Scorsese News / Norton Talks Motherless Brooklyn / Burns Country Blitz Continues

Tuesday...means I'm leaving the Big Apple and headed back to the real world...



SCORSESE NEWS

We had a couple of interesting nodes of Scorsese news in the past 24 hours.  The first, and most immediate in terms of TFF was the word yesterday that Scorsese's The Irishman will world premiere as the opening film for the New York Film Festival.  That happens three weeks after Telluride.  The world premiere designation means that the film will not have played at TFF #46.

The news isn't a shock and was what I expected to happen assuming the film was finished with the de-aging effects that were reported to be the thing slowing it down.

The Irishman is planned for a theatrical release and then is scheduled to begin streaming on Netflix, which produced the film.

Here are a couple of stories with the news of The New York selection from:

Indiewire

Awards Daily

In other Scorsese news I saw where he is in my home state of Oklahoma scouting locations for his upcoming adaptation of David Grann's Killers of the Flower Moon.  Flower Moon news in the last day or two also included the revelation that Robert DeNiro will be joining Leonardo DiCaprio in the cast of the film.
.
Here's news of the casting announcement from Indiewire and also news of Scorsese beginning to scout from The Playlist


NORTON TALKS MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN

Edward Norton recently spoke with Rolling Stone about his upcoming directorial, acting and writing effort for expected TFF #46 film Motherless Brooklyn.  The Rolling Stone article focuses on the use of  a new song from Radiohead's Thom Yorke.

Norton stars as a detective who suffers from Tourette's Syndrome and who is tasked with solving the mystery of the murder of his mentor in 1950's New York.

The interview with Norton from The Stone is linked here.



BURNS COUNTRY BLITZ CONTINUES

Documentarian Ken Burns continues to plow the ground to prepare the way for his PBS doc, Country Music.  The latest is a Variety story that was posted yesterday.

That Variety story is linked here.

Burns was a part of a panel discussing the film that also included Roseanne Cash, Marty Stuart and Dwight Yoakam.

The film is set to bow on PBS on Sept. 15th.


That's the truncated MTFB for this Tuesday... I'm expecting Toronto to announce Canadian titles for their fest tomorrow but the likely impact of that announcement in as far as divining Telluride films is minuscule.

https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/ken-burns-country-music-1203284222/


CURRENT TEN BETS...

10) The Truth
9) Ford v. Ferrari
8) The Two Popes
7) Pain and Glory
6) Uncut Gems
5) Judy
4) Motherless Brooklyn
3) Marriage Story
2) Portrait of a Lady on Fire
1) Parasite

That's the Monday MTFB.  More tomorrow...


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Ups and Downs / Revelation from Venice / The Show

Welcome back from your last July weekend for 2019...


UPS AND DOWNS

Jeff Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere tells us that James Gray's As Astra is NOT going to be playing Telluride.  The information is not attributed but Jeff knows way more people than I do.

Wells also reported the same thing I had at the bottom of my post on Friday.  That Andreas Wiseman had written for Deadline that Tom Harper's The Aeronauts is likely headed to the San Juans for Labor Day weekend.

Jeff also links a Pamela McClintock piece from The Hollywood Reporter that makes that same claim.  That THR post is linked here.

And, for good measure, the Wells post from this weekend is linked here.

So, to re-cap, it seems that The Aeronauts is up and Ad Astra is down.



REVELATION FROM VENICE

Venice Film Festival head Alberto Barbera seems to have the "cow" out of the bag.  Barbera claimed in an interview with Screen Daily that was published Friday that the only film that he wanted to program but could not was Kelly Reichardt's First Cow (I'm considering an online petition to change the title of this film) and that A24 had decided to screen the film only in America as it has not found an international distributor as yet.  He also is flat quoted as saying that, as a consequence, the film is headed to Telluride.

First Cow also does not appear to have a U.S. release date.

Here's the Screen Daily linked.



THE SHOW

Just a bit of a rumination here.

When I began this thing in 2008 nobody else was messing around with trying to peg the films for Telluride.  Sure, there were the occasional pieces that would pop up.  One shot guesses that you'd find online but not a lot.  And certainly nothing in any official way from big time media.

As the years have gone on, and especially with the decision from the Toronto Fest to require that they know what a film's actual status is regarding which fests it's going to play and then their further decision to publicly reveal that status in their programming announcements, it seems increasingly that the reticence from media to deduce the films that will play Telluride has begun to fade.

Last week Screen Daily, for instance, included an assessment that did exactly what I do and have done for several seasons, which is to sort of reverse engineer the announcement from TIFF to make claims about what goes to Telluride.

World of Reel and Hollywood Elsewhere have been all over essentially the same list that I've put together as has BBC News, The Wrap and a couple of hints from Pete Hammond at Deadline.com,

It's generally pretty accurate unless Toronto mis-labels a film's status (which has happened rarely) or, sometimes with regard to International premieres because that designation can get a little murky.

Nevertheless, it feels to me that more outlets are willing to do the same process and publish the results.

Not sure how I feel about that...

Here's the July 23rd Screen Daily article that does what I'm talking about.


CURRENT TEN BETS...

10) The Truth
9) Ford v. Ferrari
8) The Two Popes
7) Pain and Glory
6) Uncut Gems
5) Judy
4) Motherless Brooklyn
3) Marriage Story
2) Portrait of a Lady on Fire
1) Parasite

That's the Monday MTFB.  More tomorrow...


