Loads of Goodies: Nebraska, Inside Llewyn Davis, Gravity, 12 Years a Slave, Feinberg

Good Monday and the last Monday of 2013...Happy New Year everyone.

LOADS OF GOODIES AT YEAR'S END

The blog has a lot of goodies to link to today but I wanted to start with a quick note that I will post atop ten list for 2013 sometime in early 2014.  I still have a couple of films I want to see before making out my list (i.e.: "Her" and "wolf of Wall Street").  If I get lucky, that could happen relatively soon.

Also, I'll re-visit the Top Six Oscar categories next week and each post thereafter, as we approach the nominations announcement set for Jan. 16.  Oscar nominating ballots went out on Friday, so the process has begun.

NEBRASKA GOODIES

The Bruce Dern Happening continues and I have included links to this interview with the 77 year old star of Alexander Payne's "Nebraska" from Gregory E. Miller and The New York Post:

http://nypost.com/2013/12/26/its-derns-turn-veteran-actor-gets-inside-treatment/

Meanwhile. Deadline's Anna Lisa Raya talks to Payne about the film here:

http://www.deadline.com/2013/12/oscars-alexander-payne-nebraska-interview/

INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS GOODIES

Jeff Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere tweeted this pic, purportedly real, from Dave Itzkoff, purportedly in Minneapolis...I want it to be true.

The Wrap's Steve Pond looks and links to an "Inside Llewyn Davis" featurette about the music of the movie, which is a character unto itself:

http://www.thewrap.com/Coen-Brothers-T-Bone-Burnett-Inside-Llewyn-Davis


GRAVITY GOODIES

Speaking of featurettes, Kristopher Tapley at HitFix links to a new one for "Gravity" that focuses on the story and screenplay:

http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/new-gravity-featurette-focuses-on-story-and-screenplay

Meanwhile, Deadline's Christy Grosz talks to "Gravity director and co-writer Alfonso Cuaron:

http://www.deadline.com/2013/12/oscars-alfonso-cuaron-gravity-interview/


12 YEARS A SLAVE GOODIES

Here's an interview with "12 Years a Slave" director Steve McQueen from Deadline's Pete Hammond:

http://www.deadline.com/2013/12/oscars-steve-mcqueen-12-years-a-slave-intervew/


OSCAR GOODIES

Scott Feinberg, resident Oscar expert for The Hollywood Reporter has filed his latest projections for his Feinberg Forecast here:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/feinberg-forecast-oscar-race-heats-667616

Feinberg's latest snapshot of the Oscar race includes predictions in 16 of the 21 feature categories.  He doesn't include predictions for Film Editing, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Costume or Production Design.

That being noted, Feinberg predicts 8 nominations in those 16 categories fro "12 Years a Salve" followed by "Gravity", "American Hustle" and "Captain Phillips" with 6 apiece.  Feinberg suggests four nominations each for: "Saving Mr. Banks", "Dallas Buyers Club" and "Nebraska" and 3 each for "The Wolf of Wall Street" and "Inside Llewyn Davis".

Telluride films in Feinberg's view:

"12 Years a Slave" with 8 nominations and 3 wins.
"Gravity" with 6 nominations and 3 wins
"Nebraska" with 4 nominations.
"Inside Llewyn Davis" with 3 nominations.
Single nominations for "All is Lost", "The Wind Rises", "Tim's Vermeer", "The Missing Picture".

TFf #39 nominations for "The Act of Killing" and "The Hunt".

Of course, I think these totals will be larger as the other five categories are included.


More coming in 2014!

Holiday Gurus of Gold/Ralph Fiennes and The Invisible Woman/Gravity Feature

Good Thursday and Post Christmas Day...


THE GURUS HOLIDAY EDITION

The Movie City News posted a quick "Holiday" version of its Gurus of Gold chart focusing on Best Picture and some unusual categories.  The bottom line is that four TFF #40 films are still listed by The Gurus as likely in the Top Six for a Best Picture nomination: "12 Years a Slave" at #1, "Gravity" is at #2, "Nebraska" is at #5 and "Inside Llewyn Davis" is at #6.

You can find the complete Holiday Gurus chart (with categories like "See It on a Big Screen") here:

http://moviecitynews.com/2013/12/gurus-o-gold-holiday-contender-watch-guide/


RALPH FIENNES AND THE INVISIBLE WOMAN

Both HitFix and The Dissolve took a look at Ralph Fiennes film about the secret lover in Charles Dickens' life.  The Invisible Woman will opened yesterday in a limited release.

http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/ralph-fiennes-on-bringing-sweat-to-the-costume-drama-in-the-invisible-woman

http://thedissolve.com/reviews/453-the-invisible-woman/


GRAVITY FEATURE

The Hollywood Reporter posted a new featurette on the behind the scenes activity that went into making Alfonso Cuaron's :Gravity".  You can find that story and the video here:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/video-sandra-bullock-george-clooney-667545


Hope everyone had a great holiday...more on Monday

Foreign Oscar Shortlist/Dern and Nebraska/Behind Inside/The Past's Farhadi/The Visible Felicity Jones

Good Christmas Eve Eve...or Monday...

OSCAR FOREIGN SHORTLIST

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences winnowed the list of 70+ Foreign Language Film submissions down to 9 titles this past week and what as noticeable as the films that made the cut were the omissions and that left a number of Telluride films that had been hotly tipped as Oscar nominees out.

Pre-announcement Telluride films that were snubbed included "The Past", "Gloria" and TFF #39's "Wadjda"

Telluride wasn't totally left unrepresented in the shortlist as "The Missing Picture" made the cut and last year's Mads Mikkelsen starrer "The Hunt" was also listed.

The final nine also included:

"The Broken Circle Breakdown"
"An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker"
"Two Lives"
"The Grandmaster"
"The Notebook"
"The Great Beauty"
"Omar"

Next, the Academy members have to knock the list down to five.  If I were handicapping it (like I know anything about this), I'd guess that "The Hunt", "The Grandmaster", "The Great Beauty" and "The Broken Circle" Breakdown" are likely nominees with the fifth film up in the air.

