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IMDb Film Festival 2016: Explanation, Discussion, and Ratings Thread


Hello! If you're reading this, you've made it to the IMDb Film Festival 2016. As with last year, a number of us users have gotten together to program a list of some of the finest--but not widely recognized--films of the past few years for the general public to watch and discuss.

The festival will run from Nov. 13-27.

On the last day, our jurors will come together to announce award winners from each section. However, if you're not a juror, you can still help hand out one award - the Audience Award. The Audience Award is judged by asking everyone to post their ratings of the films (please do so on THIS thread to make my life easier). Whichever film has the highest average rating wins the Audience Award. Last year's winner was Norte, the End of History--who woulda thunk it?

You can also earn "badges" for levels of participation. Add them to your profile to show everyone how proud you are!  Here are the ones you can earn:

1. Initials on a Tree Badge - You watch one film in the next two weeks specifically because it's a part of our festival.
2. Woke as [Expletive] Badge - You watch Nothing But a Man and 13th.
3. My Boo Badge - You watch the three films in the Just Before Dawn category.
4. Gayer Than Thou Badge - You watch every film in the LGBT Category.
5. Fast Reader Badge - You watch every film in one of the International Categories.
6. Slow Reader Badge - You watch every film in the English-Language Category.
7. Arty Hard Badge - You watch every film in the Arthouse category.
8. Professor Badge - You watch every film in the From the Vaults Section (including the entire Leos Carax Retrospective).
9. Next Year's Juror Badge - You watch every film in the Main Slate.
10. Cinephile Badge - You watch every film in two sub-categories that aren't the Main Slate.
11. Full House Badge - You watch every film in three sub-categories that aren't the Main Slate.
12. God Mode Badge - You watch every film listed, and we all have to bow down before you. 

Without further ado, here's the List!

Main Slate:

Big Bad Wolves
Black Coal, Thin Ice
Coherence
Embrace of the Serpent (Centerpiece)
Evolution
The Forbidden Room
Song of the Sea
The Invitation
The Tale of Princess Kaguya
Tokyo Tribe
The World of Kanako

Special Post-Election Pick:

13th

International I:
(Europe, North + South America)

Aferim! (Romania)
Camille Claudel 1915 (France)
Mustang (Turkey)
Mediterranea (Italy)
A War (Denmark)

International II:
(Africa, Asia, Oceania)

Charlie's Country (Australia [aboriginal])
Mountains May Depart (China)
Talvar (India)
Theeb (Jordan)
Why Don't You Play in Hell? (Japan)

Arthouse:

Catch Me Daddy
Eisenstein in Guanajuato
Story of My Death
Thou Wast Mild & Lovely

English-Language:

The Best Offer
The Selfish Giant
Tracks
White Bird in a Blizzard

LGBT:

Naz & Maalik
The New Girlfriend
Tom at the Farm
The Way He Looks

Documentary:

Cartel Land
The Fear of 13
Life Itself
The Propaganda Game

Just Before Dawn:

Bone Tomahawk
Greatful Dead [2013]
Late Phases

From the Vaults:

Nothing But a Man
Alambrista!
Leos Carax Retrospective [part of From the Vaults]
Boy Meets Girl
Mauvais Sang
Lovers on the Bridge
Pola X
Holy Motors

Main Slate Discussion Thread: http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000093/nest/263230845
International Discussion Thread: http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000093/nest/263232741
English-Language Discussion Thread: http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000093/nest/263232943
[more to come in the days that follow]

Programmers: flaiky, gianduja, outdoorcats, peeptoad, Stijak

Jury President: morrison-dylan-fan

Jury:
Carmel98
dark_frances
Gloede_The_Saint
GruesomeTwosome
guccipix
jdidaco
Perception_de_Ambiguity
Red-Barracuda
RogerTheMovieManiac88
sol-
tkyidetty


questions?comments?concerns?

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(in case of emergency)

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I'm far too involved in this not to be a programmer again, I guess. 

