Oscar Update: Best Director / LA and NY Film Critics Award 2020 Films / Indiewire's Best of 2020 / Nightmare at Christmas (And Maybe Labor Day?) / Two Telluride Favorites Talk Film: Barry and Chloe

 OSCAR UPDATE: BEST DIRECTOR

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

1) Chloe Zhao/Nomadland (1)

2) David Fincher/Mank (2)

3) Aaron Sorkin/The Trial of the Chicago 7 (3)

4) Lee Isaac Chung/Minari (7)

5) Regina King/One Night in Miami (4)

6) George C. Wolfe/Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (9)

7) Florian Zeller/The Father (5)

8) Paul Greengrass/News of the World (8)

9) Spike Lee/Da 5 Bloods (6)

10) Shaka King/Judas and the Black Messiah (10)

Other Possibles: Darius Marder/Sound of Metal, Emerald Fennell/Promising Young Woman. Kornel Mundruczo/Pieces of a Woman

Hot: Lee Isaac Chung/Minari, George C. Wolfe/Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

Not: Florian Zeller/The Father, Spike Lee/Da 5 Bloods

INDIEWIRE'S BEST OF 2020

Indiewire polled over 200 critics worldwide for their 2020 Best Of poll.  The website posted their lists of top tens in multiple categories on Dec. 14th.  Among the various categories, here is where Tff $6 and TFF #47 films landed in each category:

Best Picture: #1) Nomadland (47), #3) First Cow (46), #6) Beanpole (46)

Best Director #1) Chloe Zhao/Nomadland (47), #4) Kelly Reichardt/First Cow, #9) Kantemir Balegov/Beanpole (46)

Best Performance: #2) Frances McDormand/Nomadland (47)

Best Cinematography: #1) Nomadland (47) #7) First Cow (46), #9) Beanpole (46)

Best Screenplay: #2) First Cow (46)

Best International Film: #2) Beanpole (46)

Best First Film: #7) The Assistant (46), #10) The Climb (46)

The complete listing in each category is linked here.

LA AND NY FILM CRITICS AWARD 2020 FILMS

Both The Los Angeles Film Critics Association and The New York Film Critics Circle named their "Best Of" for 2020 films over the weekend.  Here's how that played out for Telluride films from both TFF #47 and #46 is as follows:

From New York (From Variety):

Best Film: First Cow (TFF #46)

Best Director: Chloe Zhao/Nomadland (TFF #47)

The complete list of NYFCC winners is here from Variety.

Meanwhile the LAFCA had the following TFF films on its list:

Best Picture Runner-up: Nomadland (TFF #47)

Best Director: Chloe Zhao/Nomadland (TFF #47)

Best Foreign Language Film: Beanpole (TFF 346)

Best Editing: The Father (TFF #47)

Best Production Design Runner-up: Beanpole (TFF #46)

Best Cinematography Runner-up: Nomadland (TFF #47)

The complete list of LAFCA winners is here from The Hollywood Reporter.

 

NIGHTMARE AT CHRISTMAS (AND MAYBE LABOR DAY?)

Indiewire reported this week that Guillermo Del Toro has wrapped Nightmare Alley, his film noir starring Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Willem Dafoe and Richard Jenkins.  The article also includes a Tweet from the film's distributor, Searchlight, confirming an earlier Tweet from the film's co-writer, Kim Morgan, revealing that the film will be released in December of 2021.

The information that the film is wrapped combined with the release date allows for the possibility that we could see it pop up at TFF #48 perhaps after a Cannes or Venice bow or even as a first time ever screening at TFF.

Del Toro was on hand in Telluride in 2017 with The Shape of Water which had premiered at Venice.  after its Telluride play it went on to win the Best Picture Oscar and Del Toro won for Best Director.

Check out more details in the story from Indiewire linked here.

TWO TELLURIDE FAVORITES TALK FILM: BARRY AND CHLOE

They're two of the hottest directing/writing talents in the current film firmament.  They've also been at Telluride.  I'm talking Barry Jenkins, who has been a part of TFF since his college days and debuted Oscar winner Moonlight there in 2016 and Chloe Zhao who has been at T-ride with both The Rider in 2017 and this year's Nomadland.  As a matter of fact, the two met originally in Telluride in 2017 (per Variety's reporting).

So, Variety got the two together recently for a conversation.  Thanks Variety!

Here's the link to the print and video of their conversation.

BERLIN FEST MOVES AND WILL BE A HYBRID

The Berlin Film Festival, which often premieres a couple of films that make it into the Telluride lineup each year, has announced changes from their traditional dates and structure as Covid-19 continues to change the shape of the film world at large and film festivals in particular.

Variety reports that:

"The festival is now looking to present the festival selections to the film industry in early March, Variety understands, with the European Film Market running as a digital event at the same time. A mini-festival with a series of onsite world premieres is being planned for early June."

The complete Variety article with further details can be found here.

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