke set but not calling it the “Glaciation Trilogy” was enough to discount it. The Mai Zetterling design feels (intentionally) too messy to work for me, having not yet seen the films to judge the appropriateness of that design on any deeper level than this initial impact. So for me it has to be the Infernal Affairs Trilogy, which handily has a beautiful cover image and comes in its own digipack too, as compared to Haneke and Zetterling releases.

Best Discovery
There was a lot that was new to me this year, many of which I have not managed to yet sit down with, but out of those I have La Llorona stands out.

Most Unnecessary Release
Technically WALL-E was the most unnecessary of the year, apparently already having had a UHD release (that I had not previously been aware of) but the news of its release was an extremely pleasant surprise, so I still feel bad nominating it in this category! And it could be counter-argued that it was an extremely necessary release not just for bringing one of the best films of its decade into the collection, being the first Disney film and showcasing CGI animation, but also for simply being another much needed example of animated film in the collection.

Most Flawed Release
I suppose in lieu of anything else coming immediately to mind, the UHD edition of the revised version of In The Mood For Love takes this by default.

Best Thread
I wanted to highlight the sterling work of knives in going through the filmography of Roger Corman in the filmmaker’s dedicated thread. That is the kind of project where I cannot really contribute to the ongoing work, and feel bad interjecting on the rare occasions where I do have something I could add, so this is a good opportunity to thank knives again for all their work on those posts. That is the kind of valuable piece of work which may not garner an immediate response but which over time can serve as a really good framework for anyone reading it in the future to take the same journey and see where their opinion matches up with that of knives!

Member of the Year
On the same note, I really enjoyed the discourse going on in the Hong Kong cinema and Shawscope threads across the year, which has similarly gone far beyond my knowledge and revealed whole new areas of cinema to me. That could not have happened not only without the release of the films to spur the conversation and provide access to the material to discuss, but also with the people on the forum who were able to skillfully guide through the mass of material being released and place it in a wider context. So for another year I will give a vote of appreciation to feihong for adding so much interesting unique material to the forum over the last year.
____

For me this was yet another year unfortunately of spending too much time exhausted from dealing with real-world issues of all shapes and sizes to get to sit down with films too much, even if that might have been the better decision rather than pointlessly worrying about things there was no control over! The moments where I managed to carve out some time for myself this year I mostly ploughed into three areas: reading, with my current focus on William Gibson’s work; doing the ten random music track list (which has grown a bit from just hitting shuffle on my iPod into kind of semi-consciously picking up ten tracks from the ether across the month that spoke to me, and seeing if they fit well together); as well as doing a general deep dive into internet and YouTube content.

The seemingly endless content mill of the internet of course has the capacity to swallow up one’s life if it is allowed to, but it has taken me on some wild tangents this year, from the Backrooms and getting some insights into the content of and context behind real life atrocity videos without actually having to witness such material directly (though the song "Funky Town" is now permanently ruined for me, knowing what it was playing during); through to the wonderfully educational Computerphile (and Numberphile) videos to finding out about the strange phenomenon of numbers stations; to enjoying channels filled with synth pop and vaporwave throwbacks; from OddityArchive to Grim Beard; from Todd In The Shadows to Krimson Rogue driving himself crazy reading (and annotating!) terrible post-Twilight romance novels; from Night Mind to Fredrik Knudsen and his streams; from Coffeezilla talking about modern financial grifters to DaThings revitalising media with their excellent cut ups; the ‘walking simulators’ from Action Kid to Nippon Wandering TV who are able to take me around the world from the comfort of my own home; and some good old fashioned wallowing in nostalgia from watching old television continuity links from the likes of Kaleidoscope’s Presentation Vault or Applemask/Bob the Fish (and of course old film review shows from Siskel & Ebert and Barry Norman) contrasting with rediscovering an interest in Lego by watching videos of live builds or just marvelling at AFOLs with houses filled to the brim with Lego! (Though my interest was particularly raised by the amazing 90th anniversary Galaxy Explorer set which was a call back to the seminal line of Space sets from the late 1970s and early 1980s. Those were the first Lego sets I got as a kid, so this particularly appealed to me from a nostalgic point of view. I had a few of the Castle and City sets too (including a full dock! I may have to find the pieces, build it again and work out how to do a stop-motion version of that series of The Wire that was set there!) but not particularly being a Star Wars fan as soon as Lego entered that partnership that luckily broke Lego's childhood hold on me. However I am worried with these 'classic' sets that they are stealthily reeling me back in!)

