Sunday, March 31, 2013

The Felix's: Intro and Index

🎦 Articles and debates about who should or shouldn’t have won a particular Oscar have always made an interesting read. Especially when such pieces point me to great motion pictures I'd never seen or heard of. I thought it might be fun to try my hand at the exercise and share my choices in a blog.

Notes: In the Academy’s formative days, the film season went from August 1 to July 31 the following year. In 1934 it was changed to cover a standard calendar year. For the hell of it, I’m going start my list earlier than Oscar did, using the same model - starting with 1913-14.

I'm stretching the Academy's rules of eligibility, most notably in regard to foreign fare. The Oscar rule was that any film that played in Los Angeles by Dec 31 of a given year and ran for at least a week was eligible. That rule has kept some foreign films out of the running, as several took years, even decades before they played in the States. The Felix's rule of eligibility broadens its scope. If you had an extended run somewhere, you’re good to go.

Also: I prefer to use first wide relase, general public showings as my release date, rather than test screenings, film fests or critic only showings. (Miles Ahead, for example, had 1 festival showing in 2015, but its premiere was in Beverly Hills on March 29, 2016, followed by a limited run in the States starting April 1st, 2016. Which is why I have it as a 2016 release). And, since starting this Blog (the research stage began in 2011), someone at IMDB has posted new release years for films like The King of Comedy, The Ox-Bow Incident and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, which is maddening - and in these cases, I've decided against changing or taking away awards. I had a date and I'm sticking with it. They are grandfathered in there.

This page will act as the index

UPDATES!

🎦 6/18/2017: I've added best actor/actress to the pages. I've also added links to several Letterboxd reviews on certain pages, for select films or performers.

Rules:
* The Fassbinder Exception: So named after my frustration of finding several of my Fassbinder favorites were made for TV (which would make them eligible for an alt-Emmy but not an alt-Oscar). Therefore... TV movies (not miniseries, I'm working on a separate category for them) can be included if they were shown theatrically at some point.

* I used the Cannes model on occasion and awarded multiple actors/actress in certain years, where it felt right.

🎦 9/1/2017: I've picked my favorite short films for each year. You can see the list here.

🎦 10/2018: Added Supporting Awards... which can be difficult to ascertain. Some folks give weight to screen time, for others it's about importance to the story, and of course, there's the side-kick factor - where you can have plenty of screen time and dialogue and such but still are labeled a supporting player (see Huston in Sierra Madre). At times I struggled with this category - to the point where it was becoming a hassle. Then I told myself to just have fun with it. So yes, some of my picks are unconventional, but they made me happy, which made the undertaking less of a drag.

As with everything on the blog, this is still a work in progress. Things change as I see new movies or revisit old favorites.

🎦 9/2019: Added new awards for Best Miniseries or Television Film: Part I: 50s through 80s * Part II: 90s to 2019 * Part III: 2020 to current

🎦 5/2022: Added my picks for Best Original Song

1913 to 19171917 to 1921 * 1921 to 1924 * 1924 to 1927 * 1927-1928 * 1928-1929 * 1929-1930 * 1930-1931 * 1931-1932 * 1932-1933 * 1934 * 1935 * 1936 * 1937 * 1938 * 1939 * 1940 * 1941 * 1942 * 1943 * 1944 * 1945 * 1946 * 1947 * 1948 * 1949 * 1950 * 1951 * 1952 * 1953 * 1954 * 1955 * 1956 * 1957 * 1958 * 1959 * 1960 * 19611962 * 1963 * 1964 * 1965 * 19661967 * 1968 * 1969 * 1970 * 1971 * 1972 * 1973 * 1974 * 1975 * 1976 * 1977 * 1978 * 1979 * 1980 * 1981 * 1982 * 1983 * 1984 * 1985 * 1986 * 1987 * 1988 * 1989 * 1990 * 1991 * 1992 * 1993 * 1994 * 1995 * 1996 * 1997 * 1998 * 1999 * 2000 * 2001 * 2002 * 2003 * 2004 * 2005 * 2006 * 2007 * 2008 * 2009 * 2010 * 2011 * 2012 * 2103 * 2014 * 2015 * 2016 * 2017 * 2018 * 2019 * 2020 * 2021 * 2022 * 2023 *

The Directors


The Felix's were born on March 8, 2012