MTFB Oscar Take: International, Doc, Animated and Casting #3 / National Society of Film Critics and TFF #52/ Critics Choice Awards and TFF #52

MTFB OSCAR TAKE: SECOND PREDICTIONS FOR INTERNATIONAL, DOCUMENTARY AND ANIMATED FEATURES AND CASTING

Here's MTFB's third round of Oscar nomination predictions for these four categories.

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

1) Sentimental Value (Norway) (1)

2) It Was Just an Accident (France) (2)

3) The Secret Agent (Brazil) (3)

4) Sirat (5)

5) No Other Choice (South Korea) (4)

Others: The Voice of Hind Rajab (Tunisia), Left-Handed Girl (Taiwan) and Kukuho (Japan).

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

1) The Perfect Neighbor (1)

2) 2000 Meters to Andriivka (2)

3) Cover-Up (4)

4) The Alabama Solution (5)

5) My Undesirable Friends Part 1...(NR)

Others: Apocalypse in the Tropics*, Come See Me in the Good Light and Mr. Nobody Against Putin.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

1) K-Pop Demon Hunters (1)

2) Zootopia 2 (2)

3) Arco (3)

4) Little Amelie or the Character of Rain (4)

5) Elio (5)

Others: In Your Dreams, Demon slayer, The Magnificent Life.

BEST CASTING

1) Sinners (1)

2) One Battle After Another (2)

3) Marty Supreme (3)

4) Hamnet (4)

5) Wicked: For Good (4)

Others: Frankenstein, Sentimental Value and Weapons.

NATIONAL SOCIETY OF FILM CRITICS AWARDS

The National Society of Film Critics announced their awards for 2025 this past weekend.  Here's how TFF #52 showed:

The Secret Agent: Winner: Best Foreign Language Film, First Runner-up Actor (Moura), Second Runner-up Best Picture and Second Runner-up Screenplay.

It Was Just an Accident: Winner Best Screenplay, First Runner-up Film in a Foreign Language and First Runner-up Director.

Blue Moon: Winner Best Actor (Hawke), First Runner-up Screenplay, 2nd Runner-up Director.

Sentimental Value: Second Runner-up Film in a Foreign Language, 2nd Runner-up Actress (Reinsve), Second Runner-up Supporting Actress (Lilleaas), Second Runner-up Supporting Actor (Skarsgard).

If I Had Legs I'd Kick You: Forst Runner-up Actress (Byrne).

Nouvelle Vague: Second Runner-up Director (along with Blue Moon).

Here's the link for the complete NSFC Awards.

CRITICS CHOICE AWARDS AND TFF #52

Also occurring this past weekend were the Critics Choice Awards.  Here's how the films from TFF #52 fared:

Frankenstein (4): Best Supporting Actor (Elordi), Production Design, Costumes, Make-up/Hair.

Hamnet: Best Actress (Buckley)

Sentimental Value: Best Foreign Language Film

Here are the complete Critics Choice Awards from The Hollywood Reporter.

And coming up this week announcements from The Producers Guild, Directors Guild, SAG/Aftra (SAG Awards) and BAFTA's longlists.  Hold your breath!!!

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Critics Choice Awards / Producers Guild Nominates / MTFB Oscar Update: Score, Song and More / The Film Stage's Hot 100 for 2024 / Interviews and Profiles: Giamatti, Domingo

CRITICS CHOICE AWARDS

Oppenheimer and Barbie dominated the Critics Choice Awards last night with the former winning eight trophies including Best Picture and Direction.  Barbie won six.

Three TFF films earned awards with The Holdovers dominating in acting categories.  Paul Giamatti won Best Actor, Da'Vine Joy Randolph won Best Supporting Actress and Domnic Sessa was named Best Young Actor.  Emma Stone won Best Actress for Poor Things and Anatomy of a Fall was named Best Foreign Language Film.

The complete winners list is here from Variety.

The next big precursor is the announcement of BAFTA nominees on Thursday.

PRODUCERS GUILD NOMINATES

The Producers Guild of America named their 10 nominees for Best Film of  the Year on Saturday.  Four films that screened at TFF #50 made the list: Anatomy of a Fall, The Holdovers, Poor Things and The Zone of Interest.

The other six films nominated were: American Fiction, Barbie, Killers of the Flower Moon, Maestro, Oppenheimer and Past Lives.

In a twist, the PGA's ten finalists also happen to be the ten films that MFB currently is predicting to be the ten nominees for the Best Picture Oscar (here's the current MTFB Best Picture list from Jan. 8th).

The PGA announces its winner on Feb. 25th.

Here's the official announcement from the PGA website.

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: SCORE, SONG AND MORE

Here's the latest MTFB Oscar Update.  Today I'm updating the Original Song, Original Score, Animated Feature, Production Design, Visual Effects and Sound categories. These categories were last posted on Jan. 1st.   As usual TFF #50 films are in Bold.  A film's previous position on the MTFB Oscar chart is listed in parentheses.

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

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

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

3) Road to Freedom/Rustin (3)

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

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

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

BEST SCORE

1) Oppenheimer (1)

2) Killers of the Flower Moon (2)

3) Poor Things (4)

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

5) The Zone of Interest (5)

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

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

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

2) The Boy and the Heron (2)

3) Elemental (3)

4) Nimona (4)

5) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (-)

Alternates: Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, Wish and Robot Dreams.

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

1) Barbie (1)

2) Poor Things (2)

3) Oppenheimer (4)

4) Killers of the Flower Moon (3)

5) Maestro (5)

Alternates: Asteroid City, The Color Purple and Napoleon

VISUAL EFFECTS

1) The Creator (1)

2) Poor Things (3)

3) Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3 (-)

4) Godzilla Minus One (2)

5) Society of the Snow (5)

Alternates: Spiderman Across the Spider-Verse, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Napoleon.

SOUND

1) Oppenheimer (1)

2) Maestro (2)

3) Ferrari (4)

4) The Zone of Interest (3)

5) Killers of the Flower Moon (5)

Alternates: Barbie, Napoleon and The Killer.

THE FILM STAGE'S HOT 100

Last week The Film Stage posted its annual list of 100 "Most Anticipated" films for 2024.  As usual, I parsed the list for titles that seem like a reasonable possibility to be at TFF #51.  Last year I came up with a list of 25 films of which seven actually made the TFF #50 lineup:

El Conde, The Royal Hotel, Poor Things, All of Us Strangers, The Holdovers, Fallen Leaves and The Zone of Interest.

Last year's Film Stage list also included five films I din not put in my guesses that made it to T-ride: Fingernails, Anatomy of a Fall, Janet Planet, The Bikeriders and La Chimera.

So, with that as a preface, here are 18 films from the 2024 Film Stage list that could show up on Labor Day (with director listed in parentheses):

96) Maria (Larrain)

61) Holland, Michigan (Cave)

60) The History of Sound (Hermanus)

58) Emilia Perez (Audiard)

54) Queer (Guadagnino)

53) The Rivals of Amziah King (Patterson)

46) The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol (Chemet)

44) Kinds of Kindmess (Lanthimos)

39) Rumours (Maddin)

38) Bird (Arnold)

25) Anora (Baker)

19) Oh, Canada (Schrader)

14) Blitz (McQueen)

12) The Nickel Boys (Ross)

8) The End (Oppenheimer)

7) Mickey 7 (Joon Ho)

2) The Way of the Wind (Malick)

1) Megalopolis (Coppola)

And your link to the complete Film Stage 2024 Most anticipated list.

INETRVIEWS AND PROFILES

Paul Giamatti for The Holdovers from The Hollywood Reporter.

Colman Domingo for Rustin from Deadline.

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MTFB Oscar Take: Picture, Direction and More / Critics Choice Nominations / Trailer and Poster for Women Talking / Visitations: Inarittu, Polley and More

MTFB OSCAR TAKE: UPDATING BEST PICTURE AND DIRECTION...ADDING DOCUMENTARY, ANIMATED FEATURE AND INTERNATIONAL FILM

In today's post I am updating Oscar predictions for Best Picture and Best Direction which were last posted on Dec. 1st.  In addition I am including first predictions for Best Animated, Documentary and International films.  TFF #49 films are in Bold.

BEST PICTURE

1) The Fabelmans (1)

2) The Banshees of Inisherin (2)

3) Everything Everywhere All at Once (5)

4) Women Talking (3)

5) Top Gun: Maverick (4)

6) TAR (6)

7) Elvis (7)

8) Avatar: The Way of Water (9)

9) Babylon (8)

10) Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (9)

11) The Woman King (New)

12) Triangle of Sadness  (10)

Out: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (11)

Stealth BP possibles: RRR, She Said, GDT's Pinocchio, Living

BEST DIRECTION

1) Steven Spielberg/The Fabelmans (1)

2) Sarah Polley/Women Talking (2)

3) Martin McDonagh/The Banshees of Inisherin (3)

4) Todd Field/TAR (4)

5) The Daniels/EEAAO (5)

6) Damien Chazelle/Babylon (6)

7) James Cameron/Avatar: The Way of Water (New)

Out: Rueben Ostlund/Triangle of Sadness

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

1) GDT's Pinocchio

2) Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

3) Turning Red

4) Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

5) Wendall and Wild

6) Strange World

7) Lightyear

BEST DOUMENATRY FEATURE

1) Good Night Oppy

2) Fire of Love

3) All the Beauty and the Bloodshed

4) All That Breathes

5) Navalny

6) Descendant

7) The Territory

BEST  INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

1) Close

2) All Quiet on the Western Front

3) Decision to Leave

4) Holy Spider

5) Argentina 1985

6) Saint Omer

7) Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths

CRITICS CHOICE NOMINATIONS

The Critics Choice Association named their nominees for film superlatives on Wednesday morning.  Nine different Telluride films earned at least one nomination with Todd Field's TAR leading the way with seven total nominations.  Here's the breakdown:

TAR (7): Best Picture, Direction, Actress (Blanchett), Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing and Score.

Women Talking (6): Best Picture, Direction, Supporting Actress (Buckley), Ensemble, Adapted Screenplay and Score.

Aftersun (3): Best Actor (Mescal), Young Actor (Corio), Original Screenplay

Living (2): Best Actor (Nighy), Adapted Screenplay

Empire of Light (1): Cinematography

Armageddon Time (1): Best Young Actor (Repeta)

Bardo (1): Best Foreign Language Film

Close (1): Best Foreign Language Film

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (1): Best Animated Film

Everything Everywhere All at Once led all films with 14 nominations.

You can fins the complete list of nominees linked here.

TRAILER AND POSTER FOR WOMEN TALKING

New views of Sarah Polley's Women Talking with a new poster and a trailer.  Here's the trailer via YouTube:

 And the new poster:

VISITATIONS: INARITTU, POLLEY AND MORE

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarittu on Bardo from Gold Derby.

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarittu on Bardo from The Hollywood Reporter.

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarittu on Bardo from The Playlist.

Sarah Polley on Women Talking from The Hollywood Reporter.

Mary McCartney on If These Walls Could Sing from Solzy at the Movies.

Micheal Ward on Empire of Light from Indiewire.

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MTFB Oscar Update: Best Picture and Direction / Trailers and Teasers: Empire of Light and If These Walls Could Sing / Critics Choice Doc Awards and TFF #49 / Visitations: Timothee Chalamet, Sam Mendes and More

MTFB OSCAR TAKE: UPDATING BEST PICTURE AND DIRECTION

In today's post I am updating Oscar predictions for Best Picture and Best Direction which were last posted on Nov. 3rd.  TFF #49 films are in Bold.

BEST PICTURE

1) The Fabelmans (1)

2) The Banshees of Inisherin (2)

3) Women Talking (3)

4) Top Gun: Maverick (6)

5) Everything Everywhere All at Once (4)

6) TAR (5)

7) Elvis (10)

8) Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (New)

9) Glass Onion (7)

10) Triangle of Sadness (11)

11) She Said (9)

12) Babylon (8)

Out: Empire of Light

Ought to think about: Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, Living and Armageddon Time

Comment: Wildly divergent responses to Damien Chazelle's Babylon from screenings this week in Los Angeles and New York have lead me to drop its prospects for a Best Picture nomination significantly.  The film is under an embargo for full reviews but social media reaction was divisive to say the least.

BEST DIRECTION

1) Steven Spielberg/The Fabelmans (1)

2) Sarah Polley/Women Talking (2)

3) Martin McDonagh/The Banshees of Inisherin (3)

4) Todd Field/TAR (4)

5) The Daniels/EEAAO (5)

6) Damien Chazelle/Babylon (6)

7) Rueben Ostlund/Triangle of Sadness (7)

TRAILERS AND TEASERS

Official Trailer for Empire of Light via YouTube:

Official trailer for If These Walls Could Sing from YouTube:

CRITICS CHOICE DOC AWARDS AND TFF #49

The Critics Choice Awards for Documentary film making were named last Sunday night and TFF #49 entrant Good Night Oppy dominated the evening.

Oppy won for Best Doc (Gold award), Direction, Best Science/Nature Doc, Score and Narration. 

Navalny, which was not included in the TFF #49 program but reportedly did screen in Elk Park prior to the Fest's officially opening received the Bronze award for Doc Feature as well as Best Political Doc.

And Citizen Ashe which screened at TFF #48 was named Best Sports Doc.

The complete rundown of all of the winners is here from ShowBiz411.

VISITATIONS

Luca Guadagnino, Timothee Chalamet and Taylor Russell talk Bones and All with Variety

Taylor Russell on Bones and All with SlashFilm

Writer and director Sam Mendes on Empire of Light with Deadline

Actor Sheila McCarthy on Women Talking from Awards Daily

Director Ryan White talks Good Night Oppy with Awards Radar

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Oscar Update: The Big Eight and The Shorts / The Critics Choice Awards / A Buffet of Truffles / Latest Gurus of Gold

 OSACR UPDATE: THE BIG EIGHT AND THE SHORTS

Here I am updating Oscar nomination predictions with a week left until the nominees are announced.  As usual, you'll see the last position of the film/performer in parentheses and when the category was last predicted.  TFF films are in Bold.

BEST PICTURE (last predicted Mar. 1st)

1) Nomadland (2)

2) The Trial of the Chicago 7 (1)

3) Minari (3)

4) Promising Young Woman (5)

5) Mank (4)

6) One Night in Miami (6)

7) Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (7)

8) News of the World (9)

9) Sound of Metal (8)

10) The Father (-)

Other Possibles: Da 5 Bloods, Judas and the Black Messiah

BEST DIRECTOR (Last predicted Feb. 22)

1) Chloe Zhao/Nomadland (1)

2) David Fincher/Mank (2)

3) Emerald Fennell/Promising Young Woman (3)

4) Aaron Sorkin/The Trial of the Chicago 7 (4)

5) Lee Isaac Chung/Minari (5)

6) Regina King/One Night in Miami (6)

7) Spike Lee/Da 5 Bloods (7)

8) Paul Greengrass/News of the World (9)

9) Florian Zeller/The Father (8)

10) Shaka King/Judas and the Black Messiah (-)

Other Possibles: Darius Marder/Sound of Metal, George C. Wolfe/Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

BEST ACTRESS (Last predicted on Feb. 11th)

1) Carey Mulligan/Promising Young Woman (1)

2) Frances McDormand/Nomadland (2)

3) Viola Davis/Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (3)

4) Andra Day/The united States vs. Billie Holiday (6)

5) Vanessa Kirby/Pieces of a Woman (4)

6) Sophia Loren/The Life Ahead (7)

7) Amy Adams/Hillbilly Elegy (9)

8) Zendaya/Malcolm and Marie (5)

9) Sidney Flanigan/Never Rarely Sometimes Always (8)

10) Michelle Pfeiffer/French Exit (-)

Other Possibles: Meryl Streep/The Prom, Nichole Behaire/Miss Juneteenth

BEST ACTOR (Last predicted Feb. 11th)

1) Chadwick Boseman/Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (1)

2) Anthony Hopkins/The Father (2)

3) Riz Ahmed/Sound of Metal (3)

4) Gary Oldman/Mank (5)

5) Steven Yeun/Minari (6)

6) Delroy Lindo/Da 5Bloods (4)

7) Tahar Rahim/The Mauritanian (10)

8) Tom Hanks/News of the World (8)

9) Ben Affleck/The Way Back (7)

10) Mads Mikkelsen/Another Round (-)

Other Possibles: Kingsley Ben-Adir/One Night in Miami, John David Washington/Malcolm and Marie

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS (Last predicted Feb. 18th)

1) Glenn Close/Hillbilly Elegy (1)

2) Yuh-jung Youn/Minari (2)

3) Olivia Colman/The Father (3)

4) Maria Bakalova/Borat Subsequent Movie Film (5)

5) Amanda Seyfried/Mank (4)

6) Jodie Foster/The Mauritanian (8)

7) Helena Zengel/News of the World (7)

8) Ellen Burstyn/Pieces of a Woman (6)

9) Dominique Fishback/Judas and the Black Messiah (9)

10) Saoirse Ronan/Ammonite (-)

Other Possibles: Olivia Cooke/Sound of Metal, Talia Ryder/Never rarely Sometimes Always

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR (Last predicted Feb. 18th)

1) Daniel Kaluuya/Judas and the Black Messiah (1)

2) Sacha Baron Cohen/The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2)

3) Leslie Odom, Jr./One Night in Miami (3)

4) Chadwick Boseman/Da 5 Bloods (4)

5) Paul Raci/Sound of Metal (4)

6) Jared Leto/The Little Things (8)

7) David Strathairn/Nomadland (7)

8) Bill Murray/On the Rocks (6)

9) Stanley Tucci/Supernova (-)

10) Bo Burnham/Promising Young Woman (-)

Other Possibles: Frank Langella/The Trail of the Chicago 7, Mark Rylance/The Trial of the Chicago7, Glynn Turman/Ma Rainey's Black Bottom 

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY (Last predicted Feb. 18th)

1) The Trial of the Chicago 7 (1)

2) Promising Young Woman (2)

3) Minari (3)

4) Mank (4)

5) Sound of  Metal (5)

6) Never Rarely Sometimes Always (7)

7) Judas and the Black Messiah (8)

8) Soul (9)

9) Da 5 Bloods (6)

10) Palm Springs (10)

Other Possibles: On the Rocks, The 40 Year Old Version

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY (Last predicted Feb. 18th)

1) Nomadland (1)

2) One Night in Miami (2)

3) The Father (4)

4) Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (3)

5) News of the World (6)

6) First Cow (5)

7) Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (8)

8) The White Tiger (-)

9) I'm Thinking of Ending Things (7)

10) Emma (9)

Other Possibles: The Mauritanian, Pieces of a Woman

BEST ANIMATED SHORT (First prediction)

1) If Anything Happens I Love You

2) Out

3) Burrow

4) Kapaemahu

5) The Snail and the Whale

6) Opera

7) To Gerard

8) Genius Loci

9) Yes-People

10) Traces

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT (First prediction)

1) A Love Song for Latasha

2) Hysterical Girl 

3) A Concerto Is a Conversation

4) Colette 

5) What would Sophia Loren Do?

6) Hunger Ward

7) Abortion Helpline

8) Speed Cubers

9) Do Not Split

10) Call Center Blues

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT (First prediction)

1) The Human Voice

2) Two Distant Strangers

3) The Letter Room

4) Feeling Through

5) Da Yie

6) The Present

7) White Eye

8) The Kicksled

9) The van

10) Bittu

THE CRITICS CHOICE AWARDS

The Critics Choice Awards were held last night.  TFF films were nominated for a dozen of them.

Nomadland (6): Best Picture, Director, Actress, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography and Editing

The Father (4): Best Actor, Supporting Actress, Adapted Screenplay and Editing

First Cow (2): Adapted Screenplay and Cinematography

Nomadland was the evening's big winner with four awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Cinematography.  The Father and First Cow did not secure any trophy from the occasion.

Acting winners were: Carey Mulligan-Best Actress/Promising Young Woman, Chadwick Boseman-Best Actor/Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Maria Bakalova/Supporting Actress/Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, Daniel Kaluuya-Supporting Actor/Judas and the Black Messiah, Alan Kim/Young Actor/Minari and The Trial of the Chicago 7 won for Best Ensemble.

The BFCA spread the wealth with only four films winning more than one of the prizes: Nomandlan-4, Ma Rainey's-3, Promising Young Woman-2 and Minari-2.

Complete coverage is here from Indiewire.

A  BUFFET OF TRUFFLES

As Oscar nomination voting is ongoing, TFF #47 documentary selection, The Truffle Hunters continues to have a high profile.  There were three separate interviews posted this week that I came across with the film's directors Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw.

The film is definitely in Oscar contention for Best Feature Documentary (and maybe ought to also be in the conversation for cinematography).  Fully eight of Gold Derby's 24 experts are currently predicting it to be nominated.

I have linked all three of the interviews with Dweck and Kershaw below:

From National Public Radio

From Salon.com

From MoveableFeast.com 

LATEST GURUS FOCUSES ON THE BIG EIGHT

The latest Gurus of Gold forecast focuses on the Big Eight categories. Picture, Director, the the acting and Screenplay categories.  in an interesting twist, we were asked to name just the top two contenders in all but the Best Picture category.  

Take a look at the new charts. They were posted on Friday.  As you may note, my latest Best Picture forecast from above has Nomadland back in the lead.  The race between it and Chicago 7 is tight and fluid.  Enough so that in the space of 72 hours, my prediction has changed.

Here's the link to the latest from we Gurus.

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Golden Globe Nominations / Critics Choice Nominations / Los Angeles Film Critics Announce / Oscar Predictions Update : Best Pic and More / Latest Gurus of Gold / Trailers for Beanpole and The Assistant

GOLDEN GLOBE NOMINATIONS

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced their nominees this morning for the best in film and television for 2019.  Here's how TFF #46 films fared:

Marriage Story (6): Best Picture/Drama, Best Actor/Adam Driver, Best Actress/Scarlett Johansson, Best Supporting Actress/Laura Dern, Screenplay, Score  (Note: Marriage Story led the filed with its six nominations.  The Irishman was next with five).

Parasite (3): Director, Foreign Film, Screenplay

Ford v Ferrari (1): Best Actor/Christian Bale

The Two Popes (4): Best Picture/ Drama, Best Actor/Jonathan Pryce, Best Supporting Actor/Anthony Hopkins, Screenplay

Pain and Glory (2): Best Actor/Antonio Banderas, Foreign Film

Portrait of a Lady on Fire: (1):Foreign Film

Judy (1): Best Actress/Renee Zellweger

The Report (1): Best Supporting Actress/Annette Bening

TFF #46 totaled 19 nominations.

The complete list of all nominees is linked here from The Hollywood Reporter.



CRITICS CHOICE NOMINATIONS

Martin Scorsese's The Irishman led all films with 14 Critics Choice nominations with Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood close behind with 12.  Those were announced yesterday.

Noah Baumbach's Marriage Story led the TFF #46 entries in nominations with eight tied with 1917 as the fourth most nominated film.  In all TFF #46 films earned 32 Critics Choice nominations.

Here's the breakdown of TFF #46 films nomination for Critics Choice Awards yesterday:

Marriage Story (8): Best Picture, Director/Noah Baumbach, Actress/Scarlett Johansson, Actor/Adam Driver, Laura Dern/Supporting Actress, Ensemble, Original Screenplay and Score.

Parasite (7): Best Picture, Best Foreign Film, Bong Joon-ho/Director, Ensemble, Original Screenplay, Editing and Production Design.

Ford v Ferrari (5): Best Picture, Best Action Picture, Cinematography, Editing and Visual Effects.

Uncut Gems (4):  Best Picture, The Safdie Brothers/Director, Actor/Adam Sandler, Editing

Pain and Glory (2): Best Foreign Film, Actor/Antonio Banderas

Judy (2): Actress/Renee Zellweger, Makeup

The Two Popes (2): Supporting Actor/Anthony Hopkins, Adapted Screenplay

Portrait of a Lady on Fire (1): Best Foreign Film

The Aeronauts (1): Visual Effects

The complete list of all nominees for the Critics Choice Awards for film and television are linked from their website here.


LOS ANGELES FILM CRITICS ANNOUNCE

Also announcing their "Best Of" for 2019 yesterday was the Laos Angeles Film Critics Association.  LAFCA traditionally names a winner in each category as well as a runner-up.  In this years voting T46 films were named the Best in seven categories and runners-up in five other instances.  Leading the way was Bong Joon-ho's Parasite which was named in five of the 12 spots.  Here's the breakdown by TFF #46 film:

Parasite: Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actor Song Kan-ho and runner-up for Screenplay and Production Design.

Pedro Almodovar's Pain and Glory was named Best Foreign Film and its star Antonio Banderas was named Best Actor.

Noah Baumbach's Marriage Story was named a couple of times.  It was named Best Screenplay and Adam Driver was runner-up for Best Actor.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire was chosen as Best Cinematography and was also runner-up for Best Foreign Film.

The Safdie Brother's Uncut Gems was runner-up for Best Editing.

The complete list of winners from the LAFCA is linked here from their website.




UPDATED OSCAR PREDICTIONS

Updating my Oscar predictions for Best Picture, Director the Screenplay categories and Film Editing.

As always TFF #46 films are in Bold.

BEST PICTURE

1) The Irishman (2)
2) Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood (1)
3) 1917 (3)
4) Parasite (4)
5) Marriage Story (5)
6) Jojo Rabbit (6)
7) Ford v Ferrari (9)
8) Joker (8)
9) The Two Popes (7)
10) The Farewell (10)

Other possibles: Dolemite Is My Name, Richard Jewell, Bombshell, Knives Out, Uncut Gems


BEST DIRECTOR

1) Sam Mendes/1917 (4)
2) Quentin Tarantino/Once Upon a Time... (1)
3) Martin Scorsese/The Irishman (3)
4) Bong Joon-ho/Parasite (2)
5) Noah Baumbach/Marriage Story (5)
6) James Mangold/Ford v Ferrari (-)

Other possibles: Taika Waititi/Jojo Rabbit, Fernando Meirelles/The Two Popes, Todd Phillips/Joker


BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1) The Irishman (3)
2) The Two Popes (1)
3) Jojo Rabbit (2)
4) Joker (4)
5) Little Women (5)
6) A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (-)

Other possibles: Hustlers, Just Mercy, Richard Jewell

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1) Marriage Story (1)
2) Once Upon a Time... (2)
3) Parasite (3)
4) The Farewell (4)
5) 1917 (5)
6) Knives Out (-)

Other Possibles: Uncut Gems, Honey Boy, Bombshell

BEST FILM EDITING

1) The Irishman (1)
2) Ford v Ferrari (2)
3) Once Upon a Time... (3)
4) Parasite (5)
5) Marriage Story (-)
6) 1917 (4)

Other possibles: The Two Popes, Jojo Rabbit, Joker


LATEST BEST PICTURE PREDICTIONS FROM THE GURUS OF GOLD

These were updated late last week and the newest Best Pic consensus is linked here.

I believe there will be a new Gurus this week with expanded predictions in a number of other categories.  Keep an eye on my Twitter account ( @Gort2 ) for when that goes up.



TRAILERS FROM BEANPOLE AND THE ASSISTANT


A couple of films that screened at Telluride that have had low level buzz since the fest both released trailers this week.

Foreign Film contender from Russia, Kantemir Bagalov's Beanpole had one.  Beanpole is set for release in the U.S. on Jan. 29th and is being distributed by Kino Lorber.  Here's that video from YouTube:

Also launching a trailer was Kitty Green's The Assistant.  That film will release on Jan. 31st and is distributed by Bleecker Street Media.  Here's that trailer also from YouTube:

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

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Updated Oscar Predictions for Supporting and Screenplays / Critics Choice Awards and Telluride / First Man Stan / 100 2019 Films from The Film Stage

It's an MTFB Monday...


UPDATED OSCAR PREDICTIONS FOR SUPPORTING AND SCREENPLAYS

Here are my latest Oscar nomination predictions for the Supporting Acting and Screenplay races. TFF Films are Bold.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1) Regina King/If Beale Street Could Talk
2) Amy Adams/Vice
3) Rachel Weisz/The Favourite
4) Emma Stone/The Favourite
5) Claire Foy/First Man

In Contention: Margot Robbie/Mary Queen of Scots, Nicole Kidman/Boy Erased, Tomasin Harcourt McKenzie/Leave No Trace, Emily Blunt/A Quiet Place


SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Mahershala Ali/Green Book
2) Richard E. Grant/Can You Ever Forgive Me?
3) Sam Elliott/A Star Is Born
4) Adam Driver/BlacKkKlansman
5) Timothee Chalamet/Beautiful Boy

In Contention: Sam Rockwell/Vice, Michael B. Jordan/Black Panther


ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1) The Favourite
2) Green Book
3) Roma
4) Vice
5) First Reformed

In Contention: Eighth Grade, A Quiet Place


ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1) BlacKkKlansman
2) If Beale Street Could Talk
3) A Star Is Born
4) Can You Ever Forgive Me?
5) First Man

In Contention: Black Panther, Leave No Trace, Crazy Rich Asians, The Death of Stalin


I'll have a big set of Oscar nomination predictions on Thursday and, of course, a complete final set of nomination predictions for all 24 categories a week from today.  Also...stay tuned for my picks on the Movie City News Gurus o' Gold charts.


CRITICS CHOICE AWARDS AND TELLURIDE

Here are the winners of last night's Critics Choice Awards from the Broadcast Film Critics Association (Telluride winners in Bold):

Best Picture: Roma
Direction: Alfonso Cuaron/Roma
Actress: (TIE) Glenn Close/The Wife. Lady Gaga/A Star Is Born
Actor: Christian Bale/Vice
Supporting Actress: Regina King/If Beale Street Could Talk
Supporting Actor: Mahershala Ali/Green Book
Foreign Film: Roma
Animated Film: Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse
Young Actor/Actress: Elsie Fisher/Eighth Grade
Ensemble: The Favourite
Original Screenplay: Paul Schrader/First Reformed
Adapted Screenplay: Barry Jenkins/If Beale Street Could Talk
Cinematography: Roma
Production Design: Black Panther
Editing: First Man
Costume Design: Black Panther
Makeup/Hair: Vice
Visual Effects: Black Panther
Action Movie: Mission Impossible-Fallout
Comedy Film: Crazy Rich Asians
Actress in a Comedy: Olivia Colman/The Favourite
Actor in a Comedy: Christian Bale/Vice
SciFi/Horror Movie: A Quiet Place
Song: Shallow/A Star Is Born
Score: First Man

Telluride films won nine Critics Choice awards (including one for TFF #44 film First Reformed).

Cuaron's Roma was the night's big winner with four awards including Best Picture and Direction.

Other films with multiple wins were:

Black Panther-3
Vice-3
First Man-2
The Favourite-2
If Beale Street Could Talk-2
A Star Is Born-2


Here is coverage from last night's awards from:

Variety

Awards Daily

Indiewire

FIRST MAN STAN

I'm including a couple of links to First Man oriented posts/stories/interviews as I am unapologetically in its corner as we head into the last few days of Oscar voting.  I am, as the kids say in the parlance of our times, stanning for the film and performers...

Indiewire's Kate Erbland talks to Oscar winning (Spotlight) screen writer Josh Singer.

The L.A. Times' Glenn Whipp talks to star Ryan Gosling and director Damien Chazelle.

Kate Erbland's Indiewire story from right after First Man's Toronto screening.


And just because I really like the film and performances and think it should also make the final Oscar lineup for best picture...

Here's a story about Melissa McCarthy's casting in Marielle Heller's Can You Ever Forgive Me? from The Hollywood Reporters' Pamela McClintock.



ONE HUNDRED 2019 FILMS FROM THE FILM STAGE

The Film Stage has posted its long 100 Most Anticipated Films of 2019 list.  From that collection of titles here are a dozen titles that feel like (at least this far out) decent best to make the TFF #46 list:

#98-The Woman in the Window
#96-The Kindness of Strangers
#93-Lucy in the Sky
#86-Fireball
#80-Against All Enemies
#62-Ema
#51-Radioactive
#49-A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
#48-Mainstream
#16-The Truth
#15-Dry Run
#7- Little Women

Of course there are others on the list that I think might be in play come Labor Day (The Report, Motherless Brooklyn) and others that I'd love to see make TFF #46 (Radegund, The Irishman).

The complete 100 film list plus honorable mentions is linked here.


That's your MTFB fix for this Monday.  I'll have more on Thursday including a substantial Oscar predictions update...lots of categories as we countdown to Oscar nomination morning on Jan. 22nd.

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

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The FAC Update on Best Actress and Actor / Critic's Choice Awards / New York Critics Online / Golden Globe Nominations On the Way

Here's another edition of MTFB and The Film Awards Clearinghouse for the second Monday in December...we don't believe these results have been hacked by the Russians...


THE FAC UPDATE ON BEST ACTRESS AND ACTOR

Here's the latest look at what The FAC metric says the best guesses are for Best Actress and Actor at this point in mid-December prior to last night's Critics' Choice and today's Golden Globe nominations.

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 ACTRESS

1) Emma Stone/La La Land (1)
2) Natalie Portman/Jackie (2)
3) Annette Being/20th Century Women (3)
4) Ruth Negga/Loving (4)
5) Isabelle Huppert/Elle (7)

6) Amy Adams/Arrival (6)
7) Meryl Streep/Florence Foster Jenkins (5)

8) Taraji P. Henson/Hidden Figures (9)

9) Jessica Chastain/Miss Sloane (8)

10) Marion Cotillard/Allied (10)

Hot: Huppert

Not: Streep

On the Cusp: Jennifer Lawrence/Passengers

Comment: the top four remain exactly the same and the top ten remain the top ten with a bit of jostling.  I'm getting a vibe that Ruth Negga (as well as Joel Edgerton) and the while Loving campaign might be waning.

BEST ACTOR

1) Casey Affleck/Manchester by the Sea (2)

2) Denzel Washington/Fences (1)

3) Tom Hanks/Sully (4)

4) Ryan Gosling/La La Land (3)

5) Joel Edgerton/Loving (5)

6) Andrew Garfield/Hacksaw Ridge (7)

7) Warren Beatty/Rules Don't Apply (6)

8) Viggo Mortensen/Captain Fantastic (8)

9) Andrew Garfield/Silence (9)

10) Adam Driver/Paterson (NR)

Hot: Driver

Not: Matthew McConnaughey/Gold who dropped put of the top ten.

On the Cusp: Michael Keaton/The Founder

Comment: See above Re: Loving and Edgerton.  The flip flopping between Washington and Affleck is likely to play right through Oscar night.  That's your race.

At this point TFF #43 looks to have highlighted four Oscar nominated lead performances and possibly five depending on whether Amy Adams can sneak in.  I still think she has a relatively good shot.

CRITICS' CHOICE AWARDS

Last night the Broadcast Film Critics Association named its winners for film awards for 2016.  La La Land was a huge winner collecting eight trophies including: Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay (tie),  Best Young Actor/Lucas Hedges, Cinematography, Production Design, Film Editing, Song (City of Stars) and Score.

Manchester by the Sea's Casey Affleck won Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay (tie).

Moonlight won for Mahershala Ali as Best Supporting Actor and Ensemble.

Arrival won Best Adapted Screenplay and Best SciFi/Horror Film.

All told, TFF #43 films bagged 14 Critics Choice Awards.

Complete coverage is here from:

Indiewire

Entertainment Weekly

The Playlist

NEW YORK ONLINE CRITICS

The New York Critics Circle Online named their "Best of " for 2016 yesterday and the results were as follows:

Meanwhile, Moonlight dominated the New York Film Critics Online awards that were voted on yesterday with five wins.

Moonlight: Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actor, Screenplay and Cinematography
Manchester by the Sea's Casey Affleck won Best actor (again)
La La Land won Best Use of Music

Here's coverage of the NYFCO results from Awards Watch 

GOLDEN GLOBE NOMINATIONS

Here are this morning's Golden Globes nominations totals by film:

La La Land 7
Moonlight 6
Manchester By The Sea 5
Florence Foster Jenkins 4
Lion 4
Hacksaw Ridge 3
Hell or High Water 3
Nocturnal Animals 3
20th Century Women 2
Arrival 2
Deadpool 2
Elle 2
Fences 2
Hidden Figures 2
Moana 2
Loving 2
Sing 2
Captain Fantastic 1
Divines 1
The Edge of Seventeen 1
Gold 1
Jackie 1
Kubo And The Two Strings 1
The Lobster 1
Miss Sloane 1
My Life As A Zucchini 1
Neruda 1
Rules Don’t Apply 1
The Salesman 1
Sing Street 1
Toni Erdmann 1
Trolls 1
War Dogs 1
Zootopia 1

La La Land gathers nominations for Picture (Comedy/Musical), Director, Screenplay, Actor (C/M), Actress (C/M), Score and Song.

Moonlight landed nominations for Picture (Drama), Director, Screenplay, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress and  Score.

Manchester by the Sea was nominated for Best Picture (Drama), Director, Actor, Supporting Actress and  Screenplay.

Arrival was nominated for Best Actress and Score.

Neruda and Toni Erdmann were nominated for Best Foreign  Langauage Film.

In all Telluride 2016 films earned 22 Glden Globe nominations.  

Complete coverage can ne found at The Golden Globes official website.

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

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