It’s hard to believe this will be our FIFTH Movie Madness tournament. Didn’t we just start this thing, like, yesterday?

In case you missed it, in 2020, because the post-season college basketball tournaments were canceled, I thought, “What better way to keep the crazy competitiveness of March alive than with a movie tournament?”

So, I introduced Corinne’s Movie Madness.

Just like the basketball tournaments, we had a field of competitors facing off in one-on-one competitions. You, the Reel Nerds fans, decided which of the two movies in a given matchup advanced to the next round.

Our past four winners are:

• The Princess Bride, 2020 (Corinne’s Random Movies Bracket)
• Beauty & The Beast, 2021 (The Nerds’ Favorite Disney/Pixar Movies Bracket)
• Logan, 2022 (DC vs. Marvel Bracket)
• Remember The Titans, 2023 (Post-1990 Sports Movie Bracket)

This March, we’re celebrating the Reel Nerds’ favorite movies of the 2020s (so far)!

The competitors and bracket mechanics

Unlike the NCAA basketball tournaments, this one is very selective. Only 16 films qualify for a coveted spot on the bracket.

Once I decided to do 2020s movies, I reviewed all the Nerds’ Filmsplosion lists from the last four years. Each year would have its own ‘region’ complete with four films — one for each Nerd. My initial thought was to pick each Nerd’s No. 1 film from each year, but I thought we’d get better matchups by expanding it to other films on our lists.

So, I picked one movie from each Nerd’s list from 2020-2023. The movie was either the Nerd’s No. 1 movie of the year OR they were the only person who had it on their list OR they were the Nerd who had it the highest on their list. (I acknowledge that many of these movies ended up on multiple Nerds’ lists in their given Filmsplosion year, for the record.)

Then, I matched everyone up round-robin style based on what I felt would be the best matchups in a given year. I think you’ll understand better once you see the bracket.

Subsequently, we’re not doing “seeds” or rankings for each movie this year. It would’ve complicated things much more than necessary.

How you participate

Just like the college basketball tournament, Movie Madness will start Thursday, March 21!

That day, we will post the first matchup on the Reel Nerds’ Twitter page so you can cast your vote! Simple as that.

For instance, March 21 will feature our first 2020 matchup; whichever movie receives more votes by the time the poll ends will advance to the next round. (If there happens to be a tie, I’ll cast the deciding vote.)

On March 29, we will start the quarterfinals, and the procedure will be the same until a movie is crowned the winner. If I’m counting right, our championship matchup should be on April 4.

Announcing the field

Here is your full field:

• Thursday, March 21: Let Him Go vs. The Invisible Man. So, we have Ryan’s No. 1 from Filmsplosion 2020 vs. Zach’s No. 1. I haven’t seen either of these films, but according to Ryan, both are very dark and depressing.
• Friday, March 22: Soul vs. Onward. My No. 2 from Filmsplosion 2020 vs. Brad’s No. 2. A Pixar head-to-head, as both movies got the shaft due to theaters being closed during the pandemic. So, I thought now would be the time to give them some extra love.
• Saturday, March 23: Dune vs. Spider-Man: No Way Home. My No. 3 from Filmsplosion 2021 vs. Ryan’s No. 1 (and my No. 1 as well, TBF). With Dune: Part 2 in theaters right now, and with Ryan never shutting up about Spider-Man, I thought this would be a fun matchup. Also, Zendaya is in both of these, so that’s neat.
• Sunday, March 24: The Suicide Squad vs. Last Night in Soho. Brad’s No. 1 from Filmsplosion 2021 vs. Zach’s No. 2. I was tempted to put TSS up against Zach’s No. 1 Belfast, but considering that both James Finger Gunn and Edgar Allan Wright have very active (read: annoying) fanbases, I thought it’d be fun to pit these films against each other.
• Monday, March 25: The Batman vs. Top Gun: Maverick. Brad’s No. 1 from Filmsplosion 2022 vs. Ryan’s No. 1. These were two of the biggest movies of the year, at least among us Nerds. So, it seemed like a no-brainer to pit them against each other.
• Tuesday, March 26: Everything Everywhere All At Once vs. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. Zach’s No. 1 from Filmsplosion 2022 vs. my No. 3. Glass Onion made like 3-4 Nerds’ lists that year, but I think EEAAO only made mine and Zach’s. However, the latter ended up going on to win a bunch of awards, including the Academy Award for Best Picture. And, with the Oscars just being recently, I know several people were revisiting last year’s speeches amid the EEAAO sweep. So, this felt like an interesting matchup.
• Wednesday, March 27: Barbie vs. Oppenheimer. My No. 2 from Filmsplosion 2023 vs. Zach’s No. 3. I mean, this is a no-brainer. I wanted to see a Barbenheimer rematch on the Movie Madness stage!!
• Thursday, March 28: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse vs. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Ryan’s No. 1 from Filmsplosion 2023 vs. Brad’s 3. Another superhero head-to-head to round out the first-round matchups.

Thus, on Friday, March 29, we will start the quarterfinals and on April 4, we will host our championship showdown with the final two films.

Which sports movie will take home the 2024 Movie Madness Trophy? Which Cinderella story will take the crown? Which set of underdogs will triumph in the end?

You decide!