#Viet Film Fest

[dweemeister]

Viet Film Fest 2024

Hello, dear followers. Wherever you are reading this, I certainly hope that things have been going well. For my fellow Californians, I hope you've been staying cool this scorching last few days. I know that longtime followers are not used to anything on my tumblr that hints of self-promotion (if you don't count the "My Movie Odyssey"-tagged write-ups as self-promotion, that is). So please permit me something that is dear to my heart (and the ICYMI reblogs to come).

Since 2021, yours truly has been the Artistic Director of Viet Film Fest, an Orange County, California-based hybrid film festival that showcases movies made by and/or featuring people of Vietnamese descent from all around the world. It is the largest festival of its type in the diaspora, and it is based in-person in the community where the largest population of Vietnamese population outside of Vietnam resides.

VFF 2024, the 15th edition of the festival (which used to be biannual in the early days), takes place virtually from October 5-20. It takes place in-person at the Frida Cinema in Santa Ana, California on October 11, 12, and 13.

For more information, check out the following links:

Full press release, complete with feature film synopses and short film set synopses

Full schedule (for virtual screenings, those are all listed on October 5)

Ticketing info

Facebook / Instagram / website / YouTube (yes, I know the YT needs work)

Please note that some of our films are playing in-person only. Also please note that some of our virtual offerings have geoblocking restrictions (you may not be able to access certain versions of short film sets if you are watching from outside the U.S. or North America).

The festival is part of a small, but mighty non-profit known as the Vietnamese American Arts and Letters Association (VAALA). VAALA is 501(c)3 non-profit that was founded in 1991 to provide artists of Vietnamese descent a platform to express their artistry. VFF is the most visible part of VAALA, but we also host fine art galleries and the annual Viet Book Fest.

To my followers, if you have any questions about anything regarding VFF, feel free to ask me over asks or private messages.

[awardswatcherik]

Vietnamese American Arts and Letters Association (VAALA) partners with Huntington Beach Public Library to curate short film set

[muozu]

Cognitive dissonance is an axiom of the moviegoing experience. The power of cinema—lifelike fictions given bounded, unlifelike shape—lies in its utopian promises. It can allow us to experience worlds not yet within our grasp. That disparity, between dream and reality, can either fill us with yearning and propel us toward action; or it can sate us vicariously, becoming an excuse not to take action. Major film festivals are, by design, invested in ensuring the latter. An entire ecosystem—involving labor, capital, politics, technology—comes into being to allow us to watch, buy, and sell films. Any change in the status quo would destabilize this ecosystem. So we submit to the myth of the festival as a hermetically sealed world. We tsk-tsk at Cannes’s annual ban on protests along the Croisette and continue to book tickets for screenings. We write glowing reviews of films that critique the very institutions that our presence at Cannes is used to justify.

But that implicit surrender to dissonance has been growing increasingly unsustainable in the last eight months, as artists and festival workers have been organizing in support of a ceasefire in Gaza and demanding greater agency within film institutions. They have used their work, platforms, and presence to ask that festivals reconcile their (increasingly, fashionably progressive) artistic positions with their material and political engagements. To some, this insistence may seem futile or misplaced. Certainly it does to Cannes Artistic Director Thierry Frémaux, who, in the pre-fest press conference, swore off controversies and polemics at this year’s edition: “In Cannes, the politics should be on the screen.” According to The Hollywood Reporter, he also questioned the political influence of film festivals. “When we gave the Palme d’Or to Michael Moore for Fahrenheit 9/11 did it have an impact on the reelection of George [W.] Bush? No.” But politics is not a grand, faraway thing, implying only election outcomes and geopolitical upheavals. Festivals are, fundamentally, exercises in world-building. Like students on campuses across the globe, activists in the film-festival space are asking: what kind of world are we building right here, right now? What possibilities are we reifying through our participation in a film festival, and which ones are we foreclosing?

Two of the most beautiful movies I saw this year at Cannes refocus politics as the product of small acts of instantiation. Tru’o’ng Minh Quý’s Viet and Nam and Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light are shiveringly pretty films in which illicit love stories unfold against fraught backdrops. In the former, two gay coal miners contending with the ghosts of the Vietnam War prepare for a treacherous emigration in search of better fates; in the latter, a Hindu nurse secretly romances a Muslim man in a Mumbai where the threat of communal violence lingers perpetually in the shadows. Both films shudder under weighty historical and political burdens, yet seek resolution and subversion in intimate human gestures—of acceptance, desire, and beauty, brandished in the face of terror. Both films also implicate capital-P politics: Viet and Nam has been banned in Vietnam for its “negative” portrayal of the country, while All We Imagine as Light, which made history as the first Indian Grand Prix–winner, has earned bouquets from the same public officials who have persecuted Kapadia for participating in strikes against the right-wing government’s interference in India’s premier public film school.