Plus I am avoiding the TikTok platform like the plague so was grateful to this Errant Signal video for giving me the introductory guide about it, and all the issues arising from its algorithmically driven flood of calculatedly acontextual short videos.

Who needs streaming when there is a world of freely available content like that to explore? (I also have to thank Minkin for introducing me to James Blackwood and his raccoon pals a few years ago, who it is always a pleasure to check back in on)

Anyway, this is my rundown of the year in discs from the perspective of what I picked up:

1. Two Films by Aaron Katz: Dance Party, USA and Quiet City (Circle Collective) – the two best films of the 2000s ‘mumblecore’ movement and the most wonderfully unexpected release of the year, which finally let me upgrade from my recorded from Film4 back in the mid 2000s VHS tapes of the films!
2. Morven Callar (Fun City Editions) – still my favourite Lynne Ramsey film, and this makes for a wonderful complimentary musical double bill with Radio On, which was also recently released in editions from Fun City (in the US) and BFI (in the UK)
3. The Time-Bending Mysteries of Shahram Mokri (Deaf Crocodile) – arguably the most important boxset of the year, subtitle issues aside, although Shawscope, Janscó and – ahem – Ray Dennis Steckler run it close
4. L.A. Plays Itself: The Fred Halstead Collection (Altered Innocence)
5. The Most Dangerous Game (Masters of Cinema)
6. Shawscope Volume 2 (Arrow)
7. The Incredibly Strange Films of Ray Dennis Steckler (Severin) – the box set that answers the despairing question of “Why?” with “Because its there!”. I may be the only person (aside from Jonathan Ross, naturally!) who would have had the sheer impudence to have dared to import this into the UK, and I may now be on some kind of list somewhere because of it
8. The Islands of Yann Gonzalez + You and the Night which along with Two Films by Arthur Bressan Jr.: Passing Strangers and Forbidden Letters (which complemented the Vinegar Syndrome disc of Buddies from a few years back) led to a strong year for the Altered Innocence label
9. Detention (Dekanalog) – an unexpected release for the Taiwanese adaptation of a fascinating video game. Aside from the Aaron Katz releases, Her Smell and Morvern Callar from the other partner labels, Dekanalog was the main Vinegar Syndrome label that interested me this year and I also picked up Air Doll, Death of Nintendo, Keep An Eye Out and Two Lottery Tickets/A Month In Thailand over the year
10. The Tsai Ming-liang corner polarised towards the oldest and latest works this year with editions of Rebels of a Neon God (Big World Pictures) and Days (2020) from Grasshopper Films (the disc of which includes Afternoon and Wandering)
11. The Hong Sang-soo annex continued to expand exponentially with new editions from Grasshopper Films of the early film Virgin Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors before Cinema Guild released a large number of more recent works with Introduction, The Woman Who Ran and In Front Of Your Face before the climax at the end of the year with the “Three Films By Hong Sang-Soo” boxset (which upgraded my recorded from Film4 a decade ago copy of Oki’s Movie and the UK DVD only edition of Nobody’s Daughter Hae-won). I still have my fingers crossed for a good edition of On The Occasion Of Remembering The Turning Gate, but that seems to be the only older title left in desperate need of a Blu-ray release at this stage (although there is also Hong Sang-soo's first film The Day A Pig Fell Into A Well - although I have that on a Region 3 DVD - and Hahaha, though that is one of the other films that Film4 showed in their season dedicated to the director a decade ago that I recorded on a DVD-R, so selfishly I am not quite as concerned about those as with getting hold of a copy of Turning Gate!)
12. The Miklós Janscó Collection (Kino), which nicely bookended with Second Run’s “Hungarian Masters” collection earlier in the year and Second Run's standalone edition of Electra, My Love
13. Faithless (BFI) – Liv Ullmann’s wonderful film finally getting a long overdue upgrade to Blu-ray
14. Ju-On: The Grudge Collection (Arrow)
15. Nobuhiko Obayashi’s 80s Kadokawa Years (Third Window)
16. Croupier (UHD) (Arrow) and Get Carter (UHD) (BFI) – RIP to Mike Hodges
