Country Polls: ICM Forum's Favourite Films from Around the World - Basic Info & Schedule

[Fergenaprido]

As some may remember, I first floated a similar idea to this almost three years ago. Creating a new thread this time so as not to confuse people, as the methodology will be different. Also, zzzorf's recent Favourite Movie from Each Country thread made me want to start this now instead of waiting until the new year, now that I've finished a couple other projects/lists that I'd been working on for most of the summer.

The Goal
To create short lists of the best films from each country and territory.

The Method
I wrestled with a number of different ways to conduct this, most of which were needlessly complicated. The easiest way is to mimic the Year-by-Year polls run by Gromit and Rufus.

The Purpose
I like lists, and I like country stats, and the regional big polls aren't enough to satisfy my itch. Plus, smaller film countries often get overlooked, and I think this is a great way to highlight them, as well as encourage people to explore what they have to offer.

The Display
Each country will have it's own list on icm (like the year-by-year polls have). I'll probably have a consistent cutoff of 3+ votes and/or 25+ points, but I don't know what's best yet.
Additionally, the Top 20 films from each country will go into a megalist.

The Schedule
Roughly 1 country per month, so the project will take most of the decade to complete. I intend to start with the bigger film countries and then work my way down/around the world. I'll use the second post of this thread to keep the schedule updated, including links to threads and lists. Some smaller countries with little to no output will be grouped together into regions.

The Rules
Same as the year-by-year polls, each film can only appear on one list. IMDb will be my guide, but I'l be the final arbiter about which country a film "belongs" to, based on information I read and input from the users of the forum. For co-productions, I'll probably just go with majority (which means for something like The Double like of Veronique, if people decide it's a French film, it won't be eligible for the Polish poll). Same submission criteria as well: minimum 5 films, maximum 20, with imdb links included in the ballot. Features, Documentaries, Shorts, and Mini-series are allowed.

The Final Question
What to call this project? "ICM Forum's Favourite Films from Around the World" is descriptive, but rather wordy and uninspiring. Plus the acronym of ICMFFFfAtW isn't great.

Link to post with country groupings for ease of reference.

[Fergenaprido]

The Schedule

November 2021: USA (excluding Puerto Rico and other territories with their own country tag on imdb) - Nominations & Results
January 2022: UK (excluding Isle of Man, Gibraltar, and other territories with their own country tag on imdb) - Nominations & Results
February 2022: France (excluding New Caledonia and other territories with their own country tag on imdb, but including the overseas departments of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte, and Réunion) - Nominations & Results
March 2022: Australia - Nominations & Results
April 2022: Ireland - Nominations & Results
May 2022: Germany (including East Germany) - Nominations & Results
June 2022: New Zealand - Nominations & Results
July 2022: Brazil - Nominations & Results
August 2022: Philippines - Nominations & Results
September 2022: Senegal - Nominations & Results
October 2022: tentatively Japan
November 2022: tentatively Canada
December 2022: tentatively Portugal


TBD
Papua New Guinea & Oceania - probably combined with other small countries

[blocho]

I like this idea, but I think it's going to be difficult for you just based on figuring out which movies belong to which countries in any definitive way.

[Fergenaprido]

I like this idea, but I think it's going to be difficult for you just based on figuring out which movies belong to which countries in any definitive way.

I've been prepping for this for years, and I've got a pretty good sense of the usual suspects. I don't think we'll run into too many cases that are ambiguous. I can only think of a few that will probably warrant discussion (some of Kieslowski's French films, The Piano, The Shining, Lanthimos's English work, etc.). I've even thought about creating a general "which country is this from" thread to have these sorts of discussions, but decided that was overkill

[RogerTheMovieManiac88]

Wow, this should be amazing!

Really looking forward to taking part, particularly when it comes to the turn of some of the smaller countries.

[Lonewolf2003]

Cool project. Doing it like this like the yearly polls is a better idea than doing just one big poll with only one movie per country, as was suggested in the poll nominations thread.

[joachimt]

Great idea!! Love to see a project running for most of this decade. Another reason for this forum to never die!!

[Fergenaprido]

Wow, this should be amazing!

Really looking forward to taking part, particularly when it comes to the turn of some of the smaller countries.