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Ten Bets #5 (Post Toronto and Venice Announcements) / Indiewire's 100 Best Films of the Decade and Telluride / First Looks at Seberg and The King / And a Word About The Aeronauts

Hello to all from NYC...here's your end of the week MTFB post...


TEN BETS #5 (Post Toronto and Venice Announcements)

Time for a new Ten Bets that takes into account the information provided by Toronto's list of film choices from last Tuesday and the Venice reveal yesterday.


Here's last week's Ten Bets and "Other Possibilities":

10) Country Music/Ryman Concert
9) The Truth
8) Judy
7) Motherless Brooklyn
6) Marriage Story (Previously Untitled Baumbach)
5) Portrait of a Lady on Fire
4) The Climb
3) Parasite
2) Family Romance LLC
1) Varda by Agnes

Little Women drops into the "Others in Play" category due to a bunch of buzz this past week that it might forgo festivals altogether.  Also on that list: The Good Liar, Jojo Rabbit, The Goldfinch, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Untitled Todd Haynes Project, Atlantics, The Laundromat, Radioactive, The Lighthouse, Harriet, Nomadland, Synonyms, Ad Astra, Molly, Lucy in the Sky, Uncut Gems, The Personal History of David Copperfield.



Now the latest Ten Bets:

10) The Truth
9) Ford v. Ferrari
8) The Two Popes
7) Pain and Glory
6) Uncut Gems
5) Judy
4) Motherless Brooklyn
3) Marriage Story
2) Portrait of a Lady on Fire
1) Parasite


Other Possibilities:


Varda by Agnes, Family Romance LLC, Country Music/Ryman Concert, The Climb, Little Women, The Good Liar, Untitled Todd Haynes Project (Dry Run?), Atlantics, Nomadland, Synonyms, Ad Astra, Molly, Lucy in the Sky, Seberg, Wasp Network, The King, The Aeronauts, First Cow, A Hidden Life.

I'm feeling bullish on The Climb, Ad Astra, The Aeronauts and Dry Run.


INDIEWIRE'S 100 BEST FILMS OF THE DECADE AND TELLURIDE

Inside Llewyn Davis

Indiewire put together their take on the 100 best films of 2010-2019 this week.  Telluride films were named 24 times.

Here they are listed by position on Indiewire's chart:

91- Fire at Sea

88- We Need to Talk About Kevin

85- The Illusionist

73- La La Land

62- Shoplifters

58- The Turin Horse

55- Frances Ha

54- Cold War

45- A Separation

37- Roma

34- Stories We Tell

29- First Reformed

27- The Wind Rises

25- Amour

19- Toni Erdmann

14- Leviathan

10- Lady Bird

7- Carol

5- Inside Llewyn Davis

4- The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence

2- Under the Skin

1- Moonlight


Personally- A Separation is under-rated here and you know I would have included Birdman.


Here's the link to the entire list of 100 films .


FIRST LOOKS AT SEBERG AND THE KING

With the announcement from Venice that Benedict Andrews Seberg and David Michod's The King would play in competition and no previous announcement from Toronto concerning either film, we have to think about both as T-ride possibilities.  We've had Seberg, previously titled Against All Enemies, on the radar for awhile.  The King...not so much but that doesn't mean it hasn't become a serious thought in the last 24 hours.

At any rate here are first looks for both films from Indiewire:

SEBERG (starring Kristen Stewart as French legend Jean Seberg):

THE KING (starring Timothee Chalamet in an adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry V):

Indiewire's Seberg story is linked here

And their story about The King is linked here.



AND FINALLY A WORD ABOUT THE AERONAUTS

Deadline reports that Tom Harper's The Aeronauts has moved back its release date to Dec. 6th.  The film is from Amazon Studios and the date change (from Oct. 25th) is seen as a move to strengthen its awards season potential.

Of primary concern is that Deadline reports as well that they think the film will be at TFF #46.

Article author Andreas Wiseman says "Our sources indicate Telluride is currently in the plans".

The complete Deadline article is here.

And, by the way, the article also talks about Amazon's plans with The Report...which played originally at Sundance but which I am still banging the drum about for a T-ride play.


That's the last MTFB for this week.  I'll have some more on Monday...


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More About Toronto / Venice Choices / Telluride and Oscar: The Exit Interview

Howdy...in the air to New York...


MORE ABOUT TORONTO

As a reminder...here's what we think we learned from Tuesday's Toronto announcement:


It looks as if theses films are likely headed to Telluride:

Ford vs. Ferrari
Judy
Marriage Story
Motherless Brooklyn
Pain and Glory
Parasite
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
The Two Popes
Uncut Gems

NOT playing Telluride:

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Bad Education
Dolemite Is My Name
Greed
Harriet
Jojo Rabbit
Just Mercy
Knives Out
Radioactive
The Goldfinch
The Personal History of David Copperfield
Ema
Joker
The Laundromat
The Lighthouse

Here's last week's Ten Bets:

10) Country Music/Ryman Concert
9) The Truth
8) Judy
7) Motherless Brooklyn
6) Marriage Story (Previously Untitled Baumbach)
5) Portrait of a Lady on FIre
4) The Climb
3) Parasite
2) Family Romance LLC
1) Varda by Agnes


From these Ten Bets...five seem confirmed for TFF based on the TIFF announcement: Parasite, Portrait of a Woman on Fire, Judy, Motherless Brooklyn and Marriage Story.  All of the other five films on last week's Ten Bets are still in play.

