National Board of Review / Gotham Awards Winners / A Cascade of Interviews

Hello to all on this final Thursday of November 2018...Lots of awards news over the past few days...the season got serious this week.


NATIONAL BOARD OF REVIEW REVEALS ITS WINNERS

It was a good day for films from Telluride...from 2017/TFF #44 as the National Board of Review named its best films for the year on Tuesday.

Paul Schrader's First Reformed was well honored as it was named  twice.  Schrader was awarded for Best Original Screenplay and the film was named to the NBR 10 Best Films of the Years list.

Also named to the 10 Best list from TFF #45 were Can You Ever Forgive Me? and Roma.

Cold War was named Best Foreign Language Film.  Shoplifters was named one of five additional Best Foreign Language Films of the year.

Kris Tapley tweeted that Roma's inclusion on the 10 Best list precluded it from being named Best Foreign Language Film.

On the 10 Best independent films list were David Lowery's The Old Man and the Gun.  Also listed from TFF #44 were Lean on Pete and The Rider.

Free Solo was named on the list of the five Best Documentaries.

Peter Farrelly's Green Book won the top award as Best Film of the Year.

Among non-Telluride films Green Book, A Star Is Born and If Beale Street Could Talk did very well with the NBR.

Both The Other Side of the Wind and its companion documentary They'll Love Me When I'm Dead were named as winners of the William K. Everson Film History Award.

The complete winners list and more is here from Indiewire.



GOTHAM AWARDS WINNERS

 

The Indie film-centric Gotham Awards were announced on Monday evening and it was a good night for Telluride...in 2017.  TFF #44 films did incredibly well highlighted by wins for Paul Schrader's First Reformed and the win for Chloe Zhao's The Rider as Best Feature.

First Reformed's Ethan Hawke won Best Actor and Schrader won for Best Screenplay.

The only accolade of the evening for a TFF #45 film was a Special Jury Award for the ensemble of women from The Favourite which had been previously announced.

Other TFF #45 that had nominations but were shut out were: The Favourite (Best Feature, Best Screenplay), Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Best Supporting Actor) and Roma (Breakthrough Actor).

Complete coverage is here from Indiewire and Gold Derby.

The next big shoe to drop in the awards parade is The New York Film Critics Circle which happens today.


 A CASCADE OF INTERVIEWS

Alfonso Cuaron

Multiple interviews linked here with folks that played with TFF #45:


Damien Chazelle/First Man, Alfonso Cuaron/Roma, Jason Reitman/The FrontRunner and Marielle Heller/Can You Ever Forgive Me? from The Hollywood Reporter

Yalitza Aparicio and Marina de Tavira/Roma from Awards Watch

Alfonso Cuaron/Roma from Indiewire

Josh Singer/First Man from Awards Daily

Pawel Pawlikowski/Cold War (from my Tomris Laffly) Film Journal

Yorgos Lanthimos/The Favourite from Indiewire

Hirokazu Kore-eda/Shoplifters from Vulture

Tom Cross (editor)/First Man from Deadline


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


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Updated Oscar Predictions: Picture, Director and Cinematography / Gurus of Gold-Thanksgiving Weekend / This IS Way Too Early

Welcome to the Monday after Thanksgiving.  For those who over-indulged in "thanks"...I hope your food coma has subsided...


UPDATED OSCAR PREDICTIONS: PICTURE, DIRECTOR, CINEMATOGRAPHY

As a part of my ongoing position as a Guru o' Gold for Movie City News (see below), I was asked to update predictions for Best Picture, Direction and offer up a first take on Cinematography.  As such, here's what I reported.  For Picture and Director, their previous spot here at MTFB follows in parentheses.  Best Picture and Director was last included here on Nov. 1st.

As always, TFF #45 films are Bold

BEST PICTURE

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


BEST DIRECTION

1) Alfonso Cuaron/Roma (1)
2) Bradley Cooper/A Star Is Born (2)
3) Spike Lee/BlacKkKlansman (3)
4) Barry Jenkins/If Beale Street Could Talk (-)
5) Yorgos Lanthimos/The Favourite (5)
6) Peter Farrelly/Green Book (-)
7) Damien Chazelle/First Man (4)


BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

1) Roma
2) A Star Is Born
3) First Man
4) If Beale Street Could Talk
5) The Favourite
6) Cold War
7) Black Panther


GURUS OF GOLD-THANKSGIVING WEEKEND

Here's the link to the latest Gurus of Gold predictions.  Among the three categories updated (Picture, Director, Cinematography) TFF #45 films are named as follows:

Roma: Picture, Director, Cinematography
The Favourite: Picture, Director, Cinematography
First Man: Picture (if it goes to nine), Cinematography
Can You Ever Forgive Me?: Picture (if it goes to ten)

Others getting mentioned without earning enough votes for predicted nominations:

First Man: Director
Can You Ever Forgive Me?: Director
Cold War: Picture, Director, Cinematography
The Front Runner: Picture
Boy Erased: Picture
First Reformed (TFF #44): Picture


THIS IS WAY TOO EARLY

Tom Hanks as Fred Rogers on the set of Marielle Heller's You Are My Friend via IMDb

I saw that Jeff Wells/Hollywood Elsewhere and Jordan Ruimy/World of Reel had both created and published lists of anticipated 2019 titles...which seems like bait I can't ignore.  Sooo...

I took a look at both lists (which share a huge number of titles) and here are twelve films that seem/sound like they might be candidates for inclusion for TFF #46:

All You Need Is Love.  The project (with Beatles music as a central part of the film) could make TFF #46 because it's from Danny Boyle who has had a significant history with the fest: Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours, Steve Jobs.  The film is currently scheduled for U.S. release on Sept. 13th.

The True American from Pablo Larrain...if it's ready.  Larrain, like Boyle, has had a strong history with TFF: No, Neruda.  Both this and the above mentioned Boyle project are produced by Annapurna Pictures which has also had a presence at Telluride: Foxcatcher, Destroyer.

You Are My Friend:  From Marielle Heller who just has had her Telluride introduction with Can You Ever Forgive Me?  The film stars Tom Hanks (who was at TFF with Sully in 2016) as Fred Rogers.  The film has an awards and TFF friendly release date of Oct. 18th.

Little Women: Greta Gerwig's anticipated take on the Louisa May Alcott classic.  With the reception that her directorial debut Lady Bird received at TFF in 2017 you have to think this is a real possibility.  Scheduled for release on Dec. 25th.

The Woman in the Window: director Joe Wright's follow-up to his 2017 Darkest Hour which played TFF and earned six Oscar nominations and won two including Gary Oldman's Best Actor win.  The film is set for release on Oct. 4th.  The film's plotline sounds much a take on Hitchcock's Rear Window and the cast is ridiculously stunning: Julianne Moore, Amy Adams and Gary Oldman. 

Velvet Buzzsaw: From writer-director Dan Gilroy.  I'm mostly thinking this could play because Gilroy re-teams with his Nightcrawler co-conspirators Jake Gyllenhaal and Rene Russo.  The film is set in the contemporary art scene and is described as a horror/thriller.  Netflix is producing which doesn't hurt its TFF chances if the recent past is any indication.

Pale Blue Dot:  Fargo (the TV version) guru Noah Hawley jumps into feature film making with Natalie Portman starring as an astronaut having issues once she returns from space.  The film is from Fox Searchlight which means we have to consider it a TFF possibility.

Bergman Island: Mia Hansen-Love's latest project and a with her TFF pedigree (Goodbye First Love, Things to Come), a film we should consider.  Mia Wasikowska and Vicky Krieps star.

Triple Frontier:  a long gestating project from J.C. Chandor.  It's been developed by Netflix and stars Ben Affleck and Oscar Isaac among others about an attempt to overturn the drug trade in South America.  Chandor was in T-ride in 2014 with All Is Lost and both Affleck (Argo) and Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis) have been as well. 

And then here are these three huge projects...

The Goldfinch:  The film adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Donna Tartt.  John Crowley, who broke through with Brooklyn in 2015, directs.  The cast includes Nicole Kidman (this year at TFF with Destroyer and Boy Erased) and Sarah Paulson.  The film is from Amazon and is set for release on Oct. 11th which makes a T-ride play possible.

Radegund:  Terrence Malick's latest and a film I have been waiting for from him for some time now...surprise, surprise.  The true story of a German conscientious objector in World War II could appear in 2019...or not.  I wouldn't be surprised if it was a selection for Cannes. 

The Irishman:  Martin Scorsese's Netflix joint.  Probably an unrealistic dream for a Telluride play but a guy has to hope.  DeNiro, Pacino, Pesci and Keitel and more.  The best chance that it plays is that it is from Netflix which, again, doesn't hurt its chances for Telluride.  Netflix has to be happy, at least so far, with how Roma played TFF which probably helps too.


The complete Hollywood Elsewhere post is here.

