Choosing my films one at a time for added suspense
Original List
- Weekly Themes below :)
5 Best Films
1. Apocalypse Now (1979)
2. Malcolm X (1992)
3. Suspiria (1977)
4. Coco (2017)
5. Beauty and the Beast (1978)
3 Worst Films
1. See You Yesterday (2019)
2. Bedtime Stories (2008)
3. The Invasion (2007)
Week 1: September 4th-10th
99 Minutes Week
This year marks the Letterboxd Season Challenge's ninth year—it's the challenge with nine lives! And what better way to celebrate than abandoning last year's Long Time Running theme week (3+ hour films, if you've forgotten) and embracing the Goldilocks of movie lengths: 90 minutes. But to be clever, we've added an extra nine minutes for LSC9. 99! That's two nines! (What's that cricket sound?) Anyway, we've gone the whole nine yards and painstakingly compiled a prodigious list of movies, each of them exactly ninety-nine minutes long, and dressed them to the nines, all beautifully arranged just so.
🎶 Ninety-nine minutes of film to watch,
ninety-nine minutes of film . . . 🎶
This week's challenge is to join us on cloud nine and watch a film from 𝖘𝖊𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖓𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖎𝖓's 99 minutes ⏲️ No more, no less list.
Week 2: September 11th-17th
Lo-Fi Week
Soft sci-fi beats to relax/study to. Ok maybe don't try to study while watching these, because these high-concept, usually low-budget films demand your attention just as much as epic space spectacles. From the intricate time travel of Primer to the heartbreak of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, this category includes low-budget, indie, and soft science fiction.
This week's challenge is to watch a "Lo-Fi" film. Use this list for some ideas.
Week 3: September 18th-24th
Letterboxd List Battles!: Litterboxd vs. Letterbarkd
"I have studied many philosophers and many cats. The wisdom of cats is infinitely superior." – Hippolyte Taine
"Dogs have boundless enthusiasm but no sense of shame. I should have a dog as a life coach." – Moby
"Way down deep, we’re all motivated by the same urges. Cats have the courage to live by them." – Jim Davis
"If I could be half the person my dog is, I’d be twice the human I am." – Charles Yu
"Dogs and cats living together! Mass Hysteria!" – Peter Venkman
It's a dispute as old as time: dogs or cats? For this week's challenge, your friendly hosts are cruelly forcing you to choose between man's best friend and man's indifferent roommate. For those who are dog people, fetch a film from Rembrandt Q Pumpernickel's Letterbarkd list. Cat lovers can curl up with a selection from Hollie Horror's Litterboxd list. And if you cannot possibly choose between the two—your animal-loving heart torn asunder at the thought—spread the love like a canine, disregard the rules like a feline, and watch one of each. That's right, Venkman, mass hysteria!
Week 4: September 25th-October 1st
Palme d'Or Week
One of the three major film festival top prizes (the other two being the Golden Lion at Venice and the Golden Bear at Berlin, both covered in previous LSCs), the Palme d'Or has been awarded at the Cannes Film Festival since 1946. Originally called the Grand Prize of the International Film Festival, it was changed to a palm in 1955 to represent the city's coat of arms. It's one of the most prestigious awards in cinema, with past winners including Martin Scorsese, Federico Fellini, and Akira Kurosawa.
This week's challenge is to watch a Palme d'Or winner.
Week 5: October 2nd-8th
Visual Insanity Week
Film is a visual medium, and this week celebrates the artists who take full advantage of the screen. Letterboxd user Emma Tolkin asked people what the most visually insane movie they've ever seen was, and compiled the hallucinogenic, meditative, harrowing, dreamy, and chaotic results into one list.
This week's challenge is to watch a film from Emma Tolkin's 🐉🎭✨ 𝕍𝕀𝕊𝕌𝔸𝕃𝕃𝕐 𝙸𝙽𝚂𝙰𝙽𝙴👹🧞♀️👁️ list.
Week 6: October 9th-15th
Art Horror Week
Kicking off this year's October horror themes with a different kind of horror. Art house and avant-garde films take an abstract and experimental approach to scares, but they can be just as effective at getting under your skin as traditional horror.
