If you listened to last week’s episode (137: Happy New Year’s), at the very end I announced that the show would be going on a temporary break. 2020 was a crazy and often frustrating year for everyone. I personally was laid off from my day job in early March and spent several months unemployed as I struggled to find new work. During that time I plunged myself into this podcast. I worked on putting out episodes weekly, instead of the previous bi-weekly format. I often struggle with coming up with show topics, but everything came together so easily for me when I had all this time on my hands.
43 shows were produced in 2020, when I don’t think I ever put out more than 20 in a twelve month span before. Normally this time of year I’m neck deep in Oscar prep work. I sort of am, but early January is when nominations come out leading to a February show. Instead I’m currently playing catch up on all the movies I missed throughout the year and trying to be ahead of the curve for when Oscar nominations come out in a few months.
Normally I wait until the week after the Oscars to post my episode for best films of the year list. I do it for a few reasons, firstly most of the typical prestige films don’t come out until December through January, which makes it tough for someone without press screenings to see the hyped up movies. Also by now you should know I’m an Oscar freak, I did a series covering every single Best Picture winner, but I also engage in what is called the Oscar Death Race, where you watch every single nominated film.
Doing so exposes me to films that wouldn’t have been on my radar usually. This usually is films nominated in the Documentary Feature or International Film categories. Both groups will have one or two films that break through the mainstream and the average film buff will know about. Take for instance last year there was Parasite, and this year Another Round that broke through to the mainstream, but without the Oscar nominations for Corpus Christi and For Sama, neither would have made my best of the year list last year.
I can’t wait until May to do my best of the year show, so instead I’m doing my best to work through what I can and understand that my list likely will change as I’m able to be exposed to more movies. So I will be producing my best of the year episode likely in early February. I’ll still get friends of the show to include their picks for the best of the year and after the Oscars I might do a brief up for my top 10 if there are any changes.
The show grew so much, as I finally got better at marketing myself. I built this website, upped my Instagram and Twitter presence and finally caved to make a Facebook page that I don’t really use, except for advertising the latest episodes. In this month or so off I plan on finally ordering some stickers to help further promote the show and mail them out to any listeners who want them. I’ve somehow almost managed to surprise 4000 listens/downloads of the show in just under two years is spectacular and I can’t thank everyone enough for all the support they’ve shown. I’m planning so many cool ideas this year and I can’t wait to share them all. I’m getting some new gear (thanks mom + dad and Steph for the Christmas gifts!) that should help make the show sound even better.
I’m hoping to continue my podcast friendships with Please Watch This, Scaretroducing, House of Cinema, I Hope You Suffer, Canadian Politics is Boring, Oscars Death Race Podcast, First Round Flick, Hawkeyes and more. I also hope to bring back some of my favourite guests that don’t host podcasts including Royce Benson, Naomi Wada Platt, Rachel Ho, John Brody, Maria Escribano and of course my old reliable’s Stephanie Prior and Sammy Feilchenfeld. Show topics include director rankings on Wes Anderson and Denis Villneuve, A History of Laika, celebrating Japanese cinema, more film festivals, more interviews and so much Oscar content.
Thank you so much for a great 2020, and while I doubt I’ll be able to continue posting every week, I hope 2021 is just as successful. If you ever have any ideas, feedback or someone you’d like to hear on the pod, don’t hesitate to drop a line at contrazoompod@gmail.com or on Twitter and Instagram.
