TOM LUDDY 1943-2023
(photo via Indiewire)
As we found out on Valentine's Day, Telluride Film Festival co-founder Tom Luddy died on Feb. 13th in California. I posted the Fest's press release on Tuesday in a special MTFB post. You can see that here.
Luddy's passing was duly noted by many film industry outlets:
MTFB OSCAR UPDATE:SCREENPLAYS AND MORE
Here's the first update of my current predictions for what will win Oscars in the Screenplay categories as well as Score, Song, Cinematography and Editing. Previous rank for each film is in parentheses to the right and TFF films are in Bold.
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
1) Women Talking (1)
2) All Quiet on the Western Front (2)
3) Glass Onion (4)
4) Living (3)
5) Top Gun: Maverick (5)
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
1) The Banshees of Inisherin (2)
2) Everything Everywhere All at Once (1)
3) TAR (4)
4) The Fabelmans (3)
5) Triangle of Sadness (5)
SCORE
1) Babylon (1)
2) The Fabelmans (2)
3) All Quiet on the Western Front (3)
4) The Banshees of Inisherin (4)
5) Everything Everywhere All at Once (5)
SONG
1) Naatu Naatu/RRR (1)
2) Hold My Hand/Top Gun: Maverick (2)
3) Lift Me Up/Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (3)
4) This Is a Life/Everything Everywhere (4)
5) Applause/Tell It Like a Woman (5)
CINEMATOGRAPHY
1) All Quiet on the Western Front (2)
2) Elvis (1)
3) TAR (3)
4) Empire of Light (4)
5) Bardo (5)
EDITING
1) Top Gun: Maverick (1)
2) Everything Everywhere All at Once (2)
3) Elvis (3)
4) The Banshees of Inisherin (4)
5)TAR (5)
Comment:
In a couple of close races I have shuffled the top two. In Original Screenplay I have moved Banshees ahead of Everything Everywhere and in Cinematography I have moved All Quiet ahead of Elvis. In both instances the race is tight and fluid. I could change back tomorrow. As an extra side note, I could see TAR crashing the party in both of these categories as well.
I'll be updating predictions for Animated, International and Documentary features as well as Production Design, Costumes and Makeup/Hair in next Monday's post.
DETECTIVE WORK
Last year I was really a believer early on that Living would make the trip to Telluride despite having played at Sundance seven months earlier. Some of that was a hunch but some if it was also based on recent TFF history.
Prior to TFF #49, there had been two other recent instances where high profile awards contenders screened at Sundance originally and then moved to Telluride. In 2016 Casey Affleck's Oscar winning turn in Manchester by the Sea bowed at Sundance and then Affleck was a tribute recipient at TFF #43. Then in 2019 Adam Driver followed the same route with The Report at Sundance followed by a tribute and Telluride slot for the film plus Marriage Story.
In 2020, The Father was on the released list of films that would have screened at TFF #47 had it happened. Anthony Hopkins was said to have been a tribute recipient. Of course, Hopkins would win the Oscar for Best Actor.
In each of these cases the films also shared the distinction of being distributed by outfits that have had good ties to TFF. In the cases of Manchester and The Report it was Amazon Studios and for The Father and Living it was Sony Pictures Classics.
All of that is to get to this which is the late January news that SPC bought distribution rights to Sundance film A Little Prayer from writer/director Angus MacLachlan (Junebug and Abundant Acreage Available) . And what really got to me look at this was a post from Gold Derby this week mentioning 2024 Oscar buzz (yes, already) for David Strathairn's performance.
A little bell started dinging in my head. It fits the recent profile. So, maybe for TFF #50, A Little Prayer from SPC starring Strathairn and a possible tribute for the longtime actor. Don't be surprised if that is on the first "Ten Bets: for TFF #50 in June.
VISITATIONS
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com
