Oscar Update: Supporting Acting / DOC NYC Announces Short Lists / Totem Trailer / Interviews and Profiles: Domingo, Payne, Dafoe and More

OSCAR UPDATE: SUPPORTING ACTING

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 Oct. 30th.  Previous positions on the MTFB Oscar Update is listed to the right in parentheses.  As always TFF films are Bold.

 BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

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

2) Emily Blunt/Oppenheimer (2)

3) Jodie Foster/Nyad (3)

4) Danielle Brooks/The Color Purple (4)

5) Julianne Moore/May December (5)

Alternates: Taraji P. Henson/The Color Purple, Penelope Cruz/Ferrari and America Ferrera/Barbie

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

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

2) Ryan Gosling/Barbie (2)

3) Robert DeNiro/Killers of the Flower Moon (3)

4) Mark Ruffalo/Poor Things (4)

5) Willem Dafoe/Poor Things (5)

Alternates: Charles Melton/May December, Dominic Sessa/The Holdovers, Sterling K. Brown/American Fiction.

I'll have updated Screenplay predictions in Monday's post.

DOC NYC ANNOUNCES SHORT LISTS

DOC NYC has announced three lists of documentaries for inclusion in its fest.  The choices are often seen as being predictive of eventual Oscar nominations.  The fest concludes today. These are the TFF films included on the various lists:

Documentary Feature:

American Symphony

Bobi Wine: The People's President

The Pigeon Tunnel

Shorts:

The Last Repair Shop

Winner's Circle:

Beyond Utopia

The complete lists are linked here from Variety.

TOTEM TRAILER

From Janus Films we saw the release this week of the official U.S. trailer for Totem, Mexico's selection for consideration for the International Film Oscar.  Here it is from YouTube:

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES:

Colman Domingo for Rustin from Awards Radar.

George C. Wolfe for Rustin from The Hollywood reporter's Awards Chatter Podcast.

Willem Dafoe for Poor Things from The Hollywood Reporter.

Alexander Payne for The Holdovers from Filmmakermagazine.com.

Errol Morris for The Pigeon Tunnel from Pop Culture Confidential.

Christos Nikou for Fingernails from The Academy Conversations via YouTube.

Cinematographer Lukasz Zal for The Zone of Interest from The Hollywood Reporter.

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American Symphony Leads Critics' Choice Doc Nominations / The Bikeriders Moves On /Trailer for The Zone of Interest / Featurette for Nyad / Trailer for The Last Repair Shop / Interviews: Payne, Huller, Morris, Triet and Baker / Last Note: KOTFM

AMERICAN SYMPHONY LEADS THE CRITICS CHOICE DOC NOMINATIONS

The awards season has well and truly gotten out of the starting gate with the announcement earlier this week with The Critics Choice awards nominations being announced.  American Symphony which debuted at Telluride a few weeks back led the parade with six nominations including Best Doc Feature, Best Music Doc,  Best Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Editing and Best Score according Erik Anderson of Awards Watch.

Other films that screened at TFF #50 also earned mention among the nominees including:

Beyond Utopia: Best Doc Feature, Best Political Doc, Best Direction, Best Editing

The Mission: Best Doc Feature, Best Editing, Best Score

Occupied City: Best Historical Doc, Best Direction, Best Cinematography

Orlando: My Political Biography: Best First Doc Feature

Bobi Wine: The People's President (from TFF #49): Best First Doc Feature, Best Political Doc

The Last Repair Shop: Best Short Doc, Best Score

Anselm: Best Cinematography

The Pigeon Tunnel: Best Score

The Last Song from Kabul: Best Short Doc

The Critics Choice Documentary winners win be announced on Nov. 12th.

THE BIKERIDERS MOVES ON

The word came yesterday that Jeff Nichols' The Bikeriders has moved off of its previously announced release date.  Originally the film was supposed to have debuted on Dec. 1st.  Screen Daily, among others, reported the date change.  At this point no replacement date has been announced although I did see some mention in other reports that suggest that Disney still plans to release the film in time for awards season.

TRAILER FOR GLAZER'S ZONE OF INTEREST

A24 has released a first teaser/trailer for Jonathan Glazer's brilliant The Zone of Interest.  The film is set for a limited release on Dec. 15th.  Of all of the films I saw at TFF #50, Zone is the one that has stuck with me most strongly.  Here's the teaser from YouTube:

FEATURETTE FOR NYAD

Netflix has released a "behind the scenes" featurette (3:32) for Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi's Nyad.  The film is set for a limited release on Nov. 3rd.  Here's the featurette from YouTube:

TRAILER FOR THE LAST REPAIR SHOP

INTERVIEWS: PAYNE, HULLER, MORRIS, TRIET AND BAKER

Alexander Payne from Indiewire.

