TEN BETS #3 FOR TFF #52
We're creeping up on the time frame for rapid discovery of probable Telluride selections based on information as other major fall film festivals begin to announce their lineups. For Telluride watchers that chiefly means Toronto, Venice and New York. Fantastic Fest and BFI/London can also provide clues.
When those announcements happen they can rapidly change the look of the Ten Bets. It's all about how a fest frames the premiere status for the films that they include. Designations that are key over the next few weeks are:
"World Premiere" which is exactly what it sounds like...some fest is telling you that they will be hosting the very first public screening of a film anywhere. So when Toronto tells you they are "World Premiering" a film that means it won't play Telluride which occurs before TIFF.
Almost all of Venice's titles are World Premieres. The best info from Venice comes when they announce their actual screening schedule. As Venice cranks up a couple of days before TFF starts, films that get scheduled the first three or four days of Venice have time to get to the Colorado Rockies for a portion of TFF.
"International Premiere" which means the first screening outside the films country of origin (though "country of origin" can be a slippery term). This designation can cut both ways in as far as ruling a film in or out of the TFF lineup. For example, an American film the screens at Telluride and then at Toronto could be designated by TIFF as an "International Premiere". When TIFF frames their announcement that way it could be a predictor that the film will play T-ride. On the other hand, if a French film screens at Cannes and is announced as an International Premiere by Toronto, that means it is skipping Telluride.
"North American Premiere": A very useful piece of information for announcements from Toronto or New York as it means no previous play at Telluride.
"Canadian" or "New York" premieres. In each case this kind of "local" premiere designation almost always means a Telluride play....but NOT 100% of the time. You have to remember that Sundance, South by Southwest and Fantastic Fest film titles could also result in the "local" designation for either TIFF or NTFF.
Ultimately all of this explains why changes in the early versions of the Ten Bets are glacial and then become quite dynamic when we begin to see announcements from these other major fests.
All that said, here's a review of last week's Ten Bets for TFF #52:
1) It Was Just an Accident/Panahi
2) Blue Moon/Linklater
3) Bugonia/Lanthimos
4) Sentimental Value/Trier
5) The Young Mothers' Home/Dardennes
6) Hamnet/Zhao
7) Sirat/Oliver Laxe
8) Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere/S. Cooper
9) The Ballad of a Small Player/Berger
10) The Love That Remains/Palmason
Other possibilities: Jay Kelly, Left-Handed Girl, Frankenstein, Eleanor the Great, After the Hunt, Family Rental, Pressure, Marty Supreme, Die My Love, The Mastermind.
And now, this week's Ten Bets:
1) It Was Just an Accident/Panahi
2) Sentimental Value/Trier
3) Bugonia/Lanthimos
4) Hamnet/Zhao
5) Blue Moon/Linklater
6) Sirat/Oliver Laxe
7) Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere/S. Cooper
8) The Young Mothers' Home/Dardenne Brothers
9) The Ballad of a Small Player/Berger
10) After the Hunt/Guadagnino
Other possibilities: The Love That Remains/Palmason, Jay Kelly, Left-Handed Girl, Frankenstein, Eleanor the Great, After the Hunt, The History of Sound, Family Rental, Pressure, Marty Supreme, Die My Love, The Mastermind, The American Revolution.
Comment: Sentimental Value and Hamnet both gain a couple of spots. Sirat and Deliver Me from Nowhere move up one spot. Blue Moon and Young Mothers' Home lose some ground and, for now, After the Hunt supplants The Love That Remains in the #10 spot.
SENTIMENTAL VALUE TRAILER
Currently sitting at #2 in the Latest Ten Bets is Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value. The film won the Grand Prix at Cannes in May and is considered a hot property moving through the fall fest season. Neon is the film's distributor and they're larder is stacked with Cannes projects that they acquired during and after the festival.
Mubi released a trailer a couple of days ago. Here it is from YouTube:
THE MASTERMIND IS DATED
Nest Best Picture revealed this week that Mubi will release Kelly Reichardt's The Mastermind theatrically in the U.S. on Oct. 17th.
That date means it could line up potential plays at Telluride, Toronto and/or New York. Reichardt was in Telluride in 2019 with the enigmatic First Cow.
The Mastermind played the Cannes Fest in the Palme d'Or competition. It stood somewhere in the middle of the competition group critically with a 6.29 average rating as reported by Cannes-Ratings.org.
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