17. Mad God (Shudder)
18. Something In The Dust (Lightbulb Film Distribution) - Lightbulb became a label to watch for me this year with the release of Moorhead & Benson's latest film almost simultaneous with its UK cinema release - Lightbulb also released the UK Blu-ray of Anthony Scott Burns' Come True as well, so they are certainly putting some interesting titles out there! (I would also mention the Dazzler label in the UK has become a left field ‘label to keep an eye on’ as well by releasing The Deep House (the latest film from the directors of one of the best of the French Extreme entries of the 2000s, Inside by Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury) along with the UK Blu-ray editions of Paul Schrader’s The Card Counter and Sean Baker’s Red Rocket!)
19. Shock (Arrow) – one of the most neglected Mario Bava films for the longest time finally got the attention it deserved
20. Pastor Hall (Indicator) – in addition to being glad to see this film finally get the chance at receiving the attention that it so richly deserves, I wanted to make a more general appreciative nod to Indicator continuing with their small sub-theme of releases that explore the censorship issues faced by British films with the BBFC in the 1940s, as Pastor Hall neatly fits in with the earlier releases of No Orchids For Miss Blandish and the year’s US only release of Love On The Dole as films that troubled the UK censors during the same period for various distinct reasons
21. Future Boy Conan (UHD) (All The Anime)
22. Damnation (Arbelos Films)
23. A Fugitive From The Past (Arrow) / To Sleep So As To Dream (Arrow) – two wonderfully unexpected releases of classic Japanese cinema from Arrow
24. Execution In Autumn (Masters of Cinema)
25. Blood For Dracula (UHD) (Severin) / Flesh For Frankenstein (3D/UHD) (Vinegar Syndrome)
26. 101 Films bookended the year with two wonderful classic meta-horror releases in the form of The Last Broadcast in January and their extremely lavishly packaged Blu-ray release of the BBC Ghostwatch show in November
27. Dear Brother (Discotek Media) – a great companion to the Lady Oscar series as is it another romance series from a decade later that is again directed by Osamu Dezaki from a manga by Riyoko Ikeda
28. La Llorona / The Phantom of the Monastery (Indicator) – a wonderful branching out for the Indicator line both further into the past and further afield than ever before
29. The Nikkatsu Roman Porno line from Impulse Pictures was relatively quiet this year, but still managed to bring out an eye-popping DVD edition of Assault! 13th Hour (in an understandably toned down title from the original Rape! 13th Hour) directed by Yasuharu Hasebe (the director whose early 1960s yakuza films starring Jo Shishido, Massacre Gun and Retaliation, were put out on Blu-ray by Arrow a few years back)
30. Nineteen Eighty-Four (1954) (BFI) – after decades of wondering if this would ever get released, it was rather strange to finally have an actual edition of this one!
31. Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (Film Movement) – an important addition to compliment the Hamaguchi releases of Drive My Car by Criterion/Mubi and Asako I and II by Grasshopper a few years ago
32. Cat’s Eye Season 1 and 2 (Discotek Media)
33. The Gaspar Noé strobing zoetrope cupboard: Arrow did a great job with deluxe releases of Enter The Void and Lux Aeterna, which was complimented by the Picture House UK edition of Vortex at the end of the year (which I presume is similar to the release by one of the Vinegar Syndrome partner labels in the US)
34. Azor (Mubi) – this is my main choice to represent the Mubi releases of the year, but also Petit Maman and Great Freedom were important releases in themselves (EDIT: And how could I have forgotten their release of Benedetta on UHD!)
35. Crazy Thunder Road (Third Window)
36. Project A-Ko (Discotek Media) – an essential 80s early anime to come to the West that was thought to have its original negative lost had its original elements get unexpectedly stumbled across and resulted in this Blu-ray release that also bundles together all the extras and various English language dubs from its previous editions. One of the most important disc releases of the year, and Discotek followed it up with a standalone edition of the (shorter, and with no extras) Project A-Ko 2 near the end of the year. The last film in the series, Project A-Ko 3, is apparently scheduled for early 2023! (EDIT: It turns out that there was a fourth and final entry in the series, which is also being released in 2023!)
