Obsessing about the Telluride Film Festival and the film awards season since 2008!
"The best blog out there for predicting what will be going to Telluride."-Matt Neglia, Next Best Picture
"The Nostradamus of Telluride"
-Tim Appelo, Movies for Grownups
Matt Neglia of Next Best Picture (and remember Matt was on the ground in Cannes for the first two thirds or so) posted on his X account on Monday some speculation about where all of the Cannes' Palme d'Or competition films might go during the upcoming fall film fest frenzy. Of the 22, Matt has named 8 films that he thinks may be a part of the TFF #53 lineup...
Again, Matt's predictions: All of a Sudden, Bitter Christmas, The Black Ball, Coward, Fatherland, Fjord, Minotaur and Paper Tiger.
I'm most interested in Paper Tiger, Fatherland and Coward. Could get interested in Fjord, Minotaur and All of a Sudden.
THE BLACK BALL TEASER
We have a teaser from The Black Ball, which we're on TFF#53 alert for. Could it be in Telluride on Labor Day weekend?
Here it is via YouTube and MovieStar Plus:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAZ8aVMfAUw
ACQUISITION NEWS OUT OF CANNES
Deadline reports that Netflix has acquired The Black Ball for distribution and Gentle Monster as well. The pick-up doesn't either hurt a film's chances for a play at Telluride as Netflix has become a very visible presence at the fest for the last several years.
Meanwhile, MUBI has grabbed the North American distribution rights for Kukas Dhont's Coward. That's also a move that doesn't hurt the prospects for Coward to be at TFF. Dhont has previously presented two films at Telluride: Girl in 2018 and Close in 2022.
It's all over in France. The 79th Cannes Film Festival closed with its awards ceremony on Saturday evening and Cristian Mungiu's Fjord won the Palme d'Or. It was Mungiu's second Palme win after having won previously for Four Years, Three Weeks, Two Days back in 2007. That film played the Telluride Film festival.
Complete winners from the Palme d'Or official competition:
Palme d'Or: Fjord (Mungiu)
Grand Prix: Minotaur (Zvyaginastev)
Jury Prize: The Dreamed Adventure (Grisebach)
Best Direction (Tie): Fatherland (Pawelkowski) and The Black Ball (Calvo and Ambrossi)
Best Screenplay: A Man of His Time (Marre)
Best Actress (Tie): All of a Sudden (Efira and Okamoto)
Best Actor (Tie): Coward (Macchia and Campagne)
STACKING UP WITH THE RECENT PAST
For comparison's sake, here's a winner of the same categories over the last five years with eventual TFF selections indicated with an *.
2025
Palme d'Or: It Was Just an Accident (Panahi)*
Grand Prix: Sentimental Value (Trier)*
Jury Prize: (Tie) Sirat (Laxe) and The Sound of Falling (Schilinski)
Best Direction: The Secret Agent (Mendonca)*
Best Screenplay: Young Mothers (Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardennes)
Best Actress: The Little Sister (Nadia Melliti)
Best Actor (Tie): The Secret Agent (Wagner Moura)*
Special Prize: Ressurection (Gan)
2024
Palme d'Or: Anora (Baker)*
Grand Prix: All We Imagine as Light (Kapadia)*
Jury Prize: Emilia Perez (Audiard)*
Best Direction: Grand Tour (Gomes)
Best Screenplay: The Substance (Fargeat)
Best Actress: Emilia Perez (Gascon, Saldana, Gomez and Paz)*
Best Actor: Kinds of Kindness (Plemons)
Special Prize: The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Rasoulof)*
