Venice Announces/MCN and Poland on Toronto's First Wave/Zeitchik's Toronto Analysis/Rumor Central

Welcome to Thursday...

VENICE ANNOUNCES

The Venice Film Festival announced its lineup very, very early this morning (11am in Venice) and here it is:


What can we say about it?  Does it tell us anything?  Last year, I counted six titles that played some portion of the Venice programs and Telluride: "The Wind Rises". "Tracks", "Under the Skin", "The Unknown Known" in competition and "Bethlehem", "Palo Alto" and "Gravity" out of competition.  Prior to last year, the average number of overlapping films between the two festivals was three.Also, going into this morning's announcement we knew that Alejandro G. Inarritu's "Birdman" would open the festival and that Venice had already named its "Venice Days" selection of films (via Film Stage):

COMPETITION

Fatih Akin The Cut

Roy Andersson A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence

Ramin Bahrani 99 Homes

Rakhshan Bani-Etemad Ghessha (Tales)

Xavier Beauvois La rancon de la gloire

Saverio Costanzo Hungry Hearts

Alix Delaporte Le dernier coup de marteau

Abel Ferrara Pasolini

David Gordon Green Manglehorn

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu Birdman or The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance

Benoit Jacquot 3 Coeurs (Three Hearts)

Andrei Konchalovsky The Postman’s White Nights

Mario Martone Il Giovane Favoloso

Kaan Mujdeci Sivas

Francesco Munzi Anime Nere

Andrew Niccol Good Kill

David Oelhoffen Loin des hommes

Joshua Oppenheimer The Look of Silence

Shinya Tsukamoto Nobi (Fires on the Plain)

Wang Xiaoshuai Red Amnesia

OUT OF COMPETITION 

Emir Kusturica and others Words With Gods (other directors: Guillermo Arriaga, Amos Gitai, Mira Nair, Warwick Thornton, Hector Babenco, Bahman Ghobai, Hideo Nakata, Alex de la Iglesia)

Peter Bogdanovich She’s Funny That Way

Peter Ho-sun Chan Dearest

Lisa Cholodenko Olive Kitteridge

Joe Dante Burying The Ex

Edoardo De Angelis Perez

Davide Ferrario La Zuppa Del Demonio

James Franco The Sound And The Fury

Amos Gitai Tsili

Sabina Guzzanti La Trattativa

Ann Hui The Golden Era

Im Kwontaek Make-Up

Barry Levinson The Humbling

Manoel de Oliveira The Old Man of Belem

Gabriele Salvatores Italy In A Day

Ulrich Seidl In The Basement

Anthony Stacchi, Annable Graham The Boxtrolls

Lars Von Trier Nymphomaniac Volume II (long version) Director’s Cut

HORIZONS

Naji Abu Nowar Theeb

Salome Alexi Line of Credit

Michele Alhaique Senza Nessuna Pieta

Michael Almereyda Cymbeline

Benoit Delepine, Gustave Kervern Near Death Experience

Renato De Maria La Vita Oscena

Quentin Dupieux Realite

Veronika Franz, Severin Fiala I Spy/I Spy

Hong Sangsoo Hill of Freedom

Duane Hopkins Bypass

Mohsen Makhmalbaf The President

Ami Canaan Mann Your Right Mind

Franco Maresco Belluscone Una Storia Siciliana

Elchin Musaoglu Nabat

Josh Safdie, Ben Safdie Heaven Knows What

Ognjen Sviliviv These Are the Rules

Chaitanya Tamhane Court

Venice Days Films:

“One On One”,” Kim Ki-duk (South Korea) Opener out-of-competition

“El 5 De Talleres,” Adrian Biniez (Argentina)

“Return To Ithaca,” Laurent Cantet (France)

“Before I Disappear,” Shawn Christensen (U.S. U.K.)

“The Dinner,” Ivano De Matteo (Italy)

“Les Nuits D’Ete,” Mario Fanfani (France)

“Patria,” Felice Farina (Italy)

“Metamorphoses,” Christophe Honore (France)

“Between 10 And 12,” Peter Hoogendoorn (Belgium, France, The Netherlands)

“The Farewell Party,” (Israel)

“The Goob,” Guy Myhill (U.K.)

