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
Well, I'm back. Didn't plan to take last week off from the blog but that's what happened. As i posted on Thursday...my apologies.
EVERYBODY KNOWS OPENS CANNES
While I was away this week it was announced that Asghar Farhadi's Everybody Knows will open the Cannes Film Festival next month.
Farhadi's Spanish language film stars Penelope Cruz (TFF Tributee in 2006) and Javier Bardem.
I've had Everybody Knows on the Cannes/Telluride watch list for months now due to Farhadi's past screenings of A Separation and The Past at TFF.
Two things I would note, however, are that Farhadi's last film (The Salesman) did not play TFF and it's relatively rare that a Cannes opener makes the crossover to lay Telluride as well. The last time I can find that happening was in 2004 with Pedro Almodovar's Bad Education so...it's been a long time.
Further details of the selection of the film for Cannes is here from:
The Pre-Cannes trailer for Everybody Knows from YouTube
ON THE OTHER CANNES
The release this week of a trailer and poster for Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote all but assures that the film's title will be announced for some spot in Cannes on Thursday. The multi-decade-in-the-making film has also been on my Cannes/TFF crossover possibility list for a long while.
The news this week that Alfonso Cuaron is now under the Netflix banner means that, as of now, Cuaron's film will not be playing in competition in France next month.
Cannes director Thierry Fremaux has made it clear that under the current Netflix release strategies, Netflix films will not be in the main competition.
For its part, Netflix, according to Vanity Fair and Indiewire is now threatening to exclude Roma and four other films from the festival including the highly anticipated Orson Welles "last film" The Other Side of the Wind.
And, of course, I have no good idea what this set of circumstances might do regarding TFF #44.
That's the bounceback MTFB for this Monday.
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com
A note here about MTFB in the summer of 2017. Because I'm going to be on the road a lot this summer, MTFB is going to go with a four day a week publishing schedule for most weeks between now and the Festival. Normally, MTFB posts on Mondays and Thursdays and for this summer in the run up to TFF #44 I am going to add posts for Tuesday and Friday. This is a little departure from the last couple of years in which I have posted five times a week for the summer schedule.
So, at least here at the start of the three month countdown to Telluride, that's the plan.
TELLURIDE HISTORY CONTINUED: TFF #27
Today, I continue my amble back through Telluride Film Fest history. We look at TFF #27 that took place Sept. 1-4, 2000.
Guest Director: Edgardo Cozarinsky
Tributes: Ang Lee, Stellan Skarsgard. Im Kwon Taek
Special Medallion: Serge Silberman
Special Programs:
Norman Lloyd Reminisces
Elmore Leonard: Storyteller
Films:
Aberdeen
About Bunuel
Beauty Will Save the World
Better Than Sex
Boseman and Lena
The Burger and the King: The Life and Cuisine of Elvis Presley
Chinese Coffee
Chopper
Chuck Jones: Extremes and In-Betweens
Chunhyang
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Dinner Rush
The Endurance
Faithless
Forever Mine
Hell's Heroes
House of Mirth
Innocence
Jazz
The King is Alive
Kippur
Lon Chaney: A Thousand Faces
Native Son
Nosferatu
One Day in September
Our Lady of the Assassins
Rapt
Quills
Seven Men from Now
Shadow of the Vampire
Stranger on the Prowl
Sunset Boulevards
Sweet and Lowdown
A Time of Drunken Horses
The Widow of St. Pierre
Wings of Hope
Yi Yi
Yolgnu Boy
Guests:
Eric Bana
Angela Bassett
Ken Burns
Willem Dafoe
Andrew Dominick
Sarah Gavron
Danny Glover
Werner Herzog
Phil Kaufman
Ang Lee
Elmore Leonard
Kevin Macdonald
Leonard Maltin
Todd McCarthy
Janet McTeer
Al Pacino
Peter Reigert
Paul Schrader
Barbet Schroeder
Peter Sellars
Stellan Skarsgard
Barry Sonnenfeld
Note: Film maker Sarah Gavron made her first Telluride appearance with her short film Losing Touch.
Also, personally...would have loved to have been there for the Elmore Leonard program and the presentation of Nosferatu.
Sperling specifically mentions The Beguiled (opening on June 30, so off the table for Telluride) and Lynne Ramsay's You Were Never Really Here as potential Oscar hopefuls. She also makes the point that The Florida Project could be a dark horse (as I have said as well).
Foreign Language film candidates that she assesses are Palme d'Or winner The Square, Loveless, Happy End and BPM. For my money Loveless and BPM seem the most likely T-ride choices.
Anderson, in his post for Awards Watch, starts with mentioning, The Square, BPM and Loveless as real Foreign Language contenders.
Other article highlights are his suggestion that neither Wonderstruck nor Happy End were probably hurt by their lack of awards and that we should be watching for Agnes Varda and JR's Visages/Villages (Faces/Places) as a serious contender for Best Documentary.
IF I HAD TO...
I won't put up the first "official" Ten Bets for Telluride of the year until June 23rd...but...if I had to tell you right now what I think...in no particular order...
Wonderstruck
The Florida Project
Loveless
A Fantastic Woman
Downsizing
Visages/Villages (Faces/Places)
You Were Never Really Here
BPM
The Current War
Battle of the Sexes
...might be near the top of a hypothetical "Ten Bets" three months before the fest commences...but don't quote me.
And that'll do it for this Monday. I'll have more tomorrow...
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com
The 70th edition of the Cannes Film Festival came to its conclusion last night with the awarding of prizes in the main competition category.
The winners:
Palme d'Or: The Square (Ruben Ostlund)
Grand Prix: 120 BPM. (Robin Campillo)
Jury Prize: Loveless (Andrey Zvyaginstev)
Director:Sofia Coppola-The Beguiled
Actress: Diane Kruger-In the Fade
Actor-Joaquin Phoenix- You Were Never Really Here
Special 70th Anniversary Honors- Nicole Kidman
Screenplay- You Were Never Really Here (Lynne Ramsay) and The Killing of a Sacred Deer (Yorgos Lanthimos)
In the Un Certain Regard section past Telluride tribute recipient Mohammad Rasoulof's A Man of Integrity took the top prize and Taylor Sheridan's Wind River won the award for Best Direction.April's Daughter was the winner of the Jury Prize.
Of note among the winners was Coppola's historic win for direction as well as the rare double win for actor and screenplay for Ramsay's film.A bit of a surprise was the lack of any mention for a Todd Haynes' Wonderstruck which Indiewire had listed as having the third best odds for the Palme.
THE TELLURIDE ANALYSIS
So here's my best quick Telluride assessment of the winners' chances in as far as T-ride is concerned:
The Square- Magnolia is the distributor which was last at Telluride with Viva in 2015.Magnolia hasn't had a deep relationship with the fest.That combined with The fact that Ostlund hasn't played there either makes me think that 2017 may well be the fourth consecutive TFF at which the Palme d'Or winner does not play.Cannes at TFF- 25%
120 BPM- A solid critical darling of Cannes #70 and with U.S. distribution from The Orchard, which scored well at Telluride last year with Pablo Larrain's Neruda have it in good position as a T-tide possible.Probably gets the biggest boost of any Cannes filmthat I haven't already had my eye on.Chances- 55%.
Loveless- Zvyagnistev's Leviathan played in the San Juans three years ago and so Loveless was already a hot prospect to get to The SHOW this Labor Day.Its Jury Award probably boosts to shot.That and the fact that it's distributor is frequent Telluride player Sony PicturesClassics suggests a high likelihood of a return for Mr. Z.Chances- 70%.
The Beguiled- 0% chance as it opens at the end of June.
In the Fade- Could this crack the T-ride lineup?Fatih Akin's lack of Telluride history, the film's lack of U.S. distribution and a middling critical response makes me think that the film's chances are small.Chances- 20%.
You Were Never Really Here-A double award win, Lynne Ramsay and coming from a Amazon Studios, this film, which I already thought had a reasonable shot at Telluride, moves even closer, I think.Chances- 70%.
The Killing of a Sacred Deer- After a couple of great years at Telluride, I have no doubt that A24 will be back with something this year.I'm just not sure that it will be this Lanthimos film.It could happen but my guess is that other A24 films may have a better shot (Woodshock, Good Time and especially The Florida Project).Still, a T-ride play could happen.Chances- 35%.
A couple of other notes...I imagine that Rasoulof's Man of Integrity has an even chance of playing and despite its awards shut out, I still believe that Todd Haynes' Wonderstruck is a likely Show for The SHOW.
Finally, don't be surprised if Chloe Zhao's The Rider makes the T-ride lineup.
Additionally, Faces/Places from Agnes Varda and JR looks like a very good bet.
Complete coverage and analysis of Cannes award winners can be found at the following links:
The general consensus coming from France as the Cannes Fest concluded was that the Croisette was low on Oscar potential with most observers suggesting that the only real player in terms of Best Picture might be Wonderstruck.
Though there may well some other players as well, especially in the foreign language category...I'm looking at you Loveless...take a look at where some of the sages of Oscar come down as Cannes was coming to an end:
And as Cannes was winding down, there was the release of trailers for two films that did not play in France but that could find their way onto the lineup over Labor Day weekend.
We found out this week that Sony Pictures Classics had picked up the Liam Neeson starrer The Silent Man and that the story of the real Watergate Deep Throat had a trailer. Here it is from YouTube:
Along with the trailer, here are some posts that accompanied its release and the SPC pickup news:
Additionally, Wonder, starring Julia Roberts and Room's Jacob Tremblay, released its first look video this week. From Lionsgate, the film is slated to open in mid-November. Both factors suggest the possibility of serious festival and awards play.
Here's that video, also from YouTube:
Deadline provides some of the details for the film.
That will do it for this Monday in May...more to come on Thursday...
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com
It is a Thursday and that must mean another post at MTFB...
CANNES TURNS TOWARD THE FINISH LINE
By the time I punch the button to post the next edition of MTFB on Monday the 70th Cannes Film Festival will have concluded and winners of various prizes will have been announced. As the last few competition films take their bow over the next two days speculation will increase dramatically as to which films and film makers will be rewarded. We can join that fun with the caveat that the juries for each of the sections which present awards will almost certainly defy expectations, It seems they always do. That said...
Indiewire has been running a continually updated article that handicaps the race. As I post this morning (and it could have changed since then) their favorite for the Palme d'Or is Robin Campillo's 120 Beats per Minute. At the #2 spot is Andrey Zyvagintsev's Loveless and at #3 is Todd Haynes' Wonderstruck.
At Cannes, as films are unspooling and critics and juries are assessing there is also the story of films that are getting picked up for U. S. distribution.
Indiewire has been keeping a running compilation of Cannes Fest acquisitions. Of note:
The Cohen Media Group has snagged L'Amant Double (at TFF #43 last year-Journey Through French Cinema)
The Orchard has 120 BPM (last year @ TFF-Neruda)
Sony Pictures Classics has acquired Loveless and The Rider TFF 2016- Toni Erdmann, Maudie, Norman).
These deals probably up the chances of each of these four films to make it to Labor Day in the San Juans.
The 70th Cannes Film Fest has roared into life and we begin the process of parsing critical responses as a method of gauging the possible Telluride fortunes of the films that make up the variety of programs. Of course, it' still early. As I type this on Monday morning, less than half of the Palme competition films have played. With that noted, here's what the critical consensus is to this point (and only mentioning films that have publicly screened)
First, looking at Reini Urban's massive and constantly updated compilation of critical response among Palme d'Or competition films at the top is Robin Campillo's 120 Battements par Minute with a 7.10 composite rating on a 10 point scale.
Urban' current top three:
1) 120 Battements par Minute (7.10)
2) Okja (6.41)
3) The Square (6.38)
Among all films in all categories with sufficient critical response to give a reasonable indication of how it's playing the top film so far has been Agnes Varda's Villages, Visages with a 7.57 score.
Ioncinema's group of critics have Loveless and 120 BPM locked together with a 3.5 average rating (out of 5). The Ioncinema chart is here.
INARRITU MAKES A SPLASH WITH VIRTUAL REALITY AT CANNES
We've be following the reports from France concerning Alejandro Inarritu's V.R. installation Carne y Arena. Reportedly lasting about six minutes and focused on immersing the "viewer" in the world of the current refugee crisis. Reports also indicate that it can experienced by one person at a time and is established in a warehouse.
The experience is said to be headed for Los Angeles this summer.
In as far as Telluride is concerned, I'm still dubious about our chances but...
I had a link in my last post to a single clip from Michael Haneke's Happy End. That has expended to three clips that are now accessible from this story at The Film Stage.
Haneke's first film since Amour is set to bow at Cannes in Palme competition today. As a matter of fact, depending on when you're reading this, it may have already have happened.
That's it for now. More on Thursday...
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com
Welcome back from your weekend. May is half over...beware the Ides of...May?
CANNES OPENS THIS WEEK
I've been focused on this week for some months now as the 70th Cannes Film Festival opens Wednesday with the screening of Arnaud Desplechin's Ismael's Ghosts starring Marion Cotillard, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Mathieu Almaric.
As regular readers know, we'll almost certainly hear about films that will end up playing Telluride after their bow at Cannes. That crossover usually averages 7-8 films per year. The tough part is trying to figure out what those films will be. In addition to looking at directors and distributors with a Telluride history, during Cannes it's usually a good idea to pay attention to the critical response as well as the films that ultimately win prizes at the end of the fest.
That doesn't mean that the Palme d'Or winner always makes it to southwest Colorado. As a matter of fact, the Palme winner is a hot or miss T-ride proposition. The last Palme winner to play Telluride was 2013's Blue is the Warmest Color. Amour followed the same path the year before. So it's best to pay attention to awards at all levels in the main competition category as well as in the other sections of the fest.
As I have for the past few years, I'll be keeping an eye on and posting the critical assessment as the fest progresses.
I also have included this overview of the fest from Indiewire which highlights 22 films that they "want to see" including Happy End, Ismael's Ghosts, Loveless, The Meyerowitz Stories, You Were Never Really Here and Wonderstruck.
CANNES TRAILERS, TEASERS AND CLIPS
The onslaught of media about Cannes films has picked, as you might expect, as we get closer to the festival. As a result, we continue to get looks at some of the films that seem the best bets, at least at this point to make the trans-Atlantic journey from France to the San Juans.
Perhaps the Cannes film I am most excited about that also seems to me to be an excellent T-ride prospect is Todd Haynes' Wonderstruck which made a substantial splash this week with a clip from the film which is here via YouTube:
We also saw our first look at a poster for the film:
There was a good deal of coverage of the Wonderstruck images and I have linked a sample of that here from:
Some films that everyone seems to have at the end of each festival are those that you had on a list that, for whatever reason, you didn't get to. For most of us, it's simply a matter of running out of time before you have to head back to the real world.
One of those films for me this last year was Lost in Paris and now that I've seen the trailer, I really wished I had traded it off for maybe a couple of films I did see. Hindsight and 20/20.
And maybe the film isn't as entertaining as the trailer makes it seem but the trailer is promising. Here it is via YouTube:
The film has no U.S. release date as yet but has played a number of other U.S. film festivals in addition to Telluride. Oscilloscope is the film's distributor.
That's your MTFB for Monday, May 15, 2017. Check back for more on Thursday.
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com
The 70th Cannes Film Fest seems to have finished all of their lineup announcements this past week with the addition of classic films and documentaries. In as far as Telluride is concerned, the documentaries likely provide more ground for potential TFF programming. Two jumped out at me as interesting and, perhaps, TFF possibilities: Filmworker focuses on the story of an assistant for Stanley Kubrick and Becoming Cary Grant takes a look at the life of the icon with a focus on his use of LSD.
Though you wouldn't expect to see them at Telluride, I was struck of the inclusion of Blow Up, A River Runs Through It, All That Jazz and Belle du Jour among the classics selections
A couple of films that I have been keeping my eye on as potential TFF #44 titles went by the wayside this week as they were dated for release in windows that make TFF #44 either impossible or extremely unlikely; Jason Reitman's newest collaboration with Diablo Cody is headed for release in April of 2018. Tully has been on my radar simply because it's from the creators behind 2007's Juno. Reitman has had significant run through Telluride over the past decade with Juno (07), Up in the Air (09) and Labor Day (13) but his Young Adult (11) and Men Women and Children (14) did not play the fest.
Details including a suggestion that Tully might play Toronto (and the dating of the new Paul Thomas Anderson film) can be found in this post from The Playlist.
Meanwhile, Destin Daniel Cretton's The Glass Castle starring Brie Larson has been announced for Aug. 11th , making it out of play for T-ride. It's been on my list as the twosome of Cretton and Larson were paired in the critical success Short Term 12 in 2013 and also as a result of Larson's Best Actress win for 2015's Room.
In an effort to provide a history of the Telluride Film Festival I continue to use the wayback machine and take a look back at past Telluride Film Festivals. Utilizing past programs, yearbooks and conversations with past attendees, I have undertaken to supplement the History section of the TFF official website. The website includes links to TFF programs dating from last year's fest back to the 33rd TFF in 2006.
Beginning a few weeks past with TFF 32, MTFB is attempting to fill in the gaps back to the beginning. In addition to supplementing the official website, it is my intent that this stroll down memory lane will eventually take the place of the "Selected TFF History" page here at MTFB. Obviously, it is not going to be a rapid process...that said...
The 29th Telluride Film Festival took place form Aug. 30-Sept. 2, 2002.
Guest Director: Alberto Barbera
Tributes: Peter O'Toole, Paul Schrader, D.A. Pennebaker
Here are the feature films that were a part of The SHOW:
Antychryst
Auto Focus
Bandits of Orgosolo
Bitter Rice
The Black Pirate
Blind Spot
Bowling for Columbine
Cinerama Adventure
City of God
Cuckoo
Frida
Ikiru
Il Posto
Irreversible
Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell
Ken Park
Le Corbeau
Lost in La Mancha
The Man Without a Past
Max et les Frerailleuers
Morvern Callar
My Mother's Smile
Naqoyqatsi
Night Mail II
Old Believers
Only the Strong Survive
Rabbit Proof Fence
Respiro
Russian Ark
Safe Passage
Scarecrow
See What Happens: The Story of D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus
Singin' in the Rain
Spider
Spirited Away
Talk to Her
The Tramp and the Dictator
The War
Willie Nelson: Still is Still Moving
The Wonderful Lies of Nina Petrowna
Partial List of Guests:
Ken Burns
Betty Comden
David Cronenberg
Willem Dafoe
Roger Ebert
Ralph Fiennes
Thierry Fremaux
Terry Gilliam
Philip Glass
Werner Herzog
Christopher Hitchens
Mary-Beth Hurt
Greg Kinnear
Ed Lachman
Leonard Maltin
Fernando Meirelles
Michael Moore
Gaspar Noe
Peter O'Toole
D.A. Pennebaker
Lynne Ramsay
Salman Rushdie
Paul Schrader
Jerry Schatzberg
Peter Sellars
Among the short films you'd find that Australian actress Rachel Griffiths (Blow, Saving Mr. Banks, Hacksaw Ridge) as the director of Roundabout.
That'll do it for this Monday. I'll have more on Thursday...
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com
It is Thursday, April 27, 2017...No really...it s.
JONATHAN DEMME REMEMBERED
The news of Jonathan Demme's death yesterday was a shock. He was 73, so I suppose, in terms of age, it isn't that anomalous but Demme always seemed so vital that he didn't seem to be 73.
Demme's best known work was the five Oscar winner Silence of the Lambs. I was a huge fan of the Thomas Harris book long before it became a film and when it came out in 1991 I was skeptical that anyone could make the film version stand up to the novel. I was pleasantly surprised. It's one of those rare films that succeeds as well as its source material. Demme (and screenwriter Ted Talley) proved me wrong.
Demme won an Oscar for direction and the film won Best Picture as well as Adapted Screenplay, Actress (Jodie Foster) and Actor (Anthony Hopkins). It became the first film since One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) to win the Big Five Oscars.
Demme also had other memorable efforts including Philadelphia and Something Wild.
In 1987 his documentary effort Haiti Dreams of Democracy appeared as a part of the 14th TFF screening on Telluride Community Television.
The official announcement of jurors for the Plame d'Or for the 70th edition of the Cannes Film Festival has been revealed.
We already knew that the jury would be presided over by Pedro Almodovar and it had slipped that actress Jessica Chastain would be a jury member as well. The group was completed yesterday with the official confirmation of Chastain along with actor (and surprise choice) Will Smith as well as directors Maren Ade (Toni Erdmann), Park Chan-wook (The Handmaiden), Paolo Sorrentino (Youth). Additional members of the jury are Fan Bingbing, Agnes Jaoui and musician Gabriel Yared.
As always, the jury composition is eclectic and varied. Where will they land for the Palme.
Alejandro Inarritu's virtual reality project Carne y Arena is set to play at Cannes and this week the Oscar winning director was in New York as a member of a Tribeca Film Festival conversation focused on VR and his project.
I'd be very interested should TFF chose to invite Inarritu and present the project over Labor Day weekend but the challenges are interesting.
Good Monday friends...It's a Monday. Here's some stuff about the Telluride Film Festival...maybe.
DIRECTOR'S FORTNIGHT FILMS ANNOUNCED FOR CANNES
Official selections for the Cannes Film Festival's Director's Fortnight were announced Thursday. The DF section sometimes provides a film or two that make their way to Colorado for Labor Day, Last year Pablo Larrain's Neruda was selected for the DF section and then made the trip.
This year's announced films don't seem to provide a film title that immediately leaps out as a Telluride suspect. Here are the films announced:
We got a look this past week at new trailers for the Cannes opening night film, Ismael's Ghosts from director Arnuad Desplechin, as well as for Errol Morris' The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman's Portrait Photography. The B-Side was a part of the TFF 43 program last fall.
Desplechin's film features past Telluride tribute recipient Marion Cotillard as well as Mathieu Almaric and Charlotte Gainsbourg in a story of a film makers life sent into chaos when a former lover returns to his life.
Here's the trailer from YouTube:
In addition, here is linked coverage for the trailer from:
Ismael's Ghosts is a rare Cannes opening night film that could make its way to TFF #44.
Meanwhile, the trailer for the new Errol Morris doc that focuses on the photography of Elsa Dorfman was also released at the end of the week. It's scheduled to open on June 2.
Here is that trailer also via YouTube:
And additional material about the trailer and film can be found at The Playlist.
Thanks for reading. I'll have more on Thursday.
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com
