As you say - judges do chew things over before coming to a conclusion. But that chew over time is pretty short, and sometimes they miss things which the maker intended. On the other hand - if they do miss something, perhaps the maker didn't make it right in the first place!
I read through the crits for my films again this morning - and they're for the most part honest and accurate. However, two of them anyway make comments along the lines 'we'd like to have seen xyz' - when xyz was actually shown! This is the result of the (necessarily) short time span for discussion and watching the film only once. And seeing dozens of films one after the other and then, days later, trying to remember what each was about, let alone the finer points of its construction, from a few scant notes which, at the time they were written seemed to be pretty comprehensive.
And hence the reason for supplying a second disk so the reviewing judge can use it as an reminder when writing the crit ... something I was a strong advocate for ... and shamefully, something I completely forgot to do with my three films this year in the rush to get them posted....
Joking Geoff.
