Coming Attractions/Foreign News/Cuaron and Gravity/Nyong'o Long Ago...well, Two Years.

Good Monday All...

COMING ATTRACTIONS...

Keeping last week's promise, here's the first of what will likely be several entries regarding films that are floating around various stages of genesis/production that have at least some potential to play as a part of some future Telluride Film Festival.  Since teasing the notion that I keep this file last week, I have added information about this week's announcements that Jennifer Lawrence will be in Gary Ross's new version/adaptation of John Steinbeck's classic "East of Eden".  Look at a couple of posts about that tantalizing prospect here from The Playlist and The Hollywood Reporter:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/jennifer-lawrence-gary-ross-reteam-for-2-part-east-of-eden-burial-rites-20130925

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/jennifer-lawrence-gary-ross-reteam-636585

This project isn't really a film that immediately says: "Telluride" but I'm personally intrigued by the thought of it.  I think it would be interesting to see this pair away from "The Hunger Games" and what Ross might do. I'm an admirer of both "Seabiscuit" and "Pleasantville".  I like J. Law too.

On a more conventional prospect for Telluride, of the ten or so films I mentioned in last week's post about potential T-ride projects, none has a greater likelihood of playing than Werner Herzog's "Queen of the Desert".  Over the past few months I have collected numerous posts about its development (from The Playlist and Empireonline.com):

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/noami-watts-out-nicole-kidman-in-for-werner-herzogs-sweeping-queen-of-the-desert-20130908

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/james-franco-could-replace-jude-law-in-werner-herzogs-queen-of-the-desert-20130425

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/naomi-watts-says-werner-herzogs-queen-of-the-desert-with-robert-pattinson-jude-law-on-hold-20130120

http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=35680

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/jude-law-joins-werner-herzogs-queen-of-the-desert-with-naomi-watts-robert-pattinson-20121102

FOREIGN NEWS

A lot of movement occurred this week in regards to the Foreign Language Oscar as the Oct. 1 deadline for submission looms.  Iran officially is back in the FLF race as they chose Asghar Farhadi's "The Past" and Israel chose "Bethlehem" as their entry.  Poland has "Ida" all of which played Telluride this year.  Links below to stories on each of the three films:

Ioncinema's "Ida" story:
http://networkedblogs.com/PqMWk

The Hollywood Reporter on "Bethlehem":
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/bethlehem-represent-israel-as-foreign-638654

Variety on "The Past":
http://variety.com/2013/film/news/iran-picks-the-past-for-oscar-1200679482/


CUARON AND GRAVITY

Alfonso Cuaron continues to generate astounding critical response and buzz as it nears its release date this weekend.  The director talked recently to Kris Tapley of HitFix/InContention about the film and other matters.  You can see that here:
http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/alfonso-cuaron-on-the-long-strange-trip-of-gravity#~oiRVsFR0Wm2U6C


NYONG'O LONG AGO

Steve McQueen's "12 Years a Slave" has a lot going for it and has been received rapturously at both Telluride and Toronto and is soon to be bow at the New York Film Fest (Oct. 8).  One of its surprises is the emergence of Lupita Nyong'o in the role of a young woman who has captured the fancy of the evil plantation owner played by Michael Fassbender.  Nyong'o is very new to American audiences but does have some credits on her resume.  Among them: soap opera work in her native Kenya.  Take a look at this CNN video in which the young actress talks about her early career:

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/international/2010/10/25/av.shuga.kenya.mtv.bk.b.cnn.html


More on Thursday!

The First FAC for 2013/12 Years Revealed/Llewyn Sings Dink's Song/Bethlehem Has a Home

Good Thursday Everyone...

THE FIRST FILM AWARDS CLEARINGHOUSE FOR 2013

I’m starting the annual collation of Oscar predictions from well known experts for this season with my expected emphasis on the films that played as a part of the TFF #40 program.  As usual, I’ll begin with the Big Eight categories and expand the FAC to the other categories as we move through the season.

As I have for the last couple of years, 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

And here’s what they say as we conclude September...

BEST PICTURE

Last year, the initial Best Picture FAC had all nine eventual nominees listed in the top ten so that’s a good omen for the films that are at the top of this poll.  There have been 9 Best Picture nominees the last two years.  I wouldn’t be surprised if we get 10 this year.  Telluride #40 films are Bold.

1) 12 Years a Slave

2) Gravity

3) American Hustle

4) Captain Phillips

5) Saving Mr. Banks

6) The Wolf of Wall Street***

7) Inside Llewyn Davis

8) Lee Daniel’s The Butler

9) Foxcatcher

10) Nebraska

Others:

11) The Monuments Men

12) All is Lost

13) August: Osage County

14) Blue Jasmine

15) The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

***Rumors have been flying this week that Martin Scorsese’s “The Wolf of Wall Street” mind end up being pushed to a 2014 release date which could have a significant impact on the Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actor and Adapted Screenplay races.

Other thoughts:  I’m personally dubious about “Saving Mr. Banks”.  Also, I’m really hot to see “American Hustle”, “Captain Phillips”, “Foxcatcher” and “The Monuments Men”.  “Walter Mitty” could really be a sleeper as could Spike Jonze’s “Her” and Jean Marc Vallee’s “Dallas Buyers Club”.

BEST DIRECTION

1) Steve McQueen/12 Years a Slave

2) Alfonso Cuaron/Gravity

3) David O. Russell/American Hustle

4) Paul Greengrass/Captain Phillips

5) Martin Scorsese/The Wolf of Wall Street (***see note above)

Others:

6) Alexander Payne/Nebraska

7) John Lee Hancock/Saving Mr. Banks

8) Lee Daniels/Lee Daniels’ The Butler

Thoughts: It seems to me that the most likely people to disrupt the parade of these eight possible nominees would be the Coen Brothers for “Inside Llewyn Davis”.  Possibly J.C. Chandor for “All is Lost” or Spike Jonze for “Her”.

BEST ACTRESS

1) Cate Blanchett/Blue Jasmine

2) Meryl Streep/August: Osage County

3) Sandra Bullock/Gravity

4) Judi Dench/Philomena

5) Emma Thompson/Saving Mr. Banks

Others:

6) Amy Adams/American Hustle

7) Berenice Bejo/The Past

Thoughts: Blanchett is the early (and big) favorite.  Adele Excharopoulos/Blue is the Warmest Color and Kate Winslet/Labor Day seem the most likely to break into the race.

