Alexander Payne and The Holdovers / Screen Talk. She Said and NYFF / BFI-London Chooses Empire of Light

ALEXANDER PAYNE AND THE HOLDOVERS

(Photo via World of Reel)

Many of you know that I usually include Oscar winning director/writer Alexander Payne as a "Usual Suspects" that frequently attend the Telluride Film Festival.  Payne guest directed the fest in 2009 and is listed as a member of TFF's Board of Governors. But I didn't include Payne this year though I knew he was working on a new film starring his Sideways lead actor Paul Giamatti.  The Holdovers is described at IMDb as follows:

"Nobody likes teacher Paul Hunham (Giamatti) -- not his students, not his fellow faculty, not the headmaster, who all find his pomposity and rigidity exasperating. With no family and nowhere to go over Christmas holiday in 1970, Paul remains at school to supervise students unable to journey home. After a few days, only one student holdover remains -- a trouble-making 15-year-old named Angus, a good student whose bad behavior always threatens to get him expelled. Joining Paul and Angus is head cook Mary (Randolph)-an African American woman who caters to sons of privilege and whose own son was recently lost in Vietnam. These three very different shipwrecked people form an unlikely Christmas family sharing comic misadventures during two very snowy weeks in New England. The real journey is how they help one another understand that they are not beholden to their past-they can choose their own futures."

Well...Jordan Ruimy at World of Reel revealed  that The Holdovers test screened last week indicating that some semi-complete version of the film does exist.  And, as a consequence Jordan has asked (and others have as well) whether or not there is a possibility that it could play at Telluride in less than three weeks.

When I was asked if it could play at TFF #49 my response was if anyone could make that happen it would be Alexander Payne.  Do I think it WILL happen?  No.  Do I think it COULD happen?  Sure...it's Payne.  There's a chance and I, for one, would welcome it.

SCREEN TALK, SHE SAID AND NYFF

Maria Schrader's She Said has been something of a badminton birdie for me this summer-back and forth, back and forth.

The latest salvo was its lack of inclusion on NYFF's Main Slate announcement last week.  I had assumed that the film's supposed World Premiere at NYFF would mean its inclusion as a Main Slate selection.  So when it was not I thought...hey...maybe it's still in play for TFF.

But a comment posted to my blog by "Unknown" on Thursday suggests:

"NYFF’s press release re: its Main Slate stated “Currents, Revivals, Spotlight, and Talks sections will be announced in the coming weeks.” My best guess is that She Said will be announced w/i the next two weeks as a NYFF Spotlight film accompanied by a Talk with the main cast and the journalists they portray."

Makes a lot of sense.

Then Anne Thompson on Indiewire's ScreenTalk podcast said this:

"I announced awhile ago that She Said was going to have a big event at the New York Film Festival and I believe that that is going to turn out to be true."  Which makes me think Anne knows even more than what she's saying.  Does it mean it's a World Premiere at New York and nit a TFF selection?  Probably.  

I also kind of think that Anne might be leading the Q+A after the film at NYFF-pure speculation on my part.

BUT, then Anne goes on to say that Sarah Polley's Women Talking will be announced sometime soon as an addition to NYFF and I feel very confident that its initial bow will be at Telluride.

Sooo...She Said is a "probably not" again for TFF #49.  But....

BFI-LONDON CHOOSES EMPIRE OF LIGHT

The BFI-London Film Fest announced on Thursday that Sam Mendes Empire of Light will be this year's American Express Gala Screening at the British Film Institute/London Film Festival as a European Premiere.

Variety had the story which is linked here.

The premiere designation underscores the belief that the film will appear first at Telluride.  

The film stars Olivia Colman, Colin Firth and Toby Jones.  

Variety described the film this way:

"Set in an English seaside town in the early 1980s, the film is about human connection and the magic of cinema."

It's on my list to see during The SHOW.

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Ten Bets #8 / New York Announces Main Slate / Teaser for Bones and All / Marshall Flores Tracking the Films and Fests

TEN BETS #8

The New York Film Festival's full Main Slate announcement on Tuesday allowed us to interpret information about possible TFF #49 selections but mostly at the margins.  It also posed a couple of mysteries.

That said, here's a review of last week's Ten (Plus) Bets:

1) One Fine Morning/Hansen-Love

2) Women Talking/Polley

3) Broker/Kore-eda

4) Holy Spider/Abbasi

5) The Wonder/Lelio

6) Empire of Light/Mendes

7) Good Night Oppy/White

8) Bardo/Inarritu

9) TAR/Field

10) Bones and All/Guadagnino

11) Armageddon Time/Gray

12) The Pale Blue Eye/Cooper

13) A Compassionate Spy/James

14) Close/Dhont

15) Aftersun/Wells

Others Possibilities: Master Gardener/P. Schrader, Showing Up/Reichardt, Tori and Lokita/Dardennes, The Forger/Peren,Tuesday/Oniunas-Pusic, The Fire Within/Herzog, The U.S. and the Holocaust/Burns, Blonde/Dominik, Dreamin' Wild/Pohlad, March on Rome/Cousins, Argentina 1985/Mitre

And here is the latest Ten (Plus) Bets:

1) One Fine Morning/Hansen-Love

2) Women Talking/Polley

3) Broker/Kore-eda

4) Holy Spider/Abbasi

5) The Wonder/Lelio

6) Empire of Light/Mendes

7) Armageddon Time/Gray

8) Bardo/Inarritu

9) TAR/Fields

10) Bones and All/Guadagnino

11) Good Night Oppy/White

12) The Pale Blue Eye/Cooper

13) A Compassionate Spy/James

14) Aftersun/Wells

15) Close/Dhont

Others Possibilities: Tori and Lokita/Dardennes, The Forger/Peren, Tuesday/Oniunas-Pusic, The Fire Within/Herzog, The U.S. and the Holocaust/Burns, Dreamin' Wild/Pohlad, March on Rome/Cousins, Argentina 1985/Mitre, The Story of Film: A New Generation/Cousins,  Athena/Gavras

See the next section for New York analysis and its effect or lack thereof.

