Having known a librarian who held an Oscar contest and event in the libraries he worked in, I wasn’t totally surprised to read about the Chlotrudis Awards given in Boston.  Librarian Michael Colford started bestowing the award in 1995 because of his distaste for the movie Forrest Gump and “it seemed like (they) made their nominations from a pool of six to eight films….”

Only films released on less than 1,000 screens nationally during their first four weeks are eligible for a Chlotrudis.  Films only shown at festivals and films that go straight to DVD are not eligible.  Sometimes, film actors and actresses attend the awards show but the audience are mainly dues-paying members and the greater Boston film community.  There’s also an award called Body of Work which somewhat corresponds to Hollywood’s lifetime achievement award.

Last year’s Chlotrudis Award went to the film Once and the Buried Treasure Award was presented to 12:08 East of Bucharest.  I did see Once, a very effective film about two amateur musicians in Dublin who get together to write and perform their songs.  An odd sort of romance develops between the man and woman and the songs are even okay – the kind of songs written by people who have a hard time expressing themselves otherwise.  But, 12:08 East of Bucharest ?  Missed that one but Netflix has it and I’ll probably give it a shot.

Oh, and the name Chlotrudis?  It’s a combination of the names of Colford’s cats, Chloe and Gertrude.  All together now:  awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.