Celebrating such films and the communities they convene is one of the possibilities that international festivals keep alive. But how long can we maintain the ruse of championing artistic freedom and civil liberties in cinemas surrounded by hundreds of cops and A.I.-powered cameras and staffed by underpaid workers? There is no easy way out of these imploding contradictions—no zoom-out to break the fourth wall and relieve the tension; no artificial intelligence–themed twist to blame it all on. We have wrought this world, and we will have to rebuild it.

— Devika Girish, "Cannes 2024: Whiplash" for Film Comment

[digiknow]

[diaryofanangryasianguy]

10/07/19

Film revisiting tensions between white and Vietnamese refugee fishermen in Texas screens at Viet Film Fest

The documentary recounts the prejudice that Vietnamese refugees faced when arriving in Seadrift, Texas, a small town on the Gulf Coast. The town was known for crab fishing when they arrived in the 1970s, and local white fishermen immediately felt threatened by the increased competition.

Tensions increased until Vietnamese fisherman Sau Van Nguyen shot and killed white fisherman Billy Joe Aplin in 1979 after a heated dispute. Sau was charged with murder, but was acquitted for shooting Alpin in self-defense after Aplin had allegedly beaten him.

[neaato]

#Repost @tweeishh Opening night at Viet Film Fest 2018 - 10th Edition. Thankful for the awesome support from the marketing team, Shoko, Vivian and Christine! #vietfilmfest #vaala #vff18 #marketing #cinema #vietnamese https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo4dvCghcAN/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=bljfae31kl4b

[dweemeister]

Sending out Oscar nomination eve vibes

First things first, as a fan of the human chaos that is the Academy Awards, viewing films primarily through the prism of awards is one of the most myopic ways to look at movies. That there is a whole sub-industry of journalism dedicated to awards horse racing and campaigning never ceases to amaze me - even though I must admit to consuming said journalism (or "journalism").

Going into and out of a screening with "I wonder what this could get nominated for?" as the first thing in your mind is not how anyone should absorb and analyze a film. Awards are for the industry, sure, but they're also markers of taste for a certain group of people at a moment in time. They're good entryways into budding film buffs. Awards are fun; don't try to get too emotionally involved in them.

Okay, putting that aside and fully realizing some of the below will sound hypocritical, I begin with some extremely unlikely stuff I would like to see tomorrow morning, but probably won't happen at all...

That despite the highly questionable 2017 move to take away sole nominating power for Best Animated Feature from the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch (I'm guessing the Academy at-large got sick and tired of the category featuring films they hadn't seen/refused to see), I hope those who opted into voting on Best Animated Feature nominees looked beyond the major American and Japanese animation studios. Did Robot Dreams catch their eye (this was a major hit in its native Spain and France)? Maybe Perlimps (directed by Ale Abreu, who did Boy & the World)? Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia (which I admit I truly enjoyed, although I still hold the original in much higher esteem)? My Love Affair with Marriage? What about The Peasants (directed by the same team who gave us Loving Vincent)? I hope they took the time to give those films a watch, their due justice. If they don't get nominated because they didn't deserve, that's okay. But I want voters (and everyone out there) to realize the world of animation is much more than Disney/Pixar/DreamWorks/Illumination/Netflix/Sony and Studio Ghibli/Toei/Toho Company. There is so much more out there.

That Justine Triet is nominated for Best Director for Anatomy of a Fall. Give us Milo Machado Graner as a Supporting Actor nominee, too.

Another child actor in the acting categories, please. No one pins a 30-year-old Asian American male as a fan of Are You There God? It's Me Margaret. I read the book (one of the few major Judy Blume books I had never read) last year, and adored the film adaptation. But, in realization that I don't think the film is good enough for Best Picture... how about a Best Actress nod for Abby Ryder Fortson? She embodies Margaret beautifully, and strengthens this adaptation with a mature performance. She deserves it solely for escaping the Ant-Man series and not being involved in Quantumania. On another note, Rachel McAdams has taken all of the headlines for Margaret. She's fine, but I completely disagreed with her character's expanded presence in the film, as it took away from Margaret (Blume's book is entirely from Margaret's perspective).

Dominic Sessa. Supporting Actor for The Holdovers. Make it happen, please.

