Monday, August 29, 2022

FINAL BETS FOR TFF #49 / Tribute Guesses? / What Does Ellwood Know? / Pugh? Maybe Not / The People's Telluride

FINAL BETS FOR TFF #49

This is my last stab at what's going to play at Telluride this week.  Of course we'll all find out the actual lineup on Thursday morning at 11:00 EDT/8PDT.  I'll wake up Thursday morning in Gunnison, Co. with about a 22 and 1/2 to 3 hour drive into Telluride.  My plan is to post the lineup when it lands Thursday morning and then skeedaddle to T-ride fairly quickly after.

Here's a reminder of what I had listed as my Ten (Plus) Bets last Thursday:


1) Empire of Light/Mendes
2) Women Talking/Polley
3) The Wonder/Lelio
4) Bardo/Iarritu
5) TAR/Field
6) Broker/Kore-eda
7) Holy Spider/Abbasi
8) Armageddon Time/Gray
9) Bones and All/Guadignino
10) One Fine Morning/Hansen-Love
11) Godland/Palmason
12) A Compassionate Spy/James
13) Good Night Oppy/White
14) Theatre of Thought/Herzog
15) Sr./Smith
16 The U.S, and the Holocaust/Burns
17) All the Beauty and the Bloodshed/Poitras
18) Close/Dhont
19) Something from Mark Cousins*
20) Aftersun/Wells

Others Possibilities: Living/Hermanus, Tori and Lokita/Dardennes, The Forger/Peren, Tuesday/Oniunas-Pusic, The Fire Within/Herzog, Dreamin' Wild/Pohlad, Argentina 1985/Mitre, The Story of Film: A New Generation/Cousins*,  My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock/Cousins*,  March on Rome/Cousins*, Athena/Gavras, Anastasia/McCarthy, The Pupils/Rohrwacher


AND HERE ARE MY FINAL BETS FOR TFF #49

The last few years I average about 23 of 25 correct... 

2021: 24 of 25 correct.
2020: No fest
2019: 24 of 25
2018: 25 of 25
2017: 24 of 25
2016: 20 of 20

So, out of the last five years of Bets... 117 of 120.


We'll see what the 2022 rate is. 


And now the actual "Final Bets":

1) Empire of Light/Mendes
2) Women Talking/Polley
3) The Wonder/Lelio
4) Bardo/Iarritu
5) TAR/Field
6) Broker/Kore-eda
7) Holy Spider/Abbasi
8) Armageddon Time/Gray
9) Bones and All/Guadignino
10) One Fine Morning/Hansen-Love
11) Godland/Palmason
12) A Compassionate Spy/James
13) Good Night Oppy/White
14) Theatre of Thought/Herzog
15) Sr./Smith
16 The U.S. and the Holocaust/Burns
17) All the Beauty and the Bloodshed/Poitras
18) Close/Dhont
19) March to Rome and/or My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock/Cousins
20) Aftersun/Wells
21) Living/Hermanus
22) Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy/Buirsky
23) The Pupils/Rohrwacher
24) Anastasia/McCarthy
25) Athena/Gavras


Others Possibilities:Tori and Lokita/Dardennes, The Forger/Peren, Tuesday/Oniunas-Pusic, The Fire Within/Herzog, Dreamin' Wild/Pohlad, Argentina 1985/Mitre, The Story of Film: A New Generation/Cousins

I'm still somewhat shaky on All the Beauty..., Aftersun, Living, Athena and the new adds of Anastasia and The Pupils.  We'll see what happens there.

World of Reel's Jordan Ruimy, who has worked this beat tirelessly this season, has reported this list of 23 films as of last Friday.  Jordan writes:

These are the 23 films that we know are Telluride-bound:

Tar (Field)
Bones and All (Guadagnino)
Bardo (Inarritu)
The Wonder (Leilo)
Empire of Light (Mendes)
Women Talking (Polley)
A Compassionate Spy (James)
My Name is Alfred Hitchcock (Cousins)
Theatre of Thought (Werner Herzog)
Aftersun (Charlotte Wells)
Godland (Hylnur Pálmason)
The US and the Holocaust (Ken Burns)
Sr. (Smith)
Good Night Oppy (White)
Holy Spider (Abbasi)
Armageddon Time (Gray)
One Fine Morning (Hansen-Løve)
Broker (Kore-eda)
Close (Dhont)
Living (Hermanus)
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Poitras)
Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy (Buirsky)

As you can see, our lists are almost exactly the same.

We'll know more in about 75 hours.


TRIBUTE GUESSES???




Bill Night/Living
Cate Blanchett/TAR
Olivia Colman/Empire of Light
Alejandro Inarritu/Bardo
Anne Hathaway/Armageddon Time
Anthony Hopkins/Armageddon Time
Jessica Chastain/Armageddon Time
Mark Rylance/Bones and All
Michael Stuhlbarg/Bones and All

If I get some solid intell on this before Thursday's announcement...I'll pass it on in a special post.


WHAT DOES ELLWOOD KNOW?




Last Friday Gregory Ellwood of The Playlist tweeted:



And my brain went..."What's that mean?"  

Ellwood had a couple of responses that guessed that Steven Spielberg's The Fableman's had been grabbed by TFF #49.  Ellwood said "No." to that.  So it got me wondering what it COULD mean.

Back on Aug. 8th I posted "Star Gazing at TFF #49 which was a listing of possible "names" that might be attending based on what films I thought at that time would play TFF.  I've added some further possibilities to that list:

Armageddon Time: Anne Hathaway, Jeremy Strong, Anthony Hopkins (who may have been a Tribute recipient had there been a TFF #47) and Jessica Chastain.

Bones and All: Timothee Chalamet, Taylor Russell***, Michael Stuhlbarg, Mark Rylance, Chloe Sevigny***.

Empire of Light: Colin Firth*** (Tribute 2010), Olivia Colman, Toby Jones.

One Fine Morning: Lea Seydoux***.

TAR: Cate Blanchett, Mark Strong, Nina Hoss

Women Talking: Jesse Buckley, Rooney Mara*** (Tribute 2015), Clare Foy, Ben Whishaw, Frances McDormand.

The Wonder: Florence Pugh (see story below), Toby Jones, Ciaran Hinds.

Living: Bill Nighy

Sr.: Robert Downey, Jr.

Desperate Souls, Dark City...: Jon Voight


Is that "Starry" enough for Ellwood's characterization?  Maybe.  Or is Ellwood hinting about an additional film or two that would pump up the list of guests?


PUGH? MAYBE NOT




Lots of buzz around Florence Pugh this week.  The young actress who is starring in Venice selection Don't Worry Now as well as TFF #49 selection The Wonder is described as "doing limited press" for Venice.  Explanations and conjectures center on her shooting schedule for Dune 2 as well as a controversies swirling around Don't Worry Now involving director Olivia Wilde, actors Shia LaBeouf and Harry Styles and Wilde's ex-husband, actor Jason Sudeikis.

I have assumed that there was a reasonably chance the the young and rising star might break free with her Dune 2 counterpart, Timothee Chalamet, star of Luca Guadagnino's Bones and All (which I expect to be at Telluride) and do a bit of time in the San Juans...but that looks relatively unlikely at the moment.

Pugh currently sits at #23 on IMDb's STARmeter which tracks the current popularity status of people in the biz.  My current STARmeter status is: 1,180,574.  Totally serious about that number.



THE PEOPLE'S TELLURIDE




For the tenth non-consecutive year MTFB is soliciting your input for The People's Telluride.  All you have to do is watch films during the fest and then, when it's all over, report to me your assessment of each film on a 1-5 scale with 1 being "UGH!" and 5 being "GREAT".


Report your ratings with any of the following contact methods:


EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com

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