This week's challenge is to watch an avant-garde or art-horror film. Use this list for inspiration.
Week 7: October 16th-22nd
Hammer Horror Week
London-based Hammer Film Productions is most famously known for the horror movies they produced in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. They often made low-budget movies featuring classic horror monsters like Frankenstein’s monster, Dracula, and the Mummy, employed a usual repertoire of actors in many of their films (including David Prowse who would later don the Darth Vader costume), crafted Gothic sets, and shot their movies in actual mansions rather than on studio sets. They capitalized on including more explicit violence and sexual content than was usual at the time, but when American films like Rosemary’s Baby and Bonnie and Clyde came out and offered the same thrills with much higher production values, Hammer Pictures couldn’t keep up and eventually ceased producing movies altogether.
This week dive into some classic Hammer Horror from this list. If you can’t unearth one of the classic gems of Hammer Horror you may look to the films made after Hammer Film Productions was resurrected in 2007 after decades of silence.
Week 8: October 23rd-29th
Body Horror Week
Prepare to be disgusted. Continuing this month of horror, let’s explore one of the subgenres that can really disturb and elicit a visceral reaction. Body horror features thrills based on the distortion, violation, and/or mutilation of the human body and has the power to make your skin crawl. From the godfather of Body Horror, David Cronenberg, to recent visionaries like his son, Brandon Cronenberg, and Julia Ducournau, there’s no shortage of filmmakers who use this subgenre to explore what it means to be human, to have corporal forms we can’t always control, and to have an identity that is based, at least partially, on how we and others perceive our physical selves.
This week buckle up for a wild ride and maybe don’t plan on eating dinner with your movie as you watch a body horror. Here’s a list from Maxvayne to help you out. The provocative imagery of Body Horror can help us think deeper about ourselves, but since this subgenre can also involve very real physiological reactions we respect anyone who cannot stomach these kinds of movies and offer up Body Swap movies as a lighter alternative with this list.
Week 9: October 30th-November 5th
Horror Revival Week
Some of the best horror movies of all time are remakes, like The Thing or The Fly, but in general remakes get a bad rap due to failures like Psycho or Poltergeist. In recent years we've seen different methods of revival with long-awaited reboots/sequels like Halloween, Candyman, and Scream. This week we'll find out if these stories deserve a second life, or if they belong back in the grave.
This week's challenge is to watch a horror remake, reboot, reheat, etc. Use this list for inspiration.
Week 10: November 6th-12th
Nun for You Week
Nuns have enjoyed a rich history in film, from being featured in classics like Black Narcissus and The Sound of Music, through the Nusploitation era in the 70s, to today as filmmakers are still fascinated by nuns as characters. Nuns are so compelling and can be featured in a wide-range of genres because they represent a fascinating dichotomy between female-empowerment and male authority. Entering a convent could signify a woman wielding her own power over herself and choosing her own path for a life absent of and free from men with other women, but a convent is still run by a man and the Catholic Church is still a deeply patriarchal system. The suppression of sexual desires is also ripe for the power of romance to overcome, for both dramatic and comedic effect, with or without men. Nunsploitation films offer taboo thrills, but also often critique and question the authority of the Catholic Church. However nuns are depicted in cinema they almost always come from the imagination of someone who is not a nun and could never know what it is really like to be one, which has allowed them to take on a mysterious and almost fantastical role that is also a part of the allure.
This week’s challenge is to watch a movie featuring a nun as a main character. Here’s a list from NunMovieFreak to help you out.
Week 11: November 13th-19th
Hidden Indies: levelFilm Week
These days, indie distributors are a dime a dozen. Some manage to make their names widely known, as in A24 or Neon, but most are content to operate under the radar, releasing lesser-known films that typically don't find their way in front of wider audiences or generate large amounts of buzz. Our focus this week is on one of them. levelFILM (founded in Toronto in 2013) focuses primarily (but not exclusively) on Canadian films, and a quick look at the over 300 titles in the company's filmography reveals a full range of genres and a notable surfeit of quality.
