The Fantasy Film League

Tonight marks the beginning of the 2010 Movie Awards Season, at least as far as the Sarnowskis are concerned. In addition to the Academy Awards party that we will be hosting on March 7th (and no, it is not too soon to start planning), we have put together a Fantasy Film Studio League. The idea was to engage our friends in a Movie Awards Season-long process to get them ramped up for the Academy Awards and to heighten their awareness and appreciation of the great films being made this year.

The Fantasy Film League: A How To
The general idea of the League is very similar to a fantasy football or basketball pool. Each player is assigned a studio which is made up of twelve categories. The categories are:

1. Best Picture
2. Best Director
3. Best Actor
4. Best Actress
5. Best Supporting Actor
6. Best Supporting Actress
7. Best Original Screenplay
8. Best Adapted Screenplay
9. Best Original Score
10. Best Song
11. Best Make Up Effects
12. Best Special Effects

At the end of the draft, each Studio Head will have one full roster of possible award winners. Throughout the "Season" as different groups announce their nominees and winners for the various awards, points are awarded. Each nomination earns a Studio two points. A win nets the Studio three points. At the end of the Season, as the last award is announced, the winner of the League is declared. The last award, by the way, just so happens to be the Academy Award for Best Picture. That way we can announce who has just won the Academy Awards pool that we create as well as the Film Studio League.

I ran the League last year with a select group of brave souls who were willing to give this a try and who provided invaluable feedback to the process. Thanks to their thoughts and suggestions, I already feel better about this year.

Improvements: Year One to Year Two
So far, the game is off to a much stronger start. For starters, I gave people about six weeks head start this year. I announced the game in early October and booked a date for the draft party. This gave most people enough time to move their calendars around and/or to find child care (we are, after all, at the age now where that is a real concern).

I also provided League Participants with detailed rules, a sample studio draft form, and some templates to complete while doing their research. The game, as you can imagine, is actually quite challenging. Many of the "awards bait" movies have not even been released theatrically so it is a real challenge to pick from that group of movies. Also, by including smaller, less documented races like Best Original Score and Best Song, I limited the amount of productive research that people could do to prepare.

Each League Participant was sent a spreadsheet to use to document their first seven picks for each category. After a player had exhuasted his or her picks from that list it was time to just guess. Start shouting out random movies and random performers. Even with weeks of prep time, things devolved to that level tonight.

Actually, I was very impressed with the players and how seriously people took the game. Many folks had clearly done copious amounts of research. They had read movie magazines, visited movie-themed websites, and even checked out a few more movies. It was great to see everyone so invested and so excited about good movies.