criterionforum.org

THE 2018 CRITERION FORUM BAFTAS
FOR EXCELLENCE IN BRITISH HOME VIDEO



Because of the spectacular work done by a number of UK labels (BFI, Masters of Cinema, Second Run, Arrow, Indicator and more) this year, we’re going to conduct a second set of year-end awards running parallel to the traditional Criterion awards, currently being conducted by domino harvey in a parallel thread. This introductory post is largely plagiarized from that thread.

Any and all 2018 releases by UK labels are eligible, EXCEPT those put out by Criterion UK (since they’re already covered by the existing awards). Lists of eligible releases from several major labels (kindly compiled by Tenia) appear in the following post, but please weigh in on any releases by other labels that you think deserve consideration.

(The handful of US-only titles released by Arrow are not eligible.)

IMPORTANT NOTE

Voting starts at the same time as the other awards, December 18th. You may post in this thread before that, but any lists posted early will be disregarded.

Please either post your votes in this thread or PM me, zedz. You may or may not vote in most categories, but you must provide a ranked Top Ten to be counted at all. No ties will be counted in any category, so make the hard decision if you want your vote to matter.

NO VOTING UNTIL DECEMBER 18 2018
VOTING CLOSES JANUARY 31 2019

I decided to extend the closing date for these awards until the end of January so as not to have a Criterion Awards pile up, and to allow people a little extra time to deal with the much larger volume of releases covered by this exercise.


And your 2018 Criterion Forum BAFTA categories are…

BEST RELEASE - Numbered in order from 1-10. Must vote for ten titles to have your ballot counted. Boxed sets can be voted for in this category.

BEST BOXED SET – This relates to multi-film box sets. Boxed sets dedicated to a single very big film / series (e.g. Berlin Alexanderplatz, Heimat) are not eligible.

BEST COMMENTARY – New commentaries only, not ports of existing discs from other labels/studios

BEST "BONUS" FILM – This relates to bonus features, shorts or documentaries included on a disc alongside the headline title. It’s intended to cover films with a profile independent of the headliner, not works of whatever length created specifically for the home video release or other publicity purpose.

BEST ON-DISC NON-COMMENTARY EXTRA – This category relates to anything else on a disc that isn’t a “bonus film” (see above).

BEST BOOKLET (OR BOOK)

BEST COVER

WORST COVER

BEST PACKAGING

BEST DISCOVERY – For a film that is new to you.

MOST FLAWED RELEASE – For the treatment of the film (poor transfer, wrong version, bad extras etc.), not the film itself.

BEST ARROW RELEASE

BEST BFI RELEASE

BEST INDICATOR RELEASE

BEST MASTERS OF CINEMA or EUREKA RELEASE

BEST SECOND RUN RELEASE

LABEL ROUNDUP – 2018 RELEASES

Eligible Box Sets indicated in bold


ARROW ACADEMY UK :

The Mystery of Picasso
After the Storm
Three Films by Jia Zhangke (24 City / A Touch of Sin / Mountains May Depart)
Viva l'Italia
Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno
A Woman's Life
Orchestra Rehearsal
Family Values: Three Films by Hirokazu Kore-eda (I Wish / Like Father, Like Son / After the Storm)
Magnificent Doll
Jean-Luc Godard + Jean-Pierre Gorin: Five Films 1968-1971 (Un film comme les autres / British Sounds / Vent d'est / Lotte in Italia / Vladimir et Rosa)
Ramrod
Images
Sacha Guitry: Four Films 1936-1938 (Let's Make a Dream / My Father Was Right / The New Testament / Let's Go Up the Champs-Élysées)
Sleeping Dogs
La Chinoise
Irma Vep
Black Venus
Smash Palace
Dark River
Woman is the Future of Man + Tale of Cinema: Two Films by Hong Sangsoo
The Third Murder
A Gentle Creature
Mohsen Makhmalbaf: The Poetic Trilogy (Gabbeh / The Silence / The Gardener)
Bloody Spear at Mount Fuji
Ismael's Ghosts
The Early Films of Olivier Assayas (Disorder / Winter's Chil)
Children of Men
Gas Food Lodging
Gosford Park
The Serpent's Egg
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice
Akio Jissôji: The Buddhist Collection (This Transient Life / Mandara / Poem / It Was a Faint Dream) - may be delayed until 2019?

