Here, for everyone’s reference, is the text of the initial email message sent out with details on January 19th. A corresponding Facebook post was made on January 22nd.
Hi media-consuming friends!
Each year we get more frustrated with the Academy Awards and Golden Globes. We’re not ready to give up on them just yet, but it seems like something could be done alongside to celebrate media created by women, people of colour, and other underrepresented groups. Should it be done by two highly-privileged, straight cis white people? Hard to say, but we’re going to give it a try this year and see what happens. And we’d like you to be part of it!
STEP 1: Nominations!
Please hit reply and send us your nominations for the best movies and TV shows (including acting and directing) that were overlooked in 2019. Don’t stress about it – just a simple list is fine, or a few names whenever you think of it. Of course you can also write commentary, suggest a category, or whatever you like. Just send them! We’re aiming to have the nominations out on February 9th, so please have all your suggestions into this email inbox by February 7th.
STEP 2: Forward to your friends and colleagues who might be interested and ask them to participate in Step 1 as well.
Thank you for joining us on this fun little journey!
Mike and Kirsten
P.S. Questions? Here are some more details.
When? Nominations February 9th, awards show probably March 7th.
Where? At our apartment in Ottawa, along with technology to let everyone join in from wherever they are.
Categories? We’re tentatively thinking we might have categories of Best Film (in several categories like drama, comedy, documentary, children’s), Best Show (perhaps drama, comedy, documentary, reality?), Best Acting (probably in similar categories), and Best Director.
What if a movie WAS nominated for the Oscars? You can still nominate it! Perhaps it was nominated for Best Picture, but you feel strongly that the director was snubbed, for example.
Do I need to have watched the movie or the entire TV show? NO! If you’ve heard good things about a movie but haven’t had time to watch it, you can still nominate it. We are of course hoping that people who vote in a category have seen everything in that category.
I have this good article/list/podcast I found. Can I send it to you? Yes please! We will be doing our own search for lists of over-looked movies, but it’s always good to make sure we don’t miss any good analysis that someone has already done.
Are the two of you deciding the winners? Absolutely NOT! We’re still discussing how it will work, so if you have suggestions for us, feel free to send them along!
Do you have a Facebook group/Slack channel/Google Hangout for the nomination process? We’re purposely avoiding any of these to be as inclusive as possible for people have decided to avoid specific social media sites. We will, however, put information up at awards.halfassed.ca.