Obsessing about the Telluride Film Festival and the film awards season since 2008!
"The best Telluride predictor I know."
-Sasha Stone, Awards Daily
"The best blog out there for predicting what will be going to Telluride."-Matt Neglia, Next Best Picture
"The Nostradamus of Telluride"
-Tim Appelo, Movies for Grownups
I'm posting my latest take on the Best Original Screenplay race today. My last Original Screenplay predictions were posted on Oct. 3rd. Each film is followed by its position from the last prediction posting in parentheses. TFF #46 films are Bold.
1) Marriage Story (1)
2) Once Upon a Time in...Hollywood (2) 3) Parasite (3)
4) The Farewell (4)
5) Bombshell (-)
Other possibles: Dolemite Is My Name, Knives Out, 1917
Notes: Bombshell explodes into the race (along with its possible shot at a Best Picture nomination). Dolemite is also gaining some momentum. The top two seem to be probable locks at this point and Parasite is edging closer to that status.
OSCAR HISTORY AND TFF: ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Here's the complete history of nominees and winners for the Best Original Screenplay category and the Telluride Film Festival:
1974- The Conversation
1983- El Norte
1987- Au Revoirs Les Enfants
1992- The Crying Game
1993- The Piano-WINNER, Three Colors: Blue
1994- Bullets Over Broadway
1996- Secrets and Lies
1997- The Sweet Hereafter
2001- Amelie
2002- Talk to Her
2003- Lost in Translation, The Barbarian Invasions
2006- Babel
2007- Juno
2008- Happy-Go-Lucky
2010- The King's Speech-WINNER, Another Year
2011-The Artist
2012- Amour
2013- Nebraska
2014- Birdman-WINNER, Foxcatcher
2015- Spotlight-WINNER
2016- Manchester by the Sea-WINNER, La La Land
2017- The Shape of Water, Lady Bird
2018- Roma, The Favourite
Overall 29 nominations and five wins.
NEW WAVES TRAILER
A24 dropped a new trailer for Trey Edward Shults' Waves starring Sterling K. Brown, Renee Elise Goldsberry, Taylor Russell and Lucas Hedges. Here that is from YouTube:
Waves will open on Nov. 15th.
FOCUS ON PARASITE
I have linked a number of stories/posts here about Bong Joon-Ho's Parasite which is currently being billed as the best reviewed film of the year. The film was certainly well regarded by Telluride attendees as it finished at the top of The Professionals and the Composite ratings. The People's Telluride had it a #2 behind The Two Popes.
DEADLINE TALKS TO DIRECTOR AND WRITER OF THE TWO POPES
As a part of their contender series Deadline.com was in London and spoke with The Two Popes director Fernando Meirelles and writer Anthony McCarten. Among the topics: the genesis if the film that focuses on Popes Francis and Benedict played by Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins respectively.
I'm posting my latest take on the Best Picture race today. My last Best Picture predictions were posted on Oct. 7th. Each film is followed by its position from the last prediction posting in parentheses. TFF #46 films are Bold.
1) Once Upon a Time in...Hollywood (1)
2) The Irishman (3) 3) Marriage Story (2) 4) Parasite (5)
5) Jojo Rabbit (4) 6) The Two Popes (9)
7) 1917 (7)
8) Bombshell (-)
9) The Farewell (10)
10) A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (6)
Other Possibles: Joker, Ford v. Ferrari, Dolemite Is My Name, Just Mercy
Notes: Substantial positive moves for The Two Popes and Bombshell. Meanwhile Ford v. Ferrari and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood both have lost some steam.
AWARDS SEASON STARTS TO GET REAL...
GOTHAM AWARD NOMINATIONS
The first of the end of season feature films awards organizations was out this week with their nominations for the best films of the year. The Gotham Awards focus on small to modest budgeted independent American films and as such do not nominate a film like Ford v. Ferrari. Nevertheless, their list gives us the first taste of some of the films and performances that will likely be a part of the larger awards conversation as the next few months unfold.
