Ten Bets for TFF #51-Third Edition / Blitz Goes to London / Trailer and Poster for Napoleon Restoration

TEN BETS FOR TFF #51-THIRD EDITION

Happy Independence Day to everyone!

Here's 2024's third installment of MTFB's "Ten Bets" for the Telluride Film Festival.  The big move this week is that Steve McQueen's Blitz comes off the possibilities list (see the story below).  Additionally Emilia Perez and The Room Next Door move up a couple of spots while Anora and The Seed of the Sacre Fig each drop a couple of spots. Nickel Boys moves up to #5.

Here's this week's Ten Bets for TFF #51:

1) Emilia Perez/Jacques Audiard

2) The Room Next Door/Pedro Almodovar

3) Anora/Sean Baker

4) The Seed of the Scared Fig/Mohammad Rasoulof

5) Nickel Boys/Ross

6) Bird/Andrea Arnold

7) Maria/Pablo Larrain

8) The End/Joshua Oppenheimer

9) Queer/Luca Guadagnino

10) Conclave/Edward Berger

Other possibilities:

We Live in Time/Crowley

I'm Still Here/Salles

Parthenope/Sorrentino

In the Hand of Dante/Schnabel

Hard Truths/Leigh

The Piano Lesson/Washington

Untitled Noah Baumbach

Megalopolis/Coppola

Napoleon (new restoration)/Gance

Leonardo DaVinci/Burns

A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things/Cousins

Oh, Canada/Schrader

The Actor/Johnson

SNL 1975

BLITZ GOES TO LONDON

(Saorise Ronan in Blitz via Apple)

Apple+ and the BFI London Film Festival announced on Monday that Steve McQueen's Blitz will World Premiere as the Opening Night Film. Assuming that the premiere designation is accurate that means that the film will not play Telluride nor Venice and Toronto.

I had written here on the blog on May 30th that:

"I'd reallllly...love for Blitz to get to TFF and McQueen has a solid past with the fest, but...given the story is about the blitz of London by the Nazis in WWII, I can see McQueen wanting to hold the World Premiere as a part of the London Film Fest in October."

Looks like I was spot on.

Now, Ioncinema posted this on X Monday:

"BLITZ could still premiere in Telluride ... but chances are indeed low." and "Telluride has "grabbed" world premiere status titles away from other fests before. It's unlikely, but could happen."

And that's true as far as it goes but since Toronto started announcing what they call "honest" premiere designations, the occurrence of a film being designated as a World Premiere somewhere else but still playing at T-ride has become almost non-existent.

Here are the details from The Hollywood Reporter.

TRAILER AND POSTER FOR NAPOLEON RESTORATION

Ever since Cannes screened the newly renovated version of Abel Gance's Napoleon I have thought there was a real chance that the film (now nearly seven hours long!) could be a part of the TFF #51 lineup.  Now we have a new poster as well as a new trailer for the film.  You can see the poster above and here's the trailer from YouTube: 

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Ten Bets for TFF #51 / Coppola and Megalopolis Get a Distributor / Blitz Is Seen / No Nightbitch at TFF

TEN BETS FOR TFF #51 

I've been doing the "Ten Bets" format as a way of predicting Telluride lineups for since 2011.  

Here's last year's first Ten Bets with the films that actually played TFF #50 in Bold.

1) The Holdovers/Payne

2) May December/Haynes

3) Nyad/Chin and Vasarhelyi

4) Monster/Kore-eda

5) (All of Us)Strangers/Haigh

6) El Conde/Larrain

7) Poor Things/Lanthimos

8) Anatomy of a Fall/Triet

9) The American Buffalo/Burns

10) The End/Oppenheimer

So 6 of 10.

In previous years the correct ratios were:

2011: 8/10
2012: 5/10
2013: 6/10
2014: 7/10
2015: 4/10
2016: 3/10
2017: 7/10
2018: 5/10

2019: 4/10

2020: No fest

2021: 8/10

2022: 6/10

2023: 6/10

That puts the average of correct picks on this first whirl at 5.8.

