Thanks to the generosity of MovieNight guests, my mother-in-law, Maria, raised over $1,000 for the Colon Cancer Coalition, who’s slogan “Get Your Rear in Gear” inspired me to actually run some of the 4 miles I had originally intended to just walk. Not surprisingly, Maria won a medal for coming 2nd in her age group. I say, not surprising because she’s a fighter, and a runner. Surprisingly though… I also got a medal for coming second in my age group. Ah… the perks of being “older”.

This year, we asked you to vote for your three favorite MovieNight features. Since the invitation to vote online was a tad on the last-minute side, we decided to let our guests vote on actual pieces of paper at the MovieNight season finalé. We spend a lot of time deciding what to show each week during the season. Sometimes, it’s really easy… maybe something came to our attention that just screams to be a MovieNight; a lot of times it’s agony. It’s also fascinating to predict what you might want to see. We’ve pretty much concluded that the science of attendance prediction is a best hit and miss, at worst, a complete waste of time. You’ve probably noticed the little green numbers at the bottom of the review page each week. Each time the page gets a visit from a new viewer, the total goes up by one. Etc. etc. etc. There are over two hundred people on the mailing list (if  a quarter of you turned up at one time, there would be a bunch of floor-sitters!)

Anyway, we were very proud of this season’s offerings. We showed a lot of great, modern films, along with a handful of classics. Although this ranking was totally unscientific and haphazard (some of those whose votes we most anticipated remained silent…?), the way you ranked them is ironic in that respect. Here’s how they fared:

1. Casablanca (1942) Michael Curtiz – 16 points
   
2. City Lights (1931) Charles Chaplin – 10 points
   
3. Winter’s Bone (2010) Debra Granik – 8 points
   
4. Dogtooth (2009) Giogos Lanthimos – 8 points (but fewer votes)
5. Toto the Hero (1991) Jaco Van Dormael – 5 points
6. The Maid (2009) Sebastián Silva – 4 points
7. I Am Love (2009) Luc Guadagnino – 4 points
8. Mother (2009) Joon-ho Bong – 4 points
9. In a Better World (2010) Susanne Bier – 4 points
10. Play it Again Sam (1972) Herbert Ross – 3 points
11. Before Night Falls (2000) Julian Schnabel- 3 points
12. Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (2010) Ricki Stern, Anne Sundberg – 3 points
13. The Mirror (1975) Andrey Tarkovskiy – 3 points
14. Another Year (2010) Mike Leigh – 3 points
15. White Material (2009) Claire Denis – 3 points
16. Capturing the Friedmans (2003) Andrew Jarecki – 2 points
17. The Killers (1964) Don Siegel – 2 points
18. The Sweet Hereafter (1997) Atom Egoyan – 2 points
19. Four Lions (2010) Christopher Morris – 2 points
20. Involuntary (2008) Ruben Östlund – 2 points
21. The Silence (1963) Ingmar Bergman – 1 point
22. The Last Seduction (1994) John Dahl – 1 point

These ones got zero votes:

Terribly Happy (2008) Henrik Ruben Genz
Samson and Delilah (2009) Warwick Thornton
The Disappearance of Alice Creed (2009) J. Blakeson
L’enfant (2005) The Dardenne Brothers
The State I Am In (2000) Christian Petzold
Elevator to the Gallows (1958) Louis Malle
Khadak (2006) Peter Brosens, Jessica Hope Woodworth
Lourdes (2009) Jessica Hausner
Essential Killing (2010) Jerzy Skolimowski
Crazy Love (2007) Dan Klores, Fisher Stevens
In My Father’s Den (2004) Brad McGann
Everyone Else (2009) Maren Ade

It’s taken some time to tally up the results (complicated system detailed below), but the winner, whose vote most closely matches that of the general consensus, is:

Leif Roundtree, who voted:

1. Casablanca
2. Winter’s Bone
3. I Am Love

Leif wins a bottle of Patron!

Alex Lezberg came second with:

1. Casablanca
2. Winter’s Bone
3. The Last Seduction

Since I Am Love was ranked higher than The Last Seduction, Alex wins nothing, unless Leif doesn’t make arrangements to pick up his prize within the next two weeks. Fair enough?

Personally, I was astounded that Lourdes didn’t get a single vote… I thought it was the hands-down winner, but there you go. Diff’rent strokes, etc. Our season raffle prize was won by a first-time guest (lucky, lucky, lucky!), and I was inspired to be spontaneous and give away a second raffle prize of all the films that got no votes. I mean, I’d like a present like that! The ticket that came out of the hat belonged to Lavanya, the winner of last season’s grand prize. Once again… lucky, lucky, lucky!

We hope to return in September… it’s been a blast. Feel free to make suggestions during the summer!

Oh yes… the point system, if you care to read:

To rate the movies, each 1st place vote was worth 3 points, each 2nd place vote was worth 2 points, and each 3rd place vote was worth 1 point.

Easy, right? Now the complicated part:

If the movie was overall ranked 1st, and you voted it 1st you got 10 points.
Ranked 1st, you voted 2nd – 9 points
Ranked 1st, you voted 3rd – 8 points
Ranked 2nd, you voted 2nd – 9 points
Ranked 2nd, you voted 1st – 8 points
Ranked 2nd, you voted 3rd – 7 points
Ranked 3rd, you voted 3rd – 8 points
Ranked 3rd, you voted 2nd – 7 points
Ranked 3rd, you voted 1st – 6 points

The last two rules are perhaps the wrong way around, but, whichever way you arrange them, the outcome is not effected, so we’ll worry about that another time. Or not.