I haven't seen it. And this is a bit self-serving, professionally. But as the Artistic Director for Viet Film Fest, if Trần Anh Hùng's The Taste of Things is indeed deserving of a Best International Feature nomination (which, by looking at reviews, surely sounds like the case), I hope that voters do not punish the film for taking France's spot in Best International Feature instead of Anatomy of a Fall. I think the French believed that The Taste of Things represented French culture better than Anatomy of a Fall, and wanted to spread the love among potential Oscar contenders. Nevertheless, there's been a kerfuffle since France announced Trần Anh Hùng's film as their International Feature pick. Let's put that controversy aside, please.

That actors reward performances that are "showy" and nuanced. I feel like the Discourse over the last two years have been to reward maximalist performances in maximalist movies.

That voters in the music branch stop giving into the trends of amelodic, atonal, and minimalistic film scores (I'll even thrown in film scores that prioritize a "vibe" or "beat" over anything else, truly any score that is meant "not to be noticed"). We're in a moment now where younger directors (and certain auteurs who clearly have limited knowledge in the power of great melodic film music) are telling their composers - some of whom are incredibly capable artists, others not so much - that melody is old-fashioned, has no place in modern "realistic" cinema, and belongs only in musicals and animation. As a pianist/violinist who isn't that good at all and was classically trained through high school, this hurts deep. Don't be so afraid of a gorgeous melody and what it can provide to even movies aiming for realism. If the reactions as I was leaving The Zone of Interest and Poor Things the other nights were any indication, I'm becoming a endangered minority. Perhaps they should ship me to a museum so I can listen to my outdated film scores.

Am I still hurting from the sonic trash that was All Quiet's Best Original Score win last year? You bet.

Godzilla Minus One shocks us all and gets a nomination. Somewhere. Anywhere. Visual Effects? Yes please. Best Picture? Ehh, probably not, but if somehow made it, this kaiju fan would be very happy.

Okay, now for more likely things that'll happen. Some vibes need to go that way too, even if I'm a little more comfortable about the following.

That Killers of the Flower Moon can weather what appears to be a lack of support outside the United States - I get it, many non-Americans are tired of American cinema's racial reckonings on-screen - and solidly find its nominations for Picture, Director, Actress (Gladstone), Supporting Actor (De Niro), Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Costume Design, Production Design. Anything beyond that is a luxury to me - I waffle on the deservedness of Leonardo DiCaprio's performance and I disapprove recent trends in how AMPAS perceives what constitutes a worthy score.

That even though I personally don't think Barbie deserves to be nominated for any of the big awards, I hope it does well in the technical categories it deserves (Cinematography, Editing, Song, Costume Design, Production Design, and Visual Effects). Even if it gets nominated for Best Picture (which I think is a 90% chance right now), I don't mind at all.

Past Lives love. Celine Song? Greta Lee? Teo Yoo?

I think American Fiction is dancing 50/50 on all of its potential nominations right now. At least get Jeffrey Wright in for Actor and Cord Jefferson for Screenplay. Picture and anything else a luxury.

That the Short Film and Feature Animation Branch doesn't confuse professionally edited home movies with a worthy documentary short. Please stop.

For the record, yours truly is on Team Killers of the Flower Moon. And right now? I'm expecting the film to perform like Scorsese's The Irishman (2019) on Oscar night.

There's... a major contender of a film or two out there I'd like to see not do so well on nominations because I did not care for them (Oppenheimer is not one of them, as I think it mostly deserves the nominations that appear to be headed its way... winning those boatload of nominations, though? hmm). Those one or two films shall go nameless so as not to jinx anything. But perhaps you already parsed them out by reading the above.

[paulidin]

So excited for this Viet Film Fest! With @domikatsanddogs ! https://www.instagram.com/p/Bo4teZUA5Ip/

[solelysoulful]

Hi friends and family! Viet Film Fest is this week! As a proud volunteer, I've been helping out with marketing and operations for the last week or so, all while checking out some of the featured films. Many of them have made me laugh and cry and sit at the edge of my seat, and I want you to connect with your own experience as well! Take this opportunity to reconnect with your roots, watch a movie with your parents, and just enjoy seeing familiar faces or hearing comforting accents on the big screen! In a time where representation matters and is propelled by movies like Crazy, Rich Asians, now is the time to help support your local community! www.vietfilmfest.com IF YOU COULD DONATE TO US, that would be amazing! You will not only support events like Viet Film Fest, but you will also support the Vietnamese American Arts and Letters Association, a volunteer-run organization that provides a platform for art and expression in our community. Its mission is to connect and enrich communities through Vietnamese art and culture. (at AMC Orange) https://www.instagram.com/p/BosMN9wBmWi/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1i94b0b62bfz3

[marketingadvisorvietnam]

Award-winning documentary about Vietnamese transgender lady to display in Vietnam

Marketing Advisor đã viết bài trên https://is.gd/LtskVN

Award-winning documentary about Vietnamese transgender lady to display in Vietnam

Award-winning documentary about Vietnamese transgender lady to display in Vietnam

Discovering Phong tells the compelling story of Vietnamese lady born as a boy looking for herself via organic transformation.

