MTFB Oscar Predictions Round Two: Lead Acting/ Gold Derby Has Hamnet in Front / TFF #52 and the British Independent Awards

 MTFB OSCAR PREDICITONS ROUND TWO: LEAD ACTING

MTFB continues its up date of  Oscar predictions with the Lead acting Categories.  These predictions will include the actors current ranking as well as its position from two weeks back.  TFF #52 films are in Bold.

BEST ACTRESS

1) Jesse Buckley/Hamnet (1)

2) Rene Reinsve/Sentimental Value (2)

3) Cynthia Enviro/Wicked: For Good (3)

4) Emma Stone/Bugonia (4)

5) Amanda Seyfried/The Testament of Ann Lee (NR)

Others: Kate Hudson/Song Sung Blue, Sidney Sweeney/Christy and Rose Byrne/If I Had Legs I'd Kick You.

1) Timothee Chalamet/Marty Supreme (2)

2) Leonardo Di Caprio/OBAA (1)

3) Walter Moura/The Secret Agent (3)

4) Ethan Hawke (NR)

5) Michael B. Jordan/Sinners (5)

Others: George Clooney/Jay Kelly, Joel Edgerton (Train Dreams), Jeremy Allen White (Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere.

Comment:  At this early point there would be five TFF #52 performances nominated for Best Lead: Buckley, Reinsve, Stone, Moura and Hawke.  Big movers up are Seyfried and Hawke.  Also note Chalamet's rise to number one among the men over DiCaprio.

Next post: Supporting Actors.

GOLD DERBY HAS HAMNET IN FRONT

In a very interesting twist Gold Derby now has Chloe Zhao's Hamnet fractionally ahead of Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another.  The edition posted yesterday revealed that.  You can see that post linked here.

Additionally Gold Derby has five TFF #52 in the predicted five for Best Picture: Hamnet, Sentimental Value, It was Just an Accident, Frankenstein and Bugonia.  Five BP nominations for films that played Telluride in a single year would establish a new record TFF.

TFF #52 AND THE BRITISH INDEPENDENT FILM AWARDS

Five TFF #52 films were nominated for British Independent Film Awards on Monday.  Henry Lighton's Pillion had the most nominations of any Telluride film with 10.  Harris Dickinson's Urchin had six.  Here's the complete breakdown:

Pillion (10): Best British Independent Film, Best Direction (Lighton), Screenplay (Lighton), Lead Performance (Melling), Supporting Performance (Skarsgard), Debut Director (Lighton), Debut Screenplay (Lighton), Costuming, Editing and Make-up/Hair.

Urchin (6): Best British Independent Film, Best Lead Performance (Millane), Debut Director (Dickinson), Breakthrough Producer (Pearch). Casting, Music Supervision.

Sentimental Value (1): Best International Independent Film.

It Was Just an Accident (1): Best International Independent Film.

H Is for Hawk (1): Best Cinematography.

The complete list of nominees can be found here on the BIFA website.

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MTFB Oscar Update: Lead Acting / European Film Awards Nominations / British Independent Film Awards Nominations / Trailer for The End /Interviews and Profiles : Saldana, Eisenberg and More

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: LEAD ACTING

I'm updating the Lead Acting categories today.  These categories were last updated on Oct. 24th.  An actor's previous position is indicated in (parentheses).  TFF #51 films are in Bold. 

BEST ACTRESS

1) Mikey Madison/Anora

2) Angelina Jolie/Maria

3) Karla Sofia Gascon/Emilia Perez

4) Saoirse Ronan/The Outrun

5) Nicole Kidman/Babygirl

Others: Demi Moore/The Substance, Marianne Jean-Baptiste/Hard Truths and Tilda Swinton/The Room Next Door.

BEST ACTOR

1) Adrien Brody/The Brutalist

2) Ralph Fiennes/Conclave

3) Colman Domingo/Sing Sing

4) Timothee Chalamet/A Complete Unknown

5) Daniel Craig/Queer

Others: Paul Mescal/Gladiator II, Sebastian Stan/The Apprentice and Jesse Eisenberg/A Real Pain.

TFF NOMINATIONS FOR EFA AND BIFA

TFF films were well represented in films nominated for the European Film Awards announced earlier this week.

Emilia Perez (4): Best European Film, Direction, Actress (Gascon), Screenwriter.

The Seed of the Sacred Fig (3): Best European Film, Direction, Screenwriter.

No Other Land (2): Best European Film, Documentary.

They Shot the Piano Player (TFF #50) (2): Best European Feature, Animated Feature.

Bird (2) Best Direction, Actor (Rogowski).

Santosh (1) Best Discovery

Conclave (1): Best Actor (Fiennes).

TFF films also were recognized with nominations for the British Independent Film Awards:

The Outrun (9): Best British Independent Film, Direction, Lead Performance (Ronan), Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Makeup/Hair, Original Music and Sound. 

Bird (7): Best Direction, Supporting Performance (Rogowski and Keoghan), Breakthrough Performance (Adams), Casting, Editing and Original Music.

Santosh (4): Best British Independent Film, Screenplay, Breakthrough Producer and Debut Screenwriter.

All We Imagine as Light (1): Best Independent International Film.

Anora (1): Best Independent International Film.

La Chimera (from TFF #50) (1): Best Independent International Film.

No Other Land (1): Best Independent International Film.

The Seed of the Sacred Fig (1): Best Independent International Film.

TRAILER FOR THE END

From NEON via YouTube:

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Chelsea Clinton for Zurawski v. Texas from Marie Claire

Jesse Eisenberg for A Real Pain from Vanity Fair.

Zoe Saldana for Emilia Perez from The Hollywood Reporter.

Co-director Abbie Perrault for Zurawski v. Texas from Next Best Picture.

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An Experiment / BIFA Awards Nominations / Writers Guild Moves Awards / Interviews and Profiles: Herzog, Nikou and Hemingson

AN EXPERIMENT

For a long while I have been fascinated by what happens to TFF films after they screen at Telluride.  I've watched, over the last several years, announcements from other fests concerning their lineups and where TFF films landed.  So I decided this year to actually survey what the pedigrees became for films that played The SHOW.

To keep the project from becoming ridiculously large I limited the assessment to two fests that precede Telluride that always screen films that then play at Telluride-Cannes and Venice. I included four major post-Telluride fests-Toronto, New York, London and AFI and then I included what are often referred as Regional fests.  I asked a number of journalist friends which fests fit that description and landed on: Mill Valley, Middleburg, Savannah and The Hamptons.  There is a fifth fest that fits the profile and that's Palm Springs which doesn't happen until Jan. 4-15, 2024.

39 TFF #50 films played at least one other festival in addition to its Telluride screening.

So which films play the most of these 10 festivals (it'll be 11 after Palm Springs)?  Any film that plays as many as possible would have a total of nine as Cannes and Venice screenings are mutually exclusive.  The only film to have made that happen is Wim Winders Perfect Days.

Three films made appearances at eight of these fests:

Aki Kaurismaki's Fallen Leaves which only missed Savannah.

Alice Rohrwacher's La Chimera which didn't play London.

Jonathan Glazer's The Zone of Interest. It isn't scheduled to play at the AFI Fest which just got under way this past Sunday.

A single film will have made seven stops in addition to TFF and that is Tran Ahn Hung's The Taste of Things.

Six films will score six fest screenings beyond Telluride: Anatomy of a Fall, The Promised Land, All of Us Strangers, Fingernails, The Holdovers and The Teachers' Lounge.

Films with five screenings: The Pigeon Tunnel, Rustin and Totem.

Films that would seem to be likely Oscar possibilities that each have four are Poor Things, The Bikeriders and Nyad.

So, does this little exercise mean anything?  

At a minimum it may give us a bit of insight into the International Feature Oscar race.  Eight films that were submitted for the International Oscar played TFF #50: Fallen Leaves, The Taste of Things, Perfect Days, The Zone of Interest, The Promised Land, The Monk and the Gun, The Teacher's Lounge and Totem.  The only one of those eight that will have screened at less than five of these fests is Bhutan's selection The monk and the Gun.

The other thing I think this may show us is the perhaps hidden strength of Anatomy of a Fall and The Zone of Interest and their chances of making the final field of ten films nominated for best Picture.  

I'll check back as we move through awards season to assess if this exercise had anything to reveal.

BIFA AWARDS NOMINATIONS

Overnight the British Independent Film Awards announced its nominees.  Six TFF films earned a total of  21 nominations lead by 14 for Andrew Haigh's All of Us Strangers.  Here's the breakdown:

All of Us Strangers: Best British Independent Film, Direction, Lead Performance-Andrew Scott, Supporting Performance-Paul Mescal, Jamie Bell and Claire Foy, Screenplay, Casting, Cinematography, Editing, Music Supervision, Makeup and Hair, Production Design and Sound.

Bobi Wine: The People's President (from TFF #49): Best Documentary Feature, Best Debut Direction of a Documentary Feature and Documentary Editing.

Anatomy of a Fall: Best International Independent Film.

Fallen Leaves: Beat International Independent Film.

Occupied City: Best Feature Documentary.

High and Low: John Galliano: Best Editing.

Complete coverage of the nominations is here from The Hollywood Reporter.

WRITERS' GUILD MOVES AWARDS

The writers' strike continues to alter the film landscape with the announcement yesterday from the WGA that they will hand out their awards on April 14th.  The WGA will announce their nominees on Feb. 21st, one day before final Oscar voting begins.  Variety reported that the WGA issued a statement which said, in part:

“This year’s Writers Guild Awards are being held in April to allow for a full awards submissions process to occur after the strike."

So at least one major Guild precursor is set to occur after the Oscar nominations are announced on Jan. 23rd.

One wonders if other Guilds might re-visit their plans with the Actors' strike still on-going.

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES: HERZOG, NIKOU AND HEMINGSON

Werner Herzog on the Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend Podcast. (Shout out to MTFB friend Patrick Pringle who alerted me to this)

Director Christos Nikou on Fingernails from Awards Radar.

Screenwriter David Hemingson on The Holdovers from The Playlist.

MTFB Oscar Take: Supporting Update / Satellites and TFF #49 / BIFA and TFF #49 / The Playlist 100 and TFF #50 / Visitations: Downey Jr., Whishaw and Wells

MTFB OSCAR TAKE: SUPPORTING UPDATE

I am updating predictions in the categories of Best  Supporting Actress and Best Supporting Actor.  These were last predicted on Nov. 24th.  Past ranking is to the right of the performer in parentheses.  Performances from TFF #49 are in Bold.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1) Jesse Buckley/Women Talking (1)

2) Kerry Condon/The Banshees of Inisherin (2)

3) Jamie Lee Curtis/Everything Everywhere All at Once (5)

4) Clare Foy/Women Talking (3)

5) Hong Chau/The Whale (6)

6) Carey Mulligan/She Said (4)

7) Angela Bassett/Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (7)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Ke Huy Quan/Everything Everywhere All at Once (2)

2) Brendan Gleeson/The Banshees of Inisherin (1)

3) Judd Hirsch/The Fabelmans (3)

4) Paul Dano/The Fabelmans (4)

5) Ben Whishaw/Women Talking (5)

6) Barry Keoghan/The Banshees of Inisherin (6)

7) Bryan Tyree Henry/Causeway (New)

Out: Eddie Redmayne/The Good Nurse 

SATELLITES AND TFF #49

The International Press Association announced the nominees for its Satellite Awards earlier this morning.  TFF #49 earned 25 nominations with one other nomination for a TFF #48 film.  Here's the breakdown:

Women Talking-6: Best Picture/Drama, Direction, Supporting Actress (Foy), Supporting Actor (Whishaw), Adapted Screenplay and Original Score

TAR-4: Best Picture: Drama,/Actress (Blanchett), Original Screenplay, Editing

Living-4: Best Picture/Drama, Actor (Nighy), Adapted Screenplay and Costumes

Empire of Light-2: Cinematography and Costumes

Close-2: Best Picture/ International  and Original Screenplay

Good Night Oppy-2: Best Documentary, Visual Effects

Armageddon Time-1: Supporting Actor (Strong)

Holy Spider-1: Best Picture/International

Bardo-1: Best Picture/International

The Return of Tanya Tucker-1: Documentary

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed-1: Documentary

And from TFF #48- Marcel the Shell with Shoes On for Best Animated Film

I am particularly pleased with the love for Living, the nominations for Jeremy Storng and Ben Whishaw in Supporting Actor and, of course, the Marcel nomination.

The complete list of nominees is linked here from the IPA.

BIFA AND TFF #49

The British Independent Film Awards were named  this past week and TFF #49 fils garnered nine awards led by Aftersun which won more BIFAs than any other film with seven.  The Wonder and Living each picked up a single accolade.  here's the breakdown:

Aftersun: Best British Independent Film, Direction, Debut Director, Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing and Music Supervision.

The Wonder: Best Original Music.

Living: Best Production Design.

The complete list of nominees and winners from BIFA is linked here.

THE PLAYIST 100 AND TFF #50

As has become my habit, here is my review of The Playlist's just published 100 Most Anticipated Films of 2023 and some guesses as to what from that list that could make the lineup of the 50thedition of the Telluride Film Festival.  

Last year I ended up naming five films that DID play TFF #49: TAR, Armageddon Time, Bardo, Bones and All and Women Talking.  Looking back, it seems 5-6 films is about my average to get right from this exercise and generally they are films that are among the top 20 of the list.

Here are this year's guesses in the order that they appear on the list;

84) Rustin

78) Shirley

77) The Royal Hotel

66) The End

39) Strangers

37) The Actor

35) Nightbitch

34) The Way of the Wind

33) Love Lies Bleeding

29) Beth and Don

27) Megalopolis

16) Blitz

15) May/December

14) El Conde

11) Zone of Interest

10) Maestro

8) Priscilla

7) Poor Things

2) The Killer

1) Killers of the Flower Moon

Admittedly, The Killer and Flower Moon are likely more wishful thinking but a guy can dream.

The complete Playlist list is linked here.

VISITATIONS

Downey Jr. on Sr. from Indiewire.

Ben Whishaw on Women Talking from Gold Derby.

Charlotte Wells on Aftersun from Film at Lincoln Center.

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MTFB Oscar Take: Lead Acting Update / BIFA Nominations and TFF #49 / Visitations: Field, Nighy, Strong and More

MTFB OSCAR TAKE: LEAD ACTING UPDATE

 I am updating predictions in the categories of Best Actress and Best Actor.  These were last predicted on Oct. 24th.  Past ranking is to the right of the performer in parentheses.  Performances from TFF #49 are in Bold.

BEST ACTRESS

1) Cate Blanchett/TAR (1)

2) Michelle Yeoh/Everything Everywhere All at Once (2)

3) Michelle Williams/The Fabelmans (3)

4) Daniaelle Deadwyler/Till (4)

5) Olivia Colman/Empire of Light (5)

6) Viola Davis/The Woman King (6)

7) Margot Robbie/Babylon (7)

BEST ACTOR

1) Brendan Fraser/The Whale (1)

2) Colin Ferrell/The Banshees of Inisherin (2)

3) Austin Butler/Elvis (3)

4) Bill Nighy/Living (4)

5) Hugh Jackman/The Son (5)

6) Tom Cruise/Top Gun: Maverick (6)

7) Gabrielle LaBelle/The Fabelmans (7)

BIFA NOMINATIONS AND TFF #49

Five films from the TFF #49 lineup earned nominations from the British Independent Film Association this week.

Charlotte Wells' Aftersun lead all films with 16 nominations: Best British Independent Film, Direction, Debut Directing, Joint Lead Performance/Mescal and Corio, Screenplay, Breakthrough Performance/Corio, Debut Screenwriter, Casting, Cinematography, Costume Design, Editing, Original Music, Makeup and Hair, Music Supervision, Sound, Production Design.

Sebastian Lelio's The Wonder also did quite well with 12 nominations: Best British Independent Film, Direction, Screenplay, Lead Performance/Pugh, Ensemble Performance, Breakthrough Performance/Cassidy, Cinematography, Costume Design, Original Music, Makeup and Hair, Sound and Production Design

Oliver Hermanus' Living also had a good day with 9 nominations: Best British Independent Film, Direction, Screenplay, Lead Performance/Nighy, Supporting Performance/Wood, Casting, Costume Design, Music Supervision, Production Design.

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed and Close were nominated for Best International Independent Film.

TFF #49 films totaled 39 nominations.

The complete list of all BIFA nominations is linked here from The Hollywood Reporter.

VISITATIONS

Writer/Director Todd Field talks about TAR with Variety.

Actor Jeremy Strong on Armageddon Time with Indiewire.

Actor Bill Nighy talks Living with Indiewire. 

Sound Designer Mark Mangini on Good Night Oppy with Indiewire.

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The Playlist 100 and TFF #48? / Oscar Update: Best Picture / Acquisition News / BIFA Nominations Include TFF #47 Films / Ammonite: The Details of the True Story

THE PLAYLIST 100 AND TFF #48?

Each year around this time The Playlist maps out a list of its 100 most anticipated films for the following year. each year I try to cull some ides for what might be in the mix as possible choices for Telluride.  Last year's assessment ended up with me picking 12 films as possible for TFF #47.  That list ended up having two films that were on TFF's announced list of films for 2020: Nomadland and Mainstream. 

In my defense...Covid-19 happened.  Among the 12 films I named, five were Netflix films ( Mank, The Trial of the Chicago 7, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, The White Tiger and Midnight Sky) and who knew then that Netflix would opt not to festival any films.

Several have yet to be released and some of those actually will be on the list below of films for the 2021 edition of TFF Such as: Stillwater, Bergman Island, Nightmare Alley and Dune.

So, from the new list for 2021 maybe look out for a couple of these titles to make the TFF #48 schedule:

94) The Woman in the Window

90) Bigbug

88) The Mad Woman's Ball

86) The Last Duel

78) Land

76) The Electric Life of Louis Wain

59) The Velvet Underground

54) Stillwater***

50) The Eyes of Tammy Faye

47) The Card Counter

42) Babylon

36) Les Olympiades

17) Petite Maman

16) Annette

10) The Tragedy of Macbeth

8) Blonde

7) The Power of the Dog

6) Bergman Island***

4) Nightmare Alley***

3) The French Dispatch

*** Was on last year's list

The complete Playlist 100 is linked here.

OSCAR UPDATE: BEST PICTURE

Here are my latest Oscar nomination predictions for Best Picture updated since I last posted this category on  Nov. 16th.  A film's past position is indicated to the right in parentheses.  TFF #47 films are indicated in Bold

1) Nomadland (1)

2) Mank (2)

3) The Trial of the Chicago 7 (3)

4) Minari (6)

5) One Night in Miami (5)

6) Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (7)

7) The Father (4)

8) News of the World (9)

9) Da 5 Bloods (8)

10) Judas and the Black Messiah (-)

Possibles: Promising Young Woman, Soul, Sound of Metal

Hot: Minari, Judas and the Black Messiah

Not: The Father, Soul

ACQUISITION NEWS

A couple of TFF #47 listed films were acquired for North American release within the past week.  Agniezska Holland's Charlatan was picked up by Strand Releasing according to reporting from Variety.

Here is the link to the Variety story.

Meanwhile Gianfranco Rosi's Notturno (which is looking to land Oscar nominations for Best International Feature and Best Documentary) was acquired for North America by Neon's Super LTD.  That story came from The Hollywood Reporter.

Here is the link to the story from The Hollywood Reporter.

BIFA NOMINATIONS INCLUDE TFF #47 FILMS

The British Independent Film Association announced their nominees for outstanding work in Brit indy film this past week and Florian Zeller's The Father (and TFF #47 selection) did quite well with six nominations which included: Best British Independent Film, Best Director (Zeller) , Best Actor (Hopkins), Best Screenplay (Zeller and Hampton), Best Editing and Best Production Design.

In a bit of a surprise Olivia Colman was not nominated for Supporting Actress for The Father.

Other TFF #47 films were in the mix as well.

Ammonite was nominated for Best Costume Design and Best Makeup and Hair.

Nomadland and Notturno were both nominated in the Best International Independent Film category. 

Here's the complete rundown of all of the BIFA nominees from Variety.

AMMONITE: THE DETAILS OF THE TRUE STORY 

The Los Angeles Times' Mark Olsen took an in-depth look at the true story behind Francis Lee's Ammonite starring Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan.  The film is now available on premium video on demand in a number of outlets.

Here's the link to the story.

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The Film Awards Clearinghouse Vol. 3C: Foreign, Doc, Editing and Cinematography/"Birdman's" Beat/"Rosewater's" Tone/BIFA Loves " '71" and Others

Welcome to Thursday everyone...

THE FILM AWARDS CLEARINGHOUSE VOL. 3C

I thought I'd use the FAC this week to drop in on four Oscar races outside the Big Eight and see what's going on in them.  I'll return next Thursday with The FAC for Best Picture, Director, Actress and Actor.

The FAC uses the published predictions of the following (for these four categories) to develop its list of likely Oscar nominees:

Kristopher Tapley/InContention/HitFix
Sasha Stone/Awards Daily
Nathaniel Rogers/Film Experience
Anne Thompson/Thompson on Hollywood
Peter Knegt/IndieWire
Clayton Davis/Awards Circuit
Scott Feinberg/The Hollywood Reporter

Telluride #41 films are Bold.

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

1) Citizenfour
2) Life Itself
3) Red Army
4) Keep On Keepin' On
5) The Overnighters
6) The Case Against 8
7) Salt of the Earth
8) Tales of the Grim Sleeper
9) Last Days in Vietnam
10) Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me


Comment: Telluride #41 boasts 2 possible nominees with another couple of possibles.  At this point, "Citizenfour" looks like the only lock.

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

1) Ida*
2) Leviathan
3) Two Days, One Night
4) Mommy
5) Wild Tales
6) Winter Sleep
7) Force Majeure
8) Timbuktu
9) White God
10) Gett: The Trail of Viviane Amsalem

Comments:  The dream of an all Telluride slate of nominees in an Oscar category could happen this year in the Foreign Language category albeit with an asterisk for "Ida" which actually played Telluride #40.  Realistically, I believe it's unlikely that the current top five end up as the five nominees announced in February and looking at the numbers that I crunched, none of these five would be termed locks at this point.


FILM EDITING

1) The Imitation Game
2) Birdman
3) Boyhood
4) Interstellar
5) Gone Girl
6) Unbroken
7) Whiplash
8) Fury
9) American Sniper
10) Foxcatcher


Comment:  It says something that "The Imitation Game" sits at the top of the list.  Much has been over the past several years about the connection between Best Picture winners and a film editing nomination.  It happens a lot.  It happened last year with "12 Years a Slave".  The notion isn't that a film has to win editing to win Best Picture, but it almost always has to have a nomination.  The same could be said about the appearance of Richard Linklater's "Boyhood's" #3 spot on this first chart for Editing.

You wouldn't be surprised at the nomination of such "flashy" editing as "Birdman" or "Interstellar" so the pundits' inclusion of "Imitation" at the top makes you think that it's Best Picture chances are rather good.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

1) Birdman
2) Interstellar
3) Mr. Turner
4) Unbroken
5) The Theory of Everything
6) Gone Girl
7) Inherent Vice
8) The Imitation Game
9) The Grand Budapest Hotel
10) Wild

Comments:  Every film through the #8 Spot looks like a potential nominee.  "Birdman" is a lock.

Ultimately, in these four categories, Telluride #41 films (if The FAC is 100% accurate) would have 10 nominations plus another nomination for a TFF #40 film and an additional 5 possibilities.

In all, looking at the totality of Volume 3 FAC for the dozen categories suggests the following:

"Birdman" nominated for Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Actor, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Film Editing and Cinematography. (Nominations in 8 of the 9 categories it could be nominated in...and realistically, there isn't a Lead Actress candidate in the film).

"The Imitation Game" nominated for Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Actor, Supporting Actress and Film Editing with a possibility of a nomination for Cinematography.

"Foxcatcher" nominated for Best Picture, Actor and Supporting Actor with possibilities for Original Screenplay, Director and Film Editing.

"Mr. Turner nominated for Best Actor, Original Screenplay and Cinematography with a possibility for Best Director.

"Wild" nominated for Best Actress, Supporting Actress and Adapted Screenplay with possibilities for Best Picture and Cinematography.

Additional films with possibilities include "Rosewater" for Best Adapted Screenplay, The Homesman foe Best Actress and "Wild Tales" for Best Original Screenplay.

Totals for these ten categories plus Documentary Feature and Foreign Films have 29 nominations for TFF #41 films with an additional 12 possible nominations.  Of course, still not included are the remaining feature film categories.


BIRDMAN'S BEAT

One of the many distinctive qualities about Alejandro G. Inarritu's masterpiece, "Birdman", is the jazz percussion score.  Now, frankly, it is the one element of the film that I'm not crazy about but I also can't deny that it's propulsive and unique.  Matt Patches writing for HitFix posted an interview with Antonio Sanchez, the man behind the sounds.  That interview is here:

http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/how-alejandro-inarritu-directed-drummer-antonio-sanchezs-birdman-score


ROSEWATER'S TONE

Jon Stewart may well have a shot at an Oscar nomination for his adaptation of Maziar Bahari's book, "Then They Came for Me".  "Rosewater" had some champions critically coming out of Telluride but also some detractors (put me in the second camp...I thought it was a noble experiment that failed to connect and included too many warring impulses).

This week Anne Thompson/Thompson on Hollywood posted interviews and Telluride panels that included Stewart and actor Gael Garcia Bernal as the film moves to theaters next week.  Here's that collection of material from Anne:


http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/watch-rosewaters-jon-stewart-and-gael-garcia-bernal-talk-purposeful-inauthenticity-exclusive-20140903


BIFA LOVES " '71" AND OTHERS

Nominations were announced this week for the British Independent Film Awards and a number of Telluride #41 films made the cut.  Best Indie Film nominations included " '71", "The Imitation Game" and "Mr, Turner".  As a matter of fact " '71" lead the pack with nine total BIFA nominations.  "Mr. Turner" was nominated for five BIFA's and "Imitation" was nominated for four.

The Playlist has the complete breakdown of the BIFA nominees here:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/71-starring-jack-oconnell-leads-the-17th-british-independent-film-awards-nominees-20141103



More on Monday...hope your weekend is terrific!