New Oscar Predix: Foreign Language and Docs /The Front Runner's International Trailer / Interviews: Hugh Jackman (The Front Runner), Josh Singer (First Man) and Eva Melander (Border)

Welcome back from the weekend and Happy Impending Halloween to all who Trick or Treat...


NEW OSCAR PREDICTIONS: FOREIGN LANGUAGE AND DOCUMENTARIES

Almost every year there is a least one Oscar category that seems like every nominee might have played Telluride.  This year the Foreign Language category could go that way.

Honestly, Best Supporting Actress could as well but it's a bit more of a stretch in that category than Foreign Language.

So, here for the first time this Oscar season on MTFB is my set of opening prognostications for Best Foreign Language Film.  As is usual here the films that played TFF #45 are Bold.

1) Roma
2) Cold War
3) Capernaum
4) Shoplifters
5) Burning

As you can see, at the moment I am predicting three of the five will have played TFF #45: Roma, Cold War and Shoplifters.  There are a few other films that are just off this top five that could supplant some of these:  Girl, Never Look Away, Birds of Passage, Border and Sunset.


Meanwhile, in the wild Feature Documentary category, these are the films that I am guessing make the top five...at least for the time being:

1) The Notorious RBG
2) Won't You Be My Neighbor
3) The Identical Strangers
4) Free Solo
5) McQueen

Others: Minding the Gap, Dark Money, The Sentence, Reversing Roe, Filmworker, Quincy, Science Fair, Whitney.

And if you missed it last week, there are new predictions up at Movie City News' Gurus of Gold for Best Picture, Actress and Supporting Actress.  And, not to beat the proverbial dead horse, I'm acting as a "Guru" this year. 

I am thrilled to be included with friends: Sasha Stone/Awards Daily, Tomris Laffly/RogerEbert.com, and Mark Johnson/AwardsCircuit.  I'm also pleased to see Peter Howell of The Toronto Star (Peter and I have exchanged tweets and messages in the past few years about items related to the Toronto Film Fest) and Dave Karger who, among other things, appears from time to time on Turner Classic Movies, are also Gurus this year.

Go check them out by clicking here.


THE FRONT RUNNER'S INTERNATIONAL TRAILER

As we edge closer to its domestic release (Nov. 21), Sony/Columbia released an international version of the trailer for Jason Reitman's The Front Runner.

The film stars Hugh Jackman as U.S. Senator Gary Hart and follows the flame out of his 1988 Presidential bid.

Here's the new international trailer from YouTube:

The Front Runner is set to open in Sweden on Nov. 21.



INTERVIEWS: HUGH JACKMAN (THE FRONT RUNNER), JOSH SINGER (FIRST MAN) AND EVA MELANDER (BORDER)

Oscar nominee Hugh Jackman (for Les Miserables) could earn his second nomination for his work as Gary Hart in Jason Reitman's The Front Runner.  Jackman was profiled over the weekend by The Hollywood Reporter in an interview that was conducted by Katie Kilkenny.  That interview is linked here.

Oscar winner Josh Singer, who won the Oscar for co-writing Spotlight, and is the script writer for Damien Chazelle's First Man sat down with SlashFilm's Jack Giroux recently.  SlashFilm posted the interview on Thursday and you can catch it here.


First Man is in theaters now.

Meanwhile, Eva Melander who stars in the weird and(at least at Telluride) somewhat divisive foreign film Border shared about her experiences with that film this past week wit Erik Anderson of Awards Watch.

That interview is here.

Border is the official submission from Sweden for this year's Foreign Language Oscar.  The film opened this past weekend here in the United States.



That's your Monday MTFB.  I'll have more on Thursday.


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

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COMMENT TO THE BLOG

Updated Oscar Predictions: Screenplays / Gurus Assembled / Cuaron Talks Roma

It's a truncated MTFB today as I am smack in the middle of our state's One Act Play Contest Final.  My kids are doing a truncated version of The Crucible.


UPDATED OSCAR PREDICTIONS: SCREENPLAYS

Here's where I am predicting the screenplay contests as they stand at the moment.  I last had them picked on Oct. 4th.

These predictions are followed by their position in parentheses at that last posting.  Telluride films are Bold.


ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1) If Beale Street Could Talk (1)
2) A Star Is Born (6)
3) BlacKkKlansman (4)
4) First Man (2)
5) Can You Ever Forgive Me? (3)

Others: Boy Erased, Widows, Black Panther, The Front Runner

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1) Roma (1)
2) The Favourite (3)
3) Green Book (2)
4) Eighth Grade (4)
5) Vice (6)

Others: First Reformed, Ben Is Back, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs


GURUS ASSEMBLED

Movie City News Gurus of Gold is up with its second posting for this brand new Oscar season and as I have posted earlier, I have been asked to Guru for MCN this season...Thanks MCN!

Highlights of the new post are predictions for Best Picture as well as Best Actress and Supporting Actress.

Telluride films in play for Best Picture according to the Gurus are Roma, First Man, The Favourite and Can You ever Forgive Me?  Also mentioned from TFF are: First Reformed (TFF #44), Boy Erased, Cold War and The Front Runner.

Among the Best Actress contenders are Telluriders Olivia Colman/The Favourite and Melissa McCarthy/ Can You Ever Forgive Me?  Also possible: Yalitza Aparicio/Roma.

And in the Supporting Actress category: Claire Foy/First Man, Emma Stone/The Favourite and Nicole Kidman/Boy Erased.  Also possible: Rachel Weisz/The Favourite and Vera Farmiga/The Front Runner.

The complete new Gurus of Gold is here.


CUARON TALKS ROMA

Alfonso Cuaron is the focus of an extensive profile in Variety from Kristopher Tapley.  Take a look at that from the director of Roma.

That link is here.

Also, Tapley weighs in for the first time this season with hos view about Oscars for Best Picture, actor and Actress.

TFF is represented on Tapley's first list as follows...

Best Pic: Can You Ever Forgive Me?, The Favourite, First Man and Roma

Actor: Noop...

Actress: Colman/The Favourite and McCarthy/Can You Ever...

His complete analysis is linked here.



Again, apologies for the short post today...I hope to have a larger post for you on Monday!

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

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COMMENT TO THE BLOG

Updated Oscar Predictions: The Supporting Races / Gotham Awards Nominations Revealed / Coverage for Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Welcome Back from the weekend.  It's Monday...all...day...


UPDATED OSCAR PREDICTIONS: THE SUPPORTING RACES

Here's the latest of my Oscar predictions for the Supporting Acting categories.  The last pass at these categories was Oct. 4th. 

Each prediction is followed by its previous position 0n Oct. 4th in parentheses.  Telluride performances are in Bold. 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1) Regina King/Beale Street (2)
2) Claire Foy/First Man (1)
3) Emma Stone/The Favourite (4)
4) Nicole Kidman/Boy Erased (3)
5) Rachel Weisz/The Favourite (5)

Others: Amy Adams/Vice, Marina de Tavira/Roma, Tomasin McKenzie/Leave No Trace, Elizabeth Debecki/Widows


BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Mahershala Ali/Green Book (1)
2) Richard E. Grant/Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2)
3) Sam Elliott/A Star Is Born (4)
4) Timothee Chalamet/Beautiful Boy (3)
5) Sam Rockwell/Vice (5)

Others: Michael B. Jordan/Black Panther, Russell Crowe/Boy Erased, Adam Driver/BlacKkKlansman, Nicholas Hoult/The Favourite

Meanwhile, after having told everyone that a new Gurus of Gold would be up at Movie City News last Friday, it seems that I was premature and that the newest Gurus will post sometime this week.

I'll let you know when I know.



GOTHAM AWARDS NOMINATIONS REVEALED

Telluride films from both TFF #45 and TFF #44 scored well as the Gotham Awards nominations were announced this past week.  The Gothams focus on rewarding excellence in independent film making.

Both The Favourite (TFF #45) and First Reformed (TFF#44) were out front with three nominations each.

The Favourite had nominations for Best Feature, Best Screenplay and a Special Award for the three actresses that are highlighted in the film: Olivia Colman, Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz.

First Reformed was nominated for Best Feature, Best Screenplay and Ethan Hawke for Best Actor.

Chole Zhao's The Rider (also from TFF #44) was nominated for Best Feature.

Richard E. Grant was nominated for Best Actor for TFF #45 favorite Can You Ever Forgive Me? and Yalitza Aparicio was nominated for Breakthrough Performance for Alfonso Cuaron's Roma.

Here is the complete rundown of nominees from Indiewire.



LOTS OF COVERAGE FOR CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?