ARROW VIDEO UK :

Hounds of Love
The Cat O' Nine Tails (Limited Edition)
Seijun Suzuki: The Early Years, Vol. 1 - Seijun Rising: The Youth Movies (The Boy Who Came Back / The Wind-of-Youth Group Crosses the Mountain Pass / Teenage Yakuza / The Incorrigible / Born Under Crossed Stars)
Scalpel
Der Todesking (Limited Edition)
Flowers in the Attic
A Pistol for Ringo & The Return of Ringo: Two Films by Duccio Tessari
Killer Klowns from Outer Space (Remastered)
Blade of the Immortal
Seijun Suzuki: The Early Years, Vol. 2 - Border Crossings: The Crime and Action Movies (Eight Hours of Terror / The Sleeping Beast Within / Smashing the 0-Line / Tokyo Knights / The Man with a Shotgun)
Dark Blue
Rawhead Rex
The Bloodthirsty Trilogy
Death Smiles on a Murderer
Jake Speed
Vigil
The Last House on the Left (Limited Edition)
The Quiet Earth
The Addiction
The Complete Sartana (If You Meet Sartana... Pray for Your Death / I Am Sartana, Your Angel of Death / Sartana's Here... Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin / Have a Good Funeral My Friend... Sartana Will Pay / Light the Fuse... Sartana is Coming)
The Endless (Limited Edition | Includes Resolution)
The Boondock Saints
Detective Bureau 2-3: Go to Hell, Bastards!
The Case of the Scorpion's Tail
Doom Asylum
The Navigator: A Medieval Odyssey
Street Mobster
Tideland
Apprentice to Murder
Incident in a Ghostland
Heathers
The Pyjama Girl Case
Horrors of Malformed Men
The Baby
City of the Living Dead (Limited Edition)
Twelve Monkeys
Schlock
Deadbeat at Dawn
Candyman (Limited Edition)
Orgies of Edo
Texas, Adios
De Palma & De Niro: The Early Films (The Wedding Party / Greetings / Hi, Mom!)
Crimson Peak (Limited Edition)
Elvira: Mistress of the Dark
Waterworld
Bloody Birthday

AX1 (fka AXIOM):

The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick
Kings of the Road
The American Friend


BFI:

When the Wind Blows
Hotel Salvation
Shiraz: A Romance of India
An Actor's Revenge
Jarman Volume One: 1972-1986 (In the Shadow of the Sun / Sebastiane / Jubilee / The Tempest / The Angelic Conversation / Caravaggio)
The Touch
The Magic Flute
They Came to a City
Woodfall: A Revolution in British Cinema 1959-1965 (Look Back in Anger / The Entertainer / Saturday Night and Sunday Morning / A Taste of Honey / The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner / Tom Jones / Girl with Green Eyes / The Knack... and How to Get It)
The Children's Hour
It Happened Here
La Belle et la Bête
Separate Tables
The Man from Mo'Wax (Limited Edition)
The Comfort of Strangers
Eye of the Needle
Paris nous appartient
Distant Voices, Still Lives
The Blood of Hussain (Includes Towers of Silence)

CURZON ARTIFICIAL EYE:

Good Time
I Am Not a Witch
The Killing of a Sacred Deer
Happy End
The Return
The Banishment
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
The Class
The Square
A Fantastic Woman
120 BPM
Let the Sunshine In
Lean on Pete
Weekend
A Man Escaped
Apostasy
Faces Places
L'Atalante + The Films of Jean Vigo (TBC)
Pina (TBC)

88 FILMS:

The Mercenary
Navajo Joe
The Dragon Missile
One-Armed Swordsman
Sea Fog
The Super Inframan
The Spiritual Boxer
Alice, Sweet Alice
Hansel & Gretel
The Vengeful Beauty
Harlequin


