Introducing: Knit(ting) Flicks' First Annual(?) Knit Madness

I don’t know college basketball well enough to fully grasp the complexities of March Madness. But from an outsider's perspective, I kinda love watching the chaos unfold as people’s brackets entirely fall apart, Cinderella stories start to unfold, and someone’s dreams come true.

Bracketing has expanded far beyond the sports arena, so a little while back, I thought, why not sweaters, too? Hence, Knit Madness.

I don’t know if this will be a one-time thing or if I will continue it next year—it really depends on how many people engage with it and vote—but if it’s a one-and-done effort, well, I might as well go out with a bang. Through a blend of my reporting over the years, friends’ input, and an extremely helpful suggest-a-thon from a Discord I’m in, here are the 64 contenders vying for the title of Best Cinematic Sweater.

There is a lot of text, so to simplify things, here are how the four main divisions break down, the first round of matchups (and the respective rankings), and when voting will open for those matchups. Starting tomorrow, on each day of the tournament, I’ll post polls on Bluesky—or through another app/site if that craps out on me—that people can vote on (and will be embedded in each newsletter). The winner will be determined after the first 24 hours of polling.

And if you’re worried about visuals, those will come later. But feel free to Google early if you want!

While I’ll include the most recent update in subsequent posts, this section will be a home hub for the latest information on the tournament and constantly updating.

Knit Madness Archive

First Round/Round of 64

• March 19: Cables Round 1

• March 20: Textured/Miscellaneous Round 1

Round 1, March 19: Cabled (Aran/Color)

Pretty self-explanatory. Eight of these are traditional white Aran sweaters, while the other eight use similar cable patterns with different colors.

• (1) Knives Out vs (16) Friday the 13th

• (2) Titanic vs (15) Derry Girls

• (3) When Harry Met Sally… vs (14) The Thomas Crown Affair (1968)

• (4) Firefly vs (13) Let’s Make Love

• (5) Gilmore Girls vs (12) Local Hero

• (6) Star Trek: Picard vs (11) Anatomy of a Fall

• (7) The Devil Wears Prada vs (10) Love Story (1970)

• (8) House of Gucci vs (9) The Mandalorian

Round 1, March 20: Textured/Miscellaneous

This division covers sweaters with some notable non-cable texture (e.g., bumps, stripes, patches, ribbing, vests, mohair) or didn’t fit anywhere else.

• (1) The Nanny vs (16) Empire Records

• (2) Coraline vs (15) The Way We Were

• (3) Only Murders in the Building vs (14) The Santa Clause

• (4) The Wrong Trousers vs (13) A Fish Called Wanda

• (5) Home Alone vs (12) While You Were Sleeping

• (6) No Time to Die vs (11) Penny Dreadful

• (7) My So-Called Life vs (10) Bonnie and Clyde

• (8) Buffy the Vampire Slayer vs (9) The Wheel of Time

Round 1, March 21: Color Work/Christmas

This division covers sweaters featuring multiple colors (such as a fair isle design) and sweaters worn in Christmas movies and/or on Christmas.

• (1) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone vs (16) Anna and the Apocalypse

• (2) Murder, She Wrote vs (15) Finding Mr. Christmas

• (3) Gravity Falls vs (14) What We Do in the Shadows

• (4) The O.C. vs (13) Schitt’s Creek

• (5) The Shining vs (12) A Close Shave

• (6) Saturday Night Live vs (11) Arthur Christmas

• (7) Bridget Jones’s Diary vs (10) How the Grinch Stole Christmas

• (8) The Killing (Danish) vs (9) A Nightmare on Elm Street

Round 1, March 22: Cardigan/Neck

This division features cardigans (knitted tops that open up and can be put on like a coat) and sweaters with stylized detail around the neck (such as turtlenecks).

• (1) Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood vs (16) The Lake House

• (2) The Big Lebowski vs (15) Clueless

• (3) Scooby Doo, Where Are You! vs (14) The Lighthouse

• (4) Dunkirk vs (13) Moonstruck

• (5) Jaws vs (12) Doctor Zhivago

• (6) The Banshees of Inisherin vs (11) Grease

• (7) The Truman Show vs (10) Scream (1996)

• (8) The Holiday vs (9) Poker Face

The Methodology

Yes, I actually designed a formula for this because I didn’t want to do something like pit two juggernauts against each other in Round 1. After creating the divisions, I assigned point values to each of the following categories:

• Box Office/Average Rating from that particular season of TV (titles got a flat 10 points if those numbers didn’t exist). The lowest number was 1 point. The highest was 35.

