True, except that Best Cover would also be eligible for Naked and Beauty and the Beast (and any other Blu upgrades that changed their cover that I've forgotten)

I see (barely - on my monitor they're almost indistinguishable from the others - looks like two shades of grey / blue to me; that's advancing decrepitude for you, either mine or my laptop's!)

Yes, that occurred to me immediately after posting. I suppose you could also "rediscover" a film on Blu-ray or find it disappointing or whatever (i.e. loss of supplements or elaborate packaging a la Double Life of Veronique). Without getting too laborious it would probably be a good idea to identify somehow those categories where Blu-ray upgrades are eligible for voting purposes so everyone's on the same page. I'm fine with having domino judge which categories those should be.

Also, it might be worth specifying that Eclipse sets are eligible for the Best Release category. (This is how it's been done in the past anyway.)

Anything you guys decide is fine with me, as long as "Deadwood" is eligible. I'll be voting for it regardless, along with Nothing.

I hadn't considered the possibility that Nothing might be eligible again. Has anyone ever won the Richard Cranium two years in a row?

Yes, this.

Fine, I'll add that along with the Best Release of a James L Brooks Film Starring Holly Hunter and Made in the Eighties and Called Broadcast News category

Browsing through last year's thread, it does appear that there were MoC and BFI posts moved to other threads as not to clog up the Criterion award thread. I still think this is a good idea for this year if people don't have anything to add to the Criterion discussion (TMDaines did a R2 only list with a statement of disdain for Criterion releases last year, for example)

Also, only Aryans should be able to post lists.

Oh sad Hitler, why must you always insist on being out of context

Where did I?

I know pretty well, that this forum hasn't been called criterionforum by chance, but as the topic has been brought up again, I'd like to ask you to consider, if it wouldn't be wise to add another (optional) category like '5 favorite non-Criterion' releases, the votes upon which will not be counted in the end. As far as I can see, some members (like zedz) have usually added something like this to their list, and I have to admit, that I often found those lists more interesting than the Criterion-related ones, because I found pretty interesting DVDs in there, which I might have missed otherwise; last year's BFI and MoC lists couldn't offer this. Doing so, we might avoid further debates on this and maybe we could also profit from the international character of this board's membership?

As the tabulator, I say list away-- just realize I will only be counting those categories in the first post for the final tally

That seems to take care of it. If anyone wants to submit a list of most memorable international underwear....they can do so.

Well Thursday night won national (I am ashamed to know that).

I let Bjorn Borg handle my balls...

I've basically seen all of this year's releases now so...

Best Release (not reissue or Blu-ray upgrade)
1. The Music Room
2. The Complete Jean Vigo
3. Island of Lost Souls
4. Senso
5. Zazie dans le métro

Best Eclipse Release
Basil Dearden's London Underground

Best Reissue
Branded to Kill

Best Blu-ray Upgrade
Rushmore

Best R1 Rescue
The Music Room

Best Commentary
no vote

Best Supplement
Sterling Hayden interview on The Killing

Best Cover
The Phantom Carriage

Best Packaging
Sweet Smell of Success

Best (Re)Discovery
Insignificance

Most Disappointing
lack of supplements on films crying out for analysis (i.e. Cul-de-sac, Identification of a Woman, Black Moon)

Forum Member of the Year
MichaelB

Best New Member
tarpilot

Richard Cranium Award
domino harvey, for failing to recognize his calling as head writer for this season of Community

Best Non-Criterion Releases
Alice (BFI)
Coeur fidèle (Masters of Cinema)
The Colour of Pomegranates (Second Sight)
Deep End (BFI)
Landmarks of Early Soviet Film (Flicker Alley)
The Sacrifice (Kino)
The Strange Case of Angelica (Cinema Guild)
Szindbád (Second Run)
Taxi Driver (Sony)
Touch of Evil (Masters of Cinema)

swo, you shameless bastard. You should be a member of The Hollywood Foreign Press.

Here are mine, as I'm not sure that I will get to much else this year! (I also chose tarpilot as member of the year!) :

Best Release (1-5, in order of preference)
1. Island of Lost Souls
2. Les cousins
3. The Music Room
4. Identification of a Woman
5. Kiss Me Deadly

Best Eclipse Set
Silent Naruse

Best Reissue
Branded To Kill

Best Blu-ray Upgrade
3 Women

Best R1 Rescue (for title already available in R1 and re-released by Criterion)
Sweet Smell of Success

Best (Re)Discovery
Blow Out

Most Disappointing Release (for Criterion's treatment, not the film itself)
Secret Sunshine (albeit only for the lack of many of the Korean edition’s extras as noted by manicsounds)

Best Commentary
I'm afraid that I have only had the chance to listen to one so far this year so this goes to Alain Silver and James Ursini on Kiss Me Deadly

Best Supplement
The "Satyajit Ray" documentary by Shyam Benegal on The Music Room

Best Cover
Topsy-Turvy

Best Packaging
Insignificance

Member of the Year
tarpilot

Best Non-Criterion releases

It has been a really excellent year for releases - I'm afraid that I couldn't get my list below twenty places this year, and I even doubled up on the Greenaway and the excellent (exhaustive, amusing and lovingly detailed, being many hours long) horror documentaries spots! I keep hearing that 5 Centimetres Per Second will get released on Blu at some point in the future, but I couldn't wait that long! And while I think Tetsuo: The Bullet Man is rather flawed, it is very interestingly so and I can't let a Shinya Tsukamoto film pass by without the proper recognition. I dipped my toes in the waters of the German Filmmuseum releases too and bought By The Law and Enthusiasm, both excellent and well worth the hassle of setting up a PayPal account! I can only second everything people have been saying about The Strange Case of Angelica and in particular the sterling job done by Cinema Guild on the US Blu-ray - this is my first encounter with a Manoel de Oliveira film, so I really need to see more of his work before I can really comment on it!

Just on the edge of my list would have to be Arrow's excellent edition of Brian de Palma's flawed Obsession, NEDS, The Complete Humphrey Jennings Volume 1, Olive Films releasing Bergman's Face To Face (if it had been the longer television version, or ideally both versions, it would definitely have placed higher), Film Soclialisme (if New Wave had released it on Blu, perhaps this would have placed higher as well) and IFC's marvellous Blu-ray of the otherwise troubling Enter The Void (the film that almost literally knocked me for six for the first half of the year and almost made me question my love of, or more specifically tolerance for, any kind of cinema!)

But there was no question what my number one of the year would be!

1. A Man Vanishes - MoC
2. Pigs & Battleships + Stolen Desire - MoC
3. Alice - BFI
4. Touch of Evil - MoC
5. Our Beloved Month Of August - Second Run
6. 5 Centimetres Per Second - Manga Video
7. Requiem For A Village - BFI
8. The Strange Case of Angelica (Blu) - Cinema Guild
9. Robinson In Ruins (Blu) - BFI
10. Po Zakonu (By The Law) - German Filmmuseum
11. The Pillow Book (Blu) - Park Circus / A TV Dante - Digital Classics
12. Never Sleep Again: The Nightmare on Elm Street Legacy/More Brains! A Return To The Living Dead
13. Despair (Blu) - Olive Films
14. The Great White Silence - BFI
15. Deep End - BFI
16. Tetsuo: The Bullet Man - IFC
17. Essential Killing (Blu) - Artificial Eye
18. Level 5 - Optimum
19. The Hunter - Artificial Eye
20. A Swedish Love Story - Artificial Eye

Addendum

Best TV Show: Black Mirror and All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace! (Though Mildred Pierce is a worthy runner-up)

Best Computer Game: Portal 2, combining a wonderful difficulty curve with classic horrible sarcastic put-downs such as "Look at you, flying through the air so gracefully. Like an eagle. Piloting a blimp"

Okay, here's mine. Not all categories filled, as I haven't been as active here as in former years.

Best Release (not reissue or Blu-ray upgrade)
1. The Music Room
2. People on Sunday
3. The Mikado
4. Island of lost souls
5. Pale Flower

Best Eclipse Release
Sabu!

Best Reissue
Tokyo Drifter

Best R1 Rescue
The Music Room

Best Supplement
full length documentary on Ray on "The Music Room"

Best Cover
Orpheus re-issue

Best (Re)Discovery
Island of lost souls

Most Disappointing
"Senso" on DVD: they f'cked it up completely, with severe motion problems which make the film close to unwatchable (see dedicated thread for details)


Best Non-Criterion Releases

Quite clearly the most significant release of this year was:

Peter Pewas - Films 1932-1967 (Cinefest/absolut medien): the works of this man, completely unknown even in Germany, are among the greatest treasures for cinephiles to discover. Wonderfully poetic, but always realistic filmmaking. Such a shame that the absence of subs makes it difficult for this beautiful edition to reach an international audience, but if you do understand German, don't hesitate to get this treasure.

Very honourable mention to the following:

Sonnenstrahl (Hoanzl): the first film by Pal Fejös to make it to DVD, and while this may not be as great as "Lonesome", it's a very beautiful and enchanting film, too. Again, no subs.

Po Zakonu (Edition Filmmuseum)
Hamlet (Edition Filmmuseum)
La signora senza camelie (MoC)

Best Release (1-5, in order of preference)
1. Three Colors
2. The Complete Jean Vigo
3. Sweet Smell of Success
4. Carlos
5. 12 Angry Men

I did not buy any Eclipse sets

Best Reissue
Diabolique

Best Upgrade
Rushmore

Best R1 Rescue
Blow Out

Best (Re)Discovery
Island of Lost Souls

Most Disappointing Release
Something Wild

Best Commentary
Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Best Supplement
In the Beginning Was the End: The Truth About De-Evolution, Island of Lost Souls

Best Cover
Tokyo Drifter

Best Packaging
Sweet Smell of Success

Member of the Year
swo17

Best Release (not reissue or Blu-ray upgrade)
1. Sweet Smell of Success
2. The Complete Jean Vigo
3. Blow Out
4. Three Colors Trilogy
5. Kes

Best Eclipse Release
Basil Dearden's London Underground

Best Reissue
Shock Corridor

Best Blu-ray Upgrade
Yi Yi

Best R1 Rescue
The Music Room

Best Commentary
Alain Silver and James Ursini on Kiss Me Deadly

Best Supplement
Maison de France, on Carlos

Best Cover
Design for Living

Best Packaging
Sweet Smell of Success

Best (Re)Discovery
Pale Flower

Most Disappointing
Life During Wartime

Forum Member of the Year
MichaelB

Richard Cranium Award
Nothing/Giap (tie)

Best Release
01 Broadcast News
02 Les cousins
03 Kiss Me Deadly
04 the Great Dictator
05 Fish Tank

Best Eclipse Set Basil Dearden's London Underground

Best Reissue Orphee

Best R1 Rescue Broadcast News

Best (Re)Discovery Still Walking

Most Disappointing Release Zazie dans le metro, for sitting on one of the greatest of all French films for years and then providing next to no worthwhile supplements, all wrapped up in some of the shittiest cover art of all time. All around winner here

Best Commentary Adrian Martin for Les cousins

Best Supplement Deleted scenes for Broadcast News

Best Cover Insignificance

Best Packaging Sweet Smell of Success

Best Criterion Releases:

4. People on Sunday (Blu-ray)
3. Three Colors (Blu-ray)
2. Complete Jean Vigo (Blu-ray)

1. Silent Naruse (Eclipse set)

The above are the only 2011 Criterion releases that I bought.

Best Non-Criterions:

1. The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall (Blu-ray + DVD) (Universal Pictures UK). Most entertaining release of the year.
2. Ozu's color films (Dual Format) (BFI)
3. Le amiche & La Signora Senza Camelie (Dual Format) (MoC)

Looking forward to buying these two someday: Coeur Fidele (Dual Format, MoC) and A Farewell to Arms (Blu-ray, Kino)

Best Release (1-5, in order of preference)
1. 3 Colors trilogy
2. Sweet Smell Of Success
3. The Complete Jean Vigo
4. Blow Out
5. The Killing

Best Eclipse Set
Silent Naruse

Best Reissue
Diabolique

Best Blu-ray Upgrade
Amarcord

Best (Re)Discovery
Blow Out

Most Disappointing Release (for Criterion's treatment, not the film itself)
Identification of a Woman

Best Supplement
Sterling Hayden on The Killing

Best Cover
The Killing

Best Packaging
Sweet Smell Of Success


Best Non-Criterion Releases
1. Touch Of Evil (MoC) (UK)
2. Ben Hur (Warner) (US)
3. Mean Steets (Carlotta) (FR)
4. Taxi Driver (Sony) (FR)
5. Les cousins / Le beau Serge (Gaumont) (FR)
6. Deep End (BFI) (UK)
7. Rififi (Arrow) (UK)
8. Ozu Collection (BFI) (UK)
9. The Strange Case of Angelica (Cinema Guild) (US)
10. Matinee (Carlotta) (FR)