Guess what time of the year it is! That's right, it's the 17th Annual Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge!

List Thread for 2024 will be HERE once posted.

Dates: Dusk June 30-Dawn August 1st

Rules

Movies/TV shows should be labeled sci-fi or fantasy from either imdb.com or allmovie.com. Other labels don't matter as long as there is at least a sci-fi or fantasy label from one of those sites. Action/Sci-fi would be fine.

If anyone has a problem with something someone watches or just wants an opinion on if it's sci-fi or fantasy or not, ask here.

Sci-Fi/Fantasy documentaries are allowed but not DVD featurettes/interviews. Documentaries include UFO and alien abduction type shows.

As with the other challenges, the lists must be numbered or it won't count.

Use any counting method you prefer, as prize determination does not depend on number of items watched.

3 wild cards for all. Use for those shows you want to watch but know they really don't count but they're pretty close or borderline to counting.

Watching the movie with the commentary will count as an entry.

Watching multiple versions (theatrical and director's cut) of the same movie will also count.

Audio:

Sci-fi/Fantasy Radio

I'm treating audio harshly since this is primarily a movie/tv challenge. That being said, one episode, 4 hours with commercials, of Coast to Coast counts as one entry. It's the same format for TV, only doubled. The topic of the show has to be sci-fi/fantasy related, so it shouldn't be that much of a problem with Coast to Coast.

If you're listening to something without commercials, or can skip them, you're looking at 3 hours of audio for one entry.

1/4 entry = 45 minutes without commercials and 60 with commercials.
1/2 entry = 90 minutes without commercials and 120 with commercials.
3/4 entry = 135 minutes without commercials and 180 with commercials.
1 entry = 180 minutes without commercials and 240 with commercials.

*Exceptions:*
1: The Tarzan films are eligible to watch and count for the watch list, but not for the check list.
2. Superhero films. If they do not have a sci-fi/fantasy tag, they count for the watch list, but not for the check list. If it really has sci-fi/fantasy elements without the tag but you want to use it for the check list, feel free to ask here and I'll look into it.

2024's Finalized Checklist:

Suggestions for the "takes place in the future that has already passed" check:


2023's Discussion thread here.
Suggestions for next year, 2025:
Actor list pool here.

First, Welcome back to the 17th Annual Sci-Fi/Fantasy Challenge for 2024! I don't know about everyone else, but I have plenty of films already stocked up for the month...

Just as a reminder, the checklist has not been confirmed yet! For the next several days, I welcome any and all comments and suggestions. Checkout out the suggestions from last year at the bottom of the first post. Feel free to suggest anyone, especially for the He's Dead, Jim list.

This year will be the first year I put into full practice my actor list and random choosing. Question: Do you want me to leave a small classic/new actor list and then a bigger main list? Or now that it's been used a year, combine the new/classic/general list into one? Or option 3: Get rid of the new list, new people go automatically into the random pick list to be chosen from, but still have a classic actor list as well that would be 6-10 names total?

Can't wait to do this challenge next month!

Can’t wait. Always has been one of my favorite challenges.

I've had 70 of my movies picked out for two months. I started too early this year but the time is finally approaching. I'm looking forward to the new method of picking the actors/actresses. I guess if I had to decide I would stick with the small classic / new actor list and a bigger main list. But really, all of the choices have their benefits so I am excited for any of them. Let's just speed up the time so we can start sooner!

There were unfortunately quite a few deceased people to choose from this year. Some of the better known and/or persons with many movies to choose from were Roger Corman, Michael Gambon, William Friedkin, Julian Sands, Mark Dodson, Jamie Christopher, Ian Gelder, Peter Burton, Barbara Rush, Tim McGovern, Peter Spellos and Darren Kent. Apologies if I made a mistake and hurried someone to the other side before it happened!

Thanks for the suggestions! I do have Rush and Corman on there already. I'll definitely look into the others! I really want to put Glynis Johns on there, but she pretty much only has one or 2 titles that would qualify (Mary Poppins).

Glynis Johns has 4 qualifying titles w/2 questionable (due to being uncredited):

Mary Poppins - BR & DVD
Miranda - OOP DVD (from VCI)
The Halfway House - R2 DVD & BR
Mad About Men - OOP DVD (from VCI)
The Thief of Bagdad - Criterion DVD (minor uncredited role)
Helter Skelter - R2 DVD (minor uncredited role)

Go for it LJG!

I just might!

Paul Reubens.

Far too early to count, but this morning I finished an anime series that I had been working on for the past couple of months. Transformers: Robots In Disguise ​​​​​​, the 2001 version that was the dubbed version of Transformers: Car Robots.