NEW YORK ANNOUNCES MAIN SLATE

In the run-up to yesterday's announcement NYFF had already announced White Noise, Armageddon Time, Till  and All the Beauty and the Bloodshed as various special presentations.  From those announcements I had gleaned that White Noise, Till and The Inspection were off the list for a Telluride screening,  Cagey wording for the Armageddon Time announcement and lack of a premiere designation for All the Beauty made me think that those films could still be TFF possibilities.

With yesterday's announcement, here's what I think we can say:

Lack of any premiere status makes me believe that Armageddon Time, TAR, One Fine Morning and Aftersun are headed to TFF #49.

Premiere status for Master Gardener (North American premiere) and Showing Up (North American premiere) tell us that both films will NOT be at Telluride.  Other films that I had as borderline Telluride possibilities that will not make the trip to the San Juans: EO, No Bears, R.M.N., Return to Seoul and Stars at Noon.

There were also films with no premiere status that likely will NOT be T-ride players because they played at Sundance: All That Breathes and Descendant.

Mysteries:

1) Laura Poitras' All the Beauty and the Bloodshed was listed in some NYFF's release materials without a premiere designation and in others as a U.S. premiere.  Confusing?  Of course.  My feeling is that the documentary probably IS a U.S. premiere at NYFF and not bound for T-ride.  We'll see.

2) Joanna Hogg's The Eternal Daughter has no premiere status which lead me to think for awhile on Tuesday that it could be at T-ride.  Then a sharp-eyed  MTFB reader reminded me that the film has a North American premiere status for Toronto.  Now, it's my belief that Eternal Daughter will probably play Fantastic Fest and that would account for its lack of premiere status in the NYFF announcement.

3) Park Chan-wook's Decision to Leave has no NYFF premiere status either.  Perhaps it is also headed to Fantastic Fest?  I tend to believe the Toronto North American premiere status and thus no Telluride.

4) Ruben Ostlund's Cannes Palme d'Or winner Triangle of Sadness also has no NYFF premiere status but like Decision to Leave is listed by Toronto as a North American premiere. Like Decision to Leave, I suspect that TIFF's designation is correct and so Triangle of Sadness isn't headed to T-ride.

5) She Said was not announced as a part of NYFF's "Main Slate".  Back on August 1st I reported that She Said was going to land at NYFF and as a World Premiere.  That came from reporting from Jordan Ruimy at World of Reel.  

Now, NYFF likely has some other films to add but it seems more than weird that She Said wasn't a part of the Main Slate of films announced Tuesday.

So, it seems to me that She Said may be more uncertain as a NYFF WP than previously thought. 

On the other hand...can you say NYFF "secret screening"?

TEASER FOR BONES AND ALL

The peeps behind Luca Guadagnino's Bones and All dropped a teaser late yesterday afternoon.  I'm expecting the film to SHOW at TFF #49 based upon an interview with Venice Film Fest head Alberto Barbera in which he claimed that the film would be at Telluride.

Here's the teaser from YouTube:

MARSHALL FLORES TRACKING THE FILMS AND FESTS

Awards Daily's Marshall Flores has been tracking all of the news regarding fall film fests.  That chart is here:

Films that have landed at at least three of the fests (*Telluride, Cannes, Venice, Toronto and New York) are:

Armageddon Time*

Broker*

Decision to Leave

The Eternal Daughter

Holy Spider*

One Fine Morning*

Saint Omer

Films on the list that "technically" could still be in play for Telluride:

Blonde (though the word continues to be it'll be at Venice only)

Close

Don't Worry Darling (noop)

Golda (with Helen Mirren...late word from Ruimy last night is it"ll be out in 2023)

She Said (though rumored to WP at NYFF...no announcement yet...secret screening?)

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Star Gazing at TFF #49 / The Story of Film: A New Generation Trailer / Armageddon to NYFF / A Compassionate Spy Appears Confirmed

STAR GAZING AT TFF #49

Who might be joining us mere mortals in the San Juans in just a few weeks?  Working from my current Ten (Plus) Bets list, here are some possibilities (listed by film) with past TFF Guests indicated with ***:

Armageddon Time: Anne Hathaway, Jeremy Strong, Anthony Hopkins (who may have been a Tribute recipient had there been a TFF #47) and Jessica Chastain.

Bones and All: Timothee Chalamet, Taylor Russell***, Michael Stuhlbarg, Mark Rylance, Chloe Sevigny***.

Empire of Light: Colin Firth*** (Tribute 2010), Olivia Colman, Toby Jones.

One Fine Morning: Lea Seydoux***.

The Pale Blue Eye: Christian Bale***, Henry Melling, Gillian Anderson, Robert Duvall

TAR: Cate Blanchett, Mark Strong

Women Talking: Jesse Buckley, Rooney Mara*** (Tribute 2015), Clare Foy, Ben Whishaw, Frances McDormand.

The Wonder: Florence Pugh.

Hot prospects for Tributes include Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Olivia Colman and Frances McDormand.

