Obsessing about the Telluride Film Festival and the film awards season since 2008! "The best Telluride predictor I know." -Sasha Stone, Awards Daily "The best blog out there for predicting what will be going to Telluride."-Matt Neglia, Next Best Picture "The Nostradamus of Telluride" -Tim Appelo, Movies for Grownups
Monday, March 29, 2021
Bertrand Tavernier 1941-2021 / News from a Reader / Updated Cannes List
Thursday, March 25, 2021
Producers Endorse Nomadland / Cannes Uncertainty
The Producers Guild of America (PGA) named its winners for film and television last night and the win for Best Feature Film went to Chloe Zhao's Nomadland. Pixar's Soul was named best Animated feature of the year.
A number of outlets suggested that the PGA win may well be the last indicator anyone needs to conclude that Nomadland will be the Best Picture winner when the final announcement is made on Oscar night, April 25th.
However, the PGA doesn't always presage an Oscar win. In recent years 1917, La La Land and The Big Short won the PGA but then missed winning the big prize on Oscar night (per Indiewire's Anne Thompson). As a matter of fact, the PGA historically matches with Oscar about 2/3 of the time according to Deadline. com the match has happened 21 times in the organizations 31 years of existence.
I have included links below to a number of sources covering the awards last night:
CANNES UNCERTAINTY
Monday, March 22, 2021
The Way Ahead? / "Soggy Bottom" Has a Date / Spring Cleaning
THE WAY AHEAD?
In a normal year, I'd have made a hard turn from Oscar related stuff into serious tea-leaf reading about the possible films that we could see at TFF #48. The Oscars would have happened two-three weeks back and as such, I'd be knee deep in trying to parse spec pieces about possible Oscar players for the coming year. Which ones feel like TFF film choices? I'd be eye-balling stories about possible Cannes selections and which of them might make the Cannes/Telluride double play?
But, as you know, it's still not a normal year. Oscar is still five weeks away. Cannes plans are still unsettled. Maybe a version of that fest happens in July. Maybe it gets pushed to an even later date. So, speculation about what films might end up as a Cannes selection is a sea of shifting sand.
Thursday, March 18, 2021
New Gurus Predicting Oscar Winners / Concrete Cowboy Rides to Netflix / Talking Nomadland
NEW GURUS PREDICITNG OSCAR WINNERS
The latest Gurus of Gold went up at Movie City News on Tuesday after Oscar nominations were announced. We were tasked with predicting the likely winners in all of the feature film categories.
As of my Guru ballot on Monday afternoon I have Nomadland winning 4 Oscars on April 25th: Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay and Cinematography. As for its other two nominations, I am currently predicting Carey Mulligan will win Best Actress for Promising Young Woman over Frances McDormand and The Trial of the Chicago 7 winning the Oscar for film editing.
As to the other acting categories, I'm predicting Boseman for Actor, Kaluuya for Supporting Actor and Close for Supporting Actress, though I match up with the overall Gurus picks in all the categories I've mentioned so far except on the Close call. I'm pretty lonely there with the Gurus collectively picking Yuh-jung Youn from Minari. I'm not totally out in the cold with the Close prediction. Mark Johnson/Awards Daily and Nathaniel Rogers/The Film Experience have also chosen Close.
My other early predictions (and when applicable, where I diverge from the Guru collective):
Monday, March 15, 2021
Oscar Nominations Are Here / A Comment or Two
OSACR NOMINATIONS ARE HERE
TFF films in Bold.
“The Father” David Parfitt, Jean-Louis Livi and Philippe Carcassonne, Producers
“Mank” Ceán Chaffin, Eric Roth and Douglas Urbanski, Producers
“Minari” Christina Oh, Producer
“Nomadland” Frances McDormand, Peter Spears, Mollye Asher, Dan Janvey and Chloé Zhao, Producers
“Promising Young Woman” Ben Browning, Ashley Fox, Emerald Fennell and Josey McNamara, Producers
“Sound of Metal” Bert Hamelinck and Sacha Ben Harroche, Producers
“The Trial of the Chicago 7” Marc Platt and Stuart Besser, Producers
BEST DIRECTION
“Another Round” Thomas Vinterberg
“Mank” David Fincher
“Minari” Lee Isaac Chung
“Nomadland” Chloé Zhao
“Promising Young Woman” Emerald Fennell
BEST ACTOR
BEST ACTRESS
Viola Davis in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”
Andra Day in “The United States vs. Billie Holiday”
Vanessa Kirby in “Pieces of a Woman”
Frances McDormand in “Nomadland”
Carey Mulligan in “Promising Young Woman”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Maria Bakalova in “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”
Glenn Close in “Hillbilly Elegy”
Olivia Colman in “The Father”
Amanda Seyfried in “Mank”
Yuh-Jung Youn in “Minari”
BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE
“Another Round” Denmark
“Better Days” Hong Kong
“Collective” Romania
“The Man Who Sold His Skin” Tunisia
“Quo Vadis, Aida?” Bosnia and Herzegovina
“Onward” Dan Scanlon and Kori Rae