After seeing the numbers you run up for many of the smaller countries in the challenges, I'm fully expecting your participation here

It will also be a useful guide for which countries have enough accessible films to warrant having their own poll.

Cool project. Doing it like this like the yearly polls is a better idea than doing just one big poll with only one movie per country, as was suggested in the poll nominations thread.

I saw that idea. I think it could work, but only in a two step process: First round everyone votes for their favourite film from each country, but in calculating the results you give points to the country, not the film. Then, when doing the countdown, the places are given to the country, with the specific film that received the most support earning the right to be the representative, or have the participants revote, but this time they can only choose from the top 3 or so films from each country... or something like that.

Obviously I'm biased though and prefer my own project.

[RolandKirkSunglasses]

Does this mean I have to watch Hababam Sinifi for the Turkish poll?

[Fergenaprido]

Does this mean I have to watch Hababam Sinifi for the Turkish poll?

It'll probably be a couple years until we hit Turkey, so you've got some time to prepare yourself. Though, based on the responses from people who've already seen it, I'd be very surprised if it made the top 20, though I imagine it will make the long list.

[gromit82]

The Final Question
What to call this project? "ICM Forum's Favourite Films from Around the World" is descriptive, but rather wordy and uninspiring. Plus the acronym of ICMFFFfAtW isn't great.

You could call it the Country by Country Poll.

[hurluberlu]

Is there really a point to (re)do bigger countries that have already a forum list ? Couldn’t we start straight with the medium/smaller ones ?

[Teproc]

Well, it is a different format than the polls, and the US actually don't have a poll. I do think there is a risk of the project petering out by doing it this way, but maybe it's better to get it rolling with big countries. Anyway, I'm very interested in this project, will definitely participate.

[3eyes]

I'm with hurluberlu on this. It seems to me meaningless to run a poll about favorite US movies - Not that is isn't worth doing in the abstract but the territory is too vast, unless you break it down by genre or decade or something. It makes more sense to start with countries whose cinema footprint is medium to small.

[Fergenaprido]

I'm starting with the US and UK for a few reasons:
1. We don't have a US-specific poll, nor a UK-specific poll (it's grouped with Ireland IIRC). Even if we did, I expect the results to be rather different given the maximum number of 20 films people can submit, instead of a list of indefinite length.
2. Most users will have already seen a lot of films from these two countries, which makes it easy to participate, as opposed to starting with something medium or small like Hungary, Senegal, or Cambodia.
3. I want to get a sense of how things will turn out, and get a feel of what's a good cut-off for the lists (I notice the year-by-year lists have different cutoffs depending on who is hosting, sometimes 20 pts, sometimes 30 pts, sometimes 2+ voters, etc., and I'd like it to be consistent throughout the project, if possible). I won't have a good sense of how things will shape up until I run it a couple of times.

[Lonewolf2003]

Ireland actually wasn’t grouped with UK. That’s why it’s nominated now. But I get your reasons for re-doing some countries in these polls.
Maybe switch between bigger and smaller or relatively less known countries at the start to get a better idea how both go. And to infuse interest in the project

[Onderhond]

I like the project, but worry about the time it will take to finish. A decade's a bit much, no?

[Panunzio]

Having the project take nearly a decade to complete does seem like it might be a bit much. Would it be possible for these polls to run concurrently? Like with individual threads in a subforum?

If that were the case, maybe these threads could remain open in perpetuity with participants occasionally amending their ballots? That way their could be updates every year or two built into the system?

[sol]

Having the project take nearly a decade to complete does seem like it might be a bit much. Would it be possible for these polls to run concurrently? Like with individual threads in a subforum?

I like this idea.

Is there really a point to (re)do bigger countries that have already a forum list ? Couldn’t we start straight with the medium/smaller ones ?

I like this idea too.

While I get starting with a bigger country to test the waters rather than diving straight into Moldova or Sri Lanka (f.e.), maybe we could start with some medium output countries. I think Thailand, Egypt, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, Cuba or Colombia would be the most interesting place to start given that these are the largest non-Nigeria (er...) producing countries without an official iCM list.

[gromit82]

I like the project, but worry about the time it will take to finish. A decade's a bit much, no?

I don't really see that as a problem. The Awards Game took almost 8 years to finish (2012 through 2020). Each poll in this game will have its own results come out at the end of each month (roughly speaking), which is what we are waiting to see once we submit.

