Paper Tiger (and Others) Announced for Cannes / Meanwhile...Herzog NOT Cannes Bound / The Story That Won't End

PAPER TIGER (AND OTHERS) ANNOUNCED FOR CANNES

Adam Driver on the set of Paper Tiger

As expected, the Cannes Film Festival  added a number of films to several different sections on Wednesday.  Most notable is the addition of James Gray's Paper Tiger to the Palme d'Or competition.  That addition had been widely expected.

14 other films were added to various sections but, at first blush, none of those jumps out as a TFF #53 candidate.  Of them, Diego Luna's Ashes, added as a Special Screening, intrigues me the most and if I had to point at one other film beyond Paper Tiger that could be in play for a Labor Day date in Telluride, that would be it.

Additionally, Variety reported yesterday that Paper Tiger has been acquired by NEON for North American distribution.  NEON has been on tear in recent years as far as the Palme d'Or competition, winning every one since Parasite.  The NEON acquisition doesn't hurt the film's chances of a TFF screening.  Gray's last film, Armageddon Time, played TFF in 2022.

There are two articles from Variety from yesterday:

Variety article #1

https://variety.com/2026/film/festivals/cannes-victorian-psycho-maika-monroe-1236727917/

Variety article #2

https://variety.com/2026/film/festivals/james-gray-paper-tiger-johansson-driver-cannes-neon-1236727770/

MEANWHILE...HERZOG NOT CANNES BOUND

Per World of Reel, earlier reporting that Werner Herzog's Bucking Fastard was headed to the Premiere section at Cannes haven't proven out.  Purportedly yesterday's Cannes announcement completes the films for all sections.  Herzog's film was not among them.

In WOR's story from yesterday:

"Notably absent is Werner Herzog, whose “Bucking Fastard” came very close to entering the official competition but was ultimately offered a slot in the Cannes Premiere section — it now looks like the film will be headed to Venice in September."

The possible inclusion of Bucking Fastard at Venice certainly doesn't preclude its possible selection for TFF #53.

The complete World of Reel story is here.

https://www.worldofreel.com/blog/2026/4/22/cannes-2026-adds-16-titles-including-zachary-wigons-victorian-psycho-no-werner-herzog

THE STORY THAT WON'T END

You all remember the strife that the fest had in its efforts to eventually secure and screen the Aretha Franklin documentary Amazing Grace in 2019.

In 2022 director Adam Elliott brought suit against distributor NEON focused on claims of breach of contract and fraud.

You can find the details in this story from The Hollywood Reporter.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/neon-lawsuit-film-accounting-1236560710

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Oscar Predix in a Time of Uncertainty / Cannes Deadlines Extended / R-e-s-p-e-c-t M-o-v-e-s

OSCAR PREDIX IN A TIME OF UNCERTAINTY

Erik Anderson who runs Oscar predicting website Awards Watch came out this week with predictions for Best Picture, Directing and all four acting categories.

He did so with full disclaimers about not really knowing what the film world might look like for the rest of 2020.

So I played with Anderson's guesses in as far as potential Telluride players.  The 10 films he predicts as Best Picture players are:

Ammonite
Da 5 Bloods
Mank
Minari
News of the World
Next Goal Wins
Nomadland
On the Rocks
The Trial of the Chicago 7
West Side Story

So, I thought I'd rank these 10 films in order of their TFF #47 chances.  Remember that over the past few years Telluride has averaged nearly three films that end up as Best Picture nominees.

1) Nomadland
2) On the Rocks
3) Mank
4) Ammonite
5) Next Goal Wins
6) The Trial of the Chicago 7
7) Minari
8) Da 5 Bloods
9) News of the World
10) West Side Story

Interestingly, Anderson lists another 15 films as he makes his predictions in the other five categories in his post.  When you look at those you'll see some things jump out. 

For example, Netflix is just represented in his list of 10 Best Pic predictions by Da 5 Bloods and Mank but he has an additional six Netflix films scattered throughout these five categories: Hillbilly Elegy, I'm Thinking of Ending Things, Midnight Sky, Blonde, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, The Life Ahead and The Prom.

Netflix's robust presence over the past five years and especially the past two suggests that looking at Netflix's lineup should tell us to expect around 4-5 titles as Telluride possibilities.

Long time Telluride presence Sony Pictures Classics has a couple of films in this list of 15 additional films.  One is The Father which bowed at Sundance and as such is an unlikely to play TFF.  The other is French Exit starring Michelle Pfeiffer.  So that's something to consider.

The complete post from Anderson is linked here.


CANNES DEADLINES EXTENDED

As we await word about the ultimate fate about the Cannes Festival-postponement to June/July.. postponement to an even later date in 2020...or perhaps even cancellation for 2020...and then what that domino falls, how it will affect the other film fest dominoes on the calendar... we got word this week that the organizers had extended deadlines for submissions as a way of dealing with the rupture that has occurred in the film industry as a result of Covid-19.

Details of those extensions are here from Variety and The Wrap.

Meanwhile, a Cannes Film Fest focal point, the Palais de Festival has been transformed into a homeless shelter to provide shelter during France's Covid-19 lockdown.

Indiewire has that story linked here.


R-E-S-P-E-C-T  M-O-V-E-S

Photo of Jennifer Hudson and Aretha Franklin via Vanity Fair

The Aretha Franklin biopic starring Jennifer Hudson hasn't been on my TFF radar as its release date was set for some time to be for August.  However, this past week that date was moved to Christmas Day.  So suddenly, assuming that date holds, maybe we have to think about the film as a possibility.

Speculation was that the date change was only partially due to the Coronavirus pandemic.  Roger Friedman's Showbiz 911 suggests that Hudson is getting a lot of Oscar buzz and that could have also been a factor in the decision.

The Showbiz 911 story is kinked here.


And here's the early teaser for the film via YouTube:

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Fair and Balanced Has a Date...and Some Interest? / Amazing Grace Trailer and Poster

Welcome to your first Thursday in March 2019...



FAIR AND BALANCED HAS A DATE...AND SOME INTEREST?

A number of outlets reported earlier this week that Lionsgate has dated Jay Roach's Fair and Balanced for release on Dec. 20th.  Fair and Balanced explores the world of Fox News and its former head Roger Ailes and the charges of sexual harassment that were raised by some of the women that worked there.

John Lithgow has been cast as Ailes with Charlize Theron plays Megan Kelly and Nicole Kidman plays Gretchen Carlson among an all star cast.

Of particular note here was a tweet from the Ioncinema account that suggested that the fall fests, including Telluride, are interested in the film.  Here's a shot of the tweet from Ioncinema:

But I also saw a couple of other mentions on social media that suggested that the film, with the Dec. 20th release date was more likely to skip all the fall fest circuit and go with the late 2019 release strategy a la Vice.

I have included a couple of articles here that provide some detail about the release date announcement.

Variety

Deadline



AMAZING GRACE TRAILER AND POSTER



The saga of Amazing Grace, the Aretha Franklin documentary that nearly twice played at TFF is coming close to a conclusion.  The film now has a trailer seen here from YouTube:

Additional we have a poster release as well:

Time.com also announced yesterday that they would be partnering with NEON  as a distribution partner.  The announcement says that the doc will have its theatrical release this spring.

Time's Amazing Grace story

That is linked here

Additional coverage is linked here from

Deadline

Entertainment Weekly



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Oscar Prediction Update: Best Actress and Actor / Aretha Will Finally Sing / The Favourite Is the Favorite

Welcome to Thursday...and here's your MTFB for today...


OSCAR PREDICTION UPDATE: BEST ACTRESS AND ACTOR

Here's the latest MTFB guesses about nominees for the Oscar for Best Actress and Best Actor.  The last look at these categories here on MTFB was Oct. 18th.

As is the custom, these are the current predictions with the position of each actor from the Oct. 18th predictions to the right in parentheses.  The performers whose films played TFF #45 are Bold.

BEST ACTRESS

1) Glenn Close/The Wife (1)
2) Lady Gaga/A Star Is Born (2)
3) Olivia Colman/The Favourite (4)
4) Melissa McCarthy/Can You Ever Forgive Me? (3)
5) Viola Davis/Widows (5)

Others: Yalitza Aparicio/Roma, Julia Roberts/Ben Is Back, Toni Collette/Hereditary, Nicole Kidman/Destroyer

BEST ACTOR

1) Bradley Cooper/A Star Is Born (1)
2) Viggo Mortensen/Green Book (2)
3) Christian Bale/Vice (4)
4) Rami Malek/Bohemian Rhapsody (-)
5) Ryan Gosling/First Man (3)

Others: Hugh Jackman/The Front Runner, Ethan Hawke/First Reformed***, Lucas Hedges/Ben Is Back or Boy Erased, John David Washington/BlacKkKlansman


***Played TFF #44


ARETHA WILL FINALLY SING

After two separate attempts to schedule the film as a part of the Telluride Film Festival in 2015 and 2016, Sidney Pollack's documentary film Amazing Grace, which captured Aretha Franklin's live performance that formed the basis for the live album of the same name will finally be released.

Multiple sources this week confirmed that film makers had struck a deal with Franklin's heirs and that the film is soon to be on the way.

I have linked coverage of the Amazing Grace news from:

The Playlist

Indiewire

The Washington Post


THE FAVOURITE IS THE FAVORITE

The British Independent Film Association nominations are our and Yorgos Lanthimoss' The Favourite leads the pack with 13 nominations including Best British Independent Film.  Among other nominations the film was named for Best Actress, Olivia Colman and both Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz for Best Supporting Actress.  Lanthimos was nominated for Best direction as well.

TFF #44 film Lean on Pete also fared well with nominations for Andrew Haigh for direction and actor Charlie Plummer for Best Actor.

Complete coverage of the nominations can be found here from Variety.


That's your Thursday MTFB.  More on Monday.


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The Other Side of the Wind Confirmed / It Looks Like No Eyes / Aretha Franklin and Telluride / The People's Telluride Rides Again

Good Monday everyone.  We're down to the last few days to TFF #45 and I can feel the excitement building...tapping my foot here...


THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND CONFIRMED

Ray Kelly at Wellesnet.com wrote this weekend that what we have been thinking is true and that is that Orson Welles' final film The Other Side of the Wind will bow at Telluride following its screening in Venice.

Kelly cites a "festival source speaking on condition of anonymity" as revealing that the first showing in the United States  for the long gestating film project will be at Telluride.  I can also tell you that I have been assured that Kelly's source is well placed.

I will certainly have it on my list of films to catch at some point during the weekend and am curious which film makers will be part of the film's entourage.  At a guess, I'd venture Frank Marshall and Peter Bogdanovich.  Both of whom have been instrumental in finishing the project.  Additionally, Bogdanovich acts in the film as well.

You can read Kelly's entire story at Wellesnet.com here.


IT LOOKS LIKE NO EYES

In other Orson Welles/Telluride news, it appears that we will not be seeing Mark Cousins' The Eyes of Orson Welles next week.  I ran across a listing of Cousin's screenings including those at which he is scheduled to do question and answer sessions and it seems that the film and he are booked in Europe during Labor Day weekend.

The Eyes of Orson Welles examines Welles and his career through the lense of  little known artwork that Welles created.

On a brighter note, I still have a good deal of confidence that the "making-of" documentary about The Other Side of the Wind will play at TFF #45.



ARETHA FRANKLIN AND TELLURIDE

With this week's passing of the Queen of Soul I have had a number of folks reach out to me asking if I think that this turn will change the status of the documentary Amazing Grace.  The film was twice seemingly set to play Telluride in 2015 and 2016 only to be thwarted by legal issues at the last minute both years.

The doc was shot during two days as Franklin live recorded the songs that would become the album Amazing Grace.

My feeling is that we may eventually see it and even at Telluride but that isn't likely to be this year by any means.  Franklin's family and estate will now have to decide what they think about the situation.

Chris Willman writing for Variety posted a lengthy story on Friday about the status of Amazing Grace as well an authorized biopic at MGM that reportedly would cast Jennifer Hudson as Aretha.

Take a look at that story here for a deep dive into where both of those projects are in terms of seeing the light of day.

Nick Allen also had a piece about the doc this past weekend in The Telegraph.


THE PEOPLE'S TELLURIDE RIDES AGAIN!

For the seventh consecutive year MTFB is soliciting your input for The People's Telluride.  All you have to do is watch films during the fest and then, when it's all over, report to me your assessment of each film on a 1-5 scale with 1 being "UGH!" and 5 being "GREAT".

When the time comes, you can send those ratings to me in any of the following ways listed as contact info for me listed below.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com

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