Oscar Update: Best Picture / TFF and the Gotham Nominations / Waiting for Kurt

OSCAR UPDATE: BEST PICTURE 

Here are my latest Oscar nomination predictions for Best Picture updated since I last posted this category on  Oct. 19th.  A film's past position is indicated to the right in parentheses.  TFF #47 films are indicated in Bold.

1) Nomadland (2)

2) Mank (3)

3) The Trial of the Chicago 7 (1)

4) The Father (5)

5) One Night in Miami (6)

6) Minari (10)

7) Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (9)

8) Da 5 Bloods (7)

9) News of the World (4)

10) Soul (-)

Hot: Minari, Ma Rainey, Soul

Not: News of the World, Judas and the Black Messiah, Ammonite, On the Rocks, Tenet

TFF AND THE GOTHAMS

Gotham Award nominations were announced this past week.  The Gothams are out of the gate as the first of 2020 end of year awards.  The Gothams aim to recognize independent films.  TFF #46 and #47 films were named to the list of nominees.

Kelly Reichardt's First Cow (TFF #46) led the field with four nominations: Best Feature, Best Screenplay, Best Actor (Joe Magaro) and Breakthrough Actor (Orion Lee).

TFF #46's The Assistant also was nominated for Best Feature.  

TFF #46's Beanpole was nominated for Best International Feature.

TFF #47's Nomadland had nominations for Best Feature and Best Actress (Frances McDormand).

Here's coverage of the complete list of nominations from Erik Anderson/Awards Watch.

WAITING FOR KURT

Some followers of MTFB know that I am a big fan of the late great Kurt Vonnegut.  One of the highlights of my life was to catch a lecture from here back in February of 2003 at Oklahoma City University.  I took a personal day to do it, which, if you know me, is such a rare occurrence.  Usually the only time I use personal days to miss school is for TFF.

Got to see the man talk with a couple of my former students which, if you saw Vonnegut's standard lecture at the time, turned out to be very cool.  The man asked the audience to remember a teacher from our past, so sitting with those "kids" was special.

All of that is to mention that it looks like the Robert B. Weide/Don Argott doc about Vonnegut will likely be released sometime next summer.  The doc has been four decades in the making.  The film has been acquired by IFC Films.  No specific date has been set as yet.

Here's the brand new teaser for the film via YouTube:

Rolling Stone highlighted the news this past week in the article linked here.

Also, if you're so inclined, here's the link to the Daily Oklahoman story about Vonnegut's lecture I attended back in 2003.

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