37. Ebola Syndrome (UHD) (Vinegar Syndrome) / Dr. Lamb (Unearthed Films) – two of the most notorious Hong Kong Category III films to go with last year’s release of The Untold Story by Unearthed Films and 88 Films’ work in the UK
38. Voices (Indicator) / The Pemini Organisation 1972-1974) – two of the most fascinating Indicator releases of the year, delving deep into the archives of UK cinema
39. Bartender (All The Anime)
40. Vinland Saga Season 1 (MVM)
41. Cardcaptor Sakura: The Complete Series (All The Anime) – completing a stellar year of classic anime releases, this one collects the entire 70 episode late 1990s series together in one box
42. Her Smell (Gunpowder & Sky)
43. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) (Masters of Cinema)
44. Summer Time Machine Blues (Third Window) – whilst this was somewhat understandable as being a companion release to Beyond The Infinite Two Minutes, along with the release of Hiruko The Goblin and Adrift In Tokyo I really like this trend of Third Window going back to a couple of riskier releases to explore more obscure older and overlooked Japanese films to complement their ‘classic / contemporary’ release schedule
45. Blood of the Vampire (Nucleus Films) – so much attention has obviously been lavished on the restoration of this one
46. Mad Dog Morgan (Indicator) / Bullfighter and the Lady (Indicator)
47. Black Cat (88 Films) – unfortunately I fell down on keeping up with 88 Films deluge of Hong Kong cinema releases this year, but did pick this hard box edition up to compliment the other beautiful releases of Riki-Oh and Robotrix. In terms of standard editions I had to pick and choose a bit but made sure to pick up Human Lanterns, Half a Loaf of Kung Fu and the 1997 Hero
48. Anti-Worlds: Infinite Football (and its on-disc companion film The Second Game) stood out the most amongst the three releases this year. Hopefully Anti-Worlds might come back with some more titles in 2023
49. Trauma (Vinegar Syndrome) – another Argento gap plugged, which finally allowed me to retire my BBFC-edited Tartan Video VHS tape from the late 1990s!
50. Caligula & Messalina / Caligula: The Untold Story (Severin Films) – two fascinating post-Tinto Brass Caligula films
51. Mae West In Hollywood 1932-1943 / Universal Noir Volume 1 / Columbia Noir Volume 5: Humphrey Bogart (Indicator)
52. Apocalypse After (Altered Innocence)
53. France (Kino Lorber)
54. The Irresponsible Captain Tylor: TV Series & OVA collection releases (Nozomi) – perhaps the most under the radar classic 90s anime disc rescue of the year
55. Creatures The World Forgot (Indicator)
56. Three Monster Tales of Sci-Fi Horror / Maniacal Mayhem (Eureka)
57. The BFI Flipside corner: The Appointment and The Ballad of Tam Lin kept the Flipside line afloat this year with a distinctly spooky feel to it
58. More Discotek Media: After the first and third Urusei Yatsura films in January 2022 Discotek wonderfully went back and filled in all the remaining gaps in the filmography (including the fifth and sixth films which followed the official ‘Final’ fourth film). Outside of the most important third film which was directed by Mamoru Oshii there are no real extras to speak of on any of the other films, but just getting them on Blu-ray with a nice consistent packaging style was enough here, and Discotek are apparently going to move on to releasing the original TV series itself in 2023
59. Almost entirely for the nostalgia factor: Severin’s release of 1983 ‘video nasty’ Night of the Demon
60. Evil Dead Trap 2: Hideki (Unearthed Films) – this would be higher if it contained any extra features, but it is just the film on Blu-ray with no extras. However it let me upgrade my 2005 Unearthed Films DVD of the film and it nicely compliments artwork-wise the much more packed Blu-ray edition of the first film that Unearthed released last year, so I am seeing it more as an addendum to that edition. Albeit an essential one, as I am coming to prefer the second, just as gonzo except in an entirely different direction, film as much if not more than the first!