BEST ACTOR

1) Chiwetel Ejiofor/12 Years a Slave

2) Robert Redford/All is Lost

3) Matthew McConnaughey/Dallas Buyers Club

4) Bruce Dern/Nebraska

5) Forest Whitaker/Lee Daniels’ The Butler

Others:

6)  Leonardo DiCaprio/The Wolf of Wall Street (***see note above)

7) Tom Hanks/Captain Phillips

Thoughts:  For a race that’s supposed to be tight and competitive, I was surprised at how few men were dominating the nine experts that I use.  Who else might challenge?  Steve Carell in “Foxcatcher” and Idris Elba in “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom” seem to be the only others at this point getting much interest.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1) Oprah Winfrey/Lee Daniels’ The Butler

2) Lupita Nyong’o/12 Years a Slave

3) June Squibb/Nebraska

4) Margo Martindale/August: Osage County

5) Octavia Spencer/Fruitvale Station

Others:

6) Jennifer Lawrence/American Hustle

7) Julia Roberts/August: Osage County

8) Cameron Diaz/The Counselor

9) Sally Hawkins/Blue Jasmine

Thoughts: Winfrey and Nyong’o have sucked all the oxygen up in this contest and I doubt that will change between now and Oscar night.  Others that could sneak in: Sarah Paulson/12 Years a Slave or Carey Mulligan/Inside Llewyn Davis

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1) American Hustle

2) Inside Llewyn Davis

3) Blue Jasmine

4) Saving Mr. Banks

5) Her

Others:

6) Nebraska

7) Fruitvale Station

8) Lee Daniels’ The Butler

Thoughts: Screenplay categories are notoriously dodgy to puzzle out.  No script in this category has a clear edge in the early going.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1) 12 Years a Slave

2) Before Midnight

3) Captain Phillips

4) The Wolf of Wall Street (***see note above)

5) Foxcatcher

Others:

6) Philomena

7) The Monuments Men

Thoughts: It’s telling to me that “August: Osage County” has almost no early support in this category.

Overall, in the Big Eight categories, the experts collectively have "12 Years a Slave" with five nominations, "Gravity" with four, Nebraska with three and two other possibles, "Inside Llewyn Davis" with two, "All is Lost" with one and one other possible and "The Past" with one possible nomination.  That has TFF #40 films with 14 nominations and four other possibilities.

AND ON THE "WOLF OF WALL STREET" NOTE...

 *** As a matter of fact, here's one of the posts from earlier this week that suggests that "The Wolf of Wall Street" maybe on the way out of a 2013 release date and off of this year's Oscar charts (from The Playlist):

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/oscar-race-may-grow-slimmer-as-grace-of-monaco-bumped-to-spring-wolf-of-wall-street-debates-move-to-2014-20130924

12 YEARS A SLAVE REVEALED

Journos and bloggers continue to unearth information from the film makers and cast members of Steve McQueen's "12 Years a Slave" as is evidenced by the following:

Alex Billington at FirstShowing.net interviews McQueen and his star Chiwetel Ejiofor in this post from earlier this week:

http://www.firstshowing.net/2013/interview-12-years-a-slave-star-chiwetel-ejiofor-on-solomon-northup/

Shadow and Act's Tambay A. Obenson profiles newcomer (and Likely Best Supporting Actress nominee) Lupita Nyong'o.  That profile and teases of future interviews to come are linked here:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/get-familiar-w-lupita-nyongos-past-work-before-seeing-her-lauded-performance-in-12-years-a-slave

LLEWYN SINGS DINK'S SONG

It's n secret that I loved the Coen Brothers' "Inside Llewyn Davis" and I also loved the music that is the backbone of the film.  The soundtrack doesn't drop until Nov. 12 but those of us that attended the Patron brunch this year were lucky enough to score a vinyl EP that includes 6 songs from the film ("Five Hundred Miles", "The Death of Queen Jane", "The Auld Triangle", "Green Green Rocky Road", "Farewell" and "Fare the Well/Dink's Song").

Tuesday, a number of press outlets and blogs included a link to the Marcus Mumford/Oscar Issac collaboration "Fare the Well (Dink's Song" that has been featured in the "ILD" trailer.

You can hear it here from Rope of Silicon or The Playlist:

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/listen-marcus-mumford-oscar-isaac-sing-fare-thee-well-dirks-song-inside-llewyn-davis/

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/listen-marcus-mumford-oscar-isaccs-beautiful-fare-thee-well-dinks-song-from-inside-llewyn-davis-20130924

BETHLEHEM GETS A HOME

Israeli thriller "Bethlehem" that played as a part of TFF 340 to generally warm reception has reportedly been acquired by Adopt Films according to this post from The Star Tribune:

http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/blogs/224894082.html

More on Monday...hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

Coming Attractions/Oscar Conversations/12 Years Talk/Labor Day Poster/Blue View/India Chooses

Good Monday to All...to the extent that it CAN be a good Monday...

COMING ATTRACTIONS

I'm always sniffing around for news of films announced, going into production, deals struck that seem to me to have some potential, for a variety of reasons, to end up playing as a part of some future Telluride program. This year, Steve McQueen's "12 Years a Slave" is a perfect example.  I'd been collecting and occasionally posting stories about it for months.  The earliest story I can find that I still have stored in my "Future Telluride" file is from Dec. 2011.

Another example occurred this week with the announcement from Fox Searchlight that they're going to produce a new adaptation of  Thomas Hardy's classic novel "Far From the Madding Crowd".  While the fact that it's a classic piece of literature and that it's Fox Searchlight would have been enough for me to consider it as a future Telluride prospect, the additional news that it's to be directed by Thomas Vintenberg also piqued my interest.  Vintenberg's "The Hunt" played T-ride #39.  The announced casting of Carey Mulligan and Matthias Schoenaerts didn't hurt its profile either.

Here's the announcement story as posted earlier this week from Movie City News:
http://moviecitynews.com/2013/09/thomas-vinterberg-to-direct-far-from-the-madding-crowd-for-fox-searchlight/

All of this also got me to thinking about what I DID have stored away on my hard drive so I went through it and cleaned it out this week and in doing that I discovered that there are still a lot of films that I've stashed info about.  Some will never get made.  Some have no realistic chance of being on the Telluride program. But some are very likely to end up in the San Juans on some future Labor Day weekend.  More about that a little farther down.

After culling the "Future Telluride" list, I was left with 167 entries for nearly 70 films.  I dumped about an equal number from the file.  Still, that's a ton of reference material left.  And what can I tell you from all of that?

Well, there are some things that are just pretty good guesses as far as the future at Telluride is concerned.  The ten  best shots are these:

Werner Herzog's "Queen of the Desert" starring Nicole Kidman as the real life Gertrude Bell.  IMDb says it's scheduled for a 2015 release or, perhaps his "Vernon God Little" project.

