Man Shall Not Live by Criterion Alone: The Other 2020 Forum Awards

[swo17]

I'm going to go ahead and add the alternative category, and that can just be a comprehensive list that doesn't require nominations, but anyone can feel free to add anything else that's missing.

I agree about the Jackie Chan films and will go ahead and nominate my favorite from what I've seen so far: Dragons Forever

[therewillbeblus]

Alright a few more noms:

Best packaging: That Midsommar director's cut package that mfunk posted and everyone swooned over... I don't have it, but man that looks incredible

Best Bonus Film: List on the Cinema Guild copy of Grass (seriously, everyone needs to rush and see this)

Best late discovery: Hammer vol 4 (Indicator), The Triple Echo (Indicator)

Best cover: Beeswax, Grass

Best overall release: Beeswax, Grass, Vincent Price collection vol 1 upgrade (or just The Masque of the Red Death)

Worst covers

Spoiler

[swo17]

Oooh, I'll second Midsommar and List.

I'm gonna say The Triple Echo is ineligible for Best Late Discovery, as it was up for awards last year (and was actually one of the winners for Best Indicator Release)

[Black Hat]

Nominate
- Hotel du Nord
- Eve

Second
- Bela Lugosi
- Sweet Charity
- Mothra
- Sgt York
- Great McGinty

I'll toss more weight behind...
Ford Box
The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse
Cinema of Conflict: Four Films by Krzysztof Kieślowski (Arrow Academy)
Night Tide (Indicator)
Christmas in July
The Good Fair
The Pirate


Nominate for Best Cover
- Mothra

[swo17]

I'll second Hotel du Nord for release and Mothra for cover

I'll toss more weight behind...
Ford Box
The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse
Cinema of Conflict: Four Films by Krzysztof Kieślowski (Arrow Academy)
Night Tide (Indicator)
Christmas in July
The Good Fair
The Pirate

What category specifically are you mentioning these for?

[Black Hat]

Best Release and upgrade from the Sturges on down.. they were all seconded already so I wasn't sure if that meant they automatically advanced to the next round .

[swo17]

Most of those are already seconded so there's no need to mention them. However, John Ford at Columbia has not been nominated for best release yet by anyone but you

[Pavel]

I'll second the Ford box, as well as Raining in the Mountain, Watermelon Man and Britannia Hospital.
I'll nominate Buffalo Bill (for reverting back to the original colors and for including the silent shorts) and Roadgames (for seemingly being the definitive version of a film that had already been released twice).
I know it was pretty much impossible, but I guess I'll nominate Kansas City for Most Disappointing for not including Jazz '34 (I do still really like the release)

[Calvin]

For Best Overall Release I will nominate:
Distant Journey (Second Run)
Mephisto (Kino)
Walkabout (Second Sight)

Best Upgrade
Le garçu (Gaumont)
L'enfance nue (Gaumont)
Cinema Paradiso (Arrow)
King of New York (Arrow)


Best Bonus Film
Crash! (Arrow)

Best Other On-Disc Extra
Remembrance of production designer József Romvári (on the Kino Istvan Szabo releases)

Best Book(let)
Dawn of the Dead (Second Sight)
Walkabout (Second Sight)
Polytechnique (BFI)

Best Cover

[artfilmfan]

Second:

Cyrano de Bergerac (BFI)

Nomination for Best Release:

Nights of Cabiria (Studio Canal). Waited for a long time for a restored version of this film to be available on Blu-ray. The Criterion DVD was one of the first few (perhaps the third) Criterion releases that I bought, at or nearly at the full price, at a local bookstore. The picture quality is not perfect, but still a significant improvement over the Criterion DVD. It’s nice to have the option to buy this standalone release, instead of having to buy the Criterion box set.

[alacal2]

Spring Night Summer Night (Indicator)

[Pavel]

Spring Night Summer Night (Indicator)

I'll second it

[MichaelB]

In all fairness, that should be shared with Flicker Alley, as the discs are essentially identical once you get beyond the menus (and by "identical" I mean literally the same video encodes).

[therewillbeblus]

I thought Best Overall Release took into account the whole package with supplements too, so unless Flicker Alley has the same extras, I’m not sure if the category’s parameters necessitate sharing. I’ve definitely been factoring that in to voting in the past across both this ballot and the Criterion one.

[soundchaser]

The Flicker Alley and Indicator releases share the same extras, yes. I wouldn't be surprised if they're the same disc in different regions (and I can check this when I get home later), in which case the only difference would be the cover art and the layout/typeface of the booklets.

[therewillbeblus]

Interesting, I always assume an Indicator release will commission at least some of their own extras as an ethos since they're so jam-packed and standout amongst competitive releases of the same film. In that case I agree, share away

[soundchaser]

Ok, I was wrong: the readable sides of the discs aren’t exactly the same. (They were for the noirs Flicker Alley and Arrow released concurrently.) Still, the extras are exactly the same, including what’s in the booklet.

[therewillbeblus]

Booklet too? Damn. I really need to check out Flicker Alley as an alternative to these Arrow/Indicator discs ahead of time.

While I'm here, I'll second The Good Place complete series (Shout!) and nominate Brick (KL) for best release

[MichaelB]

Ok, I was wrong: the readable sides of the discs aren’t exactly the same. (They were for the noirs Flicker Alley and Arrow released concurrently.) Still, the extras are exactly the same, including what’s in the booklet.

They’re not literally the same because the discs are region-free, so the usual trick of serving up region-specific menus based on the disc’s region code wouldn’t have worked. But I gather it’s only the menus and label idents that are different - David Mackenzie authored both discs and so the video files (including all extras) are all identical.

This is the only Indicator release that I'm aware of where there's a more or less identical equivalent (bar superficial presentational issues) available in the US, but since this is the case here I think both labels should definitely be acknowledged. The discs were released virtually simultaneously (a week apart, I think), so there wasn't any scope for one label to improve on the other, and no real incentive either.

[alacal2]

If I need to rechnically renominate I'm perfectly happy to make it a joint one.

[swo17]

I've already listed it that way in the first post, you're good

[Yakushima]

I would like to nominate for the best overall release:

Tokyo Godfathers (Shout)
Satoshi Kon's Paranoia Agent (Funimation)
The Shop Around the Corner (WB Archive)
Beau Geste (Kino)
Knives Out (4K UHD by Lionsgate)

Best Upgrades:

The Lord of the Rings Extended Edition (4K UHD)
Total Recall (4K UHD)

BEST LATE DISCOVERY

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (WB Archive)
From Beyond the Grave (WB Archive)

Apologies if any of those have already been nominated and I missed it.

[mfb5150]

My suggestions and seconds...


OVERALL

Dawn of the Dead (Second Sight)
The Game (Arrow Academy)
Phase IV (101 Films)
Brick (KL)


BEST UPGRADE

Phase IV (101 Films)


BEST BONUS FILM

Saul Bass: Short Films  (Phase IV, 101 Films)


BOOK

Dawn of the Dead (Second Sight)
The Game (Arrow Academy)
Phase IV (101 Films)

BEST LATE DISCOVERY 

Blue Sunshine (FilmCentrix)


BEST PACKAGING

Dawn of the Dead (Second Sight)
The Game (Arrow Academy)
Phase IV (101 Films)


BEST ALTERNATIVE TO A CRITERION RELEASE

The Game (Arrow Academy)

[swo17]

I'll second Shop Around the Corner though I think that belongs in the upgrade category

[Black Hat]

Nominate
Puzzle of a Downfall Child
Diary of Mad Housewife
Ladybug, Ladybug

Second
Beau Geste