Thursday, May 31, 2012

Random Musings - May 2012

Random Musings of the Month
Well, this month was all about Cannes, and though I had tons of fun covering it from afar, it's not so easy syncing your schedule with an event happening nine timezones away. A few too many late nights and early mornings caught up with me in the end and I needed a few days to recharge my movie brain; but now I'm ready to get back to my regular program again with the usual mix of old and new titles to watch and review for June.

Speaking of Cannes, it seems my dedicated film festival coverage hasn't gone unnoticed because when the 2012 Lammy Nominations were announced the other day, I was pleasantly surprised to see my name listed amongst the nominees for Best Festival & Awards Coverage.

Now I don't have any illusions about actually winning it, not against the incomparably thorough and devoted job that Never Too Early Movie Predictions does covering the Oscars, or the immensely entertaining Annual Awards Nerdism at Cinematic Paradox. Perhaps if the category was split up I might have a chance, but even then The Matinee and Big Thoughts from a Small Mind each have a longstanding record of impressive high quality festival coverage as well.

Still it is very nice to get some recognition and it is an honor just to be considered, so I would like to give a massive thank you to everyone who put my name on their ballots; and also a hearty congratulations to all the other #Lammy2012 nominees.

Random Links of the Month
In no particular order, a few LAMBs who didn't receive a nomination but fully deserved one.
  • Front Room Cinema, not only the most reliable commenter around but what Scott has built his blog into in such a short time is truly inspirational.
  • Le Mot du Cinephiliaque, a true classic cinema lover and an encyclopedia of film knowledge. Michaël also submitted one of my favorite FYC posters.
  • Japan Cinema, living proof that the Lammy nomination process is flawed and unrepresentative, at least as far as the Best Design award is concerned.
  • Only the Cinema, No one describes a scene quite like Ed Howard can. One of the most intelligent and by far the most evocative reviewer around.
  • Hollywood Spy, Dezmond's textbook example of how to run a successful and extremely popular blog. Hard to believe it's all done by one person.
  • Love & Squalor, beautiful minimalistic design, consistently entertaining writing, and just quietly completed the greatest series of posts no one's heard about.
  • Surrender to the Void, the amount of thorough reviews and essays that Steven constantly produces is astonishing. By word count he is the most prolific blogger I know, and he still somehow finds the time to leave comments everywhere.
  • Can't Stop the Movies, one of the best all around blogs. Clean easy to navigate interface, a good mix of content, and an unique collaborative reviewing and rating system should have put them in the running for at least a couple categories.
  • Dr. Blood's Video Vault, a horror fan who I might not always agree with but always respect for his unflinchingly honest and very knowledgeable criticism.
Fellow readers, how was your month? What do you think of the nominees / nomination process? Share your thoughts below.

39 comments:

NeverTooEarlyMP said...

Very pleased to see you among the nominees in the most important LAMMY category! I can tell you without hesitation that you were one of the folks I nominated for your excellent coverage of Berlin and Cannes, as well as your look at the Foreign Language films for the Oscars.

365 moviesandsongs365 said...

Good job with the Cannes coverage, enjoyed reading. A few sites to take a look at there...

FrontRoomCinema said...

Congrats on the Nom matey!! You deserve it! And thanks SOOOO much for mentioning FRC here. Really kind of you.

Will said...

A well-deserved nomination. Congratulations. :)

Jessica said...

You have a supporter in me. I also think you should have been nominated for best reviewer. You offer reviews on a unique assortment of indie and foreign movies that I really couldnt' be weithout. Whenever there's a new film coming at my arthouse cinema I check what you had to say about it to get an indication if it's worth watching.

Michaël Parent said...

Thanks for the mention and the poster link! Congrats for your nomination I voted for you by the way! I also like the other blogs you mentioned all excellent writers! The Lammys are fun but year after year it is almost the same blogs nominated each year... However, this is a great celebration of movie blogging!

Stevee said...

Well done on the nomination, you definitely deserve it far more than me! You shoulda been nominated for best design, too.

