Thursday, December 7, 2017

TFF #44 and The Critic's Choice / TFF #45 Anyone? / Deadline Talks To Lady Bird

Hello to everyone on this Thursday...


TFF #44 AND THE CRITIC'S CHOICE



The Broadcast Film Critics Association announced their nominations for end of the year superlatives in both film and television on Tuesday and TFF #44 film The Shape of Water lead all films with 14 nominations.  Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird was among a group of films with the second highest total of nominations with eight.

Here's the rundown of all 33 nominations received by films that played at Telluride in 2017:



The Shape of Water (14): Best Picture, Actress-Sally Hawkins, Supporting Actress-Octavia Spencer, Best Supporting Actor (Richard Jenkins), Direction, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Production Design, Film Editing, Costume Design, Makeup, Visual Effects, Score and Best SciFi/Horror Film.

Lady Bird (8): Best Picture, Actress-Saoirse Ronan, Supporting Actress-Laurie Metcalf, Ensemble, Direction, Actress in a Comedy-Ronan and Best Comedy Film

Darkest Hour (4): Best Picture, Actor-Gary Oldman, Makeup and Score



Battle of the Sexes (2) Best Actress in a Comedy(Emma Stone), Best Actor in a Comedy (Steve Carell)

Downsizing (1): Best Supporting Actress (Hong Chau)

Wonderstruck (1): Best Young Actor/Actress (Millicent Simmonds)

Loving Vincent (1): Best Animated Feature

A Fantastic Woman (1): Best Foreign Language Film



First They Killed My Father (1): Best Foreign Language Film

Other films that snagged eight nominations were: Call Me By Your Name, Dunkirk and The Post.  Blade Runner 2049 had seven nominations.

The announcements were something of a bounce back for The Shape of Water which had not gotten much love in earlier key announcements from the National Board of Review or the New York or Los Angeles film critics organizations.

I was also personally thrilled to see Richard Jenkins name among the Supporting Actor nominees for The Shape of Water as I have been stumping for his inclusion since the lights came up after the film screened in Telluride back over Labor Day weekend.

Sad, though, that my other awards choice, Harry Dean Stanton in the non-Telluride film Lucky, didn't land a nod for Best Actor.

The next big awards splash happens later today with the announcement of accolades from The American Film Institute.  Then, next Tuesday, Golden Globe nominations will be revealed.

The complete list of Critic's Choice nominations is here.

The Critic's Choice Awards will be handed out on Jan. 11th at 8:00om EST on The CW network.


TFF #45 ANYONE?



The Playlist has dropped the annual 100 Most Anticipated Films list.  That was posted on Tuesday.

I have made it a habit over the last several years to use that list as a starting point for serious TFF speculation for the upcoming year.  Sure, we're nine months away from Labor Day weekend 2018 and a lot can change between now and then but, hey, "why not take a shot?" says I.

Last year when the list came out I named 20 films that might make the TFF #44 program.  Of those 20, nine made The SHOW: A Fantastic Woman, Battle of the Sexes, Lady Bird, The Other Side of Hope, Lean on Pete, Downsizing, Loveless, The Shape of Water and Wonderstruck.  An additional film that I didn't name also made The SHOW: Darkest Hour.

In 2016, from the 100 films that The Playlist mentioned, seven made the TFF lineup: Neruda, Una, Things to Come, Moonlight, Manchester by the Sea, La La Land and Arrival (which was titled The Story of Your Life at the time).  The only film among them that I named: Neruda. 

In 2015 the list included: Carol, Beasts of No Nation, Black Mass, Suffragette and Spotlight which I included on my Telluride-possibles as well as Room, 45 Years and Steve Jobs which I did not list.

In 2014 the list included: The Lunchbox, Mommy, Tracks and Wild that I didn't name for TFF but did include three films that I did pick: Birdman, Foxcatcher and Mr. Turner.

So the averages suggest that the list below will contain 4-5 films that will actually make the TFF #45 lineup (unless I replicate the success I had for this year)  and the eight films total that are on the complete list of 100 films will make the T-ride program.

So...here are 20 films that appear on The Playlist's 100 Most Anticipated Films of 2018 that I think have the best shot at making it to the San Juans next Labor Day.

Initially, begin with five films that the post itself suggests could play Telluride:

#83-Mid-90's-Jonah Hill directs a coming of age comedy.  Key reason it plays: Distribution from A24.

#72-The Front Runner-The true story of the downfall of Presidential aspirant Gary Hart played by Hugh Jackman and directed Jason Reitman.  After running two hits through Telluride: Juno and Up in the Air, Reitman did not have Young Adult there and then did have the critical and commercial misfire Labor Day, Reitman is due for a return to his original form and consequently a return to T-ride.

#38-Untitled Noah Baumbach Project,  Baumbach had Margot at the Wedding at The SHOW in 2007 and the fantastic Frances Ha in 2012 (which may have helped lay the groundwork for Greta Gerwig's solo directing debut, Lady Bird) but hasn't been back since.  This might be the project that marks his return.

#25-First Man-The story of astronaut Neil Armstrong from director Damien Chazelle starring Ryan Gosling (two collaborators on last year's La La Land).  The high profile expected for this film plus the undeniable success of La La Land suggests that Chazelle would probably be up for a return to TFF.  The picture is from Universal, however, which hasn't exactly been a familiar player at the fest over the years.

#1- If Beale Street Could Talk-The Playlist's #1 most anticipated film is Barry Jenkins' followup to his Oscar winning and Telluride debuting Moonlight.  Just like The Playlist, I fully expect the film to bow at TFF #45.  The film is distributed by Annapurna which is getting into the portion of the business after having been a production firm until now.

In addition to these five films I have zeroed in on another 15 that could make an appearance at Telluride:

#76-Kursk
#75-Private Life
#71-Cold War
#52-E-Book
#40-Fahrenheit 451
#31-Peterloo
#22-The Other Side f the Wind
#21-The Death and Life of John F. Donovan
#19-Sunset
#17-The Man Who Killed Don Quixote
#13-Maya
#12-Everybody Knows
#11-The Sisters Brothers
#8-Widows
#3- Roma

 Let's see how many of these we actually do see when the TFF #45 schedule is unveiled on Aug. 30th.


DEADLINE TALKS TO LADY BIRD

As a part of their "Contender Series" videos, Deadline recently sat down with Greta Gerwig, Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf (all recognized with nominations from the BFCA this week) to talk about Lady Bird.  Here it is from YouTube:





That's it for today.  Come back for more on Monday.


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