With its limited release this week, we saw a real surge in profiles, interviews and other pieces about Marielle Heller's Can You Ever Forgive Me? starring Oscar contenders Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant.

Indiewire

Entertainment Weekly

Time

That's today's MTFB.  I have more for you on Thursday.


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

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COMMENT TO THE BLOG

Updated Oscar Predictions: Best Actress and Actor / Can You Ever Forgive Me? Emerges / Destroyer Has a Trailer / The Favourite Categorized

Good Thursday Film Friends...


UPDATED OSCAR PREDICTIONS: BEST ACTRESS AND BEST ACTOR

Here are my latest thoughts for the Lead Acting categories.  Each individual's position in my last predictions is in parentheses.  Those from TFF #45 films are Bold.


BEST ACTRESS

1) Glenn Close/The Wife (1)
2) Lady Gaga/A Star Is Born (2)
3) Melissa McCarthy/Can You Ever Forgive Me? (3)
4) Olivia Colman/The Favourite (4)
5) Viola Davis/Widows (-)

Others: Yalitza Aparicio/Roma, Julia Roberts/Ben Is Back, Toni Collette/Hereditary, Nicole Kidman/Destroyer


BEST ACTOR

1) Bradley Cooper/A Star Is Born (1)
2) Viggo Mortensen/Green Book (2)
3) Ryan Gosling/First Man (3)
4) Christian Bale/Vice (-)
5) Lucas Hedges/Boy Erased (4)

Others: Hugh Jackman/The Front Runner, Rami Malek/Bohemian Rhapsody, Ethan Hawke/First Reformed***, Lucas Hedges/Ben Is Back, John David Washington/BlacKkKlansman

***Played TFF #44

And, by the by, you might look for the a new Gurus of Gold at Movie City News tomorrow.  It will be my second contribution as a "Guru".


CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME? EMERGES

The fantastic Can You Ever Forgive Me? gets its U.S. release tomorrow.  The film was well received at TFF #45 finishing as the #5 film in The Composite Ratings for MTFB.  It was #5 among the Pros and #8 in The People's Telluride.

With the film's release, as you'd expect, has been a focus in media circles this week on it and its star Melissa McCarthy.

I have linked a couple of the profiles that have her appeared about her this week from:

The Hollywood Reporter

Indiewire

I am currently predicting McCarthy to earn her second Oscar nomination for her work in the film as real life forger Lee Daniels.  I also think the film will be nominated for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Richard E. Grant getting a nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Here's the trailer for it from YouTube:

DESTROYER HAS A TRAILER

Annapurna Pictures has released a trailer for Karyn Kusama's gritty detective drama Destroyer starring a nearly unrecognizable Nicole Kidman who is likely to be a part of the Best Actress conversation for the role.

Here's the trailer from YouTube:

Destroyer is currently slated to open domestically on Dec. 25th.

THE FAVOURITE CATEGORIZED

 After a good deal of consternation and speculation Scott Feinberg of The Hollywood Reporter tells us this week that the acting categorization for Awards consideration for the three ladies of Yorgos Lanthimos' The Favourite have been determined.

Feinberg reports that Olivia Colman, who plays England's Queen Anne in the film, will be the lone consideration for the Lead Actress category with both Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz competing in the Best Supporting Actress Category.

Feinberg also reports on a number of other categorization decisions that have been made as we get ready to swing into the full awards season melee.

Feinberg's article can be found here.


That's MTFB for this Thursday.  I'll have another post on Monday in which I will update Oscar predictions for the supporting acting categories.  And don't forget to take a peek at Movie City News and the new Gurus of Gold post tomorrow.


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

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COMMENT TO THE BLOG

Updated Oscar Predictions: Best Picture and Director / First Man Launches / News for Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Good Monday Ladies and Germs...


UPDATED OSCAR PREDICTIONS: BEST PICTURE AND DIRECTOR

MTFB had its first set of Oscar predictions up two weeks ago and it felt like it was time to begin updating them so I've started that process today with updates for Best Picture and Best Direction.  I'll continue to update two categories each post for the next little bit and will eventually beginning to expand the predictions beyond the Big 8 categories as we move deeper into awards season.

So, here are your updates for Picture and Direction (with their last position in parentheses):

BEST PICTURE

1) A Star Is Born (2)
2) Roma (3)
3) First Man (1)
4) Green Book (4)
5) The Favourite (5)
6) BlacKkKlansman (6)
7) If Beale Street Could Talk (7)
8) Black Panther (8)
9) Can You Ever Forgive Me? (9)
10) Vice (-)

Others: Eighth Grade, Widows, Boy Erased


BEST DIRECTION

1) Alfonso Cuaron/Roma (1)
2) Bradley Cooper/A Star Is Born (2)
3) Damien Chazelle/First Man (3)
4) Spike Lee/BlacKkKlansman (4)
5) Yorgos Lanthimos/The Favourite (5)

Others: Barry Jenkins/If Beale Street Could Talk, Ryan Coogler/Black Panther, Peter Farrelly/Green Book, Adam McKay/Vice

On Thursday, I'll update Best Actress and Actor.


FIRST MAN LAUNCHES

Damian Chazelle's First Man opened last Friday.  The film is still my choice for Best Film of the Year...though I still have other films to see...specifically Beale Street, Green Book and Vice which sound as if they all might have the goods to relegate First Man to second place.

As you might expect, with its release came a good amount of interviews and profile pieces.  I have linked a few here for your perusal.

The Hollywood Reporter

Time

Indiewire


NEWS FOR CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?

Producers of Marielle Heller's Can You Ever Forgive Me?  dropped a new poster for the film last week.  Sadly it boasts the Toronto International Film Fest logo rather than Telluride's.  Despite that I decided to go ahead and post it here:

As I looked at past posts before writing today's tidbits I discovered that I haven't included a picture of the first poster that was out for the film.  So here that is as well:

Meanwhile, ShowBiz411 posted an interview yesterday with actor Richard E. Grant who co-stars with Melissa McCarthy in the film.  Here's the link to that interview.

Can You Ever Forgive Me? opens in the U.S. on Friday.

That's your Monday MTFB.  More to come on Thursday.

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

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COMMENT TO THE BLOG

Oscar's Foreign Language List Is Complete / Hollywood News Weighs In with October Oscar Predictions

Welcome to Thursday...


OSCAR'S FOREIGN LANGUAGE LIST IS COMPLETE

The final list of all submitted films from around the world for consideration for the Foreign Language Oscar has been completed this week with 87 films on the final list.

Among that list of films are a good number that were a portion of the TFF #45 lineup.  By nation of submission they are:

Belgium: Girl
Cambodia: Graves Without a Name
Colombia: Birds of Passage
Italy: Dogman
Japan: Shoplifters
Mexico: Roma
Poland: Cold War
Sweden: Border

Of that batch of  eight films I think Roma, Cold War and Shoplifters are strong contenders to make the final five and there is a possibility that all five films that eventually get nominated will have played at Telluride.

Here is linked coverage of the list of 87 films from:

Awards Daily

The Playlist

Indiewire

The Film Experience


HOLLYWOOD NEWS WEIGHS IN WITH OCTOBER OSCAR PREDICTIONS

Joey Magidson posted his first big pass at Oscar predix at Hollywood News on Friday last week.  It's interesting in part because he picks all 21 feature categories.  Because of that we can begin to get a sense of the overall Oscar prospects for films beyond the eight major categories.

Here's the breakdown of Magidson's picks beginning with TFF #45 films with predicted nominations in parenthesis:

First Man (12): Best Picture, Direction, Actor, Supporting Actress, Adapted Screenplay, Production Design, Cinematography, Film Editing, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Visual Effects and Original Score.  One other possibility is Costumes.

The Favourite (8): Best Picture, Actress, Supporting Actress, Original Screenplay, Production Design, Cinematography, Costumes and Film Editing.  Also possible: Direction and Supporting Actor.

Roma (6): Best Picture, Best Foreign Language Film, Direction, Supporting Actress, Original Screenplay, Cinematography.  Also possible: Film Editing.  I'm more than a little surprised that Magidson doesn't have Yalitza Aparicio anywhere in his top ten for Best Actress.

Can You Ever Forgive Me? (3) Best Picture, Actress, Supporting Actor.  Also possible: Adapted Screenplay.

The Front Runner (2): Best Actor, Adapted Screenplay.  Also possible: Best Picture, Supporting Actress and Film Editing.

Boy Erased (1): Best Song.  Also possible: Best Picture, Actor, Supporting Actress and Original Score.

Cold War (1): Best Foreign Language Film.  Also possible: Best Picture, Cinematography.