2023
Palme d'Or: Anotomy of a Fall (Triet)*
Grand Prix: The Zone of Interest (Glazer)*
Jury Prize: Fallen Leaves (Kaurismaki)*
Best Direction: The Taste of Things (Tran Ahn Hung)*
Best Screenplay: Monster (Sakamoto, dir: Kore-eda)
Best Actress: About Dry Grasses (Merve Dizdar)
Best Actor: Fallen Leaves (Koji Yakoshu)*
2022
Palme d'Or: Triangle of Sadness (Ostlund)
Grand Prix: (Tie): Stars at Noon (Denis) and Close (Dhont)*
Jury Prize: (Tie): Eo (Skolimowski) and Eight Mountains (Vandermeersch and Groeningen)
Best Direction: Decision to Leave (Chan-wook)
Best Screenplay: Boy from Heaven (Saleh)
Best Actress: Holy Spider (Amir Ebrahimi)*
Best Actor: Broker (Kang-ho)*
Special 75th Anniversary Prize: Tori and Lokita (Dardennes)*
2021
Palme d'Or: Titane (Ducournau)
Grand Prix: (Tie): Compartment No. 6 (Kuosmanen) and A Hero (Farhadi)*
Jury Prize: (Tie): Ahed's Knee (Lapid) and Memoria (Weerasethakul)
Best Direction: Annette (Carax)
Best Screenplay: Drive My Car (Hamaguchi)
Best Actress: The Worst Person in the World (Renate Reinsve)
Best Actor: Nitram (Caleb Landry Jones)
As you can see, winning the Plame d'Or isn't a guarantee that a film will play at TFF although the last three have.
As to the rest of the categories, here's where they stand over the five years with winners then being a part of TFF:
Grand Prix: 5 (it's the most solid category in terms of a Cannes/Telluride connection).
Jury Prize: 2
Director: 2
Screenplay: 0
Actress: 2
Actor: 3
Special Prizes: 2
So your best odds by this metric favor 2026 Grand Prix winner Minotaur.
Next best are for Palme winners and Best Actor which would point toward: Fjord and Coward.
After that it gets very murky...
WHAT THE RATINGS SUGGEST
Taking a look at Cannes results over the last five years that have made the connection between Cannes and Telluride is, at the least interesting, and may be instructive as to anticipating what films might make that journey this year.
First, the average number of films that do the Telluride/Cannes two step seems to have increased over the past five years. Here's the number that have made it since 2021:
2021-7
2022-9
2023-10
2024-8
2025-9
That averages out to 8.6 films each year.
Now, using the ratings from Cannes-ratings.org, where did these 43 films land on their 10point scale?
2021:
A Hero 7.30
Red Rocket 7.30
The French Dispatch 7.11
Bergman Island 7.09
The Velvet Underground 6.83
Cow 6.80
Unclenching the Fists 6.24
2022:
The Pupils 8.37
Aftersun 8.17
Close 7.76
Broker 7.47
Godland 7.38
One Fine Morning 7.34
Armageddon Time 6.90
Holy Spider 6.70
Tori and Lokita 6.32
2023:
The Zone of Interest 8.19
Perfect Days 7.91
Anatomy of a Fall 7.90
Fallen Leaves 7.46
La Chimera 7.46
The Taste of Things 7.01
Occupied City 6.97
Anselm 6.41
Little Girl Blue 6.21
Room 999 (no ratings found)
2024:
Anora 8.35
Misericordia 7.47
Bird 7.45
Emilia Perez 7.42
All We Imagine as Light 7.02
The Apprentice 6.94
Santosh 6.07
2025:
Sentimental Value 8.04
It Was Just an Accident 7.75
Pillion 7.30
Nouvelle Vague 7.23
Urchin 7.15
A Private Life 6.99
Mastermind 6.29
The History of Sound 5.81
43 films in all with 2025's The History of Sound being the lowest rated film to be picked up of any of the 43 by TFF.
The vast majority of films clear the 6.5 bar. That's true for 35 of he 43 films listed above. So what do this year's ratings signal, if anything?
Using the 6.5 or above metric and also being a little sly about films that are on the MTFB watch list, here's some takeaways:
32 films in all sections of Cannes #79 were above the 6.5 threshold. Among them, here are some films that I have on the MTFB watch list and where they are on the Cannes-ratings.org list:
#7) All of a Sudden 7.39
#10) Coward 7.28
#11) Minotaur 7.03
#21) Fjord 6.69
Other films that made enough of a splash that could earn them spots on the MTFB Watch List:
#1 Club Kid 8.37
#13 The Dreamed Adventure 6.94
#15 The Black Ball 6.91
#24 Avedon 6.50
#31 Clarissa 6.43
MTFB Watch list films that may have taken a hit:
#40 Fatherland 6.15
#42 Paper Tiger 6.15
#43 Hope 6.14
Off the top 50 grid so...you know...
Moulin 5.73
Gentle Monster 4.66
Sheep in the Box 4.53
Parallel Tales 4.22
The Unknown 4.14
Draw your own conclusions...the first official "Ten Bets" for TFF #53 drops on June18th.
More on Thursday!
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With the awards now only hours away in France. MTFB is updating our window on the critical response there.
Additional titles have screened and continued adding of critics' responses puts us with 12 films we're including in our analysis of what's what at Cannes
Here's the rundown on each film from each critical accumulator I'm following: Ioncinema, Screen Daily, The International Cinephile Society and Cannes-ratings.org.
IONCINEMA (5 point scale)
1) Fatherland 3.7
1) Fjord 3.7
1) Coward 3.7
4) Minotaur 3.5
5) A Man of His Time 3.4
5) The Man I Love 3.4
7) All of a Sudden 3.3
8) Paper Tiger 3.2
8) The Beloved 3.2
10) Hope 3.2
11) Bitter Christmas 3.0
12) The Black Ball 2.8
SCREEN DAILY (4 point scale)
1) Fatherland 3.3
2) Minotaur 3.2
3) All of a Sudden 3.1
4) Paper Tiger 2.8
4) Hope 2.8
4) A Man of His Time 2.8
7) Fjord 2.5
8) Bitter Christmas 2.2
9) The Man I Love 2.1
9) The Black Ball 2.8
11)Coward 2.0
11) The Beloved 2.0
INTERNATIONAL CINEPHILE SOCIETY (4 point scale)
1) Paper Tiger 3.69
2) Fatherland 3.54
2) A Man of His Time 3.54
4) The Man I Love 3.50
5) All of a Sudden 3.38
6) Minotaur 3.23
7) Coward 3.06
8) Bitter Christmas 3.00
9) Fjord 2.96
10) Hope 2.71
11) The Beloved 2.54
12) The Black Ball 2.05
CANNES-RATINGS.ORG (10 point scale)
1) The Black Ball 8.62
2) Coward 7.80
3) Bitter Christmas 7.48
4) All of a Sudden 7.27
5) Minotaur 7.00
6) Fjord 6.81
7) The Beloved 6.49
8) Hope 6.37
9) A Man of His Time 6.33
10) Fatherland 6.12
11) Paper Tiger 6.07
12) The Man I Love 5.44
and the MTFB "touch" the combination from all four sources*.
1) Fatherland 13.60
2) Minotaur 13.42
2) All of a Sudden 13.42
4) A Man of His Time 12.91
5) Paper Tiger 12.73
6) Coward 12.66
7) Fjord 12.57
8) Bitter Christmas 11.94
9) Hope 11.90
10) The Man I Love 11.72
11) The Black Ball 11.26
12) The Beloved 10.99
* Ratings have been balanced for each source.
Finally the Kalshi line this morning for the Palme d'Or have All of a Sudden out front with The Black Ball at #2 and Fatherland at #3.
The critics are all over the place with various groups placing films at wildly divergent spots within this top 12. Look again at the combined ratings with the addition of what spot they're at in each of the four groups. It's crazily inconsistent:
1) Fatherland 13.60 [1-1-2-10]
2) Minotaur 13.42 [4-2-6-5]
2) All of a Sudden 13.42 [7-3-5-4]
4) A Man of His Time 12.91 [5-4-2-9]
5) Paper Tiger 12.73 [8-4-1-11]
6) Coward 12.66 [1-11-7-2]
7) Fjord 12.57 [1-7-9-6]
8) Bitter Christmas 11.94 [11-8-8-3]
9) Hope 11.90 [10-4-10-8]
10) The Man I Love 11.72 [5-9-4-12]
11) The Black Ball 11.26 [12-9-12-1]
12) The Beloved 10.99 [8-11-11-7]
My gut leans toward All of a Sudden.
A Tough week for Farhadi (Parallel Tales), Kruetzer (Gentle Monster), Kore-eda (Sheep in the Box), Harari (The Unknown) and Nemes (Moulin).
As an addendum to today's regular post I am updating the critics' charts with the most recently available information.
We're looking what seem to be the eight critical favorites from the Palme d'Or competition. Each of them are somewhere on the MTFB radar as possible titles for TFF #53. Currently, the charts are missing sufficient data on 4-5 films (keep an eye on the critical response to Lukas Dhont's Coward) Award winners will be announced on Saturday.
Here's the rundown on each film from each critical accumulator I'm following: Ioncinema, Screen Daily, The International Cinephile Society and Cannes-ratings.org.
IONCINEMA (5 point scale)
1) Fatherland 3.7
1) Fjord 3.7
3) Minotaur 3.5
4) All of a Sudden 3.3
5) Paper Tiger 3.2
5) The Beloved 3.2
5) Hope 3.2
8) Bitter Christmas 2.9
SCREEN DAILY (4 point scale)
1) Fatherland 3.3
2) Minotaur 3.2
3) All of a Sudden 3.1
4) Paper Tiger 2.8
4) Hope 2.8
6) Fjord 2,5
7) Bitter Christmas 2.2
8) The Beloved 2.0
INTERNATIONAL CINEPHILE SOCIETY (4 point scale)
1) Paper Tiger 3.69
2) Fatherland 3.54
3) All of a Sudden 3.38
4) Minotaur 3.23
5) Bitter Christmas 3.04
6) Fjord 2.82
7) Hope 2.71
8) The Beloved 2.54
CANNES-RATINGS.ORG (10 point scale)
1) Bitter Christmas 7.61
2) Minotaur 7.38
3) All of a Sudden 6.86
4) Fjord 6.69
5) The Beloved 6.51
5) Hope 6.51
7) Fatherland 6.03
8) Paper Tiger 6.02
and the MTFB "touch" the combination from all four sources*.
1) Minotaur 13.62
2) Fatherland 13.56
3) All of a Sudden 13.21
4) Paper Tiger 12.70
5) Fjord 12.37
6) Bitter Christmas 12.00
7) Hope 11.95
8) The Beloved
* Ratings have been balanced for each source.
Finally the Kalshi line this morning for the Palme d'Or have All of a sudden and Minotaur in a dead heat closely followed by Fatherland.
The 79th Cannes Film Fest has passed its halfway mark and is barreling toward its conclusion this weekend. Taking a look at the metrics from Screen Daily, Ioncinema and Cannes-ratings.org, here are the films that seem to be at the forefront critically (*** indicates that the film is on my TFF watch list):
From Screen Daily (films in Palme competition with a better than 2.5 rating on a four point scale):
From Cannes-ratings.org (films in Palme competition with a better than 7.0 rating on a 10 point scale and a minimum of 8 reviews):
1) Fjord 7.81***
2) Bitter Christmas 7.53***
3) All of a Sudden 7.24***
3) The Beloved 7.24
Of special note is the hugely favorable critical reception to Club Kid from the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes. It has a stellar 8.43 rating to lead all films in any section of the fest. News broke on Tuesday that the film had been picked up for U.S. distribution by A24 after a bidding war that included: Netflix, Searchlight, Focus Features and MUBI according to this story from Variety.
The critical reception, the players vying for the film and the ultimate winning bid is enough to make me pay attention to it as a possible TFF selection. Stay tuned.
Club Kid is a first feature for director/writer Jordan Firstman. . The IMDb description is:
"A washed-up New York party promoter is forced to turn his life around when an unexpected visitor arrives."
According to Kalshi (as of yesterday), Minotaur has the best odds to win the Palme followed by All of a Sudden and Fatherland.
SOME BUZZ FOR EISENBERG
Spooking around the interwebs yesterday I came across the news that what has been referred to as "The Untitled Jesse Eisenberg Musical Comedy now has an actual title: No One Cares. It also seems that the film has been screened at Cannes and it seems that the screening went well. So says World of Reel.
WOR describes the film as follows:
"Starring Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti, with Eisenberg also appearing briefly, “No One Cares” is set in “the high-stakes world of community theater,” and follows a shy woman (Moore) who is unexpectedly cast in a local production of an original musical."
Giamatti plays the director of the community theater production. I think it sounds great and I have had it on my TFF #53 watch list for some time mostly because Eisenberg screened A Real Pain at TFF in 2024. That seemed to work out fairly well. The film is being distributed by A24 which doesn't hurt. Additionally WOR writes:
"A24 is positioning the film for a fall premiere, potentially at the Telluride Film Festival and then at the Toronto International Film Festival. An Oscar campaign will likely be mounted for all key players involved."
MIKE LEIGH HAS A TITLE
Another "Untitled Project" has an actual title and that's the next film from director Mike Leigh. The name: Tender Loving Care. Past that we know almost nothing about the project. You can likely glean a bit of info from what IMDb still lists as "Untitled 2025 Mike Leigh Project" which we assume is the same thing as the newly christened Tender Loving Care.
The IMDb entry reveals that Bleeker Street is the U.S. distributor.
Considering Leigh's frequent stops at TFF over the years (Secrets and Lies, Happy-Go-Lucky, Another Year and others) you have to believe there's a decent chance that if it's ready, Tender Loving Care has a decent shot to play TFF #53.
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Though we're only through the first few days of the Cannes International Film Festival, we're already seeing the emergence of some potential prize-winners for the fest. Here's the early version of the Screen Daily panel of critics:
SCREEN DAILY
As you can see the early films making a mark here are Pawlikowskis' Fatherland and Hamaguchi's all of a Sudden. Both films have been fairly consistently on the various lists I have posted since the Oscar ceremony and before. Meanwhile. Ioncinema's chart echoes the status of both Father land and All of a Sudden:
Meanwhile, we're awaiting a sufficient number of reviews to be accumulated at Cannes-ratings.org to truly make any assumption regarding where films are truly standing withe regard to that metric.
Couple of other notes here. Both Farhadi's Parallel Tales, Kore-eda's Sheep in a Box and Kruetzer's Gentle Monster seem on shaky ground as regards prizes at Cannes and perhaps as contenders for TFF #53.
COUSINS NEW DOCUMENTARY (ABOUT DOCUMENTARIES) GETS DISTRIBUTION
Telluride regular Marc Cousins (The Story of Film, A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things among several others) has garnered distribution for his next project: The Story of Documentary Film) Kino Lorber has nabbed the North American rights for the 16 part doc about docs.
The question as to its possible appearance at Telluride rises from its inclusion at Sundance earlier this year. My best guess is that owing to Cousins frequent presence at TFF and his current position as a Resident Curator and his past position on the fest's Board of Advisors. as well as being a TFF Tributee in 2022...my bet is we get some of the 16 episodes.
The 79th Cannes Film Festival is officially underway in France. As is our habit here at MTFB, we will monitor the fest for the next two weeks looking at buzz, critical reception and ultimately prize winners to assess prospects for films to do the Cannes/Telluride Two Step.
As I have often mentioned, the link between the two film fests is quite strong with an average of 7ish or so films playing each year, first at Cannes and then later at Telluride.
I also tend to look at Cannes-ratings.org, Ioncinema and Screen daily for collections of critical responses. Last year nine films made the trans-Atlantic leap from France to Colorado. Here's where they stood critically at Cannes based on the Cannes-ratings.org site's 10 point system:
Sentimental Value 8.04
It Was Just an Accident 7.75
Pillion 7.30
Nouvelle Vague 7.23
Urchin 7.15
The Secret Agent 6.99
Mastermind 6.29
A Private Life 5.90
The History of Sound 5.31
It's too early in the fest to start keeping tabs on the critical reactions but we may be able to begin to evaluate some of that in Monday's post.
AWARDS WATCH AND TFF CLUES
Erik Anderson has begun his annual updating list of predictions for Oscar '27 and I'm going through them for possible TFF titles. among the films that he lists as Best Picture possibilities, these are the ones that look most Telluride-friendly:
Pedro Almodovar's Bitter Christmas is playing Cannes...and could be a Telluride player as well. In conjunction with its bow at Cannes, there is a poster and a teaser. Here they be:
And the teaser from Sony Pictures Classics and YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PgPkSpuYpY&t=2s
PICS FROM POSSIBLES FROM CANNES:
***From Vanity Fair: Paper Tiger:
***From The Hollywood Reporter: Coward:
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The confusion surrounding whether Werner Herzog's Bucking Fastard might or might not screen at Cannes seems to have been cleared up. Variety has reported that the film was selected but not for Palme d'Or competition. That appears to have not sat well with the Herzog camp as they reportedly turned down the invitation.
Variety further reports that the impetus for that decision has to do with the eligibilty for Rooney and Kate Mara who play sisters in the film. From Variety:
"The reason that “Bucking Fastard” won’t be playing at that the Palais is that it wasn’t offered a Cannes competition slot. Herzog had hoped that stars Rooney and Kate Mara, who are said to give searing performances as twin sisters, would be eligible for awards, according to a source close to the filmmakers."
Open speculation is that Herzog will likely now premiere the film at Venice...which would still leave it positioned to make the TFF #53 lineup.
I had included Matt Johnson's Tony (sort of origin story for celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain starring Dominic Sessa (The Holdovers) in the title role) on a couple of speculative lists for Telluride. That's moot now as we.ve seen that the film has been dated for release on August 7th.
GUADAGNINO AND ARTIFICIAL MOVE TO 2027
Another film that is probably off the list of TFF #53 possibles is Luca Guadagnino's Artificial. World of Reel reports that the film will be moving toa 2027 release primarily to avoid competing with Aaron Sorkin;s The Social Reckoning. Both films had been dated for Oct. 9th according to IMDB.
The story from WOR (and PageSixHollywood) reads:
"...Amazon/MGM has decided that “Artificial” won’t be released in the fall — instead it is now aiming for an early 2027 release because it “didn’t want the film to go up against [Aaron Sorkin’s] ‘The Social Network’ sequel,” which is set to release in October, given that the two films “share similar themes of cutthroat tech billionaires.”
The 2027 dating likely moves Artificial off the Telluride watch list.
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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.
Ask E. Jean, a documentary that screened as a part of TFF #52, has released a trailer. That release comes ahead of a May 22nd release date.
Here's the IMDb description:
"E. Jean Carroll won two lawsuits against Donald Trump for defamation and battery. Beyond that, she built a career as a successful magazine writer and authored one of America's longest-running advice columns."
Here's the trailer from YouTube:
SEE THE LIVES OF OTHERS ON STAGE...IN ENGLAND...THIS FALL
One of my favorite Telluride experiences was catching Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's The Lives of Others back in 2006 at my very first TFF. Didn't know anything about it and thought it was great. The film would go on to win the 2007 Best Foreign Language Oscar.
Now comes news that there is a stage adaptation on its way. Both Variety and The Hollywood Report had the story this week.
Big names are involves to as it was announced that the play will star Keira Knightley, Stephen Dillane and Luke Thompson.
Plans are for the film to open in October and run until January 2027.
MARK JOHNSON'S (THE AWARDS ALCHEMIST) FIRST OSCAR STAB (AND WHICH OF THEM COULD BE AT TELLURIDE)
Mark Johnson who is housed at Awards Watch as "The Awards Alchemist" has posted his first look at predicting Oscar nominees for Best Picture for the 2026 run of films. MTFB analyzes his list and names "possible" TFF #53 selections. Today I'll also add for each, the biggest reason I think each of them could play TFF. Here's what that looks like:
*Wild Horse Nine (dir: McDonagh)...Best hint it plays: From Searchlight.
*Digger (dir:Inarritu)...Hint: Inarritu ( a reminder, this film has been reported to not play ANY fall fest).
*Saturn Return (dir: Kwedar)...Hint: From Netflix.
*Fjord (dir: Munigu) Hint: Cannes Selection and it's from NEON.
*The Social Reckoning (dir: Sorkin) Hint: I'm wishful thinking here. If it means anything, three major cast members have been recent TFF attendees: Jeremy Strong, Mikey Madison and Jeremy Allen White.
*Fatherland (was titled 1949 for a long time) (dir: Pawlikowski) Hint: Cannes Selection, Pawlikoski
and it's from MUBI.
*All of a Sudden (dir: Hamaguchi) Hint: Cannes Selection and from NEON.
*Jack of Spades (dir: J. Coen) Hint: Coen. sort of...mostly me wishing again.
*Bucking Fastard (dir: Herzog) Hint: Herzog.
*Narnia: The Magician's Nephew (dir: Gerwig) Hints: Gerwig and it's from Netflix.
*Behemoth! (dir: Gilroy) Hint: from Searchlight.
*Untitled Jesse Eisenberg Musical (dir: Eisenberg) Hints: Eisenberg and from A24.
*I Am Rocky (dir: Farrelly) Hint: From Amazon-MGM.
*Artificial (dir: Guadagnino) Hints: Guadagnino and from Amazon-MGM
*A Long Winter (dir: Haigh) Hints; Haigh and from MUBI.
*Paper Tiger (dir: Gray) Hints: Cannes Selection, Gray and from NEON.
As expected, the Cannes Film Festival added a number of films to several different sections on Wednesday. Most notable is the addition of James Gray's Paper Tiger to the Palme d'Or competition. That addition had been widely expected.
14 other films were added to various sections but, at first blush, none of those jumps out as a TFF #53 candidate. Of them, Diego Luna's Ashes, added as a Special Screening, intrigues me the most and if I had to point at one other film beyond Paper Tiger that could be in play for a Labor Day date in Telluride, that would be it.
Additionally, Variety reported yesterday that Paper Tiger has been acquired by NEON for North American distribution. NEON has been on tear in recent years as far as the Palme d'Or competition, winning every one since Parasite. The NEON acquisition doesn't hurt the film's chances of a TFF screening. Gray's last film, Armageddon Time, played TFF in 2022.
There are two articles from Variety from yesterday:
Per World of Reel, earlier reporting that Werner Herzog's Bucking Fastard was headed to the Premiere section at Cannes haven't proven out. Purportedly yesterday's Cannes announcement completes the films for all sections. Herzog's film was not among them.
In WOR's story from yesterday:
"Notably absent is Werner Herzog, whose “Bucking Fastard” came very close to entering the official competition but was ultimately offered a slot in the Cannes Premiere section — it now looks like the film will be headed to Venice in September."
The possible inclusion of Bucking Fastard at Venice certainly doesn't preclude its possible selection for TFF #53.
Deadline reported last week that Alejandro G. Inarritu's hotly anticipated Digger starring Tom Cruise may not play any festival at all. The context for this was the presentation for the film at Cinemacon last week.
Of course, we know that Digger is not playing Cannes but with its announced Oct. 2nd release date many assumed (me included) that a Venice bow was in play followed (I would have thought) by a TFF #53 North American Premiere. Warner Bros. seems to have poured cold water on the notion. From Deadline:
"EXCLUSIVE: Warner Bros and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Tom Cruise starrer Digger, which wowed at CinemaCon on Tuesday, is unlikely to debut at a fall festival, we can reveal.
The film’s October 2 release date has led to speculation, and anticipation, in many quarters that Venice or another fall festival would be in the cards. Six of Iñárritu’s seven films have premiered at either Cannes or Venice. However, according to multiple well-placed sources, that’s not the current plan. Of course, things can change, but at the moment, we hear that’s how the land lies.
Warner Bros and Legendary declined comment."
I suppose the "escape hatch" is the phrasing "that’s not the current plan. Of course, things can change," that leaves some wiggle room for something to change.
Honestly, I think the film could still make an appearance at Telluride. Inarritu has screened Babel, Biutiful, Birdman and Bardo at T-ride. The history/connection there is deep. In a normal year, Digger might have appeared at the top of my annual "Ten Bets" first take for Telluride in June. That will change now...but...I may still include the film somewhere in that initial Top Ten Bets.
For hoots...here's the current teaser from Digger from Warner Bros. and YouTube:
Prior to its screening at Cannes, a trailer for Asghar Farhadi's Parallel Tales ha s been released. The trailer is in French so those of you who can speak/translate...here you go. For those of us who cannot...it's still an interesting glimpse at what the film will be. Here it is from YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXuLiRIkVkw
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The Director's Fortnight Section of the 79th Cannes Film Festival has been announced. That information was released on Tuesday. Taking a quick look at the titles, the only film that jumps out as a possibility for TFF #53 is Kantemir Balagov's Butterfly Jam. Balagov was at Telluride in 2029 with Beanpole. I will say that Reed van Dyk's Atonement sounds interesting and might be worth keeping an eye on.
Butterfly Jam (Kantemir Balagov)***
9 Temples To Heaven (Sompot Chidgasornpongse)
Atonement (Reed Van Dyk)
Clarissa (Arie Esiri & Chuko Esiri)
Death has no master (Jorge Thielen Armand)
The Diary of a Chambermaid (Radu Jude)
Dora (July Jung)
La libertad doble (Lisandro Alonso)
Gabin (Maxence Voiseux)
I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning (Clio Barnard)
Low Expectations (Eivind Landsvik)
Once Upon A Time In Harlem (David Greaves)
La Perra (Dominga Sotomayor)
Shana (Lila Pinell)
Thanks for Coming (Merci d’être venu) (Alain Cavalier)
l’Espèce Explosive (Sarah Arnold)
Viva Carmen (Sebastian Laundenbach)
We Are Aliens (Kohei Kadowaki)
Le Vertige (Quentin Dupieux)
NEOIN GRABS HOPE
Reports that distributor NEON, which has a run of six straight films winning Cannes' Palme d'Or, has picked up U.S. distribution for Na Hong-jon's Hope. The film stars Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander. The acquisition makes me think that NEON thinks it could be a player when awards are handed out at the of Cannes. That's enough to make me think it might be a consideration for TFF.
The IMDb's description goes like this:
"A mysterious discovery is made on the outskirts of the remote harbor town. The residents find themselves in a desperate fight for survival against something they have never encountered before."
NEON's Palme run has included: Parasite, Titane, Triangle of Sadness, Anatomy of a Fall, Anora and It Was Just an Accident. All but Titane and Triangle of Sadness subsequently played at Telluride.
TONY MAY BE LATE
I have had Matt Johnson's Tony on the periphery of my lists of "maybe" films for TFF #53 but I might have to re-calculate as World of Reel reports that the film is headed for reshoots beginning as early as next week.
Tony is based on a real episode from the life of legendary chef Anthony Bourdain. Bourdain os being played by "The Holdovers" breakout Dominic Sessa. Plans apparently are for the film to be available for fall festival time even with the additional filming schedule to take place now.
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