The World Cinema Project

From time to time, I start some kind of movie viewing project and I share it with you. In this case, it's also a kind of resolution for 2025. Letterboxd, where I log every film I see, provides all sorts of statistics. One of these is from which country a movie "stems" (which may mean it was made there, or financed/co-financed from there, so it doesn't always translate as landscapes and actors from the region). Now, like most people, the USA is the most represented country (over 4400 of the 6700+ movies I've logged are U.S. productions), but other well-represented countries include the UK, France, Japan, Canada, Hong Kong, Germany and Italy (more or less in descending order, with the last few in the 300 range). Australia, Spain and Sweden do quite well for themselves too.

The map above still shows a lot of gray areas, so that's my project. Can I watch a movie linked by Letterboxd to each of these countries? Even a short or a documentary? Finding these (with subtitles) will be part of the challenge, and may prevent me from completing the map, but we're gonna give it the ol' college try.

Here's a hopefully complete list of countries I need to watch a film for:
Greenland (the map considers it separate from Denmark)
St Pierre et Miquelon (similarly, this is really France)
Turks and Caicos Islands
Haiti
Caiman Islands
Guatemala
Belize
Honduras
El Salvador
Nicaragua
Costa Rica
Panama
Columbia
Venezuela
British Virgin Islands
US Virgin Islands
Anguilla
Saint Kitts
Antigua and Barduda
Montserrat
Guadeloupe
Dominica
Martinique
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Barbados
Grenada
Trinidad and Tobago
Guyana
Suriname
French Guiana
Bolivia
Paraguay
Uruguay
Falkland Islands
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
Andorra
Malta
San Marino
Croatia
Montenegro
Kosovo
North Macedonia
Albania
Estonia
Belarus
Moldova
Svalbard and Jan Mayen
Palestine
Iraq
Kuwait
Georgia
Azerbaijan
Turkmenistan
Uzebkistan
Afghanistan
Kyrgyzstan
Tajikistan
Pakistan
Bahrain
Oman
Yemen
Cape Verde
Gambia
Guinea-Bissau
Guinea
Sierra Leone
Liberia
Ivory Coast
Togo
Benin
Equatorial Guinea
Sao Tome and Principe
Gabon
Congo
Central African Republic
Democratic Republic of Congo
Angola
Burundi
Sudan
South Sudan
Uganda
Eritrea
Somalia
Malawi
Mozembique
Madagascar
Comoros
Mayotte
Réunion
Mauritius
Botswana
Eswatini
Lesotho
French Southern Territories
Heard Island and McDonald Islands
Sri Lanka
Myanmar
Bangladesh
Bhutan
Nepal
North Korea
Brunei Darussalam
Timor-Leste
Papua New Guinea
Solomon Islands
Vanuatu
New Caledonia
Fiji
Tonga
Niue
Wallis and Futuna
Samoa
American Samoa
Palam
Guam
Federated States of Micronesia
Northern Mariana Islands
Kiribati
French Polynesia

As you can see, it's the tiny islands that getcha (maybe a bunch of them collaborated on the same islander film? one can hope). That's 130 countries and territories - I've got my work cut out for me - but the map would at least LOOK filled in with about 70-75. But that would be too easy, wouldn't it?

Wish me luck!