Thursday, July 18, 2019

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.


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