The Playlist has the story about this week's announcement:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/the-grandmaster-the-hunt-the-great-beauty-more-make-oscar-foreign-language-film-shortlist-20131220

DERN AND NEBRASKA

The Bruce Dern Oscar campaign continues full force.  Dern's interview with AwardsLine's (Deadline.com) Anna Lisa Raya was posted this week and you can find that here:

http://www.deadline.com/2013/12/oscars-2014-bruce-dern-nebraska-interview/


BEHIND INSIDE

One of my favorite moments in The Coen Brothers' "Inside Llewyn Davis" is the recording session that produces "Please Mr. Kennedy".  It sums up a number of the themes of the film and is just a hoot.

In the scene Adam Driver appears as a specialty background singer and is a highlight.  Driver recently talked to Nigel M. Smith for IndieWire about "Inside Llewyn Davis" and other topics here:

http://www.indiewire.com/article/adam-driver-on-singing-for-the-coen-brothers-on-inside-llewyn-davis-and-why-he-keeps-coming-back-to-girls


THE PAST'S FARHADI

Asghar Farhadi's follow up to his Oscar winning " A Separation", "The Past" was very well received at Telluride over Labor Day weekend.  As mentioned above, the film was snubbed by The Academy FLF committee and to the surprise of many, including me, it was not shortlisted for this year's Oscar.

Nevertheless, Film Journal's (And friend of MTFB) Tomris Laffly talked to the auteur about the new film:

http://www.filmjournal.com/filmjournal/content_display/news-and
features/features/movies/e3id1e1bc718e4cd0f322b8201ded442ba9

THE VISIBLE FELICITY JONES

The actress at the center of Ralph Fiennes Charles Dickens film, "The Invisible Woman" is Felicity Jones. She is the "invisible" woman referenced in the title.  Reactions to the film was divided in Telluride but ones generally received high marks for her portrayal of the younger woman that captured Dickens heart.

Jones recently sat down with Drew Taylor for this interview with The Playlist:

 http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/interview-the-invisible-womans-felicity-jones-talks-her-dickensian-drama-what-it-was-like-working-with-ralph-fiennes-and-how-much-she-loves-spider-man-20131217


That's all for this Monday.  I'm hoping to catch David O. Russell's "American Hustle" today...really looking forward to it!

For those that celebrate it, Merry Christmas!

More on Thursday!

The Film Awards Clearinghouse 2013 Vol. 4 Part Two-Under the Line...

The Film Awards Clearinghouse-Complete Part Two

I’m continuing the report from The Film Awards Clearinghouse that I started yesterday by looking at the “under the line” categories for the first time in a comprehensive fashion for this awards season.  The exception is in Makeup/Hair where I have included the Academy Short List of films.

As always, I use the publicly posted predictions of these Oscar experts:

Sasha Stone/Awards Daily

Kris Tapley/HitFix-InContention

Anne Thompson/Thompson on Hollywood

Peter Knegt/IndieWire

Alex Carlson/Film Misery

Nathaniel Rogers/Film Experience

Scott Feinberg/The Hollywood Reporter

Clayton Davis/Awards Circuit

Brad Brevet/Rope of Silicon

Telluride #40 films are Bold.

FILM EDITING

1) Gravity

2) 12 Years a Slave

3) Captain Phillips

4) American Hustle

5) Rush

6) The Wolf of Wall Street

7) All is Lost

8) Inside Llewyn Davis

9) Her

10) Nebraska

CINEMATOGRAPHY

1) Gravity

2) Inside Llewyn Davis (TIE)

2) 12 Years a Slave

4) Prisoners

5) Captain Phillips

6) Nebraska

7) Rush

8) Her

9) All is Lost

10) The Wolf of Wall Street

PRODUCTION DESIGN

1) 12 Years a Slave

2) The Great Gatsby

3) Saving Mr. Banks

4) The Hobbit: Smaug

5) Inside Llewyn Davis

6) Gravity

7) Her

8) American Hustle

9) The Invisible Woman

10) Oz: The Great and Powerful

ORIGINAL SCORE

1) Gravity

2) 12 Years a Slave

3) Saving Mr. Banks

4) The Book Thief

5) Philomena

6) Captain Phillips

7) All is Lost

8) Her

9) Monsters University

10) Rush

ORIGINAL SONG

1) Let It Go/Frozen

2) Young and Beautiful/The Great Gatsby

3) So You Know What It’s Like/Short Term 12

4) Amen/All Is Lost

5) The Moon Song/Her

6) Happy/Despicable Me 2

7) I See the Fire/The Hobbit: Smaug

8) You and I Ain’t Nothin’ No More/Lee Daniels The Butler

9) Ordinary Love/Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

10) In the Middle of the Night/Lee Daniels The Butler

COSTUMES

1) 12 Years a Slave

2) American Hustle

3) The Great Gatsby

4) Saving Mr. Banks

5) Inside Llewyn Davis

6) Lee Daniels The Butler

7) The Invisible Woman

8) The Hobbit: Smaug

9) Oz: The Great and Powerful

10) The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

VISUAL EFFECTS

1) Gravity

2) The Hobbit: Smaug

3) Pacific Rim

4) Iron Man 3

5) Star Trek Into Darkness

6) Elysium

7) World War Z

8) Oblivion

9) The Lone Ranger

10) Man of Steel

SOUND MIXING

1) Gravity

2) Rush

3) Captain Phillips

4) All is Lost

5) Inside Llewyn Davis

6) 12 Years a Slave

7) The Lone Ranger

8) Man of Steel

9) The Hobbit: Smaug

10) Pacific Rim

SOUND EDITING

1) Gravity

2) Captain Phillips

3) Rush

4) All is Lost

5) The Lone Ranger

6) Iron Man 3

7) Pacific Rim

8) Man of Steel

9) Star Trek Into Darkness

10) Oblivion

MAKEUP/HAIR (ACADEMY SHORT LIST in alphabetical order)