THE EUREKA FAMILY :

EUREKA CLASSICS :
Re:Born
Marty
Breakheart Pass
Inherit the Wind
The Defiant Ones
Iron Monkey
Flesh + Blood
Jackie Chan's Police Story & Police Story 2 (Limited Edition)
City Hunter
Monkey Shines
Troll: The Complete Collection
Night of the Creeps
Jackie Chan's Project A & Project A Part II (Limited Edition)
Hitler's Hollywood
Lucky
Once Upon a Time in China Trilogy (Limited Edition)

MASTERS OF CINEMA :
The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes
Michael
House
The Barefoot Contessa
Legend of the Mountain
Early Hou Hsiao-hsien: Three Films 1980-1983 (Cute Girl / The Green, Green Grass of Home / The Boys from Fengkuei)
Cure
The Old Dark House
No Way Out
King of Hearts
Birdman of Alcatraz
Witness for the Prosecution
Salvador
The Last Waltz (Limited Edition)

MONTAGE PICTURES:
Kills on Wheels
New World
Strangled
The Housemaid
Shirley: Visions of Reality
The Butterfly Tree


INDICATOR :

018 Ship of Fools
036 Otley
037 Gumshoe
048 Night of the Demon
049 The Passenger
050 Town on Trial
058-061 Hammer Volume Two: Criminal Intent (The Snorkel / Never Take Sweets from a Stranger / The Full Treatment / Cash on Demand)
062-066 Five Tall Tales: Budd Boetticher & Randolph Scott at Columbia, 1957-1960 (The Tall T / Decision at Sundown / Buchanan Rides Alone / Ride Lonesome / Comanche Station)
067 Charley Varrick
068 Blue Collar
069 The Border
070 The Collector
071 The Fortune
072 The St. Valentine's Day Massacre
073 Little Murders
074 The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds
075 Suddenly, Last Summer
076-079 Samuel Fuller at Columbia, 1937-1961 (It Happened in Hollywood / Adventure in Sahara / Power of the Press / Shockproof / Scandal Sheet / The Crimson Kimono / Underworld U.S.A.)
080-083 Hammer Volume Three: Blood & Terror (The Camp on Blood Island / Yesterday's Enemy / The Stranglers of Bombay / The Terror of the Tongs)
084 The Odessa File
085 The China Syndrome
086 Modern Romance
093 The Mind of Mr Soames
094-097 William Castle at Columbia, Volume One (The Tingler / 13 Ghosts / Homicidal / Mr Sardonicus)
102 Ministry of Fear
106 Missing
107 Footsteps in the Fog
112 Age of Consent
118 Oleanna
120 Absolution
121 Born of Fire
128 Charlie Bubbles
140 Georgy Girl
141 The Wrong Box


101 FILMS BLACK LABEL :

Black Book
Existenz
The Grifters
Rollercoaster
Trespass

PLAN B:

Broken Arrow
The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw
Firestarter
The Boston Strangler

SECOND RUN :

Silence and Cry
Neon Bull
Intimate Lighting
Black Peter
The Miraculous Virgin
From Lift to The Road: The Films of Marc Isaacs
Daisies
Invention for Destruction

SECOND SIGHT (Not Complete):

Berlin Alexanderplatz
The Boys in the Band
Breathless ('83)
The Changeling
Ciao! Manhattan
The Colour of Pomegranates
Heimat
Long Weekend
Once Were Warriors
Take Shelter
When a Stranger Calls (TBC)
World on a Wire

SIGNAL ONE:

Damnation Alley
Deadfall
The Earth Dies Screaming
The Three Faces of Eve
Hudson Hawk
Nightmare Alley (TBC)
The Gunfighter (TBC)
Fire Sale (TBC)

STUDIO CANAL (Not Complete):

To the Devil a Daughter
Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde
Horror of Frankenstein
Straight on Till Morning
Ice Cold in Alex (60th Anniversary Edition)
Le Corbeau
La Prisonnière
Quai des Orfèvres
Paddington 2 4K
Blood Simple (Director's Cut)
The Commuter 4K
Early Man 4K
The Mercy
The Dam Busters (Collector's Edition)
You Were Never Really Here
Journeyman
Wonderstruck
Midnight Sun
Bagdad Cafe (Out of Rosenheim | 30th Anniversary Edition)
The Deer Hunter 4K
The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society
The Crime of Monsieur Lange (Le Crime de Monsieur Lange)
How to Talk to Girls at Parties
The Nun (La Religieuse)
The Producers (50th Anniversary Edition)
L'Année dernière à Marienbad
The Breadwinner
Evil Dead 2 4K
The Fog 4K (Collector's Edition)
Prince of Darkness 4K
They Live 4K (Collector's Edition)
First Blood 4K (Rambo: First Blood)
Rambo: First Blood Part II 4K
Rambo III 4K
Cliffhanger 4K (25th Anniversary Edition)
Escape from New York 4K (Collector's Edition)

Pretty disappointed that zedz won't be replacing early lists with GIFs from whatever the British equivalent of Gossip Girl is

Also, zedz, I do think the Buddhist Trilogy is pushed to next year, as Amazon canceled all orders. And we're about to get Indicator's December lineup any day now, so that great list of possibilities is about to get a little longer!

Yeah, I assumed that after the Amazon cancellation. Has it been confirmed yet by Arrow?

Studio Canal also had a banner year:

Bagdad Cafe
Le corbeau
Le crime de Monsieur Lange
the Dam Busters
the Deer Hunter
Last Year in Marienbad
the Nun
La Prisonniere
Quai Des Orfevres
Wonderstruck

domino harvey wrote: Tue Oct 02, 2018 2:46 am Studio Canal also had a banner year:

Bagdad Cafe
Le corbeau
Le crime de Monsieur Lange
the Dam Busters
the Deer Hunter
Last Year in Marienbad
the Nun
La Prisonniere
Quai Des Orfevres
Wonderstruck

In they go!

Was that their full output or selected highlights?

(Reminds me I need to pick up Wonderstruck.)

domino harvey wrote: Tue Oct 02, 2018 2:34 am Also, zedz, I do think the Buddhist Trilogy is pushed to next year, as Amazon canceled all orders. And we're about to get Indicator's December lineup any day now, so that great list of possibilities is about to get a little longer!

The official release date was updated to 12/31/18, though that could just be a placeholder.

zedz, those are highlights-- though if you want to include a dozen Shaun the Sheep DVDs, I can't blame you

domino harvey wrote: Tue Oct 02, 2018 2:34 am Also, zedz, I do think the Buddhist Trilogy is pushed to next year, as Amazon canceled all orders. And we're about to get Indicator's December lineup any day now, so that great list of possibilities is about to get a little longer!

Target has yet to cancel so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some time before 2019 (but as long as I get it for the substantial preorder discount I'll be happy!).

I'm waiting for a price drop for the Woodfall BFI set, but Suzuki will likely wind up somewhere on my list with the Arrow sets. Thanks to zedz for compiling this list, it makes for a great buying guide!

domino harvey wrote: Tue Oct 02, 2018 3:05 am zedz, those are highlights-- though if you want to include a dozen Shaun the Sheep DVDs, I can't blame you

Nah, I'll just note that it's a partial list, like with Second Sight.

Murdoch wrote: Tue Oct 02, 2018 3:12 am

domino harvey wrote: Tue Oct 02, 2018 2:34 am Also, zedz, I do think the Buddhist Trilogy is pushed to next year, as Amazon canceled all orders. And we're about to get Indicator's December lineup any day now, so that great list of possibilities is about to get a little longer!

Target has yet to cancel so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some time before 2019 (but as long as I get it for the substantial preorder discount I'll be happy!).

I'm waiting for a price drop for the Woodfall BFI set, but Suzuki will likely wind up somewhere on my list with the Arrow sets. Thanks to zedz for compiling this list, it makes for a great buying guide!