This week, let's avail ourselves of an offering from one of the hidden indies and seek out a film distributed by levelFILM.
Week 12: November 20th-26th
Career Killers Week
The flop. The bomb. We know them well. They are legendary. Those films that, whether misguided, ill-advised, cursed, or just plain crap, live on in infamy as cautionary tales. Often, they come after a commercial (and critical) success, when money falls like rain, and sound decision-making takes shelter so as not to get wet. Unfortunately, it only takes one bad feature to poison a career or even put a studio out of business. The big question is: are all career killers deserving of their label?
This week, we'll resurrect (if only for a couple of hours) a career or studio by watching a film from Babalugats' Career Killers list. It's up to you to decide if these films deserve their ignominious place in cinema history.
Week 13: November 27th-December 3rd
Breaking News Week
The organizations of people who have wielded the power to decide what information should be disseminated to the mass public has had profound effects on societies throughout history for both good and evil. How events and people are depicted can influence and shape a whole generation, especially as global means of mass-communication, from the television to the Internet, has extended the news’ reach to more and more people. Even if you don’t watch or read the news yourself, you can’t escape the role it plays in shaping politics and the people in your communities, or in just hearing people discuss the latest headlines around you.
This week we honor, fear, and/or respect the power journalism has had on us by watching a movie about journalism. Here is a list to get you started.
Week 14: December 4th-10th
Living in Obscurity Week
Top 10 (or 50, or 100, or 250), Best of, and All-Time Greatest lists are all well and good, but sometimes the discerning movie-watcher desires the sweet thrill of discovery, of stumbling upon an obscure gem, of uncovering a magnificent concoction few others have. There is nothing wrong with those lauded collections of films—they are well-known and revered for good reason. But think about this: by some estimates, there are nearly 5 million films out there in the world! It's like a bucket of LEGO containing pieces of every size; all the little bricks sink to the bottom while the bigger ones rest on top. Movies, it seems, are no different.
This week, let's plunge our hands deep into the movie bucket and shun the measly 1% of films (if we're being generous) that get the most attention. However, 4.95 million films are a bit much to sift through. Luckily, Letterboxd makes our task easy: just pick a title from The Most Obscure Movie Recommendations List Ever as compiled by independent online film journal Bright Wall/Dark Room. Voila! Happy discovering!
Week 15: December 11th-17th
Condemned! Week
In 1995, in celebration of the centenary of the motion picture, the Vatican released a list of 45 titles divided into three groups. Its "Some Important Films" list highlighted a selection of outstanding films the Papacy felt warranted inclusion into the list's "Religion," "Values," and "Art" categories. "The Church's overall judgment of this art form, as of all genuine art, is positive and hopeful," John Paul II offered.
That's not what this week is about, though.
The Pope continued, "Unfortunately, though, some cinema productions merit criticism and disapproval, even severe criticism and disapproval. This is the case when films distort the truth, oppress genuine freedom, or show scenes of sex and violence offensive to human dignity." And so, from November 2003 to July 2022, the Catholic News Service and the former Office for Film and Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops handed out an "O" rating to those movies deemed "morally objectionable."
This week we'll disregard the positive and the hopeful and turn our attention to those films that earned the church's highest level of criticism and disapproval. Will we still be able to find art? Head over to TajLV's CONDEMNED!! Films Rated Morally Offensive by the Catholic Church list and select a film that could never dream of making any future revision of the "Some Important Films" list. Good luck, sinners, and may God save your souls.
Week 16: January 1st-7th
Lin, Lyne, Lynn, Lynn, or Lynne Week
This week, we pay homage to Benjamin Milot, LSC's previous host. Back in 2018, he came up with the idea of loosely grouping four or five prominent actors or directors based only on the similarity of their names. Not only did this create a clever title for a theme week, but it also tended to provide a wide range of films from which to choose, producing a creative cornucopia of cinema to sate any palate.
In that spirit, we continue his vital work. This week, you'll pick a movie directed by one of the following: Justin Lin, Adrian Lyne, Darren Lynn Bousman, Lynn Shelton, or Lynne Ramsay. Or, if you're up for a real challenge, choose one from each!