Shoplifters (1): Best Foreign Language Film.

That would be a total of 34 nominations if Magidson is 100% correct.

In addition, three other TFF #45 films land in the "also possible" camp without being picked as a nominee in any category:

The Old Man and the Gun: Best Actor, Supporting Actress.

Destroyer: Best Actress.

Birds of Passage: Best Foreign Film.

That totals 19 other "possible" nominations beyond the 34 he's currently predicting.

Among the other films Magidson is picking as Best Picture nominees (besides the TFF films) A Star Is Born leads the way (and ties First Man) with 12 predicted nominations: Best Picture, Direction, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Film Editing, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing and two Best Song nominations.  Magidson lists no other possibles for ASIB.

Others in his BP list and their predicted nominations:

Black Panther (8): Best Picture, Production Design, Costumes, Film Editing, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Visual Effects and Song.

If Beale Street Could Talk (6): Best Picture, Direction, Supporting Actress, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography and Original Score.

BlackKklansman (5): Best Picture, Direction, Adapted Screenplay, Film Editing and Original Score.

Vice (5): Best Picture, Actor, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Original Screenplay.

Green Book (4): Best Picture, Actor, Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay

The complete Hollywood News/Joey Magidson set of predictions can be found here.


That's your Thursday MTFB.  I'll have more on Monday.

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

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COMMENT TO THE BLOG

Trailers for Foreign Film Contenders from TFF #45 / Chazelle Talks First Man and More / Indiewire's List of 32

Welcome back form the first weekend of October.  Fall arrived here in Oklahoma over the weekend with temps in the 90's Friday and in the 60's Saturday.  Hello Autumn!

TRAILERS FOR FOREIGN FILM CONTENDERS FROM TFF #45

Both Hirokazu Kore-eda's Palme d'Or Cannes prize winning Shoplifters and Pawel Pawlikowski's Cold War which won Best Director at Cannes figure to be serious contenders for Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nominations and could give Alfonso Cuaron's Roma a run for the money to win the award.  Both films had releases at the end of this past week of trailers to best their hype before their U.S. release.  Cold War is dated for a Dec. 21st release whereas Shoplifters is Nov. 23rd.  (By the way, it appears that Roma is likely to be released in some theaters on Dec. 14th prior to its streaming availability from Netflix , which produced the film per Indiewire).

Here is the trailer for Cold War from YouTube:

And also from YouTube, the trailer for Shoplifters:

I have linked stories of the trailers' releases.  For Cold War from Indiewire and for Shoplifters from The Playlist and Indiewire.

CHAZELLE TALKS FIRST MAN AND MORE

With the release of Damien Chazelle's First Man just days away (opening Oct. 12th, this Friday), it was not surprising to see Chazelle turn up at the end of last week as Kris Tapley's guest on Variety's Playback Podcast.

Chazelle talks, of course, about his upcoming film that tells the story of Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling) and the first moon landing.  He also talks about other topics including that famous Oscar moment from a year and a half ago.

Here's the link to the podcast.  Enjoy!

INDIEWIRE'S LIST OF 32

Eric Kohn, David Ehrlich and Kate Erbland at Indiewire have compiled a list of 32 independent films that they claim are the best 32 Indies of the year thus far.  

The list includes several films from TFF #44.  Why only one TFF #45 Indie's you ask?  Many have yet to be officially released.  I suspect the list will get larger and the crew at Indiewire says as much in the article.

Included on the list from TFF #44 are:

First Reformed

The Rider

Lean on Pete

Foxtrot 

A Fantastic Woman

The lone TFF #45 film so far is Free Solo which opened Sept. 28th.

Their top choice of all 32 films is Tamara Jenkins Private Life (First Reformed sits at #2).

The complete list from Indiewire is here.

That's your MTFB for this Monday.  I'll have more in my next regularly schedule post on Thursday.

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COMMENT TO THE BLOG

First Oscar Predictions for 2018-Part Two / Peterloo Moves / Lowery Talks The Old Man

Hello on this first Thursday in October!


