New Trailers for TFF #47 Films / Telluride at Home-Part Two / Kate Winslet Talks Ammonite / Truffles for Christmas

NEW TRAILERS FOR TFF #47

A couple of international films that would have played as a part of the lineup that was announced list for TFF #47 dropped trailers this week.

Christos Nikou's Apples, which will screen as a part of the Venice Film Festival, released the following trailer on Friday (from You Tube):

And from director Malgorzata Szumowska' Never Gonna Snow Again (also a Venice title) had a teaser release on Tuesday:

And also ahead of its debut at bothe Venice and Toronto,  Gianfranco Rosi's documentary, Notturno, also has an international trailer.  Thanks to my buddy Alex Billington at FirstShowing.net who posted this news yesterday.

TELLURIDE AT HOME-PART TWO

I'm passing along a couple more lists that I've gotten for folks that have accepted my challenge to curate their own replacement TFF #47 film fest in their own homes over the upcoming Labor Day weekend.

What I've suggested is for folks to pick 10-12 films from past Telluride Film Fests that are either films they'd like to re-visit or films that screened at Telluride but were missed.

I've completed my list of 11 (actually, a cooperative effort with the wife) and I'll be revealing mine in Thursday's post.  The Mrs. and I have chosen 11 films that we first saw at Telluride and will be seeing again...many being repeated for the first time since seeing them at TFF.

So, if you'd like to play and share your choices, feel free to drop me a line about what films you've curated for your very own TFF #47 at Home.  The deadline to get me your list is Wednesday at 6:00pm EDT.

Here are a couple of more lists that have been sent to me.  First is from my brother Jim who categorized two lists, one for narrative features and another for documentaries:

Top 10 Virtual TFF 48 list – Combining Documentaries & Movies

 Films (Alphabetic)

Black Mass
Darkest Hour
Hostiles
La La Land
Marguerite
Motherless Brooklyn
Spotlight
The Aeronauts
The Last Vermeer
Toni Erdmann


Documentaries (Alphabetic)

California Typewriter
Chasing Train
Eagle Huntress
Filmworker
Free Solo
Inside Bill’s Brain
Jerry Lewis: The Man Behind the Clown
Reversing Row
Spheres VR Experience

 And from friend of the blog Jim Brooks...his list of ten films for his Telluride at Home:

1 La La Land
2 Hostiles
3 Parasite (my wife saved a seat, and when I sat down, on the other side of the seat saved was none other than Mr. Telluride predictor, Michael Patterson, in the back row of the balcony of the Palm!)
4 Free Solo (Incredible!!!!! thanks to Telluride I revisited that in Imax when it was released in the fall.)
5 The Two Popes
6 Moonlight
7 First Man
8 Cold War
9 Toni Erdmann (last film of 2016, took a chance at the Chuck, and really enjoyed it!)
10 Frantz



Jim has also done some serious work as he is tracking down where some TFF films can be streamed:


Dogman (Hulu)
Roma (Netflix)
Angels Are Made of Light (iTunes)
Peterloo (Amazon Prime)
Nonfiction (Amazon Prime)
Graves Without a Name (iTunes)
The Other Side of the Wind  (Netflix)
Border  (Hulu)
Dovlatov (Netflix)
Biggest Little Farm (Amazon)
Girl (Netflix)
Free Solo  (hulu, Amazon)
Ghost Fleet (Amazon)
Shoplifters (Hulu)
The Great Buster (Amazon, YouTube)
Birds of Passage (Amazon)
Neruda (Amazon)
Things to Come (Amazon)
Lost in Paris (Amazon)
Una (Netflix)
Frantz (Amazon)
Chasing Trane (Netflix)
Into the Inferno (Netflix)
The Ivory game (Netflix)
Finding Oscar (Amazon, YouTube, AppleTV)
California Typewriter (Hulu)
Bright Lights (Amazon, HBO)
The Assistant (Amazon)


KATE WINSLET TALKS AMMONITE

Oscar winner Kate Winslet's latest film, the much buzzed about Ammonite, is about to screen as a part of the Toronto International Film Festival (Sept. 11).  The film was one of the 29 that was announced as a film that would have played Telluride had the festival happened.  It was also a Cannes choice.

Prior to the film's debut, Winslet talked to Tatiana Siegel writing for The Hollywood Reporter about AMmonite and her career.

That interview/story is linked here.


TRUFFLES FOR CHRISTMAS

Sony Pictures Classics has announced that TFF #47 documentary selection The Truffle Hunters will open on Dec. 25th in the U.S.

Deadline reported the announcement on Friday.

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Telluride at Home-Take One / Ammonite Has a Trailer / The Truffles Hunt Up More Festing / TFF Will Present All In

TELLURIDE AT HOME-TAKE ONE

Last Monday I suggested that those of us that will be missing being at the 47th Telluride Film Festival might curate our own TFF's right at home.  

That's what the Mrs. and I will be doing in about a week.  We'll be choosing 10 or so films that we've either seen at TFF in our 14 years of attending or films that played at TFFs during those fests but that we missed and have never caught up with.  I'll be posting our list a week from today.  We're even going so far as to trying to replicate meals from some of our favorite places to eat in Telluride and Mountain Village.

I also invited you readers to join the party and program your own TFF #47 using the same guidelines I listed above and then drop me a note about what films you included.  My plan is to post and maybe even tweet the TFF #47 lists I get.  So send those to me in any of the variety of contact methods listed at the bottom of this post.

I also reached out specifically to some acquaintances to see what they might program.  I already have some responses from that quarter.