P.S. We know Adrian's last name is pronounced "line," but it looks the same, so don't fight it.
Week 17: January 8th-14th
Cream of the Grindhouse Crop Week
Even though exploitation films overtly sensationalize the lurid subjects they depict, it doesn’t mean the movies have to be bad! After all, arthouse movies from Luis Buñuel, Jean-Luc Godard, Stanley Kubrick and Roman Polanski featured similar content to critical acclaim and were often played alongside exploitation films in Grindhouses, the kind of movie theaters, popular in the 70s, that mostly played exploitation films.
This week let’s watch one of the top movies from the heyday of the Grindhouse era. Even though we’ll be watching in the comfort of our own homes and at a time when easy access and exposure to all kinds of images and films is the norm, let’s imagine what it was like to make our way in the dark to one of these little theaters and see these kinds of images for the first time in the company of a bunch of other curious strangers. Watch a movie that made either the original or updated Top 20 Grindhouse Classics from The Grindhouse Cinema Database or Quentin Tarantino’s personal Top 20 Grindhouse Classics, which he shared with The Grindhouse Cinema Database while filming Inglorious Basterds. All movies featured in all three lists can be found in AlpineSuperstar’s list here.
Week 18: January 15th-21st
Golden Brick Week
My (Adam Graff’s) favorite podcast about movies is Filmspotting (𝖘𝖊𝖙𝖍𝖊𝖓𝖘𝖙𝖊𝖎𝖓: Me too!). For me, the hosts have the perfect blend of genuine insight in their reviews and top five lists to participatory fun like their Massacre Theater segment where listeners guess movies based on their very bad acting of a scene to their March Madness when listeners spend the month determining things like who the best director working today is or what is the best movie of the 90s. The hosts are affable and thoughtful and stay focused on films throughout the podcast, without sacrificing a personal touch.
One feature of Filmspottting is their annual Golden Brick Award, intended to honor underseen films, which is presented to the best film of the year that is not mainstream, made by a relatively new filmmaker, and that shows a clear directorial vision or artistic ambition. This week, watch a movie that was nominated for a Golden Brick from Filmspotting’s own Letterboxd list and give them a listen if you haven’t already.
Week 19: January 22nd-28th
Contemporary Performers: Michelle Yeoh Week
Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh began her career in Hong Kong action films. She became an international star after appearing in the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies and Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. She has continued to appear in action, sci-fi, and comedy films, combining all three with her performance in Everything Everywhere All at Once, for which she became the first Asian woman to win the Oscar for Best Actress.
This week's challenge is to watch a film starring Michelle Yeoh.
Week 20: January 29th-February 4th
The Female Gaze Week
The numbers, as you can probably imagine, are terrible. The Celluloid Ceiling reports that only 7% of the top 250 highest-grossing movies in 2022 employed female cinematographers. A lousy seven percent! Hearteningly, women continue making slow but steady inroads into the industry, but still, it could be a lot better. After all, a wide range of backgrounds, perspectives, and life experiences make for a far more varied and rewarding cinematic landscape; we should all consider ourselves blessed to see the world through someone else's eyes.
In that spirit, this week's challenge is to watch a film lensed by a woman. Lola Landekić's list, The Female Gaze, or: 100 Films by Female Cinematographers, is a good place to start, but any film with a female DP is fair game.
Week 21: February 5th-11th
Afrofuturism Week
Afrofuturism is an exciting subgenre of science-fiction movies that has been gaining traction in the past few years with mainstream offerings such as the Black Panther and Spider-Verse films, as well as the TV show Lovecraft Country. Afrofuturism is all about centering and taking pride in the Black experience in alternate or imagined realities where Black people can define themselves, potentially without the influence of Western ideas or understandings. These stories can inspire people to build toward a better future and question the past and present social structures that create and maintain cultural and economic inequality between races. Common tropes include the use of African iconography, a rich color palette, and a focus on how technology and culture intersect.
This week, let’s escape the real world and venture forth into a world of new realities made possible by Afrofuturism with this list here.