FIRST OSCAR PREDICTIONS FOR 2018-PART TWO

Continuing from Monday's post, here are my first attempts at parsing the Oscar nominees for the Supporting Acting and Screenplay categories.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Emma Stone in The Favourite

1) Claire Foy/First Man
2) Regina King/Widows
3) Nicole Kidman/Boy Erased
4) Emma Stone/The Favourite
5) Rachel Wiesz/The Favourite

Others: Olivia Colman/The Favourite***, Marina deTavira/Roma, Amy Adams/Vice, Michelle Yeoh/Crazy Rich Asians, Elizabeth Debicki/Widows

***depending on category placement

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Me with Richard E. Grant of Can You Ever Forgive Me?

1) Mahershala Ali/Green Book
2) Richard E. Grant/Can You Ever Forgive Me?
3) Timothee Chalamet/Beautiful Boy
4) Sam Elliott/A Star Is Born
5) Sam Rockwell/Vice

Others: Michael B. Jordan/Black Panther, John C. Reilly/Stan and Ollie, Adam Driver/BlackKklansman, Joel Edgerton/Boy Erased

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1) Roma
2) Green Book
3) The Favourite
4) Eighth Grade
5) First Reformed

Others: Vice, A Quiet Place, Ben Is Back, Stan and Ollie


BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1) If Beale Street Could Talk
2) First Man
3) Can You Ever Forgive Me?
4) BlackKklansman
5) Boy Erased

Others: A Star Is Born, Widows, The Front Runner, Wildlife, Beautiful Boy


The TFF #45 breakdown should the predictions in these four categories be 100% accurate:

The Favourite (3): Stone and Wiesz/Supporting Actress and Original Screenplay
First Man (2): Foy/Supporting Actress and Adapted Screenplay
Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2): Grant/Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay
Roma (1) Original Screenplay
Boy Erased (2) Kidman/Supporting Actress and Adapted Screenplay

Also additional possibilities:

The Favourite (1): Colman/Supporting Actress
Roma (1) deTavira/Supporting Actress
Boy Erased (1): Edgerton/Supporting Actor
The Front Runner (1): Adapted Screenplay


AND...added to Monday's totals, the accumulated predictions for the eight major categories are:

The Favourite-6
First Man-5
Can You Ever Forgive Me?-4
Roma-3
Boy Erased-3

Added Possibilities:

The Front Runner-3
Boy Erased-2
Roma-2
The Favourite-1
Destroyer-1

And from TFF #44

First Reformed is predicted to be nominated for Best Original Screenplay and Ethan Hawke is a possible nominee for Best Actor.


PETERLOO MOVES

It was announced on Tuesday that Mike Leigh's Peterloo, which played TFF #45 as well as Venice, Toronto and will play as past of the BFI London Fest, will move its release date .  The film was scheduled to be released in the U.S. on Nov. 9th but now Amazon Studios has pushed the release date to April 5, 2019.

The distributor also said that the film will be released this fall in the U.K. so that it will qualify for the BAFTAs.

The film has had something of a rough go this year as it was reportedly not chosen for Cannes.  At Telluride last month the response to my polls of both fest-goers and industry professionals revealed that Peterloo didn't draw enough respondents from either group to merit including it in the ratings lists.

Peterloo details the true story of a Labor movement in Britain in August of 1819 that was organized to gain the right to vote.  That resulted in the deaths of 15 people with another 400 injured as the in an action taken by the cavalry that has become known as the Peterloo Massacre.

For more details concerning the delay of its release, here is the link to the story from The Hollywood Reporter.



LOWERY TALKS THE OLD MAN

Chris O'Falt at Indiewire posted his latest Toolkit podcast this week.  His guest is The Old Man and The Gun director David Lowery.  Lowery also adapted the screenplay from an article by David Grann from his New Yorker article.  Grann was also represented at Telluride by Trial by Fire, also based on another of his New Yorker articles.

Lowery spends some time talking about the making of the film which may or may not but probably is Robert Redford's last acting gig.

The story and the link to the podcast are here.


More to come on Monday.


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COMMENT TO THE BLOG

First Oscar Predictions for 2018 / Continued Oscar Insight / Focus on The Other Side / Border Makes Some Noise

Good Monday everyone... I've got a full edition of MTFB today.



FIRST OSCAR PREDICTIONS FOR 2018

First up today is my first Oscar predictions for 2018.  As regular readers know, I shift gears after each year's SHOW is completed (as well as Venice and Toronto) and, until Oscar night, the focus of this space becomes focused on the awards twists and turns that TFF films are a part of.

