Introducing The Blind Film Critics Society

Alex and Lee are pleased to welcome special guest, John Stark, to the show as we proudly introduce the Blind Film Critics Society (BFCS). The BFCS was formed to bring blind and low vision voices to the film criticism space, and we are honored to present the nominations and winners for the first annual BFCS awards. Please note that our selections represent the 2024 calendar year in film.

If you are interested in joining the Blind Film Critics Society or would like to learn more, you can e-mail John Stark at macthemovieguy@aol.com, and be sure to follow him and subscribe to his YouTube channel macthemovieguy.

You can also reach Alex and Lee at darkroomfilmcast@gmail.com and be sure to follow us on Instagram and YouTube at @darkroomfilmcast. 

Check out the Blind Can Film Festival hosted by our sponsor, Ben Fox:
https://www.blindcan.com

Search for Audio Description availability for any title on the American Council for the Blind's Website! 

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Transcript

Lee Pugsley
What's up, everyone? Welcome back to another episode of The Dark Room, where two blind cinephiles Illuminate the sighted. I'm Lee Pugsley.

Alex Howard
I'm Alex Howard.

Lee Pugsley
And this is a podcast hosted by two legally blind guys for film lovers of all abilities. And today, we have a very special guest on the show, John Stark, who has been on our show previously, and it's great to have him back. And I will pass the ball over to you, John, so you can let everyone know why we're here today.

John Stark
Thanks! We are here because we are now the the Blind Film Critics Society. We started a critics organization with the aim of putting more representation out there for the idea that blind people do watch film. Obviously, we are content creators that all focus on cinema and also accessibility in film and specifically, audio description. And studios are still releasing content that does not have audio description, and we wanted to focus on the content that does, and also encourage others to join us, because if there are more of us, we become harder to ignore, and our accessibility needs are more likely to be met once people see that there is a metric in this wonderful niche audience of ours. So we're calling ourselves the Blind Film Critics Society. I figured since the Razzies essentially started in some guy's living room, the very first Razzie Awards started just in a living room, that we can start Blind Film Critics Society somewhere and call this what we are and hopefully grow from there and inspire listeners like you to join in on the groups' fun. That is the aim. And today, we have our announcement of the categories that we have, along with who we nominated and who we ultimately selected as the winners in each categories. We voted, and we had a voting process that worked fairly well for just a few of us. And we'll see how many people we have next year when we vote for these awards. But we had to start somewhere. What do you think? Do you guys enjoy being in the Blind Film Critics Society?

Alex Howard
Yeah. So right now, the membership is just the three of us voting on... You know, the only requirements were the movies had to have an audio description, obviously. So we have some categories about best audio descriptions, some categories about best movie. But the hard, fast requirement was that these movies had to be accessible to a blind audience. And so it started out with the three of us, and we're hoping to have more members by next year.

Lee Pugsley
And as the nomination and winners are unveiled, keep in mind that this is for the 2024 calendar year, the film slate that was released during that duration of time. And yeah, I think it's really exciting, John, your vision for the Blind Film Critics Society, just to bring more awareness on blind and low vision viewers who do watch movies and think about them critically. Because I think, once again, there's that myth going on that blind people don't watch movies. And obviously, me, you, and Alex are all here as living proof that we watch movies on a very regular basis. So I'm excited to see how this morphs and shapes, and I'm excited to see the growth that comes from it as well.

John Stark
Yeah, as I am, too. And I'm hoping that that results in some growth. If you're interested in becoming a member of Blind Film Critics Society. We don't have a huge presence currently of a website or email to represent the entire thing, although we have a year to fix that before our second annual Blind Film Critics Society Awards. In the meantime, what we're looking for are, to join, are other people who are out there talking about their love of film, what movies they've seen, the audio description/accessibility that they use, and the fact that they are, addressing the fact that they are blind and they need that audio description or accessibility in order to watch that film. You can do this a lot of different places. You could start up your own blog. There are plenty of websites that offer free blog software, so you don't have to pay anything to do it. You can have a Substack, you can do a Letterboxd account, which is where all the film nerds go now, is to have their own Letterboxd accounts. It makes it really easy to click on a title and rank and share your thoughts and opinions on there. You can have a YouTube channel or do TikTok reviews and put them out there on the world. But the goal is--

Alex Howard
Facebook works, too, right?