THE STORY OF FILM: A NEW GENERATION TRAILER

TFF "Usual Suspect" Mark Cousins has a couple of projects that could make a splash at TFF #49.  One is an updating of sorts of his The Story of Film.  That film is The Story of Film: A New Generation and comes 10 years after the original.  The new version has a new trailer which dropped last week.  Here that is via YouTube:

Additionally, Cousins has a new documentary that will land at Venice and then could end up at Telluride.  March on Rome which is described at IMDb as a film that:

"Depicts the ascent of fascism in Italy, and its fallout across 1930s Europe."

I wouldn't be stunned if both films were screened at the fest.

ARMAGEDDON AT NYFF

The New York Film festival has announced that James Gray's Armageddon Time will play as a "Main Slate selection".  The announcement from NYFF is a little bit cagey with its language about the premiere status of the film:

"The premiere has been designated a special 60th anniversary screening event celebrating the history of the festival, featuring Gray and cast in attendance, along with NYFF filmmakers and supporters who have been integral to the festival’s success." 

There's no actual mention of its premiere status despite using the word premiere" in the announcement.  If the film isn't playing TFF/TIFF then New York could and likely would bill it as an North American premiere.  Also, the "60th anniversary screening event" language makes me think that the film plays somewhere else before NYFF.

So I'm going to stand pat, for the moment anyway, that Armageddon Time still screens at TFF #49.

NYFF's announcement is linked here.

A COMPASSIONATE SPY APPEARS CONFIRMED

Jordan Ruimy/World of Reel continues to be a fount of info regarding festival season.  In one of his later posts he seems to confirm that Steve James' A Compassionate Spy is headed for Telluride:

"Then there’s Steve James’ “A Compassionate Spy,” set to premiere at Venice, Telluride, Toronto and Chicago."

I reported here a week ago that the documentary looked like it was  headed to TFF #49 based on a Chicago Tribune story which included this:

"Though the filmmaker could not confirm the near-future for his latest project, many world premieres start at Venice and then go straight to a U.S. premiere at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado a few days later."

And:

"James wrapped up principal photography in April, and his producers at Participant Media suggested submitting the film for Venice (Aug. 31-Sept. 10) and Telluride (Sept. 2-5)."

Jordan's full story is here.

PS...another doc that Jordan mentions is Laura Poitras' All the Beauty and the Bloodshed" has also been announced as NYFF's Centerpiece and os absent any premiere designation for that fest as far as I can tell.  

That leads me to think that we might consider it as a TFF #49 prospect.  The film focuses on the work of photographer Nan Goldin and her fight against the Sackler family (Purdue Pharma).  

Goldin's story was recently included as a part of the Hulu miniseries Dopesick.

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Ten (Plus) Bets #7 / No GDT at TFF / No White Noise Either / But Probably a Pale Blue Eye / Could Living Play Telluride? / Teaser for Argentina, 1985 n Bets #8

TEN (PLUS) BETS #7 

Here's your latest edition of MTFB's Ten Bets for the TFF #49 lineup.  There is a good deal of movement after last week's announcement of Galas and Special Presentations from the Toronto International Film Festival.  Also making a difference was reporting from Jordan Ruimy/World of Reel and others.

As a recap, here are the Ten Bets and Other Possibilities from last week:

1) Bardo/Inarritu

2) TAR/Fields

3) Bones and All/Guadagnino

4) Armageddon Time/Gray

5) Close/Dhont

6) Aftersun/Wells

7) One Fine Morning/Hansen-Love

8) The Son/Zeller

9) She Said/M. Schrader

10) The Pale Blue Eye/Cooper

Others Possibilities: Master Gardener/P. Schrader, Women Talking/Polley, Broker/Kore-eda, Showing Up/Reichardt, Tori and Lokita/Dardennes, Holy Spider/Abbasi,  White Noise/Baumbach, The Forger/Peren,Tuesday/Oniunas-Pusic, The Fire Within/Herzog, The U.S. and the Holocaust/Burns, The Wonder/Lelio, Blonde/Dominik, The Whale/Aronofsky, Dreamin' Wild/Pohlad, March on Rome/Cousins, Living/Hermanus

And here are the new and significantly altered Ten (Plus) Bets:

1) One Fine Morning/Hansen-Love

2) Women Talking/Polley

3) Broker/Kore-eda

4) Holy Spider/Abbasi

5) The Wonder/Lelio

6) Empire of Light/Mendes

7) Good Night Oppy/White

8) Bardo/Inarritu

9) TAR/Fields

10) Bones and All/Guadagnino

11) Armageddon Time/Gray

12) The Pale Blue Eye/Cooper

13) A Compassionate Spy/James

14) Close/Dhont

15) Aftersun/Wells

Others Possibilities: Master Gardener/P. Schrader, Showing Up/Reichardt, Tori and Lokita/Dardennes, The Forger/Peren,Tuesday/Oniunas-Pusic, The Fire Within/Herzog, The U.S. and the Holocaust/Burns, Blonde/Dominik, Dreamin' Wild/Pohlad, March on Rome/Cousins, Argentina 1985/Mitre

The biggest blows to last week's Ten Bets came with the likelihood that She Said will World Premiere at the New York Film Festival and that The Son will will World Premiere at Toronto.

We expect TIFF to announce its Midnight Madness program tomorrow which will probably not have any effect regarding what we can deduce about TFF #49.

NO GDT AT TFF

Admittedly I've thought all summer that the chances pf Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio [laying TFF #49 were slim but that chances seem to have been laid to rest.  Jordan Ruimy at World of reel reports that the film will not be finished until sometime in October at the earliest.

Here's the link to Ruimy's reporting.

NO WHITE NOISE EITHER

The New York Film Festival announced on Tuesday that Noah Baumbach's White Noise will open their fest on Sept. 30th and NYFF has labeled the film a North American premiere.  Assuming that characterization is accurate and Telluride maintains its unspoken policy of features being a first time North American screening, that means White Noise is off the speculation list for TFF #49.

I had been hearing some buzz that this could be true but the scheduling of White Noise as the opener for Venice kept me thinking that there was a great chance that the film would play in Italy and then slide across the Atlantic to land in the San Juans.  Looks like that's not happening.

BUT PROBABLY A PALE BLUE EYE

I've had Scott Cooper's The Pale Blue Eye on the TFF #49 watch list for a long time and now there's scuttlebutt that the Christian Bale led film, is in fact, likely screening for the first time in Telluride.  World of Reel's Jordan Ruimy snuck the increased chance that this will be true into a post called "What's Left-Part Deux".  

This is what Ruimy writes: 

"I’m getting more Telluride intel, this one concerning Scott Cooper’s “Pale Blue Eye” which will be having its world premiere over there." 

Here's the IMDb description of the film:

"At West Point Academy in 1830, the calm of an October evening is shattered by the discovery of a young cadet's body swinging from a rope just off the parade grounds. An apparent suicide is not unheard of in a harsh regimen like West Point's, but the next morning, an even greater horror comes to light. Someone has stolen into the room where the body lay and removed the heart."

The film "Follows a veteran detective who investigates the murders, helped by a detail-oriented young cadet who will later become a world famous author, Edgar Allan Poe."

Previous Cooper collaborator Christian Bale (Hostiles, Out of the Furnace) as the detective and Henry Melling (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs) as Poe join to tell this tale.

For me, it's a "most anticipated".  Feeling really good that it's a TFF #49 selection.

The entire Ruimy post is linked here.

COULD LIVING PLAY TELLURIDE?

Living starring Bill Nighy made a splash at Sundance earlier this year with a number of mentions of Nighy as a possible Oscar contender for Best Actor.  Clayton Davis at Variety currently has Nighy at the #3 spot for a nomination.

The case against a Telluride play is, of course, the Sundance premiere back in January.  Also, Venice head Alberto Barbera is on record saying that there will less of an overlap between his fest and Telluride and Living IS a Venice selection.  But...

The case for a TFF #49 play includes the fact that it is under the wing of Sony Pictures Classics (a very tight Telluride connection).  It's inclusion in the Venice out-of-competition lineup, despite having already bowed at Sundance-very unusual for Venice to schedule a non-World Premiere.  

And, of late, Telluride has scheduled a couple of Sundance films that were tied to tributes.  In 2016 T-ride invited Manchester-by-the-Sea, a film distributed by Amazon/Roadside Attractions -decent Telluride presence for each- and featured Casey Affleck as a tribute recipient.  In 2018 TFF did the same with Adam Driver featuring both Marriage Story (from Netflix-a very good T-ride relationship) and The Report(from Amazon), which had premiered at Sundance.

So, could Bill Nighy be up for a Tribute and a screening of Living?  Nighy also has a film called A Beautiful Game from Netflix that has yet to be screened anywhere and is listed by IMDb as having been in post-production since January.

So it's not outside the realm of possibility.

TEASER FOR ARGENTINA, 1985

Argentina 1985 is a Venice Golden Lion competition choice and seems like a sleeper for a spot at Telluride.  That it was partially produced by Amazon Studios suggests the possibility that it could make the lineup when it is unveiled on Sept. 1st.

IMDb's description intrigues:

"A team of lawyers take on the heads of Argentina's bloody military dictatorship during the 1980s in a battle against odds and a race against time."

The first teaser for the film was released last week and here it is via YouTube:

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She Won't Be Saying Anything at Telluride / What We Think We Know / Blonde's New Trailer / New Doc: A Compassionate Spy Might Be at TFF #49

SHE WON'T BE SAYING ANYTHING AT TELLURIDE

Some of the films I predict for Telluride come from looking at the history of the fest and its relationship with directors, producers and distributors.

Some come from intell that comes my way or that I scratch up from my own digging here and there.

Some come from sources-folks who will drop me a line .

And some are just intuition.  Maria Schrader's She Said has been one of those intuition picks for me all summer.  I've had it bouncing in and out of the Ten Bets each week or in the list of "Other Possibilities" all summer long.  It appeared in the first Ten Bets for this year at the #10 spot.  

But now, Jordan Ruimy/World of Reel says nope.  No She Said at Telluride and his reporting is pretty definitive.

Ruimy's's post from Friday followed up on a note from an Anne Thompson Indiewire post that had included this:

"Another film expected to drive buzz at the NYFF is “She Said” (November 18, Universal), the true journalistic saga behind two New York Times reporters’ quest to nail sexual predator Harvey Weinstein, which launched the #MeToo movement and propelled the movie mogul into prison." 

Ruimy followed that hint up and reported that he had confirmed that She Said will World Premiere at NYFF thereby indicating that the film will not me making an appearance at TFF #49.

I hate to hear that as I was really looking forward to She Said on Labor Day weekend.

WHAT WE THINK WE KNOW

Between TIFF premiere status descriptions and the Alberto Barbera Variety interview last week most of those of us who keep track of such things think that we can confidently say that these films will screen as part of The SHOW in five weeks:

Bardo/Inarritu

Bones and All/Guadagnino

Broker/Kore-eda

Empire of Light/Mendes

Good Night Oppy/White

Holy Spider/Abbasi

One Fine Morning/Hansen-Love

TAR/Fields

The Wonder/Lelio

Women Talking/Polley

Major titles that seem certain not to be at Telluride:

The Banshees of Insherin

The Fabelmans

The Good Nurse

She Said

The Son

Triangle of Sadness

Major titles still up in the air for Telluride:

Armageddon Time

Blonde 

Master Gardener

The Pale Blue Eye

Showing Up

White Noise

I'll likely expand the "Ten Bets" list on Thursday to 15 Bets.

