GONE LIKE THE WIND
Almost the classic movie title but more descriptive about what happened on Friday morning when passes went on sale for the 46th Telluride Film Festival (Aug. 30-Sept. 2). Over the past few years the window for getting passes before the sale ran out of them had gotten smaller and smaller.
Hearsay suggested that passes were gone in a week in 2017 and that it took a mere two days last year. I watched the website in real time on Friday after getting mine secured in a sweat inducing, gut wrenching, nerve stressing 10 minute window as soon as the sale went live. and, by my estimation, all level of passes were gone in under three hours. Acme passes were gone first, then the Festival, then the Festival level and finally the Cinephile pass.
Patron Passes were done in a separate sale that occurred in December and, though I wasn't tracking it, seemed to also happen very, very quickly.
So, I have to suspect that, again this year, many past pass holders may have been shut out and I wonder if the fest will consider changes in structures and policies between now and next year when passes go on sale. I contemplated the same thing last year but am not aware that any changes were made for this year's sale.
One thing is certain, the festival has become insanely popular. I was messaging a Telluride friend about this and that including the rapidity of the sellout and he suggested that the fest has gotten "too popular".
ROMA AND THE OSCARS
Indiewire's Anne Thompson undertakes to deconstruct Roma's Best Picture loss to Green Book in the context of the film being under the wing of streaming giant Netflix in an article over this weekend.
That article is here.
Personally, I think that was one of many of the factors that people mentioned and my guess, and it's only a guess, is that it was more a perfect storm of factors:
1) People really liked Green Book
2) Yup...there's a bias against Netflix...witness the news that no less a light than Steven Spielberg appears to be spear-heading an effort to have the Academy change rules that would make Netflix change some of its practices if it wants to continue to compete for Oscars.
But don't discount these other factors...
3) The foreign language bias. No foreign language film has ever won the big prize and "It's got its own category" goes some thinking.
4) The black and white factor...maybe not a large consideration, but I don't think you can dismiss it.
5) The style and tone. It's slow (especially the first half) and contemplative and very, very personal.
Maybe it was all about the top two reasons above but maybe there were other factors as well.
That's your MTFB for this Monday...more on Thursday.
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2 comments:
I thought Roma was too much of a throw back to black and white films of the 60's or 70's for most people. I watched with a friend who couldn't sit through it because it required too much attention. I agree with your comments. It was just too different to get the big Kahuna.
I liked Roma but didn't think it was a masterpiece. My feeling after the festival was that the closet you were to the film industry the more you liked it. I certainly would have given it the Oscar over Green Book (which I liked) bedside i thought it was more creative
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