American Hustle

Dallas Buyers Club

The Great Gatsby

Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa

The Lone Ranger

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

1) The Hunt (TFF #39)

2) Wadjda (TFF #39)

3) The Past

4) Gloria

5) The Great Beauty

6) The Broken Circle Breakdown

7) The Rocket

8) Bethlehem

9) Gabrielle

10) Ilo Ilo

ANIMATED FEATURE

1) Frozen

2) The Wind Rises

3) The Croods

4) Monsters University

5) Despicable Me 2

6) Ernest and Celestine

7) A Letter to Momo

8) Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2

9) Epic

10) O Apostolo

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

1) Blackfish

2) Stories We Tell (TFF #39)

3) 20 Feet from Stardom

4) The Act of Killing (TFF #39)

5) The Square

6) Tim’s Vermeer

7) Cutie and the Boxer

8) The Armstrong Lie

9) After Tiller

10) God Loves Uganda

NOTES ON THIS EDITION OF THE FILM AWARDS CLEARINGHOUSE

*Telluride #40 films and what The FAC says:

“12 Years a Slave” gets 11 nominations: Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Adapted Screenplay, Film Editing, Cinematography, Production Design, Score and Costumes.  It also has a possibility for a Sound Mixing nomination.

“Gravity” gets 9 nominations: Best Picture, Director, Actress, Film Editing, Cinematography, Score, Visual Effects, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing.  It also is in the mix for Production Design and Original Screenplay nominations.

“Inside Llewyn Davis” gets 6 nominations: Best Picture, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Production Design, Costumes and Sound Mixing.  It also has a chance to be nominated for Director, Actor and Film Editing.

“Nebraska” gets 4 nominations: Best Picture, Actor, Supporting Actress, Original Screenplay.  It could also be nominated for Director, Supporting Actor, Film Editing and Cinematography.

“All is Lost” gets 4 nominations: Actor, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing and Song.  It’s also in the mix for nominations for Cinematography, Film Editing and Score.

Single nominations are predicted for: Prisoners (Cinematography…Prisoners also has a possibility for a nomination for Supporting Actor), The Past (Foreign Language), Gloria (Foreign Language) and The Wind Rises (Animated Feature).

I fully expect that we’ll see another nomination or two from the “Shorts” categories.  For example; “Get a Horse”.

Other TFF #40 film nomination possibilities:

“Blue is the Warmest Color” has 2 possible nominations for Actress and Adapted Screenplay.

“Labor Day” has 2 possible nominations for Actress and Adapted Screenplay.

“The Invisible Woman” has 2 possible nominations for Production Design and Costumes.

“Bethlehem” has a possible nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.

“Tim’s Vermeer” is a possible nominee for Feature Documentary.

TFF #39 is represented by nominations for Foreign Language Film for “The Hunt” and “Wadjda” as well as Documentary nominations for “Stories We Tell” and “The Act of Killing”.

That ultimately puts the TFF #40 totals at 38 nominations in the 21 "feature" categories with another 22 possible nominations. I'm going to continue to predict a total of 40 nominations for TFF #40.  It's very clear that Telluride is going to have the most Oscar nominations for its collective group of films this year than any year since I started doing this blog  and that almost certainly means the most nominations for any year in its 40 years of existence.

Finally, if we believe that the film that is ranked #1 in each category is likely to win the Oscar, The FAC says the following happens on March 2:

“12 Years” wins 6 Oscars: Best Picture, Actor, Supporting Actress, Adapted Screenplay, Production Design and Costumes.

“Gravity wins 7 Oscars: Director, Film Editing, Cinematography, Original Score, Visual Effects, Sound Mixing and Sound Editing.

“Frozen” wins 2 Oscars: Best Animated Feature and Original Song

Single Oscars would go to:

“Blue Jasmine”: Best Actress

“Dallas Buyers Club”: Best Supporting Actor

“Inside Llewyn Davis”: Original Screenplay

“The Hunt” wins Best Foreign Language Film

“Blackfish” wins Best Documentary Feature

Telluride #40 would have screened films with 14 wins plus another win for TFF #39 (The Hunt).

 More on Monday...

The Film Awards Clearinghouse 2013 Vol.4 (Part One)/Critics Say

Good Thursday to All...

I bring you the latest update from The Film Awards Clearinghouse post Golden Globe nominations, SAG nominations, NBR, AFI, New York Film Critics Circle, L.A. Film Critics.  Today we'll look at The Big Eight categories and in a special Friday edition of MTFB/FAC, tomorrow I'll pass along the latest on another 13 Oscar categories for feature films.

I use the publicly posted predictions of these Oscar experts:

Sasha Stone/Awards Daily

Kris Tapley/HitFix-InContention

Anne Thompson/Thompson on Hollywood

Peter Knegt/IndieWire

Alex Carlson/Film Misery

Nathaniel Rogers/Film Experience

Scott Feinberg/The Hollywood Reporter

Clayton Davis/Awards Circuit

Brad Brevet/Rope of Silicon

The films position on the last FAC is in parenthesis.  Telluride #40 films are Bold.

BEST PICTURE

1) 12 Years a Slave (1)
2) Gravity (2)
3) American Hustle (7)
4) Nebraska (6)
5) Captain Phillips (3)
6) The Wolf of Wall Street (8)
7) Saving Mr. Banks (4)
8) Inside Llewyn Davis (7)
9) Her (11)
10) Dallas Buyers Club (14)
11) Philomena (New)
12) Lee Daniels The Butler (9)
13) Fruitvale Station (15)
14) Blue Jasmine (13)
15) August: Osage County (12)

Falling Out: Al is Lost

Hot: American Hustle, Nebraska, Wolf of Wall Street, Her, Dallas Buyers Club, Philomena and Fruitvale Station.
Cold: Captain Phillips, Saving Mr. Bank, Lee Daniels The Butler and August: Osage County

Comment:  There has been a lot of positioning but 14 of the top 15 from a month ago remain on The FAC Best Picture list.  Only one switch out but it was a large scale one as "Philomena" jumped back on the list from nowhere to the #11 spot and "All is Lost" dropped big from #10 all the way off the top 15.

