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15 janvier 2011

Without Festivals

Let's take a look at the 2010 Best Of lists and figure out where did premiere the films elected :
  • Cannes = 28 (21 from 2010; 7 from 2009)
  • Berlinale = 8 (5 from 2010; 3 from 2009)
  • Venice = 6 (4  from  2010; 2 from 2009)
  • Sundance = 4
  • NYFF = 4
  • TIFF = 1
  • Locarno = 1
  • Tribeca = 1
  • Taormina = 1
  • Film Press' own discoveries = 0
From 5 top10s from the English specialised press (Sight and Sound [top12], Film Comment, Cinema Scope, indieWIRE, LA Weekly) for the best (released) films of 2010.

Look at that. Who would think that Cannes is as lame as the press says it is every year? Who would dare to suggest that festivals don't do their job? Not the critics who voted in these polls, right?
Wow. I wonder what the press establishment would do without Film Festivals...

The English and American press believes that international film festivals are useless (see here or here or Dekalog3: On Film Festivals, 2009). We heard a lot of whiny complaints last year about how festival programmers suck, how "festival films" are self-indulgent, how critics are so much better than this circus... Well. As it turns out, it seems that the pretentious film critics ultimately rely on the line up of major film festivals when they reveal their favourites of the year.

How many films did they discover on their own, before the festival scouts could pick them up for their "commercial" line up?
Zero. Not a single film in these Top10 best of lists (even if you go past the 10 first films on the list!).
After all the trash talk on festivals, I kind of expected these loud mouths to come up with at least a few films that were NOT first screened by one of the lambasted festivals...

And this is not even an objective consensus established internationally (nor the films that I consider to be the best), these are lists they wrote themselves. These are the films they think are the best! And where did they get to watch them first? You guessed it, at the festivals!
They could have intentionally ignored all "festival films" and put greater films that slipped under the radar, just to prove their point. No. Apparently they aren't that smart. Even when they are asked to name their personal favourites, they still pick "festival films"! The very films they ridicule at the end of a sleepless festival marathon. It doesn't make sense! Where are the BETTER films that are rejected by "commercial" festivals??? Where the fuck are they?

I'd like to see these critics make a better job than what festivals do. I'd like to see critics stop reviewing whatever the commercial industry decides to distribute officially, and roam around the globe on their own to find the gems that the major festivals don't show us every year. Find them and write about them BEFORE their international premiere in a festival. Prove your taste is less of a sell out than what your presumptuous accusations suggest, while you sit pretty in your festival seat waiting for the goodies to come to you on a platter. When will critics be the first to reveal to the world the unknown talents of world cinema?

Also we'll ignore the fact that Uncle Boonmee (a film that tops most other lists) is nowhere to be seen on the indieWIRE nor the LA Weekly poll. Not on the undistributed films list addendum either! While Film Socialisme is on both lists (released films + undistributed films) for the indieWIRE voters... because these listmaniacs don't know how to tabulate an "either/or" list. Where did they learn how to stuff ballots??? I wonder...
Let's also ignore the fact they think The Social Network, The Ghost Writer and Black Swan are "visionaries, risk-takers, misfits, mavericks", the most creative, the most inspiring, the most enlightening this year.

This is quite amusing. A list tells us more about the taste of the people who make them, about what is released commercially in their country, and about their ability to answer to a poll, than about the objective greatness of today's cinema. And the more they make lists, the more obvious all this becomes.


Just remember this next time you think you have something clever to write about how festivals function in today's economy...



Related:

13 commentaires:

  1. Sight and Sound 2010 Top12 :

    1. NYFF 2010 (The Social Network)
    2. CANNES 2010 (Uncle Boonmee)
    3. CANNES 2010 (Another Year)
    4. CANNES 2010 (Carlos)
    5. TRIBECA 2010 (The Arbor)
    6. SUNDANCE 2010 (Winter’s Bone)
    6. VENICE 2009 (Amore)
    8. CANNES 2010 (The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu)
    8. CANNES 2010 (Film Socialisme)
    8. CANNES 2010 (Nostalgia for the Light)
    8. CANNES 2010 (Poetry)
    8. CANNES 2009 (A Prophet)

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  2. Film Comment 2010 top10 :

    1. Cannes 2010 (Carlos)
    2. NYFF 2010 (The Social Network)
    3. Cannes 2010 (White Material)
    4. Berlinale 2010 (The Ghost Writer)
    5. Cannes 2009 (Un Prophète)
    6. Sundance 2010 (Winter’s Bone)
    7. Cannes 2010 (Inside Job)
    8. Cannes 2010 (Les Herbes Folles)
    9. Berlinale 2009 (Everyone Else)
    10. Berlinale 2010 (Greenberg)

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  3. Cinema Scope 2010 Top10

    1. Cannes 2010 (Uncle Boonmee)
    2. Cannes 2010 (The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceaucescu)
    3. TIFF 2010 (Mysteries of Lisbon)
    4. Cannes 2010 (Film Socialisme (Jean-Luc Godard)
    5. Locarno 2010 (Winter Vacation)
    6. Cannes 2010 (The Strange Case of Angelica)
    7. Cannes 2010 (I Wish I Knew)
    8. Venice 2010 (Meek’s Cutoff)
    9. Venice 2010 (Attenberg)
    10. Berlinale 2010 (The Ghost Writer)

