THE NETFLIX LIST
As promised in the last edition of MTFB, today I'm beginning to look distributors who have the most presence at the festival over the past five years. I'm starting with Netflix. They have had 17 films at the last five TTFs.
Netflix has two films as part of the announced TFF #47 lineup and those came as acquisitions after the fact as Netflix did not have rights for Concrete Cowboy or Pray Away when the film was named to the TFF 2020 list.
If Netflix continues to be a substantial player at Telluride, what films might that mean for TFF #48? Navigating the vast number of titles Netflix perpetually is developing or acquiring makes parsing its possibilities a challenge, but let's give it a go.
At the moment, I have landed on five films that, should they be ready, might be part of a Telluride conversation. In order of what I believe the likelihood of them making the actual TFF #48 lineup:
Jane Campion's The Power of the Dog
Andrew Dominik's Blonde
Paolo Sorrentino's The Hand of God
Lin Manuel Miranda's tick, tick...BOOM
Adam McKay's Don't Look Up
Untitled Nora Fingscheidt Project (with Sandra Bullock)
And who knows what else Netflix might pick up along the way.
NEWS ON DUNE AND THE CARD COUNTER
Denis Villenueve's Dune is reportedly a very likely choice for the Venice Film Festival according to Variety last Friday. Villeneuve has had an extensive relationship with TFF over the years:
1998-August 32nd on Earth
2010-Incendies
2013-Prisoners
2016-Arrival
The news that his take on the Frank Herbert Sci-Fi classic is likely to play Venice normally would not necessarily be an immediate death knell for a Telluride North American premiere as the Venice to Telluride Two Step has become a fairly common place occurrence over the past several years. Complicating matters this year include the ongoing pandemic.
Nevertheless, keep Dune in mind as a TFF #48 possibility.
Other films that Variety suggests are being rumored for Venice include Paolo Sorrentino's The Hand of God (see the Netflix list above), Gabriele Mainetti's Freaks Out, Bruno Dumont's On a Half Clear Morning and Xavier Giannoli's Lost Illusions.
Meanwhile Deadline reported over the weekend that Paul Schrader's The Card Counter starring Oscar Isaac has been dated by Focus Features for a Sept. 10th domestic release. That allows for the chance of bows at Telluride and/or Cannes, Venice. It essentially rules out a Toronto screening as TIFF opens Sept. 9th.
Schrader has a noticeable Telluride list:
1985-Misima: A Life in Four Chapters
1988-Patty Hearst
1990-The Comfort of Strangers
1997-Affliction
2000-Forever Mine
2002-Auto Focus
2008-Adam Resurrected
2017-First Reformed
CANNES NEWS A WEEK LATER
We found out Friday that we'll have to a week longer to find out what films have been selected to screen at the belated 2021 Cannes Film Festival. Originally, the announcement had been planned for May 27th. However, Variety's Elsa Keslassy reported on May 14th that the French film institution has moved the announcement to June 3rd.
According to Variety:
"The reason for the date change is an abundance of movies that have been submitted to the festival, according to an industry source. The Official Selection, in particular the competition, is expected to be larger than usual."
The article goes on to repeat some things we already know, namely the Annette is opening the fest and Benedetta will play in competition. Other films speculated as possible within the article include Flag Day, The Power of the Dog and Bergman Island.
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com
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