Errol Morris' "Holland, Michigan" starring Naomi Watts or his "Freezing People is Easy".

The Dardennes Brothers "Two Days, One Night" starring Marion Cotillard.  IMDb lists it as a 2014 release.  I would not be surprised at its inclusion at Cannes followed by a screening at Telluride.

Bill Pohlad's Brian Wilson/Beach Boys film "Love and Mercy" starring Paul Dano, Elizabeth Banks, John Cusack and Paul Giamatti.

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's first comedy "Birdman".  Michael Keaton, Edward Norton and Emma Stone star among others.  This is another film I suspect will travel the Cannes/Telluride pipeline.  (I told Inarritu I was anxious to see it there next year when I ran into him in the Galaxy lobby just prior to the first screening of "12 Years a Slave").

Lone Scherfig's "Posh".

Noah Baumbach's "Untitled Public School Project" and/or "While We're Young".

Mike Leigh's "Turner" or whatever it might eventually be titled starring Timothy Spall as the painter J.M.W. Turner.

Of course my file includes a lot of wishful thinking as well:

Paul Thomas Anderson's "Inherent Vice"
Brad Bird's "Tomorrowland" starring George Clooney
Robert Redford's on again/off again "A Walk in the Woods" project
the purported Charlie Kaufman adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaugterhouse Five"
Justin Kurzel's "MacBeth" with Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard
Lynne Ramsay's Moby Dick in space project (Mobius?)
George Clooney's possible Smothers Brothers film
and Warren Beatty's proposed Howard Hughes film

So, here's to the films that might happen to be a part of our future Telluride experiences.  Over the next few weeks, I'll link to the stories about some of them that I still have sitting in my cache.

OSCAR CONVERSATIONS

Three podcasts focused on the Awards season and/or the post-Telluride lay of the land are offered/linked here for your amusement and edification:

Anne Thompson and Kris Tapley's Oscar Talk:
http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/oscar-talk-ep-110-telluride-venice-toronto-wrap
 
Sasha Stone's Oscar Podcast:
http://www.awardsdaily.com/oscarpodcast/?p=2131

And The Playlist's podcast:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/podcast-the-playlist-talks-tiff-and-venice-film-festival-20130917


12 YEARS TALK

HitFix's Greg Ellwood sat down with Michael Fassbender last week to talk about Steve McQueen's "12 Years a Slave":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KL2cb0g4IQ4&feature=youtu.be&a

LABOR DAY POSTER

We have art for Jason Reitman's "Labor Day:

Check the story from Rope of Silicon:
http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/first-poster-jason-reitmans-labor-day/

BLUE VIEW

Abdellatif Kechiche's "Blue is the Warmest Color" has a trailer tailored to domestic audiences that was released this past week:

Here's the accompanying story from FirstShowing:

http://www.firstshowing.net/2013/nc-17-rated-palme-dor-winner-blue-is-the-warmest-color-first-trailer/?uid=983e5a79bbfad64ab445cd9e2428cd738d7274f8


INDIA CHOOSES NO LUNCHBOX

In something of a surprise, India announced their choice for the Foreign Language Oscar competition and is was not Ritesh Batra's "The Lunchbox" which many, including me, had thought would be the choice.  The Indian authorities instead they choice is "The Good Road". directed by Gyan Correa.

The Hollywood Reporter posted this story about the choice:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/oscars-india-nominates-good-road-633774


More on  Thursday...

Telluride #40 Pedigrees/New Gurus/Nebraska Trailer and Poster/12 Years a Slave News

Good Thursday morning to everyone.  Hope your week has been going well.

TELLURIDE #40 PEDIGREES

I'm always very interested to trace the lineage of the films that play at the festival each year as I believe that there are clues to their inclusion that can then  be used to increase the precision in attempting to divine the festival lineups in the future.  To that end, I thought I'd take a few minutes and spend a few words on this year's crop of films included in the main program, the sneak previews and a few of The Backlot films.

For example, take a look at "The Usual Suspects", directors who have appeared at TFF with some frequency.  This year that included: Phillipe Claudel/"Before the Winter Chill", Agneizska Holland/"Burning Bush", Werner Herzog/"Aguirre: The Wrath of God" and "Death Row: Milam and Fratta", Jason Reitman/"Labor Day", Alexander Payne/"Nebraska", Asghar Farhadi/"The Past", Errol Morris/"The Unknown Known", Mark Cousins/"A Story of Children and Film" and "Here Be Dragons", Steve McQueen/"12 Years a Slave" and Denis Villenueve/"Prisoners".

"The Cannes Connection":  As is usually the case, there was a strong Cannes presence at this year's edition of Telluride including: "All is Lost", "Blue is the Warmest Color", "Inside Llewyn Davis", "The Lunchbox", "Manuscripts Don't Burn", "The Missing Picture", "Nebraska", "The Past", "Jodorowsky's Dune" and "A Story of Children and Film".  10 Cannes films in all made the trek across the Atlantic to be at Telluride.

"The Berlin Connection":  The overlap between Telluride and Berlin was a little larger this year than usual: "Fifi Howls with Happiness", "Gloria", La Maison de la Radio" and "Slow Food Story".  Four films played both fests.

"The Distributors": Five "Indie" distributors plus Warner Brothers accounted for 14 films.

The biggest footprint (as usual) belonged to Sony Pictures Classics with five films: "The Invisible Woman", "The Lunchbox", "The Past", "Tim's Vermeer" and "Jodorowsky's Dune".

The Weinstein Company and their offshoot Radius-TWC had three: "Tracks", "The Unknown Known" and "Salinger" which, you may have heard, was  a last minute replacement for "Philomena".

Fox Searchlight had "12 Years a Slave" and Roadside Attractions had "All is Lost" and "Gloria".

Sundance Selects had "Blue is the Warmest Color".

Warner Brothers, which had "Argo" at Telluride in 2012 added "Gravity" and "Prisoners' to the T-ride lineup this year.

"The Toronto Connection": As has been the case for a number of years, there was a tremendous overlap between Telluride and various sections of the Toronto International Film Festival.  I count 22 films that played both places: "The Lunchbox", "12 Years a Slave", "Blue is the Warmest Color", "Burning Bush", "Gloria", "Gravity", "Ida", "The Invisible Woman", "Labor Day", "The Past", "Prisoners", "Starred Up", "Tracks", "Under the Skin", "The Wind Rises", "Jodorowsky's Dune", "Tim's Vermeer", "A Story of Children and Film", "The Unknown Known", "Manuscripts Don't Burn", "Bethlehem" and "Palo Alto".