Eric Kohn from Indiewire was the first to respond with this list:

The Act of Killing

12 Years a Slave

Moonlight

Uncut Gems

Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Anomalisa

Lady Bird

Starred Up

Stories We Tell

Heart of a Dog

Scott Feinberg from The Hollywood Reporter says:

Here are my 10 most memorable Telluride screenings — not necessarily the greatest movies that played at Telluride, but the ones that I most enjoyed seeing for the first time at that fest, which I began attending in 2011

1.Gravity (2013) 

2.45 Years (2015)

3.The Artist (2011)

4.Argo (2012)

5.12 Years a Slave (2013)

6.Spotlight (2015)

7.Moonlight (2016)

http://8.Free Solo (2018)

http://9.Red Army (2014)

10.Toni Erdmann (2016)

Kris Tapley, formerly of InContention and Variety was very enthusiastic:

My first year was 2009. Keeping it to 30:

AMOUR (Michael Haneke, 2012)

ANOMALISA (Duke Johnson and Charlie Kaufman, 2015)

ANOTHER YEAR (Mike Leigh, 2010)

ARGO (Ben Affleck, 2012)

BIRDMAN (Alejandro G. Iñárritu, 2014)

BLACK SWAN (Darren Aronofsky, 2010)

FIRST MAN (Damien Chazelle, 2018)

FOXCATCHER (Bennett Miller, 2014)

GRAVITY (Alfonso Cuarón, 2013)

HOSTILES (Scott Cooper, 2017)

INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2013)

LADY BIRD (Greta Gerwig, 2017)

LA LA LAND (Damien Chazelle, 2016)

MARRIAGE STORY (Noah Baumbach, 2019)

MOONLIGHT (Barry Jenkins, 2016)

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND (Orson Welles, 2018)

PARASITE (Bong Joon-ho, 2019)

A PROPHET (Jacques Audiard, 2009)

ROMA (Alfonso Cuarón, 2018)

A SEPARATION (Asghar Farhadi, 2011)

'71 (Yann Demange, 2014)

SHAME (Steve McQueen, 2011)

SON OF SAUL (László Nemes, 2015)*

SPOTLIGHT (Tom McCarthy, 2015)

STEVE JOBS (Danny Boyle, 2015)

UNCUT GEMS (Josh and Benny Safdie, 2019)

UP IN THE AIR (Jason Reitman, 2009)

WAVES (Trey Edward Shults, 2019)

THE WAY BACK (Peter Weir, 2010)

WILD TALES (Damián Szifron, 2014)

And some special screenings I adored:

AGUIRRE, THE WRATH OF GOD (Herzog Theater Christening)

APOCALYPSE NOW (40th Anniversary)

BARAKA (Guest Director Selection)

A TRIP TO THE MOON AND BEYOND (Serge Bromberg Restoration)

More to come as we get closer to what would have been TFF #47 weekend.  SEND ME your "Telluride at Home" list of 10 films!

AMMONITE HAS A TRAILER

One of the buzziest of titles on Telluride's list of films that would have played had the fest been able to occur is Francis Lee's Ammonite starring Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan.  Neon (who distributed last year's Best Picture Oscar winner-Parasite) released a trailer for the film earlier this week.  Here that is from YouTube:

The Hollywood Reporter, among others, provided coverage of the release of the trailer.  That is linked here.

Ammonite is set to be screened at the Toronto International Film Festival.

THE TRUFFLES HUNT UP MORE FESTING

TFF #47 selected documentary The Truffle Hunters is on a roll as we found out this week that the film had been added to the Toronto lineup and had also been selected for the San Sebastian Film Festival.

Indiewire's Kate Erbland reported the TIFF addition on Tuesday.  Also added were a number of "conversations" including one between Claie Denis and Telluride favorite Barry Jenkins.

That Indiewire story can be found here.

TFF WILL PRESENT ALL IN

There had been hints that Telluride might schedule another "special event" after originally announcing that the fest would screen Chloe Zhao's Nomadland at a drive-in location in Los Angeles on Sept. 11.

That seems to be a special screening of the voting rights documentary All In: The Fight for Democracy.    The film will be screened in conjunction withe the Mill Valley Film Festival on Sept. 2/next Wednesday.

According to the press release:

Mill Valley Film Festival (MVFF) Director/Founder Mark Fishkin and Telluride Film Festival (TFF) Executive Director Julie Huntsinger announced the World Premiere of the Amazon Original All In: The Fight for Democracy, to be screened Wednesday, September 2 in the SF Bay Area at the West Wind Solano Twin Drive-In located in Concord. 

 “We are delighted to be presenting the World Premiere of All In: The Fight for Democracy, and partnering with our long-time friends at the Telluride Film Festival,” said Mark Fishkin. “All In: The Fight for Democracy is a film for our times and also timeless; the subject matter could not be more important as we enter this election season. The ability of a great film to not only create empathy, but to activate a cause can never be underestimated. It’s also the personal story of Stacey Abrams, who has devoted her life to equity and a democratic society. All In, the Fight for Democracy, is all that, and so much more.”

Julie Huntsinger adds, “How incredible it is to be able to share the important message of a singular woman - the one and only Stacey Abrams! Lisa Cortes and Liz Garbus have created an exhilarating portrait of Stacey and the fight against voter suppression.  This is a film for everyone and we hope our spotlight leads to many others.”

Directed by Oscar® and Emmy®-Award nominated filmmaker Lisa Cortés and Oscar®-nominated and Emmy®-winning filmmaker Liz Garbus, All In: The Fight for Democracy examines the enduring legacy of voter suppression in the US and features Stacey Abrams, the first Black woman to become the gubernatorial nominee for a major party in the United States.

 Fishkin also announced that the 43rd Mill Valley Film Festival (MVFF) will take place Thursday, October 8– Sunday, October 18, 2020 online and in drive-in locations.

 The All In: The Fight for Democracy screening kicks off the Mill Valley Film Festival’s 2020 Contenders Season. MVFF will celebrate this exceptional and timely work from directors Cortés and Garbus with the first ever Active Cinema Spotlight program, presenting them with the MVFF Award virtually just prior to the screening. 

Staying connected has rarely been more important than now, during this crucial time of social distancing and social turmoil. The Mill Valley Film Festival will continue to provide a beacon of connection, information, and inspiration through the power of visual storytelling. Utilizing digital platforms, virtual cinema, and nightly drive-in events, MVFF43 will offer a selection of film screenings, online conversations, workshops, and panels to our loyal audience here in the Bay Area, as well as new audiences around the nation.

 About All In: The Fight for Democracy

In anticipation of the 2020 presidential election, ALL IN: THE FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY examines the often overlooked, yet insidious issue of voter suppression in the United States The film interweaves personal experiences with current activism and historical insight to expose a problem that has corrupted our democracy from the very beginning. With the perspective and expertise of Stacey Abrams, the former Minority Leader of the Georgia House of Representatives, the documentary offers an insider’s look into laws and barriers to voting that most people don’t even know are threats to their basic rights as citizens of the United States.

The film will launch globally on Prime Video September 18, 2020. 

About Stacey Abrams

Stacey Abrams is a New York Times bestselling author, serial entrepreneur, nonprofit CEO and political leader. After serving for eleven years in the Georgia House of Representatives, seven as Minority Leader, in 2018, Abrams became the Democratic nominee for Governor of Georgia, when she won more votes than any other Democrat in the state’s history. Abrams was the first black woman to become the gubernatorial nominee for a major party in the United States. After witnessing the gross mismanagement of the 2018 election by the Secretary of State’s office, Abrams launched Fair Fight Action to ensure every Georgian has a voice in our election system. Over the course of her career, Abrams has founded multiple organizations devoted to voting rights, training and hiring young people of color, and tackling social issues at both the state and national levels. In 2019, she launched Fair Count to ensure accuracy in the 2020 Census and greater participation in civic engagement, and the Southern Economic Advancement Project, a public policy initiative to broaden economic power and build equity in the South. 

She is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the 2012 recipient of the John F. Kennedy New Frontier Award, and a current member of the Board of Directors for the Center for American Progress. Abrams has also written eight romantic suspense novels under the pen name Selena Montgomery, in addition to Lead from the Outside, formerly Minority Leader, a guidebook on making real change.

About Filmmakers

Lisa Cortés is an award-winning film producer and director. The film Precious (2009), which she executive produced, received Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize for best drama. Marking the acting debut of Gabourey Sidibe, the film was nominated for six Academy Awards® and won two. 2019’s The Apollo, an HBO documentary, explores African American cultural and political history through the story of the legendary Apollo Theater. Her directorial debut, The Remix: Hip Hop X Fashion (2020), traces the impact of street fashion and African American creativity on global cultural trends. Her early career as a music executive was launched at the iconic Def Jam label and Rush Artist Management; she also was VP of A&R at Mercury Records, and founded the Loose Cannon label. Her film productions have received over 70 international awards and nominations.

 Two-time Academy Award®-Nominee, two-time Emmy Winner, Peabody Winner, Grammy Nominee, DGA Nominee, and BAFTA-nominated director Liz Garbus is renowned for creating electrifying archival-driven historical documentaries that retain all the narrative velocity, artistic craft, and conceptual depth of propulsive vérité films, as well as vérité films which take deep dives into today's most hotly debated topics. Garbus’ latest series I'll Be Gone in the Dark premiered on HBO in June 2020.  Her narrative feature debut, Lost Girls, premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2020 and was released on Netflix and in theatres in March 2020.  The Fourth Estate, for Showtime, was nominated for a 2018 Emmy for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series. Her 2015 feature, Sundance opener, What Happened, Miss Simone?, a Netflix original, was nominated for a 2016 Oscar for Best Documentary Feature and took home the Emmy Award for Best Documentary or Nonfiction Special.  Other credits include:  The Innocence Films (Netflix, 2020), Who Killed Garrett Phillips (HBO 2019), There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane (HBO), The Farm: Angola, USA (AA nominee 1998) and many others.

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Two Weeks... / Telluride at Home / First Looks: Fireball and Mainstream / The Usual Suspects-Covid Edition

TWO WEEKS...

Are you like me?

We're two weeks from what would have been the last day of TFF #47.

It's not that I haven't internalized that the fest isn't going to happen this year.  I had been contemplating the possibility for quite a while before the announcement dropped on July 14th.  However, as the dates approach that would have been the 47th edition of the Telluride Film Festival (and my 15th time to attend) I, like I suspect many of you, have a serious pang of longing and regret that our normally glorious weekend of film and fun will come and go more or less as just another weekend in Covid-19 America.

It will be weird and dis-orienting two weeks from today, when I would be winding the weekend down.  My habit over the past few years has been to get up on Labor Day to grab an early screening of something that has become buzzy over the weekend (the last two years that my films on Monday morning have been Cold War and Parasite...not bad, eh?) and then booking to Town Park to grab lunch and ice cream, say goodbye to whomever I could find there that needed saying goodbye to...that's how I met Barry Jenkins four years ago.  And then climb in the mini-van and head south and east.

This year, I'll already be "south and east" when I wake up on Labor Day.  Sooooo....


TELLURIDE AT HOME

I've decided that I'm programming a weekend at home of Telluride films from that past 14 editions that either I have seen or missed when they were in T-ride and that I still haven't visited.  The wife and I started compiling a list yesterday.  We'll whittle it down until we get to 10 or so films.  Then, in the tradition of Telluride, I'll announce my list for "Telluride at Home" on Thursday, Sept. 3rd.  The day before my festival starts.

What about you?  If you were to program a Telluride Fest from the years you've been attending, what would you include?  What would re-visit?  What films did you miss that you still haven't seen but wished you had?  Make a list of ten.

Drop me a line with your list if you feel like it.  I might well publish those here.


FIRST LOOKS: FIREBALL AND MAINSTREAM


As a result of their selections for TIFF and Venice, we have our first glimpses of would-be TFF #$7 films.  Werner Herzog's Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds and Gia Coppola's Mainstream.

From the Toronto PR for Fireball, it's Clive Oppenhiemer and Herzog as they search the world for meteors and stories of meteors.

From Venice, we got a still from her new film, Mainstream via Twitter.  It looks intriguing:

THE USUAL SUSPECTS: COVID-19 EDITION

Helen Mirren and Jim Broadbent in Roger Michell's The Duke 

Looking over the 29 feature film titles that were announced as what would have been selections had TFF #47 taken place, I can't help but notice that a number of folks who have had a presence at TFF in past Telluride Film Festivals were returning.  Some, like Chloe Zhao were returning after a maiden voyage with the fest.  Zhao's The Rider screened at Telluride in 2017.  The lineup also included Werner Herzog who is a mainstay of many, many TFF lineups.

