A Mythical Monkey writes about the movies: March 2018

Sunday, March 25, 2018

Alternate Oscars: Vote For The Best Picture of 1942 (Revised)

Alternate Oscar guru Erik Beck of the Boston Becks writes "Thought you would include Casablanca here since it was released in November of 1942 though it didn't get an Oscar eligible L.A. release until February of 1943.

But where, where, where, where is Sullivan's Travels, my number one film of the year? How is it not here?"

He makes a good point. I have been placing movies in the year of their release rather than Oscar eligibility to avoid a situation where, say, 1953's Tokyo Story winds up competing for best picture in 1972 simply because nobody in Japan thought American audiences would cotton to Ozu. But for voting purposes, Casablanca works so much better in 1943 than 1942.

Then I got to thinking why not do a hybrid, with American films competing in their year of Oscar eligibility and foreign (including British) films competing in the year of release in their home countries.

I know, you don't care.

But here, in case you do, is a revised poll for 1942. Eventually, when I transfer these polls to their permanent pages, I'll revise polls for 1933, 1934, 1936, 1937 and 1941 as well.