The complete World of Reel post is here.


That's this Monday's MTFB.  More will be on its way to you on Thursday.


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

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Shoplifters Arrives / Destroyer Clip / Deadline Interviews: Grant and Jackman / The Wrap Talks with Ali Abbasi

Happy Thanksgiving everyone...grateful to have you along for a look at what's in MTFB today.


SHOPLIFTERS ARRIVES

Hirokazu Kore-eda's Cannes Palme d'Or winner Shoplifters opens in the U.S. this holiday weekend.  The TFF #45 entrant has been a critical smash and has become one of the few films thought to be able to challenge for the foreign language Oscar against Alfonso Cuaron's Roma Pawel Pawlikowki's Cold War.

As you might expect, with its U.S. release, there has been, over the past few days, a glut of news and interviews surrounding the film.

Included in that is this David Ehrlich interview for Indiewire.

Awards Daily also provided the route to a new clip released for the film which is here from YouTube:

DESTROYER CLIP

Nicole Kidman makes a play for inclusion as Best Actress with her turn as a detective seeking redemption in Karyn Kusama's Destroyer.  The film is set to open on Dec. 25th.  Annapurna pictures previewed a new clip from the film this week via Indiewire.

The link to that story from Zach Sharf and clip is here.

Destroyer's official trailer is here from YouTube:

DEADLINE INTERVIEWS: GRANT AND JACKMAN

Deadline.com has a couple of interviews of recent vintage that focus on participants from TFF #45.

Joe Utichi talks to Richard E. Grant for Can You Ever Forgive Me?  That's linked here.

And Utichi also filed this interview with Hugh Jackman who plays Sen. Gary Hart in The Front Runner.  You can find that here.

AND THE WRAP TALKS WITH ALI ABBASI

Continuing the string of interviews with TFF #45 personal, here's an interview from this week conducted by Steve Pond of The Wrap with Ali Abbasi, the director and co-writer of Cannes Un Certain Regard winner Border.

That interview is accessed here.

That's your Turkey Day MTFB.  Have a great holiday and I'll have more on Monday including some new Oscar predictions/updates.

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

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William Goldman 1931-2018 / Independent Spirit Nominations and TFF #45 (and #44) / Multiple Interviews / New Gurus of Gold

Good Monday before Thanksgiving ya'll.  Still can't believe MTFB rolled over half a million views last Wednesday.


WILLIAM GOLDMAN 1931-2018

"I couldn't do that.  Could you do that?  How can they do that?  Who ARE those guys?"

It was announced Friday that screen writer and novelist William Goldman had died at the age of  87.  Like a lot of film fans, I was an avid reader of a good deal of what Goldman wrote and an admirer of his screenplays.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
All the President's Men

He won Oscars for those scripts

The Princess Bride
Marathon Man

Read both novels and loved both films.

And the books about the film business...insightful, incisive and funny as hell.  That's what I admired about Goldman's writing as much as anything...his ability to cut swiftly and cleanly with a turn of phrase.  Funny, funny and honest.

87 is a good long run...but, damn, the film world and, really the whole place, as I wrote yesterday, is colder without William Goldman in it.

Think I'm going to grab my copy of adventures in the Screen Trade right now and re-read it...again.

"Nobody knows anything."



INDEPENDENT SPIRIT NOMINATIONS AND TFF #45 (AND #44)

Film Independent dropped the announcement for their 2018 Independent Spirit Awards on Friday.  Here's how that played out concerning films that played Telluride in 2018- and in the case of First Reformed- 2017.

TFF #45 nominations went to Can You Ever Forgive Me? for Richard E. Grant as Supporting Male and for Nicole Holofcener for Best Screenplay.

Roma, The Favourite and Shoplifters were each nominated for Best International Film (which was the only Indy Spirit Award they were eligible for).

The big TFF winner was TFF #44 film First Reformed which enjoyed four nominations for Best Feature, Direction (Paul Schrader), Screenplay (Schrader) and Best Male Lead-Ethan Hawke.

Indiewire has the entire list of nominees linked here.


MULTIPLE INTERVIEWS

Over the past few days a multiplicity of interviews with people from a number of films that played at TFF #45 have appeared.  Here's a sample of those interviews and profiles:

High Jackman/The Front Runner with Variety's Tim Gray


Emma Stone/The Favourite with Business Insider's Jason Guerrasio


The Crew behind The Other Side of the Wind and The Wrap's Steve Pond


The cast of First Man and The Hollywood Reporter's Tara Bitran


Marielle Heller, director of Can You Ever Forgive Me? on Variety's Playback Podcast with Kristopher Tapley


Sissy Spacek of The Old Man and the Gun with Pete Hammond of Deadline.com on The Actor's Side


NEW GURUS OF GOLD UP AT MOVIE CITY NEWS

Those of us who acting as Gurus for this Oscar season for Movie City News got the call last week to update Best Picture predictions and take a stab at Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor.

That brand new Gurus chart is here.

Films and performers from Telluride that make the grade are:

Best Picture (through the top 12 spots): Roma, The Favourite, First Man, Can You Ever Forgive Me/ and Boy Erased.

Among the Best Actor picks Ryan Gosling/First Man sits at #5, Hugh Jackman/The Front Runner is at #8 and Robert Redford/The Old Man and the Gun is at #9.  TFF #44's Ethan Hawke for First Reformed is at #7.

Supporting Actor TFFers are Richard E. Grant/Can You Ever Forgive Me? at #3 and Russell Crowe at #10 for Boy Erased.



That's your Monday MTFB.  I'll have more on Thanksgiving morning!

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

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One Half Million / Roma Has a New Trailer / Richard E. Grant Talks Can You Ever Forgive Me? / Aretha at a Film Fest Finally

It's a hallmark Thursday for MTFB.

ONE HALF MILLION

That's how many views that Michael's Telluride Film Blog has had.  MTFB crossed that threshold on Wednesday.

500,000 views.

I have said before that I realize that in the larger world of the internet, half a million views is a drop n the proverbial bucket but for a blog run out of my home office in the Panhandle of Oklahoma and which is the absolute definition of a niche site...well...it boggles my mind.  I am 100% fully boggled.

Of course, that demands a "thank you" from me to all of the people who have embraced the thing.  It also amazes me to find out who tells me that they read it when I run into so many of you at the festival each year.

I'd like to be able to tell you that's it's all for you readers but that would be disingenuous.  It's for me and to feed my obsession but it is particularly gratifying that there are so many of you out there that take the time to foster my obsession with your attention.

I can say that if an audience hadn't developed for it over the years (and it's just over a decade that I've been doing the thing...first post was Aug. 8, 2008) that I wouldn't have continued these ramblings.

I hope that over the years and the half a million views that you have enjoyed what has been written here and also found it informative.  Maybe even fun.

Again, thanks all and now on to 1,000,000!


ROMA HAS A NEW TRAILER

Ahead of its release in theaters in a limited Oscar qualifying run on Nov. 21st and its Netflix streaming release on Dec. 14th, Alfonso Cuaron's Roma has a new trailer which was unveiled on Tuesday.

Here that is from YouTube:

I have also linked the Indiewire story reporting on the release of the trailer here.



RICHARD E. GRANT TALKS ABOUT CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?

Writing for The Film Stage Joshua Encinias talked recently with Richard E. Grant who is fantastic as Melissa McCarthy's partner in crime in Marielle Heller's Can You Ever Forgive Me?  The film was embraced warmly by Telluride 2018 patrons including myself.  I personally thought it was in the top five of the films I caught this year at TFF #45 (It finished rated #8 among The People's Telluride, #5 among The Professionals and #5 in The Composite ratings).

Grant's interview can be accessed here.


ARETHA AT A FILM FEST FINALLY

Amazing Grace will finally bow at a film festival it just won't be at Telluride.  After two failed attempts to secure the documentary about Aretha Franklin's legendary live recording of her album Amazing Grace (in both 2015 and 2016) for the Telluride Film Festival, it was announced Tuesday that the film will play as a part of the AFI Fest tonight in Los Angeles.

Wish I was going to be there.

That story from Variety is linked here.



That's your milestone MTFB for this Thursday.  I'll have the start of the next half million views for you on Monday!  Thanks again!


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

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Oscar Predictions Update: Supporting Actress and Actor / TFF #45 Represents in the European Film Awards Noms / Time Breaks Down the Story of The Front Runner / Indiewire Focuses on Free Solo and Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Howdy everyone.  Welcome back from the weekend.


OSCAR PREDICTIONS UPDATE: SUPPORTING ACTRESS AND ACTOR

Here's MTFB's latest set of predictions for Best Supporting Actress and Actor updating the last shot I took at them from Oct. 22nd.

