At this time of year where transition is at the forefront of my mind, I've been looking back and remembering the year, as well as planning what to focus on in the upcoming year. 2010 brought Toronto 353 releases in 365 Days, which is up from 334 in 2009 (I think we have Lightbox to thank for the new titles!). There were 50 Canadian in that 353, up from 48 in 2009 but the big jump was a whopping 25 releases that were in 25. That's an average of 2 a month, and overall most people still just complain about it, and then might mention 1 or 2 scenes in the film that was great. Very interesting. Personally, I saw 148 of the 2010 releases in different viewing experiences from festivals as early as 2008 to actually in the theatre on opening day. Overall, when I look at all the 2010 films I reviewed plus the straight to DVD 2010 release, I reviewed over 100 of the films that were released in 2010.
That's a personal best for me for films reviewed and films seen throughout the calendar year, and it's one number I always hope that the next year I'll see more than the year before. Both of those I'd like to do the same or more in 2011. I don't think I'll try and best my total films seen which in 2010 clocked in at 418 Films. I was very surprized as that one, it's usually in the 350-area. I also got out to many festivals, all of which I am hoping to attend and/or cover again, as well as add more to the roster there.
2011 marks my fifth year of writing about film online. Five years! That kind of freaks me out. Movie Moxie was launched in 2007, and I wrote about film at my personal blog starting January 2006. But it all started with my email newsletter Film Fan Fridays which I started in 2003 to spread the word on Canadian, foreign and independent film. Although many years have passed, and my interests have broadened to include many film genres (or simply, "genre" film), but that focus on that focus on sharing the weekly film releases here in Toronto and specifically spreading the word on Canadian, foreign and independent film has stayed the same. I also stand firm on my spoiler-free review policy (778 reviews strong), giving the reader just enough information to be able to tell if it's a film they would be interested in seeing, without spoiling any of the film. It's amazing to look back over the years and see the things that change, and the things that stay the same.
So, before getting to what we'll be looking at in 2011, I'd like to take a moment to look back at 2010.
New Additions to 2010
- Movie Moxie Podcast I'm so freaking happy that I finally launched the Movie Moxie Podcast, I think it's the thing I'm most proud of in 2010 and took lots and lots of learning along the way. I've wanted to do one since 2006, so it's been a long time coming and it's the only spoiler-free film podcast out there! I also co-host two podcasts, edit another and I love being a guest. You can find all the podcasting details here.
- DVD Reviews Although I did start them technically in 2009, I really started writing a lot more DVD reviews this year and there has been some real gems out hitting the shelves.
- Movie Moxie Monthly Although not technically on the site, it's a nice companion piece: a monthly newsletter of highlights from Movie Moxie. Perfect for if you are overwhelmed or mystified by RSS feeds or various readers. Sound good? You can sign up for it here.
Marathons & Challenges
- Sword & Sandals MarathonOh, boy - this one was a lot of fun! From Greek Mythology to biopics to Conan, there were lots of fun films to explore
- Wolfathon - Werewolf film marathon was a bit of a hit & miss, but I definitely honed in on the things I like, and don't like, about certain horror films. Also got to see some new, unexpected gems.
- 2010 Book to Film Challenge I read 20 books that were either already or at the time upcoming film adaptations. This was unexpectedly a lot easier than I expected and one that I actually thought might have been too ambitious, but turns out that it only encompassed 1/4 of the books I read all year! Fun times.
- 2010 Owned/Unseen Challenge The only miss on the list, I sadly only saw 11/19 of the titles that I had owned but unseen at the beginning of 2010. I did make a push towards the end of the year to finish it but I really hit what I call a 'myriad of mediocre'. I do hope to see most of the remaining films, however will do so on a non-deadline pace.
List Goodness
Lists are one of my favourite things to do, although I rarely do ranked lists I love doing other lists either archival, alphabetical, random collections or super-specific. Here's a selection of some of my favourites & the stand-by regulars from 2010:
- 2010 Reviews (100+ films)
- Most Anticipated 2010 Release: Part 1, Part 2 and Reflection
- The 2010 Perfect Films List
- Movie Memories from 2010
- Fresh New Faces & Ones to Watch from 2010
- 2010 Releases - By Title
- 2010 Releases -By Date
- 2010 Toronto Film Festival Listing
- Box Office This one I'm actually taking down a notch and going to shift to only keep tabs and share the weekend number ones by date and by gross for the year, as opposed to writing about box office each and every week.
- 2011 Book to Film Play-Along Challenge - love to read the book before you see the film? So do I! I'm stepping up a notch and spreading the wings on reading this year and going to be doing a book-to-film challenge where you can play along! I'll be releases the lists of titles and all the details very soon (and still taking recommendations you can comment or contact me by email).
- Marathons I'm definitely looking to do a few marathons this year and there are a lot of fun options but so far options are female protagonists, science fiction, dance films and fighting/martial arts films. I always like to align the marathons countdown-style to an upcoming releases so that will tailor the choices and timing.
- Opinion & Reflection I do a lot of thinking about film and a lot of talking about film, but it doesn't always make it to the page. I'd like to change that and have more writing and sharing about film in general, what I'm noticing in trends, habits and experiences.
- International Film Festivals by far one of the highest interests people mentioned on coverage at my end of year survey was International Film Festivals. I'm down with that!
- Happy Surprizes Who knows what this could be, but I always like to leave room for happy surprizes on lists.
- Film Fan Fridays - Toronto's Weekly Releases
- 100% Spoiler-Free Film Reviews
- Festival Coverage, Awards Coverage and Lists, Lists and More Lists
If you'd like to sign up for Film Fan Fridays or Movie Moxie Monthly, you can do so here.
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