"The New York Connection":  Again, there is normally a significant overlap between the two fests.  This year from NY's original announced list of "main slate" films, they will share: "All is Lost", "Blue is the Warmest Color", "Burning Bush", "Gloria", "Inside Llewyn Davis", "The Invisible Woman", ""The Missing Picture", "Nebraska" and "The Wind Rises".  New York has also reportedly added "12 Years a Slave" for a total of 10 films playing both fests.

And then there's the unusual...There was a greater overlap this year between Venice and Telluride than in most years as the two fests shared six films: "Bethlehem", "Gravity", "Tracks", "Under the Skin", "The Unknown Known" and "The Wind Rises".  In a normal year these two festivals would share an average of three films.  The maximum number of shared films between Telluride and Venice since 2005 has been four so 2013 was extraordinary.

Add all this to the database to be used when we get ready to start thinking about the 41st Telluride Film Festival.


NEW GURUS OF GOLD

Movie City News posted a new Gurus of Gold Best Picture chart early this morning.  It reflects the thinking of their 15 Oscarologists after Telluride, Venice and Toronto.  The MCN people had the Gurus vote in a different fashion for this edition, choosing a Top Eight without ranking and then a Next Seven, also without ranking.  "12 Years a Slave" and "Gravity" were unanimous Top Eight choices.  Also mentioned on either or both charts:   "Nebraska", "Inside Llewyn Davis", "All is Lost", "Labor Day", "The Lunchbox", "Blue is the Warmest Color",  and "Prisoners".  TFF #39 documentary from Sarah Polley "Stories We Tell" is also mentioned.

Here are those results:
http://moviecitynews.com/2013/09/gurus-o-gold-post-venicetelluridetoronto/


NEBRASKA DROPS A TRAILER AND A POSTER

Any number of websites trumpeted the appearance of an official trailer for Alexander Payne's "Nebraska" on Tuesday.  I've included the trailer here and links to multiple posts that had the news:

Thompson on Hollywood: http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/nebraska-trailer-alexander-payne-bruce-dern

Awards Daily: http://www.awardsdaily.com/blog/nebraska-one-of-2013s-best-films-gets-a-trailer/

The Playlist: http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/watch-brand-new-trailer-for-alexander-paynes-nebraska-plus-new-pics-poster-20130917

IndieWire: http://www.indiewire.com/article/watch-bruce-dern-tracks-down-his-1-million-prize-in-trailer-for-alexander-paynes-nebraska

The Hollywood Reporter: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/alexander-paynes-nebraska-trailer-bruce-630491

Rope of Silicon: http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/watch-two-clips-nebraska-humor-meets-family-negativity/

FirstShowing: http://www.firstshowing.net/2013/must-watch-alexander-paynes-nebraska-trailer-starring-will-forte/

Additionally, Rope of Silicon reported that "Nebraska" will open a week earlier than had been planned.  The film is now set to open on Nov. 15.  Here's that ROS post:

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/movie/nebraska/

12 YEARS A SLAVE NEWS

Days after winning the Audience Award at Toronto (And finishing #1 in The Pros Telluride Ratings and the Combo Ratings and #2 in The People's Telluride ratings), Steve McQueen's "12 Years a Slave" continues to make noise.  IndieWire collected the votes of nearly three dozen critics from Toronto and posted the results on Tuesday.  "12 Years" was named Best Narrative Feature, Best Direction, Best Lead and Supporting Performances and Best Ensemble.  Here's the link to the Top Five in a number of categories.
http://www.indiewire.com/survey/best-films-and-performances-from-tiff-2013/

TFF #40 films in addition to "12 Years" fared very well including "Gravity", "Under the Skin", "Tim's Vermeer", "The Unknown Known", "Jodorowsky's Dune", "Blue is the Warmest Color" and others.

IndieWire's Steve Greene provided some context for the CriticWire findings in this post:
http://www.indiewire.com/article/indiewires-2013-tiff-critics-poll-12-years-a-slave-and-gravity-lead-winners-continue-their-impressive-post-premiere-runs#



More on Monday...Have a fantastic weekend...

The Final (Combo) Telluride Film Ratings/12 Years Takes Toronto/Anne and Scott Say.../Post Telluride Echoes/One Last Thing...100,000

Good Monday Everyone...

 THE FINAL TELLURIDE FILM RATINGS

Over the past two weeks I have collected and posted both "The Professionals Telluride": reactions by film critics, bloggers and industry pros as well as "The Peoples Telluride": ratings from those of us who attend the festival as average Joes.  Today is the final ratings post (and a new concept that I did not do last year) and that is the Combined Telluride Ratings.  I have put the two lists together for this final review of how the films shook out at this year's incredible festival.  17 films were shared between the two lists (The Pros had 20 that meant my original criteria and 21 films were on the Peoples list).

Adding the two lists made a composite possible perfect score of 10.

Here's where they landed when the ratings were combined.  Their combined rating is in parenthesis.  The Pros position and the Peoples position follow each film in brackets.

1) 12 Years a Slave (9.25) [1/2]
2) Tim's Vermeer (8.97) [4/1]
3) Gravity (8.75) [3/3]
4) Nebraska (8.38) [5/6]
5) All is Lost (8.26) [6/7]
6) Inside Llewyn Davis (8.25) [7/5]
7) Blue is the Warmest Color (8.15) [2/11]
8) The Past (7.71) [9/10]
9) The Lunchbox (7.55) [13/4]
10) The Wind Rises (7.1) [18/8]
11) Labor Day (7.0) [10/14]
11) (tie) Prisoners (7.0) [12/13]
13) Tracks (6.84) [16/12]
14) Palo Alto (6.4) [16/17]
15) The Invisible Woman (6.19) [20/18]
16) The Unknown Known (5.73) [15/20]
17) Under the Skin (5.1) [18/21]

Again, as I wrote last week, huge differences between The Pros and The People on "Blue is the Warmest Color", "The Lunchbox"and "The Wind Rises".


12 YEARS TAKES TORONTO

The audience response that we first saw when Steve McQueen's "12 Years a Slave" bowed as a "Sneak Preview" in Telluride two weeks ago continued unabated at the Toronto International Film Festival which concluded this weekend with its selection as the Audience Award winner for that fest.  Stephen Frears "Philomena" was runner-up with Denis Villenueve's "Prisoners" (which also was a "sneak" at Telluride) finishing as second runner-up.

