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Thursday, November 21, 2024

MTFB Oscar Update: Lead Acting / New Trailer for The Piano Lesson / Zurawski v. Texas Has International Sales Rep / TFF #51 Films Winning Awards / Interviews and Profiles for Saturday Night, Conclave and Piece by Piece

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: LEAD ACTING




I'm updating the Lead Acting categories today.  These categories were last updated on Nov. 6th.  An actor's previous position is indicated in (parentheses).  TFF #51 films are in Bold. 


BEST ACTRESS




1) Mikey Madison/Anora (1)
2) Angelina Jolie/Maria (2)
3) Karla Sofia Gascon/Emilia Perez (3)
4) Nicole Kidman/Babygirl (4)
5) Saoirse Ronan/The Outrun (5)

Others: Marianne Jean-Baptiste/Hard Truths, Demi Moore/The Substance and Tilda Swinton/The Room Next Door.


BEST ACTOR

1) Ralph Fiennes/Conclave (2)
2) Adrien Brody/The Brutalist (1)
3) Colman Domingo/Sing Sing (3)
4) Timothee Chalamet/A Complete Unknown (4)
5) Daniel Craig/Queer (5)

Others: Paul Mescal/Gladiator II, Sebastian Stan/The Apprentice and Jesse Eisenberg/A Real Pain.



NEW TRAILER FOR THE PIANO LESSON

Netflix released a new trailer for Malcom Washington's The Piano Lesson on Tuesday.  Here it is via YouTube: 



The Piano Lesson is already in limited release.



ZURAWSKI V. TEXAS HAS INETRNATIONAL SALES REP (BUT WHY NO DOMESTIC DISTRIBUTION???)

Scree Daily reported this week that Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault's powerful documentary Zurawski v. Texas has had its international sales rights acquired by Together Films.  That comes as the multi-award winning film still lacks domestic distribution.  And I want to know why.

The film has won awards from the following film fests: Hamptons, Heartland (Indianapolis), Mill Valley, Montclair, Philadelphia, Sant Fe and others and has had a number of special screening both live and virtually.

Here is an interview from Together Films for the Academy Conversations series via YouTube:





TFF #51 FILMS WINNING AWARDS







INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES








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Monday, November 18, 2024

MTFB Oscar Update: Best Picture and Direction / Poster and Trailer for Better Man / Making of and Behind the Scenes: Anora, Emilia Perez and Conclave / Interviews and Profiles: Rasoulof, Kapadia and More

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: BEST PICTURE AND DIRECTION



Here are updated nomination predictions for the Best Picture and Direction for the 97th Academy Awards.  These categories were last predicted on Nov. 4th.  A film's or director's previous rank appears to the right of their names in parentheses.  TFF #51 actors/films are in Bold. 


BEST PICTURE




1) Anora (1)
2) Conclave (2)
3) Emilia Perez (3)
4) The Brutalist (4)
5) Dune Part Two (5)
6) Wicked (10)
7) Gladiator II (6)
8) Sing Sing (9)
9) A Real Pain (7)
10) Blitz (-)

Others: A Complete Unknown, September 5 and The Room Next Door.


BEST DIRECTION




1) Sean Baker/Anora (2)
2) Brady Corbet/The Brutalist (1)
3) Edward Berger/Conclave (4)
4) Jacques Audiard/Emilia Perez (3)
5) Denis Villenueve/Dune Part Two (-)

Others: Ridley Scott/Gladiator II, RaMell Ross/Nickel Boys and James Mangold/A Complete Unknown


BETTER MAN POSTER AND TRAILER

Here they are from director Michael Gracey, the film about musician Robbie Williams:






MAKING OF AND BEHIND THE SCENES

For Anora from The Hollywood Reporter.





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Thursday, November 14, 2024

MTFB Oscar Update: Screenplays / Will and Harper Tops Critics' Choice / Interviews and Profiles: Deadwyler, Keogahn and More

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: SCREENPLAYS



Here are updated nomination predictions for the Screenplay categories for the 97th Academy Awards.  These categories were last predicted on Oct. 31st.  An film's previous rank appears to the right of their names in parentheses.  TFF #51 actors/films are in Bold.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY




1) Conclave (1)
2) Emilia Perez (2)
3) Sing Sing (3)
4) Nickel Boys (4)
5) The Room Next Door (-)

Others: Dune Part Two, A Complete Unknown and Inside Out 2.


BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY




1) Anora (1)
2) The Brutalist (2)
3) A Real Pain (3)
4) September 5 (4)
5) Saturday Night (5)

Others: The Seed of the Sacred Fig, The Substance and Blitz.

Best Picture nomination predictions will be updated on Monday.


HARPER AND WILL TOP CRITIC'S CHOICE




The Critics' Choice Awards for documentaries were announce this week and TFF #51 film Will and Harper tied with Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story as Best Documentary feature for the year.  Will and Harper finished in the #2 spot in this year's MTFB People's poll just behind Zurawski v. Texas.



INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES












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MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

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Monday, November 11, 2024

MTFB Oscar Update: Supporting Acting / TFF Films and the Best of the 2020's / Awards for TFF Films / Interviews and Profiles: Washington and Arnold

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: SUPPORTING ACTING



Here are updated nomination predictions for the Supporting Acting categories for the 97th Academy Awards.  These categories were last predicted on Oct. 28th.  An actor's previous rank appears to the right of their names in parentheses.  TFF #51 actors/films are in Bold.
 Deadwyler
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1) Zoe Saldana/Emilia Perez (1)
2) Danielle Deadwyler/The Piano Lesson (2)
3) Saoirse Ronan/Blitz (4)
4) Isabella Rossellini/Conclave (3)
5) Felicity Jones/The Brutalist (5)

Others: Selena Gomez/Emilia Perez, Ariana Grande/Wicked and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor/Nickel Boys.


BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR




1) Keiran Culkin/A Real Pain (1)
2) Denzel Washington/Gladiator II (2)
3) Guy Pearce/The Brutalist (3)
4) Clarence Maclin/Sing Sing (4)
5) Stanley Tucci/Conclave (5)

Others: John Magaro/September 5, Jeremy Strong/The Apprentice and Yura Borisov/Anora.


TFF FILMS AND THE BEST OF THE HALF DECADE




Jordan Ruimy/World of Reel invited me and more than one hundred other "critics" to name a  list of the Best films of the first half of the 2020's.  The results were posted Saturday.  Among the top twenty were eight that played at one of the decade's TFFs.  They were: TAR, The Zone of Interest, Anatomy of a Fall, The Power of the Dog, Poor Things, Anora, Aftersun and All of Us Strangers. 

Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer topped the list.  My List for the poll was: Nomadland, Oppenheimer, Poor Things, The Power of the Dog and The Zone of Interest.



AWARDS FOR TFF FILMS







INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES







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MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

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Wednesday, November 6, 2024

MTFB Oscar Update: Lead Acting / European Film Awards Nominations / British Independent Film Awards Nominations / Trailer for The End /Interviews and Profiles : Saldana, Eisenberg and More

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: LEAD ACTING



I'm updating the Lead Acting categories today.  These categories were last updated on Oct. 24th.  An actor's previous position is indicated in (parentheses).  TFF #51 films are in Bold. 

BEST ACTRESS


1) Mikey Madison/Anora
2) Angelina Jolie/Maria
3) Karla Sofia Gascon/Emilia Perez
4) Saoirse Ronan/The Outrun
5) Nicole Kidman/Babygirl

Others: Demi Moore/The Substance, Marianne Jean-Baptiste/Hard Truths and Tilda Swinton/The Room Next Door.


BEST ACTOR




1) Adrien Brody/The Brutalist
2) Ralph Fiennes/Conclave
3) Colman Domingo/Sing Sing
4) Timothee Chalamet/A Complete Unknown
5) Daniel Craig/Queer

Others: Paul Mescal/Gladiator II, Sebastian Stan/The Apprentice and Jesse Eisenberg/A Real Pain.


TFF NOMINATIONS FOR EFA AND BIFA

TFF films were well represented in films nominated for the European Film Awards announced earlier this week.




Emilia Perez (4): Best European Film, Direction, Actress (Gascon), Screenwriter.

The Seed of the Sacred Fig (3): Best European Film, Direction, Screenwriter.

No Other Land (2): Best European Film, Documentary.

They Shot the Piano Player (TFF #50) (2): Best European Feature, Animated Feature.

Bird (2) Best Direction, Actor (Rogowski).

Santosh (1) Best Discovery

Conclave (1): Best Actor (Fiennes).


TFF films also were recognized with nominations for the British Independent Film Awards:




The Outrun (9): Best British Independent Film, Direction, Lead Performance (Ronan), Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Makeup/Hair, Original Music and Sound. 

Bird (7): Best Direction, Supporting Performance (Rogowski and Keoghan), Breakthrough Performance (Adams), Casting, Editing and Original Music.

Santosh (4): Best British Independent Film, Screenplay, Breakthrough Producer and Debut Screenwriter.

All We Imagine as Light (1): Best Independent International Film.

Anora (1): Best Independent International Film.

La Chimera (from TFF #50) (1): Best Independent International Film.

No Other Land (1): Best Independent International Film.

The Seed of the Sacred Fig (1): Best Independent International Film.


TRAILER FOR THE END

From NEON via YouTube:




INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES











EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

X (Twitter) @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

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MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

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Monday, November 4, 2024

MTFB Oscar Update: Best Picture and Direction / Trailers and Clips: Conclave and Emilia Perez / TFF Films Awarded / Interviews and Profiles

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: BEST PICTURE AND DIRECTION


Here are updated nomination predictions for the Best Picture and Direction for the 97th Academy Awards.  These categories were last predicted on Oct. 21st.  A film's or director's previous rank appears to the right of their names in parentheses.  TFF #51 actors/films are in Bold. 


BEST PICTURE



1) Anora (1)
2) Conclave (2)
3) Emilia Perez (4)
4) The Brutalist (3)
5) Dune Part Two (5)
6) Gladiator II (6)
7) A Real Pain (10)
8) A Complete Unknown (-)
9) Sing Sing (7)
10) Wicked (-)

Others: Blitz, September 5 and Nickel Boys.


BEST DIRECTION

1) Brady Corbet/The Brutalist (1)
2) Sean Baker/Anora (2)
3) Jacques Audiard/Emilia Perez (3)
4) Edward Berger/Conclave (4)
5) Ridley Scott/Gladiator II (-)

Others: Denis Villenueve/Dune Part Two, James Mangold/A Complete Unknown and RaMell Ross/Nickel Boys.


***BEHIND THE SCENES OF CONCLAVE



***SELENA GOMEZ SINGS MI CAMINO FROM EMILIA PEREZ



TFF FILMS AWARDED







INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES













EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

X (Twitter) @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

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MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

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Thursday, October 31, 2024

MTFB Oscar Update: Screenplays / Gotham Awards Nominations and TFF / TFF Films Being Honored /New Clip from A Real Pain / Interviews and Profiles: Rossellini, Stewart, Sarsgaard and More

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: SCREENPLAYS

Here are updated nomination predictions for the Screenplay categories for the 97th Academy Awards.  These categories were last predicted on Oct. 17th.  An film's previous rank appears to the right of their names in parentheses.  TFF #51 actors/films are in Bold.


BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY




1) Conclave (1)
2) Emilia Perez (2)
3) Sing Sing (3)
4) Nickel Boys (4)
5) Dune Part Two (5)

Others: The Room Next Door, A Complete Unknown and Gladiator II.


BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1) Anora (1)
2) The Brutalist (2)
3) A Real Pain (3)
4) September 5 (4)
5) Saturday Night (5)

Others: The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Hard Truths and The Substance.


GOTHAM AWARDS NOMINATIONS AND TFF #51




Seven TFF #51 films and one other from TFF #50 earned a combined 14 Gotham Awards nominations which were announced on Tuesday, Oct. 29th.  Sean Baker's Anora led all films with four nominations.  Here's the breakdown of TFF nominees:

Anora (4): Best Feature, Direction, Lead Performance (Madison), Supporting Performance (Borisov).

Nickel Boys (3): Best Feature, Direction and Breakthrough Performance (Wilson).

All We Imagine as Light (2): Best International Feature, Direction.

No Other Land (1): Best Documentary.

The Outrun (1): Best Lead Performance (Ronan).

A Real Pain (1): Best Supporting Performance.

The Piano Lesson (1): Best Supporting Performance (Deadwyler).

And from TFF #50: Janet Planet (1): Best Screenplay.



TFF FILMS BEING HONORED




We are in the midst of various organizations honoring films in this interim between the start of the awards season and nomination morning.  TFF films are reaping their share.  Just this week we saw a number of those.





NEW CLIP FROM A REAL PAIN





INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES



















EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

X @Gort2 or @TheMTFB

Bluesky: @gort2.bsky.social


MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

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Monday, October 28, 2024

MTFB Oscar Update: Supporting Actors / Trailers: September 5, No Other Land and Santosh / Interviews and Profiles: Fiennes, Rossellini. Lithgow and More

 MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: SUPPORTING ACTORS




Here are updated nomination predictions for the Supporting Acting categories for the 97th Academy Awards.  These categories were last predicted on Oct. 14.  An actor's previous rank appears to the right of their names in parentheses.  TFF #51 actors/films are in Bold.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS




1) Zoe Saldana/Emilia Perez (1)
2) Danielle Deadwyler/The Piano Lesson (2)
3) Isabella Rossellini/Conclave (4)
4) Saoirse Ronan/Blitz (5)
5) Felicity Jones/The Brutalist (3)

Others: Ariana Grande/Wicked, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor/Nickel Boys and Selena Gomez/Emilia Perez.


SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Kieran Culkin/A Real Pain (1)
2) Denzel Washington/Gladiator II (3)
3) Guy Pearce/The Brutalist (2)
4) Charles Maclin/Sing Sing (56)
5) Stanley Tucci/Conclave (4)

Others:  Jeremy Strong/The Apprentice, John Magaro/September 5 and Peter Saarsgard/September 5.


TRAILERS

SEPTEMBER 5



NO OTHER LAND


SANTOSH




  

Thursday, October 24, 2024

MTFB Oscar Update: Lead Acting / Middleburg Film Festival Awards Are All TFF films / Interviews and Profiles: Tucci, Baker and Berger

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: LEAD ACTING



I'm updating the Lead Acting categories today.  These categories were last updated on Oct. 10th.  An actor's previous position is indicated in (parentheses).  TFF #51 films are in Bold. 

BEST ACTRESS




1) Mikey Madison/Anora (1)
2) Angelina Jolie/Maria (2)
3) Karla Sofia Gascon/Emilia Perez (3)
4) Nicole Kidman/Babygirl (4)
5) Saoirse Ronan/The Outrun (5)

Others: Mariann Jean-Baptiste/Hard Truths, Demi Moore/The Substance, Fernanda Torres/I'm Still Here.


BEST ACTOR

1) Adrien Brody/The Brutalist (3)
2) Ralph Fiennes/Conclave (1)
3) Colman Domingo/Sing Sing (2)
4) Timothee Chalamet/A Complete Unknown (4)
5) Daniel Craig/Queer (5)

Others: Paul Mescal/Gladiator II, Sebastian Stan/The Apprentice, John David Washington/The Piano Lesson

I'll be updating the Supporting Acting categories on Monday.


MIDDLEBURG FEST AWARDS ARE ALL TFF #51 FILMS




The Middleburg Film festival is one of America's standout regional festivals.  They traditionally schedule an incredible lineup of films each year.  This year, as usual, a number of films that screened at TFF made their way to Middleburg.  Four of those films earned Audience Awards as the fest concluded last Sunday.  

Conclave and September 5 tied for the Audience Award for Narrative Features.  The Seed of the Sacred Fig was named Best International Feature and Martha won the award for Documentary.

Other TFF films in the MFF included: All We Imagine as Light, Anora, Better Man, Carville: Winning Is Everything...Stupid,  Emilia Perez, The End, Maria, Memoir of a Snail, Nickel Boys, No Other Land, The Piano Lesson,  A Peal Pain, Santosh, Saturday Night and Separated.  

Other high profile  and non-TFF films included: Blitz, The Brutalist, Flow, Hard Truths, I'm Still Here, The Last Showgirl, Nightbitch. The Room Next Door, Sing Sing and The Wild Robot.






INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES









EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

X (Twitter) @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

Bluesky: @gort2.bsky.social

MTFB's Facebook Page

MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

If you would like to be added to the MTFB e-mail list send an email to mpgort@gmail.com

Monday, October 21, 2024

MTFB Oscar Update-Best Picture and Direction / Snail Wins London / Interviews and Profiles (a lot of Anora)

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE-BEST PICTURE AND DIRECTION




Here are updated nomination predictions for the Best Picture and Direction for the 97th Academy Awards.  These categories were last predicted on Oct. 7th.  A film's or director's previous rank appears to the right of their names in parentheses.  TFF #51 actors/films are in Bold. 

BEST PICTURE




1) Anora (2)
2) Conclave (3)
3) The Brutalist (4)
4) Emilia Perez (1)
5) Dune Part Two (5)
6) Gladiator II (7)
7) Sing Sing (6)
8) September 5 (9)
9) Blitz (8)
10) A Real Pain (-)

Others: A Complete Unknown, Saturday Night and The Room Next Door.


BEST DIRECTION

1) Brady Corbet/The Brutalist
2) Sean Baker/Anora
3) Jacques Audiard/Emilia Perez
4) Edward Berger/Conclave
5) Denis Villenueve/Dune Part Two

Others: Ridley Scott/Gladiator II, Walter Salles/I'm Still Here and Coralie Fargeat/The Substance.


Thursday I' be updating the Lead Acting categories.


SNAIL WINS LONDON




Memoir of a Snail which screened at TFF #51 (and earned a solid 4.03 average rating in The People's Telluride poll) was named Best Film in the competition section of the BFI London Film Festival last night.  IFC Films is distributing the film which is set to be released on Oct. 25th.




INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES













EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

X (Twitter) @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

Bluesky: @gort2.bsky.social

MTFB's Facebook Page

MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

If you would like to be added to the MTFB e-mail list send an email to mpgort@gmail.com

Thursday, October 17, 2024

MTFB Oscar Update-Screenplays / Zuwarski v. Texas Has a Plan / New Posters: Conclave, The Piano Lesson, All We Imagine as Light / Interviews and Profiles

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE-SCREENPLAYS




Here are updated nomination predictions for the Screenplay categories for the 97th Academy Awards.  These categories were last predicted on Sept. 30th.  An film's previous rank appears to the right of their names in parentheses.  TFF #51 actors/films are in Bold.

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1) Conclave (1)
2) Emilia Perez (-)
3) Sing Sing (2)
4) Nickel Boys (4)
5) Dune Part Two (3)

Others: The Room Next Door, The Piano Lesson and Hit Man.


ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY




1) Anora (1)
2) The Brutalist (3)
3) A Real Pain (4)
4) September 5 (-)
5) Saturday Night (2)

Others: The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Hard Truths and Blitz.


I'll be updating the Best Picture nomination predictions on Monday.


ZUWARSKI V. TEXAS HAS A PLAN




Many of you know that I'm high on the documentary Zurawski v. Texas.  I think it was the best thing I saw at TFF #51...and that's saying something as I was a big fan of Emilia Perez, Saturday Night, Conclave and September 5.  Sadly I missed out on seeing Anora. 

Consequently, I have been low key pushing it forward as awards season has become fully alive. I honestly think it should be a serious player for the Best Doc Oscar at a minimum and if I had an Oscar ballot, at this point it would be atop my Best Picture ballot.

The film was the top rated movie on this year's MTFB People's Telluride.  It didn't make the Pros Poll or The Composite because not enough of the Pros saw it Labor Day weekend.  The limited Pros rating was a 4.25 which would have put it at #2 and combined with its Peoples rank (had there been a sufficient number of Pro ballots that kept the 4.25 average) would have put it atop of the Composite Poll.

It's that good.  But...

So, I have been understandably a bit nervous as no distributor has picked up the film since it's stunning debut at T-ride.  So nervous that I reached out to some of the journos I know to ask them if they were hearing anything about distribution or a release date.  By and large the responses were along of the lines of "no idea".  I did get an encouraging note from one prominent journalist that there was a plan in place for the movie to qualify for Oscar consideration.  Then yesterday afternoon came the word from Deadline.com:

"EXCLUSIVE: Zurawski v Texas, the urgent documentary about women who sued Texas after the state’s strict anti-abortion laws almost cost them their lives, will reach theaters before the presidential election.

Deadline can report the film directed by Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault, and executive produced by a team including Jennifer Lawrence, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Chelsea Clinton, will launch in New York, Los Angeles and cities across Texas beginning October 25."

Deadline continued:

"The theatrical run will qualify the film for Oscar consideration as Best Documentary Feature."

In addition to the announced screenings in New York, Los Angeles and in Texas the film will screen at the upcoming AFI Fest.  I'd encouraging anyone who didn't catch in Telluride to grab a chance to screen it.



TRAILER FOR BIRD




NEW POSTERS

CONCLAVE




THE PIANO LESSON



ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT




INETRVIEWS AND PROFILES








EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

X @Gort2 or @TheMTFB

Bluesky: @gort2.bsky.social


MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

If you would like to be added to the MTFB e-mail list send an email to mpgort@gmail.com