First Ten Bets of 2020 / Some Surprising Tidbits / The Distribs: Amazon

FIRST TEN BETS OF 2020

The last post of June has, over the past few years, become the post in which I lay down my first "Ten Bets" guesses for the Telluride Film Festival.  Most years, when I go back and look at the success rate of first "Tens" I'm feeling pretty good if I land 5 out of 10 that actually play over Labor Day weekend.  Here's the track record since I began the "Ten Bets" model of TFF predicting:

2011: 8/10
2012: 5/10
2013: 6/10
2014: 7/10
2015: 4/10
2016: 3/10
2017: 7/10
2018: 5/10
2019: 4/10

Average: 5.4 per year.

So, I'm rolling up my sleeves and am going to make an attempt at a first Ten Bets for this year...but I'm already pleading a pre-emptive "mea culpa" for getting so much wrong.

10) Ammonite
9) Undine
8) The Secrets We Keep
7) Forgotten We'll Be
6) Untitled Garbus/Cortes Voting Rights Doc
5) Fireball
4) Nomadland
3) John Prine: Hello in There
2) Small Axe (Mangrove and/or Lover's Rock)
1) There Is No Evil


SOME SURPRISING TIDBITS

I ran across a couple of eye-opening news items since my last post.  First, the revelation from member of the TFF Board of Governors Ken Burns in an interview/Awards Chatter podcast with The Hollywood Reporter's Scott Feinberg that he will not be attending TFF #47.  From the article accompanying the podcast:

"However, Burns, whose Beatles-like haircut makes him instantly recognizable wherever he goes, laments that because of the pandemic, he cannot to some places he would like to, such as the Telluride Film Festival, which takes place in Colorado's Rocky Mountains each Labor Day weekend. "I've gone for 30 straight years, 31 overall," he says. "I premiered Huey Long [his 1985 doc] there, and then The Civil War, and I've never not gone [since]. It's incredibly painful not to go there, but I don't want to turn Telluride into Manhattan when it was a hot spot."

That's a lightning bolt.

The Feinberg article as well as the link to the complete interview are here.

Additionally both Indiewire's Anne Thompson and Deadline's Pete Hammond had some thoughts on Saturday about Telluride and the other fall fests in an interview with Gold Derby.

Thompson talks about TFF perhaps being a down-sized event:

"Anne Thompson of Indiewire and Pete Hammond of Deadline — they are both doubtful that an event in the less-populated state of Colorado will welcome outsiders with open arms this year. Thompson has booked a room for the time being, but also adds it is refundable. “I am prepared to go if it is happening.” But, realistically, she can’t see the festival allowing film journalists to attend who live in such large metropolitan areas as New York City and Los Angeles, where the COVID-19 numbers are high. She believes it just might be a local event, given all the restrictions it would have to overcome."

Hammond is even more provocative in a couple of statements.  He suggests that Telluride should announce titles beforehand rather than following their normal practice of announcing the day before the fest starts:

“Telluride is a big question mark for me. I haven’t decided if I am going , and definitely won’t if they don’t announce what movies they have a la TIFF. They normally don’t until the day before the fest, but this year is different and I don’t know if it is worth it."

We had heard (via Thompson in an earlier story at Indiewire) that Telluride would be announcing further plans in mid-July.  Hammond suggests that deadline might carry more weight than a listing of precautions that the festival would take:

"Heard as of two weeks ago for them the movies still aren’t there and they are waiting until mid-July to make a final call on go or no go.”

The complete article from Gold Derby is here.



THE DISTRIBS: AMAZON STUDIOS

Amazon Studios has been a constant player at Telluride since appearing for the first time in 2016.  Last year, however, their TFF entries did not become awards season players.  Here's the rundown of Amazon Studios films that have played TFF in their relatively short history:


2019: The Aeronauts, The Report
2018: Peterloo, Cold War
2017: Wonderstruck
2016: Manchester by the Sea

This year's most likely Amazon players look to be:

Steve McQueen's two Cannes "selected" films that are a part of his Small Axe project.  Both Mangrove and Lover's Rock carry the "Selection of Cannes" label as two of the 56 films named a few weeks back.  McQueen has a significant history with Telluride having screened Hunger, Shame and 12 Years a Slave there.

Will Sharpe's feature directing debut is the biopic of 19th century artist Louis Wain starring Benedict Cumberbatch.  The film also stars Andrea Riseborough and Claire Foy.

The untitled Liz Garbus/Lisa Cortes Voting Rights documentary featuring former Georgia gubernatorial candidate and voting rights activist Stacey Abrams-particularly timely in this election year.

And finally, Julia Hart's woman on the run film starring The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel's Rachel Brosnahan.

