It’s fair to say, I watch a lot of movies. Since starting the Film Watch process back in 2009, as of yesterday, the total is 1273 and rising fast. Initially, the goal was to simply increase my knowledge of films, but soon it became bigger and bolder than that. The aim became to watch 100 movies a year, and then to try and beat the previous year’s total, and that was going well until 2020 - the year of lockdown, where the total rocketed to 142. Unbeatable.

So then Mr C, in conversation with good friends and fellow film fans, signed us up for a new challenge.

On the easy weeks, when there were blockbuster movies we were desperate to watch, this was incredibly easy. But I’d be lying if I said there weren’t some weeks where we got to Sunday night and realised we had to pick a film and risk losing the streak. With so much other good content out there, particularly incredible TV this year, watching movies wasn’t always top of the list. But we stuck with it and achieved the goal. At least 52 films this year, one a week.

Of course there were actually much more than 52 films, in fact just over 120 which isn’t too bad considering the high count of 2020 was supposed to be a one off! But hey, lockdown two, three and god knows how many more do help with this kind of thing.

The year got off to a slow start - the first six weeks saw only one film a week before things picked up. There were a few weeks that hit the heights of five films a week, though, including the week where we plugged our way through all the hobbit-related movies. Always highs and lows!

If you’re thinking about some kind of film challenge to take on, I can recommend this one-a-week goal. It can keep you watching the longer-form content when other things threaten to distract you, and can sometimes force your hand into watching something you otherwise would never have looked at. Now, just need to come up with a goal for 2022’s movie calendar!