The ‘technically a 2021 release, but I finally managed to pick it up in 2022’ section: Kolchak: The Night Stalker: The Complete Series (Kino), an Alex de la Iglesia double on UHD with Perdita Durango and The Day of the Beast from Severin. Lake Mungo (Second Sight) in its standard edition.

And the ‘I cannot in good conscience vote for this since I backed the Kickstarter’ shout outs of the year to the Flirt/Amateur/Meanwhile boxset by Hal Hartley; the Metal Skin Panic: Madox-01: The Unobtanium Collection through the Robert Woodhead/AnimEigo Kickstarter; the Blu-ray edition of the 1926 version of What Price Glory? from Grapevine Video and The Magician from Redwood Films.

So that’s how my year went (the big gaps that I just could not get to due to having prioritise other things, and at least put up a pretence of being budget conscious(!) were the masses of Hong Kong films released by 88 Films and any of the Canadian films released by the Canadian International Pictures label, though they sounded fascinating). Who says physical media is dead with all of that around?

[Noiretirc]

Epic post, Colinr0380. Thank you. I've been gradually digesting it.

Discs dead? Not yet. But are they on life support?

Is the annual Criterion Forum Awards thread dead? I'm not so sure.

Admittedly I'm a very minor player here, with no ballots to contribute, as I rather hopelessly aspire to become even one-tenth of the experts/contributors/regulars that I rely on and bow to at this forum. These people have taught me so much.

But here we are, on Jan 11th.

It just isn't the same this year.

Is it Criterion's fault? Or CriterionForum.org? Or Covid? Or 2023? The coming recession? Trump again? WW3? Or forums in general?

I'd love to be wrong in my pessimism. Are there any more ballots, Bitches?

[Noiretirc]

Edit: Double torment.

[DarkImbecile]

Admittedly I'm a very minor player here, with no ballots to contribute, as I rather hopelessly aspire to become even one-tenth of the experts/contributors/regulars that I rely on and bow to at this forum…

I mean, did you buy/view/watch over someone’s shoulder on the subway five Criterion editions released in 2022? Because if so, that’s all you need to submit a ballot, bitch.

I think many of the hundreds of people who view this forum every day and don’t post much (if at all) imagine there’s some need to be as prolific as twbb or to have seen as many movies as domino harvey or be as precisely erudite as Mr Sausage in order to offer your thoughts. All that’s needed is a passion for The Cinema, a genuine interest in good faith discussion, and a somewhat thick skin. No rhetorical brilliance or specialist knowledge or encyclopedic viewing history required — just look at me! A lot of us just like to learn from and bullshit with interesting, opinionated people about our favorite art form.