The Hollywood Reporter filed this story about the "12 Years" win and the other prizes handed out at TIFF this weekend:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/toronto-12-years-a-slave-629611




ANNE AND SCOTT SAY...

I'm continuing to check in with a number of industry handicappers who have begun to assess the upcoming awards season and focus specifically for where they think nominations might occur with respect to this year's Telluride lineup.  Today I'm looking at Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood and Scott Feinberg, chief awards analyst for The Hollywood Reporter.

Neither Anne nor Scott have set a complete set of predictions, limiting themselves this early to the "major" categories.  Thompson looks at five categories, Feinberg at 11.  Additionally, Thompson restricts her list of "frontrunners" to films that she's actually seen.  That being noted here's what each of them think at this early point in the season:

Thompson says:

12 Years: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay
Gravity: Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Director
Nebraska: Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director
All is Lost: Best Actor
The Past: Best Actress

Feinberg says:

12 Years: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay
Gravity: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Original Screenplay
All is Lost: Best Picture, Best Actor
Inside Llewyn Davis: Best Original Screenplay
The Wind Rises: Best Animated Feature
Best Doc: Tim's Vermeer, The Unknown Known (and Stories We Tell from TFF #39)
The Past: Best Foreign Language Film
Gloria: Best Foreign Language Film
The Lunchbox: Best Foreign Language Film


POST-TELLURIDE ECHOES

Among the hundreds of articles/posts that have now been written about Telluride #40's films and their further play at Toronto, I am linking to three that seemed pretty interesting.

Steve McQueen, director of "12 Years a Slave" did an interview with Kristin McCracken of The Playlist and talked about the film, the process and Brad Pitt and Michael Fassbender.  It's here:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/interview-steve-mcqueen-talks-12-years-a-slave-django-unchained-pitt-fassbender-20130911

And John Sehring, President of Sundance Selects/IFC Films talked to The Hollywood Reporter's Scott Feinberg about the process of awards season and the effect it is having on the films his company has in its hands: "Blue is the Warmest Color" and TFF #39's "Frances Ha".  You could say he's a little frustrated.

Here's the link: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/ifc-sundance-selects-chief-rips-625959

Anne Thompson analyzes the post_Telluride and Toronto filmscape and offers her take on which films got a boost and which didn't:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/telluride-and-toronto-wrap-who-came-out-ahead


ONE LAST THING....100,000

Michael's Telluride Film Blog/The Film Awards Clearinghouse rolled past its 100,000th view sometime last night.  100,000 views is mind blowing to me.  Thanks readers!


More on Thursday...

The People's Telluride/Beginning to Think Oscar

Good Thursday to Everyone....


THE PEOPLE'S TELLURIDE

                                          (from Billington Design Assoc.)

 

It's a week and a half after the conclusion of TFF #40 and time for me to reveal the results of this year's "People's Telluride" film ratings.  Over the past few days I have been collecting the ratings sent to me by film goers who attended this year's Telluride Film Festival.  I asked respondents to use the same 0-5 scale that I requested be used by the Film Pros.  The Pros' results were posted last Saturday and then again Monday. As with The Pros, a film had to be rated by at least three respondents to make the list.  In cases of ties, the tie was broken in favor of the film that had more responses.  Here are the People's results with the average rating in parenthesis:

 

(Tim Jenison for Penn and Teller's "Tim's Vermeer" via Collider.com)

 

 



1) Tim's Vermeer (4.67)
2) 12 Years a Slave (4.55)
3) Gravity (4.40)
4) The Lunchbox (4.25)
5) Inside Llewyn Davis (4.15)
6) Nebraska (4.08)
7) All is Lost (4.06)
8) The Wind Rises (4.0)
9) Ida (4.0)
10) The Past (3.81)
11) Blue is the Warmest Color (3.75)
12) Tracks (3.64)
13) Prisoners (3.5)
14) Labor Day (3.40)
15) The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden (3.33)
16) Starred Up (3.25)
17) Palo Alto (3.20)
18) The Invisible Woman (3.19)
19) Before the Winter Chill (2.67)
20) The Unknown Known (2.43)
21) Under the Skin (2.0)


Compare these ratings to The Professional ratings:


Alex Billington/FirstShowing
Scott Feinberg/The Hollywood Reporter
Scott Foundas/Variety
Eric Kohn/IndieWire
Tomris Laffly/Film Journal
Eugene Novikov/Film Blather
Sasha Stone/Awards Daily
Kristopher Tapley/HitFix-InContention
Anne Thompson/Thompson on Hollywood

The Results:

(Composite ratings for the film is in parentheses and People's Rank in bracket)

1) 12 Years a Slave (4.7) [2]
2) Blue is the Warmest Color (4.4) [11]
3) Gravity (4.35) [3]
4) Tim's Vermeer (4.3) [1]
5) Nebraska (4.3) [6]
6) All is Lost (4.2) [7]
7) Inside Llewyn Davis (4.1) [5]
8) Starred Up (4.0) [16]
9) The Past (3.9) [10]
10) Labor Day (3.6) [14]
11) Bethlehem (3.6) [nr]
12) Prisoners (3.5) [13]
13) The Lunchbox (3.5) [4]
14) Salinger (3.3) [nr]
15) The Unknown Known (3.3) [20]
16) Palo Alto (3.2) [17]
17) Tracks (3.2) [12]
18) Under the Skin (3.1) [21]
18) (tie) The Wind Rises (3.1) [8]
20) The Invisible Woman (3.0) [18]

The biggest disconnects between the two groups:  The Pros significantly preferred "Blue is the Warmest Color", "Starred Up", "Labor Day" and "The Unknown Known" over the preferences of The People.  Meanwhile, The People substantially preferred "Tim's Vermeer", "The Lunchbox", "Tracks" and "The Wind Rises" compared to the Pros.

BEGINNING TO THINK OSCAR

 

Over the next couple of weeks, I'm going to begin to detail the preliminary views from a number of Oscarologists concerning their immediate take about the Oscar prospects for the films that played at TFF #40 this year.  Ultimately this will lead to a posting of a composite of those Oscar experts about the Oscar field as a whole.  This early in the season, I'll focus primarily on the Big 8 categories.  I'll expand the Clearinghouse categories as we move deeper into the season and closer to Oscar nomination morning (Jan. 16th).

We start with HitFix/InContention's Kristopher Tapley and his latest predictions.  He suggests the following nominations for films that played at TFF #40:

"12 Years a Slave": Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Film Editing, Costumes, Score and Production Design.  Total-11.  If I were in the Oscar predicting business, this is exactly what I would expect.

