Elsa Keslassy writing for Variety reports this week that the Venice Film Fest is surveying a broad swath of people and entities that have been and potentially would be players for that fest that is currently slated to run from Sept. 2-12.
Writing in a story that was posted Tuesday, Keslassy says:
"The letter, which was signed by Venice’s artistic director Alberto Barbera and issued on Monday, is meant to gauge how many filmmakers, talent and producers are willing to turn up at the fest before a decision is taken at the end of the month on whether to maintain or cancel this year’s edition."
The article quotes Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera as saying in the letter:
“We all know that, most probably, any festival will not be able to take place exactly like it was in the past. We will have to deal with a number of limitations and security measures: reduction of the number of screened films and a similar decrease of attendance from press, industry and audience."
A couple of other notes from the story worth mentioning are that Venice may be softening an earlier line that suggested that no part of the fest would be conducted online and that Barnera is expected to get feedback by May 10th.
Venice's survey might serve as a template for others of the fall film fests to consider as they move forward in their attempts to go forward.
The complete Variety article is here.
INDIEWIRE LISTS OSCAR POSSIBLES
Julia Garner in The Assistant
On the heels of an L.A. Times list of potential Oscar eligible films that I linked in Monday's post, Indiewire's Zack Sharf posted a list for consideration yesterday in a piece called "The 20 Best Movies Eligible for Oscars Right Now".
Sharf uses his crystal ball to assess films that would meet the new criteria established for this year's Academy Awards .
It has some interesting titles including a couple that played TFF #46. Those are: The Assistant and First Cow.
There are a few Sundance titles that under normal circumstances I would flatly rule out but these times are not normal circumstances. So...maybe????? Crip Camp, Miss Americana and Spaceship Earth.
Check out Sharf's entire list here.
VONNEGUT DOC
Those that know me well know that I'm a ridiculous fan f Kurt Vonnegut and his literary canon (looking at you Chris Schneider). Yesterday, Whyaduck Productions and 9.14 Pictures dropped a trailer for a new documentary about the author and, as you might expect, I was thrilled. The title: Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time...other Vonnegut fans will appreciate the Slaughterhouse-Five reference in the film's title.
Here's the trailer from YouTube:
The film does not yet seem to have a distributor as yet nor a release date. So...hear my plea...Program this for TFF #47. Also, some distrib...pick this up.
The director, Robert Weide, has significant ties to Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm. He was Oscar nominated for Best Documentary Feature in 1998 for Lenny Bruce: Swear to Tell the Truth. That also earned a Primetime Emmy Award for his direction. Additionally, He won a DGA award for direction for Curb in 2012 and another for the HBO program: Palestinian Chicken. He also won a PGA award for and a Primetime Emmy producing Curb in 2000. He also was very involved with the PBS docu-series American Masters. The guy has some hardware.
Vonnegut appeared for a speaking engagement in Oklahoma City in February 2003 and I actually took a personal day to be there. I was lucky enough to run into a couple of former students and if you ever saw Vonnegut do his lecture, you know that he talks lovingly about teachers. It was more than special.
Vonnegut died a bit more than four years later.
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com
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