In an earlier post I mentioned that I didn't think that "Saving Mr. Banks" seemed to me to have the gravitas to make the cut for a Best Picture nomination.  Well, gravitas or no, it seems to be losing some steam.

All along this season, I have been softly floating the notion that there could be a full dance card on the morning of Jan. 16 when the Oscar nominations are announced.  By that I mean that there could be a full contingent of 10 Best Picture nominations.  Over the last month, I've backed off that.  Now, I think that the nine nominations we've seen the past two years might not even happen.

For the blogs purposes of totaling and calculation, I'm still going to assume 10 but at this point, 7-9 is probably more likely.

BEST DIRECTOR

1) Alfonso Cuaron/Gravity (1)
2) Steve McQueen/12 Years a Slave (2)
3) Paul Greengrass/Capt. Phillips (3)
4) Martin Scorsese/Wolf of Wall Street (8)
5) David O. Russell/American Hustle (3)
6) Alexander Payne/Nebraska (6)
7) Joel and Ethan Coen/Inside Llewyn Davis (5)
8) Spike Jonze/Her (10)
9) John Lee Hancock/Saving Mr. Banks (7)
10) Lee Daniels/Lee Daniels The Butler (New)

Falling Out; J.C. Chandor/All is Lost

Hot: Scorsese, Jonze
Not: Russell, Coens, Hancock.

Comment: The directors race largely mirrors the Best Picture picture, although, I personally think David O. Russell is very likely to be nominated.  Also, the collective group of bloggers that I use to come up with The FAC continues to predict, by a narrow margin, a split between Best Picture and Director.  I don't think that will happen.  My call is "12 Years" in both categories.

BEST ACTOR

1) Chiwetel Ejiofor/12 Years a Slave (1)
2) Bruce Dern/Nebraska (5)
3) Matthew McConnaughey/Dallas Buyers Club (3)
4) Robert Redford/All is Lost (2)
5) Tom Hanks/Captain Phillips (4)
6) Forest Whitaker/Lee Daniels The Butler (6)  (TIE)
6) Leonardo DiCaprio/Wolf of Wall Street (8)
8) Christian Bale/American Hustle (7)
9) Oscar Isaac/Inside Llewyn Davis (9)
10) Michael B. Jordan/Fruitvale Station (10)

Hot: DERN, DiCaprio
Not: Redford

Comment: No one is hotter in any category in The FAC than Bruce Dern who has gone from a "maybe" to "likely" as a nominee over the last month.  Redford's chances seem to have dropped because of his lack of a SAG nomination last week.  I still think he gets in.

BEST ACTRESS

1) Cate Blanchett/Blue Jasmine (1)
2) Sandra Bullock/Gravity (2) 
3) Emma Thompson/Saving Mr. Banks (4)
4) Judi Dench/Philomena (5)
5) Meryl Streep/August: Osage County (3)
6) Amy Adams/American Hustle (6)
7) Brie Larson/Short Term 12 (New)
8) Adele Exarchopolous/Blue is the Warmest Color (7)
9) Kate Winslet/Labor Day (9)
10) Julie Delpy/Before Midnight (8)

Falling Out: Berenice Bejo/The Past

Hot: Larson
Not: Streep, Delpy

Comment: The Brie Larson express has pulled into the station.  Is it enough for her to leapfrog into the top five and get a nomination?  Probably not.  Though if I were guessing, I might suggests that Thompson might also be vulnerable.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Jared Leto/Dallas Buyers Club (2)
2) Michael Fassbender/12 Years a Slave (1)
3) Barkhad Abdi/Captain Phillips (4)
4) Tom Hanks/Saving Mr. Banks (3)
5) Daniel Bruhl/Rush (5)
6) James Gandolfini/Enough Said (6)
7) Jonah Hill/Wolf of Wall Street (8)
8) Bradley Cooper/American Hustle (7)
9) Will Forte/Nebraska (New)
10) Jake Gyllenhaal/Prisoners (New)

Falling Out: Goodman and Renner.

Hot: The newbys: Forte and Gyllenhaal

Comment: Will Forte benefits from a good deal of notice over the past two weeks and maybe from Bruce Dern's coattails.


BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1) Lupita Nyong'o/12 Years a Slave (1)
2) Jennifer Lawrence/American Hustle (5)
3) Oprah Winfrey/Lee Daniels The Butler (2)
4) June Squibb/Nebraska (3)
5) Julia Roberts/August: Osage County (4)
6) Octavia Spencer/Fruitvale Station (7)
7) Sally Hawkins/Blue Jasmine (8)
8) Margo Martindale/August: Osage County (6)
9) Scaelett Johansson/Her (New)
10) Margot Robbie/Wolf of Wall Street (New)

Falling Out: Mulligan and Paulson.

Hot: Johansson, Robbie and especially Jennifer Lawrence
Cold: Martindale

Comment: Lawrence moves into serious contention as a threat to Nyong'o.


BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1) Inside Llewyn Davis (2)
2) Nebraska (3)
3) American Hustle (4)
4) Her (5)
5) Blue Jasmine (1)
6) Saving Mr. Banks (6)
7) Gravity (7)
8) Dallas Buyers Club (New)
9) Enough Said (10)
10) Lee Daniels The Butler (9)

Falling Out: Fruitvale Station

Hot: DBC
Not: Blue Jasmine

Comment: I'm still a bit amazed that "Gravity" is on the screenplay conversation.  It's the weakest thing about the film.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1) 12 Years a Slave (1)
2) Captain Phillips (2)
3) The Wolf of Wall Street (6)
4) Philomena (5)
5) Before Midnight (3)
6) August: Osage County (4)
7) Blue is the Warmest Color (7)
8) Short Term 12 (9)
9) Labor Day (8)
10) Lone Survivor (New)

Falling Out: The Book Thief

Hot: Wolf
Not: Before Midnight

Comment: Wolf of Wall Street is clearly benefiting up and down the categories from finally being screened for press and industry members.