Chances:

Mangrove and/or Lover's Rock 50%
Garbus/Cortes Doc 40%
Louis Wain 25%
I'm Your Woman 20%

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Toronto Announces First Titles / Film Fests Reacting to Oscar Date Change / The Distribs: Focus Features

TORONTO ANNOUNCES FIRST TITLES

The Toronto International Film Festival announced a number of titles yesterday that they are planning to include as a part of a pared back TIFF.  Numerous reports yesterday indicate that TIFF will program approximately 50 films this year.  That contrasts with the common inclusion of 275-300 titles that are customarily a part of the TIFF lineup.

AMong titles announced yesterday were Francis Lee's Ammonite, Thomas Vinterberg's Another Round and Naomi Kawase's True Mothers-three films which I have had on the TFF #47 list of possibles for some time (I've been particularly high on chances that Ammonite might be a TFF choice).

While major publications have not labeled the World Premieres, a couple of the films have been referenced that way.  Indiewire tweeted that Idris Elba starrer Concrete Cowboys will be World Premiering at TIFF and The Danish Film Institute said the same about Another Round.  If that is the case, then that all but removes those titles from TFF #47 consideration.  Further, it implies that entire list of films announced by TIFF are probably World Premieres as well. Halle Berry's directing debut Bruised is also on the list of announced TIFF films.

Other interesting notes:  TIFF will have an initial five days of on-site socially distanced presentations and past that will largely be online.  Other titles will be announced as the summer progresses.

Coverage is here from Variety and Indiewire.




FALL FILM FESTS REACTING TO OSCAR DATE CHANGE

Last week Anne Thompson wrote a piece for Indiewire with her take on how the fall film fests are reacting to the recent announcement that the Oscars ceremony will take place in late April of 2021, a full two months later than their originally announced date.

Among the items of interest mentioned in the piece are:

Telluride is said to be releasing practical plans by mid-July.  Additionally, there are still hurdles for the fest to get through between now and Labor Day.  Thompson writes:

"The Telluride Film Festival is proceeding as though the festival is happening, with practical plans to be revealed by mid-July. But the festival will be dependent on whether the state of Colorado allows theaters to open in time. If not, the county will need to obtain a variance from the state to show films in theaters."

A side note of interest is that Thompson reports that the Toronto International Film Fest is supposed to announce some of their plans within the next few days:

"September’s Toronto festival, which is determined to meet any eventuality and will announce its plans before the end of June."

The third interesting tidbit is in regards to Sony Pictures Classics as they make plans within a shifting landscape.  From the article:

“We kind of plan and prepare,” said Tom Bernard, co-president of Sony Pictures Classics, who is juggling his release schedule and waiting to see who shows up for “Tenet” on July 31. “And be ready to tonally change the plan if more variables show up. We’ll send our films everywhere we can. We don’t know.”

Which sounds to me like we can probably plan on seeing some SPC projects at Telluride in some form.  I took a look at the current SPC slate in my post on June11th.


Here's Thompson's Indiewire story



THE DISTRIBS: FOCUS FEATURES

Today's look at distributors and what they might submit for TFF #47 focuses on Focus Features.  I have some confidence that Focus has some interest in submitting films for Telluride this year even amidst the pandemic.

So that begs the question...what would they bring?  Their two biggest current projects are Tom McCarthy's Stillwater and Edgar Wright's Last Night in Soho.  Stillwater's still set for release on Nov. 6th while Soho has been set for release on April 23rd.  Those release dates suggest that Stillwater is much more likely as a Focus entry for TFF #47 than Soho.  Adding to our calculation is the fact that McCarthy's Spotlight began its run to Oscar glory in 2015 at Venice followed immediately by an appearance at TFF # 42.

Focus has three other films that I believe have at least some limited possibility of making a play at Telluride: Marilyn Agrelo's Sesame Street documentary Street Gang, Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG Award nominated actress Robin Wright's feature directorial debut-Land (I think I remember Wright being at TFF in 2007) and Eddie Huang's Boogie.


Chances:

Stillwater  50%
Land 35%
Street Gang 25%
Boogie 15%
Last Night in Soho 5%

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Mank in October and an Interesting Note / Netflix and the Chicago 7 / The Distribs: A24

MANK IN OCTOBER AND AN INTERESTING NOTE

Mank Photo montage via World of Reel 

Multiple outlets reported recently that Eric Roth, one of the producers on David Fincher's upcoming Netflix film Mank, has said that the film will premiere at some point in October.

Roth made the statement on the Pardon My Take podcast.

If it's true it suggests that the film might have been ready in time for some of the fall fest run.  As we know, however, Netflix has announced that none of their projects will be fall festing this year.