John Stark
Yeah. Facebook, definitely, especially if you create a page for yourself, so that that way we're not moving through photos of cats to get to your posts on the reviews. But yeah, as long as it's public and it's out there for everybody to see, and not like friends only, set to friends only on Facebook. But you could easily create a page for yourself and post reviews. There are so many different ways to put it out there into the world. There isn't a lot of disability representation in film criticism in general. And we're just trying to change that, specifically with our disability, but hopefully it would spark more change, maybe even for all. Maybe we'll, one day, become some broad Disabled Film Critics Society. Representation matters, and that's how change occurs. Anyway, want to reveal what happened?

Lee Pugsley
Yeah, let's go ahead and kick it off. And to do so, we have a very special guest who's going to announce the nominations and winners for the first annual Blind Film Critics Society Awards, and we will go ahead and let them introduce themselves.

Liz Gutman
Hello, everyone. My name is Liz Gutman, and it is my absolute honor to present the nominees and winners for the first annual Blind Film Critics Society Awards. The nominations and winners were voted on by three blind film critics, which represent the best of the 2024 year in film and accompanying audio description tracks. And now for the nominations and winners.

For Best Audio Description, Action and Science Fiction, the nominees are -- Dune: Part Two, Godzilla x Kong, Mad Max: Furiosa, Monkey Man, and Twisters. And the winner is Dune: Part Two. Runner Up is Mad Max: Furiosa.

Best Audio Description in Horror. The Nominees are -- Alien: Romulus, Azrael, It's What's Inside, Strange Darling, and The Substance. And the winner is The Substance. Runner Up, It's What's Inside.

For Best Audio Description, Comedy. The nominees are -- Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Deadpool and Wolverine, Didi, Hitman, and Sasquatch Sunset. And the winner is Sasquatch Sunset. Runner Up, Deadpool and Wolverine.

Best Audio Description, Drama. The nominees are -- Baby Girl, The Brutalist, Conclave, Nickel Boys, and Queer. And the winner is The Brutalist. Runner Up, Nickel Boys.

Best Film, Horror. The nominees are -- Heretic, Late Night with the Devil, Nosferatu, Strange Darling, and The Substance. And the winner is The Substance.

Best Film, Comedy. The nominees are -- Babes, Deadpool and Wolverine, My Old Ass, Saturday Night, and Thelma. And the winner is Babes.

Best International Film. The nominees are -- I'm Still Here, Kill, Kneecap, The Remarkable Life of Ibelin, and Touch. And the winner is Touch.

Best Documentary. The nominees are -- The Commandant's Shadow, The Music of John Williams, The Remarkable Life of Ibelin, Super/Man, and We Will Dance Again. And the winner is Super/Man.

Best Animated Film. The nominees are -- Inside Out 2, Memoir of a Snail, Spellbound, Transformers One, The Wild Robot. And the winner is The Wild Robot.

For Best Sound, the nominees are -- Alien: Romulus, Blitz, Dune: Part Two, Nosferatu, A Quiet Place: Day One. And the winner is Dune: Part Two.

Best Original Song. The nominees are -- Beautiful That Way (The Last Showgirl), Kiss the Sky (The Wild Robot), Like a Bird (Sing-Sing), What About Me (Spellbound), Will and Harper Go West (Will and Harper). And the winner is Kiss the Sky (The Wild Robot).

Best Original Score. The nominees are -- The Brutalist, Daniel Blumberg. Challengers, Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross. Nosferatu, Robin Carolan. The Substance, Raffertie. The Wild Robot, Kris Bowers. And the winner is: Challengers, Trent Rezner and Atticus Ross.

Best Screenplay. The nominees are -- Anora, Sean Baker. Conclave, Peter Straughan. Heretic, Scott Beck and Bryan Woods. A Real Pain, Jesse Eisenberg. The Substance, Coralie Fargeat. And the winner is: A Real Pain, Jesse Eisenberg.