Overall in the Big Eight categories Telluride #40 films are predicted to get 16 nominations with another 9 possibilities.  Here's the breakdown

12 Years a Slave-6 nominations: Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress and Adapted Screenplay.

Nebraska-4 nominations and another 2 possibles: Best Picture, Actor, Supporting Actress and Original Screenplay.  Possibles Director and Supporting Actor.

Gravity-3 nominations and another possible: Best Picture, Director, Actress and an Original Screenplay nomination is possible.

Inside Llewyn Davis-2 nominations and another 2 possible: Best Picture and Original Screenplay.  Possibles are Direction and Actor.

All is Lost-1 nomination: Best Actor

Other possibles:

Labor Day: Actress and Adapted Screenplay
Blue is the Warmest Color: Adapted Screenplay
Prisoners: Best Supporting Actor

TOMORROW I'll post the 13 other feature categories from The FAC.


CRITICS SAY

As you might expect, the last two weeks have seen a slew of Critics awards announced and Top Ten lists espoused.  There have also been a good number of outlets that have collected critical response and collated them.  I've chosen to focus on two and pass the links to them along to you readers.  Film Comment and Indie Wire/CriticWire.

As you might also expect, I have focused specifically on where TFF #40 (Tff #39) films landed on those composite lists.  From Film Comment, the collected wisdom of 120 critics says this about TFF films:

#1 was "Inside Llewyn Davis"
#2 was "12 Years a Slave"
"The Act of Killing" (TFF #39) was #4
"Gravity" was #7
"Frances Ha" (TFF #39) was #9
"Blue is the Warmest Color" was #12
"Stories We Tell" (TFF #39) was #16
"Nebraska" was #18
"No" (TFF #39) was #23
"All is Lost" was #26
"The Past" was #40
"The Wind Rises" was #42

The Film Comment via Variety complete list is here:
http://variety.com/2013/film/news/inside-llewyn-davis-tops-film-comments-survey-of-critics-1200965806/

From the IndieWire Top 50 list Telluride films listed included:

"12 Years a Slave" at #1
"Inside Llewyn Davis" at #2
"Gravity" at #5
"The Act of Killing" at #6
"Blue is the Warmest Color" at #8
"Frances Ha" at #10
"Stories We Tell" at #12
"Nebraska" at #17
"All is Lost" at #19
"The Wind Rises" at #29
"The Past" at #30
"No" at #35
"The Hunt" (TFF #39) at #37
Wadjda (TFF #39) at #46


The complete IndieWire list can be found here:
http://www.indiewire.com/survey/indiewire-2013-year-end-critics-poll/


More tomorrow and again on Monday...

Peter O'Toole/Nomination Hangover/Awards Circuit Says/Oscar Talk/Inside Llewyn Interviews/Winslet on Labor Day

Good Monday Everyone...

PETER O'TOOLE

One of the great regrets that I have had about my Telluride experiences over this past 8 years is that we didn't start attending until 2006 which meant that we missed the 2002 tribute to Peter O'Toole.  O'Toole was the last of that Richard Harris, Richard Burton triumvirate and a tremendous story teller.  He was always fascinating whenever you could catch him in an interview.  In 2006, we saw his performance in Telluride in "Venus" and marveled at how fine an actor he remained that late in his lifer/career.  It is a crime he never won the Oscar he was nominated 8 times for.  Fortunately for us, we have so many of his performances on film to watch for generations.

Peace, Mr. O'Toole, peace...

NOMINATION HANGOVER

Last week was a little dizzying with Screen Actors Guild nominations and Golden Globe nominations.  One thing that I didn't note about the GG noms on Thursday was the incredible leap in the number of total GG nominations for Telluride films from last year.  As I did note on Thursday, there were 25 nominations this year for TFF #40 films plus an additional 2 for TFF #39 films.  Compare that to the results from the recent past:

2012: 10 GG nominations, led by 5 for "Argo".  Of course you could add the nominations for "The Hunt" and Greta Gerwig for "Frances Ha" could be added to the 2012 total.
2011: 19 GG nominations led by 6 for "The Artist"
2010: 16 GG nominations led by 7 for "The King's Speech"
2009: 11 GG nominations led by 6 for "Up in the Air"

The "average" number of Golden Globe nominations for Telluride films over the past 4 years has been 14.

So, you can see that TFF #40 is an astounding jump in numbers of Globe nominations.  It's nearly double the average.

Now, I don't think that the number of Golden Globe nominations really tell us anything about the quality of TFF from year to year.  I mean, it is The Globes and as any number of people in the business have noted, The HFPA has an agenda that sometimes rewards names over quality.  Nonetheless, the jump from 10 last year to 27 this year is astounding.

I attribute this circumstance to the 40th anniversary lure of this year's fest and the phenomenal programming that the staff at TFF did to make the anniversary very, very special.

And I'm going to go ahead and make a solid prediction for Oscar nominations.  This year, in an amazing coincidence, TFF #40 films will earn exactly 40 nominations...and there will be 2-4 for TFF #39 films as well.


AWARDS CIRCUIT SAYS

I recently ran through the Oscar nomination predictions from Oscar prognosticator Clayton Davis from his site Awards Circuit to see where he puts the films from TFF #40 (and #39) in this years race.  Here's the results of what Davis was saying:

"12 Years a Slave"-11 nominations: Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Adapted Screenplay, Production Design, Cinematography, Costumes, Film Editing, Score.

