Another Cannes Speculation / Oscar Predictions from Awards Watch / The Other Side Gets Music

Welcome to Thursday...Mar. 22nd.  Spring happened since my last post!


ANOTHER CANNES SPECULATION

Indiewire posted its "wish list" for Cannes this week.  The list of 37 films is sort of a combination of films that their team think have a reasonable chance of making the cut for films which will be announced on April 12th (just three weeks away) and films that the authors would like to see make the list...some wishful thinking in some quarters, I suspect.


Among the 37 titles, the films that seem to me to make the most sense of playing both in Cannes and then in Telluride three and a half months later are:

Ash Is the Purest White
Beautiful Boy
Burning
Cold War
The Death and Life of John F. Donovan
Everybody Knows
If Beale Street Could Talk (will this really be ready for Cannes?)
The Little Stranger
Loro
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote
Non Fiction
The Other Side of the Wind
Peterloo
Radegund (yea, I know, it's been on some earlier Cannes lists...and Malick hasn't shown any inclination to come to Telluride -that I know of- since a 1998 inclusion as a producer of Endurance...but...)
Sunset
 

The Indiewire complete list and post is here.


OSCAR PREDICTIONS FROM AWARDS WATCH

Erik Anderson of Awards Watch posted his first list of potential Oscar films for the coming year earlier this week.  As you might expect, a veritable plethora of films are included that have legitimate shots at TFF #45 consideration.  Among the top ten films he lists as Best Picture possibilities are these that might be worth thinking about as TFF titles:

Black Klansman
First Man
Widows
Backseat
If Beale Street Could Talk
Can You Ever Forgive Me
Mary Queen of Scots

Among the films Anderson lists as "Other Contenders" that also seem to have some T-ride potential:

Beautiful Boy
Boy Erased
Everybody Knows
The Front Runner
Gloria (could Sebastian Lelio return to Telluride with the English language remake of the film that he had at TFF in 2013?)
Kursk
Loro
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote
Mid 90s
Old Man and the Gun
On the Basis of Sex
Peterloo
Roma
The Sisters Brothers
The Women of Marwen

The complete article from Anderson is here.


THE OTHER SIDE GETS MUSIC

Composer Michel Legrand via Wellesnet.com

Orson Welles last film gets closer and closer to being finished.  In addition to speculation that it will play Cannes, this week also had reports that music legend Michel Legrand has composed the music for the film. 

Wellesnet.com and Variety both reported that story earlier this week.

Other news culled from Twitter indicates that the recording of that orchestration has been occurring this week as well.

All of that contributes to the notion that the film will play in France in may and that we may well see it in the San Juans come Labor Day weekend.

Another note: Legrand was a 2007 TFF tribute recipient.



That's your MTFB for this Thursday.  I'll have more on Monday.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT TO THE BLOG

Some Serious Cannes Possibilities / The Other Side's Work Has Begun / Tom Luddy Honoroed

Welcome to Monday...if you got a spring break, I hope you enjoyed it..


SOME SERIOUS CANNES POSSIBILITIES

During the past week Deadline and Screen Daily each dropped a large article commenting on film titles that they feel have serious Cannes potential.  As a matter of fact, they're the two deepest Cannes spec pieces that I've seen thus far.

As regular readers know, we parse the Cannes potential lineup to begin to glean thoughts as to which films might also be presented in September at T-ride.

So, lets's dive in beginning with the Screen Daily post which breaks down possibilities by various geographic regions.  From those lengthy lists, I have highlighted some films that seem like candidates for TFF:

France: Mektoub is Mektoub, Redoubtable, The Guardians
UK/Ireland: Lean on Pete, You Were Never Really Here
Germany: Submergence
North America: Wonderstruck
Latin America: Roma
Eastern Europe: Loveless

The complete Screen Daily article is here.


Meanwhile. Pete Hammond posted a big Cannes piece on Wednesday that includes hard core speculation about:

Michael Haneke's Happy End
Alexander Payne's Downsizing
George Clooney's Suburbicon (though Hammond suggests a fall fest is, perhaps, more likely...Venice?)
Todd Haynes' Wonderstruck
Lynne Ramsay's You Where Never Really Here


Hammond also pours cold water on the Cannes spec of a number of films that we've been keeping an eye on this spring.  Films that Hammond says will NOT be Cannes bound include: Wim Wenders Submergence, Stephen Frears' Victoria and Abdul, Alfonso Cuaron's Roma.

French films that Hammond suggests are in play for a berth include Mektoub is Mektoub, Redoubtable and The Guardians.

Other titles that Hammond highlights that stand out to me as having a shot at Labor Day in the San Juans include: Loveless, The Venerable W,

The complete Deadline post is here.



