Next Countdown: decade, or something else?

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What kind of countdown should we do next?
48.28%
28 votes
Decades List (2000s, 2010s)
51.72%
30 votes
Anything Else (Comedies, Noir, Foreign, etc.)
58 votes. You may not vote on this poll




It's not like we subdivided other genre lists. Does that mean we go back to science fiction and break it down into separate lists for aliens/time travel/robots/future/alternate history/dystopia/etc?
i'd say the genres themselves are the subdivision. "foreign" isn't really a genre or even a useful classification. i think genres and regions are actually the fair equivalency here, as they're both interesting ways of dividing the entirety of cinema into a handful of distinct parts with at least some shared characteristics besides simply requiring subtitles. it's also more comparable in terms of the pool of possible films, as the number of french films in existence is probably far closer to the number of sci-fi films than it is the number of films with aliens.
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Isn't only two people who want a second Foreign Language option to cover regions? Siddon and Inmate?
we're the ones obnoxiously advocating for it, yes, but there have also been a number of members who have expressed interest in the idea itself but are too worried about the lack of interest, which is a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. i think lack of interest is a perfectly fair concern, just a bit overstated because i don't find it remotely difficult to imagine participation at least surpassing the pre-30s list by some margin, which i think is the minimum threshold for what should be acceptable for a non-decade list.

but regardless, all i really care about is that the idea gets a fair hearing if foreign language wins the next poll (i don't really want two foreign options because that would split the vote). i'd still be psyched for a general foreign countdown and i hope it wins no matter what direction it goes in, i just think if we do it we should do it right. also, there aren't many genres we haven't done that lend themselves to lists like this, so this should be the next logical off-ramp. most of the remaining genres are a pain in the ass to properly define (what the hell is a comedy?), or they're just as polarizing as foreign film and participation will still be a concern. i'd dread having to spend three months watching war films, for instance, and i know there are many joyless sickos out there who would feel that way about musicals.

it's also worth noting that we by no means would need to commit to covering the whole world and we could bail on the idea at any point. like we could just start with french films and if after that countdown people wanted to move on, that'd be perfectly fine and easy to do. i don't really share siddon's critiques of a general foreign list, but i do think a standalone top 100 from one specific place would still be far more interesting and immersive.



we're the ones obnoxiously advocating for it, yes, but there have also been a number of members who have expressed interest in the idea itself but are too worried about the lack of interest, which is a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Who were the: 'number of members who have expressed interest in the idea itself'...Names and post links please. I ask because I don't think it's a popular idea.



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Who were the: 'number of members who have expressed interest in the idea itself'...Names and post links please. I ask because I don't think it's a popular idea.
You can count me among those people.
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So, if there's some real support for a: Multi Regional Foreign Language countdown...and also real support against it...how do we then decide?

By a poll? But if the choice is listed as:
Comedy
Foreign
Noir
War
Musicals
and one votes for Foreign and it wins there would be a need for yet another poll between Foreign and Multi Regional Foreign.

I don't want to vote for Foreign as the next countdown, if then in the next poll Multi Regional Foreign wins.



So, if there's some real support for a: Multi Regional Foreign Language countdown...and also real support against it...how do we then decide?

By a poll? But if the choice is listed as:
Comedy
Foreign
Noir
War
Musicals
and one votes for Foreign and it wins there would be a need for yet another poll between Foreign and Multi Regional Foreign.

I don't want to vote for Foreign as the next countdown, if then in the next poll Multi Regional Foreign wins.
If foreign wins it should be treated as foreign in general, like bringing it all in like what we did with the 100 All time Mofo Countdown, yes they were mostly English movies but atleast we didn't nitpick a certain option out of the all time category like oscar winning movies only, which would suck imo.
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I don't want to vote for Foreign as the next countdown, if then in the next poll Multi Regional Foreign wins.
i really doubt regional would win in the runoff anyway so i wouldn't let that stop you from choosing foreign, but this is a fair concern and the only solution i can think of is including both regional and general foreign separately in the next poll and working out a ranked-choice voting system, but ideally it should be as simple as possible. maybe once we decide to start voting everybody just posts their top three in the thread so that anybody can tabulate it and we aren't just creating a ton of work for yoda. or we can just accept the tradeoffs and go ahead with the poll in whatever fashion.



I repped your post, but want to add one thing...actually two

both regional and general foreign separately in the next poll and working out a ranked-choice voting system
How would a rank poll work for that? Not everyone who votes for one would automatically be voting for the other choice. The only way I could see that would be fair is a preliminary poll (yes another poll)
Like this:

If Foreign Language is our next countdown which methodology do you prefer?
  • Multi Regional Foreign Language (but will accept the other method)
  • All Inclusive Foreign Language (but will accept the other method)
  • Multi Regional Foreign Language (will not accept the other method)
  • All Inclusive Foreign Language (will not accept the other method)
The wording I choose is kinda wonky, but you get the idea.

But aren't we forgetting something?...Who's going to host this? I mean any potential host might not want to have to work with multiple ballots for different regions.



I repped your post, but want to add one thing...actually two

How would a rank poll work for that? Not everyone who votes for one would automatically be voting for the other choice. The only way I could see that would be fair is a preliminary poll (yes another poll)
Like this:

If Foreign Language is our next countdown which methodology do you prefer?
  • Multi Regional Foreign Language (but will accept the other method)
  • All Inclusive Foreign Language (but will accept the other method)
  • Multi Regional Foreign Language (will not accept the other method)
  • All Inclusive Foreign Language (will not accept the other method)
The wording I choose is kinda wonky, but you get the idea.
i mean just including regional and general as two separate choices along with the rest of the genres. for instance, my ballot would look like:

1. foreign language (regional)
2. foreign language (general)
3. noir

But aren't we forgetting something?...Who's going to host this? I mean any potential host might not want to have to work with multiple ballots for different regions.
i'll say right now that if we choose regional i'd be willing to host if someone helped with the graphics.

also, to be clear, this list would only require one ballot because it would only focus on one specific region or country. my harebrained idea is to explore one different region after each decade list, but that's just a hypothetical long-term thing and doing one regional list now by no means commits us to doing more in the future.



If I wanted foreign, I wouldn't mess around with ranked choice. There's been so much talk about it that a lot of people who would vote for something else might just put foreign last to prevent it from winning.



I know we're past this, but there was talk about if the all time list counted as genre or like a decade would. When that was voted in, as far as I remember, it was between all time, 2000's, and 2010's. If it were done rank choice, all time would've most likely lost.



The trick is not minding
A lot of posts to go through, and short on time. So I’ll ask here, and sorry if it has been answered already but:

How would we break it down by region?
Do you mean something like this?
Nordic Countries: Denmark, Norway Sweden et all.
Something like that? I want to understand what the proposal is.



rbrayer's Avatar
Registered User
If foreign wins it should be treated as foreign in general, like bringing it all in like what we did with the 100 All time Mofo Countdown, yes they were mostly English movies but atleast we didn't nitpick a certain option out of the all time category like oscar winning movies only, which would suck imo.
That's exactly right. Top 100 Foreign then regions down the road makes the most sense to me. It's also far simpler. Let's worry about methodologies and ranked-choice voting later. This is getting wild. We don't even know if foreign would win.



rbrayer's Avatar
Registered User
Why would we limit ourselves with regions?
I think the idea was that "foreign" is too broad a descriptor and that say Japanese or French films could be their own categories (probably accurate, less so for other countries)