March is over, and what a success MAW 2026 was!
๐ข The Stats
A few stats that are not on the spreadsheet:
- 32% of participants won the challenge, and 39% (incl winners) watched 30 films (or more).
- You watched 3,042 unique film titles by 2,316 different directors from 221 countries.
- You contributed 4,148 reviews to Letterboxd.
- You loved the films you watched for the most part. You rated 93% of the films you watched, and of those, 69% were rated 3.5 or more.
- 72% of the films you watched were from the 21st century. But you guys are focussing on the wrong decades - see next stat.
- The 21st Century gets an average rating of 3.55, but the 20th Century has an average rating of 3.64
๐ฅThe Winners
I still don't know how you guys and gals pull it off every year. I get excited thinking *this* is the year, and then I end up watching/reviewing 3, maybe 4 films. But *you* got there; some on your first try and some old-timers have been around the block for a good decade or more. Whoever you are, every film lover from around the world owes you a great big thank you for having reviewed 30 films, making world cinema that much less foreign to all.
A huge thank you and congratulations to the following (in alphabetical order):
โ.หโฎ Shannon โฎห.โ, abystopia, Adam Graff, Aldo, Alex, Alex Bond, Andrew (grslive), Andrew (asttlmr), annie, aralyth, Bas van Stratum, Birch Tate, Bobsoares, Brian Stevenson, Carte_Blanches, Cherie, Christopher, cinema sandy, circlesquared, CopperKobold, d4ngerousblues, David, David Zavala, deadlyhair, DeathByElixir, Dennis, Deon2003, eightandahalf, Fabian, Fabiola Ruiz, FearFoundMe, Georgi_al๐ฆ, Graham, Ilia Ginzburg, itsmysharona, Jaden, james ๐ต๐ธ, Jamie Ragins, jao ใ, Javier Espinoza, Johnno, johnnyce, Jonny Wright, jrm555, Justin ๐ฆ, Kaxbe, Kay, KobenP, krstn, Kyra, Laura, LauraCid, Lauren, Lee, leroymarko, Logan, MaxwellCarter, Mike, mxlafleur, Nadine, Nathan?, okrc (J.Arturo), pete kurodo, ray, Rebecca, rebema, Ricky Blue, Rox ๐ต๐ญ, rsq2000, sailordanae, SausageWipe, SavageBob, Savannah, Se soubesses o que eu vi, Slig001, Sor Miaw, sylvie., Tekkactus, tony cinema, traYc, TungHeeLo, Tyler Dieckmann, VcommeVu, Wade McCormick, Wayne Little, xellence, Yarjka
๐ฉ A special thank you to all who went above and beyond, contributing even more than 30 reviews, including xellence for a whopping 63 reviews, Tyler Dieckmann for 59, Ilia Ginzburg for 46, and Sor Miaw as well as Kaxbe for 40 each.
๐ Still more reviews: Everyone else contributed a total of 1,365 reviews. We all want to thank you. It's actually more than that, but I can't count reviews where there are no country tags.
๐ And these 15 cinephiles visited 30 different countries this month:
Alvaro D. Ruiz, ditrep, Edd, Irina Z, Juliana Villaรงa, Kubricknightmar, ๐๐๐๐๐ฃ๐๐๐๐๐ค ๐๐๐๐,
Martin, Movie_Catalyst, Niranjan ๐ง, Porkchop42, richardrunkus, ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐, Waleed, yvonnezazu
๐ฌ Again, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for participating in this Challenge. If there is anything, anything at all that we can do to make world cinema and subtitled films seem less strange to some, then we've won. Because as we all know, the more we travel the more we understand that we all face the same struggles no matter where we are. And excuse my minute on a soapbox, but once we understand that, once we feel empathy for the other, we can't be manipulated to hate an entire people.
__________________________________________
The Original Challenge Information
March is just around the corner and the films of Lebanon (filtered by Arabic and French) are vying for your attention.
๐The Challenge: watch and review 30 feature films (>=60 min) from 30 different countries in March, where one film is from Lebanon.
๐ท๏ธThe rules:
- no rewatches
-logged entries must include the tag maw2026
-logged entries must include ONE and only one country tag (see further down tips on selecting the country).
- reviews need to be somewhat substantial. See further down for "review" tips.
- or forget the rules, and participate by watching world Cinema in March as much as you can. (But please do not tag films with maw2026 unless they were watched this March, at least until the Challenge is over).
TO LOG A FILM OR ENTER OR EDIT A REVIEW LATER
๐Here are your lists, reviews, and the 2026 spreadsheet.
๐๏ธSee March Around the World - Archive for helpful film lists created by participants, and for links to all previous Challenge pages and spreadsheets.
๐Selecting a country
Most people use the language of the film to narrow down the country, because in Letterboxd, each film lists all countries that financed the film. You might not want to choose Czechia as the country for a Jason Bourne movie even though it might be listed.
You can easily convert a country search to a country and language search: "https://letterboxd.com/films/country/lebanon/language/arabic/"
As for country names in history
Closely Watched Trains was made back when Czechia was Czechoslovakia. If Letterboxd still has an entry for the historical name, you may use it. Otherwise you should use the modern country.
๐ About Reviews:
Why insist on 'substantial' reviews? Because that's the way to "win" the Challenge. You don't have to win it. Everyone can participate. But it is difficult to win it and that's not going to change. Also, the purpose of this Challenge always had an element of exposing more people to world cinema. To that end, I wanted to see reviews of the films from Senegal as much as the UK and the USA. My purpose was to fill Letterboxd with world cinema reviews and while that has been accomplished, it never hurts to continue.
What counts as substantial?
length and content.
The paragraph I wrote above would work depending on what it says. Much shorter than that and you have to be an expert at zeroing in on the essentials. I've only encountered 2 participants so far who can do that consistently and effectively.
Content
It will not count, but you are welcome to say when you watched the film and why and with who.
It will not count, but you are welcome to use up a paragraph about how the film is on this list and the Criterion challenge you are also doing, and how this film is from which country and it's your 16th of the challenge.
What does count?
Describe the film or something about the film in a way that might convince someone to watch it, or maybe warn people to not watch it. Would you recommend it to someone who loves Reservoir Dogs? Satantango? Maybe there's an interesting fact about the actor in the film, like maybe it was his first film. Or maybe you think the film definitely did not deserve to win some big award. Why not?
The participants who volunteer to read the reviews need to know by reading it that you did indeed watch the film and are not just summarizing it the way any plot description might.