THE OTHER SIDE'S WORK HAS BEGUN

The people behind the effort to restore, edit, finish Orson Welles' final film The Other Side of the Wind have wasted no time getting right into the work.

We told you last week that Netflix had come on board with money and that all the legal ins and outs had been satisfied for the project to move forward.  We also re-posted a photo of the thousands of feet of film arriving in Los Angeles for work to begin.

Now we have a clip of film as the film was readied and packaged for the delivery to L.A. this week. Yahoo had the film to begin with and Indiewire re-posted it.

Here's that story with the film included.


TOM LUDDY HONORED

Telluride Film Festival co-founder and continuing director Tom Luddy was announced as the recipient of The San Francisco Film Festival's Mel Novikoff Award. The award "acknowledges an individual or institution whose work has enhanced the filmgoing public's knowledge and appreciation of world cinema."

Luddy will receive the award in San Francisco on April 9th.

From The 60th SFIFF, here is the press release announcing the honor.


EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT to the Blog

More Thoughts on the Cannes Lineup / Some Tidbits about Moonlight and La La Land / Big News from Film Land This Week

MORE THOUGHTS ON THE CANNES LINEUP

The Playlist published its 21 film Cannes wish list this week and. as you might expect, I'm parsing their expertise for hints, clues and desires as regards the films that could double up between Cannes and Telluride.

From their list:

Michael Haneke's Happy End
Todd Haynes' Wonderstruck
Lynne Ramsay's You Were Never Really Here
Andrew Haigh's Lean on Pete

From the concluding section of their article...what they label as "Honorable Mentions":

Andrey Zvyagnistev's Loveless
Lazlo Nemes' Sunset
Alexander Payne's Downsizing
Ari Folman's Where Is Anne Frank
Michel Hazanavicicus' Le Redoubtable
Matteo Garrone's Pinocchio
Wim Wenders" Submergence
George Clooney's Suburbicon
Stephen Frears' Victoria and Abdul
Xavier Beauvois' Le Gardiennes
Ziad Doueiri's L'Insulte


The complete post from The Playlist is here.


SOME TIDBITS ABOUT MOONLIGHT AND LA LA LAND

During each Oscar season in the rush to get material posted in the midst of the non-stop deluge of stories, posts, articles and releases, some things get shuffled to the bottom of the pile.  Not because they're inherently less informative or useful but mostly because of the limits of time and space.

With the horse race that Oscar #89 turned out to be between Berry Jenkins' Moonlight and Damian Chazelle's La La Land. the following stories stayed in my inbox but never made it into the blog.  So I'm correcting that here and now:  Here are a few posts regarding Moonlight:

Barry Jenkins other film festival from The Playlist

How I Write-Barry Jenkins' video from The New York Times

Jenkins' student short film Josephine via The Playlist.

Musical homages/references video in La La Land from Indiewire.


BIG NEWS FROM FILM LAND THIS WEEK

A couple of announcements that probably don't mean anything in terms of TFF #44 but were interesting to film lovers, I suspect.  Terry Gilliam has confirmed that filming has begun on his long gestating passion project The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.  He's been after this for years...and has begun filming in the past.  Here's hoping that he can get all the way to the end...and that it is more cohesive than many of his past efforts have been.

And...Stephen Spielberg has shelved  The Kidnapping of Edgardo Motara which was supposed to be his next project in favor of a quickly developing project titled The Post based on The Pentagon Papers case and how it was handles by The Washington Post in the early '70's.  Tom Hanks is set to play Post editor Ben Bradlee and Meryl Streep is on board to play Post owner/publisher Katherine Graham.  The word is that will begin filming in May and be released THIS YEAR...wow.

Terry Gilliam/Don Quixote story from The Playlist.

Speilberg Switches Projects from Awards Watch


That'll do for this Monday.  More on Thursday...


EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT to the Blog

Berlin Titles of Note / Cannes Speculation 2017 / Awards Circuit's Best Picture Picture

It is Thursday in most jurisdictions...Welcome to Michael's Telluride Film Blog



BERLIN TITLES OF NOTE

The Berlin Film Festival ran from Feb. 15-23.  That fest, as I have noted here, seems to have become a staple for films that then find their way into the Telluride lineup six and a half months later.  Now that our Oscar fever has broken, I thought I'd take one more quick look at the Berlin lineup and isolate films that might replicate the experience of films such as Taxi, Fire at Sea, Gloria and The Counterfeiters.  Over the last few years the average of Berlin Fest to Telluride films has been 2-3 films.

I have posted articles from Variety, Indiewire and The Film Stage that inspect this year's Berlin crop and here what seem to be the most likely candidates foe T-ride inclusion:

A Fantastic Woman-Sebastian Lelio (produced by Pablo Larrain) Film Stage and Variety

The Other Side of Hope-Aki Kaurismaki Film Stage, Indiewire and Variety

On Body and Soul-Ildiko Enyedi (Golden Bear winner) Indiewire, Variety

Spoor-Agnieszka Holland-Variety

The Party-Sally Potter-Variety

And here are the links to those articles:

The Film Stage

Indiewire

Variety



CANNES SPECULATION

So...Oscar's over, Sundance is over, Berlin is over...South by Southwest takes off starting tomorrow so that can only mean that it's time to get into some serious speculation about the films that will be a part of the Cannes Film Festival.

As I have written on many occasions the Cannes-Telluride connection is substantial and averages a crossover of 7-8 films per year with most of those titles coming from the Palme d'Or competition slate.  Anyone who is serious about trying to puzzle out the Telluride lineup has to take note of the films that are possible for and then do make the lineup of Cannes.

So buckle up friendo...

I took a look at Cannes speculation from recent posts in The Hollywood Reporter and Cineuropa and compiled the following list of a dozen films that could play Cannes and have potential to make the trip to Telluride.


Making both lists:

Les Gardiennes-Xavier Beauvois

Happy End-Michael Haneke

Wonderstruck-Todd Haynes

Le Redoubtable-Michel Hazanavicius

Mektoub is Mektoub-Abdellatif Kechiche

Loveless- Andrey Zvyaginstev


From the THR article:

Victoria and Abdul-Stephen Frears

Submergence-Wim Wenders


From the Cineuropa article:

Downsizing-Alexander Payne

You're Not Really Here-Lynne Ramsay

Roma-Alfonso Cuaron


Here are links to the Cannes spec posts:

The Hollywood Reporter

Cineuropa



AWARDS CIRCUIT'S BEST PICTURE PICTURE

And finally, continuing to cast a predictive gaze toward films that might comprise the TFF #43 program, Awards Circuit, one of the Oscar prediction outlets that I follow, has posted its first take on possible Best Picture candidates for Oscar #90.  Clayton Davis lists 40 films (plus some additional possibilities) and so I cast my eyes there in the search to discern what plays at the 2017 edition of The SHOW.

Among the Top Ten:

#5 Battle of the Sexes
#6 The Current War
#8 Downsizing

From 12-20:

#16 Wonderstruck

From 21-40

#24 Lean on Pete
#29 The Shape of Water
#37 You Were Never Really Here

Hopes that might not be completely crazy:

#2 Suburbicon
#14 Molly's Game


Here's the link to the first forecast of Oscar players from Awards Circuit.

That's all for this Thursday.  I'll have more on Monday.


EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT to the Blog

Bleed for This Enters the Conversation / Counting Down to Cannes / Cannes Schedule

Hello All on the first Thursday in May...

BLEED FOR THIS ENTERS THE CONVERSATION 

Still from Ben Younger's Bleed for This via The Awards Watch

A couple of outlets reported this week that Ben Younger's Bleed for This starring Miles Teller (Whiplash, The Spectacular Now) will be released in limited fashion on Nov. 4 and go wide on Nov. 23.  

I take notice of this as it lands the somewhat under-the-radar film smack in the middle of the awards season.  Add that to the fact that its distributor is Open Road, which managed a Telluride screening last year for a little picture called Spotlight (Oscars for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay plus another four nominations) and you begin to think that we ought to consider Bleed for This as a possible TFF #43 entry.

One other piece of info to add to the circumstantial pile is that the film is Executive Produced, in part, by Martin Scorsese who has been represented at Telluride recently in that capacity with a number of films, albeit documentaries- The 50 Year Argument, A Letter to Elia, George Harrison-Living in the Material World.

Of late, it had appeared, again circumstantially, that all of Open Roads awards chips seemed to be with Oliver Stone's Snowden but this week's announcement implies that they may have another card up their sleeve.

Here is coverage of the release from Variety, Screen Daily and The Awards Circuit:

http://variety.com/2016/film/news/miles-teller-bleed-for-this-release-date-1201765562/

http://www.awardscircuit.com/2016/05/03/open-roads-bleed-gets-awards-season-friendly-release-date/

http://www.screendaily.com/news/us-briefs-open-road-sets-bleed-for-this-for-november/5103272.article

COUNTING DOWN TO CANNES

The 69th Cannes Film Festival is set to open one week from today.  As I have often reminded MTFB readers, there is usually a substantial crossover between Cannes and the Telluride lineup.  Over the past decade the average has been 7.2 films that share the Cannes/Telluride lineage.

General notes to consider in addition to the 7.2 average are that the majority of the films that crossover each year tend to come from the Palme d'Or competition slate, though they can come from almost any section of the Cannes lineup.  

The Palme d'Or winner isn't an automatic Telluride inclusion.  Last year's Dheepan from Telluride semi-regular Jacques Audiard did not make the trip to the San Juans.  The 2014 winner, Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Winter Sleep also was a no go for Telluride in 2014.  However, the Palme winners for both 2012 and 2013 - Amour and Blue is the Warmest Color-did come to T-ride.  So, one might surmise that we might be due another Palme winner this year.

Another factor to keep in mind is the critical response.  Strong positive critical reaction is often an indicator that Telluride may be in the future of a Cannes film.

So stay tuned to what happens in France between now and the Cannes closing in May 22.  Almost assuredly, several of the films that make waves there will be making their way to southwest Colorado in September.

Both Indiewire and Ioncinema posted Cannes previews this week.  Here they are:

http://www.indiewire.com/article/cannes-film-festival-2016-in-competition-preview-aquarius-personal-shopper-julieta

http://www.ioncinema.com/the-conversation/five-most-anticipated-titles-of-cannes-2016

CANNES SCHEDULE

Hot off the press, here is the pdf of he schedule in Cannes:

http://www.festivalcannes.fr/assets/File/WEB2016/PDF/2016_HORAIRES%20CANNES%20web2.pdf

Contact me at:

michael_speech@hotmail.com OR

mpgort@gmail.com OR

via Twitter @Gort2 OR to

Michael's Telluride Film Blog's Facebook page: 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Michaels-Telluride-Film-Blog-and-The-Film-Awards-Clearinghouse/107846269309712

More from the Cannes Speculation Front/"Suffragette" Gets Focus/"Trumbo" Set for November Release

Good Thursday Everyone...

It's Spring Break at the Patterson house which means that as soon as this is posted this morning, I am out the door with the Boss and we are headed to a quick run through Santa Fe and Colorado.  I'm looking forward to it.

MORE FROM THE CANNES SPECULATION FRONT

Cate Blanchett in "Carol"

The staff of The Playlist posted their Cannes wish/guess list this week and it has, not surprisingly, a number of titles that could make the Cannes/Telluride double play.  Among them:

Todd Haynes' "Carol"
Justin Kurzel's "Macbeth"
Jacques Audiard's "Erran" or "Dheepan"
Matteo Garrone's "The Tale of Tales"
Gus Van Sant's "The Sea of Trees"


http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/20-films-we-hope-to-see-at-the-2015-cannes-film-festival-20150316




"SUFFRAGETTE" GETS FOCUS

The cast of "Suffragette"

Sarah Gavron's "Suffragette" has been on my Telluride possibility radar for a long, long time and continues to be.  I had it on the watch list last year for TFF #41 and have returned to it again this year.  Now comes word that the film has a U.S. distributor and it is Focus Features.  That actually may diminish its T-ride profile.  Focus has had a limited presence at Telluride over the last decade plus as you can see here:

2003: Lost in Translation
2004: The Motorcycle Diaries
2005: Brokeback Mountain
2006: Catch a Fire
2012: Hyde Park on Hudson

Last year. Focus focused its Oscar hopes on "The Theory of Everything" which very specifically went to Toronto.  Focus also has the next Eddie Redmayne project as their other Oscar pony for 2015, "The Danish Girl".

Working in the film's T-ride favor is that fact that Sarah Gavron has a Telluride history with the presentation of her 2007 film "Brick Lane" as a part of the 34th Festival.

Additionally, both Jeff Wells/Hollywood Elsewhere and Greg Ellwood/HitFix suggest Telluride as a real possibility for the film.  Check the links below for full coverage of the acquisition announcement:

http://www.hollywood-elsewhere.com/2015/03/street-fighting-women/

http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/meryl-streep-and-carey-mulligan-will-fight-on-in-suffragette-this-awards-season

http://www.awardsdaily.com/blog/2015/03/focus-features-acquires-suffragette/

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/focus-features-adds-suffragette-to-2015-potential-awards-slate-20150317

http://www.indiewire.com/article/focus-features-acquires-suffragette-with-carey-mulligan-meryl-streep-20150317


"TRUMBO" SET FOR NOVEMBER RELEASE

Bryan Cranston as Dalton Trumbo

Jay Roach's "Trumbo" starring Bryan Cranston has a release date smack in the middle of awards season according to the mid-week announcement from Bleeker Street, its distributor.  I have this film on my T-ride watch list mostly because I want it to be at Telluride.  I'm fascinated by Dalton Trumbo's story and I think Bryan Cranston is a genius.  So the news that it's set for release in the U.S. on Nov. 6th positions it for some kind of fall film play.

Check the announcement form Variety here:

http://variety.com/2015/film/news/bryan-cranstons-trumbo-set-for-nov-6-release-1201454480/



That's all for now.  More on Sunday...at the end of Spring Break!