Stephen Sondheim 1930-2021 / MTFB Updates Oscar Predictions: Picture, Director and More / Indiewire' s International Shortlist

STEPHEN SONDHEIM 1930-2021

Musical theater legend Stephen Sondheim has died.  Reports were that the great Broadway songwriter died on Friday morning.  Many of the remembrances over the weekend have made a point that Sondheim was a big fan of film and I'm happy to remind all that Sondheim guest-directed TFF in 2003.  His presentation was a mini-retrospective of the works of Julien Duvivier.  The retrospective consisted of three of Duvivier's films: Panique, La Belle Equipe and Carnet Du Bal.  Sondheim also presented George Stevens' The More the Merrier for TFF #30.

In terms of his own film involvement, Sondheim was an Oscar winner for Original Song for Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man) in 1991.  He also was the co-screen writer (with Anthony Hopkins) of the 1973 film The Last of Sheila.  Then, of course, there were the adaptations of so many of the musicals that he had been a part of including the upcoming re-imagining of West Side Story from Steven Spielberg.

Sondheim also won a Pulitzer Prize, eight Grammys and eight Tony awards as well as being a Kennedy Center Honors recipient in 1993.

As for me, my fascination with Sondheim began with a love affair with the Judy Collins recording of Send in the Clowns.  I didn't even know that it was from the musical A Little Night Music at the time.  Yet, later that year (1975), my first participation in a college production was as Asst. Prop Master for the production at the University of Oklahoma.  Later in life (2010), A Little Night Music also provided what has been the most moving and transfixing moment I have ever experienced in a Broadway theater as I saw Bernadette Peters in her opening night performance sing the song.

Coincidentally, my little community theater here in the Oklahoma panhandle is prepping to do Into the Woods in February.  My wife has had that on her wish list to direct for decades and we were to have done it a couple of years back...but then Covid-19 changed the world.  It'll be a family affair with my daughter, grandkids and son-in-law joining me as cast members.

The word genius has been overused but in Sondheim's case, it's as close as we can come to finding a single word that can name the thing he was.  As it is, genius isn't a big enough word to use but it's what we have.

MTFB UPDATES OSCAR PREDICITONS: PICTURE, DIRECTOR AND ANIMATED, DOCUMENTARY AND INTERNATIONAL FEATURES

Here's the MTFB latest update on predictions for Academy Award nominations for Best Picture and Best Director, International Feature, Animated Feature and Documentary Feature.  These categories were last predicted here on Nov. 15th.  As always TFF #48 films are indicate in Bold and the film's previous position is indicated to the right in parentheses.

BEST PICTURE 

1) Belfast (1)

2) The Power of the Dog (2)

3) King Richard (4)

4) Dune (5)

5) Licorice Pizza (3)

6) Being the Ricardos (New)

7) West Side Story (7)

8) Nightmare Alley (6)

9) Spencer (9)

10) Don't Look Up (New)

Alternates: The Tragedy of Macbeth and tick, tick...BOOM

BEST DIRECTION

1) Kenneth Branagh/Belfast (1)

2) Jane Campion/The Power of the Dog (2)

3) Denis Villenueve/Dune (3)

4) Paul Thomas Anderson/Licorice Pizza (4)

5) Reinaldo Marcus Green/King Richard (New)

Alternates: Guillermo Del Toro/Nightmare Alley and Steven Spielberg/West Side Story

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

1) The Worst Person in the World/Norway (1)

2) A Hero/Iran (2)

3) Flee/Denmark (3)

4) The Hand of God/Italy (4)

5) Titane/France (5)

Alternates: Drive My Car/Japan and Compartment #6/Finland

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

1) Flee (1)

2) Encanto (2)

3) The Mitchell's vs. the Machines (3)

4) Luca (4)

5) Belle (5)

Alternates: Raya and the Last Dragon and The Summit of the Gods

BEST DOCUMENTARY

1) Flee (1)

2) The Rescue (2)

3) Summer of Soul (3)

4) Procession (5)

5) Ascension (4)

Alternates: Faha Deyi and The Velvet Underground

INDIEWIRE'S INTERNATIONAL SHORT LIST

Indiewire's staff recently compiled a list of 15 films that they suggest are the most likely to be nominated for the Best International Feature Oscar on Feb. 8, 2022.  TFF #48 hosted  four of the 15 films:

Flee/Denmark

The Hand of God/Italy

A Hero/Iran

Unclenching the Fists/Russia

As you can see above, Flee, The Hand of God and A Hero are all included in my current predictions to be nominated.  The Worst Person in the world and Titane, which I have also predicted for nominations are also included in the Indiewire 15.  

