Suggestion: Face-Off: 'The Florida Project' vs. 'Moonlight'

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Florida. The innocence of childhood. The harsh realities of poverty. The independent distributor A24 has brought us several great movies over the past few years, including these two masterpieces that both received Metacritic scores in the 90s (out of 100) and IMDb scores above 7. Despite small budgets, they were both nominated for Oscars. One even won for Best Picture. These are two little films that could. Which one do you prefer?

List: https://www.imdb.com/list/ls080194503/
Poll: TBD
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rubyfruit76, Champion

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Posted 6 days ago

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BONAFIDE BOSS ⭐️

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My vote: Moonlight (2016)


Btw, the sentence before the question in your description, "These are two little films that could." - Is that it or is there something more to it that your forgot to add? I'm sorry if it means something, I just feel like It's incomplete.
(Edited)
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rubyfruit76, Champion

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Oops, that's an American idiom, which I should probably avoid on a site not only with so many people for whom English is a second language but with so many others whose English is perfect, like you, but probably don't speak American English as much as other types of English. 
The saying originally comes from a children's book, "The Little Engine That Could," lol. Have you heard of the book? If you don't know it, the story is about a small train that is called upon to take a long trip. Since the train is so small, it doesn't know if it can make it up the big hills. When the little personified train comes to a big hill, it starts off slow -- and slowly saying "I think I can." As it climbs the hill, it continues to be hopeful, repeating "I think I can," over and over again, each time in faster succession as it makes more progress. Pretty soon, the little train is near the top of the hill and says "I know I can" and, yes, the train makes it over the hill, happily repeating, "I know I can! I know I can!" Lol. 
The phrase "I think I can" became probably even more famous than the book's title. The book's title, however, led to an idiom that also became more famous that the actual title. The idiom is "the little ____ that could," applied to any situation when someone or something "small" succeeds against the odds. The phrase was used by a few critics to describe 'The Florida Project,' which had a budget of 1-2 million dollars, a pretty much unknown director, a cast of non-actors with only one exception, and was filmed partly with an iPhone. It was expected to barely make enough money to break even but it ended up earning five to ten times the budget. 
Perhaps I should try to come up with something else to say there or at least use quotation marks or something.  : )
(Thanks for pointing that out!)
(Edited)
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rubyfruit76, Champion

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Oh, if you Google The Florida Project "the little film that could," you'll see what I mean. It gets tons of hits, including many times when the idiom is used to describe other movies, too. 
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BONAFIDE BOSS ⭐️

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Oh Damn.

A poll can be made out of this, "The Little Movies That Could," - low budget movies that became massive blockbusters.

Thanks for clarifying this and yes, I'm not familiar with American English much, especially their (your) idioms and expressions.

Also, you don't have to change it if you don't want to; I only wanted to know what it meant and now that I know it, the description sounds great. Nice work! :)
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Peter, Champion

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I can almost imagine these stories coexisting in the same movie.

We could call it ... Mooneelight
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Dan Dassow, Champion

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Peter,

I believe you provided the seeds for an intriguing poll idea:
Film Couplets That Could Logically Exist in the Same Universe
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Silitonga

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I still missed The Florida Project (2017), gonna add it to my watch list. 

So, I search for more from A24 films and I found many also "little films" that actually really good and I love, like Room (2015), Lady Bird (2017) and Midsommar (2019).
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rubyfruit76, Champion

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A24 has a really impressive collection of films, wow. Peter did a poll once about A24 and practically every movie on the list was at least good and several much mores -- and that was before they released other exquisite films like 'Waves.' I love what they do. 

Oh and 'The Florida Project' is on Netflix! I was so excited when it appeared on Netflix because I'm sure you probably remember what a ridiculously passionate fan, lol, I am of that film but, unfortunately, I think a lot is lost when not watched on a big screen. If seeing it on a big screen is not possible, though, and now that's probably true almost everywhere, it's definitely still worth it to see on a small screen. Oh, and if you liked the movies you mentioned like 'Lady Bird,' you'll probably really appreciate 'Florida.'  
(Edited)