There are a couple of cracks in that armor, however.  You may recall that I wrote the following in my June 1 post:

"Further, Hammond (Deadline) opens the door slightly to there being the possibility that Netflix's announcement that it would be doing any fall fests might not be 100% carved in stone:
"Netflix, which has been a key presence in the last couple of years is sitting this one out, at least at this point."
The key sentence there being the "At least at this point".

And, as an aside...due to Telluride's secretive nature, you kind of have to wonder that if Netflix was ONLY going to screen at Telluride that they might suggest they weren't going anywhere.
Personally, I take Netflix at its word that they won't screen anywhere...but it's fun to speculate."

Now, in the Zack Sharf/Indiewire article about the possible October release for Mank, there's this sentence:

"While Netflix has not confirmed the “Mank” release date, a fall debut around October or November has been widely expected considering the title is one of the streaming giant’s big Oscar contenders. Similar to last year’s “The Irishman” and “Marriage Story,” Netflix is expected to world premiere “Mank” at one of the fall film festivals."

The Playlist's Charles Barfield seemed to second the motion writing in a story posted on Friday:

"that would give the film ample time to premiere at one of the upcoming fall festivals, which have been welcoming to Netflix films in years past, especially ones with well-known filmmakers and possible awards recognition. So, maybe we’ll see “Mank” 

In fairness, Barfield mentions Venice and Toronto as possible destinations...but still...

The Playlist story is here

So, clearly, something is off-kilter here somewhere.

It's worth keeping an eye and an ear open on this topic.

The entire Sharf/Indiewire post is here.



NETFLIX AND THE CHICAGO 7


I saw reporting over the weekend that Netflix is nearing a deal with Paramount to acquire domestic distribution for Aaron Sorkin;s The Trial of the Chicago 7.  Variety reported over the weekend that negotiations were ongoing.

I've had this Sorkin project on my TFF #47 radar since October of 2018.  The film's TFF chances for a TFF berth seemed to be 50/50.  Then with the stoppage of work in post-production because of the pandemic I had begun to think that it wouldn't be ready in time.  Now, also working against it's Telluride chances, assuming the deal gets done, is Netflix announcing that it won't be taking any of their films to film fests.

The Variety article suggests that the film might still be aimed for release prior to election day in November.

Given the Netflix weirdness detailed in the first section of this post above, I can't definitively say that Chicago 7 won't be a TFF selection.  The door is still open just a wee bit.




THE DISTRIBS: A24

A24's presence at Telluride has been a hit and miss affair since the company's first appearance at the fest in 2012 but their level of success when they have had films there has been impressive with three of the ten films they've screened at Telluride earning Best Picture nominations and, of course, having Moonlight's win after premiering at TFF in 2016.

Here's A24's past at the Telluride Film Festival":

2019: First Cow, Uncut Gems, Waves
2018: No SHOW
2017: Lean on Pete, First Reformed, Lady Bird
2016: Moonlight
2015: Room
2014:  No SHOW
2013: Under the Skin
2012: Ginger and Rosa

Ten films in eight years.  But, as I said...it's been hit or miss with No SHOW's in 2014 and 2018 but three films apiece in 2017 and 2019.

A24 has several films that could be in for a TFF play:

Sofia Coppola's On the Rocks.  Coppola re-teams with Bill Murray for the first time since her debut film, Lost in Translation, which screened at Telluride in 2003.  She hasn't returned to TFF since.  Murray was in town in 2012 in support of Hyde Park on Hudson.  Rashida Jones also stars.  also in its favor-It went into post-production last July.  I was surprised that the film wasn't on the list of films that Cannes "selected".  That makes me think that it may be headed to Venice.  With the uncertainty about how the pandemic will impact fests, films and fest-goers decision making, my sense is that we may see less Telluride/Venice crossover than in recent years.

Mike Mills' C'mon C'mon starring recent Best Actor Oscar winner Joaquin Phoenix.  Mills has never been to Telluride but he hasn't been averse to playing the fest circuit with his past films:
Thumbsucker: Sundance, Berlin, Toronto
Beginners: Toronto
20th Century Women: New York, AFI
The film went into post in December which may suggest that it hasn't had enough time to be completed.

Stephen Karam's adaptation of his Tony Award winning play The Humans.  Richard Jenkins, Amy Schumer and Beanie Feldstein star in the story of a family gathering at Thanksgiving.  It's Karam's first gig as director but he has a scripted adaptations of his own play, Speech and Debate as well as Chekhov's The Seagull.  The film went into post in October so is possibly ready.

