Thursday, March 14, 2013

Save the Dates/And Speaking of Cannes...

Good Thursday everyone...

SAVE THE DATES



I make the case frequently that Telluride is one of the five most influential/important film festivals on the planet...and sometimes people will ask me what the other four are...which is a good question, because they all have ramifications in as far as Telluride is concerned.  Additionally, they've all announced their dates which can give you a rough template about how films will jockey about and when.

Sundance, of course, has already happened. 

Sundance and Venice tend to be exclusive...though there are usually 2-3 films the cross-pollinate between Venice and Telluride.

Toronto tends to be inclusive...there is usually a good deal of overlap between Toronto and T-ride although there have been rumbles that that might be less true in the future.

New York tends to act in both capacities.  The NYFF will often have Telluride overlap, but it will also seek to snag 2-3 films exclusively.

Cannes #66 is scheduled for: May 15-26.

Venice is set for: Aug. 28-Sept. 7.

and Toronto is scheduled for: Sept. 5-15.

I think you could plausibly make the case that The New York Film Festival is the other possible "one of the five most..." film festivals on the planet and it, too, has an impact on what does and doesn't play at Telluride.  It's dates are: Sept. 27-Oct. 13.

So, for now, it's all about the Cannes fest and the choices those programmers make primarily for competition and the "Un Certain Regard" section.  They're are likely to be a number of films in those two Cannes categories that we'll see over Labor Day weekend.


AND SPEAKING OF CANNES...



The organizers of the 66th edition announced this week that Baz Luhrmann's "The Great Gatsby" will open the festival.  Seems a little weird that it is the choice as it will have opened here in the U.S. the weekend before.  Curious.

Nevertheless, Cannes is two months away and we're starting to see some serious speculation about possible films for competition and other parts of the program.  I've included two that were just posted within the last few days:

Here's Deadline.com's speculation: http://www.deadline.com/2013/03/cannes-2013-lineup-predictions-films/

It includes Telluride possibles such as: "Nebraska", "Twelve Years a Slave", "Blood Ties", "Lowlife" and "The Past".

Brad Brevet at Rope of Silicon also posted a Cannes spec piece this week that builds on the Deadline post which I have linked here:

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/what-movies-will-play-at-the-2013-cannes-film-festival/


And so we await the Cannes announcement of the actual lineups to see what insights we can draw about the potential TFF #40 list of films.

More on Monday...



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I love Telluride but not sure you could call it "important " in the same way as Cannes , Toronto, Venice, Berlin, or Sundance. Almost all of TFF's films play Toronto and/or Venice, and those are the places that those films make their marks. Part of what makes Telluride unique is that it is calm and warm and not "buzzy"