You can post a list of anywhere between 5 and 20 films (or more, but only 20 will be counted) from the year we're covering. The deciding factor in terms of release dates is the RYM list and the top 10 of each year will go on to the final top 100 round. The deadline is April 25th.

The points scheme is as follows:
1. 50 points
2. 40
3. 35
4. 30
5. 25
6. 20
7. 18
8. 16
9. 14
10. 12
11. 10
10. 9
...
20. 1
However, these are the maximum amounts of points. If you want to put certain films on your list but don't want to give them too many points, you can choose to give these less points than in this scheme (but never more) to decrease the impact on the overall results. If you don't specifically state that you want to give (some of) your films fewer points, I will assume the standard scheme.

Here are some lists to remind you of the great (and awful) films released in 1980, from a variety of sources:
IMDb
RYM
Films101
RottenTomatoes

I'm enjoying some moments of Berlin Alexanderplatz, but it's so full of bad poetry and shabby acting that I can't really get into it despite some great cinematography and an interesting story were it condensed more. I've got a few episodes to go, but I very much doubt I'll give it more than a 7.5 or 8.0.

1. Arrebato (Rapture) – Iván Zulueta
2. Le dernier métro (The Last Metro) – François Truffaut
3. The Elephant Man – David Lynch
4. Brubaker – Stuart Rosemberg
5. The Final Countdown – Don Taylor
6. Stardust Memories – Woody Allen
7. Saturn 3 – Stanley Donen
8. Ópera prima (First Effort) – Fernando Trueba

My RYM movie ratings consists of 26 pages of movies. 5 pages are pre-1990. But, I'll vote for my favorites and then try to watch some more when we get to the final 100.

1. Caddyshack
2. Hopscotch
3. Empire Strikes Back

I think I've seen about 5-6 more movies from 1980 (the year I was born) that show up in the RYM top 100 but I don't consider any of them to be worthy of a vote.

Sorry to be pedantic, but the rules are a minimum of 5 films. How about just giving two films you've seen but don't deem worthy 2 and 1 point respectively?

1. The Shining (Stanley Kubrick) 50
2. Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner) 30
3. Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese) 25
4. The Elephant Man (David Lynch) 20
5. Kagemusha (Akira Kurosawa) 16
6. Bad Timing (Nicolas Roeg) 14
7. Heaven's Gate (Michael Cimino) 5
8. The Blues Brothers (John Landis) 1

This is a totally different kind of voting compared to the 90s and 00s. Ascribing point becomes way more important. I'm quite sure I won't give the full 50 points every year.

The onyl films I'm not giving any points is Airplane! I all liked the other ones at least a bit.

1. The Shining 50
2. The Elephant Man 40
3. The Blues Brothers 20
4. Raging Bull 10
5. Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back [The Empire Strikes Back] 5
6. Caddyshack 3

These are all the films I have rated from 1980 (basically what I have seen during the last 10-15 years).

1. The Elephant Man
2. The Shining
3. Mon oncle d'Amérique [My American Uncle]
4. Raging Bull
5. 影武者 [Kagemusha]
6. The Blues Brothers
7. The Gods Must Be Crazy
8. Loulou
9. Un mauvais fils [A Bad Son]
10. Stardust Memories
11. Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back [The Empire Strikes Back]
12. Gloria
13. Sauve qui peut (la vie) [Every Man for Himself]
14. Airplane!
15. Une semaine de vacances [A Week's Holiday]
16. Le voyage en douce [Sentimental Journey]
17. Heaven's Gate
18. Cruising
19. Atlantic City
20. Le dernier métro [The Last Metro]

First time I've noticed these movie polls.

1. The Empire Strikes Back
2. The Elephant Man
3. Raging Bull
4. Superman II (why is the second movie in a superhero series almost always the best?)
5. Nine to Five
6. Private Benjamin
7. Airplane
8. Blues Brothers
9. The Shining
10. Stir Crazy
11. Felicity (I haven't seen it, but this is the plot, "Young Felicity lives in a monastic school. The only way to live out her sexual fantasies is together with her girlfriend Jenny." It's got to be good, right?)

Welcome to the club Rocky!