"Inside Llewyn Davis": Best Picture, Original Screenplay, Cinematography and Sound Mixing.  Total-4

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

"Nebraska": Best Actor, Supporting Actress, Original Screenplay.  Total-3

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

"The Invisible Woman": Costumes. Total-1

"The Wind Rises": Best Animated Feature.  Total-1

"Tim's Vermeer": Best Documentary.  Total-1

"Gloria": Best Foreign Language Film.  Total-1

Total nominations for TFF #40 films: 34

Note: Tapley also has TFF #39 doc "Stories We Tell" as a nominee.

Meanwhile, Sasha Stone from Awards Daily sees it this way (note: Stone does NOT name 5 nominee predictions in every category and hasn't predicted all 21 feature categories):

"12 Years a Slave": Best Picture, Actor, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Production Design, Costume, Score.  Total-9

"Inside Llewyn Davis": Best Picture, Actor, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Original (?) Screenplay (I'm betting this will end up in the "Adapted" category with the Dave Van Ronk book, "The Mayor of McDougal Street" as source material for the Coens), Cinematography, Production Design, Costume.  Total-8

"Gravity": Best Picture, Actress, Director, Film Editing, Cinematography, Production Design, Sound Mixing.  Total-7

"Nebraska": Best Picture, Actor, Supporting Actress, Director, Original Screenplay, Film Editing, Cinematography, Score.  Total-8

"All is Lost": Best Picture, Actor.  Total-2

"Labor Day": Best Picture, Actress, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay.  Total-4

Documentary: "The Unknown Known", "Manuscripts Don't Burn".  Total-2

Foreign Language Film: "The Past"  Total-1

Total TFF #40 nominations: 41

Note: Stone also predicts TFF #39 documentary "The Act of Killing" will be nominated.


 As you can see, Stone is much more bullish on "Llewyn Davis", "Labor Day" and Nebraska" than Tapley.

Finally, the very, very early thinking is that TFF #40 may be on pace to provide the largest number of Oscar nominations since I started keeping track of this.

AND ONE OTHER OSCAR NOTE

Scott Feinberg, The Hollywood Reporter's Awards expert posted his latest Feinberg Forecast yesterday that reflects his thinking post-Telluride, post-Venice and mid-Toronto.  You can find that here:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/feinberg-forecast-dust-toronto-still-622289


That's all for now. 

Follow/Like Michael's Telluride Film Blog/The Film Awards Clearinghouse on Facebook.

Follow me on Twitter @Gort2.

More on Monday...have a great weekend!

Voting for The People's Telluride Closes Today

Get your film ratings for the films you saw at TFF #40 into me today by 6 PM EST.  Rate films 0-5 with 0 being awful and 5 being awesome.  Results will be posted tomorrow morning.

Remember to Rate

Just a quick reminder to everyone to get their film ratings in for The People's Telluride poll.  Rate the films you saw at TFF #40 on a 0-5 scale.  The poll closes tomorrow evening so make your opinion count!

You can vote by commenting to the blog, tweeting me @Gort2 or emailing to:

mpgort@gamil.com

OR

michael_speech@hotmail.com

In Case You Missed It:The Professionals Telluride/Last Call Coming Wednesday/Telluride's Effect

God Monday to You...


MTFB/FAC returns to a twice a week blog this week as we move into the post-festival portion of the calendar.  Next post will be up Thursday.

ICYMI: THE PROFESSIONALS TELLURIDE

I posted this on Saturday but though it could do with a re-post today.  Here's the response from film pros, critics, bloggers and such for this year's festival:

For the second year I have asked a group of Film Pros...critics, Film and Oscar bloggers to rate the films they saw during the festival on a 0-5 scale and share those with me and, of course, with the readers of this space.  Today, I'm ready to post that information.

A couple of disclaimers: No film is included that wasn't rated by at least three of the professionals.  In this year's case that was 20 of the films. Ties were broken (when possible) in favor of the film that had been seen and rated by the larger number of professionals. In a case or two, I converted rankings to the 0-5 rating scale.  If there is any mistake or error in those conversions, that is purely my responsibility.

The gracious friends and colleagues who agreed to share their views about the TFF #40 lineup are:

Alex Billington/FirstShowing
Scott Feinberg/The Hollywood Reporter
Scott Foundas/Variety
Eric Kohn/IndieWire
Tomris Laffly/Film Journal
Eugene Novikov/Film Blather
Sasha Stone/Awards Daily
Kristopher Tapley/HitFix-InContention
Anne Thompson/Thompson on Hollywood

The Results:

(Composite ratings for the film is in parentheses)

1) 12 Years a Slave (4.7)
2) Blue is the Warmest Color (4.4)
3) Gravity (4.35)
4) Tim's Vermeer (4.3)
5) Nebraska (4.3)
6) All is Lost (4.2)
7) Inside Llewyn Davis (4.1)
8) Starred Up (4.0)
9) The Past (3.9)
10) Labor Day (3.6)
11) Bethlehem (3.6)
12) Prisoners (3.5)
13) The Lunchbox (3.5)
14) Salinger (3.3)
15) The Unknown Known (3.3)
16) Palo Alto (3.2)
17) Tracks (3.2)
18) Under the Skin (3.1)
18) (tie) The Wind Rises (3.1)
20) The Invisible Woman (3.0)

Steve McQueen's "12 Years a Slave" leads the pack fairly comfortably.  Additionally, the reactions from Toronto, where the film has now played, seem to be just as enthusiastic.

Also, I've seen a number of references to "12 Years" and "Schindler's List" coming out of Toronto.  I think I may have said that first in my Aug. 31st post after the films "sneak" which some might call a world premiere.

By way of a more complete view of these ratings, here are the films that each of the professionals rated as a "5":

Billington: "12 Years", "All is Lost", "Blue is the Warmest Color".
Feinberg: "12 Years", "Blue is the Warmest Color", "Gravity", "Tim's Vermeer"
Foundas: "12 Years", "Blue is the Warmest Color", "Inside Llewyn Davis", "Prisoners"
Kohn: "12 Years"
Laffly: "12 Years", "Gravity"
Novikov: None ( but his highest ratings were for "All is Lost", "Gloria" and "Under the Skin")
Stone: "12 Years", "Blue is the Warmest Color", "Gravity", "Inside Llewyn Davis", "Labor Day"
Tapley: "Aguirre: The Wrath of God", "Gravity"
Thompson: "Nebraska"
Patterson (me): "12 Years", "Nebraska"

What can we learn?  Last year "Argo" was the #2 rated film by the pros in my survey with a 4.5 composite rating.  I think that is good news for the Fox Searchlight people going forward into awards season.  I mean, "Argo" had a pretty good year.

Ken Burns "Central Park Five" was the highest rated film last year with a 4.7.

It will be interesting to see how the People's ratings match up with this...which means:

LAST CALL COMING

Keep sending me YOUR ratings of films that played last week at Telluride.  The "People's Telluride" ratings will close down on Wednesday at 6pm EDT.  I'd like as large a sampling as possible and I can tell you that I'm actually seeing a smaller return from readers this year than I had last year.  So get in the game, rate the films you saw on a 0-5 scale and send that to me via commenst to the blog, Twitter @Gort2 or email at:

mpgort@gmail.com

OR

michael_speech@hotmail.com

The People's Telluride will be posted Thursday, Sept. 12.

TELLURIDE'S EFFECT

We're starting to see some serious writing about the post-Telluride effect on films that played last week in terms of the awards season.  I include analysis from two of the best here:

Scott Feinberg/The Hollywood Reporter:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/feinberg-forecast-oscar-landscape-telluride-618626

Kristopher Tapley/HitFix/InContention:
http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/off-the-carpet-telluride-launches-the-season-from-gravity-to-12-years-a-slave

More on Thursday...

The Professionals Telluride/Telluride #40 Re-Cap/Best of the Week

Good Saturday and Post-Telluride weekend to you.  For those in Toronto...you have my envy...

THE PROFESSIONALS' TELLURIDE

For the second year I have asked a group of Film Pros...critics, Film and Oscar bloggers to rate the films they saw during the festival on a 0-5 scale and share those with me and, of course, with the readers of this space.  Today, I'm ready to post that information.

A couple of disclaimers: No film is included that wasn't rated by at least three of the professionals.  In this year's case that was 20 of the films. Ties were broken (when possible) in favor of the film that had been seen and rated by the larger number of professionals. In a case or two, I converted rankings to the 0-5 rating scale.  If there is any mistake or error in those conversions, that is purely my responsibility.

The gracious friends and colleagues who agreed to share their views about the TFF #40 lineup are:

Alex Billington/FirstShowing
Scott Feinberg/The Hollywood Reporter
Scott Foundas/Variety
Eric Kohn/IndieWire
Tomris Laffly/Film Journal
Eugene Novikov/Film Blather
Sasha Stone/Awards Daily
Kristopher Tapley/HitFix-InContention
Anne Thompson/Thompson on Hollywood

The Results:

(Composite ratings for the film is in parentheses)

1) 12 Years a Slave (4.7)
2) Blue is the Warmest Color (4.4)
3) Gravity (4.35)
4) Tim's Vermeer (4.3)
5) Nebraska (4.3)
6) All is Lost (4.2)
7) Inside Llewyn Davis (4.1)
8) Starred Up (4.0)
9) The Past (3.9)
10) Labor Day (3.6)
11) Bethlehem (3.6)
12) Prisoners (3.5)
13) The Lunchbox (3.5)
14) Salinger (3.3)
15) The Unknown Known (3.3)
16) Palo Alto (3.2)
17) Tracks (3.2)
18) Under the Skin (3.1)
18) (tie) The Wind Rises (3.1)
20) The Invisible Woman (3.0)

Steve McQueen's "12 Years a Slave" leads the pack fairly comfortably.  Additionally, the reactions from Toronto, where the film has now played, seem to be just as enthusiastic.

Also, I've seen a number of references to "12 Years" and "Schindler's List" coming out of Toronto.  I think I may have said that first in my Aug. 31st post after the films "sneak" which some might call a world premiere.

By way of a more complete view of these ratings, here are the films that each of the professionals rated as a "5":

Billington: "12 Years", "All is Lost", "Blue is the Warmest Color".
Feinberg: "12 Years", "Blue is the Warmest Color", "Gravity", "Tim's Vermeer"
Foundas: "12 Years", "Blue is the Warmest Color", "Inside Llewyn Davis", "Prisoners"
Kohn: "12 Years"
Laffly: "12 Years", "Gravity"
Novikov: None ( but his highest ratings were for "All is Lost", "Gloria" and "Under the Skin")
Stone: "12 Years", "Blue is the Warmest Color", "Gravity", "Inside Llewyn Davis", "Labor Day"
Tapley: "Aguirre: The Wrath of God", "Gravity"
Thompson: "Nebraska"
Patterson (me): "12 Years", "Nebraska"

What can we learn?  Last year "Argo" was the #2 rated film by the pros in my survey with a 4.5 composite rating.  I think that is good news for the Fox Searchlight people going forward into awards season.  I mean, "Argo" had a pretty good year.

Ken Burns "Central Park Five" was the highest rated film last year with a 4.7.

It will be interesting to see how the People's ratings match up with this...which means:

PEOPLE'S TELLURIDE

Keep sending me YOUR ratings of films that played last week at Telluride.  The "People's Telluride" ratings will be posted here next week.  

email to mpgort@gmail.com

I'm planning to post The People's Telluride ratings on Thursday, so get them in to me and have your voice heard!  

TELLURIDE #40 RE-CAP

I’ve been home for a couple of days now and have been back in the “real” world which for me is my classroom.  It’s been a busy week of catching up and recovery and I’m still not fully there.  Telluride is always a whirlwind and the added fifth day extended that (not that I’m complaining).

So I’m looking back after a few days to try to gain some perspective and draw a few conclusions about this year’s festival.

Here’s the first thing:  My wife and I have been attending the Telluride Film Festival each year since 2006.  I’ve always felt that 2007 was the hallmark year of the 7 fests that we’ve attended since then.  2007 featured films such as “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”, “The Savages”, “Juno” and “Into the Wild”.  It also included a tribute to Daniel Day Lewis and 20 minutes of “There Will Be Blood”, which didn’t impress me at the time, but in the context of the entire film, did.

That’s right, 2007 had Daniel Day Lewis and Sean Penn in town at the same time.  Unbelievable!

There have been a lot of highlights from other years, but I’ve always felt that the 2007 fest was the best cinematically…until last week.

You knew, if you were paying attention, that the 40^th anniversary celebration was likely to be a phenomenon.  For my money, TFF #40 did just that.

Telluride #40’s lineup included new films from Jason Reitman, Errol Morris, Alfonso Cuaron, Alexander Payne, Steve McQueen, Jonathan Glazer (who’s been MIA for almost a decade), Denis Villanueve, J.C. Chandor, Palme d'Or winner Abdelatif Kechiche, The Coen Brothers, Ralph Fiennes and Asghar Farhadi.  It was too much.  I couldn’t get to everything I wanted to see…which is a great problem to have.  Then there are the tributes.  I made sure that I made the tributes for both Robert Redford and The Coens with T-Bone Burnett.

