IN CASE YOU MISSED THEM
I am re-posting a couple of special items that came down the pike since my last regularly scheduled post on Tuesday morning:
TORONTO NEWS
From today's announcement of new titles from the Toronto International Film Festival:
Twelve films were added to the TIFF lineup Wednesday for their Platform Section. All but one are listed as World or North American premieres taking them out of the Telluride conversation. However Karyn Kusama's Destroyer starring Nicole Kidman with Sebastian Stan is listed as an International Premiere which indicates that it is now a likely title for The SHOW.
Destroyer has not yet been dated for U.S. release but you have to expect an awards qualifying date must be in the offing. Destroyer is being distributed by Annapurna.
Let me just mention...a Nicole Kidman tribute?
Here's coverage of the announcement of Toronto's Platform section from:
The Hollywood Reporter
Indiewire
The Wrap
Deadline
VENICE NEWS
It appears that the Venice Film Fest will announce their schedule earlier than expected. The schedule was originally to have been announced on Friday but we should see the it on Thursday now according to the Twitterverse:
The schedule for films screening at the Venice Film Festival, which although not definitive in and of themselves, can offer clues about which films that are screening there could conceivably also make the lineup for TFF #45. For example, if Errol Morris' American Dharma is scheduled Aug.29-31 or Sept. 6-8...that would indicate at least a temporal possibility for the documentary to play both in Venice and Telluride.
Based on last year's fests, I am expecting a half a dozen or so films to play both places. We already are expecting: First Man, Roma, The Favourite and Peterloo.
These films are all potentially possible for a Venice play in addition to Telluride: Vox Lux, 22 July, Suspiria, Never Look Away, The Nightingale, American Dharma, They'll Love Me When I'm Dead, The Other Side of the Wind, The Mountain, Blood Kin and the new extended version of Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life.
My best guess here would be the two documentaries: Errol Morris' Steve Bannon doc; American Dharma and the Morgan Neville doc about making The Other Side of the Wind; They'll Love Me When I'm Dead.
OLD FRIENDS
Each year, at some point during the summer, I assess what I call "The Usual Suspects". That's the list of directors, producers, actors, etc. that have seemed to established a relationship with Telluride through the years.
Almost without exception when the actual lineup is finalized, it feels a little like that might be an exercise in futility. So, over the last couple of days, I took a look at the films that we are predicting/relatively confident about for 2018 to see if "The Usual Suspects" is a worthwhile metric.
At this point, I'm thinking we have films that feature directors that have established a TFF connection after having screened films their previously:
First Man (Damian Chazelle-La La Land)
Roma (Alfonso Cuaron-Gravity)
Peterloo (Mike Leigh-Another Year and others)
The Front Runner (Jason Reitman-Up in the Air and others)
Dogman (Matteo Garrone-Gomorrah)
Cold War (Pawel Pawlikowski-Ida)
Meeting Gorbachev (Werner Herzog-he's had a few)
Non-Fiction (Olivier Assasyas-Carlos)
Then there's The Other Side of the Wind which is Orson Welles but also includes Frank Marshall and Peter Bogdanovich in significant roles getting the film done.
Ina addition, among other films we think will play that don't have a directing connection there are The Favourite which stars Emma Stone who has been to T-ride for two straight years. The Old Man and the Gun which stars 2013 TFF Tributee Robert Redford and 2016 Tributee Casey Affleck. White Boy Rick features 1993 TFF Tributee Jennifer Jason Leigh and Bruce Dern who attended TFF in 2013. It also credits Darren Aronofsky as a producer who was at TFF in 2010 as the director of Black Swan.
So, I suppose, "The Usual Suspects" is still a useful metric.
NON-FICTION HAS DISTRIBUTION
Photo via Variety.com
We learned yesterday that Sundance Selects has acquired the rights to distribute Olivier Assasyas' Non-Fiction in the United States.
That story is covered here by The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline.
We believe that Non-Fiction will play as a part of the lineup at the Telluride Film Festival.
Sundance Selects has had a significant history with Telluride along with their distributing partner IFC Films. That tradition looks as if it will continue with Non-Fiction.
AND THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
I'm sure many of you saw the news from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences yesterday about changes coming to Oscar over the next season or two.
There were three significant changes announced:
Some categories will be shuffled off the live telecast...the categories were unnamed.
A new category will be added for Best "Popular" Film
And, the 2020 telecast will be moved up by a couple of weeks to Feb. 9th.
Largely the reaction in the Film Twitter world was negative, although there were a couple of notable defenders of the Best Popular Film move.
Of more interest to me was the decision to push the ceremony to earlier in February which, as a number of people noted yesterday, probably increases the importance of Telluride in regards to Oscar.
That notion kind of makes my head spin a bit. Telluride's influence vis-a-vis Oscar has grown dramatically over the years I have been attending (since 2006). Whether that's by happenstance or design isn't particular important. What is key is that as we move through the next couple of years, it's doubtful that T-ride's role in the Oscar season is going to wain.
It's likely to mean that a ticket that was tough to get last March (selling out in a couple of days) gets even more dicey for 2019 and 2020.
Honestly, I suspect that some changes will be forthcoming regarding ticketing for The SHOW.
Stay tuned...
AND THE POSTER
It's true. A poster exists. I have been told that a copy of said poster has been hung in the window in The Nugget Theater in Telluride.
I have seen photographic evidence.
I am refraining from posting at this point as I await the official announcement from the festival.
Believe me, though, a poster exists.
That's all for now...more coming tomorrow including an updated Ten (Plus) Bets list and an analysis of the Venice schedule as it sets up potential Telluride players.
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com
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