Three other A24 titles that seem to be less likely TFF participants are False Positive, After Yang, The  and the Untitled Lila Neugebauer Project.

I appears that the Joel Coen MacBeth project starring Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand has been moved to 2021.

Chances:

On the Rocks 30%
C'mon C'mon 30%
The Humans 30%

All other A24 properties: 10%.

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Oscar Has a New Date and the Dominoes Have Begun to Fall / First Domino: BAFTA / The Distribs: Neon

OSCAR HAS A NEW DATE AND THE DOMINOES HAVE BEGUN TO FALL

Oscar has moved.  The ceremony is now set to occur on April 25th after the AMPAS Board of Governors made that decision on Monday.  That's a full eight weeks later than the original date of Feb. 28th.

The decision was also accompanied by an extension of the exhibition eligibility widow to the end of February.

Those two decisions set off a chain reaction of other awards season programs as they adjusted to the new elongated season.

Of concern to readers of the space is how that will affect the lineup for TFF #47 and this is just another hurdle that makes planning for Telluride all the more unpredictable.

Pete Hammond writing at Deadline:

"The traditional fall film festival season, which traditionally kicks off the six-month movie awards season in early September at Venice/Telluride/Toronto, is also likely to be affected by the actions of the Academy’s board today. As one studio consultant just told me, anticipating these changes, “Who will have the stomach for an eight-month season?”

Josh Rottenberg writing for the Los Angeles Times:

"While the marquee fall film festivals in Venice, Toronto and Telluride have, for now, largely stuck to their plans, the postponement of the Oscars could also lead some of those gatherings to shift their dates as well, as the ripple effects spread through the whole awards-season ecosystem."

Anne Thompson of Indiewire:

...festivals from Venice and Telluride to Toronto and New York don’t know what form their annual events will take this year. Big titles like David Fincher’s biopic “Mank” starring Oscar-winner Gary Oldman, may thrive without a fall festival launch (Netflix has not committed to sending its films to festivals), but smaller, less pedigreed titles, that need discovery from media and audiences, could fail to build buzz and attention to become must-sees.

There’s another possibility with the Academy date shift: the festivals themselves can move back as well, allowing for safety concerns as well as finished titles to catch up with them.


Uncertainty upon uncertainty.

Here are the full stories from each of the above:

Deadline

The L.A. Times

Indiewire


FIRST DOMINO: BAFTA

The first domino to fall in the wake of the decision to push the Oscars to April was the British Academy of Film and Television Arts announced that they'll be doing their ceremony on April 11th.  It's BAFTA's adjustment to match up with this week's decision from AMPAS.

The Hollywood Reporter's Etan Vlessing has that story linked here.

THE DISTRIBS: NEON

I'm continuing to run down distributors that have had some history with the Telluride Film Festival in what is probably an incredibly futile effort to predict the TFF #47 lineup in a vaccine-free Covid-19 world. Today NEON!

Neon is coming off of last year's fantastic and historic run with Best Picture Oscar winner Parasite.  Their past with TFF looks like this:

2019: Parasite, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Amazing Grace

2018: Border, The Biggest Little Farm

2017: No SHOW

2016: The B Side: Elsa Dorfman

After last year's success, you have to figure that Neon probably wants to play at TFF again.  Of course we can't be certain of  anything currently.  Nevertheless, Neon has a couple of films that could be contenders for TFF #47 chief of which is Francis Lee's Ammonite starring a powerhouse duo of Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan.  The film has not yet been dated for release but went into post-production last in April of 2019.  So you have to figure that it is totally ready.

Another, lesser buzzed title under the Neon umbrella that could be possible is Michael Sarnoski's Pig starring Nicolas Cage as an Oregon man searching for his kidnapped, truffle snuffling pig.  

The third title that Neon has but that we will not see is Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Memoria that is widely believed to now be waiting for a slot at the 2021 edition of Cannes.

Chances:

Ammonite: 50%

Pig 25%

Memoria 0%

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Oscars to Move Today??? / The Distribs: Sony Pictures Classics

OSCARS TO MOVE TODAY???

The Board of Governors for The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will be meeting virtually later today.  They are widely believed to decide that they will move the dates for the Oscar ceremony from its current date of Feb. 28th.

Some speculation has it that the ceremony could be pushed to March or even as late as April.  We should know something more after the Board meeting today.

AMPAS has already made the decision to alter the eligibility rules to allow films that did not screen ina theater but had a release date scheduled to be eligible for the Oscar. 

Should the organization make the decision to change dates, that also raises questions about whether there might be other tweaking regarding eligibilty and release dates.  Additionally, one wonders if an Oscar date change will create a domino effect among other awards programs and the guild awards.

