Nice work, Risselada! I’ll definitely be sending a list—when’s the deadline to do so?
It does say in the first post, but it’s the end of the day Saturday, Jan 28
I think I’ll cap myself to no film over 50 fans.
Please feel free. I’d love to have stuff with less fans already if possible so it’s more of a discovery for more people.
Thanks for the heads up to this via PM, Riss! I’m starting to rack my brain now. I couldn’t really keep up with the DC for a while last year, as life, love and work got in the way too much. Maybe with your new revised scheduling techniques it might be easier for us to keep up with the flow of these competitions!
A question:
What is everyone’s strategy for picking films? Do you pick films that you simply think are good films and figure out the country after you select them? Or are you picking films that somehow capture the country for which they are representing in your picks? I realize with some countries where people may not know as many films, this may not be an option, but I’m trying to get a feel for how or why people are selecting films in the context of this “World Cup”.
I now see the discussion on the other WC thread (starting on page 5) of my question and feel like I have a good answer. Thanks.
Herbie, when I made my list I did a little of both. I started out by just separating my favorite films into different countries. Then I filtered out the ones that looked like they were probably too well known already. Then I looked at what was left and picked one from each, but when I was picking I definitely considered if my choices would seem to capture or say anything about the country they were from. I can’t say this was totally the case in every selection but I tried to make that factor have some bearing on my choices.
@Riss
Yes, I do think it will be possible to see them, because other than a certain one which I know has been made available to Mubigoers, I mostly picked films I saw through Netflix.
But, I know not everybody has Netflix, and I don’t know if just because a film has a proper release, that it will be easy to find a link for.
Jirin, I’m almost certain if it’s on Netflix it’s something that has a file out there that we can get distributed to everyone.
I have six films on my list so far, and four of them have less than 100 fans. Not sure how great a list it is, really, since most of the great ‘discovery’ films I’ve seen have been via you good people and the previous Cups. I’m going to do some more thinking, and certainly some more film-watching before the deadline. I’d like to get the list to a solid ten before I submit.
So far I have six as well. Seven if Hong Kong counts as a “country”. Does it? I’m assuming no.
In the first cup Taiwan was considered its own country – so why not Hong Kong? I’d say it has a distinct enough cinematic tradition to go on its own.
Also, although it’s hardly a good indicator to go by, it submits its own films for the Oscars each year, entirely separate from China’s entries.
Yeah, unless anyone out there has any passionate objections I was going to let China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong all be considered separate countries for purposes of this cup.
I think this is a good idea. And not because any of these countries are on my list (they’re not).
Not only that, all three of them have their own very healthy and distinct film industries. And since each country will only have two to three films used in the cup I think it’s appropriate to not group them all together into China which is already the most populous country in the world.
can we have short films in the list?
Riss, why can’t we select films we’ve not seen?
Dimitris may have had a good point that there are many films already picked in one of the cups which are still quite neglected. The 1st world cup didn’t get a huge crowd of viewers and many aren’t here anymore. I’ve submitted a very different list, than my self-serving original, with Wales, Sri Lanka, Portugal, Belgium and India top, somehow including 1 each for Palestine, Lebanon and Israel, with not a single wannasee film, but i do hope some come up. Are there English subs with Bulgarian films like Attached Balloon and Peach Thief, i can’t remember.
Hong Kong is an imperialist creation. then again, so are many of the world’s boundaries. I hope some people are submitting for Wales, which could have a tidy little team, nothing earth-shattering, no stars like Gareth Bale or Ryan Giggs but no cause for shame either
OK! I’m IN, Riss… but the deadline is so short :(
Please, think about extended it! February the 1st, hm?
Riss, why can’t we select films we’ve not seen?
We are not your guinea pigs.
Submitted my list.
can we have short films in the list?
Yes please!!! I put many shorts on my list. We want variety here. Also they are more likely to be seen because more people will have time to watch them. ;)
Riss, why can’t we select films we’ve not seen?
Because I want films that the person submitting personally believes are good. While it’s not a requirement we are hoping that if any of your films come up in the cup that you will be around to give us some explination of why you selected it to get the discussions going.
Dimitris may have had a good point that there are many films already picked in one of the cups which are still quite neglected. The 1st world cup didn’t get a huge crowd of viewers and many aren’t here anymore.
I agree that there are many films in there that are still quite neglected. Heck I was getting pretty antsy putting that list together seeing how many films on there I wish I could be watching in the next cup as well! But I have full confidence that there are still enough worthwhile films out there for many countries that haven’t been used in any of the cups. Just because I’ve already put together the whole list and people have already started submitting, I’m going to just keep that requirement. I hope you aren’t disappointed, but I think it will be ok. :)
OK! I’m IN, Riss… but the deadline is so short :( Please, think about extended it! February the 1st, hm?
I’ll consider it. Chasing Butterflies also needed more time. I’m kind of anxious to get the schedule it rolling sooner than later, but maybe a few more days shouldn’t be such a big deal. No promises yet, but we’ll see.
Yes, an extension to February 1st, please.
@ Risselada
Is there any chance we can be more flexible on the streaming/available on DVD rule? This really limits our choices, or at least mine. For example, I’d rather recommend Film A than Film B, but since Film A is more than 6 hours and takes a lot of bandwidth to download and upload it, I have no choice but to just stick with Film B as that is the one that is already uploaded and readily accessible even though I’d really rather prefer to submit Film A more than anything. I know, “why pick that film then?” Well, let’s just say that, unless there are many here who are willing to use up a lot of their computer bandwidth to download and re-upload for all the films they have submitted to this game, and to make all that effort (and I know there are quite a few of them there but only a few), there would be a huge limitation to the films finally chosen for the Cup. I speculate that, for the most part, films will be chosen for their accessibility, shorter length/duration and wide distribution but I may be wrong.
I don’t know if you have discussed about this rule somewhere and have made an unanimous decision about it but I believe that most of the people, if not all, who are willing to participate in the game have their own resources as to where they can get these films.
But if you have already decided to stick with this rule, I am willing to just participate in the actual Cup itself and to just watch and vote for/against the films :). I’ll probably just submit one film that I know for sure I’d be able to upload.
Let’s just stick to Franco-Texan productions available from Criterion, Artificial Eye, Masters of Cinema, Kino, Olive, or Second-Run. And put an end to all the pre-cup bickering, cavilling, and pleading.
Scorpio, really I’m not trying to implement any different way of doing this than we have done in past years. If the film is somewhere to be found on the internet like SMz, KG, or elsewhere then it should be fine. Is it just this one particular six hour film you are thinking about? While that does sound quite daunting to me, if you only have one film of that length then I think we can probably make it work.
Also I just wanted to mention from my perspective it’s not a requirement to have films of any particular length, but I was hoping this cup would be significantly less intense than last years so shorter films just sound more appealing to me. :)
ANNOUNCEMENT
OK, I’ll extend the deadline to submit your lists the end of February 1. Please feel free to get your lists to me earlier than that though because I can do some level of sorting, compiling, and double checking things as they come in.
Ari
I think I’ll cap myself to no film over 50 fans.