Monday, August 13, 2018

The Provenance of the Ten Bets List / Redford Reflects / Indiewire's 15 Docs / Banging the Drum Begins Today

Good Monday film fanatics!


THE PROVENANCE OF THE TEN BETS LIST



Here's a brief rundown of the 10 films on the most recent Ten Bets list (from last Friday) and the reason(s) I believe that they're headed to Telluride...



1) First Man- Listed as a Canadian Premiere by Toronto and the Opening Night film from Venice.  Director Damien Chazelle will replicate the path that his La La Land took two years ago.

2) Roma- Named as the centerpiece film for the New York Film Fest without a specific premiere designation.  Subsequently announced by TIFF as a Canadian Premiere for TIFF.  Scheduled early enough at Venice to make a run to Telluride.  Cuaron follows the steps he took with Gravity in 2013.

3) The Old Man and the Gun- TIFF lists it as an International Premiere-which traditionally means a film's first screening outside of its nationality of origin.  TIFF's program notes indicates the U.S. as the nation of origin.  Leaves Telluride as the only option.  Fox Searchlight is looking to capitalize on a strong T-ride response as it received for films such as The Shape of Water, Birdman and 12 Years a Slave-Best Picture Oscar winners all.



4) The Front Runner- TIFF lists the film as an International Premiere...see above.  Jason Reitman returns to his old stomping grounds.

5) Destroyer- TIFF lists the film as an International Premiere with the requisite designation of U.S. origin in its Platform section.

6) Cold War- TIFF lists as Canadian Premiere and NYFF lists it with no premiere status. First Cannes crossover with T-ride on this version of the Ten Bets.  Pawlikowski returns to TFF.

7) Dogman- TIFF lists this as Canadian Premiere.  Also a Cannes crossover.  Garrone returns to The SHOW.

8) Shoplifters- TIFF lists this as a Canadian Premiere.  Palme D'or winner at Cannes...the first Palme winner programmed at Telluride since 2013's Blue Is the Warmest Color.  NYFF lists it without a premiere designation.



9) Can You Ever Forgive Me?- Another TIFF International Premiere and also from Fox Searchlight.

10) Non-Fiction- Listed as a Canadian Premiere by TIFF.  At NYFF sans premiere designation. Early enough at Venice to make the trip. Olivier Assayas returns to Telluride.

Other films that seem to have reasonably good corroboration that are outside the top ten bets:

11) The Favourite- NYFF's Opening Night film was announced without any premiere designation and the film is also scheduled early enough at Venice to make the trip.  The third Fox Searchlight film that seems to be headed to the San Juans for Labor Day weekend.



12) White Boy Rick- The fifth film listed by TIFF as an International Premiere with U.S. origins.  Demange returns to Telluride.

13) Peterloo- A Venice play that's just barely early enough.  Mike Leigh has had a strong connection to Telluride over the years.

14) The Other Side of the Wind- Also barely early enough in Venice.  Connections to Telluride regulars such as Frank Marshall and Peter Bogdanovich.

15) Meeting Gorbachev- A tweet from the docs composer, who is also the brother of its co-director.  Listed by TIFF as a Canadian Premiere.  And, of course, it's other director is Werner Herzog.


The additional possibilities list from Friday was: Girl, Border, They'll Love Me When I'm Dead, Graves Without a Name, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, The Eyes of Orson Welles, On the Basis of Sex, He Dreams of Giants, Free Solo, Angels Are Made of Light, The Biggest Little Farm, Ghost Fleet, Cheney (Backseat), Nothing Like a Dame, Mid 90s, Mary Queen of Scots, Boy Erased, Ad Astra.

From this list I feel nominally confident anywhere between 5-10 of them will also be programmed for TFF #45.


REDFORD REFLECTS



Ahead of the expected Telluride screening of what he has said will be his last film acting, Robert Redford recently shared thoughts about many of his most well known and beloved films with Entertainment Weekly.

Redford recounts anecdotes and reflections about Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, All the President's Men and Ordinary People among others.

I suspect that the 2014 TFF Tribute recipient and Best Director Oscar Winner is likely to turn up in T-ride in a couple of weeks.  At least I hope he does.  I am also hoping his co-star Sissy Spacek makes the trip as well.  I have Spacek on my list of possible Tribute recipients for this year and could certainly envision Redford on hand to award her a silver medallion.

The EW article by Joe McGovern is here.



INDIEWIRE'S 15 DOCS




Indiewire's Anne Thompson wrote an article over the weekend isolating 15 documentaries that have been announced for the Toronto International Film Festival that she says have a chance to make a splash at Oscar time.

Among those she analyzes are a number that we're relatively confident will or could show up in T-ride prior to their screening in Canada.

Included in Anne's list that may be TFF #45 bound: #3 Free Solo, #4 Meeting Gorbachev, #13 Angels Are Made of Light, #15 The Biggest Little Farm

Anne's article is linked here.


BANGING THE DRUM BEGINS!



For the seventh consecutive year MTFB is soliciting your input for The People's Telluride.  All you have to do is watch films during the fest and then, when it's all over, report to me your assessment of each film on a 1-5 scale with 1 being "UGH!" and 5 being "GREAT".

When the time comes, you can send those ratings to me in any of the following ways listed as contact info for me listed below.

 And that's the Monday edition of MTFB.  I'll have more tomorrow...


EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

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