Our 10th annual March Around the World was a great success!
I thank you all for participating, not just by reading subtitles, but also by commenting on each other's lists and entries.
And one again I apologize for my difficulties with the spreadsheet this year. I know how much some of you rely on it.
Of the 139 participants this year, 47 (34%) won the challenge by watching and reviewing 30 feature films from 30 different countries in March 2023. An additional 13 participants watched 30 films from 30 different countries.
A Special thanks to all for welcoming 8 First Timers! (apologies if I missed you!), 5 (or 6) of which completed the challenge on their first try!
Adam Wag…
Our 10th annual March Around the World was a great success!
I thank you all for participating, not just by reading subtitles, but also by commenting on each other's lists and entries.
And one again I apologize for my difficulties with the spreadsheet this year. I know how much some of you rely on it.
Of the 139 participants this year, 47 (34%) won the challenge by watching and reviewing 30 feature films from 30 different countries in March 2023. An additional 13 participants watched 30 films from 30 different countries.
A Special thanks to all for welcoming 8 First Timers! (apologies if I missed you!), 5 (or 6) of which completed the challenge on their first try!
Adam Wag - Fletcher Cromartie - Johan - Johnno - Moresbi - Basement_Kid - and Ricky Blue - SavageBob
--------------------------------
🥇🥇🥇 The Winners!
They did the impossible. They watched and reviewed at least 30 films from 30 different countries in one month. That's just crazy. And yet... a full 34% of participants did it!
(Just between us - for all of us who struggle to get just 10 reviews done, I have a plan: tell everyone you know to join next year. We'll bring that percentage down if it's the last thing we do, and then the rest of us won't feel so bad).
In the meantime, we bow, yes, we actually bow, to everyone on this list. You deserve it.
Adam Graff - Adam Wag - Ana321 - ant_toe_knee - Bas van Stratum - Basement_Kid - Chris - circlesquared - Daniel Reifferscheid - David Zavala - DonJohn80 - eightandahalf - Geoffrey Parker - Giudy - Graham - Graham Williamson - GROBBLEDONGS - hairway2stevens - Ilia Ginzburg - JB - Johnno - JR Roughton - Kelsey - Larry Brown - leroymarko - MaxwellCarter - Mike Bell - Moresbi - Nathan? - Nayan - Peter H - Rebecca - Ricky Blue - Rory Lewis - Ryan McCauley - S - sailordanae - SavageBob - Shachar - Slig001 - Suping - TheZList - Travis Tindell - Tyler Dieckmann - Wade McCormick - Wayne Little - 🇵🇱 Steve G 🇵🇸
--------------------------------
🥈🥈🥈 The Other Winners!
They watched at least 30 films from 30 different countries this month. Who wants to bet that the first few films in their Diaries are Blockbusters! Oh, it would be fun to track that 😉
Alvaro D. Ruiz - ecarsonbelden - Edd - Logan Austin - Martin - Millie Maloney - Nick D. Schaefer - Niclas - Nokhi - sixtinemm - tont - vanessa - Yoli
--------------------------------
🏆🏆🏆 Participants
A toast to those of us who have never completed and, if we are being real, never will complete this challenge. We are the heart of the challenge (always it's majority). We come here to travel a little in March, not go full-on backpacking! We prefer to savour where we've been. We aren't big on breakfast in France, lunch in Switzerland and dinner in Austria. We like to take our time, think about our travels before so quickly going on to the next destination. Ok ok, I know I'm pushing it. I want to win as much as the next person, and most of us go in thinking 'this will be the year'. Still, it's a lovely narrative for when we can't quite achieve our goal.