You can find that complete list and story linked here.

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MTFB's Oscar Take: Predictions for Screenplays, Visual Effects, Sound and Hair/Makeup / Interview with Belfast's Jamie Dornan

 MFTB OSCAR TAKE: PREDICITONS FOR SCREENPLAYS, VISUAL EFFECTS, SOUND AND HAIR/MAKEUP

Here are the latest nomination predictions for these five categories.  These were last predicted on Nov. 11th.  TFF #48 films are indicated in Bold.  The film's previous ranking is indicated to the right in parentheses.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1) Belfast (1)

2) Licorice Pizza (2)

3) King Richard (3)

4) C'mon C'mon (4)

5) Don't Look Up (5)

Alternates: Becoming the Ricardos and A Hero

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1) The Power of the Dog (1)

2) The Lost Daughter (2)

3) CODA (3)

4) Nightmare Alley (4)

5) Passing (5)

Alternates: Dune and West Side Story

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

1) Dune (1)

2) The Matrix: Resurrections (2)

3) Eternals (3)

4) Spiderman: No Way Home (4)

5) Godzilla vs. Kong (Alt.)

Alternates: Don't Look Up and Free Guy

BEST SOUND

1) Dune (1)

2) West Side Story (2)

3) No Time to Die (3)

4) Belfast (4)

5) The Power of the Dog (5)

Alternates: Nightmare Alley and Eternals

BEST HAIR/MAKEUP

1) Dune (1)

2) The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2)

3) House of Gucci (3)

4) Cruella (4)

5) Spencer (5)

Alternates: The French Dispatch and King Richard

INTERVIEW WITH BELFAST'S JAMIE DORNAN

The Irish Times

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

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MTFB Oscar Predicitons Update: Supporting Acting, Score, Song and Costumes / Marcel Has a Home / Interviews, Profiles and Podcasts

MTFB OSCAR PREDICTION UPDATE

Here's your update on the Supporting Acting races as well as Score, Song and Costumes.  These predictions were last updated on Nov. 8th.  TFF #48 performances/films are indicated in Bold and their previous position in my predictions are indicated to the right in parentheses.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS 

1) Caitriona Balfe/Belfast (1)

2  Kirsten Dunst/The Power of the Dog (2)

3) Aujunue Ellis/King Richard (3)

4) Ruth Negga/Passing (4)

5) Judi Dench/Belfast (Alt.)

Alternates: Ann Dowd/Mass and Marlee Matlin/CODA

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Ciaran Hinds/Belfast (1)

2) Bradley Cooper/Licorice Pizza (2)

3) J.K. Simmons/Being the Ricardos (New)

4) Jamie Dornan/Belfast (3)

5) Kodi Smit-McPhee/The Power of the Dog (5)

Alternates: Jared Leto/House of Gucci and Ben Affleck/The Tender Bar

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

1) Dune (1)

2) The Power of the Dog (2)

3) Spencer (3)

4) The French Dispatch (4)

5) Don't Look Up (5)

Alternates: Nightmare Alley and The Tragedy of Macbeth

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

1) Be Alive/King Richard (1)

2) No Time to Die/No Time to Die (2)

3) Down to Joy/Belfast (3)

4) Guns Go Bang/The Harder They Fall (5)

5) Every Letter/Cyrano (Alt.)

Alternates: So May We Start/Annette and Columbia Mi Encanto/Encanto

BEST COSTUMES

1) Cruella (1)

2) Dune (2)

3) Spencer (3)

4) Nightmare Alley (4)

5) House of Gucci (5)

Alternates: West Side Story and The French Dispatch

MARCEL HAS A HOME

News that I've been waiting for arrived this past week with the announcement that A24 had acquired North American distribution rights to Dean Fleischer-Camp's Marcel the Shell with Shoes On.  The film debuted at Telluride and topped my industry insiders and professionals poll that I do each year.

