Views of Cannes' Titles (That We Might See?) / The Distribs: Searchlight

VIEWS OF CANNES' TITLES (THAT WE MIGHT SEE?)

With the announcement on Wednesday of 50+ films that will carry the seal of official selection for the 73rd Cannes Film Festival going forward through the rest of 2020 and into 2021 we began to see the release of tearers, trialers and stills from a njumber of projects.  I'm passing along some of those that I came across over the past few days with an emphasis being on thise titles that feel like they could make their way to Telluride.

TRALER FOR THE FRENCH DISPATCH/WES ANDERSON (YouTube)

TRAILER FOR ANOTHER ROUND/THOMAS VINTERBERG (YouYube)

TEASER FOR ETE '85 (SUMMER '85)/FRANCOIS OZON (YouTube)

TEASER FOR TRUE MOTHERS/NAOMI KAWASE (YouTube)

STILLS FROM MANGROVE AND LOVER'S ROCK/STEVE MC QUEEN (The Film Stage)

THE DISTRIBS: SEARCHLIGHT

The annual summer look at film distribution outfits that have had a significant relationship with the Telluride Film Festival over the years begins today.

We'll begin our analysis with TFF stalwart Searchlight (used to be Fox Searchlight but underwent the name alteration after Disney bought them).

Searchlight's recent history with TFF:

2019: A Hidden Life (1)
2018: The Favourite, Can You Ever Forgive Ne?, The Old Man and the Gun (3)
2017: The Shape of Water (Best Picture Oscar), Battle of the Sexes (2)
2016: No Show
2015: He Named Me Malala (1)
2014: Birdman (Best Picture Oscar), Wild (2)
2013: 12 Years a Slave (Best Picture Oscar) (1)
2012: No Show
2011: Shame, The Descendants (2)
2010: Never Let Me Go, 127 Hours, Black Swan (3)
2009: No Show
2008: Slumdog Millionaire (Best Picture) (1)
2007: Juno, The Savages (2)
2006: The Last King of Scotland, The Namesake (2)
2005: Bee Season (1)
2004: Kinsey (1)

That means Searchlight averages just under 1 1/2 films at TFF each year over the last 16 years.  This year their cupboard is full of films that could make an appearance at TFF.  As we'll be saying all summer...so much is going to depend on the perception of film makers, talent, distributors and pass holders as to what films actually end up in The SHOW.

That said, Searchlight has four contenders.

The first to mention is Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch.  It's a film that would not have been on the Telluride radar at all if things were "normal" but the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in it being moved off its original release date to a current announced date of Oct. 16th.  That signals that the film could conceiveably play any or all of the fall fests TFF, TIFF, Venice and/or New York.  It was believed that it would be the opening night film for Cannes original May dates, you know that it must be ready to screen for audiences.

Next up is Chloe Zhao's Nomadland starring Frances McDormand.  This film was on my lookout list last year! However, I was surprised that we didn't see it show up on the Cannes list last week.  That could be a warning sign.  It could also mean that Searchlight decided not to go after a Cannes slot ofr the film...maybe Venice?

The other two Searchlight properties may have trouble being ready for a TFF date.  Michael Showalter's The Eyes of Tammy Faye went into post-production in December and Taika Waititi's Next Goal Wins went into post in January.  With the shutdown of the industry in March due to the pandemic, both films are question marks at this time.

Also, a quick word about a fifth film, Guillermo Del Toro's Nightmare Alley.  Prior to the pandemic I might have thought that this film had an outside shot at making Telluride but it looked like Del Toro would have to really work quickly to get it done in time.  Now, however, with IMDb describing the film as "filming" (as of Jan. 20th) I have to think that it's going to be a 2021 release.

