Tuesday, June 20, 2017

The Distributors: Fox Searchlight / The Telluride History Book: TFF #24 / Travernier's Trailer



THE DISTRIBUTORS: FOX SEARCHLIGHT



Today's look at past T-ride distribution outfits is Fox Searchlight.  I've tracked their presence there since 2004.  You'll note that FS missed having any film at TFF in 2009, 2012 and 2016.


2015: He Named Me Malala
2014: Birman, Wild
2013: 12 Years a Slave
2011: Shame, The Descendants
2010: Never Let Me Go, 127 Hours, Black Swan
2008: Slumdog Millionaire
2007: Juno, The Savages
2006: The Last King of Scotland, The Namesake
2005: Bee Season
2004: Kinsey

The math here tells us that Fox Searchlight averages 1.2 films per year at Telluride.

This year, they appear to have as many as four films with at least some potential to lay the festival:

Battle of the Sexes, Goodbye Christopher Robin, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and The Shape of Water.

Battle of the Sexes is directed by the team of  Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (the team behind Little Miss Sunshine) and stars Emma Stone and Steve Carell.  The film is produced, in part, by Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours, Steve Jobs).  The Boyle connection might be enough to give this film the best chance of the four to make the Telluride lineup.  Chances: 55%.  Here's the trailer from YouTube:



Goodbye Christopher Robin is directed by Simon Curtis and stars Domhnall Gleeson and Margot Robbie.  Beyond those basics, the trailer makes it seem very similar to Finding Neverland which played Telluride in 2004 and went on to one Oscar win and an additional six nominations.  Chances: 45%.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is written and directed by Martin McDonagh of In Bruges fame.  It looks (again based on its trailer) as if it is a serious awards vehicle for Francis McDormand. Chances: 40%.

Here's the link to the Red Band trailer for Three Billboards...and it earns its Red Band...


The Shape of Water is co-written and directed by Guillermo Del Toro and stars Doug Jones and Sally Hawkins.  Del Toro could return to Telluride for the first time since playing his The Devil's Backbone there in  2001 making him the only director in this group who has had a film previously make the lineup.  Chances: 35%.



THE TELLURIDE FILM FEST HISTORY BOOK: TFF #24




Here's another installment of my reach back in time to document the history of the Telluride Film Festival.  Today, the 24th TFF.  TFF #24 ran from Aug. 29-Sept. 1, 1997

Guest Director: Peter von Bagh

Tributes: Neil Jordan, Horton Foote, Alexander Sukurov

Special Medallion: Milos Stehlik

SHOWS:

Affliction
Alone
The Butcher's Boy
Can Memory Be Dissolved in Evian Water
Capitaine Conan
Caught
Classe Tout Risk
Eve's Bayou
Fast, Cheap and Put of Control
The Girl and the Hyacinths
Gummo
Lea
Letter from and Unknown Woman
Little Dieter Needs to Fly
Love and Death on Long Island
Ma Vie En Rose
Madame De
Men with Guns
Mother and Son
The Narrow Margin
Perfect Circle
Rothchild's Violin
Simoom
Steamboat Bill Jr.
The Sweet Hereafter
Taste of Cherry
Two Girls and a Guy
U-Turn
Unmade Beds
The White Reindeer
Who the Hell Is Juliette?

Guests:

Russell Banks
Powers Boothe
James Coburn
Vondie Curtis-Hall
Robert Downey, Jr.
Atom Egoyan
Richard Fleischer
Horton Foote
Werner Herzog
Mary Beth Hurt
Neil Jordan
Abbas Kiarostami
Gary Larson
Kasi Lemmons
Jennifer Lopez
Errol Morris
Joshua Oppenheimer
John Sayles
Paul Schrader
Alexander Sukurov
Oliver Stone
Bertrand Travernier
Billy Bob Thornton
James Toback
Haskell Wexler

Notes; Harmony Korine (Spring Breakers) shows his first feature at Telluride-Gummo and Joshua Oppenheimer makes his first Telluride appearance (The Act of Killing, The Look of Silence) with The Entire Story of the Louisiana Purchase.


TRAVERNIER'S FRENCH FILM EXTRAVAGANZA GETS A TRAILER



You may have caught Bertrand Tavernier's Journey Through French Cinema at TFF #43 last fall.  The film just played the Seattle Film Fest and is set to open in the U.K. in September, you can re-visit it to a degree as The Film Stage revealed the release of a trailer this past weekend.

Here's the trailer from YouTube:




That's a wrap for this Tuesday.  More to come on Thursday.

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