No word as yet what the release plans will be and if their is any agreement about an Oscar qualifying run but I, for one, hope there is.

Here a slew of links for the acquisition details:

Variety

The Hollywood Reporter

Screen Daily

Deadline

Vulture

The Wrap

Collider 

Nylon

INTERVIEWS PROFILES AND PODCASTS

C'MON C'MON

The Playlist

The Los Angeles Times

Entertainment Weekly

The Film Stage

Indiewire

Vulture

BELFAST

Black TV and Film

The Hollywood Reporter

SPENCER

Variety

Yahoo

THE HAND OF GOD

Deadline

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND

Gold Derby

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MTFB Oscar Take: Lead Acting, Cinematography, Editing and Production Design / Trailer for Encounter / Interviews, Profiles and Podcasts

MTFB OSCAR TAKE: LEAD ACTING, CINEMATOGRAPHY, EDITING AND PRODUCTION DESIGN

Here's an update for my predictions of  the lead acting categories for the 94th Academy Awards.  As always, TFF #48 performers are in Bold. The performers' last position in these predictions is indicated to the right in parentheses.  These categories were last predicted on Nov. 4th.

BEST ACTRESS

1) Kristen Stewart/Spencer (1)

2) Jessica Chastain/The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2)

3) Lady Gaga/House of Gucci (3)

4) Penelope Cruz/Parallel Mothers (Alt.)

5) Olivia Colman/The Lost Daughter (4)

Alternates: Frances McDormand/The Tragedy of Macbeth and Nicole Kidman/Being the Ricardos

BEST ACTOR

1) Will Smith/King Richard (1)

2) Benedict Cumberbatch/The Power of the Dog (3)

3) Denzel Washington/The Tragedy of Macbeth (2)

4) Andrew Garfield/tick, tick...BOOM (5)

5) Peter Dinklage/Cyrano (4)

Alternates: Clifton Collins/Jockey and Joaquin Phoenix/C'mon C'mon

BEST CINAMATOGRAPHY

1) Dune (1)

2) Belfast (3)

3) The Tragedy of Macbeth (2)

4) The Power of the Dog (4)

5) Nightmare Alley (Alt.)

Alternates: West Side Story and Spencer

BEST FILM EDITING

1) Belfast (1)

2) Dune (2)

3) The Power of the Dog (4)

4) King Richard (3)

5) Nightmare Alley (5)

Alternates: West Side Story and Don't Look Up

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

1) Dune (1)

2) Nightmare Alley (2)

3) The French Dispatch (3)

4) West Side Story (4)

5) The Tragedy if Macbeth (5)

Alternates: The Power of the Dog and Belfast

TRAILER FOR ENCOUNTER

Riz Ahmed stars in this story of  two brothers who embark on a journey, who is trying to protect them from an alien threat.  From director Michael Pearce and Amazon Studios.  Encounter will be released Dec. 10th.

INTERRVIEWS, PROFILES AND PODCASTS

KING RICHARD:

AP News

Time.com

The San Francisco Chronicle

SPENCER:

YouTube

C'MON C'MON

The Daily Beast

THE FRENCH DISPATCH

Variety

CITIZEN ASHE

The Wrap

BECOMING COUSTEAU

Broadway World

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MTFB's Oscar Take: Picture, Direction, International, Animated and Documentary Updated / Interviews, Profiles and Podcasts / The Hollywood Reporter Has a LIst

MTFB'S OSCAR TAKE: PICTURE, DIRECTION, INTERNATIONAL, ANIMATED AND DOCUMENTARY UPDATED

Here's the MTFB latest update on predictions for Academy Award nominations for Best Picture and Best Director, International Feature, Animated Feature and Documentary Feature.  These categories were last predicted here on Nov. 11th.  As always TFF #48 films are indicate in Bold and the film's previous position is indicated to the right in parentheses.