Last year's nominees included The Rider, The Favourite and First Reformed for Best Feature; Ethan Hawke and Richard E. Grant for Best Actor and Yalitza Aparicio for Breakthrough Actress.
This year's newly announced nominees include a number of films/performances from TFF #46 films:
Best Feature includes: Marriage Story, Uncut Gems and Waves.
Best Actor: Adam Driver/Marriage Story, Adam Sandler/Uncut Gems
Best Screenplay: Noah Baumbach/Marriage Story
Breakthrough Actor: Julia Fox/Uncut Gems, Taylor Russell/Waves
Other Best Feature nominees includes The Farewell and Hustlers.
Coverage of the Gotham Award nominees is linked here from:
CLIO SHORT LIST FOR TRAILERS AND TEASERS ANNOUNCED
The shortlist for the Clio Awards for trailers, teasers and integrated campaigns was released last week and included several nominees from TFF #45 and #46 films.
Among the teasers on the short list were "La Casa" from Roma
Among trailers short listed were trailers for First Man, Roma, Border and Parasite.
Roma was also short listed for Best Integrated Campaign.
Also announced this past week were the nominees for this year's International Documentary Awards. A couple of TFF docs from the past two years made it into the various lists of finalists.
TFF #45 film The Biggest Little Farm was nominated for Best Feature and Best Music Score. Meanwhile TFF #46 doc The Gift: The Journey of Johnny Cash was nominated for Best Music Documentary. Also nominated in that category was two-time nearly a TFF film and finally a part of this year's lineup, Amazing Grace.
We have a brand new trailer for Tom Harper's The Aeronauts from Amazon Studios. That dropped over the weekend. Here's the new glimpse of the film via YouTube:
The Aeronauts will be in select theaters on Dec. 6th and on Amazon Prime on Dec. 20th.
BLEEKER STREET NABS THE ASSISTANT
Kitty Green's The Assistant, which played at this year's fest, has been acquired for U.S. distribution by Bleeker Street.
That news coming officially from the company and The Hollywood Reporter. I'd been tipped off to the acquisition a couple of weeks ago by a friend of them blog and had been keeping it under warps until the deal became official.
The THR story says the film will be released domestically on Jan. 31st, 2020.
Monday is done day...
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com
I last checked in on the Best Supporting Actor Oscar race on Sept. 25th. Here's the new update for the category with the actor's previous position in parentheses. Performances from TFF #46 films are in Bold.
1) Brad Pitt/Once Upon a Time in...Hollywood (1)
2) Al Pacino/The Irishman (4)
3) Tom Hanks/A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2) 4) Anthony Hopkins/The Two Popes (3)
5) Joe Pesci/The Irishman (-)
Other possibles: Willem Dafoe/The Lighthouse, Alan Alda/Marriage Story, John Lithgow/Bombshell, Taika Waititi/Jojo Rabbit
Notes: Joe Pesci especially, but also Al Pacino are riding a crest of positive reactions to the first screenings of Martin Scorsese's The Irishman. It will also be interesting to see if Scorsese's recent critique of "Superhero" films has any effect on how Oscarologists are handicapping the season.
OSCAR HISTORY AND TFF: BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Here's the complete history of nominees and winners for the Best Supporting Actor category and the Telluride Film Festival:
1992- Jaye Davidson/The Crying Game
1994- Martin Landau/Ed Wood-WINNER, Chazz Palminteri/Bullets Over Broadway
1997- James Coburn/Affliction-WINNER
2000- WIllem Dafoe/Shadow of the Vampire
2005- Jake Gyllenhaal/Brokeback Mountain
2006- Jackie Earle Haley/Little Children
2007- Hal Holbrook/Into the Wild
2009- Christopher Plummer/The Last Station
2010- Geoffrey Rush/The King's Speech
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-WINNER, Lucas Hedges- Manchester by the Sea
2017- Richard Jenkins/The Shape of Water
2018- Richard E. Grant/Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Overall 19 nominations and three wins.
IT'S BALE VS. DAMON
The question about where Matt Damon and Christian Bale would be campaigned in terms of Oscar categorization was answered earlier this week as reports from a number of sources indicated that both will be categorized as leads and as such will be going head to head for Best Actor nominations.
Some reports even indicated that Bale was the one who actually made the determination.
Variety's Jenelle Riley and Avika Gottlieb writing for Variety have come up with a list of 34 films that they believe are the most likely films to be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. Among those films are that played at TFF #46.
Those TFF #46 films are:
The Aeronauts
Ford v. Ferrari
A Hidden Life
Judy
Marriage Story
Motherless Brooklyn
Pain and Glory
Parasite
The Two Popes
Uncut Gems
Waves
I last checked in on the Best Supporting Actress Oscar race on Sept. 25th. Here's the new update for the category with the actor's previous position in parentheses. Performances from TFF #46 films are in Bold.
1) Laura Dern/Marriage Story (1)
2) Jennifer Lopez/Hustlers (2)
3) Margot Robbie/Once Upon a Time in...Hollywood (3)
Notes: Nicole Kidman (Bombshell) and Taylor Russell (Waves) have, for the moment, waned over the last month or so. The Margot Robbie double mention is likely to shake down to one or the other. My guess going forward is that she's more likely to get a nomination for Bombshell. We'll see.
BONG JOON HO TALKS PARASITE
My friend Tomris Laffly had a fantastic interview with Parasite director Bong Joon Ho at rogerebert.com this past week. Parasite is, perhaps, the most talked about film that appeared at TFF #46. It's a critical darling (Metacritic has it at 95). The film was already hot after its Palme d"Or win at Cannes in May and the heat has steadily increased as it has moved through the fall fest season toward its eventual U.S. release this past week.
Netflix unveiled a new trailer and a new poster for Noah Baumbach's Marriage Story recently. Here's the new poster featuring the "Official Selection of the Telluride Film Festival" banner:
And here from YouTube is the new trailer for the film:
And a reminder here that I'm on the tank for a Best Supporting Actress nomination for Julie Hagerty and maybe a Supporting Actor nod for Ray Liotta.
OFF THE RADAR...
Not long ago we ran across the news that Alexander Payne was readying his next project to star Mads Mikkelsen. As you might surmise, I immediately put it on my watch list as a possible, nee, probable selection for TFF #47 owing to Payne's past with the fest.
Now, however, that seems to have gone away as Deadline reports that the project has fallen apart. Mike Fleming revealed late this week that the Norwegian journalist upon which the project is based terminated his agreement to make the film. The decision came with mere days left before the film was scheduled to begin filming.
Russian entrant for the newly re-named Best International Oscar category, Kantemir Bugalov's Beanpole has an U.S. teaser. Kino Lorber dropped that last week and I have it here for you via YouTube:
Demitra Kampakis has a lengthy interview with Bugalov at The Film Stage which you will find linked here.
ADAM SANDLER TALKS UNCUT GEMS
Leah Greenblatt/Entertainment Weekly talked to the star of the Safdie Brothers new film Uncut Gems which has Sandler some of the best reviews of his career after first screening at the Telluride Film Festival.
I last checked in on the Best Actor Oscar race on Sept. 19th. Here's the new update for the category with the actor's previous position in parentheses. Performances from TFF #46 films are in Bold.
1) Adam Driver/Marriage Story (1)
2) Joaquin Phoenix/Joker (4) 3) Jonathan Pryce/The Two Popes (3)
4) Leonardo DiCaprio/Once Upon a Time in...Hollywood (2) 5) Antonio Banderas/Pain and Glory (5)
Possibles: Robert DeNiro/The Irishman, Eddie Murphy/Dolemite is My Name, Adam Sandler/Uncut Gems.
Comment: Recency helps. Buzz for Joaquin Phoenix's performance spiked with the film's release two weeks ago and he jumped from #4 to #2. Meanwhile, Leonardo DiCaprio, whose film opened in July. Robert DeNiro has also benefited from The Irishman finally being in front of some eyes with its acting as the opening night film for the New York Film Fest.
Truth is that Banderas, DeNiro and Murphy are in a virtual tie for that fifth spot.
I'll update Best director predictions on Monday.
OSCAR HISTORY AND TFF: BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Lupita Nyong'o in 12 Years a Slave
Here's the complete history of nominees and winners for the Best Supporting Actress category and the Telluride Film Festival:
1987-Ann Sothern/The Whales of August
1989- Brenda Fricker/My Left Foot-WINNER
1991- Diane Ladd/Rambling Rose
1993- Anna Paquin/The Piano-WINNER
1994- Dianne Wiest/Bullets Over Broadway, Jennifer Tilly/Bullets Over Broadway
1996- Jean-Marie Baptiste/Secrets and Lies
2000- Samantha Morton/Sweet and Lowdown
2004- Laura Linney/Kinsey
2005- Michelle Williams/Brokeback Mountain, Catherine Keener/Capote
2006- Adriana Barraza/Babel, Rinko Kikuchi/Babel
2007- Cate Blanchett/I'm Not There
2008- Taraji P. Henson/The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (scenes screened)
2009- Anna Kendrick/Up in the Air, Vera Farmiga/Up in the Air
2010- Helena Bonham Carter/The King's Speech
2011- Berenice Bejo/The Artist, Janet McTeer/Albert Nobbs
2013- Lupita Nyong'o-12 Years a Slave-WINNER, June Squibb/Nebraska
2014- Emma Stone/Birdman, Laura Dern/Wild, Keira Knightley/The Imitation Game
2015- Rachel McAdams/Spotlight, Rooney Mara/Carol, Kate Winslet/Steve Jobs
2016- Michelle Williams/Manchester by the Sea, Naomie Harris/Moonlight
2017- Octavia Spencer/The Shape of Water, Laurie Metcalf/Lady Bird
2018- Emma Stone/The Favourite, Rachel Weisz-The Favourite, Marina de Tavira/Roma
Overall 35 nominations and three wins: Brenda Fricker/My Left Foot-1989, Anna Paquin/The Piano-1993, Lupita Nyong'o/12 Years a Slave-2013.
TFF DOCS AND THE CRITIC'S CHOICE
The Biggest Little Farm, which was featured last year at TFF #45 led all documentaries in total nominations from the Broadcast Film Critics Association for their doc awards with a total of seven nominations including Best Documentary Feature.
This year's TFF docs were represented by The Kingmaker which earned four nominations.
The BFCA also announced that they would recognize Michael Apted's Up series of docs. His latest entry in that series- 63 Up- was also featured this year at TFF #46.
I'm continuing the breakdown of the history between TFF and The Academy Awards as related to each of the feature categories. Today is the Best Actor nominees from films that have screened at the festival since its inception in 1974:
1989- Daniel Day Lewis/My Left Foot-WINNER
1990- Jeremy Irons/Reversal of Fortune-WINNER, Gerard Depardieu/Cyrano DeBergerac
1992-Stephen Rea/The Crying Game
1996-Billy Bob Thornton/Sling Blade
1997- Nick Nolte/Affliction
1999- Richard Farnsworth/The Straight Story
2000- Geoffrey Rush/Quills, Sean Penn/Sweet and Lowdown
2003- Bill Murray/Lost in Translation
2005- Philip Seymour Hoffman/Capote-WINNER, Heath Ledger/Brokeback Mountain, Joaquin Phoenix/Walk the Line
2006- Forrest Whitaker/The Last King of Scotland-WINNER, Peter O'Toole/Venus
2007- Daniel Day Lewis/There Will Be Blood-WINNER (scenes screened)
2008- Brad Pitt/The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (scenes screened)
2009- George Clooney/Up in the Air
2010-Colin Firth/The King's Speech-WINNER, James Franco/127 Hours, Javier Bardem/Biutiful
2011- Jean Dujardin/The Artist-WINNER, George Clooney/The Descendants
2013- Bruce Dern/Nebraska, Chiwetel Ejiofor/12 Years a Slave
2014- Michael Keaton/Birdman, Benedict Cumberbatch/The Imitation Game, Steve Carell/Foxcatcher
2015- Michael Fassbender/Steve Jobs
2016-Casey Affleck-Manchester by the Sea-WINNER, Ryan Gosling/La La Land
2017- Gary Oldman/Darkest Hour-WINNER
Overall 32 Best Actor nominations with eight winners...Daniel Day Lewis twice.
OSCAR PREDICTIONS UPDATE: BEST ACTRESS
Here are my current predictions for the Best Actress. This updates the last Best Actress set of predictions posted on Sept. 19th. The actresses last prediction position is listed in parentheses. TFF #46 films are in Bold. 1) Renee Zellweger/Judy (1) 2) Scarlett Johansson/Marriage Story (2)
3) Cynthia Ervio/Harriet (3)
4) Awkwafina/The Farewell (4)
5) Lupita N'yongo/Us (-)
Just a brief note on the death of actor Robert Forster. Like a lot of people who love film, I thought Forster was a solid performer every time I saw him. I know a lot of folks talk about Pam Grier's star turn in Jackie Brown but I always thought Forster in his comeback role in the film (thanks to Tarantino's choice to cast him) was, perhaps, the more impressive.
Forster, to the best of my ability to discern, appeared in two films that screened at TFFs. Alexander Payne's The Descendants (2011) and David Lynch's 2001 masterpiece Mulholland Drive.
Like a lot of you, I had just watched El Camino and found out hours later that Forster was gone. Seemed like an odd coincidence and...btw...he's great in it.
Forster was 78.
TRAILER FOR TELL ME WHO I AM
Netflix released a trailer in the middle of the last week for the TFF #46 documentary Tell Me Who I Am from director Ed Perkins. The doc focuses on the story of identical twins one of which has survived a terrible motorcycle accident and awakes from a coma with no memory.
Here's the trailer from YouTube:
Tell Me Who I Am will appear on Netflix on Friday.
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com
Jane Alexander in Testament...the first Best Actress nominee from a TFF film
I'm turning now to a breakdown of the history between TFF and The Academy Awards as related to each of the feature categories. Today I bring you the Best Actress nominees from films that have screened at the festival since its inception in 1974:
1983- Jane Alexander/Testament
1991- Laura Dern/Rambling Rose
1993- Holly Hunter/The Piano
1996- Brenda Blethyn/Secrets and Lies, Emily Watson/Breaking the Waves
1998-Fernanda Montenegro/Central Station
2002- Salma Hayek/Frida
2004- Annette Bening/Being Julia
2005- Reese Witherspoon/Walk the Line-WINNER
2006- Kate Winslet/Little Children, Penelope Cruz/Volver
2007- Ellen Page/Juno
2009- Carey Mulligan/An Education, Helen Mirren/The Last Station
2010- Natalie Portman/Black Swan-WINNER
2011- Glenn Close/Albert Nobbs
2012- Emanuelle Riva/Amour
2013- Sandra Bullock/Gravity
2014- Reese Witherspoon-Wild, Marion Cotillard/Two Days One Night
2015- Brie Larson/Room-WINNER, Cate Blanchett/Carol, Charlotte Rampling/45 Years
2016- Emma Stone/La La Land-WINNER
2017- Sally Hawkins/The Shape of Water, Saorise Ronan/Lady Bird
2018- Olivia Colman/The Favourite-WINNER, Melissa McCarthy/Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Yalitza Aparicio/Roma
Overall 29 nominations for Best Actress with five winners including three of the last four.
OSCAR PREDICTIONS: BEST DIRECTOR UPDATED
Here are my current predictions for the Best Direction Oscar with the past prediction listed in the parentheses. TFF #46 films are in Bold.
Bong Joon-Ho/Parasite
1) Quentin Tarantino/Once Upon a Time in...Hollywood (1)
2) Martin Scorsese/The Irishman (5)
3) Bong Joon-Ho/Parasite (2)
4) Noah Baumbach/Marriage Story (3)
5) Taika Waititi/JoJo Rabbit (-)
6) Lulu Wang/The Farewell (-)
Other Possibles: Sam Mendes/1917, Marielle Heller/A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Fernando Meirelles/The Two Popes, James Mangold/Ford v. Ferrari
INTERNATIONAL FEATURE LONG LIST
93 films have been submitted for the newly named Best International Film category (formerly Best Foreign Language Films. Of the 93, I have only identified three that played at TFF #46:
Parasite/South Korea
Pain and Glory/Spain
Beanpole/Russia
Other serious contenders that were chosen are thought to be:
Monos/Colombia
Les Miserables/France
Verdict/Philippines
The Whistlers/Romania
Atlantics/Senegal
The complete list of all 93 films is linked here from Variety.
That's your Thursday.
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com
I'm turning now to a breakdown of the history between TFF and The Academy Awards as related to each of the feature categories. Today I bring you the Best Director nominees from films that have screened at the festival since its inception in 1974:
1986- David Lynch/Blue Velvet
1989- Jim Sheridan/My Left Foot
1990- Barbet Schroeder/Reversal of Fortune
1992- Neil Jordan/The Crying Game
1993- Krzysztof Kielowski/Blue
1994- Woody Allen/Bullets Over Broadway
1996- Mike Leigh/Secrets and Lies
1997- Atom Egoyan/The Sweet Hereafter
2000- Ang Lee/Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
2001- David Lynch/Mulholland Drive
2002- Fernando Meirelles/City of God, Pedro Almodovar/Talk to Her
2003- Sophia Coppola/Lost in Translation
2005- Ang Lee/Brokeback Mountain-WINNER, Bennett Miller/Capote
2006- Alejandro Inarritu/Babel
2007- Jason Reitman/Juno, Julian Schnabel/The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Paul Thomas Anderson/There Will Be Blood (scenes screened)
2008- Danny Boyle/Slumdog Millionaire-WINNER, David Fincher/The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (scenes screened)
2009- Jason Reitman/Up in the Air
2010- Tom Hooper/The King's Speech-WINNER, Darren Aronofsky/Black Swan
2011- Michel Hazanavicius/The Artist-WINNER, Alexander Payne/The Descendants
2012- Michael Haneke/Amour
2013- Alfonso Cuaron/Gravity-WINNER, Steve McQueen/12 Years a Slave, Alexander Payne-Nebraska
2014- Alejandro Inarritu/Birdman-WINNER, Bennett Miller/Foxcatcher
2015- Tom McCarthy/Spotlight, Lenny Abrahamson/Room
2016- Damien Chazelle/La La Land-WINNER, Barry Jenkins/Moonlight, Kenneth Lonergan/Manchester by the Sea, Denis Villenueve/Arrival
2017- Guillermo Del Toro/The Shape of Water-WINNER, Greta Gerwig/Lady Bird
2018- Alfonso Cuaron/Roma-WINNER, Yorgos Lanthimos-The Favourite
Total of 44 nominations for Best Director with nine winners...Alfonso Cuaron twice.
OSCAR PREDICTIONS: BEST PICTURE UPDATED
Here's my updated prediction for the Best Picture Oscar nominations. These were last posted at MTFB on Sept. 19th. Each film is followed by its position in the last prediction posting in parentheses. TFF #46 films are Bold.
1) Once Upon a Time in...Hollywood (2) 2) Marriage Story (3)
3) The Irishman (2)
4) JoJo Rabbit (7) 5) Parasite (5)
6) A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (10)
7) 1917 (6) 8) Ford v. Ferrari (4) 9) The Two Popes (9)
10) The Farewell (8)
Other possibles: Joker, Waves, Judy, Little Women
You're seeing a nice jump up for JoJo Rabbit and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. Tough dive for Ford v. Ferrari. I expect that The Irishman will move back up to the #23 or even #1 slot when I next check in as it has now screened as a part of the New York Film Fest and will be rolling out at Mill Valley, Hamptons, London, Rome, Chicago and Tokyo Fests over the next couple of weeks.
OLD HOLLYWOOD TO BE FEATURED IN NEW FILMS
Photo from Shutterstock and Deadline
Deadline.com shared a few weeks back the ongoing news about the development of two films that harken back to old Hollywood for their setting. Both films could end up on TFF watch lists in the next year or two.
Deadline reported recently that Brad Pitt could be joining Damien Chazelle's next feature project which is currently titled Babylon. The film is also rumored to be seeking past Chazelle collaborator Emma Stone who won the 2017 Best Actress Oscar for Chazelle's La La Land. Lionsgate is rumored to be out front in terms of the studio where the project could land.
Meanwhile, in the same story, Deadline also says that David Finches is lining up a project focused on the life of Casablanca screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz. The film is said to be set up at Netflix and would feature Gary Oldman in the lead. The film is tentatively titled Mank.
Each feature reported for both films by Deadline would suggest at least the possibility of a play at The SHOW.
BERKELEY, CA, October 2, 2019 – Telluride Film Festival (TFF), presented by National Film Preserve LTD., is pleased to announce the presentation of the inaugural Milos Stehlik Scholar award. The award was established by TFF before its 46th edition to honor the legacy of Facets Multimedia co-founder and former TFF Board President, Milos Stehlik, who passed away in July 2019. Milos’ longtime commitment to film exhibition and education, as well as to the Telluride Film Festival, made him a lifelong friend to students, cinephiles and filmmakers as a champion of cinema. Each year, one student who embodies Milos’ passion and humanist heart will be chosen from the incoming Student Symposium class to receive the award. This student will receive travel, lodging, a stipend and a student film pass. The Student Symposium, now in its 32nd year, is open to 50 currently enrolled college and university students from around the globe, no matter their major. The primary requirement is a love of film.
This year’s recipient, Damani Brissett, is a student from State University of New York at Purchase. He will receive an internship with the Telluride Film Festival Education Programs in 2020 along with the experience of attending the 47th Festival.
Damani, born and raised in Brooklyn, was selected by faculty from the Student Symposium Class of 2019. He says, “As a child, I was taught many integrities of living, some of them being: understand self-respect, respect for community, empathy, and aim to empower those around you to do good, not only for themselves, but for others. These seeds of holistic approach to humanity were sown within me and my sister at an early age, quietly, in a little corner of Flatbush Brooklyn.”
He was raised by a single mother with a devotion to her family and community, stemming from her proud Jamaican lineage. Damani continues, “Currently, as we face global dissensions on politics, ethics & consciousness altogether, I tend to revisit my origins to ascertain bearing on how to move forward. How can I, one studying filmmaker at SUNY Purchase college, work in the service of the people, with the people, in hopes to redefine systemic confines? I say, where there’s a will there’s a way, for that ‘I’ once took the form of Dr. King’s ‘Dream’, and that ‘I’ is sometimes all there needs to be, simply... a start somewhere.”
The Telluride Film Festival is honored that Damani will return next year to work with the TFF Education Programs and is proud to honor Milos’ legacy annually through the Milos Stehlik Scholar award. Milos co-founded Facets Multimedia in 1975. It is a hub for cinephiles to access hard-to-find independent and international films from around the globe. He was also a pioneer of the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival, the oldest, biggest kid’s film festival in North America. As an educator, a journalist on WBEZ, and a vocal champion of film, Milos has helped introduce generations to the awesome power of film.
For more information on Telluride Film Festival and its Student programs, please visit www.telluridefilmfestival.org.
For more information on Milos and Facets Multimedia, please visit https://www.facets.org.
OSCAR PREDICTIONS 2019: SCREENPLAYS
Here's my Early(ish) Bird take on Oscar's Screenplay categories after the big fall fests-well almost, New York is wrapping up. All TFF films predicted are indicated with Bold.
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
1) The Two Popes
2) JoJo Rabbit
3) The Irishman
4) A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
5) Joker
Other Possibles: Little Women, Judy, Ford v. Ferrari, Just Mercy
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
1) Marriage Story
2) Once Upon a Time in...Hollywood 3) Parasite
4) The Farewell
5) Knives Out
Other Possibles: 1917, Pain and Glory, Booksmart, Bombshell
As of today's post, here's the breakdown of my predictions for Telluride 2019 films in the eight topline categories:
Marriage Story: Six nominations and one possible: Picture, Director/Baumbach, Actress/Johannson, Actor/Driver, Supporting Actress/Dern, Original Screenplay/Baumbach. Possible: Supporting Actor/Alda...and a parenthetical note here...MTFB is campaigning for a Julie Hagerty nomination for Supporting Actress...someone with some actual juice needs to get on this STAT.
The Two Popes: Four nominations and one possible: Picture, Actor/Pryce, Supporting Actor/Hopkins, Adapted Screenplay/McCarten. Possible: Director/Meirelles.
Parasite: Three nominations: Picture, Director/Bong, Original Screenplay/Bong, Han.
Ford v. Ferrari: One nomination and three possibles: Picture. Other possibles: Supporting Actor/Bale, Director/Mangold, Adapted Screenplay/Butterworth, Butterworth, Keller.
Judy: One nomination and two possibles: Actress/Zellweger, Other Possibles: Picture, Adapted Screenplay/Edge, Quilter.
Pain and Glory: One nomination and one possible: Actor/Banderas, Possible: Original Screenplay/Almodovar.
The Report: One nomination: Supporting Actress/Bening.
Waves: Three possibles: Picture, Supporting Actress/Russell, Supporting Actor/Brown.
OSCAR HISTORY AND TFF PART NINE
After spending the past few weeks doling out the history between Telluride and The Academy Awards by each year, I'm turning now to a breakdown of the history as related to each of the feature categories as far as TFF is concerned beginning with the list of films that played at Telluride and then subsequently earned Best Picture nominations:
1974-The Conversation
1989- My Left Foot
1992- The Crying Game
1993- The Piano
1996- Secrets and Lies
2000- Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
2003- Lost in Translation
2005- Brokeback Mountain, Capote
2006- Babel
2007- Juno, There Will Be Blood (scenes screened at TFF)
2008- Slumdog Millionaire-WINNER, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (scenes screened)
2009- Up in the Air, An Education
2010- The King's Speech-WINNER, 127 Hours, Black Swan
2011- The Artist-WINNER, The Descendants
2012- Argo-WINNER, Amour
2013- 12 Years a Slave-WINNER, Gravity, Nebraska
2014- Birdman-WINNER, The Imitation Game
2015- Spotlight-WINNER, Room
2016- Moonlight-WINNER, La La Land, Arrival, Manchester by the Sea
2017- The Shape of Water-WINNER, Darkest Hour, Lady Bird
2018- Roma, The Favourite
In all, 39 films that have come through Telluride have been nominated for Best Film of the Year come Oscar time, 29 of those since 2007. Of the 39, 9 have won the honor with all of those wins coming since 2008.
I'll have the Best Director nominees from TFF films up in Monday's post.
NEW TRAILER FOR PARASITE
Neon has a hot item on its plate with Cannes' Palme d'Or winner Parasite. The film has been critically lauded for months now on the film festival circuit-it has a 92 on Metacritic- and audiences seem to have embraced it as well- our Telluride People's ratings gave it a 4.36 average rating (out of 5) which was good enough for it to land the second place spot in this year's People's Telluride.
Now Neon has dropped a new trailer for the film and here it is from YouTube:
Parasite opens domestically on Oct. 11th.
TRAILER FOR THE KINGMAKER
One of the best received documentaries at the 2019 edition of The SHOW was Laura Greenfield's look at the powerful former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos.
That doc now has a trailer and here it is from YouTube:
The Kingmaker seems to be in the conversation for the Best Doc Oscar.
Interestingly, at least to me, is the connection to this film of one of our local physicians here in my small Oklahoma Panhandle town. The doctor and his brother are both involved in Philippino politics.
