THE DISTRIBUTORS 2019: NETFLIX
This week's opening two entries in my annual rundown of distribution companies and the films each has that could be part of the Telluride lineup focused on the company with the longest and most ubiquitous recent history with the fest (Sony Pictures Classics) and another that has had the most Oscar success with films that have played the fest (Fox Searchlight).
Today we look at the company that has been very impressive over that past four years at Telluride both in terms of quality as well as in terms of increasing quantity as well as being the lightning rod in the conversation about what theatrical distribution may mean going forward and that, of course, is Netflix.
The streaming giant first showed up at T-ride in 2015 and has been a consistent presence at the fest since then.
Last year they made their biggest splash yet in regards to awards season with Alfonso Cuaron's Roma playing Venice and then Telluride on its way to three Oscars (Foreign Language Film, Direction and Cinematography) and seven other nominations including Best Picture.
Here's the Netflix history at Telluride for these past four years:
2018: Roma, Dovlatov, Girl, Reversing Roe, The Other Side of the Wind, They'll Love Me When I'm Dead
2017: First They Killed My Father, Wormwood
2016: The Ivory Game, Into the Inferno
2015- Beasts of No Nation, Winter on Fire
This is how I predicted their potential for Telluride last summer on June 26th.
The Other Side of the Wind- 80%
Girl and/or Happy as Lazzaro- 50%
Roma- 40%
Outlaw King- 25%
Triple Frontier- 15%
The Irishman- 5%
And, as you can see from above, Other Side of the Wind, Girl, and Roma all made the TFF #45 lineup.
So, I have to believe that it is very likely that Netflix returns to TFF this year with more than one film.
At this point here are the films under the Netflix umbrella that I think have some chance of being programmed for Labor Day weekend:
Atlantics (Diop)
The Irishman (Scorsese)
The King (Michod)
The Last Thing He Wanted (Rees)
The Laundromat (Soderbergh)
The Pope (Meirelles)
Untitled Noah Baumbach (Baumbach)
Scorsese, Baumbach, Soderbergh and Meirelles have all had films involved at Telluride in the past.
Of late, Scorsese's "presence" has been as a producer of documentaries that have been a part of the fest's lineup: Living in the Material World, The 50 Year Argument. He was also a producer for Bleed for This.
Baumbach had Frances Ha and Margot at the Wedding.
Soderbergh has had films play at TFF that he acted as a producer for including We Need to Talk About Kevin, Keane and I'm Not There.
Meirelles City of God played in 2002.
Diop's Atlantics might have the best chance of playing at TFF owing to its reception at Cannes. It won the Jury's Grand Prize and was reasonably well received critically.
Honestly, on paper no one film stands out as being more or less likely to play. Scorsese hasn't been to T-ride since back near the very beginning. Baumbach has tended toward shying away. Meirelles has only had the single film 17 years ago.
The biggest "get" would be Scorsese' The Irishman...which still might not be done with the de-aging visual effects come Labor Day weekend. My expectation will be that Netflix will want to go all for the Oscars with The Irishman as they did with Roma last year but that other factors may mean that The Irishman bypasses everything until the New York Film Fest ( Sept. 27-Oct. 13).
So...my best guestimates at this time:
Atlantics 50%
Untitled Baumbach 40%
The Laundromat 35%
The Last Thing He Wanted 30%
The King 30%
The Irishman 25%
The Pope 20%
IF I HAD TO...
As regular readers are aware, I won't have my first "real" predictions about what I'm guessing plays at Telluride for another couple of weeks. But the last couple of years, I have done an early "spitball" as if I were being forced at gunpoint to make some guesses.
So here that is...
If I had to name ten films I thought might make the TFF #46 program as of today they would be (in alphabetical order not order of likelihood:
Atlantics
The Climb
Country Music
Family Romance LLC
The Goldfinch
Nomadland
Parasite
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Untitled Todd Haynes Project
Varda by Agnes
If the last couple of years are any indication...about half this list will actually make the T-ride grade.
OSCAR HAS DATES
After moving the Oscar awards ceremony up for 2020 to Feb. 9th, we learned this week that early time slot will be temporary. AMPAS announced that Oscar will revert back to the final Sunday in February for its ceremony in 2021 and 2022. That's Feb. 28, 2021 and Feb. 27, 2022.
Linked here are posts about the announcement from both
Indiewire
and
The Hollywood Reporter
THE RETURN OF LOONEY TUNES?
Photo via Warner Bros. and The Hollywood Reporter
The Annecy Animation Fest is ongoing in France and as I have noted on occasion here, there have been a number of animated films that have moved from that fest to a Telluride screening later.
That could happen again this year and in a very specific, nostalgic and Telluride-centric way. Warner Brothers has resurrected the old Looney Tune brand and unveiled a number of animated shorts featuring Bugs, Daffy and this week in France.
Considering TFF's long association with WB animating legend Chuck Jones (there's a huge venue named in his honor!) you have to believe that a program of the new cartoons could be included as a part of TFF #46.
The Hollywood Reporter covered the screening in Annecy and you can find their post for that linked here.
Th...th...that's all folks!
I'll have more on Monday. Have a great weekend.
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com
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