2023 Challenge Ideas: Discussion Thread

[sol]

2023 Challenge Ideas: Discussion Thread

For the past four weeks, I have unsuccessfully tried to pass on the running of the Official Challenge setting-up threads to someone else. After a lengthy discussion on the Future Challenges thread (starts here), it was decided that it would be acceptable for me to run these threads at a pace that best suits me since nobody wanted to take over. As such, we are going to be operating on a tighter, more compact schedule than during the last five years when I have run things. If this vexes you, please volunteer to take over from me instead. It's not too late!

This is the schedule that I am working on this year (dates in AWST):

Saturday September 24 - Thread opening for challenge ideas to be put forward
Friday September 30 - Single poll opened to vote on challenge ideas for 2023
Friday October 7 - Poll closes; discussions begin on setting up the schedule

On the Future Challenges thread, it was also decided that in order to simply things:
- Everyone will only be able to nominate two challenge ideas for 2023
- Those who have hosted challenges over the past 12 months will be allowed to nominate more (incentives for hosting)
- No challenge ideas will be auto-nominated

The following users are entitled to nominate more than two Challenge ideas:

Spoiler

blocho - 6 nominations in total (i.e. 4 bonus ideas; one extra idea per challenge hosted)
zzzorf - 6
sol - 6
gunnar - 5
clemmetarey - 4
flavo5000 - 4
Melvelet - 4
mightysparks - 4
peeptoad - 4
shugs - 4
Fergenaprido - 3
Lammetje - 3
Lonewolf2003 - 3
maxwelldeux - 3
pitchorneida - 3
sacmersault - 3
sortile9io - 3
St. Gloede - 3

The following challenge ideas are "permanent" and will be placed in the 2023 Challenge Schedule without being voted on:

Horror / Noir / <400 Checks / Documentary / Directed by Women / Western / SciFi+Fantasy / Silent / TraveltheWorld / DTCnominees / 1000<400 / Animation

The following genre challenges are on a rotational basis and will be placed in the 2023 Challenge Schedule without being voted on:

Musical / War / Crime

The following genre challenges are on a rotational basis and will be placed in the 2024 Challenge Schedule without being voted on:

Comedy / Mystery/Thriller / Action

A separate process is used to circle through the Country/Region Challenges. 2023 lineup available here: viewtopic.php?t=5579&start=40#p729343

NOTE: This thread is not a poll, but rather a discussion thread about poll options.

And without further ado:

The following challenges ideas have been suggested by participants on this thread:

1930s - suggested by peeptoad
1940s - suggested by sol
1950s - suggested by peeptoad
1960s - suggested by sol
1970s - suggested by gunnar
1980s - suggested by gunnar
2000s - suggested by gunnar
Academy Award nominees - suggested by cinephage
Biography - suggested by Silga
Comic & Graphic Novel Adaptations - suggested by flavo5000
Concert Films - suggested by flavo5000
Critics Lists - suggested by klaus78
Cult/Grindhouse - suggested by shugs
Doubling the Canon iCM List - suggested by klaus78
Degrees of Separation - pitchorneirda
Directed by Actors - suggested by Silga
Festival Winners - suggested by erde
Films with frontal nudity - suggested by blueboybob
Forum Lists - suggested by beasterne
Holiday Films - suggested by flavo5000
ICMForum's Top 1001 Favourite Films - suggested by cinephage
ICMForum's Year by Year Polls (Top 25s) - pitchorneirda
In Competition at Cannes - suggested by sol
LGBTIQ+ - suggested by blocho
Lists That Should Be Official - suggested by sortile9io
Low IMDb Rating - suggested by OldAle1
Martial Arts - suggested by sol
Maximalist Cinema - suggested by Onderhond
Miniseries - suggested by flavo5000
Mr. Skin Hall of Fame - suggested by blueboybob
Multiple Versions of the same story - suggested by OldAle1
Neo-Noir - suggested by peeptoad
New Releases - suggested by Lonewolf2003
One Film from Each iCM List - suggested by sol
One Film from Each Year - suggested by sol
One Film per Language - suggested by zzzorf
Personal Top Lists - suggested by beavis
Religion, Cults & Sorcery - suggested by Minkin
Rest in Peace (films from the recently departed) - pitchorneirda
Run the Actor - suggested by shugs
Run the Director - suggested by Lonewolf2003
Run the Film Franchise - suggested by Lonewolf2003
Run the Writer - suggested by shugs
Short Films - suggested by peeptoad
Sight and Sound Lists - suggested by erde
Submissions for the Foreign Language Film Oscar - suggested by zzzorf
Television Series - suggested by gunnar
Tim Dirks' History of Sex in Cinema - suggested by zzzorf
Travel the United States of America - suggested by Minkin
Unofficial - suggested by shugs
Weird Movie Lists - suggested by beavis
Whodunit Films - suggested by beasterne

Closing date to get your challenge idea nominations in: 11:59pm GMT on Thursday September 29 (7:59am Friday AWST)

[gunnar]

Thanks for continuing to set up the Challenge Idea threads, sol. You do a great job.