Consequently, I also endeavor to provide predictions about the Oscar race including my own set of prognostications.  Over the next few months I'll also pay attention to some of the larger critic's top ten and  "best of" lists as well as many of the film guild awards.  All of which lead up to Oscar nomination announcement morning (Jan. 22) and the 91st Oscars ceremony on Feb. 24.

Additionally, this year, as I reported a few days back, this year my predictions will also be included as part of The Gurus of Gold at Movie City News. 

It's an exciting time.

So here you are.  My first set of predix for the four most major of major categories: Picture, Direction, Actress and Actor.


BEST PICTURE

1) First Man
2) A Star Is Born
3) Roma
4) Green Book
5) The Favourite
6) BlacKkKlansman
7) If Beale Street Could Talk
8) Black Panther
9) Can You Ever Forgive Me?
10) Boy Erased

Others: Eighth Grade, Widows, The Front Runner, Vice

BEST DIRECTION

1) Alfonso Cuaron/Roma
2) Bradley Cooper/A Star Is Born
3) Damien Chazelle/First Man
4) Spike Lee/BlacKkKlansman
5) Yorgos Lanthimos/The Favourite

Others: Barry Jenkins/If Beale Street Could Talk, Ryan Coogler/Black Panther, Peter Farrelly/Green Book, Steve McQueen/Widows, Adam McKay/Vice

BEST ACTRESS

1) Glenn Close/The Wife
2) Lady Gaga/A Star Is Born
3) Melissa McCarthy/ Can You Ever Forgive Me?
4) Olivia Colman/The Favourite
5) Julia Roberts/Ben Is Back

Others: Nicole Kidman/Destroyer, Yalitza Aparicio/Roma, Viola Davis/Widows, Toni Collette/Heredity

BEST ACTOR

1) Bradley Cooper/A Star Is Born
2) Viggo Mortensen/Green Book
3) Ryan Gosling/First Man
4) Lucas Hedges/Boy Erased
5) Willem Dafoe/At Eternity's Gate

Others: John David Washington/BlacKkKlansman, Christian Bale/Vice, Hugh Jackman/The Front Runner, Ethan Hawke/First Reformed


TFF #45 Breakdown if these predictions were 100% accurate (I'm picking nine nominees for Best Picture):

First Man (3): Best Picture, Direction, Actor
The Favourite (3): Best Picture, Direction, Actress
Roma (2) Best Picture, Direction
Can You ever Forgive Me? (2): Best Picture, Actress
Boy Erased (1) Best Actor

Additional Possibilities:

The Front Runner (2): Best Picture, Actor
Boy Erased (1): Best Picture
Roma (1): Best Actress
Destroyer (1): Best Actress

And from TFF #44...

First Reformed (1): Best Actor


CONTINUED OSCAR INSIGHT

Both Sasha Stone at Awards Daily and Erik Anderson of Awards Watch post updates for the Oscar season each Friday.  Sasha's is titled Predictions Friday while Erik's is Frontrunner Friday.  Clayton Davis of Awards Circuit updates weekly on Mondays. I'll try to make sure to provide those links each week.  I'll also be adding Scott Feinberg's Feinberg Forecast (The Hollywood Reporter) , Kristopher Tapley (Variety) and others as the season really gets rolling.

Sasha Stone/Awards Daily

Erik Anderson/Awards Watch

Clayton Davis/Awards Circuit


FOCUS ON THE OTHER SIDE

I saw two big pieces appear this weekend that delved into the back story of the efforts to finish Orson Welles final film The Other Side of the Wind. Both Chris O'Falt for Indiewire and Alex Ross for The New Yorker put up extensive stories about how the film was rescued and finished.

I have linked both of them.

Indiewire

The New Yorker


BORDER MAKES SOME NOISE

Ali Abbasi's TFF #45 selection and Cannes'  Un Certain Regard winner Border made a splash this weekend as it was named winner of the World Fiction prize at The Los Angeles Film Festival as well as having a U.S. trailer release.

The film was one of the more divisive offerings at this year's SHOW as evidenced by the disparate reactions from my collection of ratings from both the attendees of the fest, who had it at the #16 spot in their ratings and the Professionals for whom it ended up at their #8 spot.

Here's the U.S. trailer from YouTube:

Also linked here is coverage of the trailer release from The Film Stage and The Playlist.

Additionally, here's the coverage of the awards announcement from the L.A. Film Fest from The Los Angeles Times.


That's today's MTFB.  I'll have more on Thursday.


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