Venice Announces / Rebounds and Ramifications / SPC Picks Up Bening Film

Good Thursday to everyone...

VENICE ANNOUNCES

Venice announced its lineup this morning and because it is largely filled with world premieres, it's still interesting.  Of more use will be the actual schedule which can also help to give clues about which films might make the trip from Italy to T-ride or vice versa.

Here's the lineup from Venice:

Competition:

Downsizing
Suburbicon
Human Flow
mother!
The Shape of Water
L'Insulte
La Villa
Lean on Pete
Mektoub My Love, Canto Uno
The Third Murder
Jusqu'a La Garde
Foxtrot
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri
Hannah
Ammore E Malavita
Angels Wear White
Una Famiglia
First Reformed
Sweet Country
The Leisure Seeker
Ex Libris-The New York Public Library

Out of Competition (Fiction):

Our Souls at Night
Il Singor Rotpeter
Victoria and Abdul
La Melodie
Outrage Coda
Loving Pablo
Zama
Wormwood
Diva!
La Fidele
Il Colore Nascostco delle Cose
The Private Life of a Modern Woman
Brawl in Cell Block 99

Out of Competition (Documentaries)

Cuba and the Cameraman
My Generation
Piazza Vittorio
The Devil and Father Amorth
This Is the Congo
Ryuichi Sakamoto
Jim and Andy: The Great Beyond. The Story of Jim Carrey, Andy Kaufman and Tony Clifton
Happy Winter

Out if Competition (Special Events)

Casa D'Altri
Michael Jackson's Thriller 3D
The Making of Michael Jackson's Thriller

Horizons:

Nico 1988
Disappearance
Especes Menacees
The Rape of Recy Taylor
Caniba
Les Bienheureux
Marvin
Invisible
Brutti E Cattivi
The Cousin
The Testament
No Date, No Signature
La Nuit Ou J"ai Nage
Kreig
West of Sunshine
Gatta Cenerentola
Under the Tree
La Vita in Commune


Cinema Del Giardino:

Manuel
Contrafigura
Woodshock
Nato A Casal di Principe
Suburra
Tuers

Venice Virtual Reality:

Melita
La Camera Insabbiata
The Last Goodbye
My Name is Peter Stillman
Alice, The Virtual Reality Play
Arden's Wake
Greenland Melting
Bloodless
Nothing Happens
The Dream Collector
Snatch VR Heist Experience
Nefertitti
Proxima
In the Pictures
Dispatch
The Argos File
Gomorra VR
Draw Me Close
The Deserted
I Saw the Future
Separate Silences
Free Whale

Films expected to miss Telluride from this list are: Suburbicon, Three Billboards, mother!, Victoria and Abdul.

Films thought to be playing Telluride: Downsizing, The Shape of Water and perhaps Human Flow.

Films most likely to be Telluride bound: Lean on Pete, Mektoub My Love Canto Uno, First Reformed, The Leisure Seeker, Ex Libris, Our Souls at Night, Wormwood, First Reformed, Woodshock, Sweet Country and La Camera Insabbiata.

No Darkest Hour or First They Killed My Father or Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool which flies in the face of some of the stories addressed below.

A couple of notes:  Venice has been known to add films after this official announcement and here's coverage from:

Deadline

The Playlist

Indiewire

LATE BREAKING:  THR story says Errol Morris' Wormwood is only non-World Premiere at Venice. Strongly indicating that it will play Telluride first and then travel to Venice.

REBOUNDS AND RAMIFICATIONS



48 hours removed from Toronto's opening announcement and there are some interesting points and side notes that have emerged.

Start with Pete Hammond's/Deadline analysis posted yesterday which suggests that Darkest Hour, Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool, The Shape of Water, First They Killed My Father and Downsizing look to all be playing Venice first and then Telluride and that is probably not all the films that will be making that journey (see the Ramin Setoodeh/Variety story below.

Hammond also concurs with my assessment that Battle of the Sexes (see the Jeremy Kay/Screen Daily story below), Hostiles and Lady Bird will all debut at T-ride.  He also reminds us that Wonderstruck and Loving Vincent are expected to play.

Hammond also guesses that Christian Bale (Hostiles) and Angelina Jolie (First They Killed My Father) might be in line for a Telluride Tribute.  You might recall that Jeff Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere has already claimed that one of the tributes will be for cinematographer Ed Lachman (Wonderstruck).

Loyal MTFB reader Christopher Schiller pointed out yesterday the Screen Daily article that is important to Telluride fans as it lists Battle of the Sexes as both a North American Premiere (in the text of the story) but as an International premiere in the list of films.  This in an article that mentions correcting the premiere status of some of the TIFF announced films.

As of this morning, Battle was still listed on the TIFF website as an International Premiere...which should mean a TFF #44 play.  Here's my screen grab from the TIFF website:

Finally, the Variety piece talks about the tension between fests.  This particular "story" seems to be repeated every year.  The focus here, however largely on Telluride and Venice.  It reveals a number of interesting tidbits:

1) Setoodeh implies that the Ai Weiwei documentary Human Flow will be playing Telluride.

2) The article suggests that there will seven or eight films that will play both fests.  As you will note from above, we think we know four: Downsizing, First They Killed..., Darkest Hour and Film Stars Don't Die.  Adding in Human Flow, if it happens, means that there are still two or three films that would make the trip.  What are they?

3) Intriguingly, Setoodeh says that "at least one high profile drama is scheduled to show in Telluride before Venice".  My speculation is that references a film not listed above as the lack of certainty regarding its premiere status is, presumably, not reflected by Toronto's announced lineup. So, what could it be?

SPC PICKS UP BENING FILM

Amid the speculation that Annette Bening's Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool will play Telluride comes the story from yesterday that Sony Pictures Classics will be acquiring the film.  The SPC connection strengthens the case that the film will play TFF  #44.

Deadline's Mike Fleming, Jr. reported the SPC story.

But this new thought:  Bening is president of the Venice competition jury.  So, is there any way her film could play Telluride and she serves in that position?

Seems like that would be very difficult.


There's your Thursday.  More tomorrow including a new Ten Bets list that integrates what we've learned this week.

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