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  4. indieWIRE 2010 top10 :

    1. NYFF 2010 (The Social Network)
    2. Cannes 2010 (Carlos)
    3. Sundance 2010 (Winter's Bone)
    4. Venice 2010 (Black Swan)
    5. Berlinale 2009 (Everyone Else)
    6. Cannes 2009 (Dogtooth)
    7. Berlinale 2010 (The Ghost Writer)
    8. Cannes 2009 (Mother)
    9. Venice 2009 (Amore)
    10. Cannes 2010 (Another Year)

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  5. LA Weekly 2010 Top10 :

    1. NYFF 2010 (The Social Network)
    2. Cannes 2010 (Carlos)
    3. Sundance 2010 (Winter's Bone)
    4. Berlinale 2010 (The Ghost Writer)
    5. Berlinale 2009 (Everyone Else)
    6. Cannes 2009 (Dogtooth)
    7. Venice 2010 (Black Swan)
    8. Cannes 2010 (Les Herbes Folles)
    9. Cannes 2009 (Mother)
    10. Taormina 2010 (Toy Story 3)

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  6. Adrian Martin : Best films 2010 (Sight and Sound film poll)
    - CANNES 2010 (Copie conforme)
    - CANNES 2010 (Film socialisme)
    - CANNES 2010 (Poetry)
    - CANNES 2009 (Vincere)
    - CANNES 2010 (Les Herbes Folles)

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  7. Jonathan Rosenbaum : Best films 2010 (Sight and sound Final Cut 2010)

    - CANNES 2010 (Copie conforme)
    - CANNES 2010 (Film socialisme)
    - VENICE 2010 (The Forgotten Space)
    - NYFF 2010 (The Social Network)
    - CANNES 2010 (Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives)

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  8. James Quandt: Best films 2010 (indieWIRE top10 2010)

    1) CANNES 2010 (The Strange Case of Angelica)
    2) BERLIN 2009 (Eccentricities of a Blonde-Haired Girl)
    3) 1973 re-release (World on a Wire)
    4) CANNES 2010 (Carlos)
    5) CANNES 2009 - Certain Regard (Dogtooth)
    6) CANNES 2009 (Vincere)
    7) CANNES 2008 (Our Beloved Month of August)
    8) CANNES 2009 (Le Père de Mes Enfants)
    9) CANNES 2009 (Ne Change Rien)
    10) VENICE 2009 (Lourdes)

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  9. David Sterritt: Best films 2010 (indieWIRE top10 2010)

    1) NYFF 2010 (The Social Network)
    2) VENICE 2009 (Amore)
    3) CANNES 2010 (White Material)
    4) CANNES 2010 (Les Herbes Folles)
    5) VENICE 2009 (Life During Wartime)
    6) CANNES 2008 (Secret Sunshine)
    7) CANNES 2010 (Another Year)
    8) SUNDANCE 2010 (Winter's Bone)
    9) VENICE 2009 (Around a Small Mountain)
    10) TORONTO 2010 (Stone)

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  10. Best Film (Richard Porton) indieWIRE top10 2010

    1) CANNES 2010 (Carlos)
    2) BERLIN 2009 (Eccentricities of a Blonde-Haired Girl)
    3) BERLIN 2009 (Everyone Else)
    4) CANNES 2010 (Les Herbes Folles)
    5) BERLIN 2009 (Sweetgrass)
    6) CANNES 2010 (Inside Job)
    7) SUNDANCE 2010 (Night Catches Us)
    8) BERLIN 2010 (The Ghost Writer)
    9) 1973 re-release (World on a Wire)

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  11. Nick James: Best films 2010 (Sight and Sound film poll)

    - NYFF 2010 (The Social Network)
    - CANNES 2010 (Aurora)
    - CANNES 2010 (Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow)
    - TIFF 2010 (Mistérios de Lisboa)
    - CANNES 2010 (Le quattro volte)

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  12. Robert Koehler

    1. CANNES 2008 (Our Beloved Month of August)
    2. CANNES 2008 (Liverpool)
    3. CANNES 2010 (Carlos)
    4. CANNES 2007 (Secret Sunshine)
    5. CANNES 2009 (Vincere)
    6. NYFF 2010 (The Social Network)
    7. BERLIN 2009 (Sweetgrass)
    8. LOCARNO 2009 (The Anchorage)
    9. CANNES 2009 (Mother)
    10. BERLIN 2009 (Everyone Else)

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  13. Mark Peranson (cinemascope)

    1. CANNES 2010 (Uncle Boonmee)
    2. CANNES 2010 (The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceaucescu)
    3. TIFF 2010 (Mistérios de Lisboa)
    4. CANNES 2010 (Film Socialisme)
    5. LOCARNO 2010 (Winter Vacation)
    6. CANNES 2010 (The Strange Case of Angelica)
    7. CANNES 2010 (I Wish I Knew)
    8. VENICE 2010 (Meek’s Cutoff)
    9. VENICE 2010 (Attenberg)
    10. BERLIN 2010 (The Ghost Writer)

    author of "First you get the power, then you get the money: two models of film festivals" in Dekalog3: On Film Festivals, 2009 [he hates "business festivals" such as Cannes Berlin, Venice, Toronto and Pusan!]

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