The documentary is a collaboration betwen Tran Phuong Thao, a Vietnamese unbiased director and producer and Swann Dubus, a French cinematographer and movie director based mostly in Vietnam.

The movie is about Phong – a younger man born in Quang Ngai metropolis in central Vietnam, who goes to Hanoi and turns into a design artist on the Thang Lengthy Puppet Theater. Since a baby he has felt that he’s a girl trapped in a person’s physique, and it’s only within the capital metropolis that he discovers there are others like him. Phong is torn between secret needs to be who he actually is and guilt related to that id when it comes to his household and society at massive.

A few years later, his good friend from the U.S., Gerry advises him to go to Thailand for a intercourse reassignment surgical procedure. Whereas on this international nation, Phong is shocked to witness a very completely different dynamic within the transgender group.

Thailand transgenders are utterly content material with themselves and dwell in concord with the folks round them. But lots of them have their share of difficult points of their non-public lives, hidden away from the bare eye. Upon returning to Vietnam, Phong continues to face challenges from his household, society and his newly acquired physique.

The documentary poster. Picture courtesy of IMDb

Along with administrators’ on-the-scene filming, the documentary additionally has many scenes recorded by Phong himself. The non-public scenes embody monologues, on a regular basis actions of the character, and the way others behave round Phong and to his new organic id. The administrators stated that they wished to get scenes that can’t be captured by cameramen via conventional taking pictures.

Sharing their ideas with VnExpress, the 2 administrators stated: Transgender folks in Vietnam are victims of prejudices that render them marginalized. Some make it to success as singers and fashions, whereas the vast majority of them are newbie performers at public gala’s or promote their our bodies for intercourse. Social discrimination rips them off alternatives to work at different industries. Transgenders’ sexual identities are sometimes what society chooses to see them. Nevertheless, altering one’s intercourse is basically a query of gender id. Transgender folks care about who they’re once they stand in entrance their family members.

By portraying the psychological impacts of a transgender particular person all through the whole, prolonged technique of self-discovery, the filmmakers hope the viewers can get insights into the issues that face such folks and see a transgender particular person as a whole citizen moderately than deviants to be marginalized.

The documentary, accomplished in 2014, has gained a number of, together with the 2015 Grand Prix on the Jean Rouch Worldwide Movie Competition in Paris, and the 2016 Viet Movie Fest in Los Angeles (U.S.). The 92-minute movie additionally introduced residence the “Finest Image” award on the 2016 LGBT Worldwide Movie Competition in Greece.

HCMC residents will get to look at this internationally acclaimed documentary on October 2.

[diaryofanangryasianguy]

11/08/18

Movie about Vietnamese-American women to be screened

Actress Wanted, a film about Vietnamese-American women, winner of top prizes at the Viet Film Fest 2018 in California, will be screened at cinemas in Vietnam later this month.

The 96-minute film portrays the life of a woman who pursues her dream of being a movie star in the US.

Actress Wanted was also nominated in the Best Feature Film category.

[neaato]

Repost from @vietfilmfest - Youth in Motion is accepting applications NOW! Apply by June 15th at http://bit.ly/YouthInMotion2019 to learn about how to tell your story through film and have it premiere at Viet Film Fest! https://www.instagram.com/p/ByZevIrhB_h/?igshid=1gwl0c9kq4uwn

[droidsandewoks]

Viet Films Showcased at LA Asian Pacific Film Fest

The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival will Display four Vietnamese films during the week-long festival, May 5-11, 2017 in the Brand New CGV Cinemas at Buena Park, Calif..

Read More

from droidsandewoks http://www.droidsandewoks.com/viet-films-showcased-at-la-asian-pacific-film-fest/

[manteivvietnam]

Official Website

Program Schedule

As the largest international Vietnamese film festival in the world, Viet Film Fest showcases the best creative work by and about Vietnamese people. Our award-winning films have been screened in numerous cities and countries.  Viet Film Fest was created in 2003 by the Vietnamese American Arts & Letters Association (VAALA) to celebrate the many stories about Vietnamese people. Now running successfully for over a decade, the festival has attracted thousands of national and international attention for its stunning showcase of shorts and features submitted from many corners of the world, including Australia, Cambodia, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Korea, Norway, the Philippines, Poland, United Kingdom, Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam.

