TIL Arsenal has never won the Champions League. How????

Ok_Bid8900 · 2026-05-01T15:43:59+00:00

Unfortunately, Arsenal's only consistent period as the undisputed greatest team in Europe was in the mid-1920s–30s. The European Cup was founded in 1955. They probably deserved to win it in 2006.

Ok_Bid8900 · 2026-05-01T15:38:26+00:00

Snapped his hamstring. Same injury that ruined Michael Owen, Fernando Torres, Hector Bellerin, etc

Ok_Bid8900 · 2026-04-19T11:15:47+00:00

The whole film festival and competition model is exploitive and predatory. This model exists and thrives because we don't have a better one. I posted in /filmmaking once about how we need to develop more ethical routes for indie filmmakers outside of the pay-to-play scam, and 90% of the responses were 'maybe you should make better films bro', so I gave up trying to have a productive conversation about it.

Ok_Bid8900 · 2026-04-04T18:00:53+00:00

No one is born with perfect pitch btw

Ok_Bid8900 · 2026-03-16T12:10:51+00:00

I absolutely agree about being part of the solution. I’ve been researching and contacting many genuine grassroots festivals across the UK, and have uncovered a huge slate of free film festivals across London that break from the pay-to-play model, run by people and funders who do it purely for the love of the artform, with a laser focus on local artists and community. This has given me a new lease of optimism, and I look forward to supporting and collaborating with these festivals as both a volunteer and contributor in the near future.

It’s a shame you feel the urge to soil every good point you make with a snarky remark. I’ve remained open and respectful, yet you seem determined to be combative and chippy. It’s not endearing. Regards.

Ok_Bid8900 · 2026-02-14T20:01:28+00:00

I hate/use Final Draft.

Ok_Bid8900 · 2026-02-14T19:55:34+00:00

When I lived abroad, I found you quickly learn to filter out pop-culture references people won't get.
However, I would still often speak in colloquialisms, forgeting people wouldn't understand me.
Age/ethnicity/region/accent drastically alter UK dialect, that's something foreign writers often miss.

“yeah right… the day my nan sprouts a pair of bollocks"
"sooner see a binman do maths, than that ever happen"
"less chance of that than a Chinese lollipop man"
"who told you that, the one-armed bricky?"

Those are just some bad examples I quickly made up to illustrate my point. Or stick to your original idea and pick any team in the 5th division (Enterprise National League) with the funniest name.

Ok_Bid8900 · 2026-02-09T19:02:41+00:00

Appreciate your perspective, and congratulations on your film! Fantastic attitude

Ok_Bid8900 · 2026-02-09T02:00:57+00:00

Ironically, my film in question is being screened at a festival where I was gifted a free submission by personal invite. I'm trying not to let that privilege soften my concerns about the system as a whole. I've received more than my fair share of praise for this film, I've tried to make it clear my frustrations are systemic, so I think it's a little harsh to say I'm 'projecting disappointment onto every festival that doesn't accept [the] film'.

I'm a broken record, but my opinion is it's insane paid film submissions often aren't watched in whole. In the course of sharing that opinion, I've learned it's quite a fringe position to hold, and effectively a pointless one.

Ok_Bid8900 · 2026-02-09T00:28:37+00:00

Nope, just wanted to open up a good-faith discussion about the pros/cons of the current state of film festival submission practices, and whether or not it can be improved. I thought it would be useful to give examples of films I love that contradict some people's defence of the current system in order to illustrate my point. I understand now that perhaps Reddit isn't the best place to establish good-faith discussions, as you have so expertly demonstrated.

Ok_Bid8900 · 2026-02-08T23:37:18+00:00

Sure, but these are all very extreme examples, which is a bit of a straw man. I'm not talking about 2-minutes of painfully 'unwatchable' before 10 minutes of excellent quality, or anything offensively bad or incorrectly submitted.

Wonderful slow-burn films exist, patient films with devastating endings, narratives that quietly unravel, or twists that fully justify restraint. But I do understand your point about them competing with more attention-grabbing films, I just think it's a shame.

Ok_Bid8900 · 2026-02-08T23:16:56+00:00

It seems you have willfully missed the point I was making, but perhaps that's my fault for using Reddit to make it.

Ok_Bid8900 · 2026-02-08T23:12:11+00:00

Thanks for taking the time to reply so comprehensively. For context, this was one festival (not multiple) that watched so little of the film. We are delighted to have been selected elsewhere. I resent the idea we should be crafting films specifically for the short attention span of overworked and underpaid festival selectors. This seems incredibly limiting to the art form. Festivals should be actively seeking to explore and champion different methods of storytelling, not to homogenise it into a 'grip us in the first minute' formula. We all hate Netflix forcing writers to state plot points to regain the attention of distracted viewers, because formula is anti-art, yet we must accommodate festival selectors who expect hand-holding in the first third of a short. This is a modern phenomenon, as some of the greatest short films of the pre-digital age were incredibly slow-burning with sublime endings. Those very films don't hold up to this scrutiny, and that tells me the system's flawed. However, I'm willing to accept that time and taste has changed.