Here's a quick rundown of folks that are or may soon be on my list of TFF"s "Usual Suspects" that are included in the TFF #47 lineup:

*Liz Garbus/All In: The Fight for Democracy  (Love, Marilyn TFF #39)
*Andrey Tarkovsky/Andrey Tarkovsky: A Cinema Prayer (Tarkovsky's works have often been featured at TFF)
*Frank Marshall/The Bees Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart (Marshall is on TFF's Board of Advisors)
*Roger Michell/The Duke (Michell's TFF credits include: Venus, Hyde Park on Hudson and Enduring Love)
*Gia Coppola/Mainstream (Coppola's first and only feature thus far, Palo Alto, was at TFF #40)
*Chloe Zhao/Nomadland (Zhao's The Rider was at TFF #44)
*Gianfranco Rosi/Notturno (Rosi was last at Telluride in 2016 with Fire at Sea)
*Mohammad Rasoulof/There Is No Evil (TFF tribute recipient in 2013, last film at TFF was 2017's A Man of Integrity)
*Lisa Immordino Vreeland/Truman and Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation (multiple TFF appearances: Love, Cecil, Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict, Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel)

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All In for the All In Trailer / Poster for Nomadland / The Kingmaker Gets Banned

ALL IN FOR THE ALL IN TRAILER


Amazon has released the first trailer for the Liz Garbus/Lisa Cortes documentary All In: The Fight for Democracy.  The film was one of the 29 selected to have been a part of the now-canceled TFF #47 lineup.

All In focuses on the work to resist voter suppression initiatives and tactics and features former Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams.

Here's the trailer from YouTube:

All In will be released in select theaters on Sept. 9th and then be available on Amazon Prime beginning Sept. 18th.

Coverage of the trailer drop and further details can be found here:

Indiewire

The Hollywood Reporter

Deadline


POSTER FOR NOMADLAND

We have a look at a poster for Chloe Zhao's Nomadland.  THe film has the distinction of being selected for all four of the major fall fests.  In addition to TFF #47, the film was selected by Toronto, Venice and New York as well.

The Nomadland poster was revealed on the official Nomadland Twitter account on Monday.  Here it is:

IMDb describes Nomadland as follows:

"A woman in her sixties who, after losing everything in the Great Recession, embarks on a journey through the American West, living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad."

The IMDb link for Nomadland is here.

THE KINGMAKER GETS BANNED

Lauren Greenfield's The Kingmaker, the documentary about former Philippine First Lady and political powerhouse Imelda Marcos which screened as a part of TFF #46, has been banned from screening in parts of Thailand.

The film has apparently played in parts of Thailand but, according to Variety, the film has been prevented from screening in the southern part of that nation.  One official cited by Variety suggests that the objection to the film was primarily related to its title and poster not the film's content.

The Variety story in full can be found here.

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New York Announces / Truffles Appear in Zurich / TFF #47 Film First Announced for International Oscar

 NEW YORK ANNOUNCES

The 2020 New York Film Festival lineup was announced last Thursday after MTFB had already been published.  Here's the competition lineup:

Opening Night: Lover's Rock/McQueen
Centerpiece: Nomadland/Zhao
Closing Night:  French Exit/Jacobs

Atarrabi and Mikelats/Green
Beginning/Kulumbegashvili
The Calming/Fang
City Hall/Wiseman
Days/Ming-liang
The Disciple/Tamhane
Gunda/Kossakovsky
I Carry You with Me (Te Llevo Conmigo)/Ewing
Isabella/Piñeiro
Malmkrog/Puiu
Mangrove/McQueen
MLK/FBI/Pollard
Night of the Kings (La Nuit des Rois)/Lacôte
Notturno/Rosi
Red, White and Blue/McQueen
The Salt of Tears (Le sel des larmes)/Garrel
Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue/Zhangke
Time/Bradley
Tragic Jungle (Selva Trágica)/Olaizola
The Truffle Hunters/Dweck and Kershaw
Undine/Petzold
The Woman Who Ran/Sangsoo

Four were named for both NYFF and TFF #47:  Nomadland, Notturno, MLK/FBI and The Truffle Hunters.  The NYFF list also included a couple of films that I thought might be TFF choices: City Hall and Undine as well as the Steve McQueen films: Mangrove, Lover's Rock and Red White and Blue.

The New York Film Fest is scheduled to run from Sept. 25-Oct. 11.

Here's rundown of the NYFF films with some commentary from Indiewire.
With the addition of the New York choices, here is the updated list of films that would be playing TFF #47 and the other film fests which have also scheduled some of those titles:

Ammonite:TIFF, Cannes

Charlatan: Berlin

Concrete Cowboy: TIFF

The Duke: Venice

The Father: TIFF, Sundance

Fireball: TIFF

Ibrahim: Cannes

Mainstream: Venice

Mandibules: Venice

MLK/FBI: TIFF, NYFF

Never Gonna Snow Again: Venice

Nomadland: TIFF, Venice, NYFF (centerpiece)

Notturno: TIFF, Venice, NYFF

There Is No Evil: Berlin

The Truffle Hunters: Cannes, Sundance, NYFF

TRUFFLES APPEAR IN ZURICH

The day after we found out that TFF #47 selection The Truffle Hunters (dir: Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw) had been selected for the New York Film Festival came news that the film was among the first 10 Gala Selections for the the Zurich Film Festival.

You could say it was a good week for the documentary that focuses on the exploits of three septuagenarian Italians as they forage for the delicacy.  IMDb describes the film as follows:

"Deep in the forests of Piedmont, Italy, a handful of men, seventy or eighty years young, hunt for the rare and expensive white Alba truffle-which to date has resisted all of modern science's efforts at cultivation."

ZFF will announce the remainder of its lineup on Sept. 14th.

Linked here are details of the selections announced Friday from Variety.



TFF #47 FILM FIRST ANNOUNCED FOR INTERNATIONAL OSCAR

Poland wasted no time declaring that Never Gonna Snow Again from director Malgorzata Szumowska will be its entry for the 2021 International FIlm Oscar race.  That news was reported by Deadline.

