Widows Pics and Trailer / Indiewire Scans Foreign Language Oscar Players

Welcome to the first Monday in June and the start of the MTFB grind to TFF #45.

I start the summer posting protocol with the expansion of posts.  Normally, I post on Monday and Thursday mornings but starting this week, I'll be adding posts on Tuesday and Friday as we move our way closer and closer to TFF #45 scheduled for this year from Aug. 31-Sept. 3.

Hope you enjoy and find the next three months of goo...useful.


WIDOWS PICS AND TRAILER

Any number of sources reported over the weekend that Steve McQueen's Widows had dropped stills and would be dropping a trailer today.  I have included a couple of stills from The Film Stage here and will include the trailer in tomorrow's post.

I'm about 50/50 on Widows' chances of making the TFF #45 lineup.  Working in its favor is the strong presence that McQueen has had at the fest over the years with screenings of Hunger ('08), Shame ('11) and 12 Years a Slave ('13) and personally, Shame and 12 Years are two of the best films that I have seen at Telluride.  So that kind of track record suggests TFF #45 could happen.

Countering that are two factors.  Widows, from all descriptions, sounds like a genre film which none of McQueen's previous Telluride films could be called and it's housed at 20th Century Fox, which has certainly had plenty of play at Telluride via its indie arm-Fox Searchlight, but 20th Century Fox itself...not so much.

So that's why Widows is a 50/50 prediction for TFF #45 at this point.

Trailer tomorrow here on the blog.


INDIEWIRE SCANS FOREIGN LANGUAGE OSCAR PLAYERS

Anne Thompson posted a speculative piece on Indiewire Friday looking at films that she feels have the best inside track for a Foreign Language Oscar nomination as the summer begins.  All five of what Anne lists as front-runners are films that played at Cannes and are all possible Telluride players.

They are:

Capernaum
Cold War
Everybody Knows
Happy as Lazarro
Shoplifters

Among other films listed as contenders that I feel, at least at this point, like T-ride players are: Ayka and Girl.

In an interesting twist, Anne does not include Lee Chang-dong's Burning.  The film was the undeniable critical champ at Cannes but also received no prizes in the official competition.

I have it on my T-ride watch list because it scored so well with critics and because Chang-dong has played Telluride previously with Secret Sunshine and Poetry.

The complete article is linked here.


More tomorrow including, I hope, the Widows trailer.

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New Trailer for Don Q / Cannes Supports The Don and Gilliam / Awards Watch Previews Foreign Language Oscar Hopefuls / The Wind Is Closer to Completion

Good first Thursday in May my friends...

NEW TRAILER FOR DON Q

Amidst all the legal brouhaha over Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote and whether it will actually screen to close Cannes on May 19th, we have a second trailer for the film, which, for my money is better and more enticing than the first.

Here it is from YouTube:

CANNES SUPPORTS THE DON AND GILLIAM

The top brass at the Cannes International Film Festival released a statement of support this week for Terry Gilliam and his beleaguered film The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.  The film has taken two decades to complete and continues to be mired in legal woes.

A hearing is set to take place in Paris on May 7th concerning the claims of one of the past producers of the film.  The decision in that proceeding could determine whether Quixote actually screens as Cannes closing night feature on May 19th.  It's also entirely possible that the ruling could bar the film's screening.

Original reporting on this particular legal claim suggested that the ultimate court finding might not occur until June.

All of that means that the film's Cannes future is uncertain and certainly that would continue to be true in the context of a potential play at Telluride.

Here is coverage from Indiewire on Cannes' statement of support for Gilliam and the film.



AWARDS WATCH PREVIEWS FOREIGN LANGUAGE OSCAR HOPEFULS

Erik Anderson at Awards Watch posted a piece this week examining 16 films that will be playing the Cannes Fest that he thinks could be players in the Foreign Language Oscar race.

Among those 16 are several that I have my eye on as possible TFF #45 candidates:

Cold War
Everybody Knows
Dogman
Ash Is the Purest White
Burning
Three Faces
Ayka


The complete rundown of the 16 films is here from Awards Watch.


 THE WIND IS CLOSER TO COMPLETION

Producer Frank Marshall tweeted a photo on Monday with the caption explaining that the sound mix for Orson Welles' final film The Other Side of the Wind was "a wrap".  That moves the film one step closer to completion and potential screening.

Increasingly I am convinced that we're going to have the opportunity to catch a screening of the film over Labor Day weekend.

Additionally, I also think a screening of Mark Cousins' new Welles documentary, The Eyes of Orson Welles could show as a companion piece.

Here's the photo:

and the text of Marshall's tweet:

That's a wrap! An historic moment as we finish the sound mix for THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND, almost 50 years after Orson Welles began shooting his final picture. @OrsonWelles @netflix

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