Anyway, if you or anyone reading this experienced in one way or another five of Criterion’s releases from last year, just put them in order and pick your favorite covers and such and post it here. Don’t worry about what the number of participants means for The State of The Forum or Physical Media or whatever. Much like the eventual heat death of the universe, it may be inevitable that this forum will someday devolve into just a handful of us posting our daily SNAPSЖOT scores and bitching about covers for 1930s Cary Grant movies — that’s fine, and it’s no reason not to enjoy every List Project and Oscar live chat and Infighting & Navel Gazing thread to the fullest.

[Noiretirc]

"....and a somewhat thick skin. No rhetorical brilliance or specialist knowledge or encyclopedic viewing history required....."

At the risk of derailing this thread, and/or ending up in the basement section once again (sigh....), I, and I suspect several other would-be/ex/tentative/uneloquent posters might quibble with this!

(Sausage haunts me more than my 1960s Headmaster who caned me.)

But I digress. Bitch.

[ryannichols7]

literally just vote. I agree completely with DI, as I cram in another disc tonight (in the middle of the 1969 project!!!) to make sure I have the best ballot I can

colin, props as I worried I was gonna have the lengthiest post in the thread. not only does yours win, but it's an awesome read and I love the enthusiasm. I'd more directly respond but my own ballot kinda will?

[colinr0380]

I have to admit to waiting longer to post this year than previously, but hope that the length made up for it! That will have to stand for my 'international discs of the year' post too, as I have never really been able to get my head around the nomination-then-vote process in that other thread!

[Mr Sheldrake]

Best Release
1. The Power of the Dog
2. Cure
3. Love Affair
4. Flight of the Phoenix
5. Mr. Klein

Best UHD
The Power of the Dog

Best Reissue
Written on the Wind

Best Upgrade
Tales of Hoffman

Best Cover
Written on the Wind

Best Discovery
Adoption

[Timec]

BEST RELEASE
1. Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project Vol. 4
2. The Celebration
3. The Funeral
4. Three Films by Mai Zetterling
5. Boat People

BEST BOXED SET
Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project Vol. 4

BEST MODERN FILM
The Worst Person in the World

BEST UHD RELEASE
Lost Highway

BEST COVER
The Piano

WORST COVER
Okja

BEST PACKAGING - NON-BOXED SET INDIVIDUAL RELEASE
The Celebration

BEST DISCOVERY
Sambizanga

(Honorable mentions to Daddy Longlegs and Frownland. They'd definitely be my picks for last year's "most compelling and empathic releases that I also found incredibly stressful to watch.")

[colinr0380]

(Honorable mentions to Daddy Longlegs and Frownland. They'd definitely be my picks for last year's "most compelling and empathic releases that I also found incredibly stressful to watch.")

This just turned up in my Youtube subcription feed: an episode of At The Movies with A.O. Scott and Michael Phillips briefly talking about Daddy Longlegs on its cinema release. Amusingly that film and Just Wright with Queen Latifa were the only films they could both agree were worth watching that week!

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

BEST RELEASE:
Rouge
Pink Flamingos
Lost Highway
Cure
Eve's Bayou

BEST UPGRADE:
The Tales of Hoffman

BEST BOXED SET:
Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project No. 4

BEST BONUS FILM:
Pretty as a Picture: The Art of David Lynch (Lost Highway)

BEST ON-DISC NON-COMMENTARY EXTRA:
Yang ± Yin: Gender in Chinese Cinema (Rouge)

BEST COVER:
Shaft

BEST PACKAGING - NON-BOXED SET INDIVIDUAL RELEASE:
Pink Flamingos
BEST PACKAGING - BOXED SET:
Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project No. 4

MEMBER OF THE YEAR:
feihong

[ryannichols7]

DI when exactly are you closing ballots? Monday night or Monday morning? I ask since you and swo both have deadlines basically at the same time. I'd personally love if you did late night Monday, gives me an extra day to fit stuff in, but let me know. The Celebration and Arsenic and Old Lace are the last two I have to go through

[Red Screamer]

BEST RELEASE
01 The Girl Can’t Help It
Not even one of my favorite Tashlins but the release is packed without filler, as entertaining and well-rounded as one can hope for.
02 Rouge
Three Kwan films.
03 Love Affair
Three McCarey films, including one of his major features rescued from public domain purgatory.
04 World Cinema Project 4
Keep ‘em coming.
05 Daisies
Finally.