Week 22: February 12th-18th
Time Out for Romance Week
It can be easy to balk at watching a romance movie since they all-too-often offer nothing beyond the trite paint-by-number genre trappings common to the Hallmark Channel. Sometimes they can also veer into sickeningly saccharine territory or can unrealistically portray love as a simple, lasting feeling between two impossibly witty and beautiful people that sets real-life people up for unrealistic expectations. However, since love is actually an enormously complex and powerful force that is different for every single person, it is a theme that drives many fantastic movies. The key is not to oversimplify it, but explore it for how much it can stir the soul in so many different directions.
This Valentine’s season watch one of these fantastic movies all about that complicated emotion from Time Out’s The 100 Most Romantic Films of All Time.
Week 23: February 19th-25th
New Black Film Canon Week
In 2006 Slate published a list of the 50 best movies by Black filmmakers, curated by Black critics, scholars, and filmmakers themselves. Since then, culturally significant and seminal films like Moonlight and Get Out have been released so this year they have updated and expanded the list to 75 movies. These movies span over a hundred years, several countries, a variety of genres and styles, and encompass different sizes of production budgets.
This week let’s celebrate Black filmmakers and watch one of these artistic treasures from Slate’s The New Black Canon.
Week 24: February 26th-March 3rd
The Disabled Experience Week
What does it mean to be disabled? The societal definition of disability has changed over the last century, encompassing a wider range of concepts and understanding. These shifts, unsurprisingly, have also found their way into movie-making. Where once films "othered" their subjects via unsympathetic depictions or overly melodramatic characterizations, the cinematic tide is slowly turning. Now, more than ever, we are beginning to see those with disabilities given agency and expression, with filmmakers resisting the tragic or heroic stereotypes towards which they once tended. Yet, achieving greater authenticity is difficult if the people you seek to portray have no involvement on either side of the camera. Greater inclusivity is—as in all other areas of film—fundamentally crucial but still severely lacking.
This week's challenge is to watch a movie about the disabled experience from either Brian Koukol ♿ 's 20 Essential Films Concerning The Disabled Experience list or Rikka's list, good films w good disabled rep. If none of those titles are available to you, take a look at dogunderwater's disabled characters portrayed by disabled actors list.
Week 25: March 4th-10th
Good for Her Week
Here at the Letterboxd Season Challenge, we support women's rights as well as women's wrongs. To quote Claira Curtis, "Is there really anything better than thinking “good for her” while a woman achieves her dreams or receives an end to her story that is actually satisfying? NO!!!"
This week's challenge is to watch a film from Claira Curtis' "Good for Her" Cinematic Universe.
Week 26: March 11th-17th
Scored No Oscar: Carter Burwell Week
A movie’s score can have an incredible impact on the success of the film, contributing to the tone and atmosphere of a scene, while also connecting to an audience in such a visceral way that can elevate a viewer’s feelings of a story or a character and overall enjoyment of the film altogether. Carter Burwell is one of the top film composers of our time, scoring every Coen Brothers movie except one, all of Martin McDonagh’s films, three of Spike Jonze’s films, three of Todd Hayne’s films and many, many more. Although he has written many memorable and intoxicating scores and been nominated for three Oscars, he has yet to win the golden statue.
This week let’s honor a composer that has not been honored with a win by many of the most prestigious film awards and watch a movie featuring a score composed by Carter Burwell. Working with so many fantastic filmmakers, there’s no shortage of great films to choose from.
Week 27: March 18th-24th
Morally Anxious Week
The Cinema of Moral Anxiety Movement was a brief period in Polish film history. Films from this movement portrayed the moral anxiety felt during the Communist regime in Poland. It was abruptly stopped by the introduction of martial law in 1981, although bans and censorship delayed the release of some films made during the period, like Blind Chance or Interrogation, until the late '80s.
This week's challenge is to watch a film from the Cinema of Moral Anxiety Movement. This list is a helpful reference.