BLONDE'S NEW TRAILER AND POSTER

New poster for Andrew Dominik's Blonde

Yea, I'll admit it.  My insistence on keeping Blonde (and Babylon) in the conversation for a possible Telluride play is almost certainly wishful thinking.  Both films are very unlikely to be in the San Juans five weeks from now.  Blonde and Babylon are and have been my most anticipated films for the year for months.  Nevertheless, a guy can dream.

That said, if you missed the release from Netflix of the new trailer for Andrew Dominik's Blonde from late last week.  Here it is:

NEW DOC: A COMPASSIONATE SPY MIGHT BE AT TFF #49

(Photo via The Chicago Tribune)

The Chicago Tribune reporting on the selection of  Steve James (Hoop Dreams, Prefontaine) A Compassionate Spy to an Out of Competition slot at the Venice Film Festival implies the possibility/probability of a play at Telluride.

The Tribune story was picked up and re-published by the Finger Lakes Times Saturday and within that story are a couple of tantalizing statements:

"Though the filmmaker could not confirm the near-future for his latest project, many world premieres start at Venice and then go straight to a U.S. premiere at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado a few days later."

The story also suggests that the documentary was submitted to Telluride:

"James wrapped up principal photography in April, and his producers at Participant Media suggested submitting the film for Venice (Aug. 31-Sept. 10) and Telluride (Sept. 2-5)."

A Compassionate Spy is "about the Manhattan Project physicist, Soviet spy and University of Chicago alum Theodore Hall...[the film] deals with the lives of Ted and Joan Hall — their marriage, their longtime evasion of the FBI and the information about Hall’s atomic espionage activities that came to light four years before Hall died in Cambridge, England, in 1999."

James was an Oscar nominee for Hoop Dreams in 1995 and Abacus: Small Enough to Jail in 2018.

Is it a certainty?  No, but put it on your radar.

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BONUS THURSDAY POST: TORONTO ANNOUNCES MANY TITLES- WE DETECT TELLURIDE FILMS

BONUS THURSDAY POST

For the past several years we've been able to get a bead on some Telluride titles based on announcements from the Toronto International Film Festival.  That seems to remain true today as TIFF announced a slew of titles and likely there are several more to come.  Based on the TIFF premiere status descriptions of their announced films up to today we think the following films will play at The SHOW over Labor Day: weekend:

Broker

Empire of Light

Holy Spider

One Fine Morning

The Wonder

Women Talking 

Good Night Oppy

Films I thought might have a shot at TFF #49 that TIFF announced this morning that will NOT be playing Telluride based on their premiere status designation:

The Son

Banshees of Inisherin

Causeway

Decision to Leave

The Eternal Daughter

The Good Nurse

Moonage Daydream

No Bears

Triangle of Sadness

The Whale

Chevalier

Big surprise not at T-ride: The Son

Big surprise in for T-ride: Empire of Light

Also, thanks to shout outs today from Awards Daily and World of Reel.

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Ten Bets #6 / Wild Tuesday-Part One / Wild Tuesday-Part Two / Toronto-An Evolving List / Some Random Thoughts

TEN BETS #6

We've got some shuffling of the players this week following the news from Venice announcing its lineup.  First here's your re-cap of last week's Ten Bets:

1) One Fine Morning/Hansen-Love

2) The Son/Zeller

3) Close/Dhont

4) Armageddon Time/Gray

5) Bardo/Inarritu

6) TAR/Fields

7) Women Talking/Polley

8) Aftersun/Wells

9) The Pale Blue Eye/Cooper

10) The Master Gardener/P. Schrader

Others Possibilities: Broker/Kore-eda, Showing Up/Reichardt, Tori and Lokita/Dardennes, Holy Spider/Abbasi,  The Forger/Peren, She Said/M. Schrader, Tuesday/Oniunas-Pusic, The Fire Within/Herzog, The U.S. and the Holocaust/Burns, The Wonder/Lelio, Blonde/Dominik

And here's this week's updated Ten Bets:

1) Bardo/Inarritu

2) TAR/Fields

3) Bones and All/Guadagnino

4) Armageddon Time/Gray

5) Close/Dhont

6) Aftersun/Wells

7) One Fine Morning/Hansen-Love

8) The Son/Zeller

9) She Said/M. Schrader

10) The Pale Blue Eye/Cooper

Others Possibilities: Master Gardener/P. Schrader, Women Talking/Polley, Broker/Kore-eda, Showing Up/Reichardt, Tori and Lokita/Dardennes, Holy Spider/Abbasi,  The Forger/Peren,Tuesday/Oniunas-Pusic, The Fire Within/Herzog, The U.S. and the Holocaust/Burns, The Wonder/Lelio, Blonde/Dominik, The Whale/Aronofsky, White Noise/Baumbach. Dreamin' Wild/Pohlad, March on Rome/Cousins

WILD TUESDAY-PART ONE

It was a wild Tuesday afternoon earlier this week as separate interviews with Venice Film Festival Artistic Director Alberto Barbera stirred the fall film fest pot by dropping some Telluride news.  First the confirmations (it would seem). 

In an interview with Variety's Nick Vivarelli, Barbera revealed that Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Bardo, Todd Field's TAR and Luca Guadagnino's Bones and All will be making the jump from Venice to Telluride (hence those films jumping to the top of this week's Ten Bets above).

Here's the quote from the Varity interview:

"One that is going [to Telluride] is”Tar,” as are the Iñárritu and Guadagnino films."