• Metacritic Score (if none existed, I went to Rotten Tomatoes, and in the rare cases that didn’t exist either, I relied on IMDb). The lowest number was 4 points. The highest was 20 points.

• Letterboxd/Serializd average rating (Serializd is basically a Letterboxd for TV). The lowest number was 9 points. The highest was 24 points.

• Contenders received an additional 10-point bonus if someone published a replica pattern for that sweater.

• The lowest total was 24 points. The highest was 69. A good portion of the totals were somewhere in the 40s.

• For the most part, I ranked based on those numbers. But I moved things around a bit on a few occasions because I’m still human.

The Victor

Unfortunately, I don’t have the means to award the person who gets the most right. And while I’m still thinking about how to anoint the 2025 Best Cinematic Sweater, I was thinking of perhaps doing a deep dive newsletter on the winning sweater. Which would be ineligible in future contests because it’s not fair to have the same sweater winning year after year.

Yes, this would hold even if Chris Evans’ Knives Out sweater (a knit I’ve written about several times while I was at the Daily Dot) or a previous Knitwear of the Week entry takes the whole thing. If you’ve other suggestions on how to celebrate the winning sweater, comment below!

And if enough people participate (I don’t know what that number is yet, but I’ll know it when I see it), I might very well do this all again next year.

May the best sweater win.

Knitwear of the Week

Knit: Two retro ‘80s sweaters: one a striped V-neck in pink, black, and white (with a turtleneck underneath), and the other a geometric blue and gray pullover (with a dark blue shirt underneath).

Worn By: Chris Amador (Maximiliano Hernández) and Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich), the latter of whom is, so far, is completely unaware of the Soviet spies living just under his nose—in The Americans season 1.

Costume Designer: Jenny Gering

In the year of our Lord 2025, I am finally rectifying one of my major TV sins: I am watching The Americans for the first time—a show I’ve seen countless praise for by my fellow critics since it debuted on FX in 2013. (We just finished season 1 earlier this week.) It’s part of what I’ve been calling a TV exchange program with my partner. He introduces me to The Americans, a show he’s seen before and loves, and in return, I introduce him to Black Sails, a show I’ve seen before and love.

Reader, I am fully on board with The Americans. I'm ready to yell at my loved ones to watch this show. To hop in a time machine and give a bunch of Emmys to Keri Russell and Noah Emmerich (how did he never even get nominated?!) and a bunch more to Matthew Rhys¹ . To want to get in on the jokes, memes, wigs, and just…everything. GAH, once again, the critics were right! (Also, I don’t know what happens next, so don’t be a dick and spoil it.) But what I wouldn’t have appreciated in 2013—because I was still four years away from learning to knit—was the many, many ‘80s sweaters that populate this world. The main reason that The Americans isn’t competing in Knit (K)Madness this year is that I’m only on season 1 and don’t want to spoil myself to find whatever the most famous sweater from this show is and put it on the list.

Rhys and Russell are treasures, of course. But I want to use this KotW to shout out Emmerich. I’ve known him as an actor since he essentially played a Walking Smirk in Miracle—aka the 2004 sports film that dramatized the “Miracle on Ice.” (He plays Assistant General Manager and Assistant Coach Craig Patrick.) It isn’t necessarily a good movie, but I unabashedly love it, so I got so excited when I saw that he had such a massive role in The Americans. And even more so when my partner and I recently watched The Truman Show. He’s officially become one of our That Guys.

If you don’t want to take my word for it, here’s Matt Zoller Seitz on Emmerich’s performance in his recap of The Americans’ first episode:

Everything Emmerich’s Stan Beeman does on this show is great—even if he’s part of why Philip and Elizabeth keep having to scramble and think on their feet. Naturally, that also includes wearing incredibly dated sweaters. Never change, Stan.

And let me not forget to feature the equally wonderful Jenningses sweaters.

I’m now offering you a chance to nominate your favorite piece of cinematic knitwear. I’ve got more information about what I’m looking for here. If you’ve got one, send an email over to [email protected] with your pick!

And if you enjoyed this newsletter and want to directly support my work, you can leave me a tip on Ko-Fi!

1  I know that Beloved Character Actress Margo Martindale has already won several Emmys for her performance on this show, so she’ll be fine.