"Gravity"-9 nominations: Best Picture, Director, Actress, Cinematography, Film Editing, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Visual Effects, Score.
"Nebraska"-5 nominations: Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actress, Original Screenplay.

"Inside Llewyn Davis"- 7 nominations: Best Picture, Director, Supporting actor, Original Screenplay, Production Design, Cinematography, Sound Mixing.

"Nebraska"-5 nominations: Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actress, Original Screenplay.

"All is Lost"-4 nominations: Best Actor, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Original Song.

Single nominations for:

"Blue is the Warmest Color"-Adapted Screenplay
"The Wind Rises: Animated Feature
"Tim's Vermeer": Documentary Feature
"Prisoners"-Cinematography
"The Invisible Woman": Costumes

Also from TFF #39:
"Stories We Tell": Documentary Feature
"The Hunt": Foreign Language Film
"Wadjda": Foreign Language Film

Totals: 41 nominations for TFF #40 films and an additional 3 for TFF #39 films.

OSCAR TALK

The latest episode of the Oscar Talk Podcast with Anne Thompson and Kristopher Tapley is up at both of their websites (Thompson on Hollywood and HitFix/InContention:

You can find it linked here:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/oscar-talk-ten-best-films-of-2013

http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/oscar-talk-hustle-wall-street-precursors-and-the-10-best-films-of-2013


INSIDE LLEWYN INTERVIEWS

As the "Inside Llewyn Davis" roll out continues (it opens wide on Dec. 20th) the ILD P.R. campaign continues as well.  Here's Anne Thompson's interview with the Coen Brothers:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/oscar-isaac-t-bone-burnett-inside-llewyn-davis-interview

Also, from The Hollywood Reporter, a clip of the Coens talking about how Oscar Isaac came to be Llewyn:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/inside-llewyn-davis-how-ensemble-664351


WINSLET ON LABOR DAY

And surprise Golden Globe nominee Kate Winslet (also newly recent mom for the third time) talks to Kris Tapley at HitFix about Jason Reitman's "Labor Day":

http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/kate-winslet-talks-new-challenges-and-portraying-a-fragile-character-in-jason-reitmans-labor-day


More on Thursday...

Globes and SAG boost 12 Years

After the announcements from The Screen Actors Guild and The Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the lull in the "12 Years a Slave" momentum has been stymied, I think.

It feels like that there was some loss of momentum after some of the critic group announcements, but the last two days have put some wind back in its sails.

Golden Globe breakdown:

Telluride #40 Films:

12 Years a Slave (7 nominations): Best Picture (Drama), Director, Actor (Drama), Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Screenplay, Score.

Nebraska: (5 nominations): Best Picture (Comedy/Musical), Director, Actor (Comedy), Supporting Actress, Screenplay.

Gravity (4 nominations): Best Picture (Drama), Director, Actress (Drama), Score.

Inside Llewyn Davis (3 nominations): Best Picture (Comedy/Musical), Actor (Comedy/Musical), Song.

All is Lost (2 nominations): Best Actor (Drama), Score.

Labor Day (1 nomination): Best Actress (Drama).

3 Foreign Language nominations: Blue is the Warmest Color, The Wind Rises, The Past.

Also 2 nominations for TFF #39 films:  Greta Gerwig's Best Actress (Comedy/Musical) nomination for Frances Ha and the Best Foreign Language nomination for The Hunt.

27 total TFF nominations today from The Golden Globes.


Add today's announcement to yesterday's Screen Actors Guild nominations:

Best Supporting Actor:

Barkhad Abdi/Capt. Phillips

Daniel Bruhl/Rush

Michael Fassbender/12 Years a Slave

James Gandolfini/Enough Said

Jared Leto/Dallas Buyers Club

Best Supporting Actress:

Jennifer Lawrence/American Hustle

Lupita Nyong’o/12 Years a Slave

Julia Roberts/August: Osage County

June Squibb/Nebraska

Oprah Winfrey/The Butler

Best Actor:

Bruce Dern/Nebraska

Chiwetel Ejiofor/12 Years a Slave

Tom Hanks/Capt. Phillips

Matthew McConnaughey/Dallas Buyers Club

Forest Whitaker/The Butler

Best Actress:

Cate Blanchett/Blue Jasmine

Sandra Bullock/Gravity

Judi Dench/Philomena

Meryl Streep/August: Osage County

Emma Thompson/Saving Mr. Banks

Best Ensemble:

12 Years a Slave

American Hustle

August: Osage County

Dallas Buyers Club

The Butler

12 Years-4 nominations

Nebraska-2 nominations

Gravity-1 nomination

Surprises???

Kate Winslet's "Labor Day" Best actress nomination.
No Oprah for Supporting Actress???( actually no "Butler" anywhere on the GG list this morning).  Sally Hawkins seems to have benefited.
No Woody Allen love for Picture, Director or Screenplay.


Glad to see:  "Inside Llewyn Davis" love for the film and Oscar Isaac.  Also happy to see Redford's name especially after not seeing it yesterday from the SAG nominations.

And a nice boost for "Nebraska" which, I think, over-performed this morning with its 5 nominations. Particularly pleased that Alexander Payne got a directing nod.


More to come...

