I actually was surprised at all three boots. Not one of those three films were the worst of the bunch (I'd give those to Kenny's wacky taxi, the peeing on the bus one, and "How to Screw in a Lightbulb"). I was particularly bummed that of the women, Carolina and Claudia went first -- both of their films were beautiful to look at and showed a lot more creativity and talent than either Jessica the film student or the chick that did the peeing on the bus film. There were several other of the men's films which were equally as problematic as Phil's stuck on hold bit -- the mini golf one and "File Size" for instance. I think the reason that these three went first had little to do with the quality of their films and everything to do with the format of the voting -- it favors the young, geeky, internet savvy guys who I'm sure have tons of friends lined up to pump out the online votes for them. This probably helped film school Jess as well. Meanwhile, the European contestants are disadvantaged by the time-difference and cost of overseas calling, even if they could have organized a "voting block."
I think the voting for this show should be more like Dancing with the Stars, where votes are limited by the number of contestants still in the running and there is a Judge component to who goes. This would limit the impact of multiple votes for peoples "friends" and actually give the less well-connected but more talented directors a shot to stick around.
Plus, I really hated the format of the elimination -- other than the top three and the bottom three, you had no idea how the others stood in relation to the rest. You didn't even know if the person who was saved from the "bottom two" in each row was really in the bottom -- to me it looked like they paired the real bottom person with a random person who the judges criticized in order to provide suspense, which I found annoying and manipulative.
I really wanted to like this show, but the voting format, the annoying host and the terrible set up of the results show has dampened my enthusiasm. For now I'll keep watching, since there's really nothing else on right now, but the show's hold on this particular reality t.v. fanatic's viewership is tenuous to say the least.