Films that were among the "Other Possibilities" that got nuked:  Jojo Rabbit, The Goldfinch, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, The Laundromat, Radioactive, The Lighthouse, Harriet and The Personal History of David Copperfield.


Here, via Awards Daily, is the complete set of films Toronto announced on Tuesday:

The 44th Toronto International Film Festival runs September 5–15, 2019.

GALAS 2019
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood Marielle Heller | USA World Premiere
Abominable Jill Culton | USA World Premiere
American Woman Semi Chellas | Canada Canadian Premiere
Blackbird Roger Michell | United Kingdom World Premiere
Clemency Chinonye Chukwu | USA International Premiere
Ford v Ferrari James Mangold | USA Canadian Premiere
The Goldfinch John Crowley | USA World Premiere
Harriet Kasi Lemmons | USA World Premiere
Hustlers Lorene Scafaria | USA World Premiere
Joker Todd Phillips | USA North American Premiere
Just Mercy Destin Daniel Cretton | USA World Premiere

*Opening Night Film*
Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band Daniel Roher | Canada World Premiere
Ordinary Love Lisa Barros D’Sa, Glenn Leyburn | United Kingdom World Premiere

*Closing Night Film*
Radioactive Marjane Satrapi | United Kingdom World Premiere
The Sky Is Pink Shonali Bose | India World Premiere
The Song of Names François Girard | Canada World Premiere
True History of the Kelly Gang Justin Kurzel | Australia World Premiere
Western Stars Thom Zimny, Bruce Springsteen | USA World Premiere

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS 2019

A Herdade Tiago Guedes | Portugal North American Premiere
Bad Education Cory Finley | USA World Premiere
Coming Home Again Wayne Wang | USA/South Korea World Premiere
Dolemite Is My Name Craig Brewer | USA World Premiere
Ema Pablo Larraín | Chile North American Premiere
Endings, Beginnings Drake Doremus | USA World Premiere
Frankie Ira Sachs | France/Portugal North American Premiere
The Friend Gabriela Cowperthwaite | USA World Premiere
Greed Michael Winterbottom | United Kingdom World Premiere
Guest of Honour Atom Egoyan | Canada North American Premiere
Heroic Losers (La odisea de los giles) Sebastian Borensztein | Argentina/Spain International Premiere
Honey Boy Alma Har’el | USAInternational Premiere
Hope Gap William Nicholson | United Kingdom World Premiere
How to Build a Girl Coky Giedroyc | United Kingdom World Premiere

*Opening Special Presentations Film*I Am Woman Unjoo Moon | Australia World Premiere
Jojo Rabbit Taika Waititi | USA World Premiere
Judy Rupert Goold | United Kingdom Canadian Premiere
Knives Out Rian Johnson | USA World Premiere
La Belle Époque Nicolas Bedos | France North American Premiere
The Laundromat Steven Soderbergh | USA North American Premiere
The Lighthouse Robert Eggers | USA North American Premiere
Marriage Story Noah Baumbach | USA Canadian Premiere
Military Wives Peter Cattaneo | United Kingdom World Premiere
Motherless Brooklyn Edward Norton | USA International Premiere
No.7 Cherry Lane Yonfan | Hong Kong North American Premiere
The Other Lamb Malgorzata Szumowska | Belgium/Ireland/USA World Premiere
Pain and Glory Pedro Almodóvar | Spain Canadian Premiere
The Painted Bird Václav Marhoul | Czech Republic/Ukraine/Slovakia North American Premiere
Parasite (Gisaengchung) Bong Joon-ho | South Korea Canadian Premiere
Pelican Blood (Pelikanblut) Katrin Gebbe | Germany/Bulgaria North American Premiere
The Personal History of David Copperfield Armando Iannucci | United Kingdom World Premiere
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Portrait de la jeune fille en feu) Céline Sciamma | France Canadian Premiere
The Report Scott Z. Burns | USA International Premiere
Saturday Fiction (Lan Xin Da Ju Yuan) Lou Ye | China North American Premiere
The Two Popes Fernando Meirelles | USA/United Kingdom/Italy/Argentina Canadian Premiere
Uncut Gems Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie | USA International Premiere
Weathering With You Makoto Shinkai | Japan North American Premiere
While at War (Mientras Dure La Guerra) Alejandro Amenábar | Spain/Argentina World Premiere

Other fest announcements that we're waiting for that could be revealing will come from the rest of the Toronto field, the Venice schedule and London, New York and Fantastic Fest.



VENICE CHOICES

Here's the lineup announcement from Venice this morning from Indieiwre:

“The Perfect Candidate,” Haifaa Al-Mansour

“About Endlessness,” Roy Andersson

“Wasp Network,” Olivier Assayas

“Marriage Story,” Noah Baumbach

“Guest of Honor, Atom Egoyan

“Ad Astra,” James Gray

“A Herdade,” Tiago Guedes

“Gloria Mundi,” Robert Guediguian

“Waiting for the Barbarians,” Cio Guerra

“Ema,” Pablo Larrain

“Saturday Fiction,” Lou Ye

“Martin Eden,” Pietro Marcello

“The Mafia Is No Longer What It Used to Be,” Franco Maresco

“The Painted Bird,” Vaclav Marhoul

“The Mayor of the Rione Sanità,” Mario Martone

“Babyteeth,” Shannon Murphy

“Joker,” Todd Phillips

“An Officer and a Spy,” Roman Polanski

“The Laundromat,” Steven Soderbergh

“No. 7 Cherry Lane,” Yonfan

Special Event

“Goodbye, Dragon Inn,” Tsai Ming-Liang

Out of Competition – Fiction

“Seberg,” Benedict Andrews

“Vivere,” Francesca Archibugi

“Mosul,” Matthew Michael Carnahan

“Adults in the Room,” Costa-Gavras

“The King,” David Michod

“Tutto Il Mio Folle Amore,” Gabriele Salvatore

As always, much about what is slated for Venice is in play to make the trip across the ocean and it all depends on scheduling.  So while we can't definitely say at this point which of the above films will play TFF #46...some of them will.  When Venice announces its schedule, then we may be able to make some educated guesses about additions to TFF.

That said, you still have to be excited about the possibility that these films might make the leap:

Ad Astra, Marriage Story, Wasp Network, Seberg, The King and opening night film The Truth.   Possibly others.  The complete Indiewire rundown and all categories of selections for Venice are linked here.



TELLURIDE AND OSCAR: THE EXIT INTERVIEW

So my pieces that have focused on the Telluride Film Festival and its relationship with The Academy Awards comes to a conclusion today with a few observations.

First- Yes, the relationship pre-dates my start date of 2005.  As a matter of fact, in 2004 TFF featured Best Picture nominee Finding Neverland ( Seven total nominations with a win for original score and an acting nomination for Johnny Depp).  Kinsey had a nomination for Laura Linney's performance (she was also a tribute recipient that year).

I started with 2005 because it was a year before I began attending the festival and wanted to have at least a year outside my experience included in the analysis.  Also, with it being the year of Brokeback Mountain and Capote, I knew it would have a substantial presence in the eight "major" Oscar categories.

Second- The totals surprised even me a little bit.  Over the 14 year period from 2005-2018 there were 185 Oscar nominations in the "Big Eight" categories for films that played at Telluride.  That's out of a total of 599 possible nominations meaning the T-ride films accounted for 30.9% of all nominees in the categories.  For a film fest that only schedules (usually) 25ish feature films each year over a mere four days...yeesh!  It's unbelievable.

Third- Breakdown by year.  Here's how many "Big Eight" nominations have occurred from Telluride films in each year of this analysis:

2005-13
2006-11
2007-14
2008-9
2010-14
2011-12
2012-7
2013-14
2014-18
2015-15
2016-19
2017-13
2018-15

2016 is the apex with its 19 nominations...that's the year of Moonlight, La La Land, Arrival and Manchester by the Sea.

2012 was the low point with a meager seven nominations in the chosen categories...the year of Argo and Amour.

Over the 14 year study period TFF films have averaged 13.2 nominations per year.  However, looking at the last five years, that average is 16 per year indicating an intensification of the connection between Telluride and Oscar

Fourth-Breakdown by category-nominations:

Picture- 32 That's the largest raw number of nominees for any category but keep in mind that's 32 of a possible 109 slots. By percentage, that's 29.4% of the category's nominees for the last 14 years.  That 29.4% puts Best Picture below a number of the other categories.

Director-31 (44.2%-way in front, percentage-wise, of all the categories)

Supporting Actress-26 (37.1%- far and away the acting category with the largest number of TFF nominees.  The irony here is that it's also the category with the least wins-1)

Actress and Actor-22 (31.4%-nice to see the two major acting categories balanced)

Adapted and Original Screenplay-19 (27.1%-also a surprising balance)

Supporting Actor 14 (20%)

Fifth-Breakdown by category-win percentage.  What is the average chances that a nominee from a TFF film will win in a category based on the data from these last 14 years?

1) Director-10 wins from 31 nominations-32.2%
2) Adapted Screenplay-7 wins from 19 nominations-36.8%
3) Actor-7 wins from 22 nominations-31.8%
4) Picture- 9 wins from 32 nominations-28.1%
5) Original Screenplay-5 wins from 19 nominations-26.3%
6) Actress- 5 wins from 22 nominations-22.7%
7) Supporting Actor- 1 win from 14 nominations-7.1%
8) Supporting Actress-1 win from 26 nominations-3.8%

Overall- Telluride films have 45 wins out of a possible 112 for the last 14 years in these eight categories accounting for a stunning 40.2% of all victories.

Last- Much like the 2017-18 Program Project.  I'm planning to put all of this together as a separate History tab on this site...someday.

That's today's MTFB.  Tomorrow...a new Ten Bets!



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We Have a Poster / Toronto News /Telluride and Oscar: Best Original Screenplay / Tidbits

WE HAVE A POSTER


From TFF's press release:

BERKELEY, CA, July 22, 2019 – 46th Telluride Film Festival presented by National Film Preserve LTD., proudly announces artist Edwina White as its 2019 poster artist. Telluride Film Festival’s prestigious annual gathering for film industry insiders, cinema enthusiasts, filmmakers and critics takes place every Labor Day weekend in the picturesque town of Telluride, Colorado. The 46th edition of TFF will run August 30-September 2, 2019.