Never Gonna Snow Again was one of 29 films named to Telluride's list of films that would have played had the film fest been able to go forward.  The film is also set to premiere as a part of the Venice Film Festival lineup.

Here's its IMDb description:
"A Ukrainian migrant working as a masseur in Poland becomes a guru-like figure in the gated community where his clients live."

And here's the link to the Deadline story.

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Who Has What / TIFF Honors Mirror Telluride / AFI Goes Virtual

WHO HAS WHAT

Perhaps it's because Telluride announced its slate of intended films earlier than it normally does.  Maybe it's because the Cannes fest didn't happen.  It could be a matter of a diminished number of films available or the uncertainty over when and how those films might be released.  It might be because of distributor's decisions to hold back several titles because of the date changes for the Academy Awards.  And then there is the absence of any Netflix titles due to their decision to skip all of the festivals.  It's possibly a combination of these factors. Or it might be something else entirely but the number of films among the 29 titles on TFF's list for its 47th edition that do not yet have domestic distribution is significant. 

As I write this post this morning I can point to eight films with distributors for the U.S. lined up:

Sony Pictures Classics: The Father, The Truffle Hunters

Searchlight: Nomadland

Focus Features: The Way I See It

Amazon: All In: The Fight for Democracy

Neon: Ammonite

Kino Lorber: There Is No Evil

Apple+: Fireball 

That's a smallish eight of 29 titles.  You have to expect that will change over the next couple of months, but still...the weirdness of 2020 continues.

All of the above with the exception of Apple+ have been common players at Telluride (it's Apple+'s first time with a film that would have been part of TFF's lineup).

No A24 (which in recent years has been at T-ride a bunch).  No Roadside Attractions.  No Lionsgate.  No Bleecker Street or Cohen Media. No IFC/Sundance Selects.  And, as you can see above, a limited presence of  the distributors that are represented on the TFF #47 list with SPC being the only house with more than a single film among the 29.

Stay tuned.  I'll try to keep up with acquisitions as they occur.

TI FF HONORS MIRROR TELLURIDE

When Telluride organizers announced what would have been the lineup for the 47th edition of the festival they included the news that the three tributes would have been for Anthony Hopkins, Kate Winslet and Chloe Zhao.

We found out just in the last few days that the Toronto International Film Fest  will recognize both Hopkins (the TIFF Tribute Actor Award), and Zhao (the Ebert Director Award).  They join Winslet who had previously been announced as the recipient of a TIFF Tribute Actor Award.  Joining the threesome who would have been feted in the San Juans is an award from TIFF to director Mira Nair.  She will receive the Jeff Skoll Award in Media Impact.  

Details are here in this story from Variety.

AFI FEST GOES VIRTUAL

The American Film Institute has announced that their 34th iteration on Oct. 15-22 will be an all virtual affair.  The AFI Fest is usually the last large U.S. film fest in the calendar year with bearing on the Oscar race.  AFI organizers, however, moved their event to an earlier date for this year.  Normally the fest is a November affair.

AFI will likely be smaller than its normal size this year according to reporting from Variety.  That story is linked here.

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Lists and Lists / Seeing The Way I See It

LISTS AND LISTS

I've done all the comparisons and have what I believe to be an accurate list of where the announced TFF #47 films would have or will be playing as far as other film fests are concerned.  This, of course, does not include films (save for Nomadland) that have yet to be announced for the New York Film Fest.  I'm expecting we'll have that information this week.  It will also be interesting to see what's announced for and if films are announced for the BFI/London Film Fest as well as the American Film Institute Film Fest.

Here's the rundown of all of the TFF #47 films that have other film fest connections at this point:

Ammonite:TIFF, Cannes

Charlatan: Berlin

Concrete Cowboy: TIFF

The Duke: Venice

The Father: TIFF, Sundance

Fireball: TIFF

Ibrahim: Cannes

Mainstream: Venice

Mandibules: Venice

MLK/FBI: TIFF

Never Gonna Snow Again: Venice

Nomadland: TIFF, Venice, NYFF (centerpiece)

Notturno: TIFF, Venice

There Is No Evil: Berlin

The Truffle Hunters: Cannes, Sundance

So 15 of the 29 TFF #47 feature titles have been chosen by other major film fests.

SEEING THE WAY I SEE IT

After the reveal that Dawn Porter's The Way I See it, a documentary about former White House photographer Pete Souza, Focus Features has released a trailer as well as a poster (as you can see above).  The IMDb description for the film is as follows:

"Former Chief Official White House Photographer Pete Souza's journey as a person with top secret clearance and total access to the President."

Frequent Telluride Film Fest guest/visitor Laura Dern is among the producers of the film.

Here's the newly released trailer via YouTube:

Focus is saying that the film will be released in theaters in September.

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TFF #47 Would Have Rocked! / Odds and Ends / And Then There's This...

TFF #47 WOULD HAVE ROCKED!

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic the "what would have been" list of TFF #47 films that were released on Monday morning would have been a formidable lineup:

Features:

After Love/Khan

All In: The Fight for Democracy/Garbus and Cortes

The Alpinist/Mortimer and Rosen

Ammonite/Lee

Andrey Tarkovsky: A Cinema Prayer/Tarkovsky

Apples/Nikou

The Automat/Hurwitz

The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart/Marshall

Charlatan/Holland

Concrete Cowboy/Staub

Dear Mr. Brody/Maitland

The Duke/Michell

The Father/Zeller

Fireball/Herzog and Oppenheimer

Ibrahim/Guesmi

Mainstream/Coppola

Mandibules/Dupieux

MLK/FBI/Pollard

The Most Beautiful Boy in the World/Lindstrom

Never Gonna Snow Again/Szumowska

Nomadland/Zhao

Notturno/Rosi

Pray Away/Stolakis

There Is No Evil/Rasoulof

To the Moon/O'Sullivan

Torn/Lowe

The Truffle Hunters/Dweck and Kershaw

Truman and Tennessee an Intimate Conversation/Immordino

The Way I See It/Porter

Tributes were to have been: Kate Winslet/Ammonite, Chloe Zhao/Nomadland and Anthony Hopkins/The Father.  Solid!!!

