Travis McClain

The problem is that "Looney Tunes", "The Three Stooges" and "Popeye" don't appear in the actual titles. Warner Bros. released a compilation of all their Academy-nominated animated short films a few years ago. They also released a single-disc edition of just the winners. That disc has turned up lately in a $5 assortment of animated DVDs at Walmart. It actually features a lot more "Tom and Jerry" cartoons than "Looney Tunes". Those were made by MGM, but Warner now has the rights to them. Warner also has the rights to the Popeye shorts. There are none on the Winners disc, but if any were nominated they'd be in the full box.

Three Stooges - both nominated, but neither won
"Men in Black" (1928)
"Sock-a-Bye Baby" (1942)

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

I don't like allowing any awards unless there were maybe 2 or 3 others that were rotated out each year. Allowing any awards could allow all those smaller, personal type award lists, basically allowing anything in since if you search hard enough, you could find some website that gave something it's own award.

Travis McClain

As a participant, I quite agree. As I mentioned in my comments, one thing I enjoy most about this challenge is its specificity. However, on the brainstorming level, there's something to be considered about this. I would suggest restricting it to specific Awards. Maybe the BAFTAs, Golden Globes, Writer's Guild and Director's Guild. I would imagine there'd be a lot of overlap, but just enough variance to make the combination of those four interesting.

But, yeah, I'm only interested personally in the Academy Awards themselves. Maybe if I ever see all of the thousand or so eligible movies and shorts, I'll feel more excited about expanding the scope of this challenge.

shadokitty

I can understand not allowing all awards. I mean, if we allowed all awards, what is to stop people from watching something that won a Razzie in the Academy Award Challenge? Right?

The Man with the Golden Doujinshi

I actually wouldn't mind a seeing a Razzie recipient allowed. When you start to get burned out on all the good stuff, take a break with the opposite to recharge yourself to appreciate the good again. Nothing I'd cry about if it wasn't allowed but I just know how it sometimes gets during the middle of a challenge where you just need that break.

shadokitty

Hmm, when you put it that way, I actually see your point.

davidh777

I thought that was what the effects and song nominees were for.

Mao

Ash Ketchum

I have that set: "Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Academy Awards Animation Collection." It has about 18 Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies (WB) cartoons, but only one Popeye: "Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor," one of the three color 2-reeler Popeye cartoons from the '30s.

Indy24LA

Love this challenge, ever year I get to check movies off my 'Movie Bucket List' (like Gone with the Wind, Lawrence of Arabia, Annie Hall, Ben Hur and Network). This year I'll get to Midnight Cowboy, Patton and Fiddler on the Roof.

ntnon

I'm in almost-complete agreement about the specificity of the AA/Oscars Challenge... the only reason I floated an extension was to allow more choice for a crossover between TV and Academy Awards. While you're right that there are dual-options, they are fairly narrow and restrictive (and many - esp. Disney TV shows - may not be easily available) while allowing certain-Award-winning TV shows to count as honorary Oscar checks might make that fairly lengthy crossover period easier for participants in both not to have to choose one-or-the-other challenge.

I like your four additional Awards - IF any are necessary - because the Globes and Guilds should cover most of the "Overlooked by Oscar" films that show up on lists around these times of year.

Although adding more potentially-qualifying items would make planning the viewing/long lists even more difficult, as the titles would get (more) unwieldy!

Likewise. I was just making waves/sounding out other opinions on ways to make challenge crossover easier - and then only because Criterion/Horror, Horror/Comedy, Comedy/Holiday and Holiday/TV all work so well (for the one day). (Perhaps another easier thought might be to make the AA Challenge just the month of February, rather than including a week of January... I assume the reason is to give it a 'full' month for viewings?)

ntnon

I like the idea of juxtaposing the Oscars with the anti-Oscars, too. It would allow for an easy-enough - and potentially really interesting - checklist item: "watch the Best and Worst film from a given year"!

But now I'm in danger of having it said that I suggested making the most clear-cut and not-open-to-interpretation Challenge into a complicated and vague mess! Sorry about that...

Travis McClain

I picked up the Winners set (the slipcover says there are 15 shorts in it) for $5 recently but I haven't opened it to see what's inside. I'm gonna go through that collection during this year's challenge, though.

This isn't really much of a concern for us, though. There are a lot of participants who only do one of these two, and even among those of us who do both, I think part of the appeal is that they're so different. There's not a lot of demand for a transition period.

The reason for the shifting dates is that the awards themselves aren't presented on the same schedule each year. Although, I'd be in favor of expanding it to run from the day the Oscars nominations are announced through the presentation ceremony. I feel like the the shot has been fired but we're all holding at the starting line anyway.

Mao

Let's get this party started!!!

davidh777

Yes, the TV challenge is more about volume and the Oscar challenge is more about quality (not that they can't have both). As was said earlier, I like to use it to check off the bucket list, and getting just a handful of high-quality watches is a good experience for me.

I'm pretty sure this has been suggested--maybe the thinking is there'd be too much overlap? But I agree--this is the time when we're hankering to start watching, especially for the new nominees, and it's a bit painful to either hold off or watch for "no credit."

shadokitty

While I'm getting excited too, we only need to hold off for two more days

Mao

Oh, I know, I'm talking about my placeholder! I wanna set up my space!

davidh777

I saw The Hobbit on Saturday for no credit

lisadoris

I have my preliminary list all ready to go and I can't wait until Thursday!

shadokitty

Yeah, where is the list?

The Monkees

Right here

mrcellophane

Very excited about this one. I've loved the Academy Awards for years, ever since practicing my acceptance speech with my shampoo bottle as a stand-in for the Oscar. There are quite a few films that I have lined up.

shadokitty

Found out today that one of the movies I had bought for the Horror Movie Challenge but never got around to watching is eligible for the Academy Award Challenge, An American Werewolf in London, nominated for Makeup.

Whiskey Warfield

List of movies that were nominated or won Oscars, organized alphabetically.

popcorn

I plan to do this next year... just watch award winners. I have too many nominees lined up already, waiting to be unwrapped, to do it this year.