Monday, September 19, 2011

Toronto: The Reults and The Bounce/Critical Response at TIFF/Feinberg at THR (the first list)/Clips/Shame News/Butter News/Descendants News/Malick News

Welcome to the now twice weekly MTFB and The Film Awards Clearinghouse.  We'll be posting on Mondays and Thursdays (at least that's the plan for the foreseeable future) with more frequent updates should breaking news warrant it.

TORONTO: THE RESULTS

Well, there were surprises yesterday when Toronto organizers announced their audience prizes.  Most observers thought Telluride favorites "The Artist" or "The Descendants" would win the main prize.   Um...no.  The big winner is Lebanon's entry for the Foreign Language Oscar "Where Do We Go Now?" from director Nadine Labaki.  It's IMDb page is here:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1772424/

A couple of Telluride films did get mentioned in the announcements...

"A Separation" was the runner-up to the main prize and "The Island President" won the documentary prize.

The Hollywood Reporter provides a complete list of Toronto's announcement here:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/toronto-2011-full-awards-roster-236841
THE BOUNCE



With the conclusion of the Toronto International Film Festival this past weekend comes a reckoning from pundits and prognosticators as to which films earned a bounce in the awards season parade and which took a hit.  Today we'll examine three of those posts and parse the meaning for films that played at TFF #38.

The Hollywood News/Awards Alley:
Bounce for:
George Clooney (tributee this year) for Best Actor in "The Descendants" (also some bounce for his direction and writing and for Best Pic for his "Ides of March).



"The Descendants" for many potential noms including Best Picture.

Glenn Close and Janet McTeer in "Albert Nobbs" for Best Actress and Supporting Actress respectively.

"The Artist" for many potential noms including Best Picture.

Michael Fassbender in "Shame" as a possible Best Actor nom.



Fassbender, Viggo Mortensen, and Keira Knightley in "A Dangerous Method" for acting possibilities plus a possible Adapted Screenplay nom (really???)

Look at the complete article for the other non-Telluride pics/peeps that THN says earned a bump from Toronto:
http://www.hollywoodnews.com/2011/09/16/george-clooney-brad-pitt-lead-list-of-those-boosted-by-tiff-2011-awards-alley/


HitFix:
Bounce for :
Fassbender/Shame-Best Actor
Robert Forester in "The Descendants" for Supporting Actor (interesting)

Taking a hit:
"A Dangerous Method" in the BP race as well as "Butter"...exactly...

HitFix's complete article:
http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/awards-campaign/posts/toronto-who-got-an-oscar-bounce-and-who-didnt

The Wrap:

Bounce for:



Fassbender and Shame
Pina (foreign language Oscar race)
In Darkness (also FLF)
Tilda Swinton in "We Need to Talk About Kevin"
"The Island President" (documentary)

The complete slide show is at:
http://www.thewrap.com/movies/slideshow/torontos-big-winners-slideshow-31027

CRITICS AT TIFF

IndieWire has updates their round-up of critical response to films that have played the last week and a half as a part of the Toronto Fest.  Here's how TFF #38 films have fared:

The highest rated film thus far is Steve McQueen's "Shame."

A- Ratings (the top): "A Separation" "Shame" "The Turin Horse"
B+ Ratings: "The Artist" "The Descendants" "Le Havre""The Kid with a Bike" "Pina"
B Ratings: "A Dangerous Method" "Into the Abyss" "We Need to Talk About Kevin"
B- Ratings: "Albert Nobbs"  "Footnote"

To see the complete list of films that have been rated go to:
http://www.indiewire.com/article/criticwire_tiff_shame_tops_critics_as_fest_winds_down/


FEINBERG'S FIRST FORECAST AT THR

Scott Feinberg (whom I met this year just before we saw the Dardennes Brothers"The Kid with a Bike"...we had a very nice conversation) has his first forecast for Oscar since joining The Hollywood Reporter.  Breaking it down by Telluride #38 films:

Picture:
Frontrunners include "The Artist" and "The Descendants"
Major Threats include: "A Dangerous Method"
Possibilities include: "Albert Nobbs" and "We Need to Talk About Kevin"

Director:
Frontrunners: M. Hazanavicius/The Artist
Major Threats: A. Payne/The Descendants, D. Cronenberg/A Dangerous Method
Possibilities: R. Garcia/Albert Nobbs, L. Ramsay/We Need to Talk About Kevin



Actress:
Frontrunners: G. Close/Albert Nobbs
Major Threats: K. Knightley/A Dangerous Method
Possibilities: T. Swinton/Kevin, J. Garner/Butter (uh...no)

Actor:
Frontrunners: G. Clooney/The Descendants, J. Dujardin/The Artist
Major Threats: M. Fassbender in both Shame and A Dangerous Method
No other possibles from TFF

Supporting Actress:
Frontrunners: S. Woodley/The Descendants
Major Threats: J. McTeer/Albert Nobbs
Possibles: C. Mulligan/Shame

Supporting Actor:
No Frontrunners from TFF #38
Major Threats: V. Mortensen/A Dangerous Method
Possibilities:  E. Miller/Kevin

Adapted Screenplay:
Frontrunners: The Descendants
Major Threats: A Dangerous Method
Possibilities: Albert Nobbs, Kevin



Original Screenplay:
Frontrunners: The Artist
No other threats or possibilities from Telluride.