Golden Globe Nominations: 12 Years a Slave Leads the Pack

2013 Golden Globe Nominations

Best Motion Picture Drama

"12 Years A Slave"
"Captain Phillips"
"Gravity"
"Philomena"
"Rush"

Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy
"American Hustle"
"Her"
"Inside Llewyn Davis"
"Nebraska"
"The Wolf Of Wall Street"

Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Chiwetel Ejiofor, "12 Years A Slave"
Idris Elba, "Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom"
Tom Hanks, "Captain Phillips"
Matthew McConaughey, "Dallas Buyers Club"
Robert Redford, "All Is Lost"

Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Christian Bale, "American Hustle"
Bruce Dern, "Nebraska"
Leonardo DiCaprio, "The Wolf of Wall Street"
Oscar Isaac, "Inside Llewyn Davis"
Joaquin Phoenix, "Her"

Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama
Cate Blanchett, "Blue Jasmine"
Sandra Bullock, "Gravity"
Judi Dench, "Philomena"
Emma Thompson, "Saving Mr. Banks"
Kate Winslet, "Labor Day"

Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
Amy Adams, "American Hustle"
Julie Delpy, "Before Midnight"
Greta Gerwig, "Frances Ha"***
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, "Enough Said"Meryl Streep, "August: Osage County"

Best Supporting Actor: 

Barkhad Abdi, "Captain Phillips"
Daniel Bruhl, "Rush"
Bradley Cooper, "American Hustle"
Michael Fassbender, "12 Years A Slave"
Jared Leto, "Dallas Buyers Club"

Best Supporting Actress
Sally Hawkins, "Blue Jasmine"
Jennifer Lawrence, "American Hustle"
Lupita Nyong'o, "12 Years A Slave"
Julia Roberts, "August: Osage County"
June Squibb, "Nebraska"

Best Director
Alfonso Cuaron, "Gravity"
Paul Greengrass, "Captain Phillips"
Steve McQueen, "12 Years A Slave"
Alexander Payne, "Nebraska"
David O. Russell, "American Hustle"

Best Screenplay
Spike Jonze, "Her"
Bob Nelson, "Nebraska"
Jeff Pope and Steve Coogan, "Philomena"
John Ridley, "12 Years A Slave"
Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell, "American Hustle"

Best Original Score
"All Is Lost"
"Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom"
"Gravity"
"The Book Thief"
"12 Years A Slave"

Best Original Song
"Atlas," Coldplay ("The Hunger Games: Catching Fire")
"Let It Go," Idina Menzel ("Frozen")
"Ordinary Love," U2 ("Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom")
"Please Mr. Kennedy," Oscar Isaac, Justin Timberlake and Adam Driver ("Inside Llewyn Davis")
"Sweet Than Fiction," Taylor Swift ("One Chance")

Best Foreign Language Film
"Blue is the Warmest Color"
"The Great Beauty"
"The Hunt"***
"The Past"
"The Wind Rises"

Best Animated Feature Film
"The Croods"
"Despicable Me 2"
"Frozen"

Telluride #40 Films Bold

***TFF #39 films

TFF #40 films get 25 Golden Globe nominations TFF #39 films an additional 2.

More later today.

Globes Make Me Slow Today

This morning's regular www.michaeltelluridefilm.blogspot.com will run late today due to the Golden Globes nominations announcement but it'll get there!

Breaking: Screen Actors Guild Nominations Announced

This morning’s Screen Actor’s Guild nominations for Film (Telluride #40 films in Bold)

Best Supporting Actor:

Barkhad Abdi/Capt. Phillips

Daniel Bruhl/Rush

Michael Fassbender/12 Years a Slave

James Gandolfini/Enough Said

Jared Leto/Dallas Buyers Club

Best Supporting Actress:

Jennifer Lawrence/American Hustle

Lupita Nyong’o/12 Years a Slave

Julia Roberts/August: Osage County

June Squibb/Nebraska

Oprah Winfrey/The Butler

Best Actor:

Bruce Dern/Nebraska

Chiwetel Ejiofor/12 Years a Slave

Tom Hanks/Capt. Phillips

Matthew McConnaughey/Dallas Buyers Club

Forest Whitaker/The Butler

Best Actress:

Cate Blanchett/Blue Jasmine

Sandra Bullock/Gravity

Judi Dench/Philomena

Meryl Streep/August: Osage County

Emma Thompson/Saving Mr. Banks

Best Ensemble:

12 Years a Slave

American Hustle

August: Osage County

Dallas Buyers Club

The Butler

Thoughts:  A lot of the pundits this morning are noting the absence of Robert Redford for Best Actor…and I agree that it seems like an amazing slight.  The general tenor of some of the other talk is about boosts to “12 Years” and “Dallas Buyers Club” and “The Butler” which I also agree about.  I haven’t seen anyone mention the 3 nominations for “August: Osage”.  The ensemble nod, it seems to me, gives it a nudge for a Best Picture nomination, especially since it’s been, more or less, DOA in that conversation for a good long while.

Personally, I’m happy that Bruce Dern got a nod this morning.  Disappointed that there was no love for “Inside Llewyn Davis” and like everyone else this morning, a reminder that “The Wolf of Wall Street” hasn’t yet been seen by most people.

Breakdowns:

12 Years-4 nominations

Dallas Buyers Club, August: Osage County, Lee Daniel’s The Butler-3 nominations

Nebraska, American Hustle, Captain Phillips-2 nominations

Gravity, Philomena, Blue Jasmine, Saving Mr. Banks, Rush, Enough Said-1 nomination

TFF #40 has 7 of the nominated performances.

BREAKING: Rudderless chosen for Sundance

This just in..Sundance Film Festival has chosen "Rudderless" directed by William H. Macy and written by Oklahomans Casey Twenter and Jeff Robison for its Premieres section.  Check the USA Today story posted moments ago:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2013/12/09/sundance-film-festival-2014/3895721/

Breaking: AFI Top Ten Announced

AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE NAMES TOP FILMS:

American Film Institute’s Top Ten Films for 2013

12 Years a Slave”
“American Hustle”
“Captain Phillips”
“Gravity”
“Nebraska”
“The Wolf of Wall Street”
“Fruitvale Station”
“Inside Llewyn Davis”
“Saving Mr. Banks”
“Her”

Peter Knegt's Take/L.A. Critics/New York Online/Boston Society/

Good Monday Everyone!

