Travis McClain

If we're gonna watch them and talk about them during that time, it's just silly not to add them to our lists. I'm in favor of tossing out "pre-challenges" entirely. Either we're actively watching and talking, or we're not. Now get off my lawn.

Trevor

Wait, I thought the Academy Awards Challenge was always held from announcement day to ceremony?

Travis McClain

I thought it was the 30 days before the ceremony, and that the announcement sometimes falls before that window?

Mao

Yeah, it's always been a 30 day challenge.

Starting it early would mean overlapping with another currently running challenge.

Last year, I did the pre-challenge, but didn't count the films I saw...I just listed them. Might be fun to count only those films nominated for 2016 Oscars during those 15 days...

davidh777

Yeah, the pre-challenge is the first time (in my memory) that we've started on announcement day.

Trevor

I'm curious what our participation statistics would show. Is it just the same 25 or so of us doing every Challenge, with the annual October-only crowd? Or do a lot of people only do a couple a year? If I wasn't a few Challenge related projects behind already, I'd do some research.

Personally, I don't think starting a week or two early would hurt. I think it's best to think of the Challenges independently and not worry about stepping on toes. I guess it would 'hurt the numbers' of anyone who really wanted to put up good numbers on both Challenges, but I would hope they wouldn't care too much about that, and that the benefit to those who want to start when the announcements are made outweigh that.

Trevor

Oh yeah, now I remember. I guess the Academy Awards Challenge has always overlapped with another Challenge, at least once we went to 13 of them, and at least for a day.

Travis McClain

The challenge that will overlap with Oscar announcements is TV on DVD*. I see absolutely no reason whatsoever the two of them can't run concurrently. If anything, they're the two challenges that overlap the best, since they're so different in scope. In fact, we moved up the start of TV on DVD* to the day after Christmas in part to accommodate participants who would want to begin the Oscar challenge as soon as possible. I say run:

TV on DVD* - 12/26-1/31
Oscars - announcement - presentation
Action/Crime/etc. - 3/1-3/31
Drive-In/etc. - 4/1-4/30
Make Your Own - 5/1-5/31
Historical Appreciation - 6/1-6/30
Sci-Fi - 7/1-7/31
Animation - 8/1-8/31
Criterion - 9/1-9/30
Horror - 10/1-10/31
Comedy - 11/1-11/30
Holiday - Monday before Thanksgiving - New Year's Day

Mao

I know I'm just being anal-retentive about this, but all the past Oscar Challenges have been 30 days...so, we have nothing to compare it to or beat, if we're trying (lisadoris, I'm talking to you!!)

So, what shall we do?: I still think using the extra 15 days from announcement till the 30th to catch any of this year's nominees (or maybe Best Picture winners from the past, etc.) makes it a real challenge. I will have a ton to get through this year.

Then, starting the challenge on Jan. 30 would give us the 30 days that all the other challenges seem to be.

Even if we have that pre-challenge, I will still only personally count the January 30th to Ceremony period to get my usual 30 features in.

Mao

Starting this year's Prize Pack* (Best Picture Winners & Nominees) off with:

Places In The Heart DVD

*These are from my personal collection, so some are opened, some are not...

Travis McClain

Given how many of the prolific movies that qualify for the Oscars, and given that several, if not most, of the current nominees will be in theaters and not available to watch at home, I don't see the additional fifteen days as diluting that challenge.

That said, perhaps to make it more challenging, we could limit using one movie for just one category in the checklist. That makes Titanic no more helpful than Batman in whittling away at a huge swath of the checklist with a single viewing. Think of it as the Senate versus the House of Representatives.

lisadoris

Oh my decisions, decisions. I think the Challenge itself should last for 30 days though I have no problem with a pre-challenge that only encompasses this year's nominees. Yes I know I'm one of the few if only obsessive folks who actually aims for 100 titles in 30 days and I haven't decided whether to finish the TV challenge or stop it when the Oscar Challenge officially begins (decisions, decisions).

As for for the one film per category for the checklist, that's what I do anyway but I understand that it takes some work. It won't influence eligibility for prizes but it's an extra hoop for those of us who enjoy such things.

Travis McClain

Incidentally, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1/17 & 1/20) and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1/24 & 1/27) will both play as part of the Cinemark Classic Series, during that "pre-challenge" period. Butch is also part of the TCM Big Screen Classics series, and will therefore play in other chains. I'm still strongly in favor of a full announcement-to-presentation challenge, but perhaps a "pre-challenge" might encompass eligible movies playing in theaters as well as current nominees?

davidh777

I understand that OCD may inspire some to want to keep the challenge to 30 days, but it's a little silly. We run the holiday challenge during the logical period for it rather than just 30 days, and as Travis said there's little overlap with TV. But I've made this pitch for past Oscar challenges and won't continue to push it here.

Looking forward to finally updating my sig this year!

Cardsfan111

This caused me to go read the 2012 thread. And I found you had posted this back then:

Though it's hard to call the latest gadget a true hoverboard, that was some prediction you made.

davidh777

Trevor

Looks good, but just to clarify, I'm pretty sure that the Academy Award Challenge has and/or will in the future conflict with Challenges on both sides of February due to the random months/dates of the event.
Oh, that's not what I meant my that 'day' comment, but yes, I'm excited for Leap Day.
David, please buy me a Powerball ticket tomorrow.

Travis McClain

Sure. That's why I just left it at announcement date - presentation date. Or, if you prefer algebra:

Oscar Challenge runs from (x) to (y), where (x) = date of announcement and (y) = date of presentation.

lisadoris

I don't know if this will influence anyone's thoughts on when the Oscar Challenge should officially being but TCM's 31 Days of Oscar will begin on February 1. I don't know if there are people who rely on TCM's schedule to complete their Challenge.

popcorn

So are we starting this year's challenge on January 30th? That's 30 days prior. And are you running it again, lisadoris?

davidh777

Trevor

No no no! I'm definitely doing our quadrennial Challenge! I was just being verbose and saying that the Academy Award Challenge would always overlap another at least one day.

Mao

I'm still of the opinion that a 46 day challenge is simply too much.

Anyone else's thoughts on this:

Pre-Challenge: January 14th (Announcement Morning) to January 29th (where you can watch any nominee announced on the 14th until the challenge begins and have it count)

Challenge: Starts at dusk (or midnight) on January 29/30th to February 28th (Close of Ceremony) (30 days)

Trevor

Being overly prone to attempted clarification yet again, my original non-specific mention of which other Challenge was affected was not to slight the current TV* Challenge, but just staying generic due to the randomness of the Academy Awards date.

lisadoris

Yep I'm running it and we're still hashing out the start date (see previous posts).