That being said, I feel less confidence about this year's first Ten Bets than maybe any other year.  Sooo... with great trepidation...here are 2024's first Ten Bets for TFF:

1) Anora/Sean Baker

2) The Seed of the Scared Fig/Mohammad Rasoulof

3) Emilia Perez/Jacques Audiard

4) The Room Next Door/Pedro Almodovar

5) Bird/Andrea Arnold

6) Maria/Pablo Larrain

7) Oh, Canada/Paul Schrader

8) The End/Joshua Oppenheimer

9) Queer/Luca Guadagnino

10) Conclave/Edward Berger

Other possibilities:

We Live in Time/Crowley

I'm Still Here/Salles

Parthenope/Sorrentino

In the Hand of Dante/Schnabel

Hard Truths/Leigh

The Piano Lesson/Washington

Untitled Noah Baumbach

Nickel Boys/Ross

Blitz/McQueen

Megalopolis/Coppola

Now we'll see how this all plays out.

COPPOLA AND MEGALOPOLIS GET A DISTRIBUTOR

Lionsgate has acquired Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis for U.S. distribution.  The film has been set for a Sept. 27th release date putting it in position to potentially play TFF and/or Toronto.  Lionsgate has had an occasional presence at Telluride over the years with their last appearance in 2022 with Living.  

So it appears that the possibility of a Telluride play is still open.

Here's that story from The Playlist.

BLITZ IS SEEN

Jordan Ruimy at World of Reel reports that Steve McQueen's Blitz has been screened in front of real humans in New York and London.  So, at least some of the mystery about its existence has been removed. 

Now, none of this means that Blitz will play any festival but it also doesn't preclude that possibility that it could play T-ride.

I still think that Blitz World Premiering at the BFI/London Fest is the most likely scenario for the film.

Here's that story from WOR.

NO NIGHTBITCH AT TFF

The Toronto International Film Festival  announced their first set of selections for their 2024 edition this week and included on that list was Marielle Heller's Nightbitch.  MTFB readers saw that in my look at Searchlight films that it seemed like their most likely TFF possibility.  As Toronto has announced that the film will be a World Premiere that implies that TFF #50 is off the table.

This is the link to that story from Variety.

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Steve McQueen's Blitz-Off the Table? / Screen Daily and the Venice Lineup / Bikeriders Riding Into Theaters Next Week

STEVE MC QUEEN'S BLITZ-OFF THE TABLE?

I wrote in the MTFB May 30th post:

"I'd reallllly...love for Blitz to get to TFF and McQueen has a solid past with the fest, but...given the story is about the blitz of London by the Nazis in WWII, I can see McQueen wanting to hold the World Premiere as a part of the London Film Fest in October."

Now, we're hearing that Blitz may not be in play for TFF or Venice adding some credence to the possibility of my theory.

Jordan Ruimy writing for his website Word of Reel has been following this Blitz situation this past week posting on June 10th an article headlined: Where Is Steve McQueen's Blitz?

Then yesterday Ruimy had more to say in an article titled: Blitz Not Submitted to Venice or Telluride.  In that piece Ruimy writes:

"...until I hear anything different, it looks like “Blitz” might not premiere on the Lido. Same with Telluride, which is said to still be in hot pursuit of the film."

A couple of takeaways here.  First, if Ruimy is correct then Blitz is seemingly off the TFF table.  BUT...that last sentence suggests that T-ride is still on the hunt to land the film.

Here's where I am.  Unless we find out more between now and next Thursday when my first "Ten Bets" for Telluride will be posted, Blitz will not be on that list.  But, I'm keeping the door open the slimmest of cracks on the basis that Ruimy's correct and the fest is still trying to get it.

SCREEN DAILY'S VENICE SPECULATION

Screen Daily posted their speculative piece about the films that could be at The Venice Film Festival on Monday.

I've been through the article trying to pick out films that might make their initial bow in Italy and then do the quick turnaround to come to Colorado.  From their list, here are the films that I think have the best shot at that (in the order they appear on the article):

Luca Guadagnino's Queer

Pablo Larrain's Maria

Edward Berger's Conclave

Julian Schnabel's In the Hand of Dante

Walter Salles' I'm Still Here

Mike Leigh's Hard Truths

Joshua Oppenheimer's The End

Malcolm Washington's The Piano Lesson

As a side note, Screen Daily included Steve McQueen's Blitz as a Venice possibility but see the above story.

BIKERIDERS RIDING INTO THEATERS NEXT WEEK

I've made no secret of the fact that I really enjoyed Jeff Nichols' The Bikeriders last year at TFF #50 but, admittedly, that feeling wasn't universal.  In my polls post-fest, my group of industry pros ended with it ranked 9th of the 12 films that had enough eyeballs on it. The People's Telluride poll had it at 10th of 16 and the Composite poll landed it at #8 out the 10 films that met the criteria for making that field.  

It seems, however that critics have embraced it a bit better.  Metacritic has it it with a respectable 73 and its Rotten Tomatoes score is a better than respectable 84.

At any rate, the film opens next week in theaters and consequently we're seeing a lot of P.R. about it ahead of that.  Here's a taste:

Director Jeff Nichols with The Hollywood Reporter.

Austin Butler via TheBikeriders X account.

Austin Butler and Jodie Comer from IGN.

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More Venice Musings / Sundance Theory

MORE MUSINGS ON VENICE

We're still several weeks away from any announcement concerning the films which will be chosen for this year's Venice Film Festival but already there's some serious speculation about what those may be.

In my last post I started to look at that with an overview of World of Reel's first stab at figuring out the Venice lineup.  Today I look at a Variety article by Nick Vivarelli that was posted last Thursday.  among the films Vivarelli predicts there are five that feel like possibilities for TFF #51:

Maria/Pablo Larrain

Queer/Luca Guadagnino

In the Hands of Dante/Julian Schnabel

Hard Truths/Mike Leigh

I'm Still Here/Walter Salles

All five of these directors have had at least one film make a Telluride lineup in the past.  These five films also were included on the WOR list I posted last Thursday.

See the complete article from Variety here.

SUNDANCE THEORY

Seems like I do one of these every year now.  This is the post where I suggest that there might be a Sundance feature film that cracks the TFF lineup.  

Telluride history and commentary suggest that TFF has a standard that films that play Labor Day weekend must be either a World or North American premiere.  But there have been exceptions:

An Education in 2009

Manchester by the Sea in 2016

The Report in 2019

The Father (would have screened had TFF happened) in 2020

Living in 2022

There are others.

In some of these cases a TFF Tribute was involved:  Casey Affleck in 2016, Adam Driver in 2019 and Anthony Hopkins would have been a Tribute recipient in 2020.

Last year I was all over A Little Prayer doing the Sundance/Telluride thing.  As you know that didn't happen.  BUT...I have a candidate for this happening again in 2024!

Readers...I give you Nora Fingscheidt's The Outrun starring Saorise Ronan.

Here's the case.  Ronan was rumored to have been set to get a Tribute in 2017 with Lady Bird's screening put that purportedly fell through.  I have often thought that Telluride would look for a way to make a Ronan tribute happen.  This could be that opportunity especially if the fest invites Blitz, which also features Ronan.  Perhaps Ronan would pull double duty as Driver did in 2019 with both The Report and Marriage Story making the TFF #46 lineup.

How confident am I about this...not that much but, like I said, it's happened before.

For hoots, here's the trailer for The Outrun:

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Another Early Oscar Look / Will Abel Screen at Abel? / Speaking of Cannes...

ANOTHER EARLY OSCAR LOOK

Joey Magidson of Awards Radar has posted his first set of picks for the 2025 Oscars and as has been my way, I've looked through them for possible TFF #51 titles.  Magidson has divided them into two parts.  Part One went up last Friday focusing on "Above the Line" categories.  Part Two will be posted later this week.

Here's what I'm seeing from Part One beginning with films Magidson thinks are Best Picture contenders:

Blitz-Steve McQueen

Conclave-Edward Berger

Maria-Pablo Larrain

The Nickel Boys-Ross

SNL 1975-Reitman

Queer-Gaudagnino

Bird-Arnold

The End-Oppenheimer

The Apprentice-Abbasi

The Piano Lesson-Washington

From the other "Above the Line" Categories:

Megalopolis-Coppola

The Actor-Johnson

We Live in Time-Crowley

Here's the link to Magidson's post.

WILL ABEL SCREEN AT ABEL?

News this week that a newly restores print of Abel Gance's monumental silent film Napoleon will lead off the Cannes Classics section on May 14th.

From Cannes' press release:

"A legend known to cinephiles the world over, a major work of the silent era, one of the most monumental restorations in the history of filmmaking will be unveiled on May 14 as a world premiere: Napoléon by Abel Gance (1st period), in a version resulting from a colossal, passionate effort by the Cinémathèque française, with the support of the CNC."

Naturally that makes one think that the restoration could be a natural choice for TFF.  I can see this screening at Elk Park which is re-christened the Abel Gance Open Air Cinema each year for the festival.

The entire press release is here.

AND SPEAKING OF CANNES...

Here's the official poster for the 77th Edition of the Cannes Film Festival:

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Vanity Fair's Too Early Oscar Picks and TFF / Cannes Speculation and TFF / The Best Docs of the 21st Century and TFF

VANITY FAIR'S TOO EARLY OSCAR PICKS AND TFF

I'm continuing my current project of scouring early Oscar prognostications for possible titles that might pop up at the 51st Telluride Film Festival.  Today's source is Joe Reid of Vanity Fair. These predicted films seem to me to have the best chance at TFF (listed in the order they are presented in the article):

Megalopolis- Dir: Frances Ford Coppola

Hard Truths- Dir: Mike Leigh

Blitz- Dir: Steve McQueen

Bird- Dir: Andrea Arnold

The End- Dir: Joshua Oppenheimer

Conclave- Dir: Edward Berger

The Actor- Dir: Duke Johnson

The Piano Lesson- Dir: Malcolm Washington

Maria- Dir: Pablo Larrain

The Nickel Boys- Dir: RaMell Ross

Queer; Dir: Luca Guadagnino

Long Day's Journey Into Night- Dir: Jonathan Kent

The Apprentice- Dir: Ali Abbasi

SNL 1975- Dir: Jason Reitman

The complete list of Vanity Fair predictions is linked here.

CANNES SPECULATION AND TFF

In addition to Oscar speculation as a way to sense some of the films that could be on their way to Telluride, the films that are selected for inclusion at the Cannes Film Festival merit investigation.

Each year there are a number of films that end up playing at Cannes in May and again as a North American premiere at TFF.  Last year I logged 10 films that played both fests including Anatomy of a Fall, The Zone of Interest and The Teachers' Lounge.  The average is around eight per year.

So, to begin that part of the process, I took a look at Screen Daily's annual Cannes speculation  article that was posted a week ago.  Screen Daily divides its list geographically.  That said, here are what feel like films that could possibly make the Cannes/Telluride connection:

Anora- Dir: Sean Baker

Maria- Dir: Pablo Larrain

Megalopolis- Dir: Frances Ford Coppola

Bird- Dir: Andrea Arnold

The End- Dir: Joshua Oppenheimer

Emilia Perez-Jacques Audiard

Dear Paris- Dir: Marjane Satrapi

The complete Screen Daily article is linked here.

THE BEST DOCS OF THE 21ST CENTURY AND TFF

Indiewire posted a list of what they have determined to be the 52 best documentaries of the 21st century.  Not surprisingly a good number of the films that made the list also made an appearance at the Telluride Film Festival.

Here's the list of docs from the top 52 that screened at TFF.  These are listed in reverse order by where Indiewire ranked them.  The year the doc appeared at Telluride is indicated to the title's right in parentheses:

43) The Central Park Five (2012)\

31) Procession (2021)

29) Fire at Sea (2016)

17) Waltz with Bashir (2008)

13) Bowling for Columbine (2002)

10) The Look of Silence (2015)

9) Stories We Tell (2013)

6) Faces Places (2017)

5) All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022)

4) Flee (2021)

1) The Act of Killing (2013)

The complete list of 52 including description and analysis is linked here.

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Offscreen Central's Early Oscar Line and TFF / Carol Doda Opens and Has a Trailer

OFFSCREEN CENTRAL'S EARLY OSCAR LINE AND TFF 

I'm continuing my current project of scouring early Oscar prognostications for possible titles that might pop up at the 51st Telluride Film Festival.  Today's source is Offscreen Central.  For this source I looked at Best Picture Predictions first and then for other possibilities from the acting, directing and screenplay categories.

From their Best Picture predictions:

Blitz

Conclave

Long Day's Journey Into Night

Maria

Megalopolis

The Piano Lesson

And from other category predictions:

The End

The Actor

Queer

Parenthope

Oh, Canada

The Nickel Boys

The complete set of early predictions and analysis from Offscreen Central can be found here.

CAROL DODA HAS LIMITED OPENING AND HAS A TRAILER

One of the documentaries that played The backlot at Telluride last Labor Day was Marlo McKenzie and Jonathan Parker's Carol Doda Topless at The Condor.  The film tells the story of America's first topless nightclub performer.

The film opened in a limited fashion this past weekend and will expand in the comin weeks.

Here's the story from Indiewire.

And the Red band trailer from YouTube:

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Next Best Picture's Early Oscar Line and TFF / Daddio Has a Date / Interviews and Profiles

 NEXT BEST PICTURE'S EARLY OSCAR LINE AND TFF

I'm continuing my current project of scouring early Oscar prognostications for possible titles that might pop up at the 51st Telluride Film Festival.  Today's source is Daniel Howat from Next Best Picture.  For this source I looked at Best Picture Predictions first and then for other possibilities from the acting, directing and screenplay categories.

So here are the films from those predictions that seem to me to be the most Telluride-ific.

The Actor-Dir: Duke Johnson

Blitz-Dir: Steve McQueen

Conclave-Dir: Edward Berger

Long Day's Journey Into Night"- Dir: Jonathan Kent

Maria- Dir: Pablo Larrain

The Piano Lesson- Dir: Malcolm Washington

Queer- Dir: Luca Guadagnino

Juror #2- Dir: Clint Eastwood

Mother Mary- Dir: David Lowery

Anora- Dir: Sean Baker

The Apprentice- Dir: Ali Abbasi

Bird- Dir: Andrea Arnold

The Collaboration- Dir: Kwame Kwei-Armah

Emilia Perez- Dir: Jacques Audiard

Megalopolis- Dir: Francis Ford Coppola

The Nickel Boys- Dir: RaMell Ross

Polaris- Dir: Lynne Ramsay

The complete early predictions from NBP are linked here.

DADDIO HAS A DATE

Dakota Johnson at the post-screening Q+A for Daddio at Telluride

Indiewire reports that Sony Pictures Classics has dated the release for Christ Hall's Daddio. The film will hit theaters on June 28th.  Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn star.

The IMDb description:

"A woman taking a cab ride from JFK engages in a conversation with the taxi driver about the important relationships in their lives."

I caught Daddio at telluride and was quite taken with it.

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Director and writer Christy hall and Produce Ro Donnelly for Daddio from Indieiwire.

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Variety's Early Oscar Predictions and TFF / MTFB's Unofficial TFF Oscar History Updated / Trailers: Wildcat and Food Inc. 2 / Interviews and Profiles

VARIETY'S EARLY OSCAR PREDICITONS AND TFF

I'm continuing my current project of scouring early Oscar prognostications for possible titles that might pop up at the 51st Telluride Film Festival.  Today's source is Clayton Davis from Variety.  For this source I looked at Best Picture Predictions first and then for other possibilities from the acting, directing and screenplay categories.

So here are the films from those predictions that seem to me to be the most Telluride-ific.

From Clayton's 10 Best Picture predictions:

Andrea Arnold's Bird

Steve McQueen's Blitz

Edward Berger's Conclave

Joshua Oppenheimer's The End

Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis

RaMell Ross' The Nickel Boys

Malcolm Washington's The Piano Lesson

From Clayton's alternates for Best Picture:

Ali Abbasi's The Apprentice

Mike Leigh's Hard Truths

Pablo Larrain's Maria

Paolo Sorrentino's Parenthope

Luca Gaudagnino's Queer

Jason Reitman's SNL 1975

And from the other categories:

Paul Schrader's Oh Canada

Duke Johnson's The Actor

Jonathan Kent's Long Day's Journey Into Night

Linked here are Clayton's complete set of early Oscar predictions for Variety.

MTFB'S UNOFFICIAL TFF OSCAR HISTORY UPDATED

As promised, the Unofficial TFF Oscar History Page has been updated to reflect the results of the recently concluded Oscar season.  Highlighted updates are that TFF films collectively went over 600 total nominations (607 to be exact).  TFF films have won 127 Oscars.  

I have included a new nugget with this update and that is a list of TFF films that earned four or more Oscar wins.

See all the newly included info from this year's Oscars plus the new section by using the link above on the masthead.

TRAILERS

FOR ETHAN HAWKE'S WILDCAT

AND FOR ROBERT KENNER AND MELISSA ROBLEDO'S FOOD INC. 2

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Costume Designer Holly Waddington for Poor Things from A.Frame.

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Some Other Post Oscar Notes / So Early, But... / Interviews and Profiles

SOME OTHER POST OSCAR NOTES

2023's edition of the Telluride Film Festival was much more Oscar connected than the 2022 SHOW.  The 49th TFF had films that earned 17 total nominations and a single win for Best Adapted Screenplay for Sarah Polley's Women Talking.

The 50th version saw a dramatic jump in both nominations and wins.  35 total nominations and an a solid nine wins.  For context the 35 nominations tied 2016 and 2021 TFFs for the years with the most nominations.  The nine Oscar wins is the third largest number of Oscar wins for TFFs. 2016 saw TFF films win 12 Oscars and in 2013 TFF films won 10.

For other trivia about the TFF/Oscar connection take a look next week at my TFF Unofficial Oscar History page which has a link above.

SO EARLY, BUT...

Gold Derby is up with an incredibly early list of 20 films that they bill as "Early Contenders" for Oscar glory a year from now.  That gives me an opportunity to begin looking at those films and see which ones could be TFF #51 contenders as well.

What to kook for?  TFF history with a film's director, producer and/or distributor.  Or sometimes it's a gut feeling irrespective of any of those characteristics.

At any rate...here are films from the list of 20 that seem like TFF possibilities:

The Apprentice Dir: Ali Abbasi.

Bird Dir: Andrea Arnold.

Blitz Dir: Steve McQueen.  Distrib: Apple TV+

Conclave Dir: Edward Berger.  Distrib: Focus Features

Maria Dir: Pablo Larrain (it probably also doesn't hurt for TFF chances that the cinematographer is Ed Lachman)

Megalopolis Dir: Frances Ford Coppola

Parthenope Dir: Paolo Sorrentino

The Piano Lesson Dir: Malcolm Washington. Distrib: Netflix

Queer Dir: Luca Guadagnino

Here's the link to the entire piece from Gold Derby.

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Actor Christian Friedel for the two time Oscar winning The Zone of Interest from The Hollywood Reporter.

MTFB Oscar Update: Song, Score, Animated Feature, Production Design, Visual Effects and Sound / A Couple of Lists / Interviews and Profiles: Sandra Huller

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE

Here's the latest MTFB Oscar Update.  As we move to less than a month before nomination announcements I am consolidating categories for each post. Today I'm updating the Original Song, Original Score, Animated Feature, Production Design, Visual Effects and Sound categories.  As usual TFF #50 films are in Bold.  A film's previous position on the MTFB Oscar chart is listed in parentheses.

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

1) What Was I Made For/Barbie (1)

2) I'm Just Ken/Barbie (2)

3) Road to Freedom/Rustin (4)

4) The Fire Inside/Flamin' Hot (5)

5) It Never Went Away/American Symphony (-)

Dance the Night Away/Barbie, High Life/Flora and Sun and Superpower (I)/The Color Purple.

BEST SCORE

1) Oppenheimer (1)

2) Killers of the Flower Moon (2)

3) Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse (3)

4) Poor Things (5)

5) The Zone of Interest (4)

Alternates: The Boy and the Heron, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Elemental.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

1) Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse (1)

2) The Boy and the Heron (2)

3) Elemental (3)

4) Nimona (4)

5) Wish (5)

Alternates: Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem and Robot Dreams.

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

1) Barbie (2)

2) Poor Things (1)

3) Killers of the Flower Moon (4)

4) Oppenheimer (3)

5) Maestro (5)

Alternates: Asteroid City, The Color Purple and Napoleon

VISUAL EFFECTS

1) The Creator (1)

2) Godzilla Minus One (5)

3) Poor Things (4)

4) Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse (5)

5) Society of the Snow (-)

Alternates: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One.

SOUND

1) Oppenheimer (1)

2) Maestro (2)

3) The Zone of Interest (-)

4) Ferrari (3)

5) Killers of the Flower Moon (5)

Alternates: Barbie, Napoleon and The Killer.

UK FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION AND TFF

The UK Film Critics Association revealed its nominees for film excellence last week.  Six TFF films landed among the nominees but none in the Best Film category.

Here's the rundown of TFF nominees:

Saltburn (3): Best Direction, Actor and Supporting Actress.

The Holdovers (2): Best Actor and Supporting Actress

Anatomy of a Fall (2): Best Actress and Screenplay.

Poor Things (2): Best Actress and Supporting Actor.

The Zone of Interest (1): Best Direction

All of Us Strangers (1): Best Actor.

The complete list of all nominees can be found here via Next Best Picture.

A COUPLE OF LISTS

Indiewire published its 50 Most Anticipated Films list this week and World of Reel has begun its running list of films rumored to play Cannes.  Both lists can be instructive vis-a-vis some possible TFF selections.

What's interesting is that there is a lot of overlap between the two lists.  So here's my quick parsing of them beginning with films that appear on both that I feel have some chance of being screened over Labor Day weekend:

From both lists:

Anora (dir: Sean Baker)

Bird (dir: Andrea Arnold

Blitz (dir: Steve McQueen)

The End (dir: Joshua Oppenheimer)

Hard Truths (dir: Mike Leigh)

Kinds of Kindness (dir: Yorgos Lanthimos)

Maria (dir: Pablo Larrain)

Megalopolis (dir: Francis Ford Coppola)

Oh, Canada (dir: Paul Schrader)

Polaris (dir: Lynne Ramsay)

Queer (dir: Luca Guadagnino)

Others from the Indiewire 50 Most  Anticipated list:

The Actor (dir: Duke Johnson)

Holland, Michigan (dir: Mimi Cave)

Others from World of Reel's Cannes list:

The Way of the Wind (dir: Terrence Malick)

Emilia Perez (dir: Jacques Audiard)

Partenhope (dir: Paolo Sorrentino)

In the Hands of Dante (dir: Julian Schnabel)

The Apprentice (dir: Ali Abassi)

The Indiewire 50 Most Anticipated list is linked here.

The World of Reel Cannes list is linked here.

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Sandra Huller for The Zone of Interest and Anatomy of a Fall from Variety.

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Kaurismaki's Fallen Leaves Has a Trailer / Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey Tops WOR Poll / McQueen's Occupied City Is Four Hours Long

KAURISMAKI'S FALLEN LEAVES HAS A TRAILER

Aki Kaurismaki's Fallen Leaves has been on the MTFB TFF #50 watch list for some time.  For moths it was rumored to be a choice for Cannes and that proved to be true as it was announced as a part of the Palme d'Or competition lineup back on April 13th.  

The film is set to be screened in Cannes on May 22nd.

Sales agent The Match Factory has released a trailer for the film ahead of its screening at Cannes.  Here it is from YouTube:

Here's the Variety story about the film and its trailer release.

KUBRICK'S 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY TOPS WOR POLL

I wrote on Monday that I had participated in World of Reel's latest "decade" poll.  This one called on a group of critics, bloggers and such to name the best films of the 1960s. Well, the results are in and Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey topped the poll with 53 votes.  Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho was #2 which was just outside the ten films I submitted.

Here's the top ten from World of Reel:

1) 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick) 53 votes

2) Psycho (Hitchcock) 50

3) Dr. Strangelove (Kubrick) 35

4) Lawrence of Arabia (Lean) 34

5) The Graduate (Nichols) 27

6) Bonnie and Clyde (Penn) 27

7) Persona (Bergman) 27

8) Rosemary’s Baby (Polanski) 22 

9) 8 1/2 (Fellini) 21

10) The Apartment (Wilder) 20

And a reminder of my top ten:

2001: A Space Odyssey

The Apartment 

Cool Hand Luke

Dr. Strangelove

The Graduate

The Hustler 

Lawrence of Arabia

Midnight Cowboy 

To Kill a Mockingbird

They Shoot Horses Don't They

WOR's story lists the top forty vote getters and you can see that entire list here.

MC QUEEN'S OCCUPIED CITY IS  FOUR HOURS LONG

The program for Cannes screenings reveals that Steve McQueen's documentary about Amsterdam and the effect World War II had on that city-Occupied City- is listed as being 4 hours and 6 minutes long.  That seems daunting but I can still see it as a TFF #50 selection. 

Here's the IMDb description of the film:

"The past collides with the present in this excavation of the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam: a journey from World War II to recent years of pandemic and protest and a provocative, life-affirming reflection on memory, time and what's to come."

McQueen has some Telluride history-Hunger, Shame, 12 Years a Slave.  The film is being distributed by A24 which certainly has had a presence at Telluride in recent years. 

Additionally, McQueen's other project-Blitz- which is a feature film focused on the Blitz of London during WW II,  may not be ready in time for TFF.  Jordan Ruimy at World of Reel indicated as much in his Venice post on May 5th. Absent its availability for TFF/Venice/TIFF Occupied City may be a hot commodity for the fall fests.

You can see the Cannes program here.

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Let's Talk Big Picture: Part Two / THR's Best 50 Movies of the 21st Century and Telluride / One More Guess at Cannes

 LET'S TALK BIG PICTURE: PART TWO

In this second look at where we are regarding possible TFF #50 players I've collected a list of all of the titles that I have posted as possibilities based upon ten different articles from over the past few months.  The articles focus on one of four areas: "Most Anticipated Films" for 2023, "Early Oscar Predictions", "Cannes Speculation" and "Venice Speculation".

The ten articles/posts are:

The Playlist's Most Anticipated

The Film Stage's Most Anticipated

Variety's Early Oscar Predictions

Next Best Picture's Early Oscar Predictions

A.V. Club's Early Oscar Predictions

Ioncinema's Cannes Spec

Indiewire's Cannes Spec

Screen Daily's Cannes Spec

World of Reel's Cannes Spec

World of Reel's Venice Spec

And from all that, here are 57 films that could play Telluride:

The Actor/Johnson

AND*/Lanthimos

The Bastard/Arcel

Blitz*/McQueen

The Book of Clarence/Samuel

The Book of Solutions*/Gondry

Butterfly Jam/Balagov

The Captain (Io Capitano)*/Garrone

Caste/DuVernay

Challengers/Guadagnino

Cobweb/Bodin

The Color Purple*/Bazawule

Daaaaaali!/Dupieux

Die My Love/Ramsay

El Conde/Larrian

Emilia Perez/Audiard

The End/Oppenheimer

Fallen Leaves*/Kaurismaki

Fingernails/Nikou

Flint Strong/Morrison

Foe/Davis

Freud's Last Session/Brown

The Holdovers*/Payne

How Do You Live?*/Miyazaki

The Island/Pawlikowski

The Killer*+/Fincher

Killers of the Flower Moon*+/Scorsese

La Chimera/Rohrwacher

Lee/Kuras

A Little Prayer/MacLachlan

Longlegs/Perkins

Love Lies Bleeding/Glass

Maestro*+/Cooper

May/December*/Haynes

Monster*/Kore-eda

Mother's' Instinct/Delhomme

My Crime (The Crime Is Mine)/Ozon

Napoleon/Scott

The New Boy/Thornton

Next Goal Wins*/Waititi

Nightbitch/Heller

Nyad/Chin and Vasarhelyi

The Old Oak/Loach

Orwell/Peck

Poor Things*/Lanthimos

Priscilla*/Coppola

The Royal Hotel*/Green

Rustin*/Wolfe

Saltburn/Fennell

Shirley/Ridley

Strangers*/Haigh

Tokyo Toilet/Wenders

Untitled Bob Marley Biopic/Green

Untitled Sean Baker Film/Baker

The Way of the Wind/Malick

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar/Anderson

The Zone of Interest*/Glazer

*Film that I have included on three or more previous lists

+Film that's more a wish than a prediction

My first Ten Bets are coming in ten weeks (unless I get restless and pop them early).

THR'S BEST 50 MOVIES OF THE 21ST CENTURY

The Hollywood Reporter's gaggle of critics published their list of the 50 best films of the 2000's late last week and, to no one's surprise...there was some disagreement.  I, for one, was mystified that Paul Thomas Anderson's There will Be Blood merited only an honorable mention and The Master was nowhere to be found.  Also, the Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men...not a peep.  Still, looking at the 50 films plus the honorable mention, TFF has been a launching pad for a bunch of THR's choices.

Among honorable mentions from TFF: Cache, L'Enfant, Under the Skin and Waltz with Bashir.

TFF films in the list of 50:

47-Bright Star

44-Things to Come

35-The Favourite

33-Portrait of a Lady on Fire

31-Manchester by the Sea

21-Parasite

20-Far from Heaven

18-Shoplifters

17-Talk to Her

15-The Power of the Dog

12-Moonlight

9-4 Months, Three Weeks and Two Days

7-Brokeback Mountain

6-Spirited Away

5-Mulholland Drive

4-Zodiac

2-Inside Llewyn Davis

1-Yi Yi

The complete post is linked here.

ONE MORE GUESS AT CANNES

Cineuropa has a post up as of last Thursday with an extensive list of potential titles at Cannes.  Many of  what not seem to be the usual suspects are there which also provides many of the same titles that I am eyeballing as possible Cannes/Telluride crossover films.  Among them:

Monster/Kore-eda

Fallen Leaves/Kaurismaki

Poor Things/Lanthimos

The Holdovers/Payne

May/December/Haynes

The New Boy/Thornton

The Bikeriders/Nichols

The Captain/Garrone

Daaaaaali!/Dupieux

Ricardo et la Peinture/Schroeder

The complete and extensive set of guesses is linked here.

Will have actual Cannes titles for my next post on April 13th.

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