In the same paragraph, Barbera says that there will not be as large a Venice/Telluride crossover as has been the case in past years:

"My impression is that there will be fewer films going from Venice to Telluride this year — not that there aren’t any... But in past years there were more, which has resulted in Venice being a bit less “top-heavy” this year."

So Barbera isn't saying that there aren't others in addition to Bardo, TAR and Bones but fewer.  I did a little digging and discovered that approximately 67 films have made the trek from Venice to Telluride over the past 10 years.  Peak years were 2021 and 2018 with nine films moving form Italy to Colorado.  Weak years were 2019, 2014 and 2012 with 4.  The average, as you can deduce, is 6-7 films each year.

So...likely there will be an addition or two beyond the three Barbera revealed.  

Prior to the Venice announcement there had been strong speculation that those films might include Baumbach's White Noise, Aronofsky's The Whale and Zeller's The Son.  In my Special Post from Tuesday morning with the Venice lineup, I indicated several other films that might be in line to make the trip from Venice to T-ride:

Argentina 1985

Athena

Blonde

A Couple

No Bears

Dreamin' Wild

Master Gardener

Freedom on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom

Il Viaggio

Best bets to also move from Venice to The SHOW:  White Noise, Master Gardener and The Son.

The complete Variety interview is here.

WILD TUESDAY-PART TWO

And if that wasn't enough...Barbera had an interview with Deadline.com that was posted Tuesday.  Matt Neglia of Next Best Picture screen captured the electrifying news and posted it to Twitter:

Making it easier to read:

"There was only one film we couldn't see, which was the Spielberg film [The Fabelmans].  They decided to go domestic with Telluride.  It was a film that all the fall festivals wanted to see but no one got to see it internationally other than Toronto."

Needless to say my Twitter feed lit up.

A few minutes later the story was re-posted with the sentence "They decided to go domestic with Telluride" edited out.

I saw both versions with my own eyes.

You can see the current version of the post from Deadline here.

Now, I will admit that I reached out to Deadline to confirm and/or clarify the sentence.  It was after that email that the edit occurred that eliminated the Telluride mention.

So, what gives?  Seems like these are the possibilities:

Barbera got it wrong.

Deadline got it wrong.

Telluride screened it and decided not to invite it...thus preserving its World Premiere status for Toronto.

Telluride screened and Universal then decided not to go to T-ride after all.

Telluride does have it and TIFF's WP status is flawed.

It was pointed out to me that this could be a repeat of last year when TIFF announced Kenneth Branagh's Belfast as a World Premiere only to have it bow at Telluride first.  Could that be the case with The Fabelmans?

The icing on the cake was a Jordan Ruimy/World of Reel post late on Tuesday in which he says no Fabelmans at The SHOW per a TFF source:

"I’m here to tell you, let’s please stop the speculation. A Telluride source has confirmed to me that “The Fabelmans” is not going to that festival."

You can see that complete post here.

TORONTO-AN EVOLVING LIST

TIFF is using a drip-drip-drip method of announcing World Premieres that they haven't used before.  As that list grows, I will be posting so we know which films are at TIFF and won't be at TFF#49. Those announced to date are:

Green Onions: A Knives Out Mystery

Brother

Bros

On the Come Up

The Woman King

My Policeman

The Fabelmans (see above)

Catherine Called Birdy

The Swimmers

and Jordan Ruimy at World of Reel says The Greatest Beer Run Ever will also be a TIFF World Premiere. 

And there are reports that TIFF will announce some more titles today.

SOME RANDOM THOUGHTS

Teaser for Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio which was released earlier this week via YouTube

A list of films that haven't really been talked about for Telluride but...who knows?   Maybe?

The Good Nurse

GDT's Pinocchio

See How They Run

Raymond and Ray

Dreamin' Wild

Tuesday

Moonage Daydream

Spoiler Alert: He Dies at the End

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MTFB SPECIAL: VENICE ANNOUNCES

 Here are the announced films for the 2022 Venice Film Festival.  Films that I think could  be in contention for a Telluride play are indicated with ***

COMPETITION

"All The Beauty and The Bloodshed," Laura Poitras (U.S.)

"Argentina, 1985," Santiago Mitre (Argentina, U.S.)***

"Athena," Romain Gavras (France)***

"The Banshees of Inisherin," Martin McDonagh (U.K., U.S.)

​"Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths," Alejandro G. Iñárritu (Mexico)***

"Beyond The Wall," Vahid Jalilvand (Iran)

"Blonde," Andrew Dominik (U.S.)***

"Bones and All," Luca Guadagnino (U.S.)

"Chiara," Susanna Nicchiarelli (Italy)

"A Couple," Frederik Wiseman (U.S.)***

"The Eternal Daughter," Joanna Hogg (U.K.)

​"Il Signore Delle Formiche," Gianni Amelio (Italy)

"Love Life," Kôji Fukada (Japan, France)

"L’Immensità," Emanuele Crialese (Italy)

"Monica," Andrea Pallaoro (Italy)

"No Bears," Jafar Panahi (Iran)***

”On The Fringe,”

"Other People’s Children," Rebecca Zlotowski (France)

"Our Ties," Roschdy Zem (France)

"Saint Omer,' Alice Diop (France)

​"The Son," Florian Zeller (U.K.)***

"TÁR," Todd Field (U.S.)***

"The Whale," Darren Aronofsky (U.S.)***

"White Noise" - Noah Baumbach (U.S.) - OPENING FILM***

OUT OF COMPETITION - FICTION

"The Hanging Sun," Francesco Carrozzini (Italy) - CLOSING FILM

"Call Of God," Kim Ki-duk (Estonia, Kirighistan, Lettonia)

"Dead For a Dollar," Walter Hill (U.S.)