And, of course, you have to wonder what effect, if any, an Oscar date change might have on Telluride and the other fall film fests.

Indiewire's Anne Thompson took on a number of these issues in an article published on Tuesday which I have linked here.



THE DISTRIBS: SONY PICTURES CLASSICS

Over the past couple of decades of the Telluride Film Festival no distributor has had more features scheduled than Sony Pictures Classics.  Here's the run for the last several years:

2019: The Climb, Lyrebird, Pain and Glory (3)
2018: The White Crow (1)
2017: A Fantastic Woman, Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool, Foxtrot, Loveless, The Rider (5)
2016: The Eagle Huntress, Maudie, Norman, Toni Erdmann (4)
2015: Son of Saul (1)
2014: Foxcatcher, Leviathan, Red Army, Mr. Turner, Wild Tales, Salt of the Earth and Merchants of Doubt (7)
2013: The Invisible Woman, The Lunchbox, The Past, Tim's Vermeer and Jodorowsky's Dune (5)
2012: The Gatekeepers, At Any Price, Rust and Bone, No, Wadjda, Amour (6)
2011: A Dangerous Method, In Darkness, Footnote, A Separation (4)
2010: Incendies, Of Gods and Men, Tamara Drewe, Another Year, The Illusionist, Inside Job (6)
2009: The Last Station, The White Ribbon, Coco Before Chanel, A Prophet, An Education (5)
2008: Waltz with Bashir, I've Loved You So Long, O'Horten (3)
2007: Brick Lane, When Did You Last See Your Father, Persepolis, The Band's Visit, The Counterfeiters, Steep! (6)
2006: Jindabyne, The Lives of Others, Volver, The Italian (4)
2005: Breakfast on Pluto, Capote, Cache, The Child (4)
2004: Being Julia, House of Flying Daggers, Bad Education, Merchant of Venice, Up and Down, Yes (6)
2003: The Fog of War, My Life Without Me, The Triplets of Belleville, Young Adam (4)

That's 74 films over a 17 year span for an average of 4.4 films per year.

At this point SPC looks to have only a couple of films that could be in consideration for TFF #47. 

The most likely seems to be Zachary Furher's documentary John Prine: Hello in There.  I suggest that it's the most likely only because it's post-production date is listed by IMDb as Feb. 2019.  You have to figure that it's done.

SPC's other title is Azazel Jacob's French Exit starring Michelle Pfeiffer.  It's much mire iffy as it went into post-production very late in the game (Dec. 10, 2019) with respect to the Covid-19 lockdown. 

Though SPC only has these two titles in the pipe, they could very easily acquire a property or two that they then turnaround and submit to Telluride for possible inclusion so keep an eye open for news along those lines.

Chances...

Prine 40%
French Exit 20%
Some new acquisition 30%

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Views of Cannes' Titles (That We Might See?) / The Distribs: Searchlight

VIEWS OF CANNES' TITLES (THAT WE MIGHT SEE?)

With the announcement on Wednesday of 50+ films that will carry the seal of official selection for the 73rd Cannes Film Festival going forward through the rest of 2020 and into 2021 we began to see the release of tearers, trialers and stills from a njumber of projects.  I'm passing along some of those that I came across over the past few days with an emphasis being on thise titles that feel like they could make their way to Telluride.

TRALER FOR THE FRENCH DISPATCH/WES ANDERSON (YouTube)

TRAILER FOR ANOTHER ROUND/THOMAS VINTERBERG (YouYube)

TEASER FOR ETE '85 (SUMMER '85)/FRANCOIS OZON (YouTube)

TEASER FOR TRUE MOTHERS/NAOMI KAWASE (YouTube)

STILLS FROM MANGROVE AND LOVER'S ROCK/STEVE MC QUEEN (The Film Stage)

THE DISTRIBS: SEARCHLIGHT

The annual summer look at film distribution outfits that have had a significant relationship with the Telluride Film Festival over the years begins today.

We'll begin our analysis with TFF stalwart Searchlight (used to be Fox Searchlight but underwent the name alteration after Disney bought them).

Searchlight's recent history with TFF:

2019: A Hidden Life (1)
2018: The Favourite, Can You Ever Forgive Ne?, The Old Man and the Gun (3)
2017: The Shape of Water (Best Picture Oscar), Battle of the Sexes (2)
2016: No Show
2015: He Named Me Malala (1)
2014: Birdman (Best Picture Oscar), Wild (2)
2013: 12 Years a Slave (Best Picture Oscar) (1)
2012: No Show
2011: Shame, The Descendants (2)
2010: Never Let Me Go, 127 Hours, Black Swan (3)
2009: No Show
2008: Slumdog Millionaire (Best Picture) (1)
2007: Juno, The Savages (2)
2006: The Last King of Scotland, The Namesake (2)
2005: Bee Season (1)
2004: Kinsey (1)

That means Searchlight averages just under 1 1/2 films at TFF each year over the last 16 years.  This year their cupboard is full of films that could make an appearance at TFF.  As we'll be saying all summer...so much is going to depend on the perception of film makers, talent, distributors and pass holders as to what films actually end up in The SHOW.

