R.I.P. Milos Stehlik / Telluride and Oscar Part Four: Best Actor / Judy Trailer Arrives with a Hint or Two

Hello again from MTFB.  Here's your Tuesday installment...


R.I.P. MILOS STEHLIK

Milos Stehlik at the 71st Cannes Film Festival via WBEZ.org

Independent and International film pioneer Milos Stehlik has died of cancer at 70.  Stehlik was a member of the Telluride Film Festival's Board of Governors and was a recipient of the fest's Silver Medallion back in 1997.


Here's the program entry from the 24th Fest (1997) complete with essay by the late Roger Ebert:

Stehlik was instrumental in bringing films from the Czech New Wave to America.

Variety has a very nice recap of Stehlik's life, career and ties to Telluride linked here.  Included in that story is the news that beginning with this year's fest, one of the 50 members of TFF's Student Symposium will named Milos Stehlik/Facets Scholar.


Additionally, from RogerEbert.com, this from Brian Tallerico.

Also from his hometown Chicago newspapers.  Here are stories from The Chicago Sun-Times and The Chicago Tribune.

Also, I reached out to former Telluride Film Festival Co-Director Gary Meyer who was kind enough to share some thoughts about Stehlik:

“Film is the most important art and it has the power to change the universe.”—Milos Stehlik


First, Milos Stehlik was a friend. He was a passionate yet gentle lover of cinema with a smile that made you especially happy to see him and his equally passionate wife Elizabeth. He enjoyed discussing practically any aspect of the movies and was especially interested in giving a platform to underrepresented voices from all over the world, especially the Czech films of his home country.

Milos was one of the most important film people on the Chicago scene. Facets MultiMedia was long an adventurous exhibition space with innovative programming and strong educational outreach to youth with classes, a film summer camp and the annual children's film festival he started 36 years ago that has an international impact. 

Early on Milos saw the opportunity to expand people's cinema awareness by starting a video rental and sales division so that patrons could go deeper into their movie exploration.  The catalogs they issued were huge and became essential reference books much like the Audio and Films Inc. rental catalogs of the 1970s. Look at this reference page. They also released for home video and libraries many hard-to-find films.  Keeping ahead of the curve Facets moved from VHS to DVD/BluRay as those changes happened and dove into streaming early on. 

Milos knew how to find and develop talented people to carry out his vision and keep Facets an essential and relevant place for film lovers. He had the vision to make certain a succession plan was in place to so his legacy would carry forward.

He was a staple on Chicago public radio's WBEZ, wrote about movies and was a popular film presenter.

Milos was a longtime attendee at the Telluride Film Festival, contributing his knowledge and connections. He had been on the Board of Governors for many years and was most recently President (2016-2017).


TELLURIDE AND OSCAR PART FOUR: BEST ACTOR

Picking up where I left off last week, I'm continuing an eight part series of articles tracing the connection between films that have played Telluride's Film Fest and the eight "major" Oscar categories.

Last Thursday I looked at T-ride and the Best Actress nominees from the past 14 years.  Today it's Best Actor.  Here are the actors that played films at TFF since 2005 who were Oscar nominated as leads.  Additionally, if that actor won it is indicated with ***.


2005: Joaquin Phoenix/Walk the Line, Heath Ledger/Brokeback Mountain, Philip Seymour Hoffman/Capote***
2006: Forest Whitaker/The Last King of Scotland***, Peter O'Toole/Venus
2007: Daniel Day Lewis/There Will Be Blood*** (I always count this and Benjamin Button even though we only saw a portion of each film in tributes to Daniel Day Lewis and David Fincher)
2008: Brad Pitt/The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
2009: George Clooney/Up in the Air
2010: Colin Firth/The King's Speech***, Javier Bardem/Biutiful, James Franco/127 Hours
2011: Jean Dujardin/The Artist***, George Clooney/The Descendents
2012: No nominees

2013: Bruce Dern/Nebraska, Chiwetel Ejiofor/12 Years a Slave
2014: Michael Keaton/Birdman, Benedict Cumberbatch/The Imitation Game, Steve Carell/Foxcatcher
2015: Michael Fassbender/Steve Jobs
2016: Casey Affleck/Manchester by the Sea***, Ryan Gosling/La La Land
2017: Gary Oldman/Darkest Hour***
2018: No nominees

Notes: 22 nominees over the 14 years with seven wins.  2018 is the only year since 2005 that no TFF film had a Best Actor nominee.

Thursday we'll take a look at the History of Telluride and Best Supporting Actress.




JUDY TRAILER ARRIVES WITH A HINT OR TWO


As reported yesterday, the Judy Garland biopic starring Renee Zellweger landed a full length trailer yesterday.  Here it is from YouTube:

Included in a couple of stories I've seen is speculation as to the possibility of fall fest screenings for the film.  Andreas Wiseman writing for Deadline.com says, "We've heard that there's a good chance the the movie could debut at Telluride."

That Deadline story in its entirety is linked here.

Meanwhile, other coverage of the trailer release is linked here from The Hollywood Reporter, Indiewire and The Playlist.

Judy is scheduled for release on Sept. 27th.

More from MTFB on Thursday...

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Friday Done, Saturday Looms / TBAs for Saturday / The Other Big News

TBAs for Saturday:

Massons Hall

11:45am-Watergate
8:00pm-Great Expectations
10:30pm-Dogman

The Zog

10:00pm-Free Solo


MY FRIDAY

Things changed with the discovery that the Patron/Press screening would be The Old Man and the Gun.  I took that in and then caught the North American premiere of Damien Chazelle's First Man.

Robert Redford talks with John Horn after the world premiere of David Lowery's The Old Man and the Gun

Sissy Spacek

Old Man and the Gun- Pleasant.  Was like a warm blanket to see Redford in fine form playing a lovable character.  Sissy Spacek and Casey Affleck are capable in support.  Tom Waits damn near steals the film.  Honestly, I felt like the film suffered a bit from lack of depth.  Again, pleasant.

First Man-is first rate.  Gripping, pulse pounding but also moving with genuinely touching moments. Gosling and Foy are great and Jason Clarke as doomed astronaut Jason Clarke also does a bang up job in support.

I was a big fan of La La Land two years ago and First Man does not disappoint as a follow up.  The Venice raves were earned.  I think it's a "can't miss" for you Telluriders this weekend.

MY SATURDAY...depending on if I can make the appropriate moves around town and Mountain village: Roma (Cuaron tribute), Destroyer, Can You Ever Forgive Me and The Favourite (Stone tribute).


THE OTHER BIG NEWS

Tom Luddy is not here in Telluride this year.  Co-director Julie Huntsinger revealed during the opening press conference today that Luddy is back in Berkeley as a health pre-caution.  She says not serious or life threatening but rather a decision based on cautiousness.


That's it for today.

New Trailer for The Old Man / Neil Simon 1927-2018 / Tribute Clues / Too Much of a Good Thing / Ahead This Week / The People's Telluride

Welcome back from the weekend.  What are you doing next weekend?


NEW TRAILER FOR THE OLD MAN

Fox Searchlight dropped a second trailer for David Lowery's The Old Man and the Gun starring Robert Redford in what he has said is his last acting job.

Here's the trailer from YouTube:

Additionally, here is coverage of the trailer's release from Indiewire and Awards Circuit.

As an aside, here is my plea to Fox Searchlight-whatever entourage you're bringing to Telluride in support of this film, please include Tom Waits.  That is all.

NEIL SIMON 1927-2018

Photo via Getty Images

Neil Simon died yesterday.  He was the pre-eminent voice for Broadway comedy in the 20th Century.  Read a lot of "Doc" Simon's plays.  Directed some.  Acted in some as well.  

He was a giant that deserved to be regarded as such.  This world is a darker place without him in it.

Exeunt Doc...and rest ye well...

TRIBUTE CLUES

                                      

Was contacted last night by a couple of faithful followers of the blog (you know who you are) who passed along the news that Tellurideinside.com had published the free screenings that will occur at the Able Gance outdoor theater on Wednesday and Thursday nights.  Long time TFF fans know that those screening choices each year generally point to Tribute recipients.

Wednesday night's screening is Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.  That film was directed by a guy named Alfonso Cuaron.

Thursday night's film is Crazy, Stupid Love which stars both Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone either of which might be a Tribute recipient this week (and bravo to TFF organizers for this selection that leaves us guessing still).  I suppose there's also a 2% chance that it could be Steve Carell and that Welcome to Marwen pops up in the T-ride lineup...but I really don't think that's going to happen.  Just like Julianne Moore (the fourth of the five stars in Crazy, Stupid, Love) might be a candidate if Gloria Bell was going to play TFF but as it is scheduled by Toronto as a World Premiere, that's not going to happen either.

I suppose it's not outside the realm of possibility that both Gosling AND Stone get Tributes.

Here's the story from Tellurideinside.com

TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING...

As we get to this moment every year a number of people will ask what I'm most excited to see during the weekend.  I always admit a couple of things: I don't live in L.A. or N.Y. or any major metropolitan area...so I am always interested in films that I know won't make it to my small berg until late in the year if at all and, of course, I am very interested in films that may be part of the Oscar conversation so those two things tend to inform my list of films to see.  I will also have to admit that I can be swayed by the personalities that accompany a film.  And, just like many of you, my choices can and likely will shift through the course of the weekend based on what the buzz is in lines.

This year, more than most, my pre-fest preferences have shifted from week to week.  At the moment, these eight films are in a constantly evolving rotation with each other as to my "must sees" in alphabetical order: Boy Erased, Destroyer, The Favourite, First Man, The Front Runner, The Old Man and the Gun, The Other Side of the Wind and Roma.  That said, I'm also pretty hot for Cold War, Non-Fiction and Shoplifters.  

Ultimately, if you look at last week's Ten Bets, I'd like to get in the top 16 or so and I know that's impossible.  Also, there is another film, that, should it pop up as has been indicated to me, then I'd be compelled to add it.

AHEAD THIS WEEK

MTFB goes into Fest Week mode...

Tuesday's post will include something I've been working on for a year and a half.

Wednesday...will have a special posting of the FINAL TEN (25) BETS FOR TFF #45.

Thursday...I'll post the official lineup as soon as it drops with some extra content.

Friday through Monday...I'll post each day with schedules, TBAs and whatever else seems interesting.

THE PEOPLE'S TELLURIDE

For the seventh consecutive year MTFB is soliciting your input for The People's Telluride.  All you have to do is watch films during the fest and then, when it's all over, report to me your assessment of each film on a 1-5 scale with 1 being "UGH!" and 5 being "GREAT".

When the time comes, you can send those ratings to me in any of the following ways listed as contact info for me listed below.

That's your Monday MTFB...more tomorrow...

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

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May I Have the Envelope Please...No, No, the Correct Envelope / Oscars Love Telluride's 2016 Lineup

Welcome to Monday


OSCARS LOVE TELLURIDE'S 2016 LINEUP


It was an insane night full of surprises large and small with the largest being the announcing of one Best Picture winner only to have that reversed in favor of a surprise upset winner.  Moonlight won Best Picture but only found out after La La Land had been announced and a number of thank you speeches had come from La La Land producers.

Here is that moment from ABC News and YouTube:

Here are your winners from the 89th Academy Awards:

Picture: Moonlight

Director: Damien Chazelle/La La Land
Actress: Emma Stone/La La Land

Actor: Casey Affleck/Manchester by the Sea
Supporting Actress: Viola Davis/Fences
Supporting Actor: Mahershala Ali/Moonlight
Original Screenplay: Manchester by the Sea
Adapted Screenplay: Moonlight
Film Editing: Hacksaw Ridge
Cinematography: La La Land

Original Score: La La Land
Original Song: City of Stars/La La Land
Animated Feature: Zootopia
Documentary: OJ: Made in America
Foreign Language Film: The Salesman
Production Design: La La Land
Costumes: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Makeup/Hair: Suicide Squad
Sound Mixing: Hacksaw Ridge

Sound Editing: Arrival
Visual Effects: The Jungle Book

Animated Short: Piper Pearl
Live Action Short: Sing
Documentary Short: The White Helmets



Moonlight wins three Oscars: Best Picture, Supporting Actor and Adapted Screenplay
La La Land wins six Oscars: Best Actress, Director, Score, Song, Cinematography and Production Design
Manchester by the Sea wins two Oscars: Best Actor and Original Screenplay

Other Telluride 2016 wins Arrival for Best Sound Editing and The White Helmets for Best Short Documentary.

Telluride's 43rd iteration hosted films with 13 Oscar wins out of 42 nominations.

For the seventh straight year (and eighth of the last nine years)  the Oscar Best Picture winner has "premiered" for the first time on the North American continent at the Telluride film festival.

The FAC had a lackluster night going 15 of 24.  In the other categories, the "upset" winner listed in Thursday's post won and in six categories the winner was off the FAC altogether on Thursday.

I'm really re-thinking how or even if The FAC is viable in its current incarnation.

Past FAC results:

2016: 15/24
2015: 20/24
2014: 22/24
2013: 18/24 (25 tie in Sound Editing)
2012: 18/24
2011: 17/24
2010: 14/24

So, there's that.

Finally another huge shout out to Barry Jenkins and the entire Moonlight crew.  In all the years I've been writing about Telluride and the Oscars there has never been a truer expression of TFF in terms of the Oscar Best Picture winner than this at a number of levels and Barry's a good guy to boot.  You can't ask for a better ending than that despite the weird way that it went down.

Congratulations Barry and Mahershala and Tarell.

Now, it's time to return to the first purpose of this space which is to begin to puzzle out the films that will make their way to the San Juans over Labor Day weekend in six months time.

More on Thursday.


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The (Probably) Final FAC Predictions for Oscar #89 / Final Oscar Calls from Experts (Updated) / Late Breaking: Toronto Down to Downsize

Good Thursday to you...


THE (PROBABLY) FINAL FAC FOR OSCAR #89

We are just days away from the Oscars -on Sunday night on ABC- and here are the (probably) final predictions from The Film Awards Clearinghouse.  Barring some weird movement or unforeseen circumstance, this will be the last post from MTFB/FAC until Monday's regularly scheduled post.  In that, I'll do some semblance of analysis based on the results of Sunday's ceremony.

Today's predictions include updated data for the eight categories that have seemed to have been the most contentious over the past few weeks since nominations were announced:  Actor, Original Screenplay,Sound Editing, Costumes, Makeup/Hair and the three Short Form categories: Live Action, Animated and Documentary.  I also did a quick update on Best Picture.

On Oscar night itself, I'll be semi-live-tweeting.  Also probably a good deal of re-tweeting.  Check out my Twitter account @Gort2.


As always, The FAC uses the published predictions of the following experts to derive its picks:

Erik Anderson/Awards Watch
Clayton Davis/Awards Circuit
Greg Ellwood/The Playlist-Awards Campaign
Scott Feinberg/The Hollywood Reporter
Joey Magidson/Hollywood News
Nathaniel Rogers/Film Experience
Sasha Stone/Awards Daily
Kristopher Tapley/Variety-InContention
Anne Thompson/Indiewire

TFF #43 films are in Bold.  Categories that were deemed "Toss Ups" are indicated with ***

***LIVE ACTION SHORT
Winner: Enemies Interiors
Upset: Timecode
Comment: Since last week, a big surge for  Ennemis Interieurs puts it on top, marginally over Timecode.

***DOCUMENTARY SHORT

Winner; Joe's Violin
Upset: The White Helmets
Comment:  Last week's two leaders switch places but the metric still makes this a squeaky tight race.

***ANIMATED SHORT
Winner: Piper
Upset: Pearl
Comment:  Piper's lead has increased substantially over the past week.  Still not a lock by any means.


SOUND MIXING:
Winner: La La Land
Upset: Hacksaw Ridge

***SOUND EDITING
Winner: Hacksaw Ridge
Upset: La La Land

VISUAL EFFECTS
Winner; The Jungle Book
Upset: Rogue One

***MAKEUP/HAIR
Winner: Star Trek Beyond
Upset: A Man Called Ove

***COSTUMES
Winner: Jackie
Upset: La La Land
Comment:  Jackie has opened up a slight, but real,  lead in this category.  La La Land could still sneak a win here, however.

PRODUCTION DESIGN

Winner: La La Land
Upset: Arrival or Fantastic Beasts

ORIGINAL SONG
Winner: City of Stars/La La Land
Upset: Could come from Moana or Trolls

ORIGINAL SCORE
Winner: La La Land
Upset: Moonlight or Lion

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Winner: The Salesman
Upset: Toni Erdmann

ANIMATED FEATURE
Winner: Zootopia
Upset: Kubo and the Two Strings

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Winner: OJ: Made in America
Upset: 13th or I Am Not Your Negro

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Winner: La La Land
Upset: Lion

FILM EDITING
Winner: La La Land
Upset: Arrival

***ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Winner: Manchester by the Sea
Upset: La La Land
Comment: Manchester has moved into a more secure position in the last week.

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Winner: Moonlight
Upset: Arrival

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Winner: Mahershala Ali/Moonlight
Upset: Dev Patel/Lion

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Winner: Viola Davis/Fences
Upset: Michelle Williams/Manchester by the Sea

***ACTOR
Winner: Denzel Washington/Fences
Upset: Casey Affleck/Manchester by the Sea
Comment: Still a whisker thin margin for Washington.

ACTRESS
Winner: Emma Stone/La La Land
Upset: Isabelle Huppert/Elle

DIRECTOR

Winner: Damien Chazelle / La La Land
Upset: Barry Jenkins/Moonlight

BEST PICTURE

Winner: La La Land
Upset: Moonlight
Comment: Other possible upset players: Hidden Figures, Manchester by the Sea and Lion

Expected win totals:

La La Land 9
Moonlight 2
Fences 2
 No other film with more than a single win.

TFF #43 films with 13 wins.

A last thought.  I'm feeling a bit of  an intuition that La La Land might actually upset in both Original Screenplay and Costumes.


 FINAL OSCAR CALLS FROM THE EXPERTS (UPDATED)

Here the FINAL OSCAR PREDICTIONS from various experts.  I WILL BE UPDATING this section through Sunday:

Kristopher Tapley/Variety

Scott Feinberg/The Hollywood Reporter

Clayton Davis (and Friends)/Awards Circuit

Awards Daily

Film School Rejects

Awards Watch Podcast

Gold Derby

Metacritic

Movie City News Gurus of Gold

Anne Thompson/Indiewire

Indiewire Critics Survey

Nathaniel Rogers/The Film Experience

Jason Osiason/Fantastic Film Fans




LATE BREAKING: TORONTO TO DOWNSIZE

There are multiple reports that the Torotno International Film Festival is going to shrink its feature film lineup by about 20% or from approximately 300 films down to 240ish.

Here's that story from:

The Hollywood Reporter

Indiewire

The Playlist



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The FAC Updates the Oscar Acting Races / Producers Guild Nominees Feature TFF #43 / BAFTA Loves La La Land and Arrival

Good Thursday...if the country is still here...

THE FAC UPDATES THE OSCAR ACTING RACES

The FAC last updated the four acting race 3-4 weeks ago and some of the ground has shifted in the lead categories.  The supporting categories have remained largely the same.  The largest influences in the last month have been the Golden Globes and the BAFTA announcement of nominees (see below). Those two events within the past week have moved some people around.  Here's the latest, up-to-date look at the acting races with a mere dozen days left until Oscar announces.

I have used the publicly available Oscar predictions from the following pundits:

Erik Anderson/Awards Watch
Clayton Davis/Awards Circuit
Greg Ellwood/The Playlist-Awards Campaign
Scott Feinberg/The Hollywood Reporter
Joey Magidson/Hollywood News
Nathaniel Rogers/Film Experience
Sasha Stone/Awards Daily
Kristopher Tapley/Variety-InContention
Anne Thompson/Indiewire

TFF #43 films are in Bold.

BEST ACTRESS

1) Emma Stone/La La Land (1)
2) Natalie Portman/Jackie (2)
3) Amy Adams/Arrival (6)
4) Isabelle Huppert/Elle (5)
5) Meryl Streep/Florence Foster Jenkins (7)

6) Anette Bening/20th Century Women (3)
7) Ruth Negga/Loving (4)
8) Taraji P. Henson/Hidden Figures (8)
9) Jessica Chastain/Miss Sloane (9)
10) Emily Blunt/The Girl on the Train (NR)

Hot: Adams, Streep, Blunt
Not: Bening, Negga and Marion Cotillard who dropped off the list.
On the Cusp: Kate Beckinsale/Love and Friendship
Comment: Adams gets a boost from BAFTA.  Streep gets a boost from her GG Lifetime acceptance speech.  The race at the top between Stone and Portman is incredibly close.

BEST ACTOR

1) Casey Affleck/Manchester by the Sea (1)
2) Denzel Washington/Fences (2)
3) Ryan Gosling/La La Land (4)
4) Andrew Garfield/Hacksaw Ridge (6)
5) Viggo Mortensen/Captain Fantastic (8)

6) Tom Hanks/Sully (3)
7) Joel Edgerton/Loving (5)
8) Andrew Garfield/Silence (9)
9) Warren Beatty/Rules Don't Apply (7)
10) Michael Keaton/The Founder (NR)

Hot: Garfield (Hacksaw), Mortensen and Keaton
Not: Hanks, Edgerton and Adam Driver who dropped from the list.
On the Cusp: Jake Gyllenhaal/Nocturnal Animals
Comment: Mortensen continues to march up the list with his SAG, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations showing that he has serious momentum.  Andrew Garfield also continues to rise.  The race still seems to be between Affleck and Washington for the win.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1) Viola Davis/Fences (1)
2) Michelle Williams/Manchester by the Sea (2)
3) Naomie Harris/Moonlight (3)
4) Nicole Kidman/Lion (4)
5) Octavia Spencer/Hidden Figures (5)

6) Greta Gerwig/20th Century Women (6)
7) Janelle Monae/Hidden Figures (7)
8) Molly Shannon/Other People (8)
9) Helen Mirren/Eye in the Sky (9)
10) (TIE) Felicity Jones (10) and Lily Gladstone/Certain Women (NR)

On the Cusp: Haley Squires/I, Daniel Blake
Comment: An incredibly stable category that will be won by Viola Davis.

SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Mahershala Ali/Moonlight (1)
2) Jeff Bridges/Hell or High Water (2)
3) Dev Patel/Lion (3)
4) Hugh Grant/Florence Foster Jenkins (4)
5) Lucas Hedges/Manchester by the Sea (5)

6) Ben Foster/Hell or High Water (6)
7) Kevin Costner/Hidden Figures (8)
8) Michael Shannon/Nocturnal Animals (7)
9) Aaron Taylor-Johnson/Nocturnal Animals (NR)
10) Issey Ogata/Silence (9)

Hot: Taylor-Johnson has exploded into the conversation just this week with his stunning Golden Globe win and his BAFTA nomination.
Not: Aaron Eckhart
On the Cusp: Stephen Henderson/Fences



PRODUCERS GUILD NOMINEES FEATURE TFF #43

One of the most well regarded precursors of probable Oscar Best Picture nominees is the Producers Guild of America (PGA).  The PGA named their list of ten feature film nominees on Tuesday and it included four films that played at Telluride last September.

Those named were: Arrival, La La Land, Manchester by the Sea and La La Land.  The nomination for Arrival is being perceived as a strong sign that it will likely be among the films nominated for Best Picture when the Oscar nominations are announced on Jan. 24.  La La Land, Manchester and Moonlight have been considered locks for some time and the PGA accolade just added to that view.

Other films named by the PGA were: Deadpool, Fences, Hacksaw Ridge, Hell or High Water, Hidden Figures and Lion.

Deadpool was a real surprise to the otherwise expected list of films.  Left off: Sully, Silence and Loving.

The PGA also named The Eagle Huntress, which also played TFF #43 among the five Best Documentaries.

Coverage and analysis of the PGA nominations is here from:

Indiewire

Awards Daily

The Playlist

The Film Experience


BAFTA LOVES LA LAND AND ARRIVAL

Damien Chazelle's La La Land led all films in the number of nominations it received from the British Academy of Film and Television Artists on Tuesday with 11 nods.  Denis Villenueve's Arrival and Tom Ford's Nocturnal Animals followed in second place with nine nominations apiece.

Kenneth Lonergan's Manchester by the Sea had six nominations while Barry Jenkins Moonlight was only mentioned four times.

Here are the respective nominations for each:

La La Land: Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Actor, Actress, Original Music, Cinematography, Editing. Production Design, Costume, Sound

Arrival: Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Actress, Original Music, Cinematography, Editing, Sound, Visual Effects

Manchester: Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Actor, Supporting Actress, Editing

Moonlight: Picture, Original Screenplay, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress

Other notes: Toni Erdmann was nominated for Best Film not in the English Language, as was TFF #42 film Son of Saul.  The Eagle Huntress was nominated for Best Documentary and Manchester by the Sea's Lucas Hedges was nominated for the Rising Star award.

Complete BAFTA nominations and analysis is here from:

Indiewire

The Playlist

The Hollywood Reporter


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The Force Dimmed This Week / The FAC Updates Best Picture and Director / Scene Work from Manchester by the Sea

It's Thursday...the last one of 2016...aren't you glad?

THE FORCE DIMMED THIS WEEK

Carrie Fisher at this year's Telluride Film Festival

I'm not sure I can add anything new or worthy to the outpouring of grief and remembrances at the Tuesday passing of Carrie Fisher.  I tweeted Tuesday my appreciation to the Telluride Film Festival because they had made it possible for an old Star Wars fan to be in the same room with Carrie with the inclusion of Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds.  The documentary was excellent and it was a once-in-a-lifetime treat to get to hear Carrie and her brother Todd talk about the film and their lives.

I also wanted to thank directors Fisher Stevens and Alexis Bloom (as I did in person in T-ride) for bringing this story to us.  Bright Lights is set to screen on HBO sometime early in 2017.

Carrie was 60 when she died Tuesday.  I'm a 59 year old man.  That kind of sudden reminder of mortality will jolt a guy.  2016 seems to have been full of more than its share of greatness leaving us.  Ali, Bowie, Prince...so many others.

I have talked with a couple of friends about the notion that we're experiencing what seems like more deaths of more culturally significant people than is normal.  I have a theory about why it seems that way.

I am at the tail end of the baby boomer generation and my theory suggests that my generation, and the generations that have come after, are more susceptible to mass grief in these moments as we are generations for whom being immersed in popular culture is so much easier and, largely expected, as a part of of our normal daily routines and discourse.

The rise of television in the 60's and then the computer revolution seems to have created more pop culture icons and have made them all far more accessible.  The rise of music videos in the 80's and the freedom to download popular music from your desktop is another component of this. As a result, those pop icons are much a more integral part of our lives than they have been for previous generations. Thus, we feel that crushing sense of loss more frequently for more figures than was possible for those that preceded us.

I think the addition of video, the fact that we can see the people that we admire and that enthrall us, has made it all the more dramatic.  The expansion in my lifetime from a television that gave someone three channels to the multiplicity of delivery mechanisms for pop culture that we have now has magnified this.

And there are just more of us.  It's a matter of sheer numbers.  The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that there are now 319 million of us.  The 1960 census had our population at 181 million.  Add those demographics to the explosion of access and it becomes another factor in this theory.

So my theory goes.  The hell of it is that we'd better get used to years like 2016 because, if my theory is anywhere close to right... all of our years to come will feel like 2016...grim, I know.

Or maybe that's all just baby boomer self-centeredness.  Or maybe I'm talking out of my ass.

Nevertheless, as a final exhibit, your honors, look at the flood of grief and outpouring of love that has happened over and over again in 2016 and, what seems to me, a loud and constant collective plea that this year limp to a conclusion.  It overwhelms.

In closing, thanks to Carrie for being a giant part of endless hours of fascination and diversion and for proving this past September that she was every bit the bright, fierce and funny woman that I had thought she was.  And, again, thanks to the TFF #43 programmers for making those moments happen.

The force dimmed this week.

I have selected a few posts that went up this week memorializing Ms. Fisher.  They are linked here:

From Telluride regular Leonard Maltin

From the Staff at RogerEbert.com

From Liz Shannon Miller of Indiewire

And an unpublished interview from October with Greg Ellwood from The Playlist

Finally, the IMDb page for Bright Lights


ADDENDUM:  As I'm sure you heard last night, Carrie's mother and entertainment legend Debbie Reynolds died yesterday.  It's just heart breaking and adds another layer of poignancy to what we were a part of this past Labor Day weekend.



THE FAC UPDATES BEST PICTURE AND BEST DIRECTOR

We're three weeks passed the last BP and BD FAC update (it was Dec. 8) so I thought that a current feel for where the Oscar experts think those two races are would be a good idea before we turn the calendar over to 2017.

I have used the publicly available Oscar predictions from the following pundits:

Erik Anderson/Awards Watch
Clayton Davis/Awards Circuit
Greg Ellwood/The Playlist-Awards Campaign
Scott Feinberg/The Hollywood Reporter
Joey Magidson/Hollywood News
Nathaniel Rogers/Film Experience
Sasha Stone/Awards Daily
Kristopher Tapley/Variety-InContention
Anne Thompson/Indiewire

TFF #43 films are in Bold.  The person's previous position follows its title in parentheses.

BEST PICTURE

1) La La Land (1)

2) Moonlight (2)

3) Manchester by the Sea (3)

4) Hell or High Water (5)

5) Fences (4)

6) Arrival (8)

7) Lion (6)

8) Hidden Figures (NR)

9) Hacksaw Ridge (12)

10) Silence (7)

11) Jackie (11)

12) Sully (9)

Hot: Arrival, Hidden Figures, Hacksaw Ridge

Not: Silence, Sully, Loving

On the Cusp: Loving

Comment:  I think Silence may be in a stronger position than some because of where Scorsese ranks on the Best Directing chart (see below).  There does seem to have been a flutter in support for La La Land at the top spot due to its lack of a Best Ensemble nomination from the SAG Awards but not enough to remove it from a still solid hold on that position.  Moonlight and Manchester are bunched very tightly and the distance between the top three and the next film (Hell or High Water...a great story in its rise as awards season has progressed) is substantial.

BEST DIRECTOR

1) Damien Chazelle/La La Land (1)

2) Barry Jenkins/Moonlight (2)

3) Kenneth Lonergan/Manchester by the Sea (3)

4) Martin Scorsese/Silence (4)

5) Denis Villenueve/Arrival (6)

6) Denzel Washington/Fences (5)

7) Mel Gibson/Hacksaw Ridge (NR)

8) David Mackenzie/Hell or High Water (10)

9) Garth Davis/Lion (8)

10) Pablo Larrain/Jackie (7)

Hot: Gibson and Mackenzie

Not: Larrain and Jeff Nichols/Loving

On the Cusp: Nichols and Clint Eastwood/Sully

Comment"  The top four stay the same over the last three weeks.  Villenueve and Washington swap spots,  Chazelle, Jenkins and Lonergan are very tightly bunched.

SCENE WORK FROM MANCHESTER BY THE SEA

Michelle Williams and Casey Affleck in a clip from Kenneth Lonergan's Manchester by the Sea (from YouTube)

The Wrap recently talked to actress Michelle Williams about her role in Kenneth Lonergan's Manchester by the Sea.  Williams is a likely Oscar nominee next month for her work in the film and she should be.  She and acting partner Casey Affleck provide one of the most emotionally honest and effective scenes in any film of this year as a part of the film.  The Wrap talked to Williams about the film and about that scene in particular in this story posted yesterday.

Admittedly, I haven't seen Viola Davis who is everyone's front runner for Best Supporting Actress this year in Fences but she's got a high bar to get over in Williams' performance.  

Manchester by the Sea is in theaters now.

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