“Labor Of Love,” Ritwick Chakraborty (India)

“They Have Escaped,” JP Valkeapaa (Finland, The Netherlands)

“Messi,” Alex De la Iglesia (Spain) Closer Out-Of-Competition

WOMEN’S TALES PROJECT (Shorts) in collaboration with Miu Miu

“Spark And Light,” So Yong Kim (Italy, U.S.)

“Somebody,” Miranda July (Italy, U.S.)

SPECIAL EVENTS

“9 x 10 Novanta,” collective project (Italy)

In Collaboration With Tribeca Film Festival:

“Five Star,” Keith Miller (U.S.)

“The Show Mas Go On,” Ra di Martino (Italy)

“The Lack,” Masbedo (Italy)

 Regular readers know that I am very confident that "Birdman" will make its way to Telluride after its Venetian premiere...after that...the Venice films that I think have the best chance to play at Telluride are : "99 Homes", "The Look of Silence", "The Price of Glory" and  "She's Funny That Way" (Bogdanovich's "Squirrels to the Nuts"?).


ZEITCHIK'S TORONTO ANALYSIS

Also weighing in on the Toronto announcement and its new premiere policy yesterday was The L.A. Times' Steven Zeitchik.  His post is here:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-toronto-film-festival-lineup-20140723-story.html#

MCN AND POLAND IN TORONTO'S FIRST WAVE

David Poland of Movie City News writes extensively about Toronto's announcement yesterday and its effect on Telluride.  He also writes about the films still possible for both fests (and New York too).  Check it here:

http://moviecitynews.com/2014/07/31-weeks-to-oscar-telluride-toronto-new-york/


RUMOR CENTRAL

So we think we know some things...after yesterday's announcement, this space and others concluded that Telluride is likely showing:

"Foxcatcher"
"The Imitation Game"
"Wild"
"Rosewater"
"Wild Tales"
"Mr. Turner"
and maybe/probably "99 Homes"

We're also relatively confident about "Birdman" and "Queen of the Desert".  But what other notions are still floating out there?  Here's "Rumor Central":

1) "Unbroken" plays.  This just keeps being suggested in various places by various people.  No one flat says it but I'll bet I've seen it as a "possibility" in at least five-six different blogs and movie sites including just yesterday in the IndieWire based blog "Women and Hollywood":

http://blogs.indiewire.com/womenandhollywood/the-big-o-watch-out-toronto-the-great-kate-dame-maggie-and-some-stellar-female-directors-are-coming-your-way-20140723

Now, I'll continue to say it's not likely right up until it's unveiled or confirmed, but, I tell you...there's some smoke there (and, I'll echo a friend of the blog who tweeted yesterday that he didn't think David Ayers' Brad Pitt war film "Fury" would play T-ride but that a Jolie/Pitt couples weekend in T-ride would make some noise).

2) "Manglehorn" plays.  The Al Pacino vehicle was on my radar after Hollywood Elsewhere's Jeff Wells suggested that it was going to be in Telluride last week (and I've heard/seen it in a couple of other places too) but Toronto listed it as a "North American Premiere" in their announcement yesterday which would mean that it's off the table for Telluride...so someone somewhere has really gotten this wrong.

3) "Whiplash" plays...despite the fact that it had a Sundance debut back in January, this notion is still popping up...most recently in Poland's post linked above.

4) "Interstellar" plays...this was a hotter rumor last week, again vis a vis Wells and HE but Wells himself backed it down late Saturday afternoon.  He didn't completely dismiss the original rumor...but it's close.

5) "No opener for Toronto announced is because of Telluride"...I actually believe that this is fairly likely despite the fact that the Toronto honchoes say it's not that at all.  In my imagination what I see is a film that Toronto wants very, very badly that has already committed to Telluride...a couple of the films above would certainly qualify as the BIG film you'd want to open your fest with...it'll be very interesting to see what Toronto ultimately announces and how long that takes.

6) "A Most Violent Year" plays...I think this one is probably right.  I hope so.  I'd love to Chandor and Isaac (and maybe Chastain) in Telluride.


More on Friday...

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