Through the universal language of film, Viet Film Fest brings together multiple perspectives to expand the scope and horizons of Vietnamese cinema.  Viet Film Fest provides a nurturing environment for artists and the public to engage in open dialogue across borders.  As the hub of the Vietnamese movie industry, the festival hosts networking opportunities with prominent directors, media experts, and producers. We are proud to be a central platform for filmmakers of Vietnamese descent to tell their stories the way they want them to be told.

Viet Film Fest also serves as an important educational space for learning about the historical and contemporary experiences of Vietnamese people. While always giving audiences the best in entertainment, Viet Film Fest is also proud to offer free special screenings for high school students and senior citizens as part of our community outreach and commitment to art as a tool for social change. Viet Film Fest welcomes your support in our collaborative project to use cinema as tool for spotlighting our diversity of voices.

[dweemeister]

2023 Movie Odyssey Award for Best Original Song (final results)

TAGGING (even some folks who didn’t do this but I hope will join/rejoin us someday): @addaellis, @birdsongvelvet, @cinemaocd, @doglvr, @dog-of-ulthar, @emilylime5, @exlibrisneh​, @halfwaythruthedark, @idontknowmuchaboutmovies, @introspectivemeltdown, @machpowervisions, @maximiliani, @mehetibel, @memetoilet​, @metamatar, @monkeysmadeofcheese, @myluckyerror​, @phendranaedge, @plus-low-overthrow, @qteeclown, @rawberry101, @rosymeraki-blog, @shadesofhappy​, @shootingstarvenator, @stephdgray, @the-lilac-grove, @theybecomestories, @umgeschrieben, @underblackwings, and @yellanimal

Hello all,

I know it's mid-January, but the book is finally closed on the Movie Odyssey for 2023 and the 2023 Movie Odyssey Award for Best Original Song (MOABOS XI) Final. For those who need a refresher, I refer to the whole collection of films I saw for the first time in their entirety over a calendar year as "My Movie Odyssey". It forms the backbone of my classic film blog on tumblr, which has been featuring the Movie Odyssey Awards (of which MOABOS is one category out of 26 total). The true reason for the blog's continuing existence are my film write-ups, tagged "My Movie Odyssey" (which remains stuck, unfortunately at 799 as of the writing of this wrap-up post).

INTRODUCTION AND A RE-STATEMENT OF PURPOSE

Whether or not you participated in 2023's Movie Odyssey Award for Best Original Song (MOABOS XI), I thank you for your consideration, your time, and your support. This eleventh edition of MOABOS was the tenth with outside involvement from family, friends, and tumblr followers.

Late Sunday night, I was asked by a MOABOS newcomer what was the true purpose of this strange competition/holiday tradition/social experiment/whatever you want to call it. It was, admittedly, a little jarring to hear that question again for the first time in perhaps a few years. Of course, there's the fun in seeing everybody's comments and rankings. The drama of folks complaining about the musical tastes of others they have never met is hilarious (high school friends side-eyeing coworkers; my undergrad and grad school friends having no overlap in taste – yes, I even find the disparagement towards my musical tastes as horribly funny. I get a strange kick out of conducting the single transferable vote of a few dozen people.

In the end, the purpose of MOABOS is twofold.

First, at the most basic level, it's to keep in touch with all of you. The second purpose is more complex, and may or may not be of coequal importance. Like the Movie Odyssey Awards it is a part of, and especially those movie write-ups stubbornly stuck at 799, MOABOS is meant to introduce all of you to films you may not have otherwise encountered – especially classic movies of yesteryear.

No one looks at you funny when you say you read an old book, or go to see centuries-old art in a museum, or listen to what is now being called "oldies" music. But for film? Not so much. I hope MOABOS has helped demystify and make more accessible/less intimidating the movies featured here. Yes, I'll always toot the horn of Old Hollywood. Unabashedly so, as it has so much to teach us and entertain us. But may you also have found enjoyment in MOABOS's brushes with animation from outside the major American and Japanese studios, the formative decades of Bollywood (far removed from the Hindu nationalism of the present day), the largely unexplored works of classic film south of the American border (preservation, restoration, historical neglect, and lack of access forming a hydra of problems from Mexico to Brazil and in-between), and even works that come my way as Artistic Director of Viet Film Fest (VFF).

It's been a privilege for the last eleven years to take you all on this cinematic/musical journey – one aspect of many of the Movie Odyssey. And I'm honored to have your trust in me to be a guide.

RESULTS

Remember: the MOABOS final is not like the prelim. It isn't primarily decided on the points system used in the final. It, since 2018, is decided on single transferable vote.

First, the standings on points. It should be noted that MOABOS XI just pipped last year for the participation record for a final. We had 40 rankings (including yours truly) last year; this year had 41 in the final (the only bad news: we had 44 people participate in this year's prelim and I invited extra people in the final, so this number definitely could've been higher).