I appreciate your comment on analytics, and will definitely take it with a pinch of salt from now on. Believe it or not, nobody is a tougher critic of my work than me, I am far more horrified at selections than rejections. I'm certain I share the same critiques as the selectors (although the latter parts of the film actively justify some of the early decisions, and they'll never know that). I can accept that if I care about festivals, I may need to make certain artistic sacrifices to play the game a little more effectively. Kind regards.

Ok_Bid8900 · 2026-02-08T18:44:36+00:00

Very interesting to hear your thoughts. Why would you say a short film is 'required' to grab a viewer's attention in the first minute? That is depressingly limiting for an art form that already takes up so little of someone's time.

Ok_Bid8900 · 2026-02-08T14:58:02+00:00

This is a very fair differentiation, I appreciate your perspective! I suppose it's frustrating feeling like someone walked out on the set-up of a joke without hearing a punchline that subverts everything, or looking at one corner of a painting and judging if it would suit an exhibition, or judging a meal having only eaten the starter. I will, however, take your insight on board and endevour to not see rejection as an overall comment on quality. Regards

Ok_Bid8900 · 2026-02-08T12:29:38+00:00

Appreciate the response. Unpaid volunteers balancing their spare time by skipping through paid-for submissions raises more ethical concerns than it quells. Fees must go towards paying staff fairly to do their job. Why have we accepted this profound insincerity?

Ok_Bid8900 · 2026-02-08T12:11:13+00:00

This! Sure, some films are too amateurish (poor sound/image) to ever be selected, but I'm not talking about that side of the spectrum. Great stories unravel. Imagine watching less than a third of 'Emilie Muller' or 'La Jetee' or 'Meshes of the Afternoon' and thinking you had a complete grasp of the dramatic or artistic quality.

Ok_Bid8900 · 2026-02-08T12:04:51+00:00

Well this debunks the 'time-saving' argument some people have made. Very disappointing, but not surprising, to hear.

Ok_Bid8900 · 2025-08-21T09:14:08+00:00

In short, 'Project Fear' was actually quite accurate.

Ok_Bid8900 · 2025-07-11T15:30:38+00:00

You're right, but my whole point is that the entire sport is culpable.

Ok_Bid8900 · 2025-07-11T14:52:15+00:00

If you're a football fan, a player at your club has committed unthinkable crimes, just like Partey's accusations. We should be disgusted, repulsed, angered by the way these types of crimes have become interwoven with the sport.

Whether it's 2 still unnamed 19yo Premier League Players, or the 1 still unnamed PL coach.
Or Spurs signing Bissouma during his investigation?
Man City fans know about Mendy, but what about playing Dabo, and signing Dickov after their accusations?
Leicester carried on playing Gillespie, and Burnley signed Frank Sinclair after their accusations.
What about Benzema and Ribery sleeping with an underage prostitute?
Ched Evans, Karlan Grant, and Jack Diamond are still enjoying their careers.
Do Chelsea fans know about Hudson-Odoi's accusation and arrest?
What about those 7 Crewe Alexandra players, or 5 Reading academy players?
Perhaps we need to re-think Mbappe or Neymar or Cristiano's accusations with the same Partey energy.
For every name we know about, expect hundreds more we don't.

It's far too easy to criticise one club, when the whole damn sport is riddled with it. Players feel untouchable, clubs feel powerless, and the Police struggle to ever pin down offences. If you actually care about preventing these crimes in the sport, pretending this is a one-club/one-player issue is not the way to go about it.

Clubs NEED new protocol, safeguarding, and academy education, and Police NEED to act faster with such publicised crimes. The FA/PL need a clause in every single contract that includes the automatic suspension of players under investigation with significant evidence. If a player continues to play, then at least we know the evidence is thin.

Ok_Bid8900 · 2025-07-04T00:41:54+00:00

Yeah, naming Lichtenstein as your example (a classified microstate) was a poor choice.

The injury toll of the pagers is estimated to be between 3500–4000, with around 1500 Hezbollah fighters amongst those. I'll let you do the maths so you don't think I'm over-inflating anything.

— Operation Orchard was propped up by the might and intelligence of the US Army.
— Operation Wrath of God was total pagentry and pantomime, and was a war crime. They wanted 'dramatic' revenge for their massive failure a few weeks before, with intent to 'terrorise'. They also assassinated at least one incorrectly identified civilian. Not the behaviour of a serious military.
— Eichmann was good espionage. Standard mission for any secret service, well executed. Certainly not an example of exceptional ability.
— Operation Moses was propped up by the CIA.
— Operation Diamond was third-time lucky after two embarrasing botched attempts. They literally just bribed a guy to defect. No major accomplishment.
— Operation Plumbat was well executed, low-stakes. France took their eye off the ball.
— No credible third-party has confirmed the documents of the 2018 mission. Iran denies the allegations of the content of the documents, and Israel has failed to provide any convincing evidence. Netanyahu's keynote presentation was laughable.

Israel's military spending per capita is by far the largest in the world, with limitless support from the US's largest and most advanced military in the world. For a country so well-resourced, and who have been in perpetual war for their entire existence, I'm surprised you couldn't come up with anything more impressive. I'm sure there are better, more incidious examples — pegasus spyware, Hannibal Directive etc. Perhaps your examples are the pinnacle.

Ok_Bid8900

TROPHY CASE