[3eyes]

I like the project, but worry about the time it will take to finish. A decade's a bit much, no?

I don't really see that as a problem. The Awards Game took almost 8 years to finish (2012 through 2020). Each poll in this game will have its own results come out at the end of each month (roughly speaking), which is what we are waiting to see once we submit.

Well, uh.... I'm very interested in this but in 10 years I'll be 96.... But oh, well.

[Fergenaprido]

I like the project, but worry about the time it will take to finish. A decade's a bit much, no?

brokenface's yearly Oscars project took almost a decade, and the year-by-year polls are at the same pace and seem like they will go on indefinitely, repeating years as needed. I don't see a problem with this. Let's say the goal is to finish by 2030; starting in November, there are 98 months left, so 98 polls. There are easily 60 or so countries that I think have enough output to warrant their own poll. The remaining 140+ countries and territories would likely be grouped together, maybe in an additional 5-10 regional polls. So maybe it would only take 6 years instead of 8. I don't know yet. Maybe the 2020s will be the decade of the Djiboutian New Wave explosion and we'll have 50 films to choose from instead of the just the current 1.

Would it be possible for these polls to run concurrently? Like with individual threads in a subforum?
If that were the case, maybe these threads could remain open in perpetuity with participants occasionally amending their ballots? That way their could be updates every year or two built into the system?

I thought about that, but decided it would be too much for me to manage, and it wouldn't be fun. This way, people can focus on one country at a time if they choose to watch films in preparation. I want to try and keep the challenge schedule in mind as well to coincide where possible. I was thinking, though, that instead of just starting over when the project is done, to do something like what you suggested and have people update their ballots once a year or something. We'll see.

While I get starting with a bigger country to test the waters rather than diving straight into Moldova or Sri Lanka (f.e.), maybe we could start with some medium output countries. I think Thailand, Egypt, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, Cuba or Colombia would be the most interesting place to start given that these are the largest non-Nigeria (er...) producing countries without an official iCM list.

I haven't set out the full schedule yet, because I'm waiting to see how the challenge and poll schedules for 2022 turn out, but in general I was thinking of going region by region, from big to small, starting with the Anglosphere (USA, UK, Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand). That's got 2 biggies, 2 mediums, and 2 small-but-still-decent countries to gauge, and since most of their films are in English it's likely that people will have still seen enough films from them to easily participate. Then I could either stick by region (Europe, Asia, Latin America, Africa, Oceania), or focus on larger countries first and work down, or just bounce around randomly depending on my mood. I haven't decided yet. I want to give people enough notice (2-4 months) in advance so that they can plan out their watchings if they want to, especially for smaller countries where it's less likely that people have already seen a big enough pool of films to come up with 5-20 nominations.

I like the project, but worry about the time it will take to finish. A decade's a bit much, no?

I don't really see that as a problem. The Awards Game took almost 8 years to finish (2012 through 2020). Each poll in this game will have its own results come out at the end of each month (roughly speaking), which is what we are waiting to see once we submit.

Well, uh.... I'm very interested in this but in 10 years I'll be 96.... But oh, well.

To be clear, I said it would "take most of the decade" to complete, by which I meant until the end of the 2020s. I didn't mean to imply it would take a full 10 years to run. Sorry for the confusion. I think 6-8 years is a more reasonable estimate. Also, I have no problem if people want to submit ballots well in advance, for whatever reason. In theory, I could indeed open up a bunch of separate threads in a subforum, if that's what people want, but I would still stick to my timeline of publishing one poll results per month. As much as I'm looking forward to the results, I'm also looking forward to the process, the discussions, and the discovery of new films in preparation for a poll. I don't watch as many films per day/week/month/year as most people on this forum, and I don't want to feel rushed.

[Ivan0716]

Also, I have no problem if people want to submit ballots well in advance, for whatever reason. In theory, I could indeed open up a bunch of separate threads in a subforum, if that's what people want, but I would still stick to my timeline of publishing one poll results per month.

I'm in favour of this.

[3eyes]

Can you suggest a mechanism for submitting advance ballots for countries you won't get to for a while?

[Fergenaprido]

Can you suggest a mechanism for submitting advance ballots for countries you won't get to for a while?