STANDINGS ON POINTS (USED ONLY AS THE FIRST TIEBREAKER... the actual final result is the list below this one). Using the method used in the preliminary round, the count would’ve looked like this (“Song”, Film title (points) / #1 votes).:

“Miss Celie's Blues (Sister)”, The Color Purple (225) / 11

“Suzume”, Suzume (223) / 4

“Qu'est-ce qu'on fait de l'amour?”, Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia (207) / 7

“Esse Mundo é Meu”, Esse Mundo é Meu (179) / 1

“Chattanooga Choo Choo”, Sun Valley Serenade (164.5) / 3

“Ciao Papa”, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (160) / 4

“Hooked on Your Love”, Sparkle (154) / 3

“I'm Just Ken”, Barbie (153.5) / 3

“Danger Zone”, Top Gun (139) / 1

“Tiền”, Good Morning and Good Night (129) / 0

“Trời Sáng Rồi, Ta Ngủ Đi Thôi (Good Morning and Good Night”, Good Morning and Good Night (102) / 1

“Return to Sender”, Girls! Girls! Girls! (98) / 0

“Animal Crackers in My Soup”, Curly Top (95) / 1

“Barsaat mein hamse mile tum sajan (In the Rainy Season, We Met One Another)”, Barsaat (94) / 0

 “I Know Why (And So Do You)”, A Mighty Wind (90) / 2

Using the points system tiebreaker alone, this was a nailbiter. "Miss Celie's Blues (Sister)" eked out a 2-point lead over "Suzume". What was even more surprising is that "Miss Celie's Blues" has set the record for most #1 votes in MOABOS final (11, breaking the nine #1 votes that "9 to 5" received in last year's final).

When looking solely at points, this is tied for the third-smallest margin ever recorded at the top (there have been two ties on points: MOABOS VII in 2019 and MOABOS IX in 2021). 

THE OFFICIAL TABULATION FOLLOWS AND DETAILS CAN BE FOUND IN THE READ-MORE. We used a single transferable vote (which is explained visually here). With 41 respondents, a song needed 50% + 1 vote of all #1 and transferred votes to be declared a winner. Thus, a song needed 21 votes to win. One ballot was discarded very late during the final tabulation due to that person ranking nine songs, but having their top nine completely eliminated as the count progressed. 40 ballots remained, but the magic number to win remained 21. The top ten songs became nominees; the bottom five are considered honorable mentions:

2023 Movie Odyssey Award for Best Original Song (FINAL STANDINGS) (playlist)

“Miss Celie's Blues (Sister)”, The Color Purple (1985)

“Suzume”, Suzume (2023, Japan)

“Qu'est-ce qu'on fait de l'amour? (What Do We Do with Love?)”, Ernest & Celestine: A Trip to Gibberitia (2022, France)

“Chattanooga Choo Choo”, Sun Valley Serenade (1941)

“Ciao Papa”, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022)

“Hooked on Your Love”, Sparkle (1976)

“I'm Just Ken”, Barbie (2023)

“I Know Why (And So Do You”, Sun Valley Serenade (1941)

“Esse Mundo é Meu”, Esse Mundo é Meu (1964, Brazil)

“Danger Zone”, Top Gun (1986)

“Trời Sáng Rồi, Ta Ngủ Đi Thôi (Good Morning and Good Night)”, Good Morning and Good Night (2019, Vietnam)

“Animal Crackers in My Soup”, Curly Top (1935)

“Tiền”, Good Morning and Good Night(2019, Vietnam)

“Return to Sender”, Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962)

“Barsaat mein hamse mile tum sajan (In the Rainy Season, We Met One Another)”, Barsaat (1949, India)

The bottom five all received honorable mentions. The top ten received nominations.

SUMMARY

"Miss Celie's Blues (Sister)" from The Color Purple (1985) eked out the title in the closest result MOABOS has seen since adopting the single transferable vote in 2018. With forty ballots remaining and on the twelfth and final count, "Miss Celie's Blues" and "Suzume" were actually tied, 20-20. In other words, when you eliminated all the other songs, twenty respondents had "Miss Celie's Blues" ranked higher than "Suzume" and twenty respondents had "Suzume" ranked higher than "Miss Celie's Blues". One person (the discarded ballot) did not rank either - and could have easily swung it had they put one or both of those songs down.

So when the transferred votes are tied, the first tiebreaker is points (as seen in the preliminary round). And from there, "Miss Celie's Blues" edged out "Suzume", 225-223. 

