BIFF 2012 Wrap Up

Phew, what a busy couple of weeks I've had with BIFF, followed by a rock and roll odyssey lasting 2 weeks and then realising it's almost Christmas and I better get shopping!  I've only now had time to digest the BIFF experience and provide a summary.

Between the 12th and the 25th of November, I ended up seeing 23 movies in total.  And there wasn't a really bad one in the bunch, I picked pretty well again.  Before we look at my Top 5, here is what won the Audience Vote during the festival (for non-BIFF goers, you get to vote on a scale of 1-5 after each movie by ripping a little voting slip and handing it in).  It seems they've heard my previous criticism and the results are based on the percentage of 'love it' votes because some of these movies had extremely small audiences but still made the Top 10.  That's what it should be about, the amount that the people who saw it liked it, not how many people were free to attend at that time.

Showtime Movie Channels Top 10:

1. The Hunt
2. Mission to Lars
3. The Field of Magic
4. The Central Park Five
5. Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel
6. Amour
7. Waziz
8. No
9. Thy Womb
10. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Close but no cigar went to Coral Rekindling Venus, Show me the Magic, Miami Connection, Ai WeiWei's Never Sorry, The Queen of Versailles, Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present (shown on TV this week!), Ernest & Celestine.

Alright, that's what everyone else loved, what about me?  My Top 5 was:

1. God Bless America (US).  If I don't get this for Christmas, I'll be ordering it off Amazon on Boxing Day!

2. Mission to Lars (UK - also #2 above) -  I think we all agreed this was a heartwarming charmer.

3. Sinister (US).  Almost scared the pants off me.  I love having my pants scared off!

4. The Reluctant Revolutionary (Yemen/Irish production).  Shocking, inspiring, eye-opening and very real.

5. Sons of Norway (Norway). Funny, touching coming of age tale mixed with punk rebellion.

I would also rate Miami Connection close to the Top 5 for pure stupidity and hilarity, and also Maniac was a strong contender for just pure originality in an overstuffed slasher genre.

If you get a chance to see any of these movies, I suggest that you take that chance.  There's a whole world out there around us and BIFF is a great way to see what is happening in places you would normally never see or read about without great difficulty.  Even if you wouldn't watch them over and over again, these movies are a great experience to have.  Let me guide you next year!