Panunzio's suggestion about setting up the individual threads in a separate subforum would be fine with me, if that's what people preferred. My only concern would be that they lose visibility by not being in the main forum, and I think moving the threads back and forth between them when the deadline approaches each month would be too much to ask from the mods, and may cause confusion. Beyond that, though, it's a solid suggestion I'm willing to consider.

[3eyes]

The mods could list the country du mois in the polls list at the top, with link to the subforum. You (or whoever) could also post a thread on the main forum linking to the subforum, no?

[Torgo]

Can you suggest a mechanism for submitting advance ballots for countries you won't get to for a while?

Panunzio's suggestion about setting up the individual threads in a separate subforum would be fine with me, if that's what people preferred. My only concern would be that they lose visibility by not being in the main forum, and I think moving the threads back and forth between them when the deadline approaches each month would be too much to ask from the mods, and may cause confusion. Beyond that, though, it's a solid suggestion I'm willing to consider.

This sounds like a good idea.

Maybe the 2020s will be the decade of the Djiboutian New Wave explosion and we'll have 50 films to choose from instead of the just the current 1.

Psyched already!

[Fergenaprido]

The mods could list the country du mois in the polls list at the top, with link to the subforum. You (or whoever) could also post a thread on the main forum linking to the subforum, no?

I could post in this thread every month with the reminder and link to the nomination thread in the subforum, yes. That could work.
And yes, I hope the mods would add this to the Polls list at the top

[joachimt]

The mods could list the country du mois in the polls list at the top, with link to the subforum. You (or whoever) could also post a thread on the main forum linking to the subforum, no?

I could post in this thread every month with the reminder and link to the nomination thread in the subforum, yes. That could work.
And yes, I hope the mods would add this to the Polls list at the top

I’ll add these polls to the header. With the awards game I often forgot because I didn’t participate in that, but I certainly will be following this project.

[Mario Gaborović]

It'll end up with films that received international exposure only. It doesn't matter how many films have you seen from a country, because all others would vote for those few.

Possible rule: You can't vote unless you have at least 5 checks on your count.

[Fergenaprido]

It'll end up with films that received international exposure only. It doesn't matter how many films have you seen from a country, because all others would vote for those few.

Possible rule: You can't vote unless you have at least 5 checks on your count.

Possibly, but I think a large number of forum users seek out lesser known films from lesser known countries, based on my observations from past challenges.

I don't know what "5 checks on your count" means, and I had thought about imposing a minimum number of films seen before being able to participate, but in the end I opted for simplicity. Besides, with the minimum ballot being 5, people must have seen at least 5 films to vote for them, and I imagine most people won't be voting for the only 5 films they've seen from a place.

[zzzorf]

Just found this thread and of course I'm all for it, it is a great extension to what I'm doing in my thread. I have a couple of points to put forward for consideration.

1. While each country will have its own list I think a UNESCO style masterlist could be kept as well, say the best 5-10 best performers from each country make the list, thus giving us a nice World Film list to work on.

2. Unlike the year by year project length can be a problem here. Just think we do US first and then we finally finish in 6 years. That's 6 years of potential new additions. The year ones had a finite pool as that year is done but countries still make movies all the time.

3. I like the idea of having all the countries threads pre-set and we can just maintain our own lists within each country with the country of the month then highlighted to draw more attention to it but it does seem like a bit of work to function properly.

4. I did something similar on Facebook and my order was decided upon by a list I found maybe it will work here for you. https://m.the-numbers.com/movies/production-countries/

[Mario Gaborović]

It'll end up with films that received international exposure only. It doesn't matter how many films have you seen from a country, because all others would vote for those few.

Possible rule: You can't vote unless you have at least 5 checks on your count.

Possibly, but I think a large number of forum users seek out lesser known films from lesser known countries, based on my observations from past challenges.

I don't know what "5 checks on your count" means, and I had thought about imposing a minimum number of films seen before being able to participate, but in the end I opted for simplicity. Besides, with the minimum ballot being 5, people must have seen at least 5 films to vote for them, and I imagine most people won't be voting for the only 5 films they've seen from a place.

Say Tajikistan. I suspect there will be like 50 votes for Luna Papa and three votes from patient explorers like sol (kudos to him) who ventured through time and deeps of their local production. There is just no mechanisms to do a proper treatment of any lesser country, coz nobody would watch what you tell them to watch but rather what they found/are keen on.