(Hypothetical): If we were somehow tied on points, it would then go to #1 votes. "Miss Celie's Blues" would have won that tiebreaker, 11-4. If #1 votes were somehow tied, it would have gone to the average placement on my ballot and my sister's. We both ranked "Miss Celie's Blues" 3rd for an average placement of 3rd. I ranked "Suzume" in a three-way tie for 13th (effectively rendering it 14th on my ballot) and my sister ranked it 10th - an average placement of 12th.

With the music written by Quincy Jones and Rod Temperton and lyrics by Jones, Temperton and Lionel Richie, "Miss Celie's Blues (Sister)" was nominated at the 58th Academy Awards for Best Original Song, losing to Lionel Richie's "Say You, Say Me" from White Nights (1985); yes Richie lost to himself that night). Steven Spielberg's 1985 adaptation of The Color Purple is based on Alice Walker's book of the same name. Set in rural Georgia, it follows Celie Harris (Whoopi Goldberg in her breakthrough role; Desreta Jackson as young Celie), who suffers of parental and spousal psychological, physical, and sexual abuse. Her light in the world is her sister, Nettie (Akousa Busia), and the two form a world of their own – away from the darkness of their world. It was one of the best books I read in the 2010s, and the film adaptation – despite the limitations of its LGBTQ+ depictions and themes due to American politics and studio politics at the time – was one of the best films I saw in 2023 for the first time ever.

The 1980s becomes the first decade to defend a MOABOS title. But it comes in the form of a song that no one would peg as being written in the 1980s. It comes the blues, a distinctly American musical genre that grew from the spirituals and work songs of black slaves and freedmen in the American South. It is the first song from the blues tradition to win MOABOS.Runner-up "Suzume" is the best-performing anime song ever in MOABOS, eclipsing the title song from My Neighbor Totoro (1988, Japan) 

– which earned 4th place in MOABOS V (2017). Makoto Shinkai, perhaps these days moreso than Hayao Miyazaki, is the most important director in anime film at this moment.

Those who saw our rankings will know that my sister and I were deep outliers here. "Suzume" was tied for 13th on my ballot; 10th on my sister's. For the sizable anime fan faction who are currently sharpening their knives, I would consider yourselves lucky that, even though MOABOS is somewhat modeled on Academy Award processes, it doesn't replicate it entirely. "Suzume" was ineligible for Academy Award consideration because it is the second song in the end credits. Arbitrary as this sounds, only the first song during the end credits are eligible for the Academy Award for Best Original Song, in order to ensure that the category honors songs that significantly contribute to a film itself. No such rule exists for MOABOS.

* * * * * * * * * * *

If MOABOS was truly a popularity contest, then two films that defined their respective years would have won this in a walk – Barbie and Top Gun. In the end, "I'm Just Ken" and "Danger Zone" – the two most visible contenders of the whole bunch – finished a disappointing 7th and 10th. Reading many of your comments, the reasons for their underperformance often had to do directly with the films themselves (whether or not one has seen them).

Elsewhere, no MOABOS entry featuring Glenn Miller and His Orchestra has failed to secure a nomination in the MOABOS Final. "I Know Why (And So Do You)" and "Chattanooga Choo Choo" – the latter one of the most popular songs of its era, an unofficial anthem for Golden Age 20th Century Fox – will be the last appearance for Miller and His Orchestra as they made only two films on their contract and no more. Thanks to Glenn Miller and his mates for wonderful contributions to MOABOS IX (2021) and MOABOS XI.

And hey, I'm just happy fellow Fox contractee Shirley Temple finally made a MOABOS final. Many of you vehemently disagree, but Temple's mark on film and film music history is undeniable. When I started MOABOS a decade ago, the last generation of moviegoers who saw her films in theaters could attest to that. Today, that generation is almost all gone.

Moreso than the other major American studios, 20th Century Fox was one of the least willing studios to make its back catalogue available for home media/streaming/general availability. Following 20th Century Fox's purchase by the Walt Disney Company in 2019, the situation has only gotten worse, as Disney (for all intents and purposes) decides to further bury the Fox library for anything that might not perform well on streaming or isn't franchise-able. But hear it from me: there are still 20th Century Fox musicals from Golden Age Hollywood to come for MOABOS. No one is saying that they have they have the musical mastery of MGM or Warner Bros., but Fox's musicals need to be treasured, too.

Speaking of access, last February, I saw Esse Mundo é Meu at the Academy Museum in LA and found the a capella version of the title song a hopeful, plaintive ode to better days. The print was not in good shape; the Museum had to redo the subtitles themselves. But it was a glimpse into classic Brazilian cinema seldom seen outside of Brazil itself. How lucky I was; and here's hoping that the telling of Latin American film history becomes more than the afterthought it too often is.

