Got the news late last night that the legendary Buck Henry had died of a heart attack at the age of 89. Henry had an extensive relationship with the Telluride Film Festival going all the way back to appearing as a guest of the fest at TFF #2 in 1975 according to the best info I can come up with. Henry also Guest Directed in 2004 and was part of the multiple Guest Director group for TFF 's 40th Anniversary in 2013. My records also indicate that Henry was at the fest in 2007 as well.
Henry was probably best known as the co-writer of Mike Nichols classic The Graduate, a film that would be on Top Ten list of all-timers. Henry was a two time Oscar nominee. The first came for the screenplay of The Graduate the other came as co-director of Heaven Can Wait with Warren Beatty.
He also wrote or co-wrote the screenplays for Catch-22, The Owl and the Pussycat, What's Up Doc?, The Day of the Dolphin and To Die For. He was also the co-creator, along with Mel Brooks, of the 1960's comedy Get Smart.
Henry was also an early and often host for Saturday Night Live having reportedly hosted 10 times.
I got to meet Henry in 2013 in Telluride and express my thanks for his incredible career of providing thought provoking entertainment and a bunch of laughter. That's the photo you see above.
Maybe the best thing that's happened at TFF over the years that I've been going has been opportunities like that- a chance to thank people for what they've meant in your life that you're never going to see at any other moment. I don't do it often because I don't want to annoy- but my admiration for Buck was such that I knew that I'd kick myself if I didn't just tell the man "Thank you".
And thanks again Buck!
SPECIAL NOTE: FINAL OSCAR PREDIX ON SUNDAY!!!
I'll have the MTFB Final Oscar nomination predictions for this year posted at 6pm EST on Sunday, Jan. 12th
As of this morning, using the latest projections I have for each of the 21 feature categories- which will be updated for Sunday and will mean that there will be changes between now and then- here are the predicted nominee leaders:
Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood-12 (and the only film in double digits)
The Irishman-9
1917-8
Marriage Story-8
Joker-7
Parasite-6
Ford v Ferrari-5
The Two Popes-4
Bombshell-4
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker-4
Rocketman-4
Jojo Rabbit-3
All others 2 or fewer.
Other TFF #46 films:
Pain and Glory-2
Judy-2
Beanpole-1
Total TFF #46 nominations predicted- 28-but that will also likely change with Sunday's final predictions.
GUILDS: WRITERS, DIRECTORS, PRODUCERS AND BAFTA
Since my last post we've seen a ton of precursors name names for 2019 giving us new information to parse about Oscar nomination possibilities. Let's run that down from the perspective of TFF #46 films.
WRITERS GUILD OF AMERICA (WGA) NOMINEES
The Writers Guild announced their nominations for screen writing on Monday> TFF #46 films which were nominated were: Noah Baumbach's Marriage Story and Bong Joon-ho and Han Jin Won's Parasite in the Original Screenplay category. No TFF #46 films were named as nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Other Original Script nominees were for: 1917, Booksmart and Knives Out. Adapted script nominees included: A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, The Irishman, Jojo Rabbit, Joker and Little Women.
DIRECTORS GUILD OF AMERICA (DGA) NOMINEES
Parasite's Bong Joon-ho was the only TFF #46 director named by the DGA for their Director of the Year prize. Noah Baumbach/Marriage Story, James Mangold/Ford v Ferrari, and Fernando Meirelles/The Two Popes all failed to be nominated.
The other four DGA nominees are Sam Mendes/1917, Martin Scorsese/The Irishman, Quentin Tarantino/Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood and Taika Waititi/Jojo Rabbit.
PRODUCERS GUILD OF AMERICA (PGA) NOMINEES
The ten films named as potential winners of the PGA Award for Best Picture included three TFF #46 films: Ford v. Ferrari, Marriage Story and Parasite.
The other seven PGA nominees are: 1917, The Irishman, Jojo Rabbit, Joker, Knives Out, Little Women and Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood.
Sasha Stone, founder of Awards Daily says that this tells that these results mean that the 2019 Best Picture Oscar winner is on this list of five films: 1917, The Irishman, Jojo Rabbit, Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood and Parasite.
That means that Bong Joon-ho's Parasite now stands as the best bet for re-starting Telluride's trend for having screened the Best Picture winner is Parasite.
BRITISH ACADEMY OF FILM AND TELEVISION ARTS (BAFTA)
The British version of The Oscars named their nominees on Tuesday and TFF #46 films snagged 23 nominations. Here are the Telluride films that were nominated:
Marriage Story had five: Scarlett Johansson/Best Actress, Adam Driver/Best Actor, Laura Dern/Best Supporting Actress, Noah Baumbach/Best Original Screenplay and Best Casting.
The Two Popes had five: Best British Film, Jonathan Pryce/Best Actor, Anthony Hopkins/Best Supporting Actor, Anthony McCarten/Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Casting.
Parasite had four: Best Film, Bong Joon-ho/Best Director, Bong and Jin Han Won/Best Original Screenplay and Best Film Not in the English Language.
Le Mans 66 (that's Ford v Ferrari to you and me) had three: Best Editing, Best Cinematography and Best Sound.
Judy had three: Renee Zellweger/Best Actress, Best Costumes and Best Makeup/Hair.
Single nominations came for:
Pain and Glory: Best Film Not in the English Language.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire: Best Film Not in the English Language.
Diego Maradona: Best Documentary.
Joker lead all films with 11 nominations followed closely by Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood and The Irishman with 10 nominations apiece.
OSCAR PREDICTIONS UPDATED
Here's my latest calls on the probable Oscar nominees in the categories of Costumes, Makeup and Hair and Production Design. TFF #46 films are indicated in Bold.
COSTUMES (Last predicted on Dec. 19th)
1) Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood (1)
2) Little Women (3)
3) Dolemite Is My Name (2)
4) Downton Abbey (5)
5) Rocketman (4)
6) 1917 (-)
Other possibles:Harriet, The Irishman, Judy, Jojo Rabbit
MAKEUP/HAIR (last updated Dec. 19th)
1) Bombshell (1)
2) Judy (4)
3) Rocketman (3)
4) Joker (2)
5) Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood (5)
6) 1917 (-)
Other possibles: Dolemite Is My Name, Downton Abbey, Little Women, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
PRODUCTION DESIGN (last updated Dec. 12th)
1) Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood (1)
2) 1917 (2)
3) The Irishman (3)
4) Parasite (6)
5) Joker (5)
6) Jojo Rabbit (-)
Other possibles: Little Women, The Two Popes, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Ad Astra
MTFB IN OTHER PLACES
The latest Gurus of Gold is up at Movie City News. It's got the latest Oscar predix for Best Picture as well as a specialty poll. We were asked to give 3-5 "Unlikely Underdogs" a shout out. Among mine were an endorsement for Tracy Letts as as Best Supporting Actor for Ford v Ferrari and, in the same category, Kevin Garnett in Uncut Gems.
Take a look at the rest of the Gurus at this link.
Meanwhile, I also have a post up over at The Script Lab. I wrote about the screenplays both adapted and original that are the most likely to be nominated next Monday morning. I name a dozen for each category and include a small rundown about the film/screenplay/writers as well as providing my latest ranking of which scripts will be nominated.
Take a look at that post linked here.
FIRST COW TRAILER
According to the fine folks at Indiewire, Kelly Reichardt's TFF #46 player, First Cow has a trailer. Here it is linked from YouTube:
First Cow is set for release on Mar. 6th.
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com
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