Countdown to #36

He's BACK...

The 36th TFF is 2 months away and so it is with virtually no fanfare that we'll start our speculation about what we might expect/hope for this year's festival.

We know: Alexander Payne (writer/director..."About Schmidt", "Sideways") is this year's guest director...and film critic Manny Farber will be "celebrated"...I doubt that means that Farber is one of the three actual "tributes".

3 films I'm putting out there right now as possibles:

"Amelia"...2 time Oscar winner Hilary Swank as Amelia Earhart from Fox Searchlight...mostly because it's from Fox Searchlight and is directed by Mira Nair...a Telluride favorite in the past.

"Broken Promises" Pedro Almodovar's latest...reasons to think it's in: At Cannes, Almodovar (again a Telluride favorite over the years). Stars past Telluride tributee Penelope Cruz...and from Sony Pic Classics...all good reasons.

"Precious/Push/Sapphire"...Oscar bait and from Lionsgate and was at Cannes.

Others in play or at least wishful thinking: Jennifer's Body (Diablo Cody), The Informant (Soderbergh), Coco Before Chanel (Audrey Tautou), Shutter Island (Scorsese), A Serious Man (Coen Bros.), Whip It (Drew Barrymore directs), The Road (finally), Nine (Daniel Day-Lewis), Brothers (Gyllenhaal/Portman/Maguire), The Lovely Bones (Peter Jackson), Dr. Parnassus (Terry Gilliam, Ledger's last film), Up in the Air (Jason Reitman), Men Who Stare at Goats (Clooney/MacGregor), The Tree of Life (Malick), Looking for Eric (Ken Loach), Biutiful (Gonzalez-Inarritu), The White Ribbon (Cannes Palme D'Or).

Let the speculation begin!