Incoming from Toronto / Cannes Awards Winners / The Last Duel for TFF #48? / Late Breaking: Pedro Opens Venice

 INCOMING FROM TORONTO

It's all been speculation, slips of the tongue and cryptic references about Telluride up to this point.  That changes tomorrow with the Toronto International Film Festival's announcement of Galas and Special Presentations.  It TIFF follows what has become the custom, each film announced will include a mention of that film's premiere status and if you know what each of those designations mean you can get a very good idea of some of the films that will or will not play at Telluride.

For TIFF's announcement tomorrow the designations you need to know are:

World Premiere which means the first public screening anywhere on the planet (test screenings don't count).

International Premiere which means the first screening of a film outside the film's nation of origin.  This designation signals that the World Premiere has occurred in that nation of origin.  This designation is bit "squishy" for a number of reasons.  For example, films with multiple producers/financers from different nations make this designation difficult to nail down sometimes.

North American Premiere which means the first public screening on the continent.  You' likely see it tomorrow on films that have already screened at Cannes.  That means no U.S. play will have occurred.

Canadian Premiere which means the first public screening in Canada. 

An International Premiere or Canadian Premiere status points to a possible Telluride play but isn't a lock.  For example, if TIFF programs a Sundance Film that would be classified as an International Premiere.  If that Sundance film also played Cannes, then TIFF would label it a Canadian Premiere.  So these two designations don't automatically mean a Telluride play.

If a film is designated a World or North American Premiere...that means no Telluride.

We've already had an example of how this works this season with the New York Film Fest's announcement that Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch will have its U.S. Premiere there.  Since TFF precedes NYFF we can conclude two things: the film won't play Telluride because if it had, New York couldn't designate it as a U.S. Premiere.  We also know that it will have played Toronto because if it hadn't, New York would bill it as a North American Premiere.

Couple of other notes: there will be errors.  Sometimes that's on the part of TIFF inaccurately designating a film's status.  Sometimes it's because of the "squishy" nature of the International Premiere status and sometimes I just miss something I should have caught.

The other note is that there will be joy and disappointment.  Joy at the inclusion of films that I'll be thrilled to be chosen for Telluride and disappointment that films I am hoping for will likely not be making it to the San Juans.

There will also be that first moment that affirms or denies the efficacy of this summer's Ten Bets.

Here's the latest Ten Bets that I posted last Thursday...we'll start to see if any of this lands tomorrow:

1) Something from Mark Cousins***

2) Muhammad Ali/Burns. Burns and McMahon

3) The Card Counter/Schrader

4) The Power of the Dog/Campion

5) Madres Paralelas (Parallel Mothers)/Almodovar

6) The Velvet Underground/Haynes

7) Nightmare Alley/Del Toro

8) A Hero/Farhadi

9) Julia/Cohen and West

10) Spencer/Larrain

Other Possibles: Dune, Where Is Anne Frank?, Paris 13th District and The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Blonde, Cow, House of Gucci, The Last Duel, Mothering Sunday and Bergman Island.

***Mark Cousins projects that could play:

The Story of Looking

The Storms of Jeremy Thomas

The Story of Film: The Next Generation

My biggest hopes for Telluride at this point are: Nightmare Alley, Dune and Blonde.

I'll likely have a SPECIAL EDITION tomorrow with a rundown of what the TIFF announcement tells us.

CANNES AWARDS WINNERS

Julia Ducournau's Titane won the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or from a Spike Lee led jury on Saturday.  The film's IMDB description:

"Following a series of unexplained crimes, a father is reunited with the son who has been missing for 10 years. Titane : A metal highly resistant to heat and corrosion, with high tensile strength alloys."

The film's Palme win likely increases its chance to play at Telluride but it's not a lock.  In the years since I've been doing this the Palme to Telluride connection only happens about half the time.  Titane's distributor is NEON which probably tips the scales a bit toward TFF #48 inclusion.

Other notable awards included a the Grand Prix to Asghar Farhadi's A Hero (tied with Compartment #6).  Leos Carax was named Best Director for Annette.

The complete list of Cannes' winners is here from Variety.

THE LAST DUEL FOR TFF #48?

Chris Evangelista posted an article about what is known about Ridley Scott's The Last Duel for SlashFilm last Wednesday.  It included casting info (Adam Driver, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Jodie Comer), release dates (Oct. 15th) descriptions of the film and the book upon which it's based.  Damon, Affleck and Nicole Holofcener co-wrote the screenplay.

Of note was these two sentences early on in the post:

"For now, though, you can bank on this one being a strict theatrical release. You can also probably expect it to play some fall festivals, like TIFF or Telluride (that’s just a guess on my part, but I think it’s a good guess)."

An extra note here to remind readers that Affleck's Argo debuted at Telluride in 2012 and that worked out well for him.  Holofcener was in Telluride in 2018 with Can You Ever Forgive Me? (3 Oscar nominations).

Could The Last Duel make an appearance at TFF #48?  Evangelista thinks it's a possibility.

Here's the entire SlashFilm article.

LATE BREAKING: PEDRO OPENS VENICE

Just in as I go to post this morning is news that Pedro Alomodovar's Madres Paralelas will open the Venice Film Festival.  That keeps it in good position as a possible inclusion for Telluride.  Details here from The Playlist.

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