He was on the list before the end of last year's challenge unfortunately.

Unfortunately, you can add Donald Sutherland to the list.

RIP. I heard today myself.

I just saw that too. Added.

Which Peter Burton are you referring to? The first one at IMDb.com was not the right one and there were several choices... Thanks!

It would have helped if I had given you the right name to begin with. The person was Jeff Burr, he died in October of last year. He was a director, he comes up as the first one listed. He did a few things I recognized like Night of the Scarecrow and a couple of the puppet master films and Pumpinhead II: Blood Wings. He did a total of 14 unduplicated shows/movies that qualified I believe..

No worries, mistakes happen. Added! I did skip a couple of your suggestions as I thought there weren't enough titles to chose from but if there is someone you really wanted, let me know.

Might be an unpopular opinion, but I enjoy the breakout of the classic actors. I feel if Boris, Lon Chaney, Bela etc were left out, it would be an incomplete list. But, whatever is decided I'll go with. Just wanted to put my thoughts out there.

Oh and I wanted to thank you LJG for always getting this thread started. It's one of my favorite challenges to participate in.

I'm just getting excited to find out who is on the list this year. I think (I may be wrong though) that there will be a place for the classic actors, expecially as nobody has suggested leaving them off (or putting them in the roulette choices) but that doesn't answer the question of who all is going to be out there. Don't leave us in suspense any longer, let us see the list! I'm dying while I'm waiting to see who has won this year!

You're welcome! It's one of my favorite challenges too.

I'm really leaning towards leaving the classic actor list in and maybe a very short new actors list as well (only 3 new suggestions this year, I believe).
lol! Okay, okay! I'll post the list by tomorrow!

Posting this in a new comment so it doesn't get lost, but I'll have the finalized check list up by tomorrow.

I will have updated the year's "He's Dead, Jim" list, added a new category of Oscar/award winning movie/actor in a Sci-fi/Fantasy Movie and updated the actors list. I plan on leaving the classic and new actor list (though for at least this year, the new actor list may be fairly short as I rotate "new" actors to the main actor list and new actors into it. I feel like each year there will be only a few new actors so I'm not sure if that will stay for multiple years, but at least for this year, we do have a couple new to us actors to use. I'll also be updated the regular actor list with randomly chosen actors (planning on using a random number generator to pick names off the linked name list.)

I was debating just now about whether or not to take 2023's actors out of the running for this year, but with 130+ names I think it'll be fine and not too many repeats.

The checklist has been finalized! Skip to the end of the list for the actor's names for this year. I did leave the numbers chosen so if interested you can see who was chosen. I will admit, I did have to redraw 3 names. 1 name was brand new to the list, so was already on it and 2 others were repeats (not sure if I made a typo or if the generator chose duplicates even when I specified they should be unique). I think there were only 4 names that were on there last year, so not too bad. I feel like it's a pretty good mix of names, to be honest.

The List Thread is up HERE.

--- Watch a film in 6 of the following decades:
--- 1890/1900 -
--- 1910/1920 -
--- 1930 -
--- 1940 -
--- 1950 -
--- 1960 -
--- 1970 -
--- 1980 -
--- 1990 -
--- 2000 -
--- 2010 -
--- 2020 -

--- Watch films in at least two languages other than English.
--- First language -
--- Second language -

--- Watch a film in 6 of the following:
--- Watch a MST3K/Rifftrax/Cinematic Titanic/Hosted version of a sci-fi/fantasy film -
--- Watch a film made on a low budget (ex. Corman or Castle movie) -
--- Watch a film based on a novel -
--- Watch a film which was nominated for a Hugo or Saturn Award -
--- Watch a film that either won an Academy Award (Oscar) or an actor won one for their performance -
--- Watch a Documentary Feature (at least 40 minutes long) -
--- Watch a Film from the Criterion Collection (Doesn't have to be the Criterion Version) -
--- Watch a film with commentary -
--- Watch a film and at least two sequels -
--- Watch an animated film -
--- Watch a film with special effects by Ray Harryhausen -
--- Watch a film that takes place in the "future" but the year has already come and gone -
--- Watch a film and its remake/reboot -
--- Watch a film about a LGBTQ+ person/topic or about POC/other minority groups -
--- Watch 60 minutes of Sci-fi/Fantasy shorts (animated or non-animated) -

--- He's dead, Jim. Watch 4 out of the following:
--- Written by/inspired by/or related in some way to the late - Paul Reubens -
--- Written by/inspired by/or related in some way to the late - Roger Corman -
--- Written by/inspired by/or related in some way to the late - Barbara Rush -
--- Written by/inspired by/or related in some way to the late - Kenneth Mitchell -
--- Written by/inspired by/or related in some way to the late - Chris Gauthier -
--- Written by/inspired by/or related in some way to the late - Donald Sutherland -
--- Written by/inspired by/or related in some way to the late - Michael Gambon -
--- Written by/inspired by/or related in some way to the late - Julian Sands -
--- Written by/inspired by/or related in some way to the late - Mark Dodson -
--- Written by/inspired by/or related in some way to the late - Ian Gelder -
--- Written by/inspired by/or related in some way to the late - Tim McGovern -
--- Written by/inspired by/or related in some way to the late - Peter Spellos -
--- Written by/inspired by/or related in some way to the late - Darren Kent -
--- Written by/inspired by/or related in some way to the late - Jamie Christopher -
--- Written by/inspired by/or related in some way to the late - Glynis Johns -
--- Written by/inspired by/or related in some way to the late - Jeff Burr -

--- Thank the Maker. Watch 3 out of the following:
--- Written by/inspired by/or related in some way to the late Gene Roddenberry -
--- Written by/inspired by/or related in some way to the late C.S. Lewis -
--- Written by/inspired by/or related in some way to the late J.R.R. Tolkien -
--- Written by/inspired by/or related in some way to the late Jules Verne
--- Written by/inspired by/or related in some way to the late H.G. Wells -
--- Written by/inspired by/or related in some way to the late Stan Lee -

--- Watch 10 films directed/produced/written by:
--- J. J. Abrams -
--- Luc Besson -
--- Michael Bay -
--- Tim Burton -
--- John Carpenter -
--- Roger Corman -
--- Richard Fleischer -
--- Ron Howard -
--- Peter Jackson -
--- Terry Jones -
--- Stephen King -
--- Fritz Lang -
--- George Lucas -
--- George Melies -
--- Hayao Miyazaki -
--- Sam Raimi -
--- M. Night Shyamalan -
--- Stephen Sommers -
--- Steven Spielberg -
--- Guilermo del Toro -
--- The Wachowskis -
--- Robert Zemeckis -

--- Watch a film in 3 of these ratings:
--- Unrated (pre-MPAA)/Approved -
--- G-
--- PG/GP/M-
--- PG-13 -
--- R -
--- NC-17/X (not porn!)/Unrated -

--- Watch a film in 5 of the following sub-genres:
--- Action/Adventure -
--- Animation -
--- Comedy -
--- Crime/Film Noir/Mystery/Thriller -
--- Drama -
--- Family -
--- History/War/Western -
--- Horror -
--- Music/Musical -
--- Romance -

--- Watch a film in 10 sub-genres:
--- Alien invasion -
--- Alternate History -
--- Based on fairy tale -
--- Christmas in July -
--- Comic Book -
--- Disaster -
--- Dystopian Society -
--- High Fantasy -
--- Immortality -
--- Kaiju -
--- Laser (death by or contains one)-
--- Mad Scientist -
--- Mythology (Can be anybody's mythology) -
--- Paranormal -
--- Post-Apocalyptic -
--- Prehistoric -
--- Robot/Android -
--- Space Themed -
--- Superhero Themed -
--- Sword and Sorcery -
--- Time travel -

Not sure what qualifies? Check here for a description or even better: here.

--- Watch a film starring 5 of these classic actors and actors who have not been in our lists before:
Classic:
--- Abbott & Costello -
--- Evelyn Ankers -
--- Lionel Atwill -
--- Lloyd Bridges -
--- Boris Karloff -
--- Bella Lugosi -
--- Vincent Price -
--- Max von Sydow -
New:
--- Matt Damon -
--- Robin Williams -
--- Jude Law -

--- Watch a film starring 10 these actors/actresses:
5, 117, 97, 111, 120, 109, 82, 3, 4, 85, 54, 99, 21, 43, 22, 48, 101, 72, 71, 64
--- John Astin -
--- John Agar -
--- Nancy Allen -
--- Mara Corday -
--- Peter Cullen -
--- Peter Graves -
--- Chris Hemsworth -
--- Hugh Jackman -
--- Christopher Lloyd -
--- Sir Ian McKellen -
--- Ray Milland -
--- Chris Pratt -
--- Keanu Reeves -
--- Andy Serkis -
--- Dame Maggie Smith -
--- Patrick Stewart -
--- Emma Thompson -
--- Kenneth Tobey -
--- Taika Waititi -
--- Sigourney Weaver -

You did a great job on the checklist. I would have said something sooner but I spent a considerable amount of time (ok, many hours) looking over the choices and trying to pick out my movies. I am still 6-10 short but that's for another day. I think this method is a success and has the added improvement on time also. A win all the way around!