I'm continuing to look at how the Oscar nominations may shake out for TFF #40 films through the individual predictions of some of the Oscar experts that I use to calibrate The Film Awards Clearinghouse standings. Today I am looking at the predictions of IndieWire's Peter Knegt.  Here's where he is:

12 Years a Slave: Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Film Editing, Production Design, Costume, Score, Makeup/Hair.  Total-12

Gravity: Best Picture, Director, Actress, Cinematography, Film Editing, Score, Visual Effects, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing.  Total-9

Nebraska: Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actress, Original Screenplay.  Total-5

Inside Llewyn Davis: Best Picture, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Production Design, Costume. Total-5

All is Lost: Best Actor, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing.  Total-3.

Single nominations for:

Gloria: Best Foreign Film
The Past: Best Foreign Film
Tim's Vermeer: Best Doc
The Wind Rises": Best Animated Feature
Prisoners: Cinematography

TOTAL TFF #40 nominations: 39

Also 4 nominations for TFF #39 Films:

The Hunt and Wadjda for Best Foreign Film
The Act of Killing and Stories We Tell for Best Documentary


LOS ANGELES FILM CRITICS:

Yesterday the L.A. film critics met up to vote on their choices for the best of 2013.  There was an occasional surprise here and there including three ties.  Here are the results from L.A. (Telluride films in bold):



Best Picture (tie) Gravity and Her
Best Actress (tie) Cate Blanchett/Blue Jasmine and Adele Exarchopolous/Blue is the Warmest Color
Best Screenplay: Before Midnight (Runner Up; Her)
Best Actor: Bruce Dern/Nebraska (Runner Up; Chiwetel Ejiofor/12 Years a Slave)
Best Director: Alfonso Cuaron/Gravity (Runner Up: Spike Jonze/Her)
Best Foreign Language Film: Blue is the Warmest Color (Runner Up: The Great Beauty)
Best Documentary: Stories We Tell (Runner Up: The Act of Killing)
Best Score: Inside Llewyn Davis (Runner Up: Her)
Best Animated Feature: Ernest and Celestine (Runner Up: The Wind Rises)
Best Supporting Actor: (tie): James Franco/Spring Breakers and Jared Leto/Dallas Buyers Club
Cinematography: Gravity (Runner Up: Inside Llewyn Davis)
Best Ediitng: Gravity (Runner Up: Upstream Color)
Supporting Actress: Lupita Nyong'o/12 Years a Slave (Runner Up: June Sqibb/Nebraska)
Best Production Design : Her (Runner Up: Inside Llewyn Davis)
 
Telluride #40 films named in 9 of 14 categories.  TFF #39 film also named Best Doc.  TFF #40 films also runners-up in 5 categories.


NEW YORK ONLINE AND BOSTON

Additionally, New York's Online Critics and Boston's Society of Film Critics organization also announced their winners yesterday.  As usual, Telluride films are bolded for your reading enjoyment.

From The Boston Society of Film Critics:

Best Picture:
12 Years a Slave

Best Foreign Language Film:
Wadjda

Best Director:
Steve McQueen for 12 Years a Slave

Best Actor:
Chiwetel Ejiofior for 12 Years a Slave

Best Actress: 
Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine

Best Supporting Actor: 
James Gandolfini for Enough Said

Best Supporting Actress:
June Squibb for Nebraska

Best Ensemble Cast:
Nebraska

Best Screenplay:
Nicole Holofcener for Enough Said

Best Documentary: 
The Act of Killing

Best New Filmmaker:
Ryan Coogler for Fruitvale Station

Best Animated Film:
The Wind Rises

Best Cinematography: 
Gravity (Emmanuel Lubezki)

Best Editing:
Rush (Daniel P. Hanley, Mike Hill)

Best Use of Music in a Film:
Inside Llewyn Davis

TFF #40 films with 8 of the BSFC 15 awards with TFF #39 acounting for 2 others.

The winners of the 2013 New York Film Critics Online Awards are:

Best Picture:
12 Years a Slave

Best Foreign Language Film:
Blue is the Warmest Color

Best Documentary:
The Act of Killing

Best Animated Feature:
The Wind Rises

Best Actor:
Chiwetel Ejiofor for 12 Years a Slave

Best Actress:
Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine

Best Director:
Alfonso Cuaron for Gravity

Best Debut Director:
Ryan Coogler for Fruitvale Station

Best Supporting Actor:
Jared Leto for Dallas Buyers Club

Best Supporting Actress:
Lupita Nyong'o for 12 Years a Slave

Best Ensemble:
American Hustle

Best Breakthrough Performance:
Adele Exarchopoulos for Blue is The Warmest Color

Best Cinematography:
Emmanuel Lubezki for Gravity

Best Use of Music:
Inside Llewyn Davis

 The NYFCO awards TFF #40 films 9 of their 14 with TFF #39 picking up an additional award.

Of these three groups, probably the biggest noise comes from the L.A. critics signaling a very good day fro "Gravity".  Spike Jonze's "Her" also was well represented in L.A.'s announcement. "12 Years a Slave" had an "okay" day with a win for Nyong'o but much stronger showings in the NYFCO and BSFC balloting.

Totals from all three critics groups taken together:

TFF #40 Films:

Gravity-8
12 Years-7
Blue is the Warmest-4
Nebraska-3
Inside Llewyn Davis-3
The Wind Rises-2


TFF #39 Recognized films: Act of Killing-2, Stories We Tell-1, Wadjda-1

No love for Wolf of Wall Street, Capt. Phillips or Saving Mr. Banks and only one mention  for American Hustle.

COENS AND LLEWYN

Movies.com talks to the Coen Brothers about "Inside Llewyn Davis":

http://www.movies.com/movie-news/coen-brothers-interview-inside-llewyn-davis/14306


TIM TALKS

Thompson on Hollywood posted this discussion of process with the subject of Penn and Teller's "Tim's Vermeer":

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/exclusive-video-inventor-tim-jenison-discusses-how-he-cracked-a-350-year-old-mystery-in-oscar-shortlisted-doc-tims-vermeer



More on Thursday including Golden Globe nominations.