2022 Film Challenge

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Welcome to the human race...
So per the conversation above, I took a look at the Directed by Women list, and I thought it would be interesting to see if I could on my own make a complete list of Top 100 films directed by women. The results were not great! To simplify things, I limited myself to only feature films directed solely by a woman. This did eliminate a few potentially valid entires (like The Matrix), but at best we're talking about a handful of films. Anyway, under those restrictions it turns out that if I listed every single film I've seen directed by a (single) woman, I'd have a list of 87 movies. That's out of 2,000 movies (more or less) that I've seen over the years.

I'm going to cut myself a little bit of slack here--it's not a secret that the industry has been terrible about promoting women, so just by chance you're likely to see considerably fewer films made by women than men. I haven't gone out of my way to avoid movies directed by women, though I also haven't particularly sought them out. Still, 87 seems like a really small number! It's less than 5% of all the films I've seen! But I don't know if my result would be typical for a frequent movie-watcher or not.

Anyway, my point here, other than calling myself out, is that it does seem like a list worth revisting, possibly with, er, a little extra lead time to give us a chance to stock up.
There was some debate in the beginning as to whether or not films with male co-directors would be eligible, but for the sake of simplicity I did ultimately go with the stipulation that any and all directors had to be female (which would include films with multiple directors such as the Wachowskis' entire output). It's a tough call because it does seem like you're invalidating female co-directors' contributions or discounting female-driven works on a technicality (which is how I found out that Maya Deren's Meshes of the Afternoon was ineligible due to having a male co-director), and I think part of that having to check and double-check a niche detail as opposed to being readily able to group films by genre or decade made this a difficult list for people to really think about. Maybe if we redo the list we'll open it up to co-directed films just to see how differently it shakes out (especially given how there's an established precedent for redoing genre lists).
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I really just want you all angry and confused the whole time.
Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0



I think part of that having to check and double-check a niche detail as opposed to being readily able to group films by genre or decade made this a difficult list for people to really think about.
Yeah, this is a challenge. You can't just do an IMDb sort for movies that are woman-directed. Yes, many movies are tagged with that as a keyword, but not necessarily all of them.

So that leaves you skimming everything you've seen, trying to spot the female directors.



You MoFo I almost had you
Pick one of the lists featured in MoFo and watch 10 films in it
Movie Forums: Top Animated Films
1. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
2. Fantasia (1940)
3. Dumbo (1941)
4. Bambi (1942)
5. Alice in Wonderland (1951)
6. Sleeping Beauty (1959)
7. Lady and the Tramp (1955)
8. The Illusionist (2010)
9. 101 Dalmatians (1961)
10. The Jungle Book (1967)


Some progress is still being made.


EDIT: I allow myself rewatches for this challenge, provided a certain amount of time has passed since the last viewing. Disqualify me if you must.
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Captain's Log
My Collection



E. Never judge a book by its movie:
[Watch one film adapted from a novel belonging to each of the following literary eras]
1. a Victorian novel adaptation - The Sins of Dorian Gray (1983)
2. a Romanticism novel adaptation - Love & Friendship (2016)
3. a Modernist novel adaptation - The Great Gatsby (1974)
4. a Postmodernist novel adaptation - Crash (1996)



Section E complete, 21 films remaining. 😐



F. I see dead people:
[Watch one film from each group of deceased directors and actors]
1. Robert Altman - The Long Goodbye (1973)
2. Andrzej Wajda - Kanal (1957)
3. Bette Davis - The Scapegoat (1959)
4. Spencer Tracy - Without Love (1945)

18 films remaining




B. It's a big world out there:
[Watch a film from the following regions]
1. Scandinavia - The Trip (2021), Norway
2. Sub-Saharan Africa - Gaia (2021), South Africa
3. Middle East - The House is Black (1963), Iran
4. Balkans - Do You Remember Dolly Bell? (1981), Yugoslavia
5. Indian Subcontinent - RRR (2022), India
6. Oceania - Crawlspace (2012), Australia


16 films remaining




The trick is not minding
Update 12/1. I believe I can finish this yet.

Main Challenge  


Nightmare Mode  



Main Challenge complete!
I've got 12 films remaining in Nightmare Mode.


I accidentally watched a few from the new S&S list, so that's cool.


Main Challenge  



Just one left for the main challenge. No chance I finish Nightmare Mode, but I'll probably complete a few categories.



My precious...awards
pick any one list from section D of the main challenge and watch 10 films in it
ACADEMY AWARDS

1. Pinocchio (1940), Best Original Score
2. The Red Shoes (1948), Best Art Direction
3. In the Heat of the Night (1967), Best Picture
4. Midnight Cowboy (1969), Best Picture
5. The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Best Original Song
6. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969), Best Actress
7. Black Panther (2018), Costume Design
8. Mon Oncle (1958), Foreign Language Film
9. Gaslight (1944), Best Actress
10. Room at the Top (1959), Best Actress





9 movies left. I'm seeing light at the end of the tunnel.



Main challenge complete! Starting with Ron's Gone Wrong and finishing up with Pather Panchali; lots of good to very good (and a few great) films. And even the few not-so-good films (looking at you, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein) usually had at least something fun or worthwhile about them. I've only finished one category in Nightmare Mode but I'll likely finish 2 or 3 more by the end of the year.

Main Challenge  


Nightmare Mode  



I've only finished one category in Nightmare Mode but I'll likely finish 2 or 3 more by the end of the year.
I'm kind of cheating on the "post-2000 black and white" category. Three short films and three rewatches taking up six slots. Ain't no shame in my game.


I have given myself the challenge of finishing nightmare mode (9 films) before Monday. That gives me three full weeks to OD on Rankin/Bass Christmas movies. 🎅



I've avoided rewatches (well, Black Stallion is probably technically a rewatch, but I saw it when it came out and 40 years had mostly wiped it away) but I'm looking at some short films for the categories I can actually finish.



The trick is not minding
I’m confident I’ll be able to complete this before the New Year, so I’m not concerned on that front.

Jabs, when will we see the next challenge categories?
I have the patience of a child. 👀



Also answers to Jabba
Jabs, when will we see the next challenge categories?
I have the patience of a child. 👀
I was thinking January 1st

I can tease some stuff in the thread throughout December though.


PS. I am in the final stretch in my challenge as well. You may remember I am trying to make up 2021's failed attempt this year too so this has been taking up many of my watches. Close to the end now though as 12 films remain to finish both challenges.



The trick is not minding
I was thinking January 1st

I can tease some stuff in the thread throughout December though.


PS. I am in the final stretch in my challenge as well. You may remember I am trying to make up 2021's failed attempt this year too so this has been taking up many of my watches. Close to the end now though as 12 films remain to finish both challenges.
That’s cool, I’m just impatient haha.
I also tend to plan it ahead once I see the categories and pick out films for the slots.

Feel free to drop teasers though.



The trick is not minding
2023 Challenge Teaser #1
Cinematic Movements

Fun categories.
Both New German and Japanese new Wave have many films to comb through yet, so that’s no problem.

Cinema Du Look is one I haven’t delve into much yet, and it’s a rather small movement, but there’s still much to see for me.

I already have my films picked out for all three.