Sparkle (1976) is not a great movie. Black audiences in America might disagree furiously with what I just said. But, as someone who grew up with '50s-'70s R&B and soul as a major part of the soundtrack of his childhood, it had to have a place here. Congrats to all those on Sparkle.

A disappointing result for Good Morning and Good Night, failing in both instances to secure a nomination. But we shall see more VFF entries in the future.

Oh yeah, Elvis made a lot of movies. The King will be back again, certainly, in hopes of a second MOABOS title.

I'm glad that many of you liked "Ciao Papa" from Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio (2022) – the film is on Netflix for those who have it, and it's a beautiful take on the original tale.

Lastly, I was perhaps most heartened how many of you were exposed to Ernest & Celestine for the first time and how much "Qu'est-ce qu'on fait de l'amour?" resonated with many of you. I saw the sequel with my sister last summer in a near-empty theater at a prime weekend timeslot; it was still one of my favorite watches of the year. And as for the original, when it was first shock-nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, I must have mentioned it to everyone who would listen. No one I knew outside of my sister saw the film.

Please find Ernest & Celestine (2012) and its 2022 sequel. Both films shatter the fictions that 1) non-English-language animation is inherently more "serious" than English-language animation and 2) a "children's movie" can only best be enjoyed by children. Please seek out and learn more about animated films beyond the major American and Japanese studios.

CONCLUSION

MOABOS is only a small glimpse into the larger 2023 Movie Odyssey. But I hope you enjoyed even this sliver of a look into that moviewatching journey.

Our winner joins these past winners for MOABOS (winners' playlist):

2012 (Special): To be contested

2013 (I): “The Gold Diggers’ Song (We’re In the Money)”, Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)

2014 (II): “Rainbow Connection”, The Muppet Movie (1979)

2015 (III): “Amhrán Na Farraige (Song of the Sea)”, Song of the Sea (2014)

2016 (IV): “Stayin’ Alive”, Saturday Night Fever (1977)

2017 (V): “Remember Me (Recuérdame)”, Coco (2017)

2018 (VI): “Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing”, Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955)

2019 (VII): “I Wish I Didn't Love You So”, The Perils of Pauline (1947)

2020 (VIII): “Can't Help Falling in Love” , Blue Hawaii (1961)

2021 (IX): “Lullaby in Ragtime”, The Five Pennies (1959)

2022 (X): “9 to 5”, Nine to Five (1980)

2013 final 2014 final (input from family and friends began this year) 2015 final 2016 prelim / final 2017 prelim / final 2018 prelim / final 2019 prelim / final 2020 prelim / final 2021 prelim / final 2022 prelim / final 2023 prelim

Every time MOABOS comes to an end, I never know whether or not we are going to do MOABOS for the new year. I never know what movies I will discover come my way during a calendar year (and which ones have original songs in them to be a part of this). So it is my hope that I will see you again next year, for what might make it a dozen editions of the Movie Odyssey Award for Best Original Song. For the final time for MOABOS XI, thank you so much for participating!

41 ballots were submitted; twenty-one #1 votes and transferred votes needed to win

2ND COUNT: 1 ballot to "Qu'est ce qu'on fait de l'amour"

3RD COUNT: 1 ballot to "Suzume"

4TH COUNT: 1 ballot to "I Know Why (And So Do You)"

5TH COUNT: 1 ballot to "Ciao Papa"

6TH COUNT: 2 ballots to "Chattanooga Choo Choo", 1 ballot to "Hooked on Your Love"

7TH COUNT: 3 ballots to "Suzume"

8TH COUNT: 2 ballots to "Chattanooga Choo Choo", 1 ballot to "Ciao Papa", 1 ballot to Miss Celie's Blues"

9TH COUNT: 3 ballots to "Suzume", 1 ballot to "Chattanooga Choo Choo", 1 ballot to "Miss CElie's Blues", 1 ballot to "Qu'est-ce qu'on fait de l'amour?"

10TH COUNT: 4 ballots to "Miss Celie's Blues", 1 ballot to "Qu'est-ce qu'on fait de l'amour?", 1 ballot to "Suzume"

1 ballot was DISCARDED on the 10th count; 40 ballots remain; 21 to win

11TH COUNT: 8 ballots to "Suzume", 3 ballots to "Miss Celie's Blues"

12TH COUNT: "Miss Celie's Blues (Sister)" 20, "Suzume" 20. "Miss Celie's Blues (Sister)" wins on the first tiebreaker on points, 225-223.

[wesleytrungnguyen]

The Seaming Dream screens at Viet Film Fest as part of VAALA's Youth in Motion: a Workshop for Emerging Filmmakers, April 11 2014