1. The Shining
2. The Elephant Man
3. Berlin Alexanderplatz
4. Permanent Vacation
5. Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back
6. Blues Brothers
7. Cruising
8. Airplane!
9. Raging Bull
10. Spetters
11. Tulipää
12. Täältä tullaan, elämä!
13. Flash Gordon
14. Friday the 13th
15 Dressed to Kill

1.The Elephant Man
2.The Empire Strikes Back
3.Raging Bull
4.The Shining
5.Pixote
6.Melvin & Howard
7.American Gigolo
8.Gloria
9.La Mort en Direct
10.Heaven's Gate
11.The Blues Brothers
12.Bad Timing
13.Airplane!
14.Ordinary people
15.Spetters
16.Fame
17.Dressed to Kill
18.Private Benjamin
19.The Gods must be crazy
20.Brubaker

1. Raging Bull / Martin Scorsese / U.S.
2. Berlin Alexanderplatz / Rainer Werner Fassbinder / West Germany
3. Heaven's Gate / Michael Cimino / U.S.
4. The Shining / Stanley Kubrick / U.S.
5. The Big Red One / Samuel Fuller / U.S.
6. Atlantic City / Louis Malle / U.S.
7. Bad Timing / Nicolas Roeg / U.K.
8. The Fog / John Carpenter / U.S.
9. Melvin and Howard / Jonathan Demme / U.S.
10. Kagemusha / Akira Kurosawa / Japan
11. The Elephant Man / David Lynch / U.S.
12. The Blues Brothers / John Landis / U.S.
13. Permanent Vacation / Jim Jarmusch / U.S.
14. Return of the Secaucus Seven / John Sayles / U.S.
15. The Empire Strikes Back / Irvin Kershner / U.S.
16. Stardust Memories / Woody Allen / U.S.
17. Spetters / Paul Verhoeven / Netherlands
18. The Long Good Friday / John Mackenzie / U.K.
19. Lightning Over Water / Wim Wenders / West Germany
20. The Long Riders / Walter Hill / U.S.

What's the deal with the Gods Must Be Crazy? It's listed on imdb and Rotten Tomatoes as 1981, but several people here have it listed for 1980, and it's also 1980 on Wikipedia. Can I get an official verdict on this?

New rankings

1. The Empire Strikes Back
2. The Elephant Man
3. Raging Bull
4. The Gods Must Be Crazy
5. Superman II (why is the second movie in a superhero series almost always the best?)
6. Nine to Five
7. Private Benjamin
8. Airplane
9. Blues Brothers
10. The Shining
11. Flash Gordon
12. Stir Crazy

Hopefully I'll have some time to watch more films, but I'm not sure about that.

Anyone else think The Shining is the best movie from the entire 1980s? I admit I've seen relatively few films from this decade, but Brazil is the only thing that's close from what I've seen.

The Shining might contain the best acting performance of the 80's, but story-wise and cinematography-wise there are a bunch that do better.

1) The Shining
2) The Blues Brothers
3) The Elephant Man
4) Airplane!
5) Raging Bull
6) 9 to 5 – 10 pts

Sorry for the inconvenience, Stephan, but I mistakenly thought that Superman II was a 1981 film. So this is my new list:

1. Arrebato (Rapture) – Iván Zulueta
2. Superman II – Richard Lester
3. Le dernier métro (The Last Metro) – François Truffaut
4. The Elephant Man – David Lynch
5. Brubaker – Stuart Rosemberg
6. The Final Countdown – Don Taylor
7. Stardust Memories – Woody Allen
8. Saturn 3 – Stanley Donen
9. Ópera prima (First Effort) – Fernando Trueba

1. Raging Bull
2. The Shining
3. The Stunt Man
4. Atlantic City
5. Airplane!
6. The Empire Strikes Back
7. Melvin and Howard
8. The Big Red One
9. The Blues Brothers
10. The Elephant Man

Stephan: This is not necessarily my final list, but I want to put it out in case I don't have time to see Last Metro and My American Uncle, and forget when the deadline is.

