Happy New Year 2020! We at TMFF hope that the new year will bring you lot of success, good health and unforgettable moments. We hope that you will watch a lot of films, and broaden your cinematographic horizons during 2020. Since it’s the 1st of January, we’ll keep it brief, so here are a few of our recommendations for an enjoyable 2020 in terms of films.
Escape your routine watches
When you’re watching a film in order to relax yourself after a particularly long day at work, or after an exam at school, it is perfectly understandable that you might opt for something light, easy to watch, that meets your expectations. However, when you have some extra time and find yourself in an experimental mood, try something that you wouldn’t normally watch without a second thought. If you mostly only watch British, Australian and North American films, why not try something completely different, such as a Scandinavian, French, Russian, Lebanese or South Korean film? With subtitles in your language of choice, of course. If you’ve always thought that horror films are not for you, why not choose a particularly praised horror film and give it a shot? If you only watch feature films, why not look for a few shorts? I’m sure that in all these cases, you might discover to be pleasantly surprised.
Alternate series with films
Series are great escapes from daily life, since once you get into the flow, the familiarity with the characters and the story makes it very easy to start and stop watching whenever you have some free time – however, it’s a long-term investment. Films, on the other hand, require a bit more effort to get into, but they usually don’t ask for more than 2 hours of your time (unless we’re talking about The Irishman, that is). The key is to balance your watching routines between the two: don’t ignore series just because they’re a significant time investment, but also, don’t get too hooked on binging series on Netflix, cause you’ll be missing out on some brilliant films.
Broaden your award-based frame of reference
This particular recommendation relates a little bit with the first point I made about escaping your watching routines. The idea is to make sure that you’re not only using the same sources of recommendation for your movie choices, because then you’d be stuck in a self-fulfilling cycle of watching the same types of films over and over again. What I mean is, for instance, just because the Oscars and Golden Globes are the events with the highest media attention doesn’t necessarily make them the go-to source of endorsements. Give other listings a shot – such as the Cannes Palme d’Or, Sundance Film Festival or European Film Awards. Maybe their selections are right up your alley, and you simply didn’t know.
Be picky with quality, but not always
Sometimes, a bad film can be super entertaining to watch. Other times, it’s simply a good exercise of patience, one which allows you to make a better impression about what you like and what you don’t like. Often, actually sitting through a bad film lets you objectively break down its badness and makes you think about what works and what doesn’t, instead of relying exclusively on preconceptions. DOn’t get me wrong, I don’t recommend making a habit out of watching bad movies – I merely advise you to widen the quality range of your film library, so as to always have a frame of reference. Mostly, though, be picky with what you watch: you have limited time to watch movies, and you should make the most of it.
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