Born and raised in Sydney, Australia, Edwina White now works variously as an illustrator, fine artist and animator from her post in Brooklyn. Her editorial illustrations have appeared worldwide in the New York Times, WSJ, Vanity Fair, Harpers Bazaar and featured in Print and Taschen’s top 100 Illustrators. White’s solo gallery shows in New York and Sydney have been based on playing cards, kites, crosswords and, this spring, automatic abstract paintings influenced by old science charts and the internal world. She was commissioned by director Jason Silverman to create the animations for his film Sembene!, an African documentary about Senegalese writer/director, Ousmane Sembene. The early stages were shot by Jay-Z for Life +Times, and the film premiered at the 2015 Sundance, Cannes and Telluride Film Festivals. Her original artwork is included amongst collections of Ballroom Marfa, Angela Missoni and Sting.



“When Julie Huntsinger asked me to make a poster for Telluride film festival, I was preparing for a show of abstract paintings,” said White. “I relished the prospect of celebrating filmmaking by incorporating it’s own visual language. So I made my own painting with light. A stenciled camera form cuts out of the darkness. Blooming in RGB with a pianola score. It’s meant to reflect the order of filmmaking: from capturing a frame and lighting it; to recording it on reels; to the editing, sound and color-correction; to playing out in a theatre.



“I am over the moon to make this artwork for the 46th Telluride Film Festival. I feel so very honored to be asked to dance in the shadows of truly great artists, and feel charged by the collective warmth of the Festival team.”



"Edwina's style is singular, fresh and captivating,” said executive director Julie Huntsinger. “Her charm is as obvious in her art as it is in her person. We’re thrilled with the poster she has created for us.”



White joins a prestigious list of artists who have shared their talents with Telluride Film Festival. Past poster artists include Lance Rutter, Yann Legendre, Laurent Durieux, Christian Marclay, Dean Tavoularis, Ed Ruscha, John Mansfield, Julian Schnabel, Dottie Attie, Doug and Mike Starn, David Lance Goines, Chuck Jones, David Salle, Alexis Smith, Jim Dine, Seymour Chwast, Frederic Amat, Francesco Clemente, Dave McKean, Gary Larson, Chip Kidd, John Canemaker, Mark Stock, Laurie Anderson, William Wegman, Ralph Eggleston, Maira Kalman and Dave Eggers.



46th Telluride Film Festival posters will be available for purchase throughout the four-day Festival, or purchase now by visiting the TFF website at www.telluridefilmfestival.org.



TORONTO NEWS

The Toronto International Film Festival has announced their first wave of films and it looks as if theses films are likely headed to Telluride:

Ford vs. Ferrari
Judy
Marriage Story
Motherless Brooklyn
Pain and Glory
Parasite
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
The Two Popes
Uncut Gems

NOT playing Telluride:

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Bad Education
Dolemite Is My Name
Greed
Harriet
Jojo Rabbit
Just Mercy
Knives Out
Radioactive
The Goldfinch
The Personal History of David Copperfield
Ema
Joker
The Laundromat
The Lighthouse

More from Toronto's announcement in Thursday's MTFB

TELLURIDE AND OSCAR: BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Here's the last of the analysis of the connection between the Telluride Film Festival and Oscar's "Big Eight" categories with today's topic being Best Original Screenplay.

I've been reviewing the Oscar nominees for the last 14 years in those eight categories and here is the history for Original Screenplay with winners indicated with ***.


2005: No nominees
2006: Babel
2007: Juno***, The Savages
2008: Happy-Go-Lucky
2009: No nominees
2010: The King's Speech***, Another Year
2011: The Artist, A Separation
2012: Amour
2013: Nebraska
2014: Birdman***, Foxcatcher
2015: Spotlight***
2016: Manchester by the Sea***, La La Land
2017: The Shape of Water, Lady Bird
2018: The Favourite, Roma

Notes: 19 nominations and five wins for TFF films for Original Screenplay.

To the best of my research abilities, it seems that the first TFF film nominated for Best Original Screenplay was El Norte in 1984.

On Thursday, I'll wrap all of this up with an "exit interview".



TIDBITS

Sarah Gavron's film has a title-Rocks

Jason Osiason says Uncut Gems has a release date-Dec. 13th


That's today...I'll have more about Toronto and should have some Venice news on Thursday.


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75 Films That Could Make the TFF #46 Lineup / Venetian Choices / Varda By Agnes English Trailer / Beautiful Day News / New Stills for Ada Astra /

Hope you had a good weekend... and also a big thank you to all of you that reached out in some fashion to offer condolences regarding the denial of my request for media accreditation for this year's Telluride Film Festival.


75 FILMS THAT COULD MAKE THE TFF #46 LINEUP

From the "Throw Everything Against the Wall and See What Sticks" Dept.: here, in alphabetical order, are 75 titles that could be named to the lineup for The SHOW:

1917
Ad Astra
The Aeronauts
Ahmed
Atlantics 
Bacurau
Bad Education
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Bergman Island
Blackbird
By the Grace of God
The Climb
Country Music/Ryman Concert
Dry Run (Todd Haynes film)
Ema
Fair and Balanced
Falling
Family LLC
First Cow
Ford vs. Ferrari
Forman vs. Forman
Frankie
The Goldfinch
The Good Liar
Harriet
A Hidden Life
John Prine: Hello in There
Jojo Rabbit
Joker
Judy
Just Mercy
Kajillionaire
The Kindness of Strangers
The King
The Last Thing He Wanted
The Laundromat
Les Miserables
Light of My Life
The Lighthouse
Little Women
Long Time Coming
Lucy in the Sky
Mainstream
Marriage Story
Matthias and Maxime
Mr. Jones
Molly
Motherless Brooklyn
The Nest
Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always
Nomadland
Pain and Glory
Parasite
The Personal History of David Copperfield 
The Pope
Port Authority
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Queen + Slim
Radioactive
The Report
Sebring
Sorry We Missed You
Synonyms
Torrance
The True History of the Kelly Gang
The Truth
The Two Glorias: Life on the Road
Uncut Gems
Untitled Miranda July Film
Varda by Agnes
Wasp Network
Wendy
Where Is Anne Frank?
The Whistlers
Who You Think I Am


And bonus...New Looney Tunes Cartoons...


VENETIAN CHOICES?

World of Reel's Jordan Ruimy thinks he's got the bead on Venetian titles due to what seemed like an errant Tweet yesterday from what Ruimy deems a very credible source.

Among titles he rattles off that also could make the Venice/Telluride connection are:

Soderbergh's The Laundromat, Reichardt's First Cow, Gray's Ad Astra, Waititi's Jojo Rabbit, Larrian's Ema and Baumbach's Marriage Story.

Jordan's full story is linked here.



VARDA BY AGNES HAS AN ENGLISH TRAILER


Ahead of announcements this week that I suspect will reveal where this final film from Agnes Varda lands comes an English dubbed trailer.


Here that is from YouTube:

And a poster as well:

Here's coverage of the trailer release from:

FirstShowing.net

The Playlist

The Film Stage

BEAUTIFUL DAY NEWS

Over the weekend I ran across a couple of articles about Marielle Heller's upcoming A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood starring Tom Hanks as Fred Rogers.  Also, coming later today we should see the first trailer for the film.  That, to me, pre-sages the likelihood that some festival is going to announce the film in the next few days.  Toronto announces its first wave tomorrow and Venice announces on Thursday.

Here's the articles from the weekend from Entertainment Weekly  and The Wrap.

I am anticipating that I'll be able to tweet the trailer later today and also expect to include it in tomorrow's post.

NEW STILLS FOR AD ASTRA

On the Red Carpet tweeted new photos from James Gray's Ad Astra-again, another film that we should know more about by the time we get to the end of the week in terms of where it lands or if it lands fest-wise.

Here's a sample of a couple of the new looks:

That's your Monday...more tomorrow including news from Toronto.

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

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I'm Not Official / Ten Bets 2019 #4 / New Trailer and Poster for Ad Astra / Ruimy Ruminates on Telluride

Hello from Salem, Oregon...

I'M NOT OFFICIAL 

And by that I mean...I have been denied media accreditation for the 46th Telluride Film Festival.  

I was first accredited in 2011 and have been accredited each year since then.  Eight straight.  This year...not so much.

The email notification came a week ago and said that the fest was"unfortunately unable" to offer me the accreditation.  The email went on to say that I'd be able to apply as a "new applicant" next year.

I responded with an email asking two questions:  Is there a specific reason I was denied and is there an appeal process.  

Let me be honest here.  I understand that the accreditation isn't a given and that the fest fully has the right to accredit whomever and whatever in any manner they choose.

And, as a practical matter, the accreditation means only a couple of things.  Media accreditation allows those that receive it to have priority access to the tributes as well as an additional four films of the holder's choosing and an invite to the Patron Preview on Friday afternoon.  It has also meant that I have received email notices from the fest about such items as the Guest Director, Poster Artist etc.

Also, as a side benefit, accredited journalists are placed on a list which results in direct notifications from the film distributors and publicists.  In turn, that has meant invitations to parties from Fox Searchlight, Netflix and Cohen Media.  I know that that's a shallow thing to get hung up on...but it has been nice for an Oklahoma guy to get invited to Hollywood parties.

Ultimately, the denial of accreditation stings especially after eight years of having been approved.  

TEN BETS 2019 #4

Here's the latest installment of MTFB's Ten Bets and that last one before announcements from other film fests (Toronto, Venice, London and New York...maybe Fantastic Fest) begin to give us a clear-eyed version of what we might expect to see over Labor Day weekend.

Here's last week's Ten Bets:

10) Nomadland
9) Judy
8) Motherless Brooklyn
7) Portrait of a Lady on Fire
6) Untitled Noah Baumbach Project
5) The Climb
4) Little Women
3) Family Romance LLC
2) Agnes by Varda
1) Parasite


Others in Play: The Good Liar, Jojo Rabbit, The Goldfinch, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Untitled Todd Haynes Project, Atlantics, The Laundromat, Radioactive, Country Music/Ryman Concert, The Lighthouse, Harriet, The Truth, Synonyms, Ad Astra, Molly, Lucy in the Sky.

This week's Ten Bets:


10) Country Music/Ryman Concert
9) The Truth
8) Judy
7) Motherless Brooklyn
6) Marriage Story (Previously Untitled Baumbach)
5) Portrait of a Lady on FIre
4) The Climb
3) Parasite
2) Family Romance LLC
1) Varda by Agnes

Little Women drops into the "Others in Play" category due to a bunch of buzz this past week that it might forgo festivals altogether.  Also on that list: The Good Liar, Jojo Rabbit, The Goldfinch, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Untitled Todd Haynes Project, Atlantics, The Laundromat, Radioactive, The Lighthouse, Harriet, Nomaland, Synonyms, Ad Astra, Molly, Lucy in the Sky, Uncut Gems, The Personal History of David Copperfield.

We'll get a big set of answers next week.


NEW TRAILER AND POSTER FOR AD ASTRA


Ahead of next week's announcements from Venice and Toronto came a new poster and trailer for James Gray's Ad Astra which suggest that we're likely to hear some news about that film in those announcements.

Here's the new poster:

And here's the link to the trailer via YouTube:

Additionally, Anton Volkov has reported via his Trailer Track website that we can expect to see trailers within a few days for A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Harriet and The Goldfinch.

RUIMY RUMINATES ON TELLURIDE

Jordan Ruimy at his website World of Reel was one of the places that out me onto the Jeff Sneider Tweet that teases the possibility of Uncut Gems playing TFF that I reported yesterday,

Jordan put that same pic on his website along with a list pf films that he has an inkling might play Telluride in the same post:

These films look Telluride-bound:

The Safdies’ Uncut Gems
James Gray's Ad Astra
Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit
Fernando Meirelles' The Pope
Pablo Larrain's Ema
Hirokazu Kore-eda's The Truth
Bill Condon’s The Good Liar
Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story
Steven Soderbergh’s The Laundromat
Noah Hawley’s Lucy in the Sky
Michael Angeo Covino’s The Climb
Celine Sciamma’s  Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Werner Herzog’s Family Romance LLC
Agnes Varda’s Varda by Agnes
Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite

As you can see, Jordan's list looks a lot like mine...

Here's the link to Jordan's full story.


MORE REGARDING VENICE (AND TORONTO)

At the very bottom of yesterday's post you might have seen the late breaking blurb that Hirokazu Kore-eda's The Truth is the opening film.  That bodes well for a TFF screening.

The past six years of Venice openers suggest that The Truth is a very real possibility:

2018- First Man
2017- Downsizing
2016- La La Land
2015- Everest
2014- Birdman
2013- Gravity

That's five of the last six openers that went on to TFF.


Meanwhile Variety's Nick Vivarelli posted on Tuesday a string of films that he suggests will probably play at Venice.  Among those he lists that are best bets for Telluride as well are:

Ad Astra
Marriage Story
Joker
The Aeronauts
The Pope
The King
Against All enemies
Ema
Wasp Network

That Variety post is here.

Finally, Toronto announced its opening film will be a Canadian produced documentary about Robbie Robertson and The Band titled Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band.  That choice should have zero impact in terms of TFF 2019 films.


That's today's MTFB from Oregon.  I'll have more next week including the analysis of the first flight of announced films from Toronto and what those choices tell us about TFF #46,


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

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Telluride and Oscar Part Seven: Best Adapted Screenplay / London Opening Film In Play? / A Couple of Tidbits: Uncut Gems and Just Mercy / Late Breaking: Venice Opener

Hi there...I'm on the road...headed to Oregon...



TELLURIDE AND OSCAR PART SEVEN: BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Here's Part Seven of the eight part series concerning the films of the Telluride Film Festival and the Academy Awards covering the last 14 years (that starts with 2015 which was the year before I began attending).  Today's category of concentration is Best Adapted Screenplay.  Listed below are all of the films nominated in that category since 2005 that played Telluride.  Winners are indicated with ***.

2005: Brokeback Mountain***, Capote
2006: Little Children
2007: There Will Be Blood (I count it as we saw footage in connection with the Daniel Day-Lewis tribute), The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
2008: Slumdog Millionaire***, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Same as There Will Be Blood only with a tribute to David Fincher)
2009: An Education, Up in the Air
2010: 127 Hours
2011: The Descendants***
2012: Argo***
2013: 12 Years a Slave***
2014: The Imitation Game***
2015: Carol, Room
2016: Moonlight***, Arrival
2017: No nominees
2018: Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Notes 19 nominations over the 14 years with a strong seven wins in that time period.

As best as can tell the first film from TFF with a nomination for Best adapted Screenplay was My Left Foot in 1989.

As a percentage of  wins to nominations this is the category that having a nomination from a TFF film gives the nominee the best chance of a win with 36.8% of TFF nominees winning the honor.  The next best category is Best Director with a 32.2% win ratio.  The worst: Best Supporting Actress with a 3.8% win ratio.


Next Tuesday...the last of the "Big Eight" categories: Best Original Screenplay.


LONDON OPENING FILM IN PLAY?

The BFI/London Film Festival announced its opening film will be Armando Ianucci's (Into the Loop, Veep) The Personal History of David Copperfield.  Why should we take note?  The film was announced as a European Premiere.  That means that the film will have screened at at least one other spot prior to its stint as the LFF opening film.

The European designation should mean that Venice is off the list as a possibility leaving Toronto, New York (barely as NYFF opens Sept. 28th while London will screen it on Oct. 2.

The European designation means the first screening in Europe will be at LFF.  It necessarily means that the "World" premiere happens somewhere else...and...as LFF doesn't label it an "International" premiere...that suggests that the film will have played within the country of its origin.

What I'm saying here is that divining this news in terms of a potential Telluride play comes down to how the film's country of origin in classified.  If it's a "U.S." production then this could mean that the film plays at Telluride.  If it's a Brit production... could mean a Toronto World Premiere.

And I am uncertain as to the film's nationality.

But...this could be in Telluride.

Here's the Deadline story about the London Film Fest opening night announcement.



COUPLE OF TIDBITS


Jeff Sneider of TheInSneider fame Tweeted this yesterday:

Sneider, who has been knocking about the movie biz for a good long time including writing for Variety, Ain't It Cool News and The Wrap is clearly suggesting that the Safdie Brothers Uncut Gems starring Adam Sandler is on the TFF #46 agenda.

The film is an A24 project and I did not assess it when I looked at A24's offerings back on July 1st.  At that time, I felt like A24's most probable film to play TFF was The Lighthouse.  That said, I believe that it's entirely possible that Uncut Gems could make it to Colorado.  Perhaps both films will.

In another tidbit, Just Mercy from director Destin Daniel Cretton (Short Term 12) which had been announced with a release date in January 2020 now seems like it will be released on Dec. 25th according to The Hollywood Reporter.  That puts it into awards season play for Warner Brothers and suggests that it could pop up at one or more fall film fests.  The WB appears to be loaded with this as well as Joker, Motherless Brooklyn and The Goldfinch.

The film stars Michael B. Jordan, Brie Larson and Jamie Foxx and tells the  true story of an African American man accused of a murder he didn't commit.

LATE BREAKING: VENICE OPENER

The Venice Film Festival has chosen Hirokazu Kore-eda's The Truth as its opening film.  That probably raises the chances that it will play Telluride.  More tomorrow.

That'll do it for this Thursday...More to come tomorrow including the last Ten Bets before Toronto and Venice begin announcing.

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

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Telluride and the Oscar Part Six: Supporting Actor / Chazelle Back in the Game / THR's 20 Venice Possibles

Welcome to the Monkey House...


TELLURIDE AND THE OSCAR PART SIX: BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Today is Part Six of my series looking at the relationship between films from the Telluride Film Festival and the Oscars "Big Eight" categories with the focus today on Best Supporting Actor.  Beginning with 2005 (the year before I began attending the fest) here are all the Oscar nominees for that category.  Winners are indicated with ***.


2005: Jake Gyllenhaal/Brokeback Mountain
2006: Jackie Earle Haley/Little Children
2007: Hal Holbrook/Into the Wild
2008: No nominees
2009: Christopher Plummer/The Last Station
2010: Geoffrey Rush/The King's Speech
2011: No nominees
2012: Alan Arkin/Argo
2013: Michael Fassbender/12 Years a Slave
2014: Mark Ruffalo/Foxcatcher, Edward Norton/Birdman
2015: Mark Ruffalo/Spotlight
2016: Mahershala Ali/Moonlight***, Lucas Hedges/Manchester by the Sea
2017: Richard Jenkins/The Shape of Water
2018: Richard E. Grant/Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Notes:  The category that Telluride has held the least sway over in the 14 years with only 14 nominations during that time and just the single win for Mahershala Ali in 2016.

Mark Ruffalo is the only actor with two nominations in this category from TFF films and they came in back to back years with Foxcatcher in 2014 and Spotlight in 2015.

2008 and 2011 saw no nominations at all from T-ride films in the category.

To the best of my ability, it appears that the first TFF nominee in this category was Jaye Davidson for The Crying Game in 1992.

Thursday a look at Best Adapted Screenplay.



CHAZELLE BACK IN THE GAME

Emma Stone and Damien Chazelle

(Photo via Michael Buckner/Deadline/Shutterstock)

Mike Fleming writing at Deadline.com has reported as of yesterday that Damien Chazelle is in the process of lining up his next project.  Fleming reports that the film is an "original drama set in period Hollywood.  He further reports that Chazelle's Oscar winning star of his La La Land, Emma Stone, is considering taking the lead and that Lionsgate, which distributed  La La Land is said to be in the running to do the same for the new picture.

Deadline reports that the film's current title is Babylon.

It's worth noting for TFF fans as Chazelle's last two films have made their way there-La La Land and First Man.

Deadline does not report any specific timeline for the film.

The Deadline story is here.

Variety has reported that Paramount is also interested.

The Hollywood Reporter suggests that Netflix may also be interested and that Stone may be looking at playing real life early Hollywood star Clara Bow.


THR'S 20 VENICE POSSIBLES

The Hollywood Reporter's Scott Roxborough published a story yesterday listing 20 films that he/THR feel have some likelihood of playing the Venice Fest.  They announce the bulk of their lineup on July 25th.

As most readers here know, the Venice/Telluride connection has been significant over the past few years.

Among the 20 titles the one's that seem to have the most chance of being a Venice/Telluride combo film are:

James Gray's Ad Astra
Taika Waititi Jojo Rabbit
Kelly Reichardt's First Cow
Chloe Zhao's Nomadland
Fernando Meirelles' The Pope
Pablo Larrain's Ema
Hirokazu Kore-eda's The Truth

A couple of others to mention that are outside shots: Todd Phillips' Joker and Steven Soderbergh's The Laundromat

The article also includes Martin Scorsese's The Irishman which almost everyone believes will not be ready for Venice (and Hence Telluride).  Also mentioned is Greta Gerwig's Little Women, which is the only film among the 20 that Roxborough specifically mentions as a Telluride possibility...though he does also write about the current bizz that Little Women may not do any fest at all.

The complete THR article is linked here.


That'll do for this Tuesday.  I'll have more on Thursday.

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

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