2012 MUBI World Cup Introduction- Submit your list of films

PLEASE READ THIS ENTIRE POST CAREFULLY BEFORE POSTING ANYTHING HERE OR SENDING ME ANY PERSONAL MESSAGES.

This is the first official post of the 2012 MUBI World Cup.

For those of you who are not with the cups at this site, users have been creating and participating in extended games for the past three years in which certain films are collectively watched and discussed. The films are then pitted against each other and voted on in a series of competitive matches.

In 2009 there was a World Cup in which groups of films from similar countries of origin would be created and compete against each other.

In 2010 and 2011 there were Directors’ Cups in which the films chosen to compete came from specific film directors. I participated heavily in both of those two cups, voting in every match. I also managed two directors in 2011 and supplied many of the films. I also assisted with some of the planning, coordinating, and implementing of these cups.

This year I am taking it upon myself to coordinate another World Cup. I am extremely excited, and I hope you are too.

For those of you who have participated in previous cups, please be aware of the fact that this cup will be operating somewhat differently from previous cups. This should not be too difficult to adjust to because there were changes in the ways the cups operated every year. I have thought about how to run this new cup for quite a while. I have listened to what users have said and suggested about how cups have been and should be run. I have observed what people seemed to have enjoyed and responded to and what they have not. This has all gone into the planning of the way I will operate this cup. I think most people will enjoy it a lot. However I am anticipating that some people may be hesitant about accepting the new procedures because I am taking some chances and simply because not everyone agrees. While I will consider suggestions and feedback as the cup progresses, I am asking that you please trust me and accept the rules I put in place if you wish to participate in the cup. Because we have so many wonderfully independent and creative personalities here I know we have many people here who like to challenge rules, but I’m just putting these rules in place because I believe the game won’t work properly unless they are followed, and I do think everyone will enjoy the game the way I am planning to set it up. If after the cup is over you hate the way I did it, then you can gladly complain about it. But I hope for now you will all go along with it and give it your best!

These are my goals in running a World Cup this year: 1. That we can tap the vast knowledge of world cinema from the users at MUBI to present new film discoveries to each other. 2. That because several people will be watching the same movies at the same time we can use this cup as an opportunity for discussion regarding particular films. 3. That we can increase the diversity of our cultural and historical understanding of the world by viewing art that comes from a broad variety of cultures. 4. That we would enjoy the excitement of a game. 5. That we can get to know each other better and make new friends.

If these are not your goals regarding participation in this cup, or you have different goals regarding participation in this cup, you may still participate, but if you do not agree with the way the cup is run please do not use your own different goals as a justification for trying to subvert the cup.

One of my methods of operating this cup will be to not immediately reveal all of the matches or the mechanics of the cup. Instead I will explain the rules of each stage of the cup periodically. I will also announce new matches periodically but on a regular basis. There are several reasons for this. For one, this keeps things more exciting since you will get new matches and developments announced regularly. Secondly, it keeps things simple and allows people to focus on and enjoy the matches in the moment instead of trying to plan too far ahead. If you plan on participating please watch the threads World Cup are of the forum regularly for new posts about upcoming matches and developments. And always make sure you read all rules.

Now for the first step of the Cup: compiling the list of countries and films to be used in the Cup.

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SUBMIT FILMS TO BE USED IN THE CUP

-The films used in the cup will be taken from lists of films submitted to me via Personal Message (PM) on MUBI. To send me a PM click my name at the top of this post to view my profile. Then click the link that says “send message”.

-Do not post your list here. Only PM it to me. Posting it here to let others see it may cause them to rewrite their lists to try to compete with yours

-The films on the list should be numbered and contain the title of the film, the name of the director, the year of release, and the country of origin. Here is a sample featuring some fictitious films:

1. The Crying Mountain Swans (Gustav Schnauzer) (1972) (Germany)
2. Who Did This? (Harpo Mendoza) (1944) (Guatemala)
3. Be My Underling (Sammy Swanson) (Isle of Man)

-Any MUBI user may submit a list of films to me.

-No more than one film per of country of origin may be used.

I realize that determining the country of origin is sometimes difficult. My guideline is that for a film to be considered to be from a certain country of origin, a majority of the production crew on the film should be from and identify with that country. It would be preferable if most of the film was shot or created in the boundaries of that country although this is not entirely necessary. I am asking that you consider not using films where the country of origin is not very clear to avoid too many headaches. Also, for countries that no longer exist, they will be merged with whatever country currently exists in the same approximate geographic boundaries. If you have any questions, you may PM me before submitting your list. I am very willing to discuss any tricky questions that come up and hear from the many people who I’m sure have more knowledge than me of geographical history in most parts of the world. I will try to give your listing the benefit in questionable situations, but I will make all final decisions about countries of origin.

-You may not use any film that has been used in a previous cup. The list of films used in previous cups will be posted in this thread below this post.

-You may not use any film that has more than 1,000 fans on MUBI. Please check the MUBI page for every film on your list and view the “FANS” section. Below that it will state how many fans the film has.

-All of the films on your list will have to be available for anyone participating in voting in cup matches to see. Thus the film should be available either in wide distribution on DVD or through streaming video on the internet. If a film is not currently available in these formats then you must only list the film if you sincerely plan to make provisions to provide the film in streaming video format promptly if the film is chosen to be in the cup. Many users on the site, including myself, know how and are able to convert a video file to a streaming video on the web and would be willing to do this for you if you do not know how. But you must make sure a video file will be readily available for converting to streaming format, and of course you must actually take responsibility for getting someone to do this for you. I am counting on other users who know how to do these kinds of conversions to give assistance with this. When this becomes an issue, please hang around the appropriate World Cup threads and make your offer to help out known to other users.

-The order of the list is important. The order of the films should correspond with how much you want the film to be featured in the cup. The higher a film is on the list, the more likely it will be chosen.

-Only list films that you have seen.

-Only list films that you that you think are of exceptional quality. Do not list mediocre films just because they are the only films you can think of from certain countries. You will potentially lower the enjoyment of the game if pick movies you do not personally strongly endorse.

-If you are not that familiar with world cinema, do not feel compelled to submit a list. Or if you do submit a list, do not feel bad if it is not very long. The game will work much better if you submit a short list of just a lesser known films that you really love instead a long list of a lot of extra mediocre films. If you are an expert in films from a particular country, now is your time to shine and show us that one hidden gem that no one has heard about yet. If the only film you can think of from a certain country is one that we’ve all heard of before and you know there will probably be a lot of other experts presenting other films from that country, consider leaving it off your list.

-The tentative deadline for submitting your list to me is the end of Saturday, January 28. I will decide at that time if I will enforce the deadline or extend it.

-Your PM to me including your list must also contain this phrase containing a promise from you to me. “I promise that all of the films on this list can be made available for all cup voters to view. I promise that if any of these films are selected for use in the cup I will personally endeavor to the best of my ability to make the film available for all cup voters to view.”

-Again, only send your list to me by Personal Message. Do NOT post it here or anywhere else publically.

These are the rules. I hope you have a lot of fun compiling your list. I am excited to see the results.

Also one other thing. Do not expect the majority of the films you submit to be used. This cup will have less films used than previous cups to make it easier for people to keep up, so depending on how many people submit lists it’s possible only a few films from each list will be taken. Thus make sure you order your list carefully that the films you want most at the very top. Also, users who have more depth and variety of film knowledge will probably have more films being used just by the mechanics of the random selection process. There is no reason to feel slighted if this is the case, but to be happy to have the experience to learn from those who have more knowledge.

And also again, please trust me that I will not rig the selection of the films in any way, and am setting this up to be as fair a method as I can conceive that will also give the cup a sense of variety, discovery, and surprise.

Here is the list of films that have been used in previous cups:

Here is a continuation of the list of films used in previous cups:

Please don’t let the part about the availability of the films scare you off. If you know the film is out there somewhere on the internet in some form like rapidshare or bittorrent or something else then someone can get it up streaming. Don’t worry if you don’t have the tech skills. If you pester me or someone else to get it up on streaming, it will get up there. The point is that you can’t be picking some film you saw at a film festival once and you remember it being good but there’s no file of it floating around the internet anywhere yet.

What constitutes ‘Available to all users’? I personally have no idea how to find links to films.

Not telling us what the rules are, huh? Based on your suggestions in previous cups I’m guessing advancement will have something to do with margins. Oh well, you’re the one running it. :)

What constitutes ‘Available to all users’? I personally have no idea how to find links to films.

It’s not really any different than past years. I can’t remember for sure, but weren’t you a manager in the Directors’ Cup?

Bookmark.

Thanks, again, Riss, for being such a trooper. I’m trying to figure out my list…

No problem House. I’m having a fantastic time doing this! I’ve already had a few lists roll in and things are already looking exciting.

Good! I’ve been hesitant to commit to things but if you need help with anything, please don’t hesitate to ask.

You were there for me last year, and I haven’t forgot.

Nicely done, man. Thank you again for taking such a great initiative.

If I send a list it’ll be a very short one, consisting of the countries I do know something about (which isn’t very many).

Maybe I’ll submit a list, but not till late next week, there are some films I want to look at from various places first.

You may not use any film that has more than 1,000 fans on MUBI.

riss! can we rethink this??? 1000? there’s hardly any films on here with a thousand! i was hoping for more like 100….even thinking that was too much!

:(

I’ll redo my list with hidden treasures i’ve seen, not films i wanna see, so be it. That Percy the Porcupine based list was always a devious pie in the sky tactic. But I hope some of the most experienced international film watchers take part (some from the 1st world cup come to mind), and come up with films i’m unsure about availability that i’ve struggled to get to see.

I agree with Magpies- a cursory search showed there are lots of overly-familiar (love that term) films with a thousand fans.

Kenji or anyone else, if you are worried about availability about certain films you can send me the info and I’ll see if I can find them and confirm if they are availble before you submit your final list.

Sally and Jerry I do appreciate your concern about the vote cap. I did my own research as well and thought this was an appropriate number. I guess you’ll just have to trust me and the other users on this in submitting our lists. If there are some spcific films you are worried about people using then you can list some examples here and petition for people not to use them. While this film is about discovery, many users such as myself have not seen nearly as many films as both of you two, so there are still quite a few films with less than a 1000 votes that would be discoveries for us. I ask you trust me on this. :)

it’s your game riss! i just can’t remember the last time i watched a film that had over 1000 fans. and that’s not to say i think i watch ‘undiscovered’ films all the time. i just watched my night at maud’s. you’ve all heard of rohmer, haven’t you? not even close to 1000 fans. so now does that make me knowledgable enough about french cinema to pick one film for france? no. where. near. (but that shouldn’t stop anyone watching my night at maud’s. i loved it)

it’s the smaller countries i’m worried about, that have one megafamous director that might overshadow thousands of others….like…kaurismaki (even though i’d marry aki in a heartbeat) for finland, bergman for sweden, and godforbid von trier (or dreyer even) for denmark…

As much as this cup should be about discovery if we have a few films of the level of renoun as My Night at Maud’s I don’t think that would be a tragedy. I’m not one to entirely exclude anything that may be considered canon. Just like the other cups I think it’s good to revist it a few that it seems like everyone has heard of to also discover that actually not everyone has already watched them.

I think you underestimate your breadth of knowledge Sally. You hold yourself to too high of standards when you don’t realize your experience where it stands for most countries is already a great resource to a lot of other users here.

There are new users joining this site all the time, and even though the veterans are the lifeblood here, I think we should consider that the possibility of Kaurismaki, Bergman, or Von Trier making their way into the game to represent their country again wouldn’t be the most terrible thing if they are surrounded by mostly other lesser known directors. Just my opinion.

This is hard.

I know House, but don’t stress over it. Like i said, if your list is short there’s no reason to feel bad. I know you are one guy who has no ego and is just glad to learn from others so don’t feel like you have to contribute too much at this stage.

Also, I’ll just let everyone know right now I will probably be implementing a rule a provision that we will not be using more than one film from any director so think about that when considering whether or not you want to use some of the bigger names. I’m not saying don’t, but just be aware. :)

What is the maximum number of films we can list?

Nobody has a smaller ego than me.

Riss- about how many films do you need per submitter? I don’t want to oversubmit, but I also don’t want to leave you short of films.

Does anyone know if Rapidshare being targeted by the feds? Most of my films won’t be available if that site shuts down…

What is the maximum number of films we can list?

There’s no max on the total number of films. Just one per country.

Riss- about how many films do you need per submitter? I don’t want to oversubmit, but I also don’t want to leave you short of films

Like I said I really don’t need any particular ammount. I have provisions to work with whatever each person gives me. It’s really up to you. As long as all of the films you are sending me are ones you’ve actually seen and think are good, then you really can’t oversubmit or undersubmit.

Does anyone know if Rapidshare being targeted by the feds? Most of my films won’t be available if that site shuts down…

Rapidshare put out a statement in light of the megaupload thing that they didn’t feel any reason to be worried. There’s also bittorrents…. I sure hope it doesn’t go down though. It would create a lot more hassle!

I think i understood, but just to be clear, if I send you a list of films, I’m not committing to anything am I? I’m not required to manage these films or countries?

@Riss

I was a manager in last DC but it was always 4-5 people doing on the link-brokering. Other than random Youtube searches (Which do occasionally work) I have no idea where to find links.

Jirin, but when you picked your films you were confident that people would be able to see them in some form right? What’s the point of picking films that you didn’t think anyone could see?

Rock and Bull, you are not commited to anything after sending me your list other than making sure if the people getting the films up on a streaming video can’t find a source for the film then you have to deliver it. It would be appreciated however if your film gets selected that you make some kind of introduction or discussion thread for the film at some point so people know why you picked it. That won’t be required though.

Nice work, Rissela​da! I’ll definitely be sending a list—when’s the deadline to do so?