"Don’t Worry Darling," Olivia Wilde (U.S.)

"Dreamin’ Wild," Bill Pohlad (U.S.)***

"Living," Oliver Hermanus (U.K.)

"Master Gardener," Paul Schrader (U.S.)***

"Pearl," Ti West (U.S.)

"Siccitá," Paolo Virzì (Italy)

"When The Waves Are Gone," Lav Diaz (Philippines, France, Portugal, Denmark)

OUT OF COMPETITION - NON-FICTION

"A Compassionate Spy," Steve James (U.S.)

"Bobi Wine Ghetto President," Christopher Sharp, Moses Bwayo (Uganda, U.K., U.S.)

"Freedom on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight For Freedom," Evgeny Afineevsky (Ukraine, U.K., U.S.)***

"Gli Ultimi Giorni Dell’Umanità," Enrico Ghezzi, Alessandro Gagliardo (Italy)

"In Viaggio," Gianfranco Rosi (Italy)***

"The Kiev Trial," Sergei Loznitsa (The Netherlands, Ukraine)

"The Matchmaker," Benedetta Argentieri (Italy)

"Music For Black Pigeons," Jørgen Leth, Andreas Koefoed (Denmark)

"Nuclear," Oliver Stone (U.S.)

OUT OF COMPETITION - SERIES

"Copenhagen Cowboy" (Episodes 1-6), Nicholas Winding Refn (Denmark)

"The Kingdom Exodus" (Episodes 1-5), Lars Von Trier (Denmark)

HORIZONS

​"Princess," Roberto De Paolis (Italy) - OPENING FILM

"A Man," Key Ishikawa (Japan)

"Autobiography," Makbul Mubarak (France, Germany, Qatar)

"Blanquita," Fernando Guzzoni (Chile, Mexico)

"Bread and Salt," Damian Kocur (Poland)

"The Bride," Sergio Trefaut (Portugal)

"For My Country," Rachid Hami (France, Taipei)

"The Happiest Man in the World," Teona Strugar Mitevska (Bosnia, Belgium, Denmark)

"Innocence," Guy Davidi (Denmark, Israel, Finland, Iceland) - Documentary

"Luxembourg, Luxembourg," Antonio Lukich (Ukraine)

"On The Fringe" ("En Los Márgenes"), Juan Diego Botto (Spain)

"The Sitting Duck," Jean-Paul Salomé (France)

"Ti Mangio il Cuore," Pippo Mezzapesa (Italy)

"To The North," Mihai Mincan (Romania, France, Greece, Bulgaria, Czech Republic)

"Trenque Lauquen," Laura Citarella (Argentina, Germany)

"Vera," Tizza Covi, Rainer Frimmel (Austria)

"Victim" ("Obet'"), Michal Blasko (Slovakia, Czech Republic, Germany)

"World War III," Houman Seyiedi (Iran)

​HORIZONS EXTRA

"Amanda," Carolina Cavalli

"Goliath," Adilkhan Yerzhanov

"Hanging Gardens," Ahmed Yassin Al Daradji

"Nezouh," Soudade Kaadan

"Notte Fantasma," Fulvio Risuleo

"Origin of Evil," Sébastien Marnier

"Red Shoes," Carlos Eichelmann Kaiser

"Valeria Is Getting Married," Michael Vinik

"Without Her," Arian Vazirdaftari

The next clues from Venice will come when they post the screening schedule.  Earlier scheduled films have the greatest likelihood of making the Venice/Telluride double play.  Although in an Indiewire story from Anne Thompson from a couple of days ago she suggested that some films might screen "simultaneously".  I'm not sure what that means.

More in my regular post on Thursday.

Venice and Telluride / Toronto Films-An Evolving List / And Babylon?

VENICE AND TELLURIDE

Venice announces its lineup tomorrow.  There is a lot of speculation out there that Bardo, Blonde and White Noise will all be in that announcement.  I fully expect that Bardo will make the trek to TFF #49 and Jordan Ruimy/World of Reel is reporting that White Noise will screen for TFF in August.  All of which leads me to ask Netflix...why not Blonde at Telluride?

Again, Netflix and TFF programmers, hear my plea...Blonde in the San Juans!  Ioncinema's Eric Lavallee suggests the possibility:

"We can finally put to rest all the chatter surrounding this one but we wonder if this could be a premiere title that passes on TIFF for a Telluride and then NYFF showing instead."

See the full Ioncinema Venice spec post (part one) here.

And Part Two here.

Other probable Venice inclusions that could double dip at Telluride: TAR, The Master Gardener, Bones and All, Athena, The Whale and No Bears.

TORONTO FILMS - AN EVOLVING LIST

TIFF is using a drip-drip-drip method of announcing World Premieres that they haven't used before.  As that list grows, I will be posting so we know which films are at TIFF and won't be at TFF#49. Those announced to date are:

Green Onions: A Knives Out Mystery

Brother

Bros

On the Come Up

The Woman King

My Policeman

The Fablemans

and Jordan Ruimy at World of Reel says The Greatest Beer Run Ever will also be a TIFF World Premiere.  Further, big props to Cameron Bailey and TIFF for landing the WP for Steven Spielberg's The Fablemans.

AND BABYLON?

Word is that Damien Chazelle's Babylon is "Picture locked".  MTFB friend Jason Osiason passed that along via Twitter this weekend.:

https://twitter.com/jasonosia/status/1551229707210866688

Now, the buzz has been that Babylon was likely off the board re: fall film fests.  

