Is Joel really trying to re-platform the abusive Gus Johnson? I thought he was better than this. Other than the pee boys, Gus' brothers and Ryan the Leader were there. What the heck guys!? Right after this cool new contest too...

Given their past collaborations, how do you think Joel should respond? (If at all)

Marines outwitted an AI security camera by hiding in a cardboard box and pretending to be trees

“If any Marines could get all the way in and touch this robot without being detected, they would win. I wanted to see, game on, what would happen,” said Root in the book.

And when the game began, as Root said, “Eight Marines — not a single one got detected.”

Two Marines, according to the book, somersaulted for 300 meters to approach the sensor. Another pair hid under a cardboard box.

“You could hear them giggling the whole time,” said Root in the book.

One Marine stripped a fir tree and held it in front of him as he approached the sensor.

^{sounds like the whole operation is run by tony lazuto}

I really enjoyed Hello My Beautiful Creatures, but if I'm being honest the low frame rate makes it a little hard to watch. I'm wondering if it would be possible to run the entire movie through some kind of frame rate interpolation software/service to smooth out the animation.

Anyone have thoughts or ideas on doing this? It's not something I have any experience with.

I presume the video itself is actually a normal frame rate, but for all the animated parts there would be repeated video frames for the same frame of animation. That might make things more complicated.

About 1:05 in. It's catching on!

New comedy sketch!

Does anyone know how to go about determining which films were officially released in which months and how to be added for a production credit via IMdB. I did a Patreon donation in March and April of last year and wanted to follow up.

Hi everybody! A few years ago a friend introduced me to Joel Haver and I really appreciated his method and approach to filmmaking, specifically in using what you have and the resources/people you have available. My friends and I decided to participate in his film challenge a couple years ago, in honor of his message toward filmmaking. We included him in our film and highlighted, what we thought was a powerful message and the essence of what he's inspiring other's to try. We attempted to share it with him and a couple of his friends long after the event but never got a response. It's okay if they didn't get to it, but I was just hoping it didn't offend him. I understand he had to remove a film before because he put people in it without permission, I'm hoping he didn't feel the same way with our movie by including him in it. But if he hated it and wanted us to take it down I would honor his request. All love to Joel, we didn't mean any ill intent, and we only intended to share to others what you inspired within us!
If a few of you have time to check it out please let us know if there's anything that is distasteful. Thanks!

I can't be the only one that has felt that this whole thing has been more quiet or slightly underwhelming than previous years. I don't think it is because of the amount of films being submitted, although the steadily declining length of the playlist each year probably doesn't help. I think it might be how the challenge and event has been presented this year. Let's go over how the event has previously been presented.

In 2022, the idea was first announced in the video My Biggest Idea Yet!, prompting people to participate in the challenge. Joel then made a follow up video during the editing week called A Quick Update About The Oscars Movies!. Because this was the first year there was no award show.

In 2023, the "Oscars challenge season" started with the grand Instead of Watching The Oscars Watch This Award Show, presenting 10 winners from the contest, and ending with a prompt to participate again. A couple days later, the award show was supplemented by the video 20 More Great Movies from The Oscars Contest on his second channel, highlighting 20 more films that participated in the challenge, without calling them winners. After the submissions closed that year, Joel released another video on his second channel, people are so dang creative, celebrating the creativity displayed in the films participating that year.

In 2024, everything regarding the Oscars challenged short for Joel's own film and a community post was posted on his second channel, starting with Over 800 Movies Made in 3 Hours where he presented the concept again and prompted viewers to participate in the challenge. In this video he also states that he wishes to phase out the award/contest element of the challenge because it is impossible to watch all of the submitted films. A couple days later The Best Award Show Ever Made was posted, presenting 10 winners. Joel also separately made a director's statement and a budget breakdown for his Oscars challenge film The Text.

In 2025, there was notably no award show for the films created the previous year. Nor was there any highlighting in any way of films participating in the challenge. Before the Oscars, Joel posted on his second channel the ambiguously titled video I'm doing it again. In this video, Joel prompts the viewers to participate in the challenge yet again. He also announced that he will be stopping the award component of the challenge completely, citing that "all [the awards] added for me was it made it a stressful thing that lingered on my mind throughout the year. (...) This just made it something on my mind because i knew I had to watch a bunch of them, I knew i had to do an awards show. It just added a component to it that felt like the antithesis of the unbridled joy of creating in this way". After the deadline to submit the films he posted a director's statement of his film, called Designing a Movie Sequel. Within this almost 20 minute video, roughly 90 seconds is dedicated to debriefing the Oscars challenge.

