Due to some questionable entries last week, we the AoA wish to re-express the rules for nominating a movie/film for consideration:
- It must have been released in 1980.
- It must have had a public release (no Cannes-only films).
- Repeat nominations ARE allowed, whether they have won in the past, or not.
Also, please keep in mind, the nominations are judged on Quality, Plot/Story, Characters, Ingenuity, Special Effects, Lasting Effect on Culture, and more or less, depending on how we feel.
Submissions are due by Wednesday 11:59 p.m. EST. The Academy of Awesome will deliberate the nominations, and a winner will be chosen and posted by Friday. Good luck, and keep the good films coming! (Please. GOOD films. If I see "9 to 5" come up again, someone is going to get hurt.)
UPDATE 2:
Since it really wasn't fair to spring a deadline of TONIGHT on everyone (and from not expecting such positive and immediate interest in this), we are extending the nomination deadline to 11:59 p.m. EST, THURSDAY. Please leave your nominations in the comments--even mentioning a movie counts (as you can probably tell), so choose wisely!
UPDATE 1:
The current nominees (in no particular order) are...
UPDATE 2:
Since it really wasn't fair to spring a deadline of TONIGHT on everyone (and from not expecting such positive and immediate interest in this), we are extending the nomination deadline to 11:59 p.m. EST, THURSDAY. Please leave your nominations in the comments--even mentioning a movie counts (as you can probably tell), so choose wisely!
UPDATE 1:
The current nominees (in no particular order) are...
- Airplane!
- The Blues Brothers
- Atlantic City
- Raging Bull
- Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back
- The Pumaman
- Kagemusha
- Flash Gordon
*BUZZER* "Mad Max" was released in 1979, and "Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior" released in 1981!
"Mon oncle d'Amérique" was nominated for an Oscar (1981), but I can't find where it was released beyond Cannes. If someone can provide a feature release date, I'll upgrade it to nominee.
I could only find a Wikipedia article for "Gamera: Super Monster." If someone can provide better street creds, I'll bump it to full nominee.
It depends on which criteria I use for best. Airplane! and The Blues Brothers are the two I've seen the most. Atlantic City was excellent, and at the time, my pick for Best Picture. If foreign language films were allowed, I would pick Mon oncle d'Amérique, probably because I remember it being the first French movie I saw with Swedish subtitles. But, after seeing it a few times since, my choice is Raging Bull, for all of the performances and the ring choreography. Or maybe Airplane!, as I've probably quoted more lines from it than any other movie.
ReplyDeleteThere's many strong contenders in 1980, for sure: Empire Strikes Back, Blues Brothers, Gamera Super Monster, The Pumaman...but if it were up to me I think I would have to give my vote to...Kagemusha, one of Kurosawa's classics and a brilliant performance from Tatsuya Nakadai.
ReplyDeleteHow do I pick one precious child? There's Airplane, Blues Brothers, Empire Strikes Back, Mad Max...but I must go with Flash Gordon. There's camp. There's comics. There's Merciless Ming ... and QUEEN!
ReplyDeleteFlash - a-ah - saviour of the universe
Flash - a-ah - he'll save everyone of us
I'm rather fond of Flash, and Airplane is tempting since the Academy tends to ignore comedies, but I think I have to go with Empire. It's a damn good film, manages to get away with a sad ending, and you can't ignore the cultural impact.
ReplyDeleteWow this is a tough year.
Oh lord, do not bother putting Gamera Super Monster on the official ballot. That's only a real contender on the awards ballot in my head where Japanese monster movies rule the earth. Same for The Pumaman, which while a classic MST3K episode is probably not *quite* on par with Empire Strikes Back. (Though I will maintain that it is still better than Ordinary People.)
ReplyDeleteI will pretty much always consider Kagemusha a superior film on balance, but if thinking purely of lasting cultural impact on Western film, it's hard to argue against ESB as the most directly influential in the long term. Airplane was very influential for its time as well, its scattergun throw-every-joke-against-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks approach has been oft-imitated since, influencing scores of (admittedly mostly inferior) parody comedies but I would argue that more than a few modern comedy hits like Family Guy, Robot Chicken, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, etc can trace some of their comic roots back to Airplane.