Alexander Payne from Gold Derby.

Annie Baker from InterviewMagazine.com

Sandra Huller from The A.Frame

Errol Morris from Pop Culture Confidential

Justine Triet from the Canadian Broadcast Company

LAST NOTE: KOTFM

If you go see Killers of the Flower Moon this weekend, like I'll be doing, look for me.  If I made it into the film as a background player it's likely in one of two scenes.  The arrests of DeNiro and DiCaprio's characters.  Those were shot separately.  The best chance you'll have to actually see me is in the DiCaprio scene as I am in a crowd clamoring as DiCaprio is put in a car and driven away.

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Oscar Update: Best Picture and Direction / New Fingernails Clip / Interviews: The Holdovers' Payne, The Pigeon Tunnel's Errol Morris and Baltimore's Molloy and Lawlor

OSCAR UPDATE: BEST PICTURE AND DIRECTION

Here's MTFB's first Oscar Update since the original set of predictions three weeks ago.  Today I'm updating the Best Picture and Direction 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) Killers of the Flower Moon (2)

3) Poor Things (3)

4) Barbie (4)

5) The Holdovers (7)

6) Maestro (5)

7) Past Lives (8)

8) American Fiction (6)

9) The Color Purple (10)

10) The Zone of Interest (9)

Alternates: Anatomy of a Fall, Air, Saltburn and The Iron Claw.

BEST DIRECTION

1) Christopher Nolan/Oppenheimer (1)

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

3) Yorgos Lanthimos/Poor Things (3)

4) Greta Gerwig/Barbie (4)

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

Alternates: Alexander Payne/The Holdovers, Bradley Cooper/Maestro, Celine Song/Past Lives and Justine Triet/Anatomy of a Fall. 

NEW FINGERNAILS CLIP

Apple TV released a new clip from Christos Nikou's Fingernails this past week.  The film will be in limited release on Oct. 27th and is expected to stream on Apple TV on Nov. 3rd. Here's the clip via YouTube:

INTERVIEWS: THE HOLDOVERS' PAYNE, THE PIGEON TUNNEL'S ERROL MORRIS AND BALTIMORE'S MOLLOY AND LAWLOR

From 1011Now, Alexander Payne talks the creation of The Holdovers.  The film is set for limited release on Oct. 27th and wide release on Nov. 10th.

From Pop Culture Confidential, Errol Morris talks about his John Le Carre documentary The Pigeon Tunnel.

Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor's Baltimore was a TFF #50 selection.  It was also a choice of the BFI London Film Festival which just concluded.  The couple were interviewed by Loud and Clear Reviews for its London screening and you can find that here.

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Hear the Jazz Go Down / Late Breaking: Variety Reports on Cannes / Poland Has Some Thoughts / New Doc from Morris

HEAR THE JAZZ GO DOWN

With apologies to Dire Straits for lifting the lyrics from Sultans of Swing to title this item...

The Telluride Jazz Festival announced that they will postpone until 2021.  The Jazz Fest had been scheduled for Aug. 13-15 but will forgo 2020 altogether and opt to "wait until next year" according to a post on the Jazz fest's website.

The closing sentence reveals that the plan is to have the fest back on the same weekend in August of 2021.

The cancellation or postponement as the fest seems to prefer is worrisome from the Film Fest's perspective as Jazz takes place just a couple of weeks prior to Film. Comparing the two fests is not exact.  The Jazz Fest is centered during each day at Town Park and Elks Park and then there are "After Dark" performances in a variety of venues around town.  Nevertheless, despite some differences in terms of structure, the cancellation of the 2020 edition of Jazz Fest makes one take pause.

The announcement from Jazz Fest organizers is here.


LATE BREAKING: VARIETY REPORTS ON CANNES

Variety's Elsa Keslassy posted a story early this morning with a number of interesting reveals about the Cannes Film Festival.

- Cannes will announce their list of 50 or so titles that would have played there on June 3.
- Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch will be on that list along with ThomasVinterberg's Another Round, Francois Ozon's Summer '85, Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Memoria, Sofia Coppola's On the Rocks, Gia Coppola's Mainstream and Naomi Kawase's Come Morning.
- The French Dispatch is "likely" to world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.  The article suggests that Coppola might also go to TIFF.
- It appears that the notion of some co-operation between Cannes and Venice has disappeared.
- Venice appears to have landed Nanni Moretti's Tre Piani and Maiwenn's DNA meaning they won't be on the Cannes list next Wednesday.

If the claims are true, it implies that The French Dispatch and On the Rocks may be off the list for TFF #47.

The complete article is here with other info including other films expected to be announced for Cannes next week and a list of films that are said to be holding off for Cannes 2021.


LATE BREAKING: NO NETFLIX FOR FALL FESTS (added at 11:00am EDT on Thurs.5/28)

It is rare that I deviate from the publishing schedule for MTFB but this news justifies and additional post today.  Anne Thompson at Indiewire has reported that Netflix has determined that they will be sending no films to any of the major fall fests Telluride included.

That report came late yesterday.

The news means that a number of high profile projects are no longer in play for TFF as well Venice, Toronto and New York.

Titles from Netflix that have been a part of the conversation:  Mank, Hillbilly Elegy, I'm Thinking of Ending Things, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and White Tiger.

The news could impact Telluride considerably as Netflix has been a major presence at the fest over the last few years:

2015: Beasts of No Nation, Winer on Fire
2016: The Ivory Game, Into the Inferno
2017: First They Killed My Father, Wormwood
2018: Roma, Dovlatov, Girl, Reversing Roe, The Other Side of the Wind, They'll Love Me When I'm Dead
2019: Marriage Story, The Two Popes, Tell Me Who I Am, Inside Bill's Brain

Thompson's claim is pretty definitive as she writes:

"As awards groups adjust to the evolving post-pandemic reality, so will the studios. And the first up is everyone’s favorite Oscar insurgent, Netflix: While it will provide sponsorship for some major festivals in 2020, it’s not planning to send any of their films or talent to attend them."

Thompson's complete article is linked here.

POLAND HAS SOME THOUGHTS

Move City News' David Poland posted a very extensive article on Monday that takes a look and offers thoughts and prescriptions to Fall Fail Fests including Telluride.  It's interesting.

Poland talks about what he perceives as the conditions that would need to be met for both Telluride and Toronto to occur in something of a normal state.  He also addresses the notion of what virtual versions of both fests might or could look like.  He also talks about potential piracy problems and ultimately suggests that he thinks the window for both fests to make a definitive decision is about a month.

We'll see.

The complete Poland post is linked here.

NEW DOC FROM MORRIS

Errol Morris is working on a new documentary focused on 60's counter-culture figure Timothy Leary.  The film's working title "A Film by Errol Morris".  Indiewire reports that the film is inspired by the memoir of Laery companion Joanna Harcourt-Smith.

The film is being produced by and for Showtime.  No release date is included in the article but there is a teaser which says the film is "coming soon".  From YouTube:

In normal times I'd be eyeballing this as a possible/probable addition to the TFF lineup but the lack of a release date and the vagaries of Covid-19 changes that calculus.  I think it's still possible that it could play but that feeling isn't nearly as strong as I would customarily have for an Errol Morris project.

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Netflix Will Go Theatrical with the Wind / Karlovy Vary Lineup Announced / Documentary Corner

Welcome to the last day of May for 2018...


NETFLIX WILL GO THEATRICAL WITH THE WIND

Indiewire reported yesterday that Orson Welles' final film, The Other Side of the Wind, which has been completed after decades of effort, will get a theatrical release in the fall.

Indiewire's Jenna Marotta included Twitter traffic from producer Frank Marshall's account that flat said that a fall theatrical release strategy.  Indiewire also credits Wellesnet with having originated the story.

Interestingly, the original Welles net post notes that Marshall was asked directly (by Hollywood Elsewhere's Jeff Wells) if the screening(s) would occur before TFF #45 and they report that Marshall ignored the question.  Here's the Twitter screenshot:

Additionally, both the Wellesnet and Indiewire posts report that the release strategy is still in the planning stages.

The Wellesnet post is here.

The Indiewire story is here.



KARLOVY VARY LINEUP ANNOUNCED

The Czech based Karlovy Vary Film Festival announced their lineup this week.  That announcement is of some note to Telluride obsessives as there are usually some films that play there that also make the grade then for TFF.

Last year, for example, TFF #44 included Land of the Free, A Man of Integrity and The Other Side of Hope all of which played at the Czech festival before appearing at Telluride.

Over the years I have been attending T-ride (since 2006) several other films have followed this path including:

2016-The Eagle Huntress, Fire at Sea, Graduation, Toni Erdmann
2015-Ixcanul, Rams, 45 Years
2014-'71, Leviathan, Mommy, Wild Tales
2013-Gloria, The Lunchbox, Missing Picture, The Story of Children and Film
2012-Amour, Barbara, Paradise:Love, Piazza Fontana, What Is This Film Called Love?
2011-The Kid With a Bike, Le Havre, Pina, A Separation, Turin Horse
2010-Border, Cameraman: Jack Cardiff, The Illusionist, Le Quattro Volte, Of Gods and Men, Poetry
2009-Fish Tank, Gigante, Room and a Half, Samson + Delilah, The White Ribbon
2008-Gommorah, O'Horten, Tulpan, Waltz with Bashir
2007-4 Months 3 Weeks & Days, The Band's Visit, The Counterfeiters, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Jar City, Secret Sunshine
2006-12:08 East of Bucharest

So, as you can see, the average number of films that play both fests is four per year (with a statistically noticeable tie to films that have played Berlin or Cannes prior to their inclusion at Karlovy Vary.

With all that said, none of the announced films scream"This will play Telluride".  At a guess I might keep an eye on Ewa Bukowska's 53 Wars, Vladimir Bitokov's Deep Rivers and Giedre Beinoiriute's Breathing Into Marble.

Articles with the lineups included are here from Variety and The Playlist.


DOCUMENTARY CORNER

Errol Morris' Wormwood played TFF #44 and is available to stream on Netflix.  Indiewire put together an in depth look at the series from the Telluride regular earlier this week.

The lengthy article includes interview material with Morris.

You can read the piece from author Chris O'Falt here.

That's today's installment of MTFB.  More to come next week...


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BAFTA Nominees and Telluride / More Precursors Today / This Year's Oscar Poster / DGA Doc Noms Include Morris, Burns and Novick

It's Thursday.  It's January.  It's 2018.


BAFTA NOMINEES AND TELLURIDE

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts announced their nominees for excellence in 2017 earlier this week and TFF #44 films snagged 31 of them.  Big TFF #44 players were The Shape of Water with 12, which topped all films and Darkest Hour with nine.  The robust presence of Darkest Hour combined with Gary Oldman's Golden Globe win for Best Actor-Drama has given the Joe Wright film a boost at the opportune moment right in the middle of Oscar voting.

TFF #44 films and their nominations for BAFTA awards were:

The Shape of Water (12): Best Film, Direction, Original Screenplay, Sally Hawkins/Actress, Octavia Spencer/Supporting Actress, Original Music, Cinematography, Editing, Production Design, Sound, Visual Effects and Costumes.

Darkest Hour (9): Best Film, Best British Film, Gary Oldman/Actor, Kristen Scott Thomas/Supporting Actress. Original Music, Cinematography, Production Design, Makeup/Hair, Costumes.

Lady Bird (3): Original Screenplay, Saoirse Ronan/Actress, Laurie Metcalf/Supporting Actress.

Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool (3): Adapted Screenplay, Annette Bening/Actress, Jamie Bell/Actor

First They Killed My Father (1): Best Film not in the English Language

Loveless (1): Best Film not in the English Language

An Inconvenient Sequel (1):Documentary

Loving Vincent (1): Animated Film

The complete list of nominees is here from the official BAFTA website.


MORE PRECURSORS TODAY

We have a precursor double whammy today with the announcement of the five directors nominated for excellence by the Directors Guild of America (DGA).  I'm guessing: Del Toro, Nolan, Gerwig, McDonagh and Spielberg.  Peele is also a real possibility.

Meanwhile, The Critic's Choice Awards are announced tonight.  We'll find out which films and individuals the Broadcast Film Critics of America have determined are the best for 2017.  The Critics Choice Awards broadcast will be at 8:00pm ET on The CW Network.

Oscar voting comes to a conclusion tomorrow and the nominees will be revealed early in the morning on Jan. 23rd.


THIS YEAR'S OSCAR POSTER

The poster for the 90th Academy Awards has been unleashed and features host Jimmy Kimmel and a reminder of the conclusion of last year's awards:

DGA DOCUMENTARY NOMINATIONS INCLUDE MORRIS, BURNS AND NOVICK

Although the Directors Guild names their nominees for feature films today, they have already named their five nominees for direction of feature length documentaries.  Among the nominees were two films that played at Telluride last Labor Day.

Errol Morris was nominated for Wormwood and Ken Burns and Lynn Novick were nominated for The Vietnam War.  Other directors were nominated for Icarus, City of Ghosts and Abacus: Small Enough to Jail.

Anne Thompson of Indiewire has the complete rundown here.



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

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Sasha Stone's Pre-Thanksgiving Oscar Picks / Studi Talks Hostiles / Wormwood: Academy Says It's Not Eligible / The Making of the Beast

Good Monday movie fans...


SASHA STONE'S PRE-THANKSGIVING OSCAR PICKS

Each Friday, Sasha Stone, founder of Awards Daily, updates her latest Oscar forecast.  As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday, I thought I'd take a quick peek at what she thinks are likely nominations regarding TFF #44 films.

Sasha is currently picking 11 major categories and she has both Darkest Hour and The Shape of Water with eight nominations from those categories:

The Shape of Water: Picture, Direction, Actress, Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay, Editing, Cinematography and Production Design.


Darkest Hour: Picture, Direction, Actor, Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay, Editing, Cinematography, Production Design.

Lady Bird: borderline Best Picture, Actress, Supporting Actress.

Wonderstruck: Adapted Screenplay

Stone's complete "Predictions Friday" column is here.


STUDI TALKS HOSTILES

Oklahoma native Native American actor Wes Studi spoke recently with Jazz Tangcay of Awards Daily about his experiences making Scott Cooper's western.

The film is set for release on Dec. 22nd and is drawing some serious discussion about Christian Bale's performance as a potential Best Actor nominee.

That interview is here.



WORMWOOD: ACADEMY SAYS IT'S NOT AN ELIGIBLE DOCUMENTARY

Errol Morris' Wormwood which was often a topic of conversation in lines at this year's TFF, will not be eligible for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar according to Indiewire's Anne Thompson.

It appears that Wormwood runs afoul of Academy rules that have been recently adopted to exclude the kind of episodic format that Wormwood is in.

Wormwood is set to bow on Netflix on Dec. 15th

Thompson's story is here.



THE MAKING OF THE BEAST

Recently The Shape of Water's writer/director Guillermo Del Toro shred extensive notes about the creation of the creature at the center of his love story that was brought to life by actor Doug Jones.

SlashFilm gathered all of that together and this past week put together a story that delineates that process.

The SlashFilm story is here.

The Shape of Water opens in the U.S. on Dec. 8th.


I'll have more on Thanksgiving morning including the latest Best Picture and Best Direction Oscar predictions from The Film Awards Clearinghouse.

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Gotham Awards Nominations Begin the Season / Ai Weiwei and Human Flow / New Poster for The Shape of Water / Hostiles and Wormwood Named to the AFI Fest

Good Monday to everyone...It's Oct. 23, 2017


GOTHAM AWARDS NOMINATIONS START THE SEASON

The Independent Film Project announced their lost of nominees for this year on Thursday.  Jordan Peele's Get Out led the way with four mentions for Best Picture, Direction, Actor and Screenplay.Actress.

TFF #44 film Lady Bird was next on the list with three nominations for Breakthrough Director, Screenplay and Actress for Saoirse Ronan.

Call Me By Your Name and The Florida Project also were nominated for three awards apiece.

The complete list of nominees is here at The Gotham Awards website.

I have also linked analysis from Indiewire's Anne Thompson as well as Ioncinema's Eric Lavallee.





NEW POSTER FOR THE SHAPE OF WATER

The Film Stage reported over the weekend that Guillermo Del Toro's The Shape of Water had released a new poster which you can see above.  The film is scheduled to open on Dec. 8th.



AI WEIWEI AND HUMAN FLOW

Human rights activist and film maker Ai Weiwei's Human Flow was featured at this year's Telluride Film Festival and opened this past weekend.  Indiewire's David Ehrlich interviewed Weiwei recently about the documentary which is headlined as the definitive film about the global refugee crisis.  That interview is here.



HOSTILES AND WORMWOOD NAMED TO THE AFI FEST

The American Film Institute announced their centerpiece galas and a tribute this week.  Scott Cooper's Hostiles was named as one of three centerpiece galas.  Hostiles was a part of the TFF #44 lineup and recently was acquired for distribution by Entertainment Studios.

The other galas are Call Me By Your Name and The Disaster Artist.

AFI also announced that there will be a tribute screening of Errol Morris' Wormwood which also played Telluride. 

The announcement from The American Film Institute can be found here.




That's a wrap for this Monday.  I'll have another update on Thursday.


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