ODDS AND ENDS

Well, it has been weird throughout the summer trying to determine what we would be programmed by Telluride.   Now we know.  Thoughts:

1) The last Ten Bets (#4 posted on Monday prior to the surprise drop of the Telluride list ended up with six of the ten films being named: Ammonite, Fireball, Nomadland, Notturno, There Is No Evil and The Truffle Hunters.

2) Misses were the two Steve McQueen films: Lover's Rock and Mangrove, which, as it turns out will be playing the New York Film Fest along with  a third film from McQueen's Small Axe collection.  As a matter of fact, Lover's Rock has been named the opening film for NYFF.  

Also missed The French Dispatch...which I still think might have been on Telluride's list at one point but with Searchlight's decision to pull it from its October release date, you have to think it's headed for Berlin or Cannes next year.  And the other whiff: The Secrets We Keep.

3) Pleased to see that one of my "also possibles" made the lineup which was the Garbus/Cortes voting rights documentary now titled: All In: The Fight for Democracy.

4) Other films that I had played with as possibles at some point along the way that ended up making the grade: Charlatan, The Duke, Mainstream and MLK/FBI.

5) That list of tributes...man  oh man.  would have been super pumped for the Anthony Hopkins as well as the Kate Winslet.  Deep bodies of great work from both of them.

6) From the first Ten Bets I went 5/10.  Ammonite, All In: The Fight for Democracy, Nomadland, Fireball and There Is No Evil.

AND THEN THERE'S THIS...

We've known for some time that Telluride organizers have been planning a "Telluride from Los Angeles" drive-in screening of Nomadland on Sept. 11th somewhere in the greater L.A. area.  The word has been that director Chloe Zhao and star Frances McDormand would be attending.  Additionally, the film is set to premiere that same day as a part of both the Venice and Toronto fests and will be the centerpiece presentation for the New York Film Fest.

What's new is this passage from Rebecca Keegan's story/interview about the TFF lineup announcement on Monday:

Telluride will host a drive-in screening in Los Angeles on Sept. 11 for the Chloé Zhao Searchlight movie Nomadland, which was to have shown at the festival as part of a tribute to the filmmaker. Zhao and Nomadland star Frances McDormand will both attend the drive-in, and at least one additional potential event for another film that would have premiered in the lineup is also in the works.

Does that echo the AP story that I included in last Monday's regularly scheduled post that suggested a Telluride "drive-in series"?  Maybe, though the wording in the Keegan story-"potential event"- hints that maybe it will be something else. Also interesting is the language that says" at least one" suggesting that there could possibly be more than one additional event.  

It will be fun to see what this might be.

The complete THR story is linked here.

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BREAKING: TELLURIDE #47 "WOULD HAVE PLAYED" LINEUP REVEALED

47TH TELLURIDE FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES FILM LINEUP

FOR ITS CANCELLED 2020 EVENT

 

TELLURIDE, CO – Telluride Film Festival, presented by the National Film Preserve, released today its official program selections for the now-cancelled event. The Festival, whose ethos is to bring together film enthusiasts, filmmakers and artists to celebrate cinematic excellence, was scheduled to take place over Labor Day weekend, September 3-7, 2020. The Festival previously announced its cancellation due to the COVID-19 global pandemic.

 

Representing twenty-five countries, the Festival’s program includes twenty-nine new narrative and documentary feature films and twenty-three shorts. In addition, the Festival chose three distinguished artists to receive its Silver Medallion Award.

“Though we aren’t able to present our program in-person as planned, we still want to announce the lineup to bring attention to these brilliant films,” said Telluride Film Festival executive director Julie Huntsinger. “We’ve listed everything we know about screening opportunities so that audiences may watch as many of these films as possible. The Festival will continue to do everything in its power to champion and promote this artform and the people who create it.”

 

Telluride Film Festival is proud to have selected the following new narrative and documentary feature films for its main program.

 

THE SHOW

AFTER LOVE (dir. Aleem Khan, UK, 89 min) 

 

ALL IN: THE FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY (dir. Liz Garbus, Lisa Cortés, USA, 102 min) 

How to watch: In select theaters Sept. 9, available to stream on Amazon Prime Video Sept. 18 

 

THE ALPINIST (dir. Peter Mortimer, Nick Rosen, USA, 92 min)

How to watch: Follow @redbulldocs for screening updates

 

AMMONITE (dir. Francis Lee, UK, 117 min)

How to watch: Toronto International Film Festival (Sept. 10-19)

 

ANDREY TARKOVSKY. A CINEMA PRAYER (dir. Andrey A. Tarkovsky, Italy-Russian Federation-Sweden, 97 min) 

 

APPLES (dir. Christos Nikou, Greece-Poland-Slovenia, 90 min) 

How to watch: Venice Film Festival (Sept. 2-12)

 

THE AUTOMAT (dir. Lisa Hurwitz, USA, 79 min)

How to watch: follow at Facebook.com/THEAUTOMATthemovie  for screening updates 

 

THE BEE GEES: HOW CAN YOU MEND A BROKEN HEART (dir. Frank Marshall, USA, 111 min)

 

CHARLATAN (dir. Agnieszka Holland, Czech Republic-Ireland-Poland-Slovakia, 118 min) 

How to watch: screening at the now in-progress Transilvania International Film Festival

 

CONCRETE COWBOY (dir. Ricky Staub, USA, 111 min)

How to watch: Toronto International Film Festival (Sept. 10-19)

 

DEAR MR. BRODY (dir. Keith Maitland, USA, 97 min)

 

THE DUKE (dir. Roger Michell, UK, 96 min)

How to watch: Venice Film Festival (Sept. 2-12), theatrical release Spring 2021

 

THE FATHER (dir. Florian Zeller, UK-France, 97 min)

How to watch: Toronto International Film Festival (Sept. 10-19)

 

FIREBALL: VISITORS FROM DARKER WORLDS (dir. Werner Herzog, Clive Oppenheimer, UK-USA, 97 min)

How to watch: Toronto International Film Festival (Sept. 10-19), Stream on Apple+ (date TBD)

 

IBRAHIM (dir. Samir Guesmi, France, 84 min)

