THE DISTRIBUTORS 2019: SONY PICTURES CLASSICS
Over the years I've been attending Telluride's Film Festival no other distribution company has placed more films at TFF than Sony Pictures Classics and it really isn't even close. Look at the SPC/TFF history over the past 16 years:
2018: The White Crow (1)
2017: A Fantastic Woman, Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool, Foxtrot, Loveless, The Rider (5)
2016: The Eagle Huntress, Maudie, Norman, Toni Erdmann (4)
2015: Son of Saul (1)
2014: Foxcatcher, Leviathan, Red Army, Mr. Turner, Wild Tales, Salt of the Earth and Merchants of Doubt (7)
2013: The Invisible Woman, The Lunchbox, The Past, Tim's Vermeer and Jodorowsky's Dune (5)
2012: The Gatekeepers, At Any Price, Rust and Bone, No, Wadjda, Amour (6)
2011: A Dangerous Method, In Darkness, Footnote, A Separation (4)
2010: Incendies, Of Gods and Men, Tamara Drewe, Another Year, The Illusionist, Inside Job (6)
2009: The Last Station, The White Ribbon, Coco Before Chanel, A Prophet, An Education (5)
2008: Waltz with Bashir, I've Loved You So Long, O'Horten (3)
2007: Brick Lane, When Did You Last See Your Father, Persepolis, The Band's Visit, The Counterfeiters, Steep! (6)
2006: Jindabyne, The Lives of Others, Volver, The Italian (4)
2005: Breakfast on Pluto, Capote, Cache, The Child (4)
2004: Being Julia, House of Flying Daggers, Bad Education, Merchant of Venice, Up and Down, Yes (6)
2003: The Fog of War, My Life Without Me, The Triplets of Belleville, Young Adam (4)
That's 71 films over 16 festivals averaging an astonishing 4.4 films a year. Last year and 2015 were anomalies with only a single SPC film making the TFF lineup.
When I posted the SPC assessment last summer I only had then with two possibilities: Capernaum and The Fall of the American Empire. I listed Capernaum with a 60% chance at TFF and American Empire at 30% and, as you may remember, neither film played The SHOW.
In my defense, I did say in last summer's post that 2018 could be a year wherein SPC might only have a single film at Telluride and they didn't acquire distribution rights to Ralph Fiennes' The White Crow until August 13th, more than two months after I posted the SPC assessment.
This year, SPC looks likely to be back at TFF but probably not at the 4-5 film level. Right now, they list five films that I think could be in play. Three of those are films from Cannes plus a documentary and World War II drama.
The Cannes films are Pedro Almodovar's Pain and Glory, Ira Sachs' Frankie and Michael Covino's The Climb. Both the Almodovar and the Covino films were critically lauded at the French fest last month with Pain and Glory winning Best Actor for Antonio Banderas and The Climb winning a jury award in the Un Certain Regard section. Frankie did not fare as well with critics or jurors.
As I have written here a few times, Almodovar was a common invitee to TFF in the past but hasn't screened a film there since 2006's Volver. Perhaps Pain and Glory is the film that returns the Oscar winner to the San Juans.
The other two SPC films are a documentary about the life of musical legend John Prine entitled John Prine: Hello in There and the drama The Song of Names starring Clive Owen and Tim Roth. SPC acquired The Song of Names in April.
My assessment at the moment is actually that The Climb might be the front runner for SPC's chances to be on the Telluride list. Here's my best guestimate of the chances for each of the five films listed above to make The SHOW
The Climb 50%
Pain and Glory 40%
Frankie 30%
The Song of Names 30%
John Prine: Hello in There 20%
Thursday's distribution spotlight will shine on Fox Searchlight.
A LOOK AT THE WHISTLERS
Still from The Whistlers via The Playlist
In 2006 Corneliu Porumboiu screened his Cannes award winning film 12:08 East of Bucharest at the 30th Telluride Film Festival. He hasn't had a film return since.
That could change this year with his latest Cannes entrant The Whistlers. IMDb describes the film as a comedy and a crime film. The story centers on a policeman attempting to spring a crooked businessman from prison complicated by the need to use different languages.
The film played moderately well as a part of the Palme competition lineup at last month's Cannes fest but was not an award winner.
Earlier this week, a new international teaser trailer became available for the film. Here that is from YouTube:
The Whistlers does not have U.S. distribution at this point.
STONE'S FIRST ASSESSMENT
Sasha Stone, who has been a good friend to me over the years, has her first assessment of the Best Picture landscape for this year at her website Awards Daily.
Sasha also includes as a part of her review Best Pic sentiments from Anne Thompson of Indiewire and Erik Anderson of Awards Watch.
Sasha's list ultimately includes ten films most of which could potentially be a part of the TFF #46 lineup.
Among the ten films she lands on are: Scorsese's The Irishman, Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Gerwig's Little Women and Heller's A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.
Check out her entire article here.
That's a wrap for this Tuesday. More on Thursday.
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