That said, Searchlight has four contenders.

The first to mention is Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch.  It's a film that would not have been on the Telluride radar at all if things were "normal" but the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in it being moved off its original release date to a current announced date of Oct. 16th.  That signals that the film could conceiveably play any or all of the fall fests TFF, TIFF, Venice and/or New York.  It was believed that it would be the opening night film for Cannes original May dates, you know that it must be ready to screen for audiences.

Next up is Chloe Zhao's Nomadland starring Frances McDormand.  This film was on my lookout list last year! However, I was surprised that we didn't see it show up on the Cannes list last week.  That could be a warning sign.  It could also mean that Searchlight decided not to go after a Cannes slot ofr the film...maybe Venice?

The other two Searchlight properties may have trouble being ready for a TFF date.  Michael Showalter's The Eyes of Tammy Faye went into post-production in December and Taika Waititi's Next Goal Wins went into post in January.  With the shutdown of the industry in March due to the pandemic, both films are question marks at this time.

Also, a quick word about a fifth film, Guillermo Del Toro's Nightmare Alley.  Prior to the pandemic I might have thought that this film had an outside shot at making Telluride but it looked like Del Toro would have to really work quickly to get it done in time.  Now, however, with IMDb describing the film as "filming" (as of Jan. 20th) I have to think that it's going to be a 2021 release.

Chances for TFF #47:

The French Dispatch 40%
Nomadland 40%
Tammy Faye and Next Goal Wins 25%

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Cannes Titles Revealed / Fremaux Interview Sheds Light / Analysis of the Cannes Selections

CANNES TITLES REVEALED

The 73rd Cannes Film Fest list ofn 50ish films that would have been chosen was announced yesterday.  FIlms gthat seemed to me to have some overt Telluride possibilities included:

Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch
Francois Ozon's Summer '85
Francis Lee's Ammonite
Steve McQueen's duo of Mangrove and Lover's Rock from what was supposed to have been a T.V. series but is now billed as six small films-Small Axe was the title of the anthology.
Thomas Vinterberg's Another Round


Here's the complete list of films announced:

“The French Dispatch,” Wes Anderson
“Summer of 85,” François Ozon
“True Mothers,” Naomi Kawase
“Lover’s Rock,” Steve McQueen
“Mangrove,” Steve McQueen
“Druk (Another Round),” Thomas Vinterberg
“Peninsula,” Sang-ho Yeon
“ADN,” Maïwenn
“Soul,” Pete Docter
“Ammonite,” Francis Lee
“Falling,” Viggo Mortensen
“Broken Keys,” Jimmy Keyrouz
“Truffle Hunters,” Gregory Kershaw and Michael Dweck
“Aya and the Witch,” Goro Miyazaki
“Limbo,” Ben Sharrock
“Heaven,” Im Sang-soo
“Last Words,” Jonathan Nossiter
“Des Hommes,” Lucas Belvaux
“Passion Simple,” Danielle Arbid
“Good Man,” Marie-Castille Mention Schaar
“The Things We Say, the Things We Do,” Emmanuel Mouret
“John and the Hole,” Pascual Sisto
“Limbo,” Ben Sharrock
“Here We Are,” Nir Bergman
“Rouge,” Farid Bentoumi
“Sweat,” Magnus von Horn
“Teddy,” Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma
“Un médecin de nuit,” Elie Wajeman
“Enfant Terrible,” Oskar Roehler
“Nadia, Butterfly,” Pascal Plante
“Pleasure,” Ninja Thyberg
“Slalom,” Charlène Favier
“Casa de Antiguidades,” João Paulo Miranda Maria
“Ibrahim,” Samuel Gueismi
“Gagarine,” Fanny Liatard, Jérémy Trouilh
“16 Printemps,” Suzanne Lindon
“Vaurien,” Peter Dourountzis
“Garçon chiffon,” Nicolas Maury
“Si Le Vent Tombe,” Nora Martirosyan
“On the Way to the Billion,” Dieudo Hamadi
“9 Days at Raqqa,” Xavier de Lauzanne
“Cévennes,” Caroline Vignal
“French Tench,” Bruno Podalydès
“Un Triomphe,” Emmanuel Courcol
“Le Discours,” Laurent Tirard
“L’Origine du Monde,” Laurent Lafitte
“Flee,” Jonas Poher Rasmussen
“Eight and a Half,” Ann Hui, Sammo Kam-Bo Hung, Ringo Lam, Patrick Tam, Johnnie To, Hark Tsui, John Woo, Woo-Ping Yuen

