Movies like Paddington 2 which are routinely listed as being "released" in 2017, are sometimes counted as being "released" in 2018, and therefore available for 2018 awards etc., because that is when they were widely available in the U.S. in 2018.
Yet other movies, especially small indie movies, will have their "release dates" listed as the date that the earliest critics had access to them, at some tiny, barely acknowledged indie festival, and NOT in the year that they had a limited or wide release.
It's maddening for somebody interested in record keeping to decide on a "true" release date for international or independent movies. Blockbusters are usually not so tricky and have more straightforward release dates (usually), that span, at most, a week of vagueness. But I've seen independent or international movies whose release dates ranged from months to years different depending on who was citing the release date.
Am I the only anal person frustrated by there not being some kind of "official" release date rules for films? I feel like any film that wants to be awards eligible should have to list a single "release date" on their IMDB or wikipedia or something.
Maybe I'm just a crazy person. But trying to keep track of which films from which years I've seen for the last 30 years has gotten absurd in the last decade. NOBODY can settle on a consistent "release date" for any given movie (apart from many of the biggest budget blockbusters).
Submitted December 25, 2018 at 10:57AM by GodsOfTheBorderlands http://bit.ly/2V9EzhO