“Over the Moon” Glen Keane, Gennie Rim and Peilin Chou
“A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon” Richard Phelan, Will Becher and Paul Kewley
“Soul” Pete Docter and Dana Murray
“Wolfwalkers” Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart, Paul Young and Stéphan Roelants
“Collective” Alexander Nanau and Bianca Oana
“Crip Camp” Nicole Newnham, Jim LeBrecht and Sara Bolder
“The Mole Agent” Maite Alberdi and Marcela Santibáñez
“My Octopus Teacher” Pippa Ehrlich, James Reed and Craig Foster
“Time” Garrett Bradley, Lauren Domino and Kellen Quinn
“Judas and the Black Messiah” Sean Bobbitt
“Mank” Erik Messerschmidt
“News of the World” Dariusz Wolski
“Nomadland” Joshua James Richards
“The Trial of the Chicago 7” Phedon Papamichael
“The Father” Yorgos Lamprinos
“Nomadland” Chloé Zhao
“Promising Young Woman” Frédéric Thoraval
“Sound of Metal” Mikkel E. G. Nielsen
“The Trial of the Chicago 7” Alan Baumgarten
“The Father” Production Design: Peter Francis; Set Decoration: Cathy Featherstone
“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” Production Design: Mark Ricker; Set Decoration: Karen O’Hara and Diana Stoughton
“Mank” Production Design: Donald Graham Burt; Set Decoration: Jan Pascale
“News of the World” Production Design: David Crank; Set Decoration: Elizabeth Keenan
“Tenet” Production Design: Nathan Crowley; Set Decoration: Kathy Lucas
“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” Ann Roth
“Mank” Trish Summerville
“Mulan” Bina Daigeler
“Pinocchio” Massimo Cantini Parrini
“Emma” Marese Langan, Laura Allen and Claudia Stolze
“Hillbilly Elegy” Eryn Krueger Mekash, Matthew Mungle and Patricia Dehaney
“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” Sergio Lopez-Rivera, Mia Neal and Jamika Wilson
“Mank” Gigi Williams, Kimberley Spiteri and Colleen LaBaff
“Pinocchio” Mark Coulier, Dalia Colli and Francesco Pegoretti
“Da 5 Bloods” Terence Blanchard
“Mank” Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
“Minari” Emile Mosseri
“News of the World” James Newton Howard
“Soul” Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Jon Batiste
“Fight For You” from “Judas and the Black Messiah”
Music by H.E.R. and Dernst Emile II; Lyric by H.E.R. and Tiara Thomas
“Hear My Voice” from “The Trial of the Chicago 7”
Music by Daniel Pemberton; Lyric by Daniel Pemberton and Celeste Waite
“Husavik” from “Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga”
Music and Lyric by Savan Kotecha, Fat Max Gsus and Rickard Göransson
“Io Sì (Seen)” from “The Life Ahead (La Vita Davanti a Se)”
Music by Diane Warren; Lyric by Diane Warren and Laura Pausini
“Speak Now” from “One Night in Miami…”
Music and Lyric by Leslie Odom, Jr. and Sam Ashworth
“Genius Loci” Adrien Mérigeau and Amaury Ovise
“If Anything Happens I Love You” Will McCormack and Michael Govier
“Opera” Erick Oh
“Yes-People” GÃsli Darri Halldórsson and Arnar Gunnarsson
“Feeling Through” Doug Roland and Susan Ruzenski
“The Letter Room” Elvira Lind and Sofia Sondervan
“The Present” Farah Nabulsi
“Two Distant Strangers” Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe
“White Eye” Tomer Shushan and Shira Hochman
“Greyhound” Warren Shaw, Michael Minkler, Beau Borders and David Wyman
“Mank” Ren Klyce, Jeremy Molod, David Parker, Nathan Nance and Drew Kunin
“News of the World” Oliver Tarney, Mike Prestwood Smith, William Miller and John Pritchett
“Soul” Ren Klyce, Coya Elliott and David Parker
“Sound of Metal” Nicolas Becker, Jaime Baksht, Michelle Couttolenc, Carlos Cortés and Phillip Bladh
“Love and Monsters” Matt Sloan, Genevieve Camilleri, Matt Everitt and Brian Cox
“The Midnight Sky” Matthew Kasmir, Christopher Lawrence, Max Solomon and David Watkins
“Mulan” Sean Faden, Anders Langlands, Seth Maury and Steve Ingram
“The One and Only Ivan” Nick Davis, Greg Fisher, Ben Jones and Santiago Colomo Martinez
“Tenet” Andrew Jackson, David Lee, Andrew Lockley and Scott Fisher
A COMMENT OR TWO
TFF #47 films score 13 Oscar nominations in this weird Covid-19 influenced year with Nomadland and The Father each earning six apiece.
Sunday, March 14, 2021
MTFB'S FINAL OSCAR NOMINATION PREDICITONS / Final Oscar Picks from the Experts
FINAL OSCAR NOMINATION PREDICTIONS-SUNDAY, MAR. 14TH
A couple of quick notes here...
Thursday, March 11, 2021
Oscar Update: Six Categories / Guild Love for Nomadland, The Truffle Hunters and More / MTFB''s Final Oscar Nom Predix on Sunday!
OSCAR UPDATE: SIX CATEGORIES
Monday, March 8, 2021
Oscar Update: The Big Eight and The Shorts / The Critics Choice Awards / A Buffet of Truffles / Latest Gurus of Gold
OSACR UPDATE: THE BIG EIGHT AND THE SHORTS
Here I am updating Oscar nomination predictions with a week left until the nominees are announced. As usual, you'll see the last position of the film/performer in parentheses and when the category was last predicted. TFF films are in Bold.
BEST PICTURE (last predicted Mar. 1st)
Thursday, March 4, 2021
Oscar Update: Costumes, Makeup and Hair and Visual Effects / Cannes Moving Back??? / Interviews with Hopkins and Pollard
OSCAR UPDATE: COSTUMES, MAKEUP AND HAIR AND VISUAL EFFECTS