Dates Tell a Story / Cannes Posters for 2025

DATES TELL A STORY

Paul Mescal and Jesse Buckley in Chloe Zhao's Hamnet (via World of Reel)

A couple of films that I have been attention to had their release dates announced the past few days and each announcement tells us a least a little bit about possible Telluride ramifications.

Focus Features announced that Chloe Zhao's Hamnet (starring Paul Mescal and Jesse Buckley) will have a limited release on Nov. 27th followed by a nationwide expansion on Dec. 12th. That report is per Indiewire and is linked here.  Those dates keep open the chance that Zhao returns to Telluride.  It also allows the possibility of Venice, Toronto, New York and/or London.

Zhao's The Rider played T-ride in 2017.  Her Oscar winning Nomadland would have played the 47th TFF but that went away with Covid.  However, the fest was instrumental in arranging a Drive-In screening in Los Angeles.  So I can totally see Hamnet making an appearance at TFF #52.

Nomadland won three Oscars including Best Picture, Actress and Direction.

Meanwhile, Focus also announced that Ethan Coen's Honey Don't, which will world premiere at Cannes next month, will be released in the U.S. on August 22nd, thus taking it off the table for a spot at TFF#52.  I mentioned Honey Don't last week and indicated that it was an unlikely candidate for T-ride and this reporting from The Playlist validates that thinking.

CANNES POSTERS FOR 2025

I posted one of them in last Thursday's edition of MTFB.  The two posters celebrate Claude Lelouch's A Man and a Women.

Here they are:

The 78th Cannes Film Festival opens on May 13th.

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I'm Back / Trailers: Next Goal Wins, Strange Way of Life, Desperate Souls / Photos: Flower Moon, Poor Things, New Boy / News of Drive-Away Dolls

 I'M BACK

Well hello.  I've been away for awhile.  

Actually, the last three weeks I've been away has been the longest that NTFB has been dormant at any one time since I started writing the thing back in August of 2008.  What was up?  The wife and I went on a quick tour of  Europe.  But we're back now...as of Tuesday evening... and I'm here to crank MTFB up as we stare down the barrel of the Cannes Film Fest (starting in 11 days!)  We'll see what the results there, both critically and in terms of award winners, tell us about clues to films we could see in the San Juans on Labor day weekend.

TRAILERS

Over the past three weeks we have seen trailers released for two films that could show up on the TFF #50 playlist and one from TFF #49.  Looking ahead to the potential TFF #50 titles:

NEXT GOAL WINS

 

And STRANGE WAY OF LIFE from Pedro Almodovar (his short film that will be opening the Cannes fest in a few days):

And from TFF #49 the trailer for the documentary Desperate Souls: Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy:

PHOTOS

New stills have been released from three films that I have on my TFF #50 watch/wish list.  Take a look:

KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON (Scorsese)

POOR THINGS (Lanthimos)

THE NEW BOY (Thornton)

NEWS OF DRIVE-AWAY DOLLS

Ethan Coen (of Coen Brothers fame) has been quietly working on his first solo feature film, Drive-Away Dolls and now we know when it will be leased and some other interesting tidbits from a number of outlets.  The film has been set to release on Sept. 22nd which means it's possible for Telluride as well as Venice and Toronto. The 9/22 date means that it will not play NYFF as it doesn't open until Sept. 29th.  The film is distributed by focus Features.

The film stars Margaret Qualley, Geraldine Viswanathan, Matt Damon, Pedro Pascal, Colman Domingo and Bill Camp.

IMDb Pro describes it as follows:

"Jamie regrets his breakup with his girlfriend while Marian needs to relax. In search of a fresh start they embark on an unexpected road trip to Tallahassee, but things quickly go awry when they cross paths with a group of inept criminals."

Articles from Ioncinema and The Film Stage have speculated that TFF is a possible landing spot for the film.  Coen was part of a three-headed tribute along with his brother Joel and music man T. Bone Burnett at the 40th Telluride Film Festival in 2013.  It would be a nice return to TFF for its 50th fest this year.

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Let's Talk Big Picture: Part One / Napoleon?

LET'S TALK BIG PICTURE: PART ONE

Every year I have been writing this thing devoted to the Telluride Film Festival we reach a new starting point for serious speculation about what might play beginning in December. 