Don't thank me, thank Tenia. My contribution was only about 5%.

That's right, I actually was compiling a wishlist based on tenia's posts in the other awards thread. Thanks to both of you!

Hey, no problem ! I'll be amongst the happy users of these lists anyway, and between the Arrow USA listing page and the blu-ray.com's database once setup in a text listing view, it was actually quite short to compile all these.
Let me know if there are others UK labels people think should be included (I've seen Canal popping up already), I'll add these.

I would also suspect the Jissoji boxset won't be released in 2018, but in any case then, if that's the case, nobody should vote for it since nobody will possess a copy anyway !

Finally, just 2 requests to zedz :
- would it be possible to put the MoC section next to the Eureka classics one ? It is afterall a sub-collection from Eureka, so it would make sense to group them even if it screws the alphabetical order.
- would it also be possible to capitalize Montage Pictures ? As it is today, it looks like a movie, but it is a sub-collection too !

EDIT : here is the Studio Canal UK one. Considering Wonderstruck was included above, I kept the contemporary releases though I doubt The Commuter or Midnight Sun will get many votes. To simply the listing, when multiple releases exist (for instance, the Carpenter movies will get 4K collector boxsets à la Deer Hunter + 4K steelbooks + BD releases), I kept only the highest / biggest ones (for instance, Paddington 2 will show "Paddington 2 4K"). This is only for convenience and avoid multiple listings, but obviously, all those not equipped should vote for the related BD releases. I removed The Piano, since I believe the 25th Anniversary release doesn't include a new restoration.

To the Devil a Daughter
Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde
Horror of Frankenstein
Straight on Till Morning
Ice Cold in Alex (60th Anniversary Edition)
Le Corbeau
La Prisonnière
Quai des Orfèvres
Paddington 2 4K
Blood Simple (Director's Cut)
The Commuter 4K
Early Man 4K
The Mercy
The Dam Busters (Collector's Edition)
You Were Never Really Here
Journeyman
Wonderstruck
Midnight Sun
Bagdad Cafe (Out of Rosenheim | 30th Anniversary Edition)
The Deer Hunter 4K
The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society
The Crime of Monsieur Lange (Le Crime de Monsieur Lange)
How to Talk to Girls at Parties
The Nun (La Religieuse)
The Producers (50th Anniversary Edition)
L'Année dernière à Marienbad
The Breadwinner
Evil Dead 2 4K
The Fog 4K (Collector's Edition)
Prince of Darkness 4K
They Live 4K (Collector's Edition)
First Blood 4K (Rambo: First Blood)
Rambo: First Blood Part II 4K
Rambo III 4K
Cliffhanger 4K (25th Anniversary Edition)
Escape from New York 4K (Collector's Edition)

Some more SECOND SIGHT releases from this year:

Once Were Warriors
Breathless ('83)
Ciao! Manhattan
Long Weekend
The Boys in the Band
When a Stranger Calls (TBC)

And some other noteworthy labels/titles...

SIGNAL ONE:

Damnation Alley
Deadfall
The Earth Dies Screaming
The Three Faces of Eve
Hudson Hawk
Nightmare Alley (TBC)
The Gunfighter (TBC)
Fire Sale (TBC)

PLAN B:

Broken Arrow
The Sheriff of Fractured Jaw
Firestarter
The Boston Strangler

CURZON ARTIFICIAL EYE:

Good Time
I Am Not a Witch
The Killing of a Sacred Deer
Happy End
The Return
The Banishment
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
The Class
The Square
A Fantastic Woman
120 BPM
Let the Sunshine In
Lean on Pete
Weekend
A Man Escaped
Apostasy
Faces Places
L'Atalante + The Films of Jean Vigo (TBC)
Pina (TBC)

AX1 (fka AXIOM):

The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick
Kings of the Road
The American Friend

88 FILMS:

The Mercenary
Navajo Joe
The Dragon Missile
One-Armed Swordsman
Sea Fog
The Super Inframan
The Spiritual Boxer
Alice, Sweet Alice
Hansel & Gretel
The Vengeful Beauty
Harlequin

Fantastic additions, thanks. The Goalie's Anxiety of the Penalty Kick is certainly a major release I can recommend, though what they had to go through to make it music-rights-safe suggests that we'll never see Wenders' Summer in the City of Alabama (2000 Light Years) on home video.

The sheer immensity of that list suggests we're really going to need a heap of personal recommendations to navigate this exercise, so bring them on!

I can tell you my vote for best extra will go to MOC's No Way Out, one of Joseph L Mankiewicz's weakest films, true, but MOC not only carried over the Fox Noir DVD's extras (though its distinction as a noir is highly suspect), they added unannounced the entire two hour All About Mankiewicz French TV program, a career-wide discussion with Mankiewicz

And of course, Indicator put out a Mankiewicz that is actually good with Suddenly, Last Summer in an incredibly stacked edition (I already had the TT Barefoot Contessa and saw no reason to get the MOC based on paucity of extras, so it's not in consideration for me)

Also there's no way in hell Nightmare Alley and the Gunfighter are actually ever coming out, I feel like those have been in my cart for years now. I'll believe it when I see it.

I've seen some really good extras on various discs. I just watched the Christopher Eccleston interview on eXistenZ, which is relaxed, entertaining and informative, and the interview with the makers of The Endless where they explain all their tricks to making a good-looking film with no money whatsoever was useful and memorable. And six hours of Sam Fuller babbling about anything and everything while Tim Robbins tried helplessly to keep him on topic was a blast.

But I don't think anything is going to outdo, for sheer entertainment value, the Lee Drysdale interview(s) on the Derek Jarman box set. And that collection is probably the front runner for me in terms of the box set, packaging and overall votes too. It's a beautiful package from top to bottom, with an insane wealth of high-quality extras.

Edgar Reitz's 1981 documentary dry-run for Heimat, Stories from the Hunsruck Villages, a film I didn't even know existed before Second Sight's release, is, off the top of my head, the best bonus film for me.

It's certainly been an embarrassment of riches and it only seems to get better instead of worse each year. This feels like the Golden Age for the Blu-Ray format.

domino harvey wrote: Tue Oct 02, 2018 7:28 pm Also there's no way in hell Nightmare Alley and the Gunfighter are actually ever coming out, I feel like those have been in my cart for years now. I'll believe it when I see it.

The Gunfighter looks like it might be now coming out in January (a listing on Base.com says so). And when asked a few times in the past 6 months, James at Signal One has consistently said Nightmare Alley was a priority for release this quarter, so perhaps that'll still come out before Christmas (probably after Hudson Hawk and The Boston Strangler are out of the way). I imagine he's trying to figure out what order to release things, not least because he's involved with Plan B as well as his own label Signal One.

NB: I actually suggested to James to get hold of Alex Cox for The Gunfighter, and he wisely took my advice and booked a filmed interview with him. I notice it hasn't been added to the extras yet but I hope that didn't fall through (haven't heard anything about that for nearly a year now). Cox is pretty accommodating though, and this is one of his absolute favourite Westerns, so I don't imagine he'd pass it up.

The Gunfighter, Nightmare Alley, and Fire Sale confirmed by S1 to be 2019 releases, so they can be removed from contention

The final Indicator releases for 2018 will be unveiled on Thursday.

MichaelB wrote: Sun Oct 07, 2018 8:04 pm The final Indicator releases for 2018 will be unveiled on Thursday.

If there's an Ophuls in there that'd be a major contender for me

NABOB OF NOWHERE wrote: Mon Oct 08, 2018 10:07 am

MichaelB wrote: Sun Oct 07, 2018 8:04 pm The final Indicator releases for 2018 will be unveiled on Thursday.

If there's an Ophuls in there that'd be a major contender for me

And if the Altman turns out to be a December title, that would too for me. It seems the Hopper is quite likely for December, since it was teased in the last newsletter.