TWO MILLION TIMES
MTFB blew past the two million view mark since the last post. The average views per post now is 818. That's a lot of reading...and writing. Thanks for taking a look...2,000,000 times.
COLLATING YOU DIDN'T KNOW YOU NEEDED
So, I went through the various lists that I have used to try to get a bead on TFF #53 including "Too Early" Oscar predictions, Cannes Speculation and ultimate choices, and "Most Anticipated" lists from the beginning of the year to get a sense of where my mind has been over the first four months of 2026 concerning potential TFF #53 films and here's what I discovered...
James Gray's Paper Tiger leads my take from all the different lists...not by much, but it is the film I have mentioned the most.
The next group all are close to Paper Tiger. Four films are grouped here:
Hamagichi's All of a Sudden, Guadagnino's Artificial, Inarritu's Digger and Munigiu's Fjord.
Weirdly, despite these four being the second most mentioned in my speculations I can't say any of them feel like a sure thing for TFF. And, of course, Warner Brothers has stated that Digger won't be doing any festivals much like Inarritu's The Revenant back in 2015).
The next group includes:
Almodovar's Bitter Christmas, Joel Coen's Jack of Spades, Farhadi's Parallel Tales and Kore-eda's Sheep in the Box.
And like the previous group, they all feel possible and none of them feel certain.
The final group has six films:
Herzog's Bucking Fastard, Pawlikowski's Fatherland, Sorkin's The Social Reckoning, McDonagh's Wild Horse Nine, Kwedar's Saturn Return and Harari's The Unknown.
I actually feel pretty good about Herzog and Pawlikowski. The other films in this group seem borderline possible.
Among the 18 other films that have appeared somewhere in m musings over the last four months, the most likely TFF candidates would appear to be:
The Long Winter (Haigh)
Coward (Dhont)
The Basics of Philosophy (Schrader)
As we begin the month of May we'll be paying particular attention to critical responses and ultimately the awards presentations out of Cannes which kicks off on May 12th and concludes May 23rd.
LOOKS AND RE-LOOKS
We have a clip from Oren Jacoby's This Is Not a Drill. The documentary screened at TFF #52. Here's the clip from YouTube and The Film Stage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQNqE6lUk7Q
Also, we have a teaser/trailer for Asghar Farhadi's Parallel Tales with subtitles. Also from YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3BV9KeJzGM
MTFB had it last week but didn't have a subtitled version.
NO NO NARNIA
I have been rather whimsically including an occasional mention that Greta Gerwig's Narnia; The Magician's Nephew might be a TFF #53 selection. Admittedly, it seemed unlikely but entirely outside the realm of possibility given the frequent appearance of Ms. Gerwig and/or her partner, Noah Baumbach at TFF over the years. Additionally, the fact that the it's from Netflix doesn't hurt in as far as a possible TFF play is concerned.
But all of that has been laid to rest as the film has been re-dates for a 2027 release. The Hollywood Reporter, among many outlets reported this on Friday. From THR:
"Gerwig’s adaptation of the sixth book in the C.S. Lewis fantasy series, The Magician’s Nephew...will now be getting a release on Feb. 12, 2027 and then will hit on Netflix April 2, 2027. Sneak previews of the film will begin on Feb. 10, 2027, only in Imax."
I guess it's still possible in a far-fetched scenario, that the film could still screen at Telluride, but with a release now coming nearly six months later...probably not.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/netflix-narnia-movie-greta-gerwig-release-date-1236581880/
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