[zzzorf]

It'll end up with films that received international exposure only. It doesn't matter how many films have you seen from a country, because all others would vote for those few.

Possible rule: You can't vote unless you have at least 5 checks on your count.

Possibly, but I think a large number of forum users seek out lesser known films from lesser known countries, based on my observations from past challenges.

I don't know what "5 checks on your count" means, and I had thought about imposing a minimum number of films seen before being able to participate, but in the end I opted for simplicity. Besides, with the minimum ballot being 5, people must have seen at least 5 films to vote for them, and I imagine most people won't be voting for the only 5 films they've seen from a place.

Say Tajikistan. I suspect there will be like 50 votes for Luna Papa and three votes from patient explorers like sol (kudos to him) who ventured through time and deeps of their local production. There is just no mechanisms to do a proper treatment of any lesser country, coz nobody would watch what you tell them to watch but rather what they found/are keen on.

I believe that is where the term "Favourite Film" comes in. We wouldn't be claiming it to be the absolute best movie of all time from the country but our Forum's Favourite. Why is it our forum's favourite, because someone in the group enjoyed it enough to push it to be watched in things like the World Cup and is therefore widely seen by us here in the forum. With the idea of the list for each country that is where the deep dives come in for those of us willing to go further than just what is widely seen.

[Fergenaprido]

1. While each country will have its own list I think a UNESCO style masterlist could be kept as well, say the best 5-10 best performers from each country make the list, thus giving us a nice World Film list to work on.

This is addressed in the OP.

The Display
Each country will have it's own list on icm (like the year-by-year polls have). I'll probably have a consistent cutoff of 3+ votes and/or 25+ points, but I don't know what's best yet.
Additionally, the Top 20 films from each country will go into a megalist.

Edit: thanks for the link to the list of productions by country. I have a smaller version in my spreadsheet, but this is a nice replacement for the public lists imdb used to maintain.

[Fergenaprido]

It'll end up with films that received international exposure only. It doesn't matter how many films have you seen from a country, because all others would vote for those few.

Possible rule: You can't vote unless you have at least 5 checks on your count.

Possibly, but I think a large number of forum users seek out lesser known films from lesser known countries, based on my observations from past challenges.

I don't know what "5 checks on your count" means, and I had thought about imposing a minimum number of films seen before being able to participate, but in the end I opted for simplicity. Besides, with the minimum ballot being 5, people must have seen at least 5 films to vote for them, and I imagine most people won't be voting for the only 5 films they've seen from a place.

Say Tajikistan. I suspect there will be like 50 votes for Luna Papa and three votes from patient explorers like sol (kudos to him) who ventured through time and deeps of their local production. There is just no mechanisms to do a proper treatment of any lesser country, coz nobody would watch what you tell them to watch but rather what they found/are keen on.

Good example. In the recent Central Asian challenge, 9 people saw at least 1 Tajikstani film (though most only saw 1 or 2) in that one month. I would presume that they have seen other Tajikstani films previously (such as Bihisht faqat baroi murdagon, which was also in the World Cup), and will continue to seek them out again (perhaps for future Central Asian challenges or in preparation for a potential Central Asian poll). So yes, while Luna Papa has likely been widely seen by those interested in films form the country, I would gather that there are other films that multiple users have seen and enjoyed.

As a general rule of thumb, I'm thinking that if at least 5 users can come up with lists of 20 films for a country, then with other participants joining in with smaller lists, it's probably enough to warrant that country having it's own poll. Otherwise, it would be grouped with other small countries. This is also another point in favour of having the threads up in advance, to better gauge interest, breadth, and depth of the participants for each country on it's own.

[zzzorf]

1. While each country will have its own list I think a UNESCO style masterlist could be kept as well, say the best 5-10 best performers from each country make the list, thus giving us a nice World Film list to work on.

This is addressed in the OP.

The Display
Each country will have it's own list on icm (like the year-by-year polls have). I'll probably have a consistent cutoff of 3+ votes and/or 25+ points, but I don't know what's best yet.
Additionally, the Top 20 films from each country will go into a megalist.

Edit: thanks for the link to the list of productions by country. I have a smaller version in my spreadsheet, but this is a nice replacement for the public lists imdb used to maintain.

