A Visit from The Queen of Spain? / United Kingdom-Another Possible Scenario

Good Thursday Film Peeps...


A VISIT FROM THE QUEEN OF SPAIN?

Penelope Cruz in The Queen of Spain (still via IndieWire)

Universal/Spain released a teaser for Fernando Trueba's The Queen of Spain (La Reina de Espana) yesterday which got me to thinking that perhaps we should be thinking about that film as an addition to this year's Telluride lineup.

It might make some sense.

Trueba was a co-director of 2010's Chico and Rita, which played Telluride and, of course, the film's star Penelope Cruz was feted by T-ride in 2006 as one of its tribute recipients (along with a play of Volver which earned her a Best Actress nomination)

We also know that the film is dated for a Spanish release date of Nov. 25th which means that it might/could/probably would be ready for a screening at Telluride.

Check the teaser in either of these stories from The Playlist or IndieWire:

http://theplaylist.net/watch-first-teaser-trailer-penelope-cruz-fernando-truebas-queen-spain-20160622/

http://www.indiewire.com/2016/06/penelope-cruz-the-queen-of-spain-teaser-trailer-1201691884/


UNITED KINGDOM-ANOTHER POSSIBLE SCENARIO

After posting on Tuesday the story about A United Kingdom (dir: Amma Assante) being chosen as the Opening film for the BFI London Film Fest I did a bit more checking.  The story that I linked from The Hollywood Reporter said that the film's presence there will be its "European" premiere which I took as an indication that it would almost have to play Telluride/Toronto or both.

I wanted to see the "European" premiere label from some other sources (and it appears in many places) but as I was doing that research a couple of things struck me.

First,  the BFI/LFF will open Oct. 5.  That tidbit smacked me in the face yesterday as I did some further research to find that...

Second, the New York Film Festival opens on Sept. 30.

Soooo...that means that A United Kingdom's "Euro" premiere status isn't as solid a clue as I first thought.  It's NOT ruled out for Telluride by any means but it COULD play Toronto and then the NYFF the first week of that fest and open BFI/LFF and meet the "European" premiere description. Or it could do all three North American fests.T-ride, TIFF and NYFF and then play BFI.

I'll need to gather more data.

PS-A United Kingdom won't be on tomorrow's Ten Bets list.


That'll wrap it up for this Thursday.  Come back tomorrow for the first Ten Bets for Telluride list for 2016.

Contact MTFB at:

mpgort@gmail.com

OR on Twitter @Gort2

OR check out Michael's Telluride Film Blog on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/Michaels-Telluride-Film-Blog-and-The-Film-Awards-Clearinghouse-107846269309712/

OR leave a comment...

Wells Seconds the La La Land Notion / United Kingdom to Open BFI Fest / Moving Dates

Good Tuesday.  Summer officially started yesterday.  It felt like it here in the Oklahoma Panhandle and we were not remotely the hottest place in the country.  Air conditioning..thank you.


WELLS SECONDS THE LA LA LAND NOTION

I wrote yesterday that the over-the-weekend announcement that Damien Chazelle's musical-La La Land as the opening film for the Venice Film Festival actually may boost its profile in as far as a play at Telluride is concerned.

I noted that 3 of the last six Venice openers have also made the trek to T-ride (Birdman, Gravity and Black Swan).

That notion got some support yesterday in a late afternoon post from Jeff Wells/Hollywood Elsewhere.  Wells, writing about what he perceives, at least at this point, a somewhat lackluster Oscar slate of films,  mentioned the Chazelle film and connected it to both Venice and Telluride.  It's the only mention of Telluride in the article.

Take a look at Wells' complete post here:

http://www.hollywood-elsewhere.com/2016/06/concerns-about-weak-tea/



UNITED KINGDOM WILL OPEN BFI  FEST

Still via The Hollywood Reporter

It was announced in Great Britain earlier today-Amma Asante's A United Kingdom will open the British Film Institute's Film Fest.  This is notable for a couple of reasons. 1) The opener the last two years has made its first showing at Telluride: Suffragette last year and The Imitation Game in 2014.  Additionally, the story from The Hollywood Reporter characterizes the screening as the film's European Premiere which probably signals a play at either Telluride. Toronto or both.

The film stars David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike.  Oyelowo plays the King of Bechauanaland whose marriage to a white woman in 1947 resulted in fierce opposition from Britain and  South Africa.

Here's the link to the THR story:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/london-festival-open-united-kingdom-904889



MOVING DATES

photo via Screen Rant

News yesterday that some films that have been floating in and around my Telluride consciousness have been announced with shifts in release dates.  Most notably Warners' move up of to Ben Affleck's Live by Night to Jan. 13, 2017.  There is a good deal of speculation that it will likely get a limited run at the end of 2016 to qualify for Oscar consideration.  What had been a film that I thought might be a 2017 T-ride consideration now appears to be off the radar for 2016 as well.  Seems to me to be a very late debut for a film that would have to be ready to screen at T-ride almost four months before.  It's not impossible, but it's probably not making it to the San Juans.

Also, we learned that The Zookeeper's Wife from director Niki Caro has now been dated for Mar. 31, 2017 which truly takes it out of consideration for Telluride both this year and next.

I have linked a number of posts about the shift in dates:

http://theplaylist.net/jessica-chastain-vehicle-zookeepers-wife-will-skip-awards-season-lego-movie-sequel-delayed-20160620/

http://collider.com/ben-affleck-live-by-night-release-date-change/

http://deadline.com/2016/06/lego-movie-live-by-night-bastards-geostorm-warner-bros-release-dates-shifted-1201774989/

http://screenrant.com/live-by-night-ben-affleck-release-date-2017/

Contact MTFB at:

mpgort@gmail.com

OR on Twitter @Gort2

OR check out Michael's Telluride Film Blog on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/Michaels-Telluride-Film-Blog-and-The-Film-Awards-Clearinghouse-107846269309712/

OR leave a comment...

Oscar Afterthoughts / Too Early Oscar Speculation and Telluride / Post Oscar Expert Analysis

Good Thursday everyone.  Time for some post-Oscar let down.

OSCAR AFTERTHOUGHTS

I was inordinately pleased that Spotlight closed the night as the Best Picture winner last Sunday.  I know it's silly but I was still rooting for a Telluride picture to win despite the fact that most serious observers felt that The Revenant was going to claim the big prize.  I actually let out a fairly loud whoop when Morgan Freeman said "Spaw..."  Didn't need to hear the second syllable.

As noted on Monday, TFF42 films knocked down four Oscars.  Two for Spotlight: Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay.  Room's Brie Larson won Best Actress and included a very vocal endorsement/thank you to Telluride and Hungary's Son of Saul was named Best Foreign Film.

Not a bad night for those of us who follow both The SHOW and the Oscar show.  Congratulations to Larson, Tom McCarthy, Josh Singer and Laszlo Nemes.  

One wonders what's in store for the 89th Academy Awards and in what ways we'll be discussing TFF 43 in that context a year from now.  Which leads to...

TOO EARLY OSCAR SPECULATION AND TELLURIDE

As you might expect, the parties Sunday night hadn't even finished and there was already some pieces up in various corners of the interweb about what films could be in play for the 2016 Oscars.  You also won't be surprised, if you read this space with much regularity, that I couldn't resist parsing them for possible titles that might be included in the TFF43 lineup.  So, here are some of the outlets that have already struck the first blow of Oscar speculation for next year's ceremony.

The Playlist list includes a number of films that might crack the T-ride lineup including: Pablo Larrain's Jackie, Ang Lee's Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk and Amma Asante's A United Kingdom seem the most likely.  Here's The Playlist's compete list:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/premature-oscar-predictions-the-2017-best-picture-academy-award-contenders-20160301

Here's a rundown from Awards Circuit:

http://www.awardscircuit.com/2016/02/29/103485/

And from The Hollywood Reporter, which includes Billy Lynn and Lion which could figure in the Telluride lineup:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/oscars-2017-predictions-way-early-870181/item/silence-oscars-2017-picks-870189

POST OSCAR EXPERT ANALYSIS

I have linked post-Oscar analysis from Kristopher Tapley of Variety/InContention and Sasha Stone/Awards Daily and Jeff Wells/Hollywood Elsewhere:

http://variety.com/2016/film/in-contention/spotlight-oscars-analysis-2016-1201719746/

http://www.hollywood-elsewhere.com/2016/03/morning-after-poker/


That'll take care of business for this Thursday.  More to come Monday!

Contact me at:

michael_speech@hotmail.com OR

mpgort@gmail.com OR

via Twitter @Gort2 OR to

Michael's Telluride Film Blog's Facebook page: 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Michaels-Telluride-Film-Blog-and-The-Film-Awards-Clearinghouse/107846269309712