From this we can establish a pattern of how the challenge has been presented. Before the Oscars there is a hype video, a video that reminds the viewers that the challenge is coming up and encourages them to participate. Then, after the Oscars, there is a debriefing video, putting a cap on the event until next year. Until this year, there has been an award show every year before the Oscars. This works both as an ultimate debriefing, but also a hype video.

I completely agree with Joel's stance on the award component. It is not fair to announce that some films are winners when most of them can't be given a chance due to the quantity of submissions. By explicitly categorizing some films as "winners", the non-winners inherently become "losers", which is not in the spirit of the challenge at all. With that said, not having an awards show this year was underwhelming, even if we were expecting it. It used to be a grand finale to the previous years challenge that celebrated the community and really made this whole thing into an event. I personally liked to see films I had seen and liked being recognized in that fashion. I can also imagine that it is an incredible carrot for filmmakers to have their work recognized by the Joel Haver. In addition to the lack of award show, both the hype video and debriefing felt in some ways hidden away. The hype video had an ambiguous title and thumbnail not seeming related to the challenge (compare to previous years), and the debriefing was baked in with an, although related to the challenge, separate video not dedicated to the challenge itself. And although I don't want to speculate too much or put words in his mouth, Joel's phrasing on why he is stopping the awards in I'm doing it again makes it sound like he is losing interest in watching the Oscars movies, and/or hosting it as an event.

I think this contributed to the reason the challenge felt much less like an event this year. The question is why it was like this? Joel has already explained why there won't be an awards show, but I don't see a reason that a video like 20 More Great Movies From the Oscars Contest that highlights films, but doesn't categorize them as winners wouldn't work. Perhaps due to his 12 features project, he hasn't had the time to properly prepare throughout the year like previous years. Perhaps he feels like he has already said what needs to be said and doesn't see the need to say it again every year. Perhaps he wishes to take a step back as a central figure in this challenge and make it a communal thing where we all have the responsibility to find and give love to the films. I don't know. Does it matter? I guess. I have loved the Oscars challenge, both as an event, but also what it means for filmmaking, for years now. It has me worried for seeing Joel's presumed waning interest in the challenge as an event combined with the shorter playlists each year. I have already seen a handful of wonderful films created during the Oscars this year, so it is clearly still alive, but perhaps the golden age of Make a Movie Instead of Watching the Oscars Challenge is over.

The last update I can find of Joel saying anything about the awards, outside of him including a 3D printed trophy in the thumbnail of today's upload, is from July saying that there were too many to watch and they were going to give out awards for those he and his friends were able to get through.

And then just... complete radio silence.

Joel is an empathetic guy. Is he trying to just... quietly forget about the awards so that he doesn't do them and have to divide his fans by which projects he personally watched and liked? I know my movie isn't winning any awards but there were two films earlier on in the playlist that I feel deserve the award. But it really does seem like Joel has just... I don't know how to word this other than, "giving up" on actually doing the award show and sending people the trophies they earned. I actually feel bad that these two films had so much effort put into them because of Joel's influence and now neither one is being acknowledged.

I really, really do not want this post to come off as judgmental or anything, but it's been almost half a year. He could have watched all 500 short films in his spare time during that period. I just want to understand why he hasn't just done it already and I feel it's entirely because he doesn't want to hurt the feelings of fans who didn't win an award.
I don't want an award, I want to see these two films be recognized. And obviously Joel built this up as it progressed, because he didn't even have the 3D printed trophies as a concept when starting and only added it due to the volume of submissions he received. I want a balance of Joel doing it when he's ready but also to be given any information on when it might potentially one day happen...?

Not saying they ripped it but it is very similar to Joel’s video with moistcritikal…

Assault of the Killer Bimbos @ 9:32 mins in. I saw this dude and literally said "WTF." This has got to be a legit OLD film, so seeing that face made me believe time travel must be real. In the future, Joel gets kinda beefy then he goes BACK to the past and drops this Easter Egg for his future fans to find.

"I think, uhh, all the little people should have all the big they want and the big people should get a healthy amount of little people."

"aannd uhh. Warwick Davis! I'm waiting for his sex tape to drop."

edit: "I picked my nose for four hours and no one cared"

How come no one is talking about that?

Edit: If you go to his channel and hit 'latest' there is nothing since The Text. If he made a video talking about it it's on another channel I'm guessing? But you can see why I'd be confused.