Feinberg's totals for the Big 8 categories for TFF #38:
Frontrunners: 9
Major Threats: 9
Possibilities: 10

By film:
The Descendants: Fronts: 4, Threats: 1
The Artist: Fronts: 4
A Dangerous Method: Fronts: 0, Threats 6
Albert Nobbs: Fronts: 1, Threats: 1 Possibles: 3
Shame: Fronts: 0, Threats: 1, Possibles: 1
Kevin: Possibles: 5
Butter: Possibles: 1

CLIPS

There are some new clips and teasers out this week from some of this year's Telluride films.  Links below...



"George Harrison:Living in the Material World" from The Playlist (indieWire):
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/watch_clip_from_george_harrison_living_in_the_material_world_doc_gives_a_ta/

"The Artist" also from The Playlist:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/watch_six_clips_from_crowd-pleasing_silent_oscar_contender_the_artist/

"The Descendants" from, you guessed it, The Playlist (the story also features a link to my review of "The Descendants" for them):
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/george_clooney_needs_parenting_help_in_a_new_clip_from_alexander_paynes_the/

SHAME NEWS



Perhaps no film has created as much of a stir during its run at Telluride, Venice and Toronto over the past three weeks as Steve McQueen's uncompromising "Shame."  It is not a film for everyone.  It is explicit.  Michael Fassbender gives what is likely the best performance by an actor this year.  Carey Mulligan is better than she's ever been.  But because of the nature of the film's subject (sex addiciton) and because it pulls very few punches, it's not a film that is going to be Oscar friendly and that's to bad.

Here are a few posts/articles that have turned up the last week or so about the film:
An indieWire interview with the director and co-writer Steve McQueen:
http://www.indiewire.com/article/steve_mcqueen/

More from McQueen from the LA Times:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2011/09/shame-michael-fassbender-mcqueen-naked-movie-nc-17-rating-release-date.html

BUTTER NEWS



If you read this space much, you know I wasn't a big fan of "Butter."  Nevertheless, I'm keeping an eye on it as I do all the Telluride offerings now that we are moving into the post TFF/TIFF/Venice autumnal period.  So here are some "Butter"-centric posts:

"Butter" will get an Oscar qualifying run...from The Playlist:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/butter_to_get_one_week_run_in_2011_before_wide_release_in_2012/

The Playlist also had another review of the film from one of their regular writers (they had my review which they published on Sept. 4...it's here: http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/telluride_11_review_jennifer_garners_butter_churns_and_churns_but_doesnt_pr/ )

and their regular guy...sounds a lot like me:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/tiff_11_review_butter_starring_jennifer_garner_hugh_jackman_olivia_wilde/

DESCENDANTS NEWS



Alexander Payne's "The Descendants" and Michel Hazanavicius' "The Artist" were the two titles coming out of Telluride and into Toronto with the most heat.  Toronto didn't diminish the fervor for either.  Payne's "Descendants" has kept up a steady drumbeat of P.R. and here is some of it from the last week:

Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood (indieWire) was generally positive, but not exactly over the moon:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/2011/09/14/day_six_36th_toronto_international_film_festival_the_descendants_moneyball_/

Scott Feinberg of The Hollywood Reporter sat down with Descndnats co-star (and generating some Oscar buzz) Shailene Woodley for an interview:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/toronto-2011-shailene-woodley-how-234742

HitFix (among others) posted some of Geroge Clooney from a Telluride Q & A:
http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/awards-campaign/posts/exclusive-george-clooney-talks-the-descendants-and-a-sneak-peek

 MALICK NEWS

Bale and Malick in Austin, TX on Saturday


After the two year long dance of infatuation I did with Terrence Malick's "The Tree of Life" I've found it difficult to let go of obsessing about what he's doing.  Fortunately for me there is no paucity of material floating around out there in web land to stoke the flames of that small obsession.  It would appear that Malick has started work on his second post-Tree project and that it involves Christian Bale and may focus on music.  Check the following posts:

From Johnny Garcia and @jarrettem via twitter actual video of Malick and Bale filming in Austin (it's about 3 min. long):
http://www.twitvid.com/TSXER

Malick and Bale at Austin City Limits...The Playlist:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/what_were_terrence_malick_christian_bale_doing_at_the_austin_city_limits_fe/


Malick and Haley Bennett in Austin, TX.  on Saturday



Also FirstShowing.net:
http://www.firstshowing.net/2011/is-terrence-malick-already-filming-christian-bale-in-his-next-project/

Also The Daily Mubi:
http://mubi.com/notebook/posts/daily-briefing-what-are-terrence-malick-and-christian-bale-up-to

Potential casting news of a relative unknown, again The Playlist:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/terrence_malick_chooses_relative_haley_bennett_for_christian_bale_drama/

And RYAN GOSLING????
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/nicolas_winding_refns_ryan_gosling_terrence_malick/



See you Thursday!

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