I enjoyed the 90s Challenge back in April and wouldn't mind seeing more decade challenges in 2023. I think they used to be held long ago. I don't necessarily expect all of these to make it through, but I'll use my first three nominations for 1970s, 1980s, and 2000s.

[blocho]

Oh, I was all set to nominate 1980s. Been planning it for months! Have to do some more thinking now.

Sol, thanks for undertaking this task again. I know it's not your preference. I hope the simplified and condensed format of this process will make it easier.

[frbrown]

The following genre challenges are on a rotational basis and will be placed in the 2023 Challenge Schedule without being voted on:

Musical / Comedy / Crime

The following genre challenges are on a rotational basis and will be placed in the 2024 Challenge Schedule without being voted on:

War / Mystery/Thriller / Action

Would it be possible to move War challenge to 2023, and Musical challenge to 2024, the reason being that a lot of musicals are also comedies, and many war movies are action movies, so if it stayed as above, we would have two similar challenges in the same year?

And thanks for all your hard work, sol

[sol]

The following genre challenges are on a rotational basis and will be placed in the 2023 Challenge Schedule without being voted on:

Musical / Comedy / Crime

The following genre challenges are on a rotational basis and will be placed in the 2024 Challenge Schedule without being voted on:

War / Mystery/Thriller / Action

Would it be possible to move War challenge to 2023, and Musical challenge to 2024, the reason being that a lot of musicals are also comedies, and many war movies are action movies, so if it stayed as above, we would have two similar challenges in the same year?

And thanks for all your hard work, sol

We have had War, Mystery/Thriller and Action Challenges more recently than we have had Musical, Comedy and Crime Challenges, which is why those were selected to next occur in 2024 and 2023 respectively.

That said, there is room to be flexible on this if others are happy to have the planned-2023 genres further postponed. I don't think that we can fairly postpone Musicals any further, since the last Musicals challenge was all the way back in 2017 (!) but Comedy could probably be moved (not sure off-hand though when the last comedy challenge was).

And thanks for all the encouragement, guys. It's still my faint hope that somebody else will volunteer to take over from me halfway in.

[Silga]

My two nominations:

Biography
Films directed by actors (I know this could be tricky)

[sortile9io]

Thanks for being there once again, sol. You do a great job and so we don't want you to quit.

As for the new ideas, I'd like to suggest Lists That Should Be Official Challenge, similar to Personal Top Lists Challenge but picking non-official lists from the latest ballot we used to choose new official lists (currently 2021). That would be a good way to promote those lists that we nominated but didn't succeed and explore the rest of the ballot, so we'll have a clearer idea when voting in the next polls.

[beavis]

As for the new ideas, I'd like to suggest Lists That Should Be Official Challenge

I like this idea!

With the weird challenge and somebody else's list challenge this year, my own interests are completely satisfied. If repeating those challenges is not an option, I will do no other suggestion at this point for next year.

[Lonewolf2003]

As for the new ideas, I'd like to suggest Lists That Should Be Official Challenge

I like this idea!

With the weird challenge and somebody else's list challenge this year, my own interests are completely satisfied. If repeating those challenges is not an option, I will do no other suggestion at this point for next year.

Repeating them is an option. It's just they won't be automatically repeated again. They have to be voted in again. So you can nominate them and hope others will want to repeat them again too.

[Lonewolf2003]

My two nominations:

[Films directed by actors (I know this could be tricky)

Cool, I have been thinking of that one too.

For my first nomination I'm going to throw in for the third year my idea to Run the Franchise/Film Series*. I liked the New Releases** challenge this year, so that's my second nomination. I actually thought Run the Director was already permanent, but it isn't I see, I love it, so that's my third and last nomination.

*If voted in I want to go with: 2 is a sequel, 3 is a trilogy, 4 is a franchise. So one has to watch at least 4 movies from a franchise. But we can debate this if it's voted in.
**movies from 2022&2023 or 2023, depending on when it's held exactly. But also debatable if it gets voted in.

[sol]

OP updated, including the suggested re-nominations of Weird Movie Lists and Personal Top Lists from beavis.

[Lonewolf2003]

OP updated, including the suggested re-nominations of Weird Movie Lists and Personal Top Lists from beavis.

You forgot my Run the Directors nominations.

[sol]

OP updated, including the suggested re-nominations of Weird Movie Lists and Personal Top Lists from beavis.

You forgot my Run the Directors nominations.