I have linked coverage of the announcement from:

Indiewire

Variety

Deadline



FREMAUX INTERVIEW SHEDS LIGHT

Cannes Artistic Director Thierry Fremuax (via Indiewire)

Tuesday, the day before the Cannes lineup announcement, Variety's Elsa Keslassy reported that Cannes artistic Director Thierry Fremaux had written a letter highlighting some of the facts of the selections and the process for this most unusual year.

Among the items of interest in the article that Keslassy penned from that letter is this paragraph:

"Fremaux also said Cannes’ official selection has been invited, as per tradition, to festivals that succeed it, such as Locarno, Telluride, Toronto, Deauville, San Sebastian, Pusan, Angoulême (for French cinema), Morelia, New York, Lyon, Rome, Rio, Tokyo, Mumbai or Mar del Plata and even Sundance."

As best as I can tell, it's the first acknowledgement from one of the players that Telluride will be in the mix for some of these Cannes #73 films,  Up until this point I have been assuming that the traditionally strong connection between Cannes and Telluride would continue to exist but the news stories that I have seen have never explicitly mentioned T-ride.  They had explicitly mentioned a whole slew of other fests but I hadn't seen Telluride by name until Tuesday.

Keslassy followed the Tuesday article with another yesterday after the Cannes lineup was announced and it also included a nod to Telluride programming Cannes' titles:

"The other fests that are expected to play Cannes-labeled films include Telluride, Deauville, Busan, Morelia, New York, Sundance and Fremaux’s own Lumiere festival in Lyon."

Now our next best move is to start paying attention to how Venice, Toronto and New York structure themselves and announce the films that will play at each of those stops.  We may still be able to figure out some of what will be a part of TFF #47.

Here's the link to the Fremaux letter article.

Today's follow-up is linked above.


ANALYSIS OF THE CANNES SELECTIONS

Indiwire's Eric Kohn and Anne Thompson in separate posts yesterday took some time to parse the list of 50+ films that Cannes has now said would have played as a part of Cannes #73.

Kohn's article looks at a number of topics including films that were not named.  That list included some films that are presumed to be eyeing Cannes for 2021 like Paul Verhoeven's Bendetta.  Among the other films not named, which I have thought might be part of a normal year's Telluride conversation, were Sofia Coppola's On the Rocks and Mia Hansen-Love's Bergman Island.

Kohn's article is linked here.

Thompson's story focuses on the Oscar chances of the films that were named.  Her conclusion-Oscar fare is not in abundance in this lineup. 

Her assessment is that the best Oscar candidates here are Anderson's The French Dispatch, Lee's Ammonite and Docter's Soul.

Incidentally, Thompson also makes the claim in print that we can expect to see some Cannes titles at TFF #47:

"The Cannes 2020 selection will eventually get that extra push from critics, media and audiences at Venice, Telluride, Toronto and New York, in whatever hybrid form they take"

The Thompson article is linked here.

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TFF #47 Is On / Cannes Slate Reveal on Wednesday / Housekeeping Note

TFF #47 IS ON

If you're reading this you almost certainly already knew the story.  The Telluride Film Festival mass emailed pass holders on Friday with the assurance that TFF #47 was happening.

The complete text follows (but I'll bet you've already seen it):

From the very beginning, the founders of the Telluride Film Festival declined to call it an “annual” event. Like most things with the SHOW, this was intentional. There was an understanding that life is indeed full of uncertainty. Maybe there wouldn’t be a festival every year…and it has made each eventual Labor Day celebration that much sweeter.

We see clearly the obstacles that are cruelly, tragically and stubbornly in our way this year in orders of magnitude our dear founders might not ever have envisioned.

But there has been a determination to proceed, in large part fueled by the voices in our community. This community understands that movies really are empathy machines, that when we assemble to witness the glories of cinema together, something magical happens. We humbly suggest that our world needs the light of cinema and its beautiful by-products of compassion and emotional storytelling alchemy like never before.

We are not ignorant of the devastation facing the world. We feel the fear and distress too. This is why we are committed to observing all guidance as suggested by the consensus of voices of the scientific community with whom we are consulting now. This will not be a business as usual event. Things will look and feel very different.

We’re contacting you today to let you know we’re hard at work to provide a safe and joyous environment that will include an extra day to allow more space within and between screenings, along with all of the necessary safety tweaks and adjustments you’ve become very familiar with, regardless of where you call home.

