1961 Best Picture Nominees

Send me an ordered ballot of five or less from these nominees by September 15th

When is the deadline to send it?

I'm assuming a week like last time. Saw four of them going to try to watch Breakfast at Tiffanys and Viridinia at least before voting.

I need to watch some more of these. I've seen five of the ten but two of those I really didn't like.

I only have to watch Viridiana; I'm disappointed that The Children's Hour and One-Eyed Jacks didn't make it, and I'm surprised The Human Condition didn't make it.

I've got Yojimbo and Breakfast at Tiffany's recorded, actually. I really want to watch Last Year at Marienbad and a few of the others as well, so I'll see what I can do

I don't think enough people had seen it. It was only on two ballots, mine and Sane's, but it was the #1 on both. It would have needed 15 more points to get in.

15th. I need to edit that in the first post.

One, Two, Three and One-Eyed Jacks weren't seen by anybody either. I'm not sure what the point of this is except to get more foreign film recognition for some relatively well-known foreign films. The great, underseen American flicks are not being discovered by more than one or two people, but I guess that's something. I wouldn't have voted for Part III of The Human Condition over the ones I did anyway. I think there's an impasse between voters' viewing habits and a desire to really try anything out of their comfort zone. Maybe we're spreading ourselves too thin. Or maybe I'm an idiot. Has anyone seen Divorce - Italian Style?

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I didn't get to Divorce-Italian Style, but it was on my watchlist. For me, this is just a great incentive to get an early start on my 60's list watching. When this tournament is over, I'll go back and get the ones I missed.

I watched both One, Two, Three and One-Eyed Jacks for this. I liked One, Two, Three, but it didn't make my final list. I didn't really care for One-Eyed Jacks. (It was okay, but it's just not my type of movie.)

I thought about watching Divorce - Italian Style, but I'm not too good with foreign films, so as I started running out of time, I skipped it in favor of more American films. I figured I would watch it if it made the top ten.

I watched five American films, one British and four "foreign" films for this (had already seen about 10 others). Saw One, Two, Three but thought it was Wilder's weakest. That scattergun approach to comedy doesn't work for me - I remember the 10 bad jokes rather than the two good ones

I'm really enjoying this - anything that makes people watch films that they otherwise wouldn't have watched is good IMO. This made me watch Judgement at Nuremberg which I loved - more surprised that missed out on a nomination than THCIII.

Mark what you say is probably true. Out of the 10 nominees, 5 are foreign films (non US made). I'm not complaining, but I bet the foreign film fans would enjoy a 60s year by year count down that was only from foreign films. And in the same vein some of us would enjoy this more if it wasn't so heavily weighted towards non American films.

I just prefer the best films, but people's ideas of what's good is a lot different than I'm sometimes used to. It seems genre and actors and English dialogue mean a lot to some people, plot and a well-conceived script are frowned upon by others, the less-concrete a film is, the better it is for some because then one can interpret the characters and the meaning anyway one wants, and others just go for kinky weirdness. It's providing a service if people are finding movies they like, but if people are just watching new movies to them to reinforce old preferences I would suggest just filling out your ballot from previously-seen movies. I don't know, but this was supposed to be MoFo picking better films than the Academy if we don't agree with them. One thing's for sure, a musical has no chance. End of pointless rant, for now.

Just for future reference, I use foreign as a synonym for non-English language films - it's shorter - and most people understand it's not meant to be a condescending term.

"I use foreign as a synonym for non-English language films - it's shorter - and most people understand it's not meant to be a condescending term."

I understand. That's what I usually me too by foreign films. I realize that one of those is an English language made in England film.

I have watched and enjoyed several foreign films in the last few months. One was Chinese, 2 were Arabic, all had some spoken English.

Judgement at Nuremberg was on my list, and I'm surprised that it didn't make the top ten.


You can count me in the people who would enjoy this more if it wasn't so heavily weighted towards foreign films. I don't mind watching foreign films once in a while, but there are just too many of them making the final ten nominations for my tastes.



I'm one of those people who's guilty of watching movies based on my genre and actors preferences, but at least I watch a lot of movies that I haven't already seen, and I like most of the movies that I choose. There were 5 movies on my 1960 list that I watched specifically for this list, that I had never even heard of before I started my list, and there were three movies on my 1961 list that I had never seen before. (Surprisingly, one of them was 101 Dalmatians.)

That doesn't mean that I won't stray from my favorite genres if a movie gets great reviews. It just means that it's less likely to make my final list than movies that fit into my favorite genres.

And just for the record, musicals always have a chance on my lists. West Side Story was my #1 pick.

Lovers of musicals, which include me too, have to accept that a huge majority here can't stand musicals, and if enough members vote, a musical won't win a best picture competition.

Hmm true..
I made it my business to remember some British films so half of my 10 were from these fair shores

I had West Side Story at #7. I love musicals too.

I'll try most any genera, except ultra violence done for the sake of shock and entertainment.

As I get older, I realize...I don't have time to watch every movie that I would like to. So I have to pick what I will watch. Add to that, I only have time for about 300 movies a year, so I rarely even watch old favorites. But I wish I had more time to do that.

Me too