How to watch: French release Dec. 9

 

MAINSTREAM (dir. Gia Coppola, USA, 94 min)

How to watch: Venice Film Festival (Sept. 2-12)

 

MANDIBULES (dir. Quentin Dupieux, France, 77 min)

How to watch: Venice Film Festival (Sept. 2-12), French release Dec. 2

 

MLK/FBI (dir. Sam Pollard, USA, 104 min)

How to watch: Toronto International Film Festival (Sept. 10-19)

 

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL BOY IN THE WORLD (dir. Kristina Lindström, Kristian Petri, Sweden, 93 min)

 

NEVER GONNA SNOW AGAIN (dir. Małgorzata Szumowska, co-dir. Michał Englert, Poland-Germany, 113 min)

How to watch: Venice Film Festival (Sept. 2-12)

 

NOMADLAND (dir. Chloé Zhao, USA, 108 min)

How to watch: Venice Film Festival (Sept. 2-12), Toronto International Film Festival (Sept. 10-19), Telluride From Los Angeles Drive-In Screening (Sept. 11), New York Film Festival (Sept. 25-Oct. 11), theatrical release Fall 2020

 

NOTTURNO (dir. Gianfranco Rosi, Italy-France-Germany, 100 min)

How to watch: Venice Film Festival (Sept. 2-12), Toronto International Film Festival (Sept. 10-19)

 

PRAY AWAY (dir. Kristine Stolakis, USA, 101 min)

 

THERE IS NO EVIL (dir. Mohammad Rasoulof, Germany-Iran, 152 min)

How to watch: theatrical and virtual release at www.KinoMarquee.com by end of 2020 

 

TO THE MOON (dir. Tadhg O’Sullivan, Ireland, 76 min)

How to watch: Venice Days Film Festival (Sept. 2-12)

 

TORN (dir. Max Lowe, USA, 92 min)

 

THE TRUFFLE HUNTERS (dir. Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw, Italy-USA-Greece, 84 min)

 

TRUMAN & TENNESSEE: AN INTIMATE CONVERSATION (dir. Lisa Immordino Vreeland, USA, 86 min)

 

THE WAY I SEE IT (dir. Dawn Porter, USA, 100 min)

 

“Despite everything, 2020 has turned out to be another incredibly strong year for film,” said Huntsinger. “We were able to consider everything we’d hoped to. We love this program and the way it reflects this fascinating moment in domestic and international cinema, as well as life.”

 

SILVER MEDALLION AWARDS

The honorees chosen for the 2020 Silver Medallion Awards, which recognize artists’ significant contributions to the world of cinema, are Academy Award-winning actor Sir Anthony Hopkins (THE FATHER), Academy Award-winning actress Kate Winslet (AMMONITE), and critically acclaimed director, screenwriter and producer Chloé Zhao(NOMADLAND).

 

Telluride Film Festival’s shorts program includes a long shorts program; Student Prints, curated by Academy Award nominated writer, director, producer Gregory Nava; Calling Cards; and Great Expectations, both curated by Academy Award-winning writer, director, producer Barry Jenkins. 

 

LONG SHORTS

THE LETTER ROOM (dir. Elvira Lind, USA, 32 min)

How to watch: coming soon to topic.com

 

LINDA AND THE MOCKINGBIRDS (dir. James Keach, USA, 40 min)

How to watch: visit  https://www.lindaandthemockingbirds.com for film updates

 

PAWS IN PRISON (dir. Bill Guttentag, USA, 31 min)

 

THE TOXIC PIGS OF FUKUSHIMA (dir. Otto Bell, Japan-USA, 35 min)

How to watch: Rhode Island International Film Festival (Aug. 4-9), Docs Without Borders Film Festival

 

WHEN WE WERE BULLIES (dir. Jay Rosenblatt, USA, 36 min)

How to watch: visit https://www.jayrosenblattfilms.com for film updates

 

STUDENT PRINTS

BORDER (dir. Shu Zhu, Ino Yang Popper, AFI, USA, 4 min) 

How to watch: stream at https://www.inoyangpopper.com/work/border

 

FOREVER (dir. Mitch McGlocklin, USC, USA, 7 min) 

How to watch: visit www.mitch.cool for film updates

 

METAMORPHOSIS (dir. Xi Wang, USC, USA, 4 min) 

How to watch: visit https://www.jakexwang.com/metamorphosis for film updates

 

PEEPS (dir. Sophie Somerville, Victorian College of the Arts, Australia, 17 min) 

How to watch: screen at sophiesomerville.com/peeps

 

SILENTO (dir. Esteban García Vernaza, Columbia University, Colombia, 11 min) 

How to watch: will screen online at the Vancouver Latin American Film Festival (Aug. 27-Sept. 6)

 

SOMETHING TO BELIEVE IN (dir. Fany de la Chica, Columbia University, Spain, 13 min) 

How to watch: screen at https://vimeo.com/302953733/271561fba8

 

UNDER THE HEAVENS (SEIVA BRUTA) (dir. Gustavo Milan, NYU, Brazil, 17 min) 

How to watch: Rhode Island International Film Festival (Aug. 4-9), RIIFF virtual screening at http://www.film-festival.org (Aug. 4-16), screen at www.nanuchafilms.com

 

VIKTOR ON THE MOON (dir. Christian Arhoff, National Film School of Denmark, Denmark, 28 min) 

 

“The Student Prints program is always exciting and surprising, discovering the fresh new voices in cinema today,” said Academy Award-nominated writer, director, producer Gregory Nava. “This year’s program features diverse filmmakers from around the globe. From the heartbreaking story of a Venezuelan refugee, to a surreal trip by Australian schoolgirls at a shopping mall, to the harrowing story of two young indigenous sisters escaping violence in Colombia, to a delightful comedy of a chubby, shy, nerd seeking some kind of human connection in modern-day Denmark, these films are dramatic, humorous, poignant and moving, showing that the future of cinema is in good hands.”