Alan - Alyn Shao - Andreas Schmid - AngelMonkey - Ashley - Audrey Cupps - Benjamin Boy - CapeTaun - Chris Campbell - Christopher - ConeyBow - Cristóbal Sepúlveda Cobo - Emily Erin - EvelinaLucia - evemm - Eyal Iliaguev - fajrianur afnan - fatimaldh - Fede - Fletcher Cromartie - gorovoice - Haithem Lekoui - humanconditions ☕️ - J. - James - James Calver - Jane - Jayce Fryman - Jenna Morrison - jennifer c. - jimmiebolha - Johan - Jonathan Nicholls - Jonathan White - JuanJoker - Kat - Katie🌈🎵 - Ken B - laih - lea katzky - Lise - longosteph - Lowe - Maarten Rogier - Marina Rossi - Miguel Amaral - Miko Suzahiru - molly green - MouseDroid - Nadine - Nathan White - night_shift - Oskar - Priya - Puffin - Rach ☕️📖 - Raving Cinema - renieg0 - riley - Rosalind - Rui Gonçalves - Santiago Páez - saralonlop - SausageWipe - Shaun - Sophie WJ - TajLV - théodora 🌛 - thesquirrelboy - Tiye - Todd ✨ ✨✨✨✨ - Tom Morton - Trevor Duhon - turnitip - Tyler A. - William Miles - Yarjka - Yousef
--------------------------------
Special Mentions
A special thank you to the following for their contribution to the map:
Kelsey: American Samoa, Guyana, Maldives, Marshall Islands
DonJohn80: Andorra, Barbados, Bermuda, Grenada
Fletcher Cromartie: Belize, Guam and Niger
Peter H: El Salvador, Northern Mariana Islands, Us Virgin Islands
sailordanae: Macao, Pitcairn and Turkmenistan
Suping: Antarctica, Montenegro
ant_toe_knee: Aruba, Mauritius
circlesquared: Bahrain, United Arab Emirates
Tyler Dieckmann: the British Virgin Islands, São Tomé and Príncipe
Adam Graff: Central African Republic
leroymarko: Federated States Of Micronesia
JR Roughton: French Guiana
Maarten Rogier: Gabon
Adam Wag: Luxembourg
longosteph: Monaco
Edd: Montserrat
Wayne Little: Swaziland
--------------------------------
And if the Challenge were not difficult enough, these brave cinephiles filtered their film selections by focussing on a specific theme:
- Ricky Blue: Queer Cinema.
- Yarjka: Middle Eastern films (last year they watched only animated films).
- Steve G: Crime films.
- Suping: Suping's list represents continents in proportion to their share of the world population.
- Graham watched 30 _Horror_ films from 30 countries
- Audrey Cupps: Films directed by Women
- Raving Cinema watched International films that were Nominated (or won) an Oscar.
- SausageWipe limited their list to Films from the year they were born: 1996
--- The original Rules
It's the 10th anniversary of March Around the World! I'll be posting decade-type stats in the comments as we go. Should be fun.
The spreadsheet is up!
New this year: A March Around the World Archive Page where you will find all things relevant to previous challenges, including links to the previous spreadsheets, recommendation lists, etc. Use that list to help populate your lists!
This year's feature country is Egypt. Remember to filter out short films and films you have already seen.
*** The Challenge***
Watch and review 30 feature films from 30 different countries in the month of March including 1 film from Egypt.
The Rules
(Please avoid backdating logs. Better to log as you watch and then edit the log for ratings/reviews later).
1. Feature films only (60+ min)
2. No re-watches.
3. Only films watched, logged and reviewed in March 2023 count.
4. Log your films with 2 tags: 30 countries 2023 and the (single) selected country of the film. Use the same country-names as Letterboxd.
5. To count, a review needs to be somewhat substantial in that it has to show that you have seen the film. One liners do not count. Think more along the lines of 150 words +
The following participant lists (optional), diary entries and reviews are here: If you don't see yours, check that it is tagged properly.
Participant Film Lists
Participant Films logged
Participant Reviews
* if your list, log or review doesn't show up in these links, it isn't tagged properly and will not count.
If you don't think you can complete the challenge, join anyway and watch a few foreign films. It's less about winning and more about watching cinema from around the world during the month. Thanks to Berken for creating the original challenge back in 2013.