If you focus on Telluride as a barometer for awards season, you cannot have been disappointed with this year’s crop of films. 

From my perspective it seemed that “12 Years a Slave”, which “sneaked” at Telluride (in other words, it wasn’t announced as a part of the original lineup on Wednesday morning but was added after the festival had begun) may have already seized the high ground in a number of categories.  I’m thinking nominations for Picture, Director, Actor (Chiwetel Ejiofor), Supporting Actress (newcomer Lupita Nyong’o), Supporting Actor (Michael Fassbender), Adapted Screenplay (John Ridley), Film Editing, Cinematography, Score, Art Direction and Costume Design.

It seems to me that Alexander Payne’s “Nebraska”, which had a fair critical response after Cannes with Bruce Dern winning Best Actor there, benefited hugely from a terrific Telluride response.  The film was said to have been tweaked between Cannes and Telluride and that may have made a difference or perhaps Telluride is just enough different from Cannes to explain the much warmer stateside embrace of the film.  Looking back a week later and examining the responses to me blog space and the critical reaction as well, it looks to me like “Nebraska” has gone from a lone Bruce Dern possibility for a nomination (reportedly there’s still some uncertainty about which category he’ll be campaigned in…I say Best Actor) to a film that could grab nominations for Picture, Director, Supporting Actress (June Squibb), Original Screenplay and Cinematography.  Will Forte might even have an outside shot at a Best Supporting Actor nomination.

“Gravity” also seemed to continue the momentum it had coming out of Venice.  Reviews are ecstatic.  It certainly will be in the conversation for technical Oscars and may well have locked up Best Picture, Director, Screenplay and acting nominations for Sandra Bullock and possibly even George Clooney.

Robert Redford seemed to solidify his chances at a Best Actor nomination and “All is Lost” might find its way onto a list of 9 or so Best Picture nominees.

The Coens’ “Inside Llewyn Davis” seems to have neither gained nor last Awards ground.  Personally I’d like to see acting nominations for Oscar Issac and John Goodman.  It could find itself in contention for Picture, Director, Score, Song, Cinematography and Adapted Screenplay.

Denis Villenueve’s “Prisoners’ created a lot of buzz in lines late in the weekend making

Foreign films making a strong play for Oscar recognition were “The Lunchbox” and Farhadi’s “The Past”.  “Blue is the Warmest Color” was mostly well received but we already know that it won’t be eligible for the Foreign Language Oscar because of release date considerations.

The Penn and Teller documentary, “Tim’s Vermeer” also made a strong case for Oscar consideration.  It was well loved by critics and fest-goers.  Meanwhile, Errol Morris’s “The Unknown Known” seemed a bit of a misfire.  Shane Salerno’s “Salinger” made a lot of waves as well but there was almost as much negative response as positive.

On a personal level, I couldn’t have asked for a more magical experience (except, of course, if I had sold a script…call me, I’ve got some great ideas).  I knew that I would have the chance to hear Robert Redford, Joel and Ethan Coen and T-Bone Burnett talk about their careers and the films that they are and have been involved with.  That would have been enough but Telluride #40 let me have other experiences that I would have never believed possible.  

I had the chance to meet, shake hands and thank Burnett for the music he has helped shepherd over the years.  I was embraced so warmly by many of the professional journalists and bloggers that heretofore, I had only read.  I was fortunate enough to have a couple of conversations with Festival Co- and Managing Director Julie Huntsinger who is never less than gracious and always has the time to share a couple of “under the radar” stories.

I had those crazy moments just prior to the screening of “12 Years a Slave” in which I walked in (with my popcorn and soda) right behind the Pitt/McQueen/Fassbender/Ejiofor/Nyong’o entourage.  I might as well have been a part of the crew I was so close.  Then to watch them talk about the experience of making a film that I think we’ll still be talking about decades from now…amazing.  Also amazing, learning that Fassbender was seeing the film for the first time just as we were.

Then, there’s the apex of the experiences that I had at this year’s festival.  I had a moment to meet, shake hands with, talk to and thank Francis Ford Coppola. 

2013 has eclipsed 2007.  It will now become the Telluride to measure all other Tellurides.  My hope is that I get to continue this love affair for a long, long time.  My thinking is that if this is what they do for their 40^th anniversary, I sure hope I get to stick around and see #50.

   

BEST OF THE WEEK

TELLURIDE #40 RE-CAPS

I've linked to a couple of retrospectives about this year's festival from Leonard Maltin and Eugene Hernandez/The Film Society.  You can take a stroll down recent memory lane with both reports:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/leonardmaltin/snapshots-of-telluride-at-40

http://www.filmlinc.com/daily/entry/telluride-12-years-a-slave-gravity-under-the-skin-the-wind-rises

Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal adds his take to the conclusion of this year's festival as he examines the films he took in.  This piece was posted yesterday:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324123004579056881018054884.html

OSCAR RE-CALCULATIONS

Oscar experts are continuing to re-calibrate their view of the early front runners in the aftermath of the reception of films that played last weekend.  Today I have linked to the HitFix/InContention Contender Countdown.  Greg Ellwood pens this post:

http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/contender-countdown-gravity-and-12-years-a-slave-storm-out-of-the-gate-2


And from Gold Derby:

http://www.goldderby.com/news/4721/12-years-a-slave-fassbender-brad-pitt-telluride-films-news-13579086.html

Best Picture contenders getting a boost from Telluride: "Gravity", "12 Years a Slave", "Nebraska" and "Inside Llewyn Davis".

AND BACK TO NORMAL

Michael's Telluride Film Blog ( I really need a better name) changes this week.  Now that the festival is over, I'll go back to the twice a week posting schedule (Mondays and Thursdays) that I use for half the year.  Also, the content changes focus as The Film Awards Clearinghouse portion of what I do in this space kicks in.  For the next six months I'll be tracking the films that played at Telluride as we move through the awards season.  More frequent posts will occur as the season progresses culminating with the Oscars on March 2, 2014.

Thanks to all of you who continue to read this weird obsession that I have.  I have been humbled by the number of people who contact me to tell me that they read this space and appreciate the thing that it is. Keep reading...I'll keep writing.

Follow/Like Michael's Telluride Film Blog AND The Film Awards Clearinghouse on Facebook.

Follow me on Twitter @Gort2.

More on Monday...