1. A idade da terra (The Age Of The Earth)
2. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
3. The Shining
4. The Elephant Man
5. Raging Bull
6. TheBig Red One
7. Airplane!
8. Kagemusha
5pts. Caddyshack
3pts. The Gods Must Be Crazy

Does anyone know a good way to see My American Uncle in the US, other than buying it on Amazon, which isn't cheap enough to justify it?

Ok, here's my final list.

1. A idade da terra (The Age Of The Earth)
2. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
3. The Shining
4. The Elephant Man
5. Raging Bull
6. The Last Metro
7. The Big Red One
If I'm allowed to vote for it only having seen 5 episodes: Berlin Alexanderplatz
8/9. Airplane!
9/10. Kagemusha
5pts. Caddyshack
3pts. The Gods Must Be Crazy

1. Caddyshack - Rodney Dangerfield plays the same guy in every movie he's in, but he's best in Caddyshack. Wanna make 14 dollars the hard way?
2. The Shining
3. Where the Buffalo Roam - Bill Murray playing Hunter Thompson
4. Shogun Assassin - Liquid Swords & Quentin Tarantino lifted from it
5. Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
6. Raging Bull
7. Airplane!
8. Friday the 13th
9. The Octagon
10. Maniac - I don't really like this movie, but it deserves points for the shotgun-blows-off-guy's-head scene alone.

Didn't manage to watch that many films for this year, partly due to lack of time and partly due to Berlin Alexanderplatz being so damn long. Top 9 is all I've got.

1. Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese)
2. Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner)
3. The Elephant Man (David Lynch)
4. The Blues Brothers (John Landis)
5. Kagemusha (Akira Kurosawa)
6. The Shining (Stanley Kubrick)
7. Ordinary People (Robert Redford)
8. Airplane! (Jim Abrahams)
9. Berlin Alexanderplatz (Rainer Werner Fassbinder)

A few more hours to vote, I'll post the results when I wake up in the morning.

I just realized that I posted April 25th as the deadline rather than April 24th as I meant to do, so I'll keep this open one more day not to screw anyone over.

Stephan, two minutes, I make my list and I sent you.

1 The Shining (Stanley Kubrick)
2 Le Dernier Métro (Truffaut)
3 The Elephant Man (David Lynch)
4 Mon oncle d'Amérique (Resnais)
5 Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese)
6 Heaven's gate (Michael Cimino)
7 Un mauvais fils (Sautet)
8 The Blues Brothers (John Landis)
9 Kagemusha (Akira Kurosawa)
10 Stardust Memories (Woody Allen)
11 La mort en direct (Bertrand Tavernier)

A very big gap between the top 4 and the rest and without a doubt the longest film that will classify has entered the race.

1. The Shining (Stanley Kubrick) - 457/12/5
2. The Elephant Man (David Lynch) - 415/12/2
3. Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese) - 344/12/2
4. Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner) - 306/11/1
5. The Blues Brothers (John Landis) - 180/10/0
6. Airplane! (Jim Abrahams / David Zucker / Jerry Zucker) - 125/8/0
7. Caddyshack (Harold Ramis) - 108/4/2
8. Berlin Alexanderplatz (Rainer Werner Fassbinder) - 105/4/0
9. 影武者 [Kagemusha] (Akira Kurosawa) - 104/5/0
10. Le Dernier Metro [The Last Metro] (François Truffaut) - 96/4/0

I'm very very surprising about the lack of Heaven's gate in the top 10.
Someone can explain ?
All the "classics" of this year are here except this one.

Woohoo, only one to watch! (Blues Brothers)

I hope Atlantic City didn't fall just short of qualifying. The only reason I didn't watch it is because I thought it was 1981. I've only seen one Malle, God's Country, and I thought it was excellent.

Small pedantic point Stephan: You should remove 'V' from the Empire Strikes Back title. Star Wars films from the original trilogy should be defined relative to the original trilogy.

Heaven's Gate was #11 with 76 points from 5 votes.

Atlantic City was all the way down at #33, even a #1 spot wouldn't have saved it.

With regards to Star Wars, I'm using the title that is used on both IMDb and RYM (although they include "Episode" in the title). I'll use "Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back [The Empire Strikes Back]" in the future.