The festival will begin Thursday, September 3, instead of Friday, and will end on Monday, as usual. We will have a charter from New York City, in addition to our usual charters from Los Angeles, to ensure easier and more controlled transit for our East Coast friends. Please contact ann@ski.com to book your flights.

Your comfort and safety are the most important things to us. A defining characteristic of our community and especially of the dedicated volunteers who bring you the SHOW, is remarkable willpower - and grit. We promise to marshal these qualities to create the most secure environment possible for all of us.

For those of you who opt to not join us, we absolutely understand and support this decision. Your reasons surely involve heightened personal health concerns and you must do what is the very best for you. We trust and hope you’ll be back with us the next time we can provide optimal conditions for the SHOW. May that be soon.

In the meantime, we will let you know additional and specific information in the coming weeks.

For every gesture of support you have shown us, we thank you- very, very much.

FIAT LUX!


The email includes the official announcement that the fest will start a day early -on Thursday, Sept. 3rd.  Of what is perhaps the most important sentence in the email is the assurance that "additional and specific information" will be on its way in the coming weeks.

I suspect that kind of information will be crucial to decisions about whether to attend the fest for a number of people.

As I'm sure many of you saw, the release of the email created quite a ripple in the film press universe.  Among all the stories I ran across the one that seemed most willing to toss on a little speculation beyond the text of the email itself was Pete Hammond at Deadline.com

Among the items that piqued my interest in Hammond's story about TFF going forward were these:

Hammond suggests that Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch might still be in the running to screen at Telluride.  He writes:

"Of course, there is great uncertainty about other big name films being ready for any fest, and the situation is fluid, to say the least.

One possibility would appear to be Fox Searchlight’s Wes Anderson film French Dispatch, which was reported to appear in Cannes and open in May. It has been moved to an October launch, which would make it an obvious choice for Telluride and Toronto, especially since Searchlight almost always has at least one premiere, and often more, in the pipeline for these fests."

That would be fantastic from my perspective and undercuts the notion that The French Dispatch might be a Toronto-only presentation.

Further, Hammond opens the door slightly to there being the possibility that Netflix's announcement that it would be doing any fall fests might not be 100% carved in stone:

" Netflix, which has been a key presence in the last couple of years is sitting this one out, at least at this point."

The key sentence there being the "At least at this point".

And, as an aside...due to Telluride's secretive nature, you kind of have to wonder that if Netflix was ONLY going to screen at Telluride that they might suggest they weren't going anywhere.

Personally, I take Netflix at its word that they won't screen anywhere...but it's fun to speculate.

The third take from the Hammond article underscores what I've been saying for a bit and that is that we're all likely going to get some insight to possible TFF selections when Cannes announces the films that it would have programmed on Wednesday.  Hammond writes:

"Several titles always come from Cannes, so we can probably expect some of them when Cannes reveals the lineup they had set for the May fest that didn’t happen. That will be on June 3, and those films will be able to carry the Cannes Film Festival 2020 label. So Telluride toppers Julie Huntsinger and Tom Luddy will certainly be looking at those."

So, there are some things to chew on.

The complete Hammond/Deadline article is linked here.


CANNES SLATE REVEAL ON WEDNESDAY

As mentioned above and in previous posts, Cannes will be announcing a list of around 50 titles on Wednesday that will be classified as Cannes 2020 selections and will carry the stamp of that going forward as other film fests will be screening those films.  As Hammond mentions in his above referenced post and as I have said repeatedly, you can expect that some TFF #47 choices will be on that list.

As I written here before, in atypical year the average Telluride/Cannes crossover is 7-8 films.  My guess, and it's totally a guess, is that the crossover might be larger this year.

Cannes artistic director Thierry Fremaux is expected to announce around 50 titles on Wednesday.  He was interviewed recently by Scott Roxborough for The Hollywood Reporter and though Fremaux doesn't mention Telluride specifically...I have to believe, as Hammond does in his article, that Cannes will have a presence at TFF #47.

The Fremaux/THR interview is linked here.


HOUSEKEEPING NOTE

Long time followers of MTFB know that as we get into June I have traditionally expanded the number of times I post per week.  However, with the lack of clarity surrounding virtually everything due to Covid-19, I'm going to keep with the normal twice a week format for a couple of weeks.

Lots of approaches and items that I normally write about at the start of the summer are so ill-defined currently that I don't think that they'd  be all that valuable to address right now.

So, I'll likely expand to the four posts per week schedule the week of June 22nd.

Of course, this all could change at any moment.

Be safe and kind this week...

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

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