2022 Film Challenge

When given what is essentially a to-do list, I get a bit fixated.

It's also summer vacation, and while I'm still doing a lot of work, I do have more free time for movie-watching.

Chekhov, Method or Meisner?
watch 10 films featuring the same actor

VALERIE HOBSON
1. The Spy in Black (1939)
2. Contraband (1940)
3. The Voice of Merrill (1952)
4. The Rocking Horse Winner (1949)
5. The Drum (1938)
6. Life Returns (1935)
7. August Weekend (1936)
8. The Card (1952)
9. The Adventures of Tartu (1943)
10. Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)

As a teenager she (technically) played the title role in The Bride of Frankenstein. (Elsa Lanchester was "the Monster's mate". ) I thought she was an improvement over Mae Clarke, who played the same character in the first film, but she's not given much to do. Her character in Werewolf of London has a lot more personality, and I know she was well-regarded in general so I've wanted to see more of her work outside of the horror films I was familiar with. So here we are.

Highly recommending Kind Hearts & Coronets and The Rocking Horse Winner.

When you watch a completely random film and afterwards realize it won a cinematography award in Venice so it fits in the challenge...

Not usually in the habit of posting updates but if you've ever seen a single Albert Pyun film then you'll recognise just how much of a bloody-minded achievement this is.

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Iro's Top 100 Movies v3.0

One film, two films, red fil...it was the worst of times!
watch 10 films released in consecutive years of the same decade

1960s
1. 1960 - Never Take Sweets From A Stranger
2. 1961 - Shadow of the Cat
3. 1962 - The Pirates of Blood River
4. 1963 - The Scarlet Blade
5. 1964 - The Lively Set
6. 1965 - The Brigand of Kandahar
7. 1966 - The Reptile
8. 1967 - Gamera vs. Gyaos
9. 1968 - Gamera vs. Viras
10. 1969 - Hello Down There

Hardly the cream of the decade, but it is what it is

Let's look at some completed categories:

B. It's a big world out there:
[Watch a film from the following regions]
1. Scandinavia: The Ash Lad: In Search of the Golden Castle (2019)
2. Sub-Saharan Africa: Sin City (2019) (Ghana)
3. Middle East The Suit (2018) (Egypt)
4. Balkans Open Door (2019) (Albania)
5. Indian Subcontinent Jab We Met (2006) (India)
6. Oceania This Little Love of Mine (2021) (Australia)

Recommended: The Ash Lad: In Search of the Golden Castle, Jab We Met
It Was Alright: Open Door
Meh: This Little Love of Mine
Not Recommended: The Suit, Sin City

K. Are we there yet?
[Watch one film for each of the miscellaneous challenges listed below]
1. a film more than 160 minutes long Silence (2016) (161 minutes)
2. a film with a budget lower than 1 million Beach Rats (2017)
3. a 2022 release Rescued by Ruby (2022)
4. a film suggested by another participant of this challenge Margin Call (2011)

Recommended: Silence, Margin Call
It Was Alright: Rescued by Ruby
Not Recommended: Beach Rats

For those interested, the 2023 list is already crafted and as always things are shuffled around quite a bit. I have left out some staples of the nightmare mode but I do have room for 1 so I would like to ask for your take on which nightmare mode challenge would you absolutely want to have included next year.

PS. This doesn't mean that nightmare mode is completely different, it just means that many of the regular challenges have taken a different shape than usual.

Staples I enjoy the most would be : foreign film, country, director, decade (I love the way it is done this year), genre ( I usually go with sub genres, which still Keeps with the spirit of the rule) and awards. Anything else is ok to alternate

That's already more than half

One possible challenge I thought about would be having to watch ten winners in the Academy Award category of your choice (Best International Feature, Best Supporting Actress, Best Editing, etc.).

Oooh. I like this one.

I’m unlikely to finish Nightmare mode so I’m not sure I should have a say, but I like the MoFos category—I think it’s good to have a forum-specific part of the challenge.

I've really enjoyed the Nightmare selections especially, favorite actor/director, foreign, decades, and I'll second Iroquois' recommendation. Really like that idea

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Another idea - how about watching ten films from the same year?

I'm all for categories that offer a nice balance of structure but flexibility.

For example, watching films from the same actor/director/year/decade/country/language.

Once you get too specific, you start to run into the issue of lack of availability or not having a choice of first-time watches.

I also think some past "single serve" regular categories could be expanded, like watching 10 movies directed by women, 10 feature film debuts, or 10 movies made for less than $1 million.

To continue with this idea…..I thought about the different award categories for the various Ceremonies and Festivals (Oscars, Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Sundance, Independent Spirit and BAFTAS have been the most popular) and we could choose A Category from one of them and watch the a film that won an award in the respective category.

10 Grand Prix from Cannes or 10 Grand jury Prize from Berlin or any of the awards you mentioned from the Oscars.

A good idea, I already made one of my picks to go through the "directed by women" list on here.

Perhaps, though this is definitely a point at which I have to agree with Takoma that it'll get tougher to find available/unwatched titles. Even trying to pull together ten cinematography winners from not just the Oscars but all the aforementioned festivals proved a challenge on its own (it's almost September and I still haven't watched a single one for that category).

I'm hoping that list gets revamped sometime in the near future. It honestly feels more like a group of people struggled to name 100 movies directed by women. What Women Want? The Holiday?! And the lack of Eve's Bayou is criminal.

Yeah, that category was challenging. I think I might have even paid to rent one of them? The number of those films that aren't available to stream (without paying a rental) is kind of shocking.

I had no issue from the cinematography awards, and even found 4 extra I didn’t use. Using what I have available from Prime, Tubi and Netflix (mostly from Tubi).

Of course, I concede you guys have seen far more than I and that would likely be the issue.

Availability is definitely the main consideration when picking nightmare mode challenges. Unless the pool of available films hits at least triple digits, you will run into the possibility of someone being unable to find films to complete it. This is why these challenges are more and more open-ended, which also affords everyone the opportunity to craft their own path through the yearly challenge by personalizing it as much as possible.

There are some good ideas you have given me, which to be honest I have considered at one point or another. There will be some variations coming your way in regards to staple categories like decade and country next year, with plans to return them to normal in 2024 and reshuffle other mainline categories back in the mix to keep things fresh. 2023 will also be the year we will be retiring a chunk of main challenge that has been around for a long time so it will go out with a bang...