Sorry; didn't notice it when I skim-read your post.

[peeptoad]

I was going to nom Run the Director, so thanks Lonewolf

mine-
1930s
1950s
short films (60 minutes = 1 point)
Neo-noir (unless these are already included in Noirvember and I'll make another suggestion)

[Lonewolf2003]

OP updated, including the suggested re-nominations of Weird Movie Lists and Personal Top Lists from beavis.

You forgot my Run the Directors nominations.

Sorry; didn't notice it when I skim-read your post.

No problem. Can happen.

[sol]

@peeps

Well, neo-noirs are certainly eligible in the Noirvember Challenge (always have been and always will be) but I guess I'm okay with trialing Neo-Noir as a challenge idea of its own, unless others think that it is too much potential doubling up.

And assuming that there is no leaderboard in place again next year (I'm not doing one, that's for sure), it probably wouldn't matter too much if the scoring for a Short Film Official Challenge was different to the rest of the Official Challenges out there, but I'd probably wait and see if the idea gets enough votes first before deciding on any possible scoring changes.

[Silga]

For my first nomination I'm going to throw in for the third year my idea to Run the Franchise/Film Series*. I liked the New Releases** challenge this year, so that's my second nomination. I actually thought Run the Director was already permanent, but it isn't I see, I love it, so that's my third and last nomination.

I love all three ideas! I actually thought about nominating some sort of sequels/remakes variant, so Run the Franchise/Film Series is a great suggestion.

I particularly enjoyed Run the Director challenge this year, so I hope it reappears on our 2023 schedule.

[OldAle1]

I will echo Silga and Lonewolf here; I had the idea of a watch multiple versions of the same story challenge, i.e. watch all 4 Little Women features, watch a bunch of versions of Hamlet, etc, but that could easily be folded into the Franchise/Series idea I think. In any case that would be my first pick but I think Lonewolf's idea is better.

And my second would be to bring back the Low Ratings challenge, one of my favorites.

I've been only intermittent in doing challenges lately but I guess I'm still interested, maybe, if I'm interested in anything.

[Silga]

And my second would be to bring back the Low Ratings challenge, one of my favorites.

And here I was, contemplating whether I should have nominated Low Ratings instead of Biography. But if you nominate Low Ratings, I will support it for sure. It's a challenge I thoroughly enjoyed, but also underutilized the previous time. Would love to see it return.

[OldAle1]

And my second would be to bring back the Low Ratings challenge, one of my favorites.

And here I was, contemplating whether I should have nominated Low Ratings instead of Biography. But if you nominate Low Ratings, I will support it for sure. It's a challenge I thoroughly enjoyed, but also underutilized the previous time. Would love to see it return.

I think if we do the low ratings again, I might actually try to focus on things that I actually believe will be great, rather than just fun schlock. IMDb voting can be really harsh on a lot of weird and experimental stuff and there is some gold to be found in the sub-5.5 region in those areas, though it is tricky.

[blocho]

Most of the challenges I want have already been nominated. I'll add LGBT+ as a challenge idea. We've done it successfully in the past.

Not sure if I'll use the rest of my nominations.

[pitchorneirda]

My 3 nominations are:

Rest in Peace - directors and actors passed away in past twelve (or 24?) months
ICM Forum's Year-by-Year Polls, Top 25 films per year
Degrees of Separation

[3eyes]

I second Degrees of separation (we haven't done that for quite awhile).

I like the idea of multiple versions of same story (shakespeare,etc.), so if that counts as franchise thing, fine.

LBGTQ+ is an ongoing challenge, nicht?

[blueboybob]

Obligatory "Adult" movies suggestion

[blocho]

LBGTQ+ is an ongoing challenge, nicht?

I don't think so. Unless I'm missing something in sol's OP.

[gunnar]

LBGTQ+ is an ongoing challenge, nicht?

I don't think so. Unless I'm missing something in sol's OP.

There's The OUT Challenge which is ongoing, but doesn't seem to be used much these days.

[sol]

Obligatory "Adult" movies suggestion

Last time this was suggested, the idea was vetoed by Adam and Lauren. Maybe you could rephrase and provide a challenge idea that gives the option of watching such films, but also the option of watching other films? I believe in the past we have had Tim Dirk's History of Sex in Cinema and a general NSFW Cinema option, for instance.

And I'll update the OP with everyone else's suggestions over the last nine hours shortly.

[shugs]

My nominations:

Run the Actor
Run the Writer
0 Official Lists
Cult/Grindhouse

[zzzorf]

OK, don't think I'll use up all my nominations so to put emphasis on the ones I really want, but I will lead with 2 I did last year but didn't make in.

1. Academy Award Best Foreign Language/International Film Submitted films - This isn't just the movies nominated for the awards but the movies that have been chosen to represent each country put forward to the academy for possible nomination, which gives a pool of nearly 3000 movies since it's inception.

2. Tim Dirks' History of Sex in Cinema - A straightforward list giving nearly 2000 possible movies about how sex has been used in cinema since it's inception.

[sol]

OP updated

[Onderhond]

I'm proposing "maximalist cinema"' again.

[flavo5000]

Let's see...

Concert Films (includes music, live musical recordings like Hamilton, comedian stand-up, spoken word, any performance recorded in a live setting).
Comic Adaptations (not just superhero... ANYTHING based on a comic... would include stuff like Road to Perdition, Ghost World, The Addams Family, Japanese manga adaptations, etc.)
TV Mini-series (eh, why not)
Holiday Challenge (watch films that take place on different holidays...is there an Arbor Day movie?)

[blueboybob]

Obligatory "Adult" movies suggestion

Last time this was suggested, the idea was vetoed by Adam and Lauren. Maybe you could rephrase and provide a challenge idea that gives the option of watching such films, but also the option of watching other films? I believe in the past we have had Tim Dirk's History of Sex in Cinema and a general NSFW Cinema option, for instance.

And I'll update the OP with everyone else's suggestions over the last nine hours shortly.

The Book Contemporary Erotic Cinema (Douglas Keesey)
Mr Skin 3 star and above movies
Tim Dirks' The History of Sex in Cinema
The X List: The National Society of Film Critics’ Guide to the Movies That Turn Us On
"Movies which contain full frontal nudity"

[Torgo]

I'm proposing "maximalist cinema"' again.

Do we have some kind of mega-list for that already? Because many of the other challenge ideas are 100% objective (like decades, IMDb rating, new films, certain polls etc), and I could imagine this here is even harder to pin down than most "true" genres or weird films (for which we have plenty lists).
Not that I personally dislike the idea, but it could be a bit harder to popularize.

[Torgo]

Concert Films (includes music, live musical recordings like Hamilton, comedian stand-up, spoken word, any performance recorded in a live setting).

This could work enough even separated from the whole genre of "music films". How would you handle someone binging through every Youtube live video of his favorite band? How official would it have to be?

[sol]

Obligatory "Adult" movies suggestion

Last time this was suggested, the idea was vetoed by Adam and Lauren. Maybe you could rephrase and provide a challenge idea that gives the option of watching such films, but also the option of watching other films? I believe in the past we have had Tim Dirk's History of Sex in Cinema and a general NSFW Cinema option, for instance.

The Book Contemporary Erotic Cinema (Douglas Keesey)
Mr Skin 3 star and above movies
Tim Dirks' The History of Sex in Cinema
The X List: The National Society of Film Critics’ Guide to the Movies That Turn Us On
"Movies which contain full frontal nudity"

The Book Contemporary Erotic Cinema (Douglas Keesey) --> Google search suggests that this is a list of only just over 100 films, which is too short a list for an Official Challenge
Mr Skin 3 star and above movies --> there's no iCM List, but there is a Mr. Skin Hall of Fame iCM list (all 4/4 films) so I can add that as challenge suggestion and can alter it later if yourself or someone else makes a list of all 3+ star films
Tim Dirks' The History of Sex in Cinema --> already suggested by zzzorf above
The X List: The National Society of Film Critics’ Guide to the Movies That Turn Us On --> this is only a list of around 80 films, which is too short for an Official Challenge
"Movies which contain full frontal nudity" --> Seems a bit random for a challenge idea, but if you or anyone wants to convince me otherwise, I'm all ears EDIT: whatever, I'll add this in but it does seem like a very strange way of linking films together, though maybe that's part of the fun????

Will update the OP with the Mr. Skin suggestion and other suggestions shortly.

[erde]

I'll nominate
1. Sight and Sound poll 2022
2. Festival winners (any film festival, any year, main prize).

[peeptoad]

@peeps

Well, neo-noirs are certainly eligible in the Noirvember Challenge (always have been and always will be) but I guess I'm okay with trialing Neo-Noir as a challenge idea of its own, unless others think that it is too much potential doubling up.

And assuming that there is no leaderboard in place again next year (I'm not doing one, that's for sure), it probably wouldn't matter too much if the scoring for a Short Film Official Challenge was different to the rest of the Official Challenges out there, but I'd probably wait and see if the idea gets enough votes first before deciding on any possible scoring changes.

No sweat on the potential removal of either neo noir or short films. The former was a last minute/not-thought-out replacement for RTD, which was already suggested before I saw the thread.

[sol]

No sweat on the potential removal of either neo noir or short films.

To be clear, I'm not removing either idea and have added them to the OP (and I added erde's recent suggestions also earlier today).

[klaus78]

My nominations:
- Critics Lists
- Doubling the Canon