The Reel Society Of Film Critics Awards 2013

[silversurfer19]

It's that time of year again. Christmas and New Year are gone, our waists have expanded that little bit further, and the glut of woeful January movies are upon us... But fear not, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. As once again, we are approaching The ReelSociety of Film Critics Awards 2013! This is an annual award ceremony held around the same time as the Academy Awards, but much more fun. Mainly because I'm your host, but also because WE get to choose what were the best movies, actors and visual effects over the last calender year. Movies eligible have to have been released (in either wide or limited release) in the US between January 1st 2012 and December 31st 2012. Anyway, as you move along to the last hole on your belt and empty the contents of that cheap boxed wine, let's get down to the important stuff...

The following awards will be presented:

Best Picture
Best Director
Best Actor in a Leading Role
Best Actress in a Leading Role
Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Best Actress in a Supporting
Best Foreign Language Film
Best Animated Picture
Best Documentary Feature
Best Cast
Breakthrough Performance
Best Original Screenplay
Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Cinematography
Best Score
Best Visual Effects

Following the first round of voting there will be 10 nominees for Best Picture, and 5 nominees for each other award.

Voting
The voting structure is nwe this year, please take note:

Master voting: everyone nominates their favourite 5 movies of the year for Best Picture.

1st round of voting: everyone nominates a maximum of 5 in each category. This will produce the nominees.

2nd round of voting: everyone ranks their nominees in a sliding system of 1-10 for Best Picture nominees, favourite gaining 10 points, least favourite gaining 1 point, or movies not seen gaining 0. For other categories it is the same system but on a sliding scale of 1-5. This will decide the winners.

Schedule
I've allowed for as long a round of voting as possible so that everyone can find an opportunity to watch movies which may be up for consideration, and starting from today, the voting is now open. Tentative dates which can be amended if need be as follows:

Jan 2nd – Jan 11th – Master List Voting
Master List Announced Jan 12th
Jan 12th - Feb 15th - 1st round of voting
Nominees Announced - Feb 16th
Feb 16th – Feb 22rd– 2nd round of voting
Awards Show - Saturday, February 23rd

For this to work as always we need a committee of set voters, so please register your interest in this thread, and I will add you as a member. You can pm your nominations to my inbox or my email at silversurfer19@hotmail.com.

As always I will require 10 people to submit a small featurette for the 10 Best Picture nominees. These can be decided at a much later date, but I thought I'd remind everyone nevertheless. Hopefully this should prove just as exciting as last year with lots of close races, so on with the nominations!

Committee Members
silversurfer19
NSpan
Chienfantome
BanksIsDaFuture
numbersix
Buscemi
W
transformers
englishozzy
Geezer
empire
Shrykespeare
RobDUDE
undeadmonkey
Jas8382
JohnErle
Super Shaan

The Master List

1.21 Jump Street
2.Argo
3.Beasts of the Southern Wild
4.Bernie
5.Brave
6.Bully
7.Chronicle
8.Django Unchained
9.Goon
10.I Wish
11.John Carter
12.Lawless
13.Le Havre
14.Les Miserables
15.Life Of Pi
16.Lincoln
17.Looper
18.Moonrise Kingdom
19.Oslo August 31
20.Prometheus
21.Safety Not Guaranteed
22.Silver Linings Playbook
23.Skyfall
24.Ted
25.The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
26.The Amazing Spider-Man
27.The Avengers
28.The Dark Knight Rises
29.The Expendables 2
30.The Impossible
31.The Imposter
32.The Master
33.The Perks of Being a Wallflower
34.The Raid
35.Wanderlust
36.Wreck It Ralph
37.Zero Dark Thirty

[NSpan]

i'm in

[Chienfantome]

I'm definitely in.

[BanksIsDaFuture]

In, of course.

[numbersix]

Count me in. By early Feb I hope to have seen most of the major Oscar contenders.

[Chienfantome]

Some of the Oscar films like Les Miserables and Flight won't open til mid-February here, but I doubt it would matter for my votes.

[Buscemi]

I'll do it, even though I know you'll pick something I didn't like to win Best Picture.

[silversurfer19]

To be fair you don't like a lot of movies...

[Buscemi]

True.

[englishozzy]

You can count me in again this year

[Geezer]

I'm in

[W]

I'll do it.

[transformers2]

I'm absolutely in.

[NSpan]

I haven't finalized any proposed solution to the problem, but I've noticed that our current voting system churns out some rather homogenized results. Instead of recognizing fringe films that several of us feel strongly (or even passionately) about, the awards usually go to inoffensive mainstream movies that everybody saw and was generally pleased with.

Perhaps we could add some type of weighting system that would give smaller productions a fighting chance. I know that a lot of movies lose votes each year simply because not everybody has had the chance to see them all. So what if we factored in which titles each voter has (and has not) actually seen? From there, we could (somehow) ensure that movies which are neglected in the voting aren't penalized simply because they haven't been seen.

As I said, I don't have the specifics of such a system ready... but does anyone else think it'd be worth the effort to retool our approach to voting?

[Buscemi]

You seem to have had said exactly what I was saying. I would love to see something like The Master win but I know it's going to go to The Avengers or Looper (two films that would have been seen as forgettable in the past).