Final Ten Best (Plus) Before TFF #42 / Welcome Mr. Miles / The Odd Rumors / New Views of "Malala" / On Thursday...

It's the last Wednesday before the cinematic candy store opens for business.  After a full year of being separated, it's time to rejoin my fellow adherents to all things Telluride Film Festival and head the wagons west to the beautiful San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado to bask in the filmic glory that will consume us Friday through Monday.  It's Labor Day weekend and for my wife and I, our tenth foray into TFF Territory.

It's what my hope for heaven looks, sounds and feels like...

See you in Telluride!

FINAL TEN BETS (PLUS) BEFORE TFF #42

From the most to least likely are:

1) Son of Saul
2) Suffragette
3) Carol
4) 45 Years
5) Black Mass
6) Steve Jobs
7) Beasts of No Nation
8) He Named Me Malala
9) Spotlight
10) Room


And then the "Plus"

11) Amazing Grace
12) Taxi
13) Marguerite
14) Anomalisa
15) Hitchcock/Truffaut

And now some "Plus-Plus"

16) Rams
17) Heart of a Dog
18) Tyrus
19) Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words
20) Queen of the Desert


WELCOME MR. MILES

I posted Monday that MTFB has its largest (and I think most distinguished) panel of industry professionals to offer their ratings for films that play this weekend at Telluride.  Here's that list again:

Nick Allen/Chicago Film Critics Assn. member/RogerEbert.com
Alex Billington/FirstShowing.net..
David Ehrlich/Time Out New York
Greg Ellwood/HitFix
Scott Feinberg/The Hollywood Reporter
Eric Kohn/Indiewire
Tomris Laffly/Movie Mezzanine/Film Journal
Christopher Schiller/ScriptMag.com
Sasha Stone/Awards Daily
Kristopher Tapley/Variety/InContention
Anne Thompson/Thompson on Hollywood

Now add that august group of individuals Mr. Kenny Miles of the Denver Society of Film Critics and a contributor to TheMovieBlog.com and FilmFad.com.  Welcome to the crew Mr. Miles!

And this serves as a good spot to remind you, dear reader to add your voice to the chorus for "The People's Telluride".  Rate the films you see during the fest 1-5 (1=BAD, 5=GREAT) and send them to me through one of the contact methods (email, Twitter, Facebook, Blog Comment) .  I'll compile both sets of ratings and report back to you.


THE ODD RUMORS

The persistent but unlikely speculation that persists seems to be that Venice opener "Everest" will follow the pattern of the past two Venice openers "Gravity" and "Birdman" and make its way to Telluride.  Why is it unlikely?  The film is slated to play the Deauville Fest in France on Sept. 4. Though the cast is huge, I don't see how they pull off three major fest screenings in seven days max.

The other rumor is that Sundance sensation "Brooklyn" will show at The SHOW.  Now, that's just not very probable either.  A "Brooklyn" play would violate Telluride's fairly stringent policy of playing new features that have not yet appeared in North America as it played very well at Sundance.

I think some folks are seeing its "Canadian Premiere" designation at Toronto and assuming that automatically means Telluride.  Ummmm...nope,

And just last night The Wrap was reporting in its Oscar/Fall Fest Season post that "The Danish Girl" was likely to play Telluride.  Again, not likely.  For whatever reason, The Wrap was calling it a "Canadian Premiere" whereas the TIFF website very clearly has it as a North American Premiere.  So don't hold your breath.

Here's the link to The Wrap story:

http://www.thewrap.com/watch-out-oscar-awards-season-gets-jump-start-with-fall-film-festivals/


NEW VIEWS OF "MALALA"

One of the films I am looking toward with high anticipation is the Davis Guggenheim documentary "He Named Me Malala".  The story of Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai and her strength as a voice for equal education in a part of the world where that's a dangerous belief to hold enraptures me as a teacher.

I really am hoping that Malala might well be in Telluride this week and that I have the chance to thank her and tell her in person that I teach. My wife teaches.  My children teach.  My mother was school secretary and my father taught. It's the Patterson Family business so to meet this incredible human being who faced death for the belief that education was a value worth perusing and defending...yea, I'd like to tell her thank you.

Oh, and IMDb put up some new, exclusive pictures from the film yesterday, one of which graces this portion of the post.


ON THURSDAY...

We should, if all goes the way it has the past couple of years, have a lineup fairly early tomorrow morning.  Check here for that announcement.


Headed to Telluride...see you there.  Travel safely friends!

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