Film fan notches up over 1,000 lockdown movies
AFILM buff who lost his job due to Covid challenged himself to watch 1,000 films in a year – and smashed his goal.
Phil Watts, 47, has revealed he watched 1,028 films in 2021, catching up to seven movies a day to keep on target.
The movie fanatic from Yeovil, Somerset, set himself the goal after he lost his job in January 2021 due to the pandemic.
By December 15, he had reached 1,000 with a screening of Gone With the Wind – but ended up going on to watch 28 more before the end of the year.
Phil, who is a film blogger and runs a side business converting old videos to digital, said he watched “everything from Zulu to Alien” with entries of all genres.
And he ranked his favourite flick of all as the 1988 hit Cinema Paradiso.
Phil said: “When most kids were out playing football with their dads, I was watching a movie with mine.
“Everyone has a different passion, and mine is sitting down and being transported to a different place for a couple of hours.
“It could be down to the bottom of the ocean or up into space, that’s what films can do.
“I like to watch things people haven’t heard of before and found myself digging up things from way in the past – if it’s a movie, I’ll enjoy it.
“Towards the end I did get a bit tired of watching films but I kept going because I knew I was so close.”
The son of a former cinema projectionist, he told how he has been surrounded by film his whole life.
Phil, who lives with wife Anna, grew up watching films with his dad Roger, before he died from cancer in 2001 aged 57.
He recalled his oldest memory being watching Star Wars with his father in a home cinema Roger built in their garage.
The father-son duo also made documentaries together to share their love of film.
Phil said: “He was my best mate and we worked together a lot as well as watching films.
“We would sit down and talk about each film and about how it was made.”
In 1992 the pair set up Aarchive, which converts old films on video onto digital such as DVD and USB.
Phil still runs Aarchive, alongside working in retail.
But in January 2021 he lost his job in a haberdashery due to the impacts of Covid, and found himself with a lot of spare time.
By March he realised he has seen several hundred films, prompting him to set himself the 1,000 target.
He juggled this alongside running Aarchive, which saw fluctuating custom during the pandemic – but generated “just enough to get by”.
Some days he’d only have time for one, but other days he said he had watched up to seven in one go.
He said: “I kept a note of everything so I could actually remember what I had watched.
“But the list is a healthy mix – I’ll watch anything. If it’s a movie, I’ll enjoy it.”
Phil’s favourite film of all time, Cinema Paradiso of 1988, got a spot on the list – and he hailed the coming-of-age drama film “life-changing”.
He said: “But the end of the movie I was bawling my eyes out, because it was so wonderful.
“It’s my favourite movie of all time, even over Star Wars.”
Sometimes Phil would sit and enjoy a film with wife Anna, an accountant, although he said she doesn’t have the same obsession that he does.
Towards the end of his movie marathon, Phil admitted he grew a little fatigued – but pushed on to complete the challenge nonetheless.
He said: “I’m not a marathon runner – I get tired running a bath.
“But for me this was pushing myself to complete it in the way runners do.
“I was quite determined and wasn’t going to give up.
“It was a challenge some days but if you have the passion you can do it.”