Whoops totaly missed that when reading through. Just thinking though would 20 be too much for the lower countries and also wouldn't it lead to something like the majority of Bergman's filmography skewing the list in Sweden's sense?

[Fergenaprido]

No, I don't share your concerns in those areas.

And technically it's a top 20 from each poll, not each country. So if we combined the Baltics, for example, into a single poll, it would be the top 20 from the the Baltics that make the megalist, not 20 from each country.

Kind of like with the CFB lists: https://www.icheckmovies.com/lists/cfb+ ... genaprido/
(Incidentally, Bergman took 9 of the 20 Swedish spots there... I don't think this forum will skew quite as heavily as they did).

[Fergenaprido]

Here's a general breakdown of how I currently see all the countries/territories, and their potential for producing a quality list on their own.

All groups are listed alphabetically. I've left out many small territories that are listed on imdb, but don't seem to have any film industry of their own.

Group 1 (Blue - 29 countries): Big production countries that have more than enough cinematic output and forum interest to warrant their own poll.
Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Czechia, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Iran, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States of America

Group 2 (Green - 23 countries): Medium production countries that have enough cinematic output and probably enough forum interest to warrant their own poll.
Austria, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Cuba, Egypt, Finland, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, New Zealand, Philippines, Portugal, Romania, Senegal, Serbia, South Africa, Switzerland, Thailand, Ukraine, Vietnam

Group 3 (Orange - 41 countries): Medium production countries that probably have enough cinematic output but maybe not enough forum interest to warrant their own poll.
Algeria, Angola, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Burkina Faso, Costa Rica, East Germany, Estonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Ghana, Guatemala, Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire), Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mali, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Puerto Rico, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Uganda, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela

Group 4 (Red - 115 countries): Small production countries that don't have either enough cinematic output or enough forum interest to warrant their own poll.
Afghanistan, Albania, Andorra, Antigua & Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bhutan, Botswana, Brunei, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo (Dem. Rep.), Congo (Rep.), Curaçao, Cyprus, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, East Timor, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Eswatini (Swaziland), Faroe Islands, Fiji, Gabon, Gambia, Gibraltar, Greenland, Grenada, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Iraq, Jordan, Kiribati, Kosovo, Kuwait, Laos, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Macau, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Malta, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Micronesia, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, North Korea, North Macedonia, North Vietnam, Oman, Palau, Palestine, Panama, Paraguay, Qatar, Rwanda, Saint Kitts & Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, São Tomé & Príncipe, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Suriname, Syria, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad & Tobago, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, United Arab Emirates, Vanuatu, Vatican City, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe
Thanks to Minkin for finding the three missing ones: Laos, Micronesia, Nauru. They're added now.

Here's a map for those who prefer to visualize it:


Greyed territories (such as Western Sahara, Isle of Man, and New Caledonia) don't really have any native film-production, but that doesn't mean they're disqualified. Anything from those places will be eligible for whatever grouping neighbouring countries will be put into.

Whichever group a country is in could change over time, either to an increase in output (such as Uganda in the 2010s) or an increase in forum interest (Georgia has drawn a lot of attention the past few years).

I'll start the threads for the Group 1 & 2 countries once the subforum is ready, though there's a chance that some of the Group 2 countries will be merged with others if there isn't enough robust participation. I'll hold off on Group 3 & 4 countries, until it's decided what the groupings will be - some may be paired off with larger countries (such as East Germany with Germany, Slovakia, with Czechia), promoted to having their own poll (such as Estonia or Georgia), or grouped with a number of other countries (such as Central America or the Caribbean). I don't want to group smaller countries with really big ones if possible, as they'll just be drowned out.

Let me know what you think of these divisions, and feel free to provide feedback on it, which countries you think should change groups, and which countries you think should be lumped together in a single poll.

I'll open the US and UK threads at the start of November, and I can open the other major countries shortly thereafter once I am satisfied with a template.

I'm also willing to do subregional polls for parts of countries that have a strong cinematic tradition (Quebec, Scotland, maybe Catalonia or Tamil cinema) - all of those films would still be eligible for their main country poll, however.

[3eyes]

I see that you have East Germany and North Vietnam italized (as ex-countries, I gather). What about the former Yugoslavia, which was quite rich while it lasted - though perhaps those movies can be broken down by region and/or language --?