The new rankings list the performer's last position and, as always, TFF #45 performers are Bold.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS


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

In the Mix: Amy Adams/Vice, Emily Blunt/A Quiet Place, Elizabeth Debicki/Widows, Marina DeTaviria/Roma, Linda Cardellini/Green Book


BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

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

In the Mix: Sam Rockwell/Vice, Michael B. Jordan/Black Panther, Russell Crowe/Boy Erased, Daniel Kaluuya/Widows


TFF#45 REPRESENTS IN THE EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS NOMINATIONS

Several films from the 2018 edition of the Telluride Film Festival made their presence known as the European Film Awards nominations were announced.  TFF #45 films pulled in 16 total nominations with an additional nomination for a TFF #44 film.

Cold War led the way with five nominations for Best European Film, Direction, Actress, Actor and Screenwriting.

Both Border and Dogman garnered four nominations each.  For Border they were: Best European Film, Direction, Actress and Screenwriting.  For Dogman: Best European Film, Direction, Actor and Screenwriting.

Girl was nominated in three categories: Best European Film, Direction and Actor.

TFF #44's Foxtrot was nominated for Best Direction.

Here, from the official EFA website, is the complete list of nominees.


TIME BREAKS DOWN THE STORY OF THE FRONT RUNNER

With The Front Runner's  limited release on election day last week and its imminent expansion at hand, Time.com posted a look at the story of Sen. Gary Hart's run for President in 1987 (for the '88 election) that is the basis for the film.

Time establishes a timeline for all of the key moments that occurred and assesses those events.

That story is linked here.



INDIEWIRE FOCUSES ON FREE SOLO AND CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?

Indiewire this past week included in their IDA Screening Series a conversation with the people behind Free Solo.  That video can be found in this story.

Meanwhile, Indiewire's Toolkit podcast this week included Can You Ever Forgive Me? Director Marielle Heller.  That podcast is linked here.


That's a wrap for this Monday's MTFB.  I'll have more for you on Thursday.

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

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Oscar Prediction Update: Best Actress and Actor / Aretha Will Finally Sing / The Favourite Is the Favorite

Welcome to Thursday...and here's your MTFB for today...


OSCAR PREDICTION UPDATE: BEST ACTRESS AND ACTOR

Here's the latest MTFB guesses about nominees for the Oscar for Best Actress and Best Actor.  The last look at these categories here on MTFB was Oct. 18th.

As is the custom, these are the current predictions with the position of each actor from the Oct. 18th predictions to the right in parentheses.  The performers whose films played TFF #45 are Bold.

BEST ACTRESS

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

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) Christian Bale/Vice (4)
4) Rami Malek/Bohemian Rhapsody (-)
5) Ryan Gosling/First Man (3)

Others: Hugh Jackman/The Front Runner, Ethan Hawke/First Reformed***, Lucas Hedges/Ben Is Back or Boy Erased, John David Washington/BlacKkKlansman


***Played TFF #44


ARETHA WILL FINALLY SING

After two separate attempts to schedule the film as a part of the Telluride Film Festival in 2015 and 2016, Sidney Pollack's documentary film Amazing Grace, which captured Aretha Franklin's live performance that formed the basis for the live album of the same name will finally be released.

Multiple sources this week confirmed that film makers had struck a deal with Franklin's heirs and that the film is soon to be on the way.

I have linked coverage of the Amazing Grace news from:

The Playlist

Indiewire

The Washington Post


THE FAVOURITE IS THE FAVORITE

The British Independent Film Association nominations are our and Yorgos Lanthimoss' The Favourite leads the pack with 13 nominations including Best British Independent Film.  Among other nominations the film was named for Best Actress, Olivia Colman and both Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz for Best Supporting Actress.  Lanthimos was nominated for Best direction as well.

TFF #44 film Lean on Pete also fared well with nominations for Andrew Haigh for direction and actor Charlie Plummer for Best Actor.

Complete coverage of the nominations can be found here from Variety.


That's your Thursday MTFB.  More on Monday.


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

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COMMENT TO THE BLOG

Boy Erased News / The Story of Peterloo / Morgan Neville Talks Welles / Indiewire Celebrates Cuaron

Good Monday everyone.  Hope you all had a great weekend and enjoyed the extra hour you got back with the return to standard time.


BOY ERASED NEWS

I'm passing on a couple of things I ran across over the weekend about Joel Edgerton's Boy Erased which opened in limited release this past weekend.

The first item is from Indiewire's Kate Erbland who posted this interview with the film's star Lucas Hedges.

The other is an article from The Advocate that features half a dozen new posters for the film that debuted in The Advocate and are designed to highlight specific groups working to end conversion therapy.

I've included a couple of the new posters here:

The article and a view of the other posters is linked here.

THE STORY OF PETERLOO

Time.com published an online article from Ciara Nugent on Friday that reviews the actual incidents depicted in Mike Leigh's TFF #45 film Peterloo.  The actual events including the massacre occurred in August of 1819 in Manchester, England.

Peterloo will open in the U.S. on April 5, 2019.  It's opened in the U.K. this past weekend.

The Time story is linked here.

MORGAN NEVILLE TALKS WELLES

Netflix has released the final film from Orson Welles.  The Other Side of the Wind, which played at Telluride a couple of months back was available to stream as of last Friday.  Also available was the accompanying documentary from Oscar winner Morgan Neville (Twenty Feet from Stardom).  They'll Love Me When I'm Dead explores the project of finally finishing Welles' last film and is also available to stream on Netflix.

Jordan Ruimy conducted an interview with Neville for The Playlist which appeared on that site on Friday.  It is linked here.

INDIEWIRE CELEBRATES CUARON

Indiewire presented its second annual Indiewire Honors last Thursday.  Eight film makers were honored including writer/director/producer Alfonso Cuaron.  Cuaron received Indiewire's Vanguard Award.

Indiewire;s Eric Kohn wrote the story which included comments from Cuaron about Roma which was a huge success at Telluride after winning the Golden Lion at Venice. 

Roma is now considered a strong Oscar contender and, at least at this point, is positioned as the film with the best chance to continue Telluride's crazy streak of having screened the last eight and nine of the last ten winners of the Oscar for Best Picture.

The Cuaron article is linked here.


That's the MTFB for this Monday.  I'll have more for you on Thursday including an Oscar prediction update on the Leading Acting races.


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

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COMMENT TO THE BLOG

Oscar Predictions Update: Picture and Director / New Boy Erased Trailer Arrives / Netflix Sets Roma Release / More from Jason Reitman on The Front Runner

Good Thursday film fans...


OSCAR PREDICTIONS UPDATE: BEST PICTURE AND DIRECTOR

Time to update MTFB's Oscar predictions in the Best Picture and Direction categories.  Green Book is on the move!

BEST PICTURE

Here's the latest Best Picture predictions updating the previous round that I posted back on Oct. 15th.  Each film's previous position is listed in parentheses and TFF #45 films are Bold


1) A Star Is Born (1)
2) Roma (2)
3) Green Book (5)
4) The Favourite (3)
5) BlacKkKlansman (6)
6) First Man (3)
7) If Beale Street Could Talk (7)
8) Black Panther (8).
9) Can You Ever Forgive Me? (12)
10) Vice (10)

Others: Vice, Widows, Boy Erased

Green Book continues to pick up momentum while First Man continues to fall to earth.  Look out for Vice as well.  I think that it could make a real splash as we get closer to its screening.

BEST DIRECTION

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

Others: Peter Farrelly/Green Book, Barry Jenkins/If Beale Street Could Talk, Ryan Coogler/Black Panther, Marielle Heller/Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Adam McKay/Vice

The category has remained essentially static these last two weeks.  For my money the top three spots feel like locks with a real battle royale for the #4 and #5 spots.

I'll update the lead acting races on Monday.


NEW BOY ERASED TRAILER ARRIVES


Focus Features has released a new trailer for Joel Edgerton's gay conversion therapy drama Boy Erased starring Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe.  The film is set to open tomorrow.

Here's the new trailer from YouTube:

NETFLIX SETS ROMA RELEASE

Indiewire's Anne Thompson reported last night that Netflix has arrived at its release strategy for Roma and other films for this year's Oscar season.  The streaming behemoth will release Roma theatrically in a limited fashion (NY and LA) on Nov. 21st.  It will be platformed with additional theaters added on Dec. 7th and Dec. 14th which is also the date that it will available for streaming.

Other films included in Thompson's story include the Coen Brothers' The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and Suzanne Bier's Bird Box.

The complete story from Indiewire is linked here.


MORE FROM JASON REITMAN ON THE FRONT RUNNER

Jason Reitman and Hugh Jackman at the Telluride Film Festival Q+A for The Front Runner

Jason Reitman sat down to talk to Awards Circuit's Joey Magidson recently about his upcoming The Front Runner.  Reitman directed and co-wrote the film starring Hugh Jackman as former Sen. Gary Hart.

Jackman's performance and the screenplay have received some attention in regards to possible Oscar consideration.

Here's the interview.


That's today's version of MTFB.  More to come on Monday.


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