BEST PICTURE

1) Belfast (1)

2) The Power of the Dog (2)

3) Licorice Pizza (6)

4) King Richard (3)

5) Dune (4)

6) Nightmare Alley (5)

7) West Side Story (7)

8) The Tragedy of Macbeth (9)

9) Spencer (8)

10) CODA (10)

Alternates: tick, tick...BOOM and C'mon C'mon

BEST DIRECTION

1) Belfast/Brannagh (1)

2) The Power of the Dog/Campion (2)

3) Dune/Villenueve (3)

4) Licorice Pizza/Anderson (4)

5) Nightmare Alley/Del Toro (5)

Alternates: Spencer/Larrain and West Side Story/Spielberg

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

1) The Worst Person in the World/Norway (1)

2) A Hero/Iran (2)

3) Flee/Denmark (3)

4) The Hand of God/Italy (4)

5) Titaine/France (5)

Alternates: Drive My Car/Japan and Compartment #6/Finalnd

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

1) Flee (1)

2) Encanto (3)

3) The Mitchell's vs. The Machines (2)

4) Luca (4)

5) Belle (5)

Alternates: Raya and the Last Dragon and The Summit of the Gods

BEST DOCUMENTARY

1) Flee (1)

2) The Rescue (2)

3) Summer of Soul (3)

4) Ascension (4)

5) Procession (5)

Alternates: Who We Are and Attica

NEW TRAILER FOR THE HAND OF GOD

From YouTube:

INTERVIEWS, PROFILES AND PODCASTS 

BELFAST 

Variety

Screen Rant

Collider

The Hollywood Reporter

KING RICHARD

Deadline

Indiewire

Screen Rant

THE POWER OF THE DOG

The Hollywood Reporter

Deadline

THE ELECTRICAL LIFE OF LOUIS WAIN

Deadline

A HERO  

Deadline

JULIA

The Guardian

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND

Awards Chatter/The Hollywood Reporter

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER HAS A LIST

The Hollywood Reporter's Tyler Coates has collected a list of 30 films that he suggests are in the running for a Best Picture nomination.  In alphabetical order, here are the TFF #48 films that Coates has on the list:

Belfast

The Card Counter

C'mon C'mon

Cyrano

Flee

The French Dispatch

The Hand of God

A Hero

King Richard

The Lost Daughter

The Power of the Dog

Red Rocket

Spencer

That's 13 of the 30 films on Coates' list.  That's amazing and is an indication of how stunning the Telluride curation was for TFF #48.

The complete Coates' list is linked here.

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Latest Oscar Predictions from MTFB's Oscar Take / Dean Stockwell 1936-2021 / New Trailer for C'mon C'mon / European Film Awards Nominate Telluride Films

LATEST OSCAR PREDICITONS ON FIVE CATEGORIES FROM MTFB'S OSCAR TAKE

Here's your latest Oscar predictions for Screenplay writing from MTFB.  These categories were last updated here on Oct. 28th.  In addition, here are first predictions for Visual Effects, Sound and Makeup and Hair.   TFF #48 films are in Bold.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1) Belfast (1) 

2) Licorice Pizza (2)

3) King Richard (4)

4) C'mon C'mon (3)

5) Don't Look Up (5)

Alternates: Mass and Spencer

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1) The Power of the Dog (1)

2) The Lost Daughter (3)

3) CODA (4)

4) Nightmare Alley (2)

5) Passing (New)

Alternates: Dune, The Tragedy of Macbeth and West Side Story

VISUAL EFFECTS

1) Dune

2) The Matrix Resurrections

3) Eternals

4) Spiderman: No Way Home

5) Don't Look Up

Alternates: Godzilla Vs, King and Free Guy

SOUND

1) Dune

2) West Side Story

3) No Time to Die

4) Belfast

5) The Power of the Dog

Alternates: Nightmare Alley and Eternals

MAKEUP AND HAIR

1) Dune

2) The Eyes of Tammy Faye

3) House of Gucci

4) Cruella

5) Spencer

Alternates: The French Dispatch and Being the Ricardos

That's all 20 of the Feature categories.  Currently MTFB's Oscar Take predicted nominations for TFF #48 films:

Belfast Total-11 and 1 other alternate: Picture, Direction (Branagh), Supporting Actress (Balfe), Supporting Actress (Dench), Supporting Actor (Hinds), Supporting Actor (Dornan), Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Song, Sound.  Alternate: Production Design

The Power of the Dog- Total 10 with 1 other alternate: Picture, Direction (Campion) , Actor (Cumberbatch), Supporting Actress (Dunst), Supporting Actor (Smit-McPhee), Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Score, Sound.  Alternate: Production Design)

King Richard Total-6 and 1 other alternate: Picture, Actor, Supporting Actress, Original Screenplay, Editing and Song.  Alternate: Director (Green)

Spencer Total- 4 and 3 alternates: Picture, Actress (Stewart), Score, Costumes.  Alternates: Direction (Larrain), Original Screenplay and Cinematography. 

Flee Total-3 and 1 alternate: International Feature, Animated Feature, Documentary Feature.  Alternate: Picture.

The French Dispatch Total- 2 and 2 alternates: Production Design and Score.  Alternates: Costume and Make/Hair.

 

The Lost Daughter Total- 2: Actress (Colman), Adapted Screenplay.

C'mon C'mon Total- 1 and 1 alternate: Original Screnplay.  Alternate: Actor (Phoenix)

The Rescue Total- 1 and 1 alternate: Documentary Feature.  Alternate: Song

A Hero Total- 1: International Feature

The Hand of God Total- 1: International Feature

Procession Total 1- Documentary Feature

Total TFF #48 nominations- 43 with 11 Alternate possibilities.  That's  a stunning number if it holds true.

Check out the complete list of predictions for all 20 feature film categories on the MTFB Oscar Take Page.

DEAN STOCKWELL 1936-2021

Longtime actor Dean Stockwell died earlier this week.  The actor was 85.  

Stockwell was a guest at the 11th Telluride Film Festival in 1984 attending as a part of the entourage in support of Wim Wenders Paris, Texas.  He was Oscar nominated in 1988 for Best Supporting Actor in Jonathan Demme's Married to the Mob.  He was also a four time Emmy nominee for his role as Al Calavicci in Quantum Leap.  He also twice won Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival; the first in 1959 for Compulsion and the second in 1962 for Long Day's Journey Into Night.  His most recent IMDb credit is from 2015.

I saw Stockwell in Santa Fe, NM in 1980 as part of a tribute to D.H. Lawrence.  Stockwell had been invited to be a part of the troupe that presented a 2 1/2 hour retrospective of Lawrence's work primarily due to his role in Jack Cardiff's 1960 adaptation of Lawrence's Sons and Lovers.

Among other performers on stage that evening were Ian McKellen, Jane Alexander, Tony Randall and Elizabeth Taylor.  Stockwell was a standout among the high-powered crew.

NEW TRAILER FOR C'MON C'MON

A24 has released a second official trailer for Mike Mills' C'mon C'mon starring Joaquin Phoenix.  Here that is from YouTube:

EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS NOMINATE TELLURIDE FILMS

The EFA  nominations were announced earlier this week.  All told TFF films earned nine nominations.   Florian Zeller's TFF #47 listed film earned four: Best European Film, Best Direction, Best Actor and Best Screenwriter.

TFF #48's The Hand of God also earned three noms: Best European Film, Best Direction and Best Screenwrier.

Flee, also a TFF #48 entrant, was nominated for Best European Animated Feature and Best Documentary.

The complete list of EFA nominees can be found here from Deadline.com.

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MTFB Oscar Predictions Updated: Supporting Acting and New Categories: Score, Song, Costumes / New Trailers; The Power of the Dog and Citizen Ashe / Variety Awards Circuit Podcasts: Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan / Interviews: Branagh, Smith and Mills

 MTFB OSCAR PREDICITONS UPDATED

Here's your update on the Supporting Acting races.  This updates the predictions last posted for these categories on Oct. 25th.  TFF #48 performances are indicated in Bold and their previous position in my predictions are indicated to the right in parentheses.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1) Caitriona Balfe/Belfast (3)

2) Kirsten Dunst/The Power of the Dog (1)

3) Aunjunue Ellis/King Richard (4)

4) Rutyh Negga/Passing (New)

5) Ann Dowd/Mass (2)

Alternates: Judi Dench/Belfast and Marlee Matlin/CODA

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Ciaran Hinds/Belfast (2)

2) Bradley Cooper/Licorice Pizza (1)

3) Jamie Dornan/Belfast (3)

4) Jared Leto/House of Gucci (New)

5) Kodi Smit-McPhee/The Power of the Dog (5)

Alternates: Ben Affleck/The Tender Bar and Jason Isaacs/Mass

NEW CATEGORIES FIRST PREDICTIONS

ORIGINAL SCORE

1) Dune

2) The Power of the Dog

3) Spencer

4) The French Dispatch

5) Don't Look Up

Alternates: Nightmare Alley and The Tragedy of Macbeth

ORIGINAL SONG

1) Believe/King Richard

2) No Time to Die/No Time to Die

3) Down to Joy/Belfast

4) So May We Start/Annette

5) Guns Go Bang/The Harder They Fall

Alternates: Colombia Mi Encanto/Encanto, Believe/The Rescue and Every Letter/Cyrano

BEST COSTUME

1) Cruella

2) Dune

3) Spencer

4) Nightmare Alley

5) House of Gucci

Alternates: The French Dispatch and West Side Story

TRAILERS

NEW TRAILER FOR THE POWER OF THE DOG

CITIZEN ASHE

VARIETY'S AWARDS CIRCUIT PODCAST:

DAKOTA JOHNSON/THE LOST DAUGHTER

JAMIE DORNAN/BELFAST

INTERVIEWS: BRANAGH, SMITH, MILLS

I've linked interviews from the past week with some TFF #48 players.

Kenneth Branagh/Belfast from Anne Thompson/Indiewire

Will Smith/King Richard from Alexia Smith/People

Mike Mills/C'mon C'mon from Jack Smart/Backstage

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MTFB Oscar Take Updated: Lead Acting / New Categories: Cinematography, Editing and Production Design / BIFA Nominations and TFF #48 / Profiles: Cumberbatch and Branagh /

 MTFB OSCAR TAKE UPDATED

Here's an update for my predictions of  the lead acting categories for the 94th Academy Awards.  As always, TFF #48 performers are in Bold. The performers' last position in these predictions is indicated to the right in parentheses.  These categories were last predicted on Oct. 21st.

LEAD ACTING

BEST ACTRESS

1) Kristen Stewart/Spencer (1)

2) Jessica Chastain/The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2)

3) Lady Gaga/House of Gucci (5)

4) Olivia Colman/The Lost Daughter (4)

5) Frances McDormand/The Tragedy of Macbeth (3)

Alternates: Penelope Cruz/Parallel Mothers and Jodie Comer/The Last Duel

BEST ACTOR

1) Will Smith/King Richard (1)

2) Denzel Washington/The Tragedy of Macbeth (2)

3) Benedict Cumberbatch/The Power of the Dog (3)

4) Pere Dinklage/Cyrano (4)

5) Andrew Garfield/tick, tick...BOOM (5)

Alternates: Joaquin Phoenix/C'mon C'mon and Clifton Collns/Jockey

NEW CATEGORIES: 

CINEMATOGRAPHY

1) Dune

2) The Tragedy of Macbeth

3) Belfast

4) The Power of the Dog

5) West Side Story

Alternates: Nightmare Alley and Spencer

EDITING

1) Belfast

2) Dune

3) King Richard

4) The Power of the Dog

5) Nightmare Alley

Alternates: West Side Story and Licorice Pizza

PRODUCTION DESIGN

1) Dune

2) Nightmare Alley

3) The French Dispatch

4) West Side Story

5) The Tragedy of Macbeth

Alternates: The Power of the Dog and Belfast

BIFA NOMINATIONS AND TFF #48

The British Independent Film Awards announced nominees for its  2021 edition and Kenneth Branagh's Belfast (and TFF #48 selection) co-lead the haul with 11 total nominations.  Boiling Point also had 11 nominations.  Other TFF #48 films picking up BIFA noms included: Encounter, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, Cow, Flee, Petite Maman and TFF #47 selection First Cow.  TFF films had a total of  26 nominations.

Here's the breakdown by film:

Belfast (11): Actress (Balfe), Supporting Actress (Dench), Supporting Actor (Hinds), Breakthrough Performer (Hill), Casting, Cinematography, Costumes, Music, Editing, Makeup/Hair and Production Design.

Encounter (4): Actor (Ahmed), Supporting Actor (Chauhan), Music and Sound.

The Electrical Life of Louis Wain (4): Costume, Effects, Makeup/Hair and Production Design.

Cow (4): Documentary, Cinematography, Editing and Sound.

Flee (1): International Independent Film.

Petite Maman (1): International Independent Film.

First Cow (1) (TFF #47): International Independent Feature.

  

Here's the complete rundown of BIFA nominations from Variety.

PROFILES: CUMBERBATCH AND BRANAGH

Indiewire's crew this past week has profiled actor Benedict Cumberbatch (The Power of the Dog and The Electrical Life of Louis Wain) and multi-hypenate Kenneth Branagh (Belfast).  Passing those along to you with the following links:

Eric Kohn on Cumberbatch.

Anne Thompson on Branagh.

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MTFB Oscar Take Updated: Best Picture and Direction / MTFB Oscar Predix: New Categories / Release Dates for TFF #48 Films / Profiles and Interviews: Branagh and Garbus / A Hero Has a Trailer

 MTFB OSCAR TAKE: UPDATED BEST PICTURE AND DIRECTOR

Here's the MTFB latest update on predictions for Academy Award nominations for Best Picture and Best Director.  These categories were last predicted here on Oct. 18th.  As always TFF #48 films are indicate in Bold and the film's previous position is indicated to the right in parentheses.

1) Belfast (1)

2) The Power of the Dog (3)

3) King Richard (2)

4) Dune (5)

5) Nightmare Alley (7)

6) Licorice Pizza (4)

7) West Side Story (6)

8) Spencer (8)

9) The Tragedy of Macbeth (9)

10) CODA (Alt.)

Alternates: House of Gucci and Flee

BEST  DIRECTION

1) Kenneth Branagh/Belfast (1)

2) Jane Campion/The Power of the Dog (2)

3) Denis Villenueve/Dune (3)

4) Paul Thomas Anderson/Licorice Pizza (5)

5) Guillermo Del Toro/Nightmare Alley (4)

Alternates: Pablo Larrain/Spencer and Reinaldo Marcus Green/King Richard

MTFB OSCAR PREDIX: NEW CATEGORIES: INTERNATIONAL, ANIMATED AND DOCUMENTARY FESTURES (TFF #48 films in Bold)

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM:

1) The Worst Person in the World/Norway

2) A Hero/Iran

3) Flee/Denmark

4) The Hand of God/Italy

5) Titane/France

Alternates: Drive My Car/Japan and Compartment #6/Finland

BEST ANINATED FEATURE

1) Flee

2) The Mitchells vs. The Machines

3) Encanto

4) Luca

5) Belle

Alternates: Raya and the Last Dragon and Sing 2

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

1) Flee

2) The Rescue

3) Summer of Soul

4) Ascension

5) Procession

RELEASE DATES FOR TFF #48 FILMS

From IMDb:

2021:

Nov. 5 Spencer

Nov. 12 Belfast

Nov. 17 The Power of the Dog

Nov. 19 King Richard, C'mon C'mon

Dec. 3 Red Rocket, Flee

Dec. 10 Encounter

2022:

Jan. 7: A Hero

Release dates for other non-TFF 48 Oscar possibles:

2021:

Nov. 24 House of Gucci

Nov. 26 Licorice Pizza

Dec. 10 Being the Ricardos, West Side Story

Dec. 17: Nightmare Alley

Dec. 25 The Tragedy of Macbeth, A Journal for Jordan

PROFILES AND INTERVIEWS

Sir Kenneth Branagh- writer/director of Belfast with Brent A. Lang from Variety

Liz Garbus, director of Becoming Cousteau with Jazz Tangcay from Variety

A HERO HAS A TRAILER

Amazon Studios has released a trailer for Asghar Farhadi's International Oscar contender A Hero.  Here it is from YouTube:

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

TWITTER @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

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