Week 28: March 25th-31st
World Cinema Project Week
Martin Scorsese founded the World Cinema project in 2007 with the goal of preserving and restoring films from around the globe that otherwise would become neglected. They focus on films that do not get a lot of exposure in the West and that are at risk of becoming lost because of the lack of resources some countries have to preserve their own films. They continue to work on this endeavor to this day, so far ensuring that 54 films from 30 different countries have been preserved and accessible to a global audience through screenings, Criterion boxsets with 24 of the films on DVD and Blu-ray, and through streaming on the Criterion Channel.
Whether you’re Marching Around the World this month or not, let’s all enjoy one of the films preserved by the World Cinema Project and remember how inaccessible the voices and perspective of people around the world can be for even the most avid moviegoer. Michael Hutchins maintains an up-to-date list here.
Week 29: April 1st-7th
"We Come to This Place for Magic" Week
We come to LSC Theaters to laugh, to cry, to care. Because we need that, all of us. That indescribable feeling we get when the lights begin to dim, and we go somewhere we've never been before. Not just entertained, but somehow reborn, together. Dazzling images on a huge silver screen, sound that I can feel. Somehow, heartbreak feels good in a place like this. Our heroes feel like the best parts of us, and stories feel perfect and powerful. Because here, they are. LSC Theaters: We Make Movies Better.
This week's challenge is to watch a film either starring Nicole Kidman or set in a movie theater.
Week 30: April 8th-14th
Classic Performers: Frederic March Week
Celebrated film and stage actor Fredric March was born in Wisconsin in 1897. He began his career as an extra before making his debut in 1929's The Dummy. A year later he earned his first of five Oscar nominations for The Royal Family of Broadway. His accolades include two Oscars (for Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The Best Years of Our Lives), two Best Actor awards at the Venice Film Festival, and a Silver Bear for Best Actor at the Berlin Film Festival. He is also one of only two actors, along with Helen Hayes, to win two Oscars and two Tony awards.
This week's challenge is to watch a film starring Fredric March.
Week 31: April 15th-21st
Cut to the Chase Week
Quick! What do Watergate, pet rocks, bell bottoms, roller skates, disco, and afros have in common? The 1970s! Do you know what else we got in the '70s? Nothing less than Jaws, Alien, Rocky, Taxi Driver, The Godfather, and Star Wars, that's what. But there's a little subsection of 1970s moviemaking you might not have thought to consider: The Golden Age of the Car Chase. The '70s was the decade for 'em. More violent, more exciting, and more real (shove off, CGI), the decade's car chases threw around unbelievable amounts of gasoline-propelled metal in raw, exhilarating ways and paved the way for such epic chases as those seen in Ronin, The Italian Job remake, the entire Fast and the Furious franchise, Death Proof, Drive, and Baby Driver, to name a few. So strap in, rev your engine, and hang on to your mutton chops—this week is gonna be a wild ride!
The challenge this week is to chase down and watch a movie from Karl Janssen's The Golden Age of Car Chase Films (1970s) list.
Week 32: April 22nd-28th
Remembering Belafonte Week
From pbs.org:
With his glowing, handsome face and silky-husky voice, [Harry] Belafonte was one of the first Black performers to gain a wide following on film and to sell a million records as a singer; many still know him for his signature hit "Banana Boat Song (Day-O)," and its call of "Day-O! Daaaaay-O." But he forged a greater legacy once he scaled back his performing career in the 1960s and lived out his hero Paul Robeson’s decree that artists are "gatekeepers of truth." He stands as the model and the epitome of the celebrity activist. Few kept up with Belafonte’s time and commitment and none his stature as a meeting point among Hollywood, Washington and the civil rights movement.
This week, your task is to watch a film starring Harry Belafonte as we mark the first anniversary of his passing. Whether as an actor, singer, or activist, Belafonte was a formidable force, and the world is made poorer by his absence, yet undoubtedly richer in the wake of his presence.
Week 33: April 29th-May 5th
Party Like It's 1999 Week
Capping off the 9th Annual Letterboxd Season Challenge with a celebration of what many consider the best movie year ever, 1999. If you haven't seen all the classics like The Matrix, The Sixth Sense, Fight Club, or Magnolia, now's a great time to catch up with them. And if you have, there are plenty of other gems to discover.
This week's challenge is to watch a film from 1999.
