A Christmas Carol (or Three, or More)

Merry Christmas, Season's Greetings, and Happy New Year from iCheckMovies! 15 years ago next month the first profile on iCM was created, and though it would be another year and a bit before it went public and users started checking movies on the site, we're grateful to have been around this long and hope to be here for at least 15 years more.

Things have changed in the last decade and a half, and in the world of cinema we've seen a number resurgences, reevaluations, and virtual riots and revolutions threatening to upend the status quo. #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter are two of the biggest social movements in recent years, and their impact on the film world has been quite pronounced (as the Harvey Weinstein trial and #OscarsSoWhite have shown). The Sight & Sound Magazine published the results from their 8th decennial poll recently, with Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman coming out on top. Opinion pieces from around the globe and from all corners of the internet have weighed in, with many folks deciding that this film was pushed to the top by participants wishing to coalesce around a particular film directed by a woman. So far, only the Top 100 of the Critics' and Directors' polls have been released along with a handful of ballots. Once all the ballots are published, we'll update the official list here on iCM, and while the shakeup at the top of the list is sure to continue to drive discussion (and arguments) over the next decade, we hope everyone will look further down the list for new films to discover and appreciate. We truly believe that there's something for everyone in the canon.

Awards Season is upon us, with the National Board of Review awarding Best Film to Top Gun: Maverick. Other notable updates include Swedish magazine FLM's Best Swedish Films of All Time poll and the Library of Congress's National Film Registry.

Aside from list updates, we also have a site-wide new feature: JustWatch. Some users may be familiar with this service already; it's a tool that allows users to see which streaming services a film is available on (for free, for rent, or through a paid subscription). Currently, only the widget is implemented, which is available to all users. Further integration is being looked at that may provide more features for paid users, such as customizing which services are displayed.

Finally, we have some new official lists for you.

First, we have the BAFTA Award - Best British Film. While we already have the prestigious BAFTA Award - Best Film list official on iCM, that award is for the best film overall, and often mirrors the Oscars, while the Best British Film award is only available to homegrown productions. Indeed, in the last thirty years since the award was reinstated (after being absent since the last 1960s), only two films have won both BAFTAs: The King's Speech and 1917. We hope users will enjoy exploring more of what the British film industry has to offer, including the newly official Reach for the Sky and The Last King of Scotland, and the first three winners, all of which were directed by Carol Reed.

And second, we have a slew of iCM-based lists for you. The IMDb lists on iCM seem to divide the userbase: one either loves those lists and sees they as a great introduction to films from different genres and decades, or one detests them and wishes they would just disappear. So today we'd like to offer an alternative to the IMDb lists (they're not going anywhere): the iCM Most Favorited By Decade lists. Each list will feature the Top 100 films (including shorts) using a formula similar to the main iCM's Most Favorited list for every decade since the 1910s (just like the IMDB lists), plus a list for film made before 1910. These lists aim to showcase the films that you, the heart and soul of iCM, have loved the most, allowing for a richer exploration of cinema over the entire course of its existence.
pre-1910s
1910s
1920s
1930s
1940s
1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
2010s
2020s

Once again, thanks to mterry1988 for his list icon designs.

Many thanks,

The iCheckMovies Team