Scavenger Hunt #119 [February 2025]

Hey, gang! I'm your host for February. Apparently I've been a member of the Scavenger Hunt Discord since February 2020, so I guess it's pretty fitting to sneak in my hosting duties this month exactly five years later. I've tried my hardest to come up with mostly original prompts with lots of options, so I hope you have fun with it!

As always, thanks to last month's host Hannah, who made an awesome hunt that gave me the push to watch a lot of great movies I'd been meaning to watch for a long time. Hopefully this hunt will help you do the same!

Links:
Master List
Discord
March 2025 Host Raffle

Prompts:
1. If Scavenger Hunts were movies, the…

Links:
Master List
Discord
March 2025 Host Raffle

Prompts:
1. If Scavenger Hunts were movies, the first prompt would be the poster. Watch a film with a painted poster.

2. Now put an arthouse flair on it. Watch a movie with an entirely black-and-white poster.

3. If we start low, we can only go up from there. (That's just physics.) Watch any director's least popular or lowest rated film on Letterboxd.

4. Letterboxd can feel a little American-centric sometimes, so let's get an outsider's perspective. Watch a movie about/set in the United States directed by a non-American (e.g. Once Upon a Time In America, Widows, News from Home, The Ice Storm, The Power of the Dog, etc.).

5. Okay, technically that was still Americentric. To make up for it: Watch a movie known exclusively by a non-English title. Less Parasite, Breathless, or Pan's Labyrinth, more Y Tu Mamá También, Ikiru, and La Haine.

6. Many actors get their start in non-English language movies but eventually move to English language roles (Salma Hayek, Jackie Chan, Marlene Dietrich, etc.). Far fewer English-speaking Hollywood stars eventually move to working with global auteurs and speaking different languages for their roles. For this prompt, you can seek out anyone willing to get out of their comfort zone. Watch a movie starring someone acting in a non-native language.

7. Last year was a big year for multilingual films, with many global awards frontrunners—including Anora, The Brutalist, Conclave, and Emilia Pérez—prominently featuring multiple spoken languages. Watch a movie with at least three spoken languages. You can check this on Letterboxd under any movie's "Details." (I promise this is the last language-based prompt.)

8. We all have watchlists. Some are just more unnecessarily difficult to maintain than others. Watch a film on my Ten-per-year, hundred+ year watchlist.

9. Today is the Super Bowl, and the Lions had their best season record of all time this year. Additionally, over the last few days, Tottenham have played Liverpool in the 2nd leg of the semi-final of the Carabao Cup, Aston Villa in the 4th round of the FA Cup, and two Europa League games; hopefully they've made it through at least one of these competitions. Celebrate my American and European football teams and Watch a movie about an unlikely hero or an underdog.

10. Secede from our modern techno-oligarchy. Watch a film made before the first commercially successful personal computers were released in 1977.

11. We can do good things on computers, too. Like Letterboxd. Or, most importantly, play Resident Evil. Watch a movie set in any classic Resident Evil location: a creepy mansion, a police station, an orphanage, a sewer, a science lab, an island, or a small European village.

12. With horror on the brain, one of my favorite niche micro-genres is horror films directed by filmmakers who aren't known for working in the genre. Watch a film from my list Experiments In Terror: Horror Films by Non-Horror Directors or any other movie you feel fits that category.

13. Watch a movie about a nun, a ballet dancer, or a sex worker. That's it, that's the prompt.

14. Obligatory Valentine's Day prompt, but weird, in honor of some of my favorite romance movies like Blue Velvet, The Young Girls of Rochefort, and Chungking Express: Watch either an erotic thriller, a non-English movie musical, or a movie that could be considered an unconventional rom-com.

15. I love nothing more than a hyper-specific title. Watch a movie with a title that's five words or longer. The more it looks like a complete sentence, the better.

16. There should always be an element of discovery to a Scavenger Hunt. Watch a film you hadn't heard of before today.

17. I didn't really get into movies until late into my teen years. In honor of my somewhat stunted cinephilic development, Watch a movie on BFI's List of the 50 Films You Should See By the Age of 14. If you've seen them all, watch a children's/family movie made before 1980.

18. We often think of certain genres as locked in their place in time. Let's unlock them. Watch a western or noir film made after 1956 (the year The Searchers came out), or Watch a science-fiction or action film made before 1968 (the year 2001: A Space Odyssey came out).

19. Embrace minimalism. Watch a film with ten or fewer people listed in the cast on Letterboxd. Try Letterboxd's chamber-piece showdown for inspiration.

20. One of my favorite filmmakers, Mike Leigh, released Hard Truths this year at the age of 81; today he turns 82. Watch a movie made by a director who was at least 65 years old when the film was released.

21. You know who else is rad? Icelandic icon Björk Guðmundsdóttir. Björk released solo studio albums in 1993, 1995, 1997, 2001, 2004, 2007, 2011, 2015, 2017, and 2022. Watch a film from one of those years, or watch The Juniper Tree, Dancer In the Dark, or The Northman.

22. Celebrate Black History Month and Watch a film from NPR & Slate's The New Black Film Canon, S. Torriano Berry & Venise T. Berry's The 50 Most Influential Black Films, or any film made by a Black director on either list.

23. The Oscars are scheduled to air a week from today. Watch a movie on the list of lowest rated Best Picture nominees or on the list of least popular Best Picture nominees.

24. I come from a family of non-film lovers, so instead of paying tribute to my grass-touching kin, let's honor the neverending succession of filmmaking dynasties from Hollywood and beyond. Watch a film starring a nepo baby.

25. Watch a pre-Code Hollywood film or a movie once rated X or NC-17 by the MPAA.

26. Today marks the most important holiday of the month: the anniversary of the release of Charli XCX's 2016 Vroom Vroom EP (prod. Sophie). Watch a movie Charli XCX has marked watched on Letterboxd, or watch any movie with a hyperpop aesthetic (e.g. The Substance, I Saw the TV Glow, Spring Breakers, Climax, etc.).

27. I've done hyperpop so now—logically—I must do shoegaze. Watch a movie that you think epitomizes any of the qualities of shoegaze—dreamy, hypnagogic, slow, etc.—or watch either version of My Bloody Valentine.

28. If Scavenger Hunts were movies, the last prompt would be the credits. Watch a movie by one of my favorite directors: Yasujirō Ozu, Mike Leigh, Abbas Kiarostami, Chantal Akerman, Robert Altman, Wong Kar-Wai, Éric Rohmer, Tsai Ming-Liang, Ingmar Bergman, or David Lynch (R.I.P.).

If any prompt isn't to your taste, replace it with a film on any of these lists:
⇄ My Top 500
⇄ They Shoot Pictures, Don't They? The 1,000 Greatest Films
⇄ My Ten-per-year, hundred+ year watchlist

#️⃣Make sure to tag with "scavenger hunt" and "scavenger hunt 119"

Happy hunting!

Letterboxd — Your life in film

List by Colin Fitzgerald Patron

Scavenger Hunt #119 [February 2025]