24th Philadelphia Film Festival, Days 9 and 10: Closing Night Attack on Michael Moore, running with the best.

Closing night of the festival. The night where a non-publicized jury of people come up with a slate of winners for what was the best in the festival, even announcing winners of films that hadn't yet played at the fest. I think that's extremely odd, but whatever. I don't call the shots on what they do that. What's more weird is that it isn't actually held on the last day. Err, OK?

I'd put a list of the winners, but most were just honorable mention selections. How does one earn an honorable mention if there are no bigger winners above it. Wouldn't it just make them the best since they're the only one to win for a specific reason?

I think the festival's "jury", which could be a lottery machine that draws an award category and a film title at random and calls them winners, is an unnecessary part of a festival like Philadelphia. There are no big premieres, and I'm sure these "jurors" have already seen everything that plans to play here and just talks about it before the start of the fest and makes their decisions.

But seriously, honorable mention status without any other winners for a specific award? That's one of the dumbest things I've ever head at a fest. It's like agreeing nothing at the Cannes Film Festival is good and their jury, which is always announced publicly, hands out sad certificates of appreciation.

"You weren't the best, so we had to give out something. Here's an honorable mention certificate for trying."