Checking the Distributors: Amazon & MGM / A Sudden Glimpse / Metacritic's Ranking of Best Picture Winners

 CHECKING THE DISTRIBUTORS: AMAZON AND MGM

We're close to winding up our look at film distribution outfits.  Today's look is at the amalgam that is Amazon Studios, Amazon-MGM and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as those are all under the same umbrella now.  Thursday we'll do a grab bag of smaller companies some years get to TFF.

Here's what has been at Telluride from Amazon and the rest since 2016:

2023: Cassandro, Saltburn

2022: Wildcat, Good Night Oppy

2021: Encounter, A Hero

2020: All In: The Fight for Democracy

2019: The Aeronauts, The Report

2018: Peterloo, Cold War

2017: Wonderstruck

2016: Manchester by the Sea

This year the conglomerate of companies has these films in play:

Nickel Boys/Ross

Hedda/DaCosta

Long Days Journey Into Night/Kent

Unstoppable/Goldenberg (added to this list on 7/10 after a comment from a reader)

Then there's the film that you'd think was a T-ride possible but looks like it's not .  I'm talking about Rachel Morrison's The Fire Inside (Flint Strong).  Even with a pedigree that includes Barry Jenkins writing and producing, it appears it's not going to make it to the San Juans.  Jordan Ruimy writing at World of Reel on Tuesday said that the film has had a troubled production history.

So,  here are the chances for these films to make the TFF #51 lineup:

Nickel Boys 40%

Long Days Journey Into Night 25%

Unstoppable 25%

Hedda 10%

The Fire Inside 2%

A SUDDEN GLIMPSE

I had already placed Mark Cousins documentary A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things on the "possibles" list for Telluride and likely I'll bump it up into the 4th Ten Bets on Thursday in the wake of the film winning the Crystal Globe.  That's the top prize from the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival just completed on Saturday.

Cousins who is a TFF "regular" and a member of the fest's "Esteemed Council of Advisors" has had a number of films over the years appear as a part of TFF lineups including: The Story of Film, The March on Rome, My Name is Alfred Hitchcock and and The Eyes of Orson Welles among others.

Here's the IMDb description of the film:

"Exploring the pivotal 1949 experience atop Switzerland's Grindelwald glacier that reshaped British modernist painter Wilhelmina Barns-Graham's artistic perspective for decades to come."

You can find a complete rundown of all the award winners for KVIFF here from Indiewire.

METACRITIC'S RANKING OF BEST PICTURE WINNERS 

I ran across this list from Metacritic a couple of days ago and was curious as to where TFF films that had Best Picture ranked.  The list's oldest film is The Last Emperor from 1987.  It includes 37 films with 1988's Rain Man the lowest ranked film.  Last year's BP winner, Oppenheimer is at #9.

Here's where the 11 films that have screened at TFF and then won the Best Picture Oscar rank with their Metacritic compiled rating:

22) Slumdog Millionaire (84)

18) Argo (86)

15) The Shape of Water (87)

13) Nomadland (87)

12) Birdman (87)

11) The King's Speech (88)

10) The Artist (89)

7) Spotlight (93)

3) 12 Years a Slave (96)

2) Parasite (97)

1) Moonlight (98)

You can find the entire list here.

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