The June review-writing contest was a spectacular success! Besides the high quality of the submissions, it was particularly gratifying to see the entrants commenting on each others entries, bending over backwards to be gracious.

As I said, the quality of the writing was extremely high, and the race was very close. To illustrate how close, consider that I solicited input from three other contributors. Far from one review standing out above the others, each unofficial judge suggested a different review should be the winner.

With no consensus, I was forced to cast the deciding vote—and so, by the narrowest of margins, I’m happy to announce that the contest winner is Alex Kittle for House [Hausu]. Alex’s review was lively, descriptive, and her affection for the movie was infectious. The five runners-up shouldn’t feel bad, because Alex was a little bit of a ringer—she writes her own film review blog, FilmForager, which covers mainstream movies and new releases along with the occasional weird movie review (at the time of this announcement a review of Daisies was gracing the front page). I highly recommend checking out the site if you enjoyed her review.

My gracious thanks to everyone who made this event a success. Check back in a few minutes for an announcement of the next contest.