On Wednesday last week the New York Times' Kyle Buchanan published a rumination on the world of film and what it might look like over the next year taking is season by season. It's focused, of course, on what Covid-19 could mean for the film industry.
The article entitled "The Future That Hollywood Feared Is Happening Now".
The section about Fall focuses on the film fest scene. He backtracks to the cancellation of SXSW and then assess the unlikelihood that Cannes will happen before arriving at some analysis regarding Venice first and then Telluride and Toronto.
From the article:
"Subsequent festivals in Telluride, Colo., and Toronto are considered even more important to launching year-end films. Still, some experts have warned of a potential coronavirus resurgence in the fall, and many may balk at going even if protective measures are taken and capacity is reduced. And if it looks like the 2020 awards season may be compromised, many prestige films could opt to sit out this festival year entirely."
Further on in the article, in the Winter section, Buchanan suggests that changing Oscar plans could also impact release strategies for some of the year's most eagerly awaited titles that would, under normal circumstances, be potential fest players.
Buchanan writes:
"Another possibility that’s been floated is extending Oscar eligibility so that the next show will include films released in both 2020 and 2021, something the academy has not done since several double-decker ceremonies in the 1930s. If academy bigwigs embrace that scenario, major Oscar contenders like this December’s “West Side Story” are in danger of becoming old news by the time voters fill out their ballots, and even Netflix might be tempted to push year-end awards films like David Fincher’s “Mank” and Ron Howard’s “Hillbilly Elegy” into 2021."
The upshot here is that there remains a tremendous amount of uncertain and that how this will all play out is a giant Jenga puzzle.
The complete Buchanan article is linked here.
NO NEW NEWS ON CANNES BUT NOW VENICE?
Like every other film fest on the calendar between now and the end of 2020, the Venice Film Fest has to make a decision as to how and if they will go forward. Screen Daily tackled that issue last Friday with an article written by Gabriele Niola.
Perhaps the most daunting consideration that Venice is contending with is the severity with which Italy has been ravaged by the ongoing pandemic. In that context, Niola reports that Venice head Alberto Barbera has ruled out a Virtual Venice and that films that have been submitted are under evaluation for inclusion.
Niola also throw some cold water on a notion that was floated last week: the idea of a Cannes/Vencie collaboration. Niola writes:
"...although his relationship with Cannes delegate general Thierry Fremaux is reportedly a good one – the two have long shared advice and information and are in touch these weeks more than ever – the possibility of a joint festival between the two in the autumn is understood to be very unlikely."
The article also reports that the timeline for an ultimate decision regarding Venice will come at the end of May or beginning of June. So it seems we have at least six more weeks or so of speculation regarding what will or won't happen on the Lido.
The complete Screen Daily article is linked here.
LATE BREAKING...VENICE SPOKES PERSON SAYS IT'S STILL ON
A number of reports from an interview in Italy with Roberto Cicutto, President of the Venice Biennale that says Venice is still set to occur from Sept. 2-12 and that a Cannes collaboration is not likely.
From Variety.
SPC ACQUIRES JULIA
In news that should make Telluride watchers sit up and take notice was the announcement this week that Sony Pictures Classics had acquired distribution rights for the upcoming Julia Child documentary from Julie Cohen and Betsy West the duo behind the Oscar nominated doc about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg-RBG.
The deal includes SPC's first joint effort with CNN.
The project is not currently completed and is slated for a 2021 release according to IMDb. That suggests that if it is a Telluride play that it most probably would be looking at TFF #48.
Deadline has the story here.
MY INVITE TO OPINE
I was fortunate enough to be asked by Jordan Ruimy who runs the world of Reel website to join one of his latest projects. WOR will publishing a large poll of film peeps about the best films of the 1990's and the 2000's soon. Jordan os asking each respondent to chose their five best films of each decade.
Here's the announcement from WOR:
As you can see, the '90's list will go up at the end of this month with the survey of the 2000's scheduled in early May,
My thanks to Jordan for the invitation. For those that may be curious, here are the choices I sent Jordan over the weekend:
The 1990's: Goodfellas, L.A. Confidential, Magnolia, Pulp Fiction, Schindler's List. (Others I considered: Fargo, Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line and The Usual Suspects)
The 2000's: Children of Men, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood. (Others: The Hours, Almost Famous, Memento, The Lives of Others, The White Ribbon).
I'll pass it along when the survey goes up at World of Reel.
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