Films that I saw and liked:

Theeb
Tokyo Tribe
The Best Offer (the film is in English btw, despite the Italian director, production and setting)
Black Coal, Thin Ice
The Homesman
White Bird in a Blizzard
Life Itself
Tim's Vermeer
Cartel Land
Bone Tomahawk

I also suggest:

Seduced and Abandoned (2013)
Kawaki (2014)
Krugovi (2013)
Road to Paloma (2014)
The Grand Seduction (2013)
Knight of Cups (2015) (Yeah, it's Malick, but it's flying under the radar)
The Stanford Prison Experiment (2015)
Big Bad Wolves (2013)
Ich seh ich seh (2014)
Kaguyahime no monogatari (2013)
Victoria (2015)
Love (2015)
Tracks (2013)
Dear White People (2014)
Mandariinid (2013)
Cobain: Montage of Heck (2015)
Fading Gigolo (2013)
Song of the Sea (2014)

All of these have under 20K votes on IMDb. I'll let you guys decide if any of them are too well known.

Truth is, you're Donny and I'm Walter.
But I'm tryin', Ringo. I'm tryin' real hard to be The Dude.

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Is that second list of titles all films you've seen and recommend?

I think Knight of Cups, Dear White People, Goodnight Mommy [Ich seh ich seh], Love, and Cobain: Montage of Heck are too well known, personally. They might not have a lot of votes but they are 'FG famous' at least. I'm on the fence with Victoria and Tracks. The rest I think are OK, though I'm too tired to take a good look at them right now.

(If we're using flaiky's suggestion that we should at least deduct points if a programmer actively disliked one of the titles, I should mention that I hated Big Bad Wolves--sorry.)

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Yes, I've seen those and recommend them. Yeah, those probably are too well known. As I said, I was just going by the number of votes, I didn't want to speculate.

And no need to be sorry. All is cool.

Truth is, you're Donny and I'm Walter.
But I'm tryin', Ringo. I'm tryin' real hard to be The Dude.

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I definitely want to raise Story of My Death / Història de la meva mort (2013 - Albert Serra) as a possibility for the festival. As mentioned I am on a foreign holiday for 3 weeks in September so can't commit to being a programmer if I need to be doing stuff then, but would be happy to come up with some ideas.

I particularly enjoyed curating the LGBT section for the last festival, which I think ended up being spectacular (even if I do say so myself ). It's really important that people don't see these films as part of the festival just for political correctness, i.e. that we make sure that the films are there because they are great films.

Additional suggestions for LGBT (has been hard to find L stuff for sure, ditto B):

G
Pride (2014 - Matthew Warchus) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3169706/
The Way He Looks / Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho (2014 - Daniel Ribeiro) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1702014/
Tom at the Farm (2013 - Xavier Dolan) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2427892/
Free Fall (2013 - Stephan Lacant) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2617828/
Geography Club (2013 - Gary Entin) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2235902/
Hawaii (2013 - Marco Berger) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2801746/
Prora (2012 - Stephane Riethauser) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2128693/ 23 minute short

T
Boy Meets Girl (2014 - Eric Schaeffer) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3007302/ - very funny name for an LGBT movie, girl in this case is a transgender girl
Man on High Heels / Hai-hil (2014 - Jin Jang) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3837196/
Hit & Miss (2012) - This is a miniseries starring Chloe Sevigny as a trans hitwoman. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2232345/
The Circle (2014 - Stefan Haupt) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3148952/
The New Girlfriend (2014 - François Ozon)http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3184934/ would have been on last year's fgff potentially but wasn't on netflix then

L
Reaching for the Moon (2013 - Bruno Barreto) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2217458/

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In the upcoming weeks I'm putting a priority on LGBT film views so we can fill that list out a little bit. Any titles you want to swap?

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Hit and Miss is something I'm particularly excited about, up for swapping that next week.

I'm going to watch Hawaii and Hai-Hil in the next couple of weeks as well. Have already seen Tom at the Farm and The New Girlfriend. The New Girlfriend has a place in my heart. Tom at the Farm is twisted fun.

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I'll watch Hit and Miss next week then; I'll try and see The New Girlfriend as well.

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