Best supporting actress. The nominees are -- Ariana Grande, Wicked. Danielle Deadwyler, The Piano Lesson. Felicity Jones, The Brutalist. Margaret Qualley, The Substance. Natasha Lyonne, His Three Daughters. And the winner is: It's a tie! Ariana Grande for Wicked, and Danielle Deadwyler for The Piano Lesson.

Best supporting actor. The nominees are -- Adam Pearson, A Different Man. Guy Pearce, The Brutalist. Jeremy Strong, The Apprentice. Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain. Yura Borisov, Anora. And the winner is Jeremy Strong, The Apprentice.

Best actress. The nominees are -- Cynthia Erivo, Wicked. Demi Moore, The Substance. June Squibb, Thelma. Mikey Madison, Anora. Pamela Anderson, The Last Showgirl. And the winner is Demi Moore, The Substance.

Best actor. The nominees are -- Adrien Brody, The Brutalist. David Dastmalchian, Late Night with the Devil. Hugh Grant, Heritage. Keith Kupferer, Ghostlight. Timothée Chalamet, A Complete Unknown. And the winner is: Keith Kupferer, Ghostlight.

Best Director. The nominees are -- Brady Corbet, The Brutalist. Coralie Fargeat, The Substance. Denis Villeneuve, Dune Part Two. Jon M. Chu, Wicked. Robert Eggers, Nosferatu. And the winner is Coralie Fargeat.

And finally for Best Picture, the nominees are -- The Brutalist, Conclave, Didi, Dune: Part Two, Ghostlight, A Real Pain, September 5, The Substance, Wicked, The Wild Robot. And the winner is... The Substance.

A huge congratulations to all of the nominees and winners.

John Stark
Wow. Thanks so much, Liz, for giving us the list of winners and nominations. It was excellent to have such a wonderful talent in this community to be able to present our nominations and winners. And congratulations to all those films and the audio description companies that worked on them. Like we said, every film that is nominated or won has an available audio description track somewhere. We can all vouch for the fact that we heard audio description tracks. We're aware that often the pass-through of audio description can be a little bit of a problem depending on what streaming service or your digital VOD platform of choice may be, but they do all have existing audio description tracks available. So check them out, especially the ones that won for Excellence in Audio Description. And I'm pretty excited about our winners. No regrets.

Alex Howard
I had a lot of fun with this, especially because the way we did the nominations is we did ranked voting like they do for Best Picture at the Oscars. So I thought that was really fun.

Lee Pugsley
Yeah, I agree with that. I had a lot of fun selecting the nominations and winners, and it was nice that we were able to come to a consensus on everything. So congratulations to all of the nominations and the winners. And thank you, once again, to those studios and companies for making these films accessible for people like us so that we can enjoy them and look at them from a critical lens as well.

John Stark
If you're interested in joining the Blind Film Critics Society, you can email us. You can email me at MacTheMovieGuy@aol.com. I'm old fashioned like that. It's M-A-C-T-H-E-M-O-V-I-E-G-U-Y, all one word, @aol.com.

Alex Howard
And you could also reach out to The Dark Room as well. If you feel like you qualify or you have any thoughts on our nominations or rewards or any questions about the process, you can email us at DarkRoomFilmCast@gmail.com.

Lee Pugsley
And be sure to follow us @DarkRoomFilmCast on Instagram and YouTube. And also, check out John's channel, Mac the Movie Guy on YouTube. He has some really great stuff over there. He reviews movies regularly. And they're very insightful. So check that out. And John, thank you so much for being with us today and just for your vision in starting the Blind Film Critics Society. I'm really looking forward to seeing where this goes.

John Stark
Thank you so much for being a part it, because otherwise it would just be me. And you have to have more than one, I think, to have a society. So, yeah.

Alex Howard
You need at least an odd number, more than two people.

John Stark
Right. Yeah.

Alex Howard
Hopefully we can get our membership more than the Golden Globes at some point.

John Stark
Yeah, that would be amazing to have 300 plus Blind Film Critics Society members.

Lee Pugsley
And before we go, we also want to thank Matt Lauterbach and All Senses Go for making transcripts of this episode possible. And also want to thank BlindCAN for editing as well. And with that, thank you so much for listening. And we will see you here next time on The Dark Room.

Alex Howard
Take care, guys.