 

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

DA YIE (dir. Anthony Nti, Belgium-Ghana, 20 min)

How to watch: Brussels Short Film Festival (Sept. 2-12), Off-Courts Trouville (Sept. 4-12), DC Shorts Film Festival (Sept. 10-23), Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia (Sept. 16-27), screen online https://vimeo.com/ondemand/dayieshortfilm

 

GRAMERCY (dir. Jamil McGinnis, Pat Heywood, USA, 23 min)

How to watch: will screen online at the Locarno Film Festival (Aug. 9-15) 

 

UNFORGIVABLE (dir. Marlén Viñayo, El Salvador, 36 min)

How to watch: DMZ Docs (Sept. 17-24) 

 

CALLING CARDS

BENJAMIN, BENNY, BEN (dir. Paul Shkordoff, Canada, 7 min)

 

BITTU (dir. Karishma Dev Dube, India-USA, 17 min)

How to watch: Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia (Sept. 16-27), visit https://www.facebook.com/bittushortfilm/ for film updates 

 

COMMUNITY GARDENS (dir. Vytautas Katkus, Lithuania, 15 min)

How to watch: La Guarimba Film Festival (Aug. 7-12), Minikino Film Week (Sept. 4-12), visit https://www.lightsonfilm.com/communitygardens.html for film updates

 

DAVID (dir. Zachary Woods, USA, 11 min)

 

I, JULIA (dir. Arvin Kananian, Sweden, 14 min)

 

LEAVE OF ABSENCE (dir. Anton Sazonov, Russian Federation, 12 min)

How to watch: visit antonsazonov.com for film updates

 

THE LOST ASTRONAUT (dir. Ben Proudfoot, USA, 13 min)

How to watch: screen at https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000006865864/almost-famous-the-lost-astronaut.html

 

“Despite the fog of madness that's pervaded the lives of everyone inhabiting this spinning rock we call home, this year's Filmmakers of Tomorrow program is proof positive that both life and The Show will indeed go on,” said Academy Award-winning writer, director, producer Barry Jenkins. “Spanning numerous continents and forms and stylings, the group of shorts submitted to this year's festival was just as fine as ever and, to my delight, incredibly representative of the madness swirling in this most radical of times. As we move forward from the ashes of upheaval with a renewed focus on the shared experiences that unite us, this fantastic group of shorts illustrates that the ‘empathy machine of cinema’ is alive and well.

When Will TFF Announce? / Ten Bets #4 / Some Notes on The French Dispatch / The Telluride Drive-In?

WHEN WILL TFF ANNOUNCE?

The answer is I don't know.  I had a hunch that we might see an announcement on Friday after both Venice (last Tuesday and Toronto (on Thursday) had revealed their lineups.  It seemed, to me at least, that was possible.  But Friday came and went and no revelation from TFF.

Perhaps after the New York Fest announces their lineup?  For the last four years at least New York's lineup announcement has come on the first or second Tuesday in August which suggests we'll see it either tomorrow or, more likely,  a week from tomorrow.

Maybe after that TFF will reveal.  

TEN BETS #4

I'm a little bit surprised to be doing an updated Ten Bets but here it is.  As a quick reminder, here's a look at the 3rd Ten Bets list from two weeks ago:

10) Fireball
9) John Prine: Hello In There
8) There Is No Evil
7) Soul
6) The French Dispatch
5) Lover's Rock (Small Axe)
4) Mangrove (Small Axe)
3) Notturno
2) Nomadland
1) Ammonite

Other possibilities: Undine, Forgotten We'll Be, Untitled Garbus/Cortes Voting Rights Documentary, The Secrets We Keep, American Utopia and French Exit.

Here's the latest Ten Bets:

10) The French Dispatch

9) The Secrets We Keep

8) Fireball

7) There is No Evil

6) The Truffle Hunters

5) Mangrove

4) Lover's Rock

3) Notturno

2) Ammonite

1) Nomadland

Other possibilities: Undine, Forgotten We'll Be, Untitled Garbus/Cortes Voting Rights Documentary, John Prine: Hello in There, and French Exit.

SOME NOTES ON THE FRENCH DISPATCH

A couple of interesting tidbits emerged the last few days regarding Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch.  Anne Thompson of Indewire suggested this week on the Indiewire podcast Screen Talk  that she thinks that the film could end up bowing at the Berlin Fest in 2021 and just slide into Oscar contention before the new deadline for eligibility (Feb. 28th).  Berlin is currently scheduled to happen Feb. 11-21, 2021.

Here's the link to the Screen Talk article at Indiewire.

Other reporting that seems to semi-confirm the notion comes from a separate Anne Thompson article at Indiewire that says explicitly that the film will be moved to 2021.  Previously it had been reported that the release date was "indefinitely " postponed.  Trailer Track's Anton Volkov also suggested he was hearing 2021 for it.  Volkov had that up on his Twitter account on Friday.

A few days back, Indiewire suggested that when Telluride makes the announcement about what films would have played TFF #47 that The French Dispatch would be on the list (MTFB's July 20).  But when Searchlight announced that the film was off its Oct. 16th premiere date and was delayed indefinitely, I had to wonder if that would affect its Telluride status (assuming that Indiewire has the story right).

Of course, we won't ultimately know until TFF makes their list public.  

THE TELLURIDE DRIVE-IN

Here's what we know...TFF will screen Chloe Zhao's Nomadland at some drive-in theater in the gretaer Los Angeles area (under the banner of "Telluride in Los Angeles") on Sept. 11th.  That's the same day that it will co-premiere at Venice and Toronto.  It has been reported that Zhao and star Frances McDormand will appear at that screening after having appeared virtually for Toronto and Venice.  We don't know any further details beyond that.  

I'm eagerly awaiting further details.

And then there's this intriguing note.  Jake Coyle, writing about the Toronto announcement for the Associated Press last Thursday, included this:

The major fall festivals — Venice, Toronto, Telluride and New York — earlier announced an alliance, saying they would collaborate on programming. Since then, Colorado's Telluride has been canceled but reborn as a drive-in series in Los Angeles. The festivals earlier announced Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland” will debut across all four events.

"Drive-In Series"...now that would be intriguing.  My personal guess is that it's likely a misunderstanding on the part of the AP writer.  But....what if it's not?  That could be stunning!

The complete Coyle/AP story is linked here.

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