Chances for TFF #47:

The French Dispatch 40%
Nomadland 40%
Tammy Faye and Next Goal Wins 25%

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Cannes Titles Revealed / Fremaux Interview Sheds Light / Analysis of the Cannes Selections

CANNES TITLES REVEALED

The 73rd Cannes Film Fest list ofn 50ish films that would have been chosen was announced yesterday.  FIlms gthat seemed to me to have some overt Telluride possibilities included:

Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch
Francois Ozon's Summer '85
Francis Lee's Ammonite
Steve McQueen's duo of Mangrove and Lover's Rock from what was supposed to have been a T.V. series but is now billed as six small films-Small Axe was the title of the anthology.
Thomas Vinterberg's Another Round


Here's the complete list of films announced:

“The French Dispatch,” Wes Anderson
“Summer of 85,” François Ozon
“True Mothers,” Naomi Kawase
“Lover’s Rock,” Steve McQueen
“Mangrove,” Steve McQueen
“Druk (Another Round),” Thomas Vinterberg
“Peninsula,” Sang-ho Yeon
“ADN,” Maïwenn
“Soul,” Pete Docter
“Ammonite,” Francis Lee
“Falling,” Viggo Mortensen
“Broken Keys,” Jimmy Keyrouz
“Truffle Hunters,” Gregory Kershaw and Michael Dweck
“Aya and the Witch,” Goro Miyazaki
“Limbo,” Ben Sharrock
“Heaven,” Im Sang-soo
“Last Words,” Jonathan Nossiter
“Des Hommes,” Lucas Belvaux
“Passion Simple,” Danielle Arbid
“Good Man,” Marie-Castille Mention Schaar
“The Things We Say, the Things We Do,” Emmanuel Mouret
“John and the Hole,” Pascual Sisto
“Limbo,” Ben Sharrock
“Here We Are,” Nir Bergman
“Rouge,” Farid Bentoumi
“Sweat,” Magnus von Horn
“Teddy,” Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma
“Un médecin de nuit,” Elie Wajeman
“Enfant Terrible,” Oskar Roehler
“Nadia, Butterfly,” Pascal Plante
“Pleasure,” Ninja Thyberg
“Slalom,” Charlène Favier
“Casa de Antiguidades,” João Paulo Miranda Maria
“Ibrahim,” Samuel Gueismi
“Gagarine,” Fanny Liatard, Jérémy Trouilh
“16 Printemps,” Suzanne Lindon
“Vaurien,” Peter Dourountzis
“Garçon chiffon,” Nicolas Maury
“Si Le Vent Tombe,” Nora Martirosyan
“On the Way to the Billion,” Dieudo Hamadi
“9 Days at Raqqa,” Xavier de Lauzanne
“Cévennes,” Caroline Vignal
“French Tench,” Bruno Podalydès
“Un Triomphe,” Emmanuel Courcol
“Le Discours,” Laurent Tirard
“L’Origine du Monde,” Laurent Lafitte
“Flee,” Jonas Poher Rasmussen
“Eight and a Half,” Ann Hui, Sammo Kam-Bo Hung, Ringo Lam, Patrick Tam, Johnnie To, Hark Tsui, John Woo, Woo-Ping Yuen

I have linked coverage of the announcement from:

Indiewire

Variety

Deadline



FREMAUX INTERVIEW SHEDS LIGHT

Cannes Artistic Director Thierry Fremuax (via Indiewire)

Tuesday, the day before the Cannes lineup announcement, Variety's Elsa Keslassy reported that Cannes artistic Director Thierry Fremaux had written a letter highlighting some of the facts of the selections and the process for this most unusual year.

Among the items of interest in the article that Keslassy penned from that letter is this paragraph:

"Fremaux also said Cannes’ official selection has been invited, as per tradition, to festivals that succeed it, such as Locarno, Telluride, Toronto, Deauville, San Sebastian, Pusan, Angoulême (for French cinema), Morelia, New York, Lyon, Rome, Rio, Tokyo, Mumbai or Mar del Plata and even Sundance."

As best as I can tell, it's the first acknowledgement from one of the players that Telluride will be in the mix for some of these Cannes #73 films,  Up until this point I have been assuming that the traditionally strong connection between Cannes and Telluride would continue to exist but the news stories that I have seen have never explicitly mentioned T-ride.  They had explicitly mentioned a whole slew of other fests but I hadn't seen Telluride by name until Tuesday.

Keslassy followed the Tuesday article with another yesterday after the Cannes lineup was announced and it also included a nod to Telluride programming Cannes' titles:

"The other fests that are expected to play Cannes-labeled films include Telluride, Deauville, Busan, Morelia, New York, Sundance and Fremaux’s own Lumiere festival in Lyon."

Now our next best move is to start paying attention to how Venice, Toronto and New York structure themselves and announce the films that will play at each of those stops.  We may still be able to figure out some of what will be a part of TFF #47.

Here's the link to the Fremaux letter article.

Today's follow-up is linked above.


ANALYSIS OF THE CANNES SELECTIONS

Indiwire's Eric Kohn and Anne Thompson in separate posts yesterday took some time to parse the list of 50+ films that Cannes has now said would have played as a part of Cannes #73.

Kohn's article looks at a number of topics including films that were not named.  That list included some films that are presumed to be eyeing Cannes for 2021 like Paul Verhoeven's Bendetta.  Among the other films not named, which I have thought might be part of a normal year's Telluride conversation, were Sofia Coppola's On the Rocks and Mia Hansen-Love's Bergman Island.

Kohn's article is linked here.

Thompson's story focuses on the Oscar chances of the films that were named.  Her conclusion-Oscar fare is not in abundance in this lineup. 

Her assessment is that the best Oscar candidates here are Anderson's The French Dispatch, Lee's Ammonite and Docter's Soul.

Incidentally, Thompson also makes the claim in print that we can expect to see some Cannes titles at TFF #47:

"The Cannes 2020 selection will eventually get that extra push from critics, media and audiences at Venice, Telluride, Toronto and New York, in whatever hybrid form they take"

The Thompson article is linked here.

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TFF #47 Is On / Cannes Slate Reveal on Wednesday / Housekeeping Note

TFF #47 IS ON

If you're reading this you almost certainly already knew the story.  The Telluride Film Festival mass emailed pass holders on Friday with the assurance that TFF #47 was happening.

The complete text follows (but I'll bet you've already seen it):

From the very beginning, the founders of the Telluride Film Festival declined to call it an “annual” event. Like most things with the SHOW, this was intentional. There was an understanding that life is indeed full of uncertainty. Maybe there wouldn’t be a festival every year…and it has made each eventual Labor Day celebration that much sweeter.

We see clearly the obstacles that are cruelly, tragically and stubbornly in our way this year in orders of magnitude our dear founders might not ever have envisioned.

But there has been a determination to proceed, in large part fueled by the voices in our community. This community understands that movies really are empathy machines, that when we assemble to witness the glories of cinema together, something magical happens. We humbly suggest that our world needs the light of cinema and its beautiful by-products of compassion and emotional storytelling alchemy like never before.

We are not ignorant of the devastation facing the world. We feel the fear and distress too. This is why we are committed to observing all guidance as suggested by the consensus of voices of the scientific community with whom we are consulting now. This will not be a business as usual event. Things will look and feel very different.

We’re contacting you today to let you know we’re hard at work to provide a safe and joyous environment that will include an extra day to allow more space within and between screenings, along with all of the necessary safety tweaks and adjustments you’ve become very familiar with, regardless of where you call home.

The festival will begin Thursday, September 3, instead of Friday, and will end on Monday, as usual. We will have a charter from New York City, in addition to our usual charters from Los Angeles, to ensure easier and more controlled transit for our East Coast friends. Please contact ann@ski.com to book your flights.

Your comfort and safety are the most important things to us. A defining characteristic of our community and especially of the dedicated volunteers who bring you the SHOW, is remarkable willpower - and grit. We promise to marshal these qualities to create the most secure environment possible for all of us.

For those of you who opt to not join us, we absolutely understand and support this decision. Your reasons surely involve heightened personal health concerns and you must do what is the very best for you. We trust and hope you’ll be back with us the next time we can provide optimal conditions for the SHOW. May that be soon.

In the meantime, we will let you know additional and specific information in the coming weeks.

For every gesture of support you have shown us, we thank you- very, very much.

FIAT LUX!


The email includes the official announcement that the fest will start a day early -on Thursday, Sept. 3rd.  Of what is perhaps the most important sentence in the email is the assurance that "additional and specific information" will be on its way in the coming weeks.

I suspect that kind of information will be crucial to decisions about whether to attend the fest for a number of people.

As I'm sure many of you saw, the release of the email created quite a ripple in the film press universe.  Among all the stories I ran across the one that seemed most willing to toss on a little speculation beyond the text of the email itself was Pete Hammond at Deadline.com

Among the items that piqued my interest in Hammond's story about TFF going forward were these:

Hammond suggests that Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch might still be in the running to screen at Telluride.  He writes:

"Of course, there is great uncertainty about other big name films being ready for any fest, and the situation is fluid, to say the least.

One possibility would appear to be Fox Searchlight’s Wes Anderson film French Dispatch, which was reported to appear in Cannes and open in May. It has been moved to an October launch, which would make it an obvious choice for Telluride and Toronto, especially since Searchlight almost always has at least one premiere, and often more, in the pipeline for these fests."

That would be fantastic from my perspective and undercuts the notion that The French Dispatch might be a Toronto-only presentation.

Further, Hammond opens the door slightly to there being the possibility that Netflix's announcement that it would be doing any fall fests might not be 100% carved in stone:

" Netflix, which has been a key presence in the last couple of years is sitting this one out, at least at this point."

The key sentence there being the "At least at this point".

And, as an aside...due to Telluride's secretive nature, you kind of have to wonder that if Netflix was ONLY going to screen at Telluride that they might suggest they weren't going anywhere.

Personally, I take Netflix at its word that they won't screen anywhere...but it's fun to speculate.

The third take from the Hammond article underscores what I've been saying for a bit and that is that we're all likely going to get some insight to possible TFF selections when Cannes announces the films that it would have programmed on Wednesday.  Hammond writes:

"Several titles always come from Cannes, so we can probably expect some of them when Cannes reveals the lineup they had set for the May fest that didn’t happen. That will be on June 3, and those films will be able to carry the Cannes Film Festival 2020 label. So Telluride toppers Julie Huntsinger and Tom Luddy will certainly be looking at those."

So, there are some things to chew on.

The complete Hammond/Deadline article is linked here.


CANNES SLATE REVEAL ON WEDNESDAY

As mentioned above and in previous posts, Cannes will be announcing a list of around 50 titles on Wednesday that will be classified as Cannes 2020 selections and will carry the stamp of that going forward as other film fests will be screening those films.  As Hammond mentions in his above referenced post and as I have said repeatedly, you can expect that some TFF #47 choices will be on that list.

As I written here before, in atypical year the average Telluride/Cannes crossover is 7-8 films.  My guess, and it's totally a guess, is that the crossover might be larger this year.

Cannes artistic director Thierry Fremaux is expected to announce around 50 titles on Wednesday.  He was interviewed recently by Scott Roxborough for The Hollywood Reporter and though Fremaux doesn't mention Telluride specifically...I have to believe, as Hammond does in his article, that Cannes will have a presence at TFF #47.

The Fremaux/THR interview is linked here.


HOUSEKEEPING NOTE

Long time followers of MTFB know that as we get into June I have traditionally expanded the number of times I post per week.  However, with the lack of clarity surrounding virtually everything due to Covid-19, I'm going to keep with the normal twice a week format for a couple of weeks.

Lots of approaches and items that I normally write about at the start of the summer are so ill-defined currently that I don't think that they'd  be all that valuable to address right now.

So, I'll likely expand to the four posts per week schedule the week of June 22nd.

Of course, this all could change at any moment.

Be safe and kind this week...

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Hear the Jazz Go Down / Late Breaking: Variety Reports on Cannes / Poland Has Some Thoughts / New Doc from Morris

HEAR THE JAZZ GO DOWN

With apologies to Dire Straits for lifting the lyrics from Sultans of Swing to title this item...

The Telluride Jazz Festival announced that they will postpone until 2021.  The Jazz Fest had been scheduled for Aug. 13-15 but will forgo 2020 altogether and opt to "wait until next year" according to a post on the Jazz fest's website.

The closing sentence reveals that the plan is to have the fest back on the same weekend in August of 2021.

The cancellation or postponement as the fest seems to prefer is worrisome from the Film Fest's perspective as Jazz takes place just a couple of weeks prior to Film. Comparing the two fests is not exact.  The Jazz Fest is centered during each day at Town Park and Elks Park and then there are "After Dark" performances in a variety of venues around town.  Nevertheless, despite some differences in terms of structure, the cancellation of the 2020 edition of Jazz Fest makes one take pause.

The announcement from Jazz Fest organizers is here.


LATE BREAKING: VARIETY REPORTS ON CANNES

Variety's Elsa Keslassy posted a story early this morning with a number of interesting reveals about the Cannes Film Festival.

- Cannes will announce their list of 50 or so titles that would have played there on June 3.
- Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch will be on that list along with ThomasVinterberg's Another Round, Francois Ozon's Summer '85, Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Memoria, Sofia Coppola's On the Rocks, Gia Coppola's Mainstream and Naomi Kawase's Come Morning.
- The French Dispatch is "likely" to world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.  The article suggests that Coppola might also go to TIFF.
- It appears that the notion of some co-operation between Cannes and Venice has disappeared.
- Venice appears to have landed Nanni Moretti's Tre Piani and Maiwenn's DNA meaning they won't be on the Cannes list next Wednesday.

If the claims are true, it implies that The French Dispatch and On the Rocks may be off the list for TFF #47.

The complete article is here with other info including other films expected to be announced for Cannes next week and a list of films that are said to be holding off for Cannes 2021.


LATE BREAKING: NO NETFLIX FOR FALL FESTS (added at 11:00am EDT on Thurs.5/28)

It is rare that I deviate from the publishing schedule for MTFB but this news justifies and additional post today.  Anne Thompson at Indiewire has reported that Netflix has determined that they will be sending no films to any of the major fall fests Telluride included.

That report came late yesterday.

The news means that a number of high profile projects are no longer in play for TFF as well Venice, Toronto and New York.

Titles from Netflix that have been a part of the conversation:  Mank, Hillbilly Elegy, I'm Thinking of Ending Things, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and White Tiger.

The news could impact Telluride considerably as Netflix has been a major presence at the fest over the last few years:

2015: Beasts of No Nation, Winer on Fire
2016: The Ivory Game, Into the Inferno
2017: First They Killed My Father, Wormwood
2018: Roma, Dovlatov, Girl, Reversing Roe, The Other Side of the Wind, They'll Love Me When I'm Dead
2019: Marriage Story, The Two Popes, Tell Me Who I Am, Inside Bill's Brain

Thompson's claim is pretty definitive as she writes:

"As awards groups adjust to the evolving post-pandemic reality, so will the studios. And the first up is everyone’s favorite Oscar insurgent, Netflix: While it will provide sponsorship for some major festivals in 2020, it’s not planning to send any of their films or talent to attend them."

Thompson's complete article is linked here.

POLAND HAS SOME THOUGHTS

Move City News' David Poland posted a very extensive article on Monday that takes a look and offers thoughts and prescriptions to Fall Fail Fests including Telluride.  It's interesting.

Poland talks about what he perceives as the conditions that would need to be met for both Telluride and Toronto to occur in something of a normal state.  He also addresses the notion of what virtual versions of both fests might or could look like.  He also talks about potential piracy problems and ultimately suggests that he thinks the window for both fests to make a definitive decision is about a month.

We'll see.

The complete Poland post is linked here.

NEW DOC FROM MORRIS

Errol Morris is working on a new documentary focused on 60's counter-culture figure Timothy Leary.  The film's working title "A Film by Errol Morris".  Indiewire reports that the film is inspired by the memoir of Laery companion Joanna Harcourt-Smith.

The film is being produced by and for Showtime.  No release date is included in the article but there is a teaser which says the film is "coming soon".  From YouTube:

In normal times I'd be eyeballing this as a possible/probable addition to the TFF lineup but the lack of a release date and the vagaries of Covid-19 changes that calculus.  I think it's still possible that it could play but that feeling isn't nearly as strong as I would customarily have for an Errol Morris project.

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Whispers from Vulture / Cannes Reveries and Analysis / Coppola On the Rocks / HN Updates Oscar Predix

WHISPERS FROM VULTURE

Nate Jones posted yesterday on Vulture.com a piece entitled "How Each Major Film Festival Is Responding to the Coronavirus.  Included in his assessment is Telluride along with Cannes, Venice, Toronto and New York.

The Telluride segment doesn't really offer much new save for this sentence:


"However, organizers tell Vulture they are proceeding as if the festival will happen. Otherwise, the only news out of Telluride came in mid-April, when the fest proposed extending its schedule by an extra day"

The key words being: "they (TFF) are proceeding as if the festival will happen"

No clues as to which "organizers" are the source of the claim but it's encouraging.

The Vulture article is linked here.


CANNES REVERIES AND ANALYSIS

The 73rd Cannes Film Festival was to have been going by today.  The original schedule had envisioned an opening night film on Tuesday night and as you know that did not happen.  As the original start date has come and gone a variety of outlets have offered memories and retrospectives about past Cannes as well as a number of assessments of Cannes place in the film universe.

I'm passing along a link to a couple of those here.

The first is a look at Cannes and its past from the perspective of three Indiewire veterans who all have  wealth of experience to draw on.  Anne Thompson, Eric Kohn and David Ehrlich (all of which have been kind enough over the years to participate in my annual round-up of industry veterans at the end of TFF) offer up their reminiscences of their personal experiences in southern France as well as a look at Cannes' past and potential future influence on the film industry.

Take a look at their stories here.

Meanwhile, Deadline has published the highlights of a France TV interview with Cannes President Pierre Lescrue.  Nancy Tartaglione's post went up yesterday.

Lescrue revealed that Cannes would be naming films that would have been selected would include roughly 50 titles.  Previous reports had established that the announcement of those titles will come sometime in early June.

It's my belief that some of those titles that would have played Cannes will be among the films that also play TFF and it will be interesting to parse that announcement for clues and possibilities.

The Deadline story is linked here.


COPPOLA ON THE ROCKS

photo via Empire Online

One of the films that may well be on that list next month is Sofia Coppola's latest collaboration with Bill Murray.  Her film, On the Rocks, she says, is done.  That information leads one to believe that it certainly is a possible title for the Cannes list and then some presentation among the fall fests that are currently still planning on occurring in some fashion including, perhaps, T-ride.

Coppola's last Bill Murray film was, of course, Lost in Translation which played Telluride with Coppola in attendance back in 2003.

Coppola is featured in an article this week (along with Kirsten Dunst) in Empire Online.

You can check that here.


HN UPDATES OSCAR PREDIX

In an exercise of faith or chutzpah or wishful thinking, Hollywood News' Joey Magidson has updated his Oscar predictions for the month of May.  Consequently, in the same spirit, I have mined those predictions for Telluride possibles.

Among his top ten Best Picture picks are TFF potentials: Nomadland, Ammonite and Stillwater.  Also in his top ten are Mank and The Trail of the Chicago 7 both of which could be Telluride players if they're finished.

In his second tier of Best Picture picks are other "Maybes" for Telluride: The French Dispatch, I'm Thinking of Ending Things, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Annette and On the Rocks.

Magidson's complete rundown of Oscar predictions are linked here.



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