BEST BOXED SET
World Cinema Project 4

BEST MODERN FILM
Dick Johnson is Dead

BEST BONUS FILM
Mighty like a Moose (Love Affair)

BEST ON-DISC NON-COMMENTARY EXTRA
David Cairns on the Cinematography of The Girl Can’t Help It

BEST REISSUE
Written on the Wind

BEST COVER
Eyimofe (This Is My Desire)

BEST DISCOVERY
The Girls

BEST THREAD
‪The 1960 Mini-List‬

MEMBER OF THE YEAR
Gotta be swo

[rossen]

BEST RELEASE
1. The Celebration
2. Márta Mészáros’s Adoption
3. The Funeral
4. Three Films by Mai Zetterling
5. Love Affair

BEST BOXED SET
Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project Vol. 4

BEST MODERN FILM
The Worst Person in the World

BEST UHD RELEASE
The Piano

BEST COVER
The Worst Person in the World

WORST COVER
Miracle in Milan

BEST PACKAGING - NON-BOXED SET INDIVIDUAL RELEASE
The Celebration

BEST DISCOVERY
Daddy Longlegs

MEMBER OF THE YEAR:
swo again

[DarkImbecile]

DI when exactly are you closing ballots?

I follow the domino harvey standard of “whenever I wake up the next day”, so it’s really the morning of the 17th; if you desperately need an extension, though, let me know and I can probably accommodate you.

[Calvin]

BEST RELEASE
1. Boat People
2. Three Films by Mai Zetterling
3. Rouge
4. Malcolm X
5. 'Round Midnight

BEST BOXED SET
Three Films by Mai Zetterling

BEST MODERN FILM
The Worst Person in the World

BEST "BONUS" FILM
Yang ± Yin: Gender in Chinese Cinema

BEST BOOKLET
Malcolm X

BEST ON-DISC NON-COMMENTARY EXTRA
Conversation between Ann Hui and Stanley Kwan (Boat People)

BEST UHD RELEASE
Malcolm X

BEST REISSUE
Summertime

BEST UPGRADE
A Hard Day's Night

BEST COVER
Sound of Metal

WORST COVER
Malcolm X

BEST DISCOVERY
Rouge

MOST UNNECESSARY RELEASE
In the Mood for Love 4K

MOST FLAWED RELEASE
In the Mood for Love 4K

[Yakushima]

BEST RELEASE
1. Lost Highway
2. Rouge
3. Exotica
4. The Funeral
5. Eve's Bayou

BEST MODERN FILM
La Llorona

BEST "BONUS" FILM
Calendar (Exotica)

BEST COMMENTARY
Arsenic and Old Lace

BEST UHD RELEASE
Lost Highway

BEST REISSUE
Written on the Wind

BEST UPGRADE
Le Corbeau

BEST COVER
The Piano

WORST COVER
Michael Haneke: Trilogy

BEST DISCOVERY
Rouge

MOST UNNECESSARY RELEASE
In the Mood for Love 4K

MOST FLAWED RELEASE
In the Mood for Love 4K

MEMBER OF THE YEAR
swo17

[ryannichols7]

DI when exactly are you closing ballots?

I follow the domino harvey standard of “whenever I wake up the next day”, so it’s really the morning of the 17th; if you desperately need an extension, though, let me know and I can probably accommodate you.

perfect, that's exactly what I was hoping for! will fit in a few more. that deadline will work for both cases