And I'm so glad you mentioned Front Room Cinema here. It's criminal that Scott didn't get a nomination!

Pete Turner said...

Congratulations and thanks for all these links! That's a whole bunch of more blogs I'll have to check out!

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thank you, I'm glad my biggest rival is also my biggest supporter :)

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thanks for your continued support Chris.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thank you, and you are welcome! Somehow I never quite feel comfortable campaigning for myself but I love pointing out others that deserve it, and you were snubbed.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thanks Will!

Bonjour Tristesse said...

That makes me very happy to hear. Though I feel my writing still has much room for improvement before I make a challenge for that category. You on the other hand have an effortless and impressive style that always makes an otherwise intimidating wall of text an immense pleasure to read.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thanks, and I did vote for you in a couple categories too. There were only 86 ballots cast, which is a very low turnout when you consider we have ~1200 active members. I think if we could even double the number of participants we would be looking at very different poll results.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thanks for your endorsement Stevee, and congrats on your multiple nominations. Design is something I'm proud of, but there are so many other beautiful blogs where you can tell the owner spent many hours working on, yours especially, that I would rank ahead of mine.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thanks Pete. I hope you find something there to your liking.

The LAMB said...

I actually have to disagree, there is a lot of changes between years and very solid blogs may win one year and not even be nominated the next. I don't have any stats but I found this years crop to be quite diversive.

The LAMB said...

I have similar hopes and if you help me out with the LAMB widgets we have been discussing it will probably be easier to catalogue all the sites and that will perhaps help me pinpoint a bunch of the "silent ones" so we can get them more active.


I'd settle for 150 nominations next year that would be pretty awesome!

The LAMB said...

Congrats to a very well deserved nomination. I wouldn't have protested if you had gotten one for best design also.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

I actually am very close to having a new LAMB table completed. Cannes sort of got in the way of my work on it last month, but I should have something ready for beta testing very soon.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thanks Joel. Perhaps I will consider running a campaign next time around.

Michaël Parent said...

This widget could help a lot to get the attention from the "silent ones". I think like BT said, that this is a clear problem that over 1200+ blogs only 86 voted! I would love to help the community to get it more active like if we catalogue the sites a bunch of bloggers could have a designated area to do PR and approach the lesser known and help them promote their content. Be a more proactive community. For that I sign up first!

Michaël Parent said...

My comment was more a frustration by the fact that I would like to see a wider variety of blog names in the nominations... But you are right, there are solid new blogs in the nominations each year.

Andina said...

Congrats! I voted for you as well. Great job, BT!

Inspired Ground said...

Congrats, BT, and great job! I voted for you as well. I already know some of the sites you linked, but nice to know the others too. Congrats again!

The Warning Sign said...

Congrats on the nomination! I was hoping you would get one for Best Design as well. This really is a great-looking site.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thank you Andina for the vote and for the nice words! I appreciate it.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thank you Mr Heisenberg/Eric, I'm glad to have your support.

iluvcinema said...

congrats on the nod. I really enjoyed your Cannes coverage!

The LAMB said...

I'm actually working on a huge change on one of our departments that will be aimed differently next year. I'll reveal news about it after the LAMMYs but I'd happy to have you working on that crew.

The LAMB said...

Thats so awesome, however it would be a plus if whatever you come up with is compatible with both blogger and Wordpress. One of the goals before the year ends is to have a new design of the site and I'm not sure that means we'll be sticking with blogger.

The LAMB said...

You should its a lot of fun!

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thank you, I'm very happy to hear that!

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Yeah I know, it just feels awkward because I don't see blogging as a competition.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

I hope the LAMB site stays with blogger, but yes the code I'm working on will be universal.

Max Covill said...

I hope you thought I was snubbed too. :). You got my vote for best awards coverage. It was fantastic.

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Of course! I love your blog, and your poster was one of my favorites. But I'd be typing out that post into next week if I was to include every single LAMB that deserves some recognition.

3guys1movie said...

Congrats on your nomination, Best of luck on the Lammy voting :-)

Bonjour Tristesse said...

Thank you 3guys1movie. Nice to see you around here!

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