Michael's Telluride Film Blog : Looking at Distributors: Searchlight / From Out of Left Field / More as The Bikeriders Rolls out

Monday, June 17, 2024

Looking at Distributors: Searchlight / From Out of Left Field / More as The Bikeriders Rolls out

CHECKING THE DISTRBUTORS: SEARCHLIGHT

Searchlight (and before it, Fox Searchlight) has been a stalwart in the TFF Universe for many years. My running list of films from them goes back to 2004 and includes five Oscar Best Picture winners and a slew of nominations:

2023: Poor Things, All of Us Strangers, The Last Repair Shop

2022: Empire of Light

2021: The French Dispatch

2020: Nomadland (Best Picture Oscar)

2019: A Hidden Life
2018: The Favourite, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, The Old Man and the Gun
2017: The Shape of Water (Best Picture Oscar), Battle of the Sexes
2016: No Show
2015: He Named Me Malala
2014: Birdman (Best Picture Oscar), Wild
2013: 12 Years a Slave (Best Picture Oscar)
2012: No Show
2011: Shame, The Descendants
2010: Never Let Me Go, 127 Hours, Black Swan
2009: No Show
2008: Slumdog Millionaire (Best Picture Oscar)
2007: Juno, The Savages
2006: The Last King of Scotland, The Namesake
2005: Bee Season
2004: Kinsey

But as you can also see there have been years that Searchlight was not a presence at TFF: 2009, 2012 and 2016. 2024 might be one of those off years.

I've scoured what Searchlight has set for release and what films are in post-production and the films that are or could be ready and feel like something Telluride might be interested in are meager. As a matter of fact, at the moment I can only find Marielle Heller's Nightbitch as Searchlight's only real player.

The film's pedigree sounds like a real TFF possibility: Heller was in T-ride in with Can You Ever Forgive Me? in 2018. The film's star, Amy Adams was a tribute recipient in 2016 and Searchlight set the film's release for Dec. 6th. But...

The film has been described as perhaps being too odd and difficult to promote. Here's part of the plot summary listed at IMDb Pro:

"A woman, thrown into the stay-at-home routine of raising a toddler in the suburbs, slowly embraces the feral power deeply rooted in motherhood, as she becomes increasingly aware of the bizarre and undeniable signs that she may be turning into a dog."

See what I mean. On the other hand, T-ride programmed Poor Things last year to great success. So...maybe?

So I'm giving Nightbitch a 30% shot at TFF #51 and I suppose there is the weakest of possibilities that we might see Nate Parker's (The Birth of a Nation) Solitary. I give it a 10% chance.

FROM OUT OF LEFT FIELD

So I was perusing Jordan Ruimy's World of Reel for this and that and came across this story that Jordan posted on Saturday headlined:

Gia Coppola's ‘The Last Showgirl' Aims for Fall Fests; Oscar Nominee, Pamela Anderson?

Intrigued, I opened the story up and read some very interesting speculation including these choice comments:

"Here’s another potential title for Venice/Telluride."

and

"Coppola’s last film, “Mainstream,” was part of the pandemic-afflicted 2020 edition of Venice, but I’m hearing this one’s a worthier film and, more importantly, is a major showcase for Anderson. It’s also very likely headed to Telluride — that fest’s director, Julie Huntsinger, hasn’t locked her lineup just yet, but “The Last Showgirl” is a major possibility."

Could it be true? Ruimy seems to think so.

Additionally Coppola brought Palo Alto to T-ride in 2013 and would have had Mainstream there in 2020 had the fest not been bagged due to Covid.

We'll have to keep an eye on this.

Here's WOR's full story.

MORE AS THE BIKERIDERS ROLLS OUT