Jordan Ruimy at World of Reel has had his ear to the ground about Babylon and had reported that director Damien Chazelle and Paramount have been at odds regarding the film fest fate of the much-anticipated film.  Ruimy has also reported that TFF folk have been aggressive in seeking to screen the film.  Assuming that any of this is true, if Babylon is that far down the trail, one assumes that it could be ready for a TFF #49 bow.

Yes please.

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Ten Bets #5 / Toronto Films-An Evolving List / Next Best Picture Guesses Telluride / Women Talking Where?

 TEN BETS #5

Here's your weekly look at my take on films that I think are the TFF #49 choices. First, a refresher for last week's Ten Bets plus other possibilities:

1) One Fine Morning/Hansen-Love

2) The Son/Zeller

3) Close/Dhont

4) Women Talking/Polley

5) Aftersun/Wells

6) Bardo/Inarritu

7) TAR/Fields

8) Armageddon Time/Gray

9) The Pale Blue Eye/Cooper

10) The Master Gardener/P. Schrader

Others Possibilities: Broker/Kore-eda, Showing Up/Reichardt, Tori and Lokita/Dardennes, Holy Spider/Abbasi,  The Forger/Peren, Babylon/Chazelle, She Said/M. Schrader, Tuesday/Oniunas-Pusic, The Fire Within/Herzog, The U.S. and the Holocaust/Burns, The Wonder/Lelio

And here are your latest Ten Bets:

 

1) One Fine Morning/Hansen-Love

2) The Son/Zeller

3) Close/Dhont

4) Armageddon Time/Gray

5) Bardo/Inarritu

6) TAR/Fields

7) Women Talking/Polley

8) Aftersun/Wells

9) The Pale Blue Eye/Cooper

10) The Master Gardener/P. Schrader

Others Possibilities: Broker/Kore-eda, Showing Up/Reichardt, Tori and Lokita/Dardennes, Holy Spider/Abbasi,  The Forger/Peren, She Said/M. Schrader, Tuesday/Oniunas-Pusic, The Fire Within/Herzog, The U.S. and the Holocaust/Burns, The Wonder/Lelio, Blonde/Dominik.

Notes: Armageddon Time moves up as do Bardo and TAR.  Women Talking  drops a bit based on a World of Reel story you will find below.

I've moved Babylon off the list of possibilities for the time being though it could slide back on.  I've put Andrew Dominik's Blonde back on based on persistent buzz that the film will screen at Venice.

TORONTO FILMS - AN EVOLVING LIST

TIFF is using a drip-drip-drip method of announcing World Premieres that they haven't used before.  As that list grows, I will be posting so we know which films are at TIFF and won't be at TFF#49. Those announced to date are:

Green Onions: A Knives Out Mystery

Brother

Bros

On the Come Up

The Woman King

My Policeman

and Jordan Ruimy at World of Reel says The Greatest Beer Run Ever will also be a TIFF World Premiere.

NEXT BEST PICTURE GUESSES TELLURIDE (and Venice and Toronto)

Following their weekly podcast that focused on the Big Three fall film fests. Matt Neglia and the Next Best Picture crew posted a written version of their guesses nd predictions for what films are going where.  Here that is with films that I have on the Ten Bets list and/or as possibilities indicates with ***

TELLURIDE FILM FESTIVAL

Aftersun (Dir. Charlotte Wells)***

​Armageddon Time (Dir. James Gray)***

Bardo (Dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu)***

Broker (Dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda)***

Close (Dir. Lukas Dhont)***

Decision To Leave (Dir. Park Chan-wook)

EO (Dir. Jerzy Skolimowski)

Holy Spider (Dir. Ali Abbasi)***

The Master Gardener (Dir. Paul Schrader)***

One Fine Morning (Dir. Mia Hansen-Løve)***

​The Pale Blue Eye (Dir. Scott Cooper) - WORLD PREMIERE***

See How They Run (Dir. Tom George) - WORLD PREMIERE

She Said (Dir. Maria Schrader) - WORLD PREMIERE***

Showing Up (Dir. Kelly Reichardt)***

The Son (Dir. Florian Zeller) - WORLD PREMIERE***

Tár (Dir. Todd Field)***

Tori and Lokita (Dir. The Dardenne Brothers)***

Triangle Of Sadness (Dir. Ruben Östlund)

The Whale (Dir. Darren Aronofsky)

​Women Talking (Dir. Sarah Polley) - WORLD PREMIERE***

As you can see, there is extensive overlap between the NBP list and my Ten Bets.  NBP has five films listed that I don't and any of the five wouldn't be a real shocker if included: Decision to Leave, EO, See How They Run, Triangle of Sadness or The Whale.

Here's what Matt and the NBP folks have as Venice premieres that would jump the Atlantic to play at TFF a couple of days later:

Bardo, The Master Gardener, TAR and The Whale.  Another note...NBP has Andrew Dominik's Blonde playing both Venice and Toronto but not T-ride.  So...to anyone with any juice at Netflix or within the programmers at TFF...hear my plea that Blonde makes a stop in Colorado between the two.

Here is the complete NBP post.

WOMEN TALKING WHERE?

Another Jordan Ruimy/World of Reel post of interest this week was the buzz about which fall fest was going to land Sarah Polley's Women Talking as a World Premiere.  I have felt relatively confident that it would play Telluride as Polley has made the trip to the San Juans previously but who knows?

Ruimy suggests that Toronto wants it very badly as a WP and should Polley and distributor United Artists/Orion go that way...no TFF #49.  If Venice lands it, TFF #49 remains a possibility.  Of course Polley's last feature length film, the doc Stories We Tell, did the Venice/Telluride dance in 2012 but the distributor there was Roadside Attractions.

Stay tuned.

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