I currently have two big lists that I'm working from.  The first is from a file I constantly add to called "Future Telluride".  I work from a number of sources anything that seems to indicate a film project that might tempt programmers from The SHOW.  Guidelines for making the list include directors with a Telluride title on their credits, distributors with same and general intuition.

I clean up that list from time to time by culling film projects that debut without playing Telluride and those that do.  I still have a couple of potential projects in the list from as far back as 2014 (It's a Steve McQueen project that was announced in November of that year).

That's the Big Picture I'll be sharing today.

Big Picture Part Two will come on Monday.

So, here's what's been in the "Future Telluride" file of films that I have been keeping an eye on chronologically listed beginning with films listed first in 2018:

2018

The Zone of Interest/Glazer

Killers of the Flower Moon/Scorsese

2019

Occupied City/McQueen

Flint Strong/Morrison

Next Goal Wins/Waititi

Maestro/Cooper

The Way of the Wind or The Last Planet/Malick

2020

Nightbitch

2021

The Killer/Fincher

Tuesday/Oniunas-Pusic

Poor Things/Lanthimos

Foe/Davis

May/December/Haynes

Shirley/Ridley

2022

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar/Anderson

Nyad/Chin and Vasarhelyi

The New Boy/Thonton

Untitled Ethan Coen Film/Coen

The Royal Hotel/Green

Mother's Instinct/Delhomme

The Book of Solutions/Gondry

The Bastard/Arcel

Blitz/McQueen

Fallen Leaves/Kaurismaki

Strangers/Haigh

Strange Way of Life/Almodovar

The Bikeriders/Nichols

The Holdovers/Payne

The End We Start From/Belo

AND/Lanthimos

Freud's Last Session/Brown

Challengers/Guadagnino

Monster/Kore-eda

2023

The American Buffalo/Burns

The Miracle Club/O'Sullivan

There you have 34 potential TFF #50 selections.

Monday's list has nearly 60 possible titles.  Many of the above are on that list as well.

NAPOLEON?

Still from Napoleon via Apple

Ridley Scott's Napoleon has a release date.  Apple announced this week that the film will be released theatrically on Nov. 22nd.  That puts it in position to play Telluride, Venice, Toronto, New York and/or London in any combination.  Or other fests as well.

I think its chances for Telluride, at least at the moment, are smallish.  over the years there have been a number of Scott films that I thought had some potential to play Telluride including: The Counselor, The Martian, All the Money in the World and The Last Duel.  Of course, none of those happened.

But...you never know...

Here's Variety on the announced release date.

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Checking Cannes / Ethan Coen and Jerry Lee

 CHECKING CANNES

I'm continuing to monitor the critical reactions to films unspooling at the 75th Cannes Film Festival which hits its half way point today.  The fest is set to end on Saturday.

Looking at the combination of critical responses that is curated by Reini Urban here are some of the films that I have on my TFF #49 radar and their current combined rating (on a 10 point scale) as well as their position on the overall Cannes chart which includes virtually every film that is screening within any part of the festival:

10) Decision to Leave (Park Chan-wook) 9.08

14) Close (Lukas Dhont) 8.40

24) Holy Spider (Ali Abbasi) 7.91

34) Final Cut (Michel Hazanavicius)

42) One Fine Morning (Mia Hansen-Love) 7.17

52) Armageddon Time (James Gray) 6.94

55) All the People I'll Never Be (David Chou) 6.84

59) Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt) 6.75

68) R.M.N. (Cristian Mungiu) 6.66

Still waiting for enough critical responses to evaluate The Dardennes' Tori and Lokita and Hirokazu Kore-eda's Broker.

For a closer look at individual responses to the Palme d'Or competitors I have linked the charts for that from:

Screen Daily

Ioncinema

The Palme d'Or winner and Telluride cross over in recent years:

2019: Parasite

2018: Shoplifters

2013: Blue Is the Warmest Colour

2012: Amour

2009: The White Ribbon

2007: 4 Months, 3 Weeks, Two Days

2005: L'Enfant

2003: Elephant

ETHAN COEN AND JERRY LEE

Ethan Coen's documentary Jerry Lee Lewis: Trouble in Mind dropped yesterday at Cannes with a second screening scheduled for today.  The film is being produced (in part) and distributed by A24.  That and the fact that Coen and his co-producer T-Bone Burnett were co-recipients of a TFF Tribute for TFF #40-2013) gives a glimmer of hope that the doc could be a selection for TFF #49.

Coen was interviewed recently by Deadline's Mike Fleming, Jr. about the project.  That is linked here.

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Coming Attractions: Farhadi and Haneke / A Look at The Coen Brothers / Bill Plympton Talks Animation

Good Monday everyone from the Big Apple.  The adventure comes to a close tomorrow as we head back to the real world.  It has been a great and wondrous trip to NYC with many, many memories. I'll be sad to climb onto the plane tomorrow afternoon but also ready to get back home.  Between Art Show and NYC, it's been awhile since I've been on the homestead.


Today on MTFB; Coming Attractions-two films that are announced and likely to be made that stand a better than even chance at a future Telluride play as well as a look at some people who have recently been a part of the scene at various Telluride Film Fests.  First, a new mini-documentary of 2013 TFF tribute recipients Joel and Ethan Coen and then an interview with frequent TFF participant, the wonderful animator, Bill Plympton.

COMING ATTRACTIONS

Asghar Farhadi (via Indiewire) and Michael Haneke (via Salon.com)

In the post-Cannes afterglow, a couple of projects from auteurs who are frequent players at both Cannes and Telluride were reported recently as having forward momentum.  I'll be keeping an eye on both projects going forward as they stand very good chances at playing Cannes and T-ride.

Asghar Farhadi, fresh off of seeing his The Salesman win both a screen writing and best actor award at Cannes (which underscored that film's presence in the TFF #43 lineup conversation) is headed to Spain to shoot his next film which will probably star Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem.  Yes, it almost screams Telluride.

Check the report from Variety here:

http://variety.com/2016/film/news/penelope-cruz-javier-bardem-asghar-farhadi-movie-1201782734/


And another Cannes/Telluride regular Michael Haneke's Happy End looks posed to start filming per Isabelle Huppert.  The Guardian talked to her recently and, among many topics, talks about the new film:

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/may/22/isabelle-huppert-woody-allen-noah-baumbach-interview-phaedra-elle

A LOOK AT THE COEN BROTHERS

The Brothers Coen at TFF in 2013

This appeared from The Film Stage over the weekend.  It's from Viceland, a 43 min. retrospective about the Brothers Coen including interviews with T-ride Tributee George Clooney and Jeff Bridges. Take a look at the post and the mini-doc here:

https://thefilmstage.com/news/watch-the-coens-closest-collaborators-walk-through-their-career-in-new-documentary/


BILL PLYMPTON TALKS ANIMATION

Bill Plympton (The Huffington Post)

Additionally, Indiewire recently talked to master animator/director and sometime TFF participant Bill Plympton here:


http://www.indiewire.com/2016/06/bill-plympton-pixar-anomalisa-hilters-folly-1201684474/


That's a wrap for Monday.

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via Twitter @Gort2 

Here Comes Da Judge(s)/Cannes Announces Director's Fortnight Films/News About Caesar/Do You Remember This Project?

Good Thursday Everyone.  Welcome to the Monkey House...

HERE COME DA JUDGE(S)

The Cannes poobahs had a couple of major announcements in the early part of the week, one of which was the announcement of the members of the Palme d"Or jury.  We already knew that Joel and Ethan Coen (TFF #40 co-tributees with T-Bone Burnett) had been named as co-presidents of the jury.  Thierry Fremaux and company announced that they would be joined by a number of well known names including Oscar nominated actor Jake Gyllenhaal, director Guillermo Del Toro, actress Sienna Miller and director Xavier Dolan among others.  I have linked copious reporting and analysis on the jury selection here:

http://www.awardsdaily.com/blog/2015/04/gyllenhaal-miller-del-toro-join-coen-jury-for-cannes-film-fest/

http://variety.com/2015/film/news/jake-gyllenhaal-guillermo-del-toro-among-cannes-film-festival-jurors-1201476619/

http://www.indiewire.com/article/cannes-2015-jake-gyllenhaal-guillermo-del-toro-and-more-selected-for-competition-jury-20150421

http://www.hollywoodnews.com/2015/04/21/the-jury-of-the-68th-festival-de-cannes/


CANNES ANNOUNCES DIRECTOR'S FORTNIGHