OSCAR 2024 / Turn the Page

OSCAR 2024

A memorable Oscar night last night.

Telluride 2023 films pick up an astonishing nine Oscar wins.  That was above what I was predicting.  The Oscars went to:

Poor Things (4): Best Actress (Emma Stone), Production Design, Costumes and Makeup/Hair.

The Zone of Interest (2): Best International Film and Sound.

The Holdovers (1): Best Supporting Actress (Da'Vine Joy Randolph).

Anatomy of a Fall (1): Best Original Screenplay.

The Last Repair Shop (1): Best Documentary Short.

My prediction success: 19 of 23 for a rate of 82.6 %.  That's a bit higher than my 78.5% rate since 2014. I missed Best Actress, Best Sound, Best Animated Feature and Best Visual Effects.  

I was pleasantly surprised to get all of the Short subject winners right.  For the first time ever, I believe, in each of the four categories that I picked incorrectly, the film/performer I had as the potential upset was, in fact, the winner.

Over at Gold Derby, though, 19/23 is nothing to get snooty about.  I finished 891st out of  11,034 participants.

19/23, though, was better all but one Gold Derby expert (Nikki Novak from Fandango).  I was tied with Shawn Edwards, Susan King and Pete Hammond.  I was ahead of experts from Variety, Indiewire, Next Best Picture, ABC, USA Today, People and Awards Daily.  I'm thinking of petitioning Gold Derby to become one of their expert contributors.

TURN THE PAGE

And now, as we do every year at this time, we turn our attention in a more concentrated fashion to speculation and prediction about the lineup possibilities for the Telluride Film Festival.  Over the next few weeks, I'll be scouring media for early Oscar 2025 predictions for clues as well as the Cannes lineup, set to be revealed, we believe, on April 11th.  That should give us some notions about what to expect over Labor Day weekend.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

X (TWITTER): @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

BLUE SKY: https://bsky.app/profile/gort2.bsky.social

MTFB's Facebook Page

MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

MTFB Oscar Update: The Big Eight Penultimate Predix / Carol Doda Has a Trailer / Interviews and Profiles

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: THE BIG EIGHT

We're down to less than three weeks before they open the envelopes on March 10th.  Here's is my latest update on the predicted winners in the "Big Eight" of the 23 Oscar categories. Today's listing also includes a film/performers previous MTFB rank to the right in parentheses.  TFF films are indicated in Bold.

BEST PICTURE

1) Oppenheimer (1)

2) Poor Things (2)

3) The Holdovers (3)

4) Anatomy of a Fall (6)

5) American Fiction (7)

6) Killers of the Flower Moon (4)

7) Barbie (5)

8) The Zone of Interest (8)

9) Maestro (9)

10) Past Lives (10)

BEST DIRECTION

1) Christopher Nolan/Oppenheimer (1)

2) Yorgos Lanthimos/Poor Things (2)

3) Martin Scorsese/Killers of the Flower Moon (3)

4) Jonathan Glazer/The Zone of Interest (4)

5) Justine Triet/Anatomy of a Fall (5)

BEST ACTRESS

1) Lily Gladstone/Killers of the Flower Moon (1)

2) Emma Stone/Poor Things (2)

3) Sandra Huller/Anatomy of a Fall (3)

4) Annette Bening/Nyad (4)

5) Carey Mulligan/Maestro (5)

BEST ACTOR

1) Cillian Murphy/Oppenheimer (2)

2) Paul Giamatti/The Holdovers (1)

3) Bradley Cooper/Maestro (3)

4) Jeffrey Wright/American Fiction (4)

5) Colman Domingo/Rustin (5)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1) Da'Vine Joy Randolph/The Holdovers (1)

2) Emily Blunt/Oppenheimer (2)

3) America Ferrera/Barbie (4)

4) Danielle Brooks/The Color Purple (3)

5) Jodie Foster/Nyad (3)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Robert Downey, Jr./Oppenheimer (1)

2) Ryan Gosling/Barbie (2)

3) Mark Ruffalo/Poor Things (3)

4) Robert DeNiro/Killers of the Flower Moon (4)

5) Sterling K. Brown/American Fiction (5)

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1) American Fiction (3)

2) Barbie (2)

3) Oppenheimer (1)

4) Poor Things (4)

5) The Zone of Interest (5)

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1) Anatomy of a Fall (1)

2) The Holdovers (2)

3) Past Lives (3)

4) Maestro (4)

5) May December (5)

Comment: Seem to be locked: Oppy for Best Picture, Nolan/Direction, Randolph/Supporting Actress, Downey for Supporting Actor and new to the "locked" category, Anatomy of a Fall for Original Screenplay.  The Holdovers seems to have lost steam in the past couple of weeks in its bid for Original Screenplay.

Too close to call: Lead Acting races between Lily Gladstone and Emma Stone as well as Cillian Murphy and Paul Giamatti.  At the moment I am currently giving the edge to Gladstone and Murphy due to SAG Awards wins.  Also to close to call is Adapted Screenplay.  It has been a three horse race but American Fiction and Barbie seem to have created a little separation from Oppenheimer.

Currently I have TFF films winning in two of these eight categories: Da'Vine Joy Randolph/The Holdovers and Anatomy of a Fall for Original Screenplay.

Final predictions for these categories will be posted on Oscar morning, March 10th in a special MTFB post.

 

CAROL DODA HAS A TRAILER

Picturehouse has dropped a Red Band trailer for the TFF #50 Documentary Carol Doda: Topless at the Condor.  That became available on Tuesday.  Here it is from YouTube:

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Da'Vine Joy Randolph for The Holdovers from NPR.

Producer Ed Guiney for Poor Things from The Hollywood Reporter.

Producer James Wilson for The Zone of Interest from The Hollywood Reporter.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

X (TWITTER): @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

BLUE SKY: https://bsky.app/profile/gort2.bsky.social

MTFB's Facebook Page

MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

MTFB Oscar Update: The Final Seven / SAG Awards and TFF / Interviews and Profiles

 MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: THE FINAL SEVEN

Here's your MTFB Update for the remining seven Oscar categories that I have not updated in this latest round of predictions.  TFF films are in Bold.

COSTUMES

1) Poor Things

2) Barbie

3) Killers of the Flower Moon

4) Oppenheimer

5) Napoleon

MAKEUP/HAIR

1) Maestro

2) Poor Things

3) Oppenheimer

4) Golda

5) Society of the Snow

VISUAL EFFECTS

1) The Creator

2) Godzilla Minus One

3) Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3

4) Napoleon

5) Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning

SOUND

1) Oppenheimer

2) The Zone of Interest

3) Maestro

4) The Creator

5) Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning

ANIMATED SHORT

1) War Is Over

2) Letter to a Pig

3) Ninety Five Senses

4) Our Uniform

5) Pachyderme

DOCUMENTARY SHORT

1) The Last Repair Shop

2) The ABCs of Book Burning

3) Nai Nai and Wai Po

4) The Barber of Little Rock

5) Island in Between

Comment: Almost all of these categories are competitive.  Documentary Short is particularly tight between Last Repair Shop and ABCs of Book Burning with Nai Nai and Barber of Little Rock also possible.  Costumes is also a very close category as Poor Things and Barbie appear to be duking it out in multiple craft categories.

As you can see from above MTFB predicts (for the moment) that TFF films Poor Things and The Last Repair Shop will win Oscars on March 10th.  Across all 23 categories MTFB projects TFF films winning a total of six Oscars.  In addition to the two listed above MTFB has The Holdovers winning two acting awards for Giamatti and Randolph.  Anatomy of a Fall winning Original Screenplay and The Zone of Interest winning International Feature.  

Additionally, Emma Stone could win over Lily Gladstone for Best Actress.  The Holdovers could sub- out for Anatomy of a Fall for Original Screenplay.  Poor Things could upend Barbie for Production Design.

Over the next three posts, I'll update each group (Big Eight, Middle Eight and Final Seven) one more time before final predictions on March 10th.

SAG AWARDS AND TFF

TFF films had a tough night at the SAG Awards Saturday night as the only TFF winner was Da'Vine Joy Randolph for Best Supporting Actress for Alexander Payne's The Holdovers. Other TFF acting contenders that were thought to have a chance were edged out.  Emma Stone from Poor Things was overtaken by Lily Gladstone for Killers of the Flower Moon and Cillian Murphy from Oppenheimer won over The Holdover's Paul Giamatti.

Oppenheimer won the Best Performance by a Cast award setting the stage for a Big Night for the film on March 10th.

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Paul Giamatti for The Holdovers from A.Frame.

Paul Giamatti for The Holdovers from USA Today.

Paul Giamatti for The Holdovers from The Awardist/Entertainment Weekly.

Da'Vine Joy Randolph for The holdovers from Vanity Fair.

Producer Mark Johnosn on The Holdovers from The Hollywood Reporter.

Emma Stone for Poor things from A.Frame.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

X (TWITTER): @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

BLUE SKY: https://bsky.app/profile/gort2.bsky.social

MTFB's Facebook Page

MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

MTFB Oscar Update: International, Documentary and Animated Features and Song / What the Experts Are Saying / Interviews and Profiles: Scott, Mescal, Glazer and More

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: INTERNATIONAL, DOCUMENTARY,  ANIMEATED FEATURES AND SONG

In this post I'm continuing my first "educated" set of predictions for who/what will win on Oscar night, March 10th.  The focus for this post is initial projections for the International. Documentary, and Animated Feature races as well Best Original Song.  As always TFF films are in Bold.

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

1) The Zone of Interest/United Kingdom

2) Society of the Snow/Spain

3) The Teachers' Lounge/Germany

4) Perfect Days/Japan

5) Io Capitano/Italy

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

1) 20 Days in Mariupol

2) Bobi Wine: The People's President

3) Four Daughters

4) The Eternal Memory

5) To Kill a Tiger

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

1) Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse

2) The Boy and the Heron

3) Elemental

4) Nimona

5) Robot Dreams

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

1) What Was I Made For?/Barbie

2) I'm Just Ken/Barbie

3) It Never Went Away/American Symphony

4) Whazhazhe/Killers of the Flower Moon

5) The Fire Inside/Flamin' Hot

Comment: Of the five TFF nominees from this group of categories only The Zone of Interest looks like a winner.  

At the moment the closest of these four categories looks to be Original Song where the two tunes from Barbie appear to be slugging it out.  It does beg the question of whether the two songs might split enough votes that something else sneaks in for the win.

WHAT THE EXPERTS ARE SAYING

I've decided for each post between now and the Oscars to share where some of the top Oscarologists are in terms of predicting the 23 category winners. Today I'm sharing the publicly posted current predictions from Variety's Clayton Davis and The Hollywood Reporter's Scott Feinberg.  as with my predictions above, TFF films are in Bold.

From Clayton Davis...the current predictions have Oppenheimer winning eight Oscars.

Oppenheimer (8): Best Picture, Direction, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Score and Sound.

The Holdovers (2): Best Actor and Supporting Actress.

Poor Things (2): Production Design and Costumes.

Single wins for:

Killers of the Flower Moon: Best Actress.

Barbie: Best Song (What Was I Made For?)

Anatomy of a Fall: Best Original Screenplay.

The Zone of Interest: Best International Feature.

Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse: Best Animated Feature.

20 Days in Mariupol: Best Documentary Feature.

Maestro: Best Makeup/Hair.

The Creator: Best Visual Effects.

The Last Repair Shop: Best Documentary Short.

Letter to a Pig: Best Animated Short.

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar: Best Live Action Short.

If Clayton nails it, TFF films snag seven Oscar wins.

Here's the link to Clayton's predictions.

Meanwhile, Scott Feinberg at The Hollywood Reporter is currently predicting the same category wins for Oppenheimer that Davis has.

Oppenheimer (8): Best Picture, Direction, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay. Cinematography, Editing, Score and Sound.

The Holdovers (3): Best Actor, Supporting Actress and Original Screenplay.

Barbie (3): Costumes, Song (What Was I Made For?), and Production Design.

Single wins for:

Poor Things: Best Actress.

The Zone of Interest: Best International Feature.

Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse: Best Animated Feature.

Bobi Wine: The People's President: Best Documentary Feature.

Maestro: Best Makeup/Hair.

Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3: Best Visual Effects.

War Is Over: Best Animated Short.

The ABC's of Book Burning: Best Documentary Short.

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar: Best Live Action Short.

If Feinberg is 100% accurate, TFF films earn six Oscar wins.

Here's the link to Scott's predictions.

INETRVIEWS AND PROFILES: 

Behind the scenes of Poor Things from On the red Carpet via YouTube.

Composer Jerskin Fendrix for Poor Things from Gold Derby.

Writer/Director Jonathan Glazer behind the scenes of The Zone of Interest from A24 on X.

Producer James Wilson on The Zone of Interest from Gold Derby.

Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal for All of Us Strangers from Pop Culture Confidential.

Writer/Director Lila Aviles for Totem from The Los Angeles Times.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

X (TWITTER): @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

BLUE SKY: https://bsky.app/profile/gort2.bsky.social

MTFB's Facebook Page

MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

MTFB Oscar Update: Supporting Acting and Screenplays / Interviews and Profiles: Lanthimos

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: SUPPORITNG ACTING AND SCREENPLAYS

Today I'm continuing my first "educated" set of predictions for who/what will win on Oscar night, March 10th.  The focus for this post is initial projections for the Supporting Acting and Screenplay races.  As always TFF films are in Bold.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1) Da'Vine Joy Randolph/The Holdovers

2) Emily Blunt/Oppenheimer

3) Jodie Foster/Nyad

4) America Ferrera/Barbie

5) Danielle Brooks/The Color Purple

Comment: Randolph is the prohibitive favorite.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Robert Downey, Jr./Oppenheimer

2) Ryan Gosling/Barbie

3) Robert DeNiro/Killers of the Flower Moon

4) Mark Ruffalo/Poor Things

5) Sterling K. Brown/American Fiction

Comment: I'm a bit surprised at how bid the Downey, Jr. sentiment seems to be.  I would have thought that this was a close race between he and Gosling but the early buzz is almost as strong for Downey, Jr. as Randolph has for Supporting Actress.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1) Barbie

2) American Fiction

3) Oppenheimer

4) Poor Things

5) The Zone of Interest

Comment: A very tight race between the top three and, as a result, a category that could be determinative for a lot of Oscar pools.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1) Anatomy of a Fall

2) The Holdovers

3) Past Lives

4) Maestro

5) May December

Comment: A two horse race between Anatomy and Holdovers that Anatomy seems to be leading at the moment.

Overall, from these four categories it looks likely that TFF films will pick up wins in two categories: Supporting Actress and Original Screenplay.

ITERVIEWS AND PROFILES:LANTHIMOS

Yorgos Lanthimos on Poor Things from The Hollywood Reporter.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

X (TWITTER): @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

BLUE SKY: https://bsky.app/profile/gort2.bsky.social

MTFB's Facebook Page

MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

SAG and DGA Nominees and TFF / MTFB Oscar Update: Screenplays and More / Interviews and Profiles

SAG AND DGA NOMINEES AND TFF

The Screen Actors Guild and the Directors Guild of America announced their nominees for excellence in film in 2023 yesterday.  Four TFF films received nominations from SAG for acting excellence totaling seven nominations:

The Holdovers: Paul Giamatti-Lead Actor, Da'Vine Joy Randolph-Supporting Actress.

Poor Things: Emma Stone-Lead Actress and Willem Dafoe-Supporting Actor

Nyad: Annette Bening-Lead Actress and Jodie Foster-Supporting Actress

Rustin: Colman Domingo-Lead Actor

I was surprised that Mark Ruffalo was not nominated for Poor Things and that PT also missed for Best Ensemble.

Meanwhile, the Directors' Guild also announced their five nominees yesterday and two TFFers made the list of five names.  Alexander Payne for The Holdovers and Yorgos Lanthimos for Poor Things were each nominated.  They were joined Martin Scorsese (Killers of the Flower Moon), Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer) and Greta Gerwig (Barbie).

The Sag Awards will be presented on Feb. 24th and the DGA will announce their winners on Feb. 10th.

The Producers Guils announces their nominees tomorrow.

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: SCREENPLAYS AND MORE

Today I'm updating the Screenplay, International Feature, Documentary Feature, Cinematography and Editing categories.  As usual TFF #50 films are in Bold.  A film's previous position on the MTFB Oscar chart is listed in parentheses.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1) The Holdovers (1)

2) Past Lives (3)

3) Anatomy of a Fall (4)

4) May December (5)

5) Maestro (-)

Alternates: Air, Saltburn, The Iron Claw.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1) Oppenheimer (1)

2) Poor Things (3)

3) American Fiction (2)

4) Barbie (-)

5) Killers of the Flower Moon (4)

Alternates: All of Us Strangers, The Zone of Interest, and Are You There God, It's Me Margaret. 

BEST DOCUMENTARY 

1) American Symphony (1)

2) 20 Days in Mariupol (2)

3) Beyond Utopia (3)

4) Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie (4)

5) Four Daughters (5)

Alternates: The Eternal Memory, Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project and Stamped from the Beginning.

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

1) The Zone of Interest (1)

2) Society of the Snow (3)

3) The Taste of Things (2)

4) The Teachers' Lounge (4)

5) Fallen Leaves (5)

Alternates: Perfect Days, 20 Days in Mariupol and Totem.

CINEMATOGRAPHY

1) Oppenheimer (1)

2) Killers of the Flower Moon (2)

3) Poor Things (3)

4) Maestro (4)

5) The Zone of Interest (5)

Alternates: Saltburn, Barbie and The Color Purple.

FILM EDITING

1) Oppenheimer (1)

2) Poor Things (3)

3) Killers of the Flower Moon (2)

4) Barbie (4)

5) The Holdovers (-)

Alternates: Maestro, Anatomy of a Fall and Air.

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Jodie Foster and Annette Bening for Nyad from Netflix via YouTube.

Annette Bening for Nyad from Awards Watch.

Behind the Scenes for The Zone of Interest from The Hollywood Reporter.

Behind the Scenes for All of Us Strangers from FirstShowing.net.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

X (TWITTER): @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

BLUE SKY: https://bsky.app/profile/gort2.bsky.social

MTFB's Facebook Page

MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

MTFB Oscar Update: Picture, Direction and Acting / The Oscar Shortlists and TFF / Surprise: Bening Tribute to Happen After All / Interviews and Profiles: Elordi, Kravitz, Randolph and More

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: PICTURE, DIRECTION AND ACTING

Here's MTFB's  Oscar Update.  As we move to within a month of nomination announcements I am consolidating categories for each post. Today I'm updating the Best Picture, Direction and Acting  categories.  As usual TFF #50 films are in Bold.  A film's previous position on the MTFB Oscar chart is listed in parentheses.

BEST PICTURE

1) Oppenheimer (1)

2) Barbie (2)

3) Killers of the Flower Moon (4)

4) Poor Things (5)

5) The Holdovers (6)

6) American Fiction (3)

7) Maestro (7)

8) Past Lives (8)

9) Anatomy of a Fall (-)

10) The Zone of Interest (10)

Alternates:  The Color Purple, Air and May December.

BEST DIRECTION

1) Christopher Nolan/Oppenheimer (1)

2) Martin Scorsese/Killer of the Flower Moon (2)

3) Yorgos Lanthimos/Poor Things (4)

4) Greta Gerwig/Barbie (3)

5) Jonathan Glazer/The Zone of Interest (-)

Alternates: Bradley Cooper/Maestro, Alexander Payne/The Holdovers and Celine Song/Past Lives.

BEST ACTRESS

1) Lily Gladstone/Killers of the Flower Moon (1)

2) Emma Stone/Poor Things (2)

3) Carey Mulligan/Maestro (3)

4) Sandra Huller/Anatomy of a Fall (4)

5) Margot Robbie/Barbie (-)

Alternates: Greta Lee/Past Lives, Annette Bening/Nyad and Fantasia Barrino/The Color Purple.

BEST ACTOR

1) Bradley Cooper/Maestro (1)

2) Paul Giamatti/The Holdovers (3)

3) Cillian Murphy/Oppenheimer (2)

4) Jeffrey Wright/American Fiction (5)

5) Leonardo DiCaprio/ Killers of the Flower Moon (-)

Alternates: Colman Domingo/Rustin, Andrew Scott/All of Us Strangers and Barry Keoghan/Saltburn.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1) Da'Vine Joy Randolph/The Holdovers (1)

2) Danielle Brooks/The Color Purple (2)

3) Emily Blunt/Oppenheimer (3)

4) Jodie Foster/Nyad (5)

5) Julianne Moore/May December (4)

Alternates: America Ferrera/Barbie, Rosamund Pike/Saltburn and Sandra Huller/The Zone of Interest.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Ryan Gosling/Barbie (2)

2) Robert Downey, Jr./Oppenheimer (1)

3) Mark Ruffalo/Poor Things (3)

4) Robert DeNiro/Killers of the Flower Moon (4)

5) Charles Melton/May December (5)

Alternates: Willem Dafoe/Poor Things, Dominic Sessa/The Holdovers, Sterling K. Brown/American Fiction.

From these six categories, here's how TFF films are predicted:

Poor Things with four nominations and one other possibility: Picture, Direction, Actress (Stone) and Supporting actor (Ruffalo), Willem Dafoe is the added possibility for Supporting Actor.

The Holdovers with three nominations and two other possibilities: Picture, Actor (Giamatti), Supporting Actress (Randolph).  The other two possibilities are Direction and Supporting Actor (Sessa).

The Zone of Interest with two nominations and an added possibility: Picture, Direction and a possible shot at Supporting Actress (Huller).

Anatomy of a Fall with two nominations: Picture and actress (Huller).

Nyad with one nomination and one other possibility.  The nomination for Supporting Actress (Foster) and the possibility for Lead Actress (Bening).

Saltburn with no nominations but possible in two categories: Actor (Keoghan) and Supporting Actress (Pike).

All of Us Strangers possible for Actor (Scott).

Rustin possible for Actor(Colman).

Thursday's categories to be updated will be Screenplays, International Film, Documentary Feature, Cinematography and Editing.

THE OSCAR SHORT LISTS AND TFF

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the Oscar Shortlists for 10 categories on Thursday.  Those 10 categories: Documentary Feature, Documentary Short, International Feature, Makeup and Hair Styling, Original Score, Original Song, Animated Short, Live Action Short, Sound and Visual Effects.  

Making the short list in these ten categories means that a film is eligible for nomination in them.

Here's where TFF films landed on the various lists:

Poor Things, The Zone of Interest and American Symphony each made it to three of the lists.

Poor Things: Score, Makeup/Hair and Visual Effects.

The Zone of Interest: International Feature, Score and Sound.

American Symphony: Documentary Feature, Score and Song.  

No other TFF films made multiple lists but 18 other TFF films were shortlisted in various categories.  Most impressive was in the International Feature category which had nine TFF films listed.  In addition to the above mentioned The Zone of Interest these films also made that shortlist:

The Monk and the Gun

The Promised Land

Fallen Leaves

The Taste of Things

The Teachers' Lounge

Godland (from TFF #49)

Perfect Days

Totem.

In addition to American Symphony three other TFF docs made that shortlist:

Beyond Utopia

Bobi Wine: Ghetto President (TFF #49)

Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy (TFF #49)

In addition to Poor Things and American Symphony, two TFF films are also on the shortlist for Best Score:

The Holdovers

Saltburn

Three TFF films made the Documentary Shortlist:

If Dreams Were Lightning

The Last Repair Shop

Last Song from Kabul

And finally 27 made it to the Animated Short List and Strange Way of Life made it onto the Live Action Short list.

In all 27 TFF films are still alive in these 10 categories.  Nominations are announced on Jan. 23rd.

Here's the link to the complete announcement from The Academy.

SURPRISE: BENING TRIBUTE TO HAPPEN AFTER ALL

In a surprise move, Telluride's Silver Medallion that was to have been presented last Labor Day weekend to actress Annette Bening will, instead be presented at a special event in Los Angeles on January 6th.

Bening, like most actors, was unable to attend TFF #50 due to the SAG/Aftra Strike that was ongoing at the time of the fest.

The Hollywood Reporter, among other outlets, reports that the event will include a career retrospective complete with clips from Bening's films as well as moderation from her Nyad co-star Jodie Foster.  Meg Ryan will present the Silver Medallion.

The complete THR story is linked here.

 

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Da'Vine Joy Randolph for The Holdovers from desertsun.com

Jacob Elordi for Saltburn from Entertainment Weekly

Jamie Bell for All of Us Strangers from The Playlist

Lenny Kravitz for Rustin from Vanity Fair

Christian Friedel for The Zone of Interest from The Film Stage

Andrew Haigh for All of Us Strangers from Time

Tran Ahn Hung for The Taste of Things from Ioncinema

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

X (TWITTER): @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

BLUE SKY: https://bsky.app/profile/gort2.bsky.social

MTFB's Facebook Page

MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

MTFB Update: Screenplays Plus Animated Feature and Production Design / New York Film Critics Online and TFF / Interviews and Profiles: Stone, Bening, Scott and More

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: SCREENPLAYS PLUS ANIMATED FEATURE AND PRODUCTION DESIGN

Here's your Oscar Update for today's post.  This is a check on predicted nominees for the Screenplay categories.  They were last posted here on Dec. 4th.  Previous positions on the MTFB Oscar Update Chart are listed to the right in parentheses.  I have also included my first predictions for Best Animated Feature and Production Design.  As always TFF films are Bold.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1) The Holdovers (1)

2) Barbie (2)

3) Past Lives (3)

4) Anatomy of a Fall (5)

5) Maestro (4)

Alternates: May December, Air, Saltburn.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1) Oppenheimer (1)

2) American Fiction (3)

3) Poor Things (2)

3) American Fiction (3)

4) Killers of the Flower Moon (4)

5) All of Us Strangers (5)

Alternates: The Zone of Interest, Are You There God, It's Me Margaret and The Color Purple. 

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

1) Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse

2) The Boy and the Heron

3) Elemental

4) Nimona

5) Wish

Alternates: Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem and Super Mario Bros. Movie.

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

1) Poor Things

2) Barbie

3) Oppenheimer

4) Killers of the Flower Moon

5) Maestro

Alternates: Asteroid City, The Color Purple and Napoleon

NEW YORK FILM CRTICS ONLINE AND TFF

The NYFCO announced their choices for the best film work of 2023 on Friday.  TFF was fairly well represented with three films making their Top Ten of the Year list: Anatomy of a Fall, The Holdovers and Poor Things.  Those three films also earned some individual mention.

Anatomy of a Fall was named thrice for Best International Film, Best Actress for Sandra Huller and Best Screenplay.  The Holdover's Da'Vine Joy Randolph was named Best Supporting Actress while Poor Things' Mark Ruffalo earned honors as Best Supporting Actor.

Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer was named in four categories, the most of any film> Direction, Actor, Ensemble and Cinematography but not Best Picture which NYFCO awarded to Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon.

The complete rundown of the NYFCO awards can be found here.

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos for Poor Things from Awards Radar.

Annette Bening on Nyad from Deadline.com.

Juliette Binoche for The Taste of Things from Next Best Picture.

Da'Vine Joy Randolph for The Holdovers from The Playlist.

Andrew Scott for All of Us Strangers from Indiewire.

Christian Friedel for The Zone of Interest from Indiewire.

Lenny Kravitz for Rustin from Awards Daily.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

X (TWITTER): @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

BLUE SKY: https://bsky.app/profile/gort2.bsky.social

MTFB's Facebook Page

MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

MTFB Oscar Update: Supporting Acting, Original Score and Song / Critics' Choice Nominees Announced / Indiewire's Poll of Critics Select the 50 Best Films of 2023 / The Playlist's Top 21 Films From 2023 and TFF /A Conversation with The Holdovers / Three TFF Docs PGA Nominated / Interviews and Profiles

 MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: SUPPORTING ACTING, ORIGINAL SCORE AND SONG

Here's your Oscar Update for today's post.  This is a check on predicted nominees for the Supporting Acting categories.  They were last posted here on Nov. 30th.  Previous positions on the MTFB Oscar Update is listed to the right in parentheses.  Additionally, I have included my first predicitons in the categories of Best Original Song and Best Score.  As always TFF films are Bold.

 BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1) Da'Vine Joy Randoplh/The Holdovers (1)

2) Danielle Brooks/The Color Purple (3)

3) Emily Blunt/Oppenheimer (2)

4) Julianne Moore/May December (5)

5) Jodie Foster/Nyad (4)

Alternates:Taraji P. Henson/The Color Purple, Rosamund Pike/Saltburn and America Ferrera/Barbie

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Robert Downey, Jr./Oppenheimer (2)

2) Ryan Gosling/Barbie (1)

3) Mark Ruffalo/Poor Things (3)

4) Robert DeNiro/Killers of the Flower Moon (4)

5) Charles Melton/May December (5)

Alternates: Willem DaFoe/Poor Things, Dominic Sessa/The Holdovers, Sterling K. Brown/American Fiction.

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

1) What Was I Made For/Barbie

2) I'm Just Ken/Barbie

3) This Wish/Wish

4) Road to Freedom/Rustin

5) The Fire Inside/Flamin' Hot

Alternates: It Never Went Away/American Symphony, Dance the Night Away/Barbie and For the First Time/The Little Mermaid.

BEST SCORE

1) Oppenheimer

2) Killers of the Flower Moon

3) Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse

4) The Zone of Interest

5) Poor Things

Alternates: Society of  the Snow, Elemental and Asteroid City.

CRITICS' CHOICE NOMINEES ANNOUNCED

The Critics' Choice Awards nominees for film were announced yesterday.  Poor Things was the leader among TFF films with 13 nominations tying Oppenheimer for the second most nominations.  Barbie was the leader overall with a staggering 18 nominations.  The Holdovers showed very strong with eight nominations.  In all TFF films earned 34 nominations for 10 films.

Here's The TFF breakdown:

Poor Things (13): Best Picture, Best Comedy Film, Direction, Actress (Stone), Supporting Actor (Ruffalo), Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Production Design, Costumes, Makeup/Hair, Score and Visual Effects.

The Holdovers (8): Best Picture, Best Comedy, Direction, Actor (Giamatti), Supporting Actress (Randolph), Young Actor (Sessa), Ensemble, Original Screenplay.

Anatomy of a Fall (3): Best Foreign Language Film, Actress (Huller), Young Actor (Graner).

Saltburn (3): Best Picture, Cinematography, Production Design.

Rustin (2): Best Actor (Domingo), Song.

Nyad (1): Best Supporting Actress (Foster).

All of Us Strangers (1): Best Adapted Screenplay.

Perfect Days (1): Best Foreign Language Film.

The Taste of Things (1): Best Foreign Language Film.

The Zone of Interest (1): Best Foreign Language Film.

Here's the complete rundown of nominees from Variety.

INDIEWIRE'S POLL OF CRITICS SELECT THE 50 BEST FILMS OF 2023

On Wednesday Indiewire posted their poll of 158 critics and their choices for the 50 Best Films of 2023.  11 TFF films landed on the list.  They were:

47) La Chimera

45) Saltburn

25) Godland

24) The Taste of Things

22) Perfect Days

13) All of Us Strangers

11) Fallen Leaves

9) The Holdovers

7) Anatomy of a Fall

6) The Zone of Interest

3) Poor Things

Oppenheimer was at #2 and the topper was Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon.

The complete list is here.

THE PLAYLIST'S TOP 21 FILMS FOR 2023 AND TFF

Meanwhile, The Playlist posted their top 21 films for the year on Tuesday.  Sven TFF films made that list:

17) The Taste of Things

13) The Holdovers

11) Perfect Days

9) All of Us Strangers

5) Anatomy of a fall

2) Poor Things

1) The Zone of Interest

Honorable Mentions included: El Conde and The Royal Hotel.

The complete list is here.

A CONVERSATION WITH THE HOLDOVERS

MTFB acquaintance Tomris Lafflly lead a post-screening conversation in New York on Monday night for The Holdovers.  In attendance for the Q+A were Alexander Payne, Paul Giamatti, Da'Vine Joy Randolph and Dominic Sessa.  Here's that via YouTube and Next Best Picture:

THREE TFF DOCS PGA NOMINATED

Three documentaries from TFF #50 and TFF #49 made the list of non-fiction films nominated by the Producers Guild of America as the outstanding doc for 2023.

Matthew Heineman's American Symphony and Madeleine Gavin's Beyond Utopia from TFF #50 were among the six docs announced by the PGA on Tuesday.  Also nominated from TFF #49 was Anton Corbijn's Squaring the Circle: The Story of Hipgnosis.  

The PGA documentary winner will be announced on Feb. 25th.

The complete press release from the PGA is linked here.

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Musician Lenny Kravitz on Rustin from The Hollywood Reporter.

Screenwriter Julian Breece on Rustin from The Hollywood Reporter.

Jon Batiste for American Symphony from Gold Derby.

Willem Dafoe on Poor Things from the Talk Easy Podcast.

Sandra Huller for The Zone of Interest and Anatomy of a Fall from The Los Angeles Times.

Sandra Huller and Christian Friedel for The Zone of Interest from Awards Radar.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

X (TWITTER): @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

BLUE SKY: https://bsky.app/profile/gort2.bsky.social

MTFB's Facebook Page

MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays