Obsessing about the Telluride Film Festival and the film awards season since 2008!
"The best blog out there for predicting what will be going to Telluride."-Matt Neglia, Next Best Picture
"The Nostradamus of Telluride"
-Tim Appelo, Movies for Grownups
"But it's our job." - Anne Thompson, Indiewire
The CEO and I head west this morning for Salida, CO. She's showing art. I'm driving the art. We'll be there until Sunday. It's worth noting that Salida is 2/3 of the way on our normal route to Telluride.
Which is THREE WEEKS AWAY!
TAKING STOCK
The potential film landscape has really shifted a lot in the past couple of weeks with revelations/expectations for some films that were merely thought as outside possibilities coming into focus in that time period.
In the last 15 days or so we have seen the ascendancy of "Inside Llewyn Davis", "All is Lost" and "Gravity" into serious consideration as Telluride possibles. We have seen some of the films essentially confirmed that we have been pretty certain of for some time: "Nebraska", "Labor Day" and "The Invisible Woman".
There are some films that we have been high on that we haven't heard very much about in as far as Telluride is concerned. Nobody is really talking "The Past", "The Unknown Known", "The Immigrant", "Philomena" or "12 Years a Slave"...but I still feel pretty good about all of them.
The New York Fest has claimed "Captain Phillips" and "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" for its opener and centerpiece. They still have a closing night film to announce and the rest of their lineup expected in the next 10 days or so.
And there are films that I'd still like to see show up that could but about which there hasn't been any scuttlebutt, at least that I can suss out: "Foxcatcher", "The Fifth Estate", "The Dallas Buyers Club" and "The Counselor" come to mind.
All in all, you'll see a definite effect on tomorrow's new "Ten Bets" list. It's shaping up to be an incredible 40th anniversary festival.
Meanwhile, from the "A Guy Can Continue to Dream" Dept. Here's this...
COUNSELOR TRAILER
"The Counselor" had its second straight day of high profile P.R. as the Ridley Scott film dropped an official trailer. Would love to see this on the Telluride program.
I have included posts from The Playlist, Rope of Silicon and FirstShowing
A note here...this two day blitz makes me wonder if "The Counselor" might be in line to be announced as the closing night selection for the New York Film Festival.
VIEWS OF "HUSTLE" AND "MONUMENTS"
A couple of films I'm also not expecting to see in Telluride are David O. Russell's "American Hustle" and George Clooney's "The Monuments Men'. I'd like to see them in T-ride but as I've reported here, "Monuments" is reportedly unready and I just haven't ever thought there was a big chance for "Hustle" Nevertheless, both films have been among my "Coming Attractions" for some time now.
Both of them releases official images yesterday. I have linked Rope of Silicon and The Playlist below:
To quote Henry John Deucthendorf "Gee it's good to be back home again"...
BEST OF THE WEEK
Here's a rundown of the best material I posted from the last week:
This week's "Ten Bets"
1) Nebraska
2) The Invisible Woman
3) The Past
4) The Immigrant
5) Inside Llewyn Davis
6) Labor Day
7) The Story of Children and Film
8) Blue is the Warmest Color
9) The Unknown Known
10) The Lunchbox
No additions this week and minimal movement within these ten.
Lurking just below these "Ten Bets": "Aguirre: The Wrath of God", All is Lost" (which gets a little boost of confidence due to its mention yesterday as "likely" for Telluride in a HitFix post...see below), "12 Years a Slave", "Like Father Like Son", "Life Itself", "Quay d'Orsay", "Philomena", "Heli", "Only Lovers Left Alive", "The Good Lie".
NO NEWS IS…

Well, part of Big theory #2 didn’t pan out at all. If you were reading last week, you know that I floated a theory that the Telluride Film festival was going to announce this year’s Guest Director (which is way past the usual time frame for announcing) during the week last week in a bit of “counter-programming” while the Toronto and Venice Fests were announcing the bulk of their lineups (though Toronto will announce more titles and Venice could as well).
If you noticed, no announcement from Telluride…so…you know…poop.
On the other hand, the second part of the theory is still alive and well and that is that TFF #40 has kept the identity of this year’s Guest Director under wraps because it is someone very, very BIG.
A couple of readers of the blog over the past few days have suggested Francis Ford Coppola as a possibility. I’d say that’s certainly in the ballpark. Coppola was feted at the first TFF as one of the three original tributes. He’d certainly fill the bill in terms of being someone BIG. No doubt, his programming choices would be incredibly interesting.
Personally, I still have a different vibe. No real reason. I certainly have no inside dope on this topic but I continue to think that this year’s GD might come from either music or politics. Like I said last week, I have some very crazy ideas…
If you have some crazy idea about the Guest Director…drop me a comment/email and share that.
But, as of this moment, we still don’t know and we’re staring right into the maw of August…very, very odd.
NEWS FROM OTHER FESTS:
Announcements yesterday that Paul Greengrass' "Captain Phillips" will also open the BFI Fest (London) on Oct. 9. The "Captain" is now set to open BFI, New York and the Tokyo Fests. Below is the release from the BFI:
Meanwhile, Venice film fest head Alberto Barbera revealed last week (as we expected) that they will announce a couple of other American films for the Venice lineup in the next few days. Screen Daily has that story:
Barbera also revealed a list of films that were possible Venice choices but that he says aren't ready. That list included: "Scorsese's "The Wolf of Wall Street", Clooney's "The Monument Men", Lee's "Old Boy" and Anderson's "The Grand Budapest Hotel". That means that they're also not ready for Telluride and they can come off the wish list. I would have really liked to have seen any of these over Labor Day weekend.
Among the films still being thought of as possible late additions to the Venice lineup (according to the Screen Daily post): "American Hustle", "The Counselor" and "Labor Day". Again, the additions to lineup are expected in early August.
PARKLAND PICS
Paul Giamatti as Abraham Zapruder in "Parkland"
I have had about half an eye on Peter Landesman's "Parkland" for a good long while and though I haven't seen/heard anything that really makes me think it will be on the the Telluride lineup this year, the film still intrigues me. It reportedly focuses on the ordinary people that were swept up in the events of Nov. 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas, especially at Parkland Memorial Hospital where the dying President was taken immediately after he was shot. The cast is intriguing including Paul Giamatti, Billy Bob Thornton and (my Telluride buddy...OK, I spoke to her briefly in 2007 when she was there with "Rails and Ties") Marcia Gay Harden.
Brad Brevet/Rope of Silicon posted stills of the film which is scheduled to open Sept. 2oth after showing in Toronto. It's not a ridiculous notion to think it might play Telluride first.
We saw the fantastic trailer earlier this week and in its wake yesterday came the announcement the Ben Stiller's "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" will be the centerpiece gala for this year's New York Film Festival. That takes it off of any potential Telluride showing. Kind of too bad because the trailer did look intriguing. Of course, that's what trailers are supposed to do.
I have linked a couple of stories about the selection below:
Telluride prospect, Cannes sensation and potential Oscar player "All is Lost" from J.C. Chandor and starring Robert Redford dropped an actual trailer yesterday. Multiple links are posted below. I got a good feeling about this playing Telluride and have had since it made its first splash at Cannes. The HitFix post is also very bullish on its Telluride chances:
Yesterday I posted links to new pictures from David O. Russell's 1970's set, Abscam inspired "American Hustle". The film stars Christian bale, Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Renner, Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence.
I don't have this as a big possibility for a Telluride slot as much as I would like it to be true. Still, it hasn't popped up on any other festivals announcement yet. It's quite possible that it will avoid festivals altogether.
Wednesday "American Hustle" dropped a trailer into the universe. Take a look at the post from Thompson on Hollywood:
Undeniably there will be a good deal of crossover in documentaries between the Telluride and Toronto festivals. I continue to believe that Errol Morris will run from Venice to Telluride to Toronto with "The Unknown Known" among others.
Berlin prize winner and Telluride possible "Child's Pose" has been chosen by Romania as its entrant for this year's foreign language competition. The film has been very well received since its Berlin premiere (and I really do think it has a very real shot to play T-ride).
The Hollywood Reporter posted this story about the film's selection:
HitFix/InContention posted an interesting story yesterday that took a look at 15 films that are still looking for distribution but are playing a major fest and are also thought to have some awards potential. The article also points at some of the 15 that they feel might make the Telluride lineup. Those films are:
Attila Marcel (dir. Sylvain Chomet)
Joe (dir. David Gordon Green)
The Railway Man (dir. Jonathan Teplitzky)
Serena (dir. Susanne Bier)
There are three other films among the 15 that they don’t tag with the “maybe Telluride” label that I would continue to include as outside possibilities:
Terry Gilliam’s “The Zero Theorem”
Kelly Reichardt’s “Night Moves” and
Matthew Weiner’s “You Are Here”.
Check they entire gallery with commentary at:
http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/15-potential-awards-players-still-looking-for-a-home
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Yesterday I posted links to new pictures from David O. Russell's 1970's set, Abscam inspired "American Hustle". The film stars Christian bale, Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Renner, Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence.
I don't have this as a big possibility for a Telluride slot as much as I would like it to be true. Still, it hasn't popped up on any other festivals announcement yet. It's quite possible that it will avoid festivals altogether.
Wednesday "American Hustle" dropped a trailer into the universe. Take a look at the post from Thompson on Hollywood:
Undeniably there will be a good deal of crossover in documentaries between the Telluride and Toronto festivals. I continue to believe that Errol Morris will run from Venice to Telluride to Toronto with "The Unknown Known" among others.
Berlin prize winner and Telluride possible "Child's Pose" has been chosen by Romania as its entrant for this year's foreign language competition. The film has been very well received since its Berlin premiere (and I really do think it has a very real shot to play T-ride).
The Hollywood Reporter posted this story about the film's selection:
Yesterday’s announcement the Paul Greengrass’ “Captain Phillips” starring Tom Hanks will be the opening night film for the New York Film festival all but killed the chances that it will be part of the Telluride lineup. Had it been any other part of NYFF I’d suggest that there was still some possibility that we might see the film over Labor Day. But the opening night position is exclusive so mark it off.
There had been a good deal of increased notice about the Telluride potential for “Captain Phillips” over the last week to 10 days especially in light of mentions in some major film blogs that a Telluride spot was very possible.
Too bad, I say. I would have love to have seen the film and Tom Hanks on Colorado Ave.
Finally, this kind of thing happens every year. There are always trails this blog goes down that turn out to be false leads. Not a surprise, really. When you’re trying to ferret out a secret lineup from the outside…that’s going to occur. This situation is particularly disappointing, though, simply because I wanted it to be true very badly.
Oh well….
Here are a number of yesterday’s stories about the NYFF announcement:
The Hollywood Reporter:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/why-tom-hanks-captain-phillips-594925
Hollywood Elsewhere:
http://www.hollywood-elsewhere.com/2013/07/nyff-phillips-splash/
The Dissolve:
http://thedissolve.com/news/122-paul-greengrass-captain-phillips-will-open-the-new/
The Playlist:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/paul-greengrass-captain-phillips-to-open-51st-nyff-new-york-film-festival-check-out-new-pics-posters-20130729
The New York Times:
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/29/new-york-film-festival-will-open-with-captain-phillips/
The Wrap:
http://www.thewrap.com/movies/column-post/captain-phillips-open-new-york-film-festival-106596
Thompson on Hollywood:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/new-york-film-festival-to-open-with-paul-greengrass-captain-phillips-starring-tom-hanks
MEANWHILE…ANOTHER POSSIBILITY…
David O. Russell’s Abscam based film “American Hustle” is looming out there. No Toronto selection (though Toronto is supposed to announce another wave of films to their lineup today…coverage of it here tomorrow). “American Hustle” stars Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence and Christian Bale. New photos of the film emerged yesterday as evidenced above. Here’s the rest of that story from The Playlist:
Wired.com reports that you’ll have a shot at a piece of Oscar history as the artwork that was used by the CIA in the real life inspiration for Ben Affleck’s “Argo” will be put to auction.
