ONE OF THOSE DETECTIVE STORIES
Every now and then I run across pieces of information that either enlighten me about what will play at TFF or , conversely, won't play at TFF. Sometimes I get tidbits that tell me something but doesn't quite get all the way to a definitive conclusion. That last circumstance happened at the end of this past week.
On Wednesday. last week, I got a message from a follower of MTFB that he'd seen an announcement from Focus Features that they were hosting a contest for a chance to get tickets to a Gala Presentation for one of their films on Saturday, Sept. 9th at Roy Thomson Hall. If you really follow all of this Premiere status closely over these past few years, you're aware that Toronto has made clear that ONLY WORLD PREMIERES will play Roy Thomson on TIFF's opening weekend.
Then, couple of days later, I was reading Eric Lavallee's (Ioncinema) June 28 post entitled 2023 Toronto International Film Festival (Strictly) World Premiere Predictions! As many of you know, a World Premiere at Toronto (except in extremely weird or confused instances) means a film will not play at Telluride). Early in the piece Lavallee writes:
"My golden calf prognostication is Alexander Payne‘s The Holdovers. We are predicting that it’ll bypass Telluride and Venice and what is somewhat fitting is that the Focus Features property was actually picked up at TIFF last year in a private market screening for buyers."
Well, those sentences set me back. I have had The Holdovers as #1 on this year's first Ten Bets.
So, does this mean no Holdovers at Telluride?
Maybe. BUT... not necessarily. The other big Focus title that's on everyone's radar has been Ethan Coen's Drive-Away Dolls. That film is set for U.S. release on Sept. 22nd. It's the only other Focus property that I can see that would fill the bill for a Gala Opening at TIFF on Sept. 9th.
Jordan Ruimy writing at World of Reel in a piece about Venice's announcement date wrote this:
"Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers” would be a great get for Venice, but Focus, which is handling the film, has a tight friendship with Toronto and might just skip the Lido. The same could potentially be said about Ethan Coen’s “Drive-Away Dolls,” which is also Focus."
That sounds to me like Ruimy might be looking at the same information I am.
The bottom line seems to be that, at a minimum, one of the two films will be playing at Roy Thomson/TIFF on Sept. 9th and consequently will not play TFF #50. It could actually portend that neither film is In Telluride on Labor Day weekend.
My best guess is that The Holdovers still plays at TFF and that Drive-Away Dolls is what fills the bill in Toronto. I just have a hard time believing that Alexander Payne, a member of the TFF Board of Directors (at least as of last year), a past TFF Guest Director and who has screened three of his films at the fest since 2011, won't be bringing his latest film to the 50th TFF celebration.
Saying the same thing this week in his "Halfway to Oscars 2024 Qualifying: 40 Films in the Mix" post for The Playlist, Gregory Ellwood wrote:
“The Holdovers“*
Alexander Payne and Paul Giamatti reunite for the sort of melancholy dramedy that put them both on the map. If it doesn’t have its world premiere at Telluride (Payne attends almost every year), we’ll be shocked."
So, I'll be anxiously watching Toronto announcements to see if this puzzle can be solved. And speaking of announcements...
VENICE AND TOTONTO ANNOUNCEMENTS LOOMING
We have known for a bit that TIFF will announce a big chunk of their lineup on July 19th. We found out over the last few days that, per Screen Daily , the Venice lineup announcement will be on July 25th.
Both announcement's can be instructive re: The SHOW. Toronto's announcement's can, by virtue of their Premiere Status designation, can tell us whether a film will or won't play at Telluride. It's not 100% accurate, but it's close.
Venice, on the other, doesn't actually eliminate any TFF possibility but doesn't confirm anything either. It's lineup points to films that could still be in play for a Telluride berth. The other piece of the Venice puzzle is to scour their screening schedule when it gets released. As a general rule, if a film is scheduled for Venice during the first three days (four at the outside) it still has a decent chance of showing up in the San Juans.
So keep those factors in mind as we wait for the dominos to begin to fall over the next two-three weeks.
IONCINEMA LOOKS AT TORONTO
As mentioned above, Eric Lavallee at Ioncinema published a speculative list of films that he suggests could World Premiere at Toronto and thus not make the TFF #50th. We've already dissected the claim that TIFF will World Premiere The Holdovers, but what other films are on Lavallee's list that I have been thinking might be prime contenders for T-ride? Here's a list culled from Lavallee's in the order presented in the post:
Nyad/Chin and Vasarhelyi
Nightbitch/Heller
Foe/Davis
Saltburn/Fennell
Tuesday/Pusic
Freud's Last Session/Brown
The Royal Hotel/Green
WORLD OF REEL'S LATEST VENICE LIST
World of Reel's Jordan Ruimy has updated his list of Venice possibilities with the fest's announcement date news this week. Here are films from his list that could do the Venice/Telluride two-step categorized as "Good Chance", "Maybe" and "Outside Shot"...at least in my current estimation:
GOOD CHANCE:
El Conde/Larrain
Poor Things/Lanthimos
Strangers/Haigh
MAYBE:
Priscilla/Coppola
The Royal Hotel/Green
Saltburn/Fennell
OUTSIDE SHOT:
Maestro/Cooper
The Captain/Garrone
Fingernails/Nikou
Drive-Away Dolls/Coen...but, you know, see above.
AND FINALLY...THE PLAYLIST'S OSCAR LIST
I mentioned above the comment from Gregory Ellwood's piece this week for The Playlist concerning The Holdovers and it's possibility for Telluride. So, naturally, I ran down his list of 40 possible Best Picture contenders to evaluate it for TFF #50 players. Ellwood has the films categorized as: Likely, Close, In the Mix, Curious and Need Convincing. From each, the TFF possibles are:
LIKELY:
The Zone of Interest/Glazer
CLOSE:
Maestro/Cooper
IN THE MIX:
Anatomy of a Fall
May December
Saltburn
CURIOUS:
The Bikeriders
The Book of Clarence
The Boys in the Boat
Freud's Last Session
Foe
The Holdovers
Nightbitch
Nyad
Perfect Days
The Pot au Fou
Poor Things
Priscilla
Rustin
Strangers
NEED CONVINCING:
Challengers
As an added note, Ellwood has Scorsese's Killer of the Flower Moon as "Likely" and Fincher's The Killer as "Need Convincing".
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com
2 comments:
Could the gala be Zelda Williams’ Lisa Frankenstein? Was reading the Ioncinema piece and noticed it was Focus Features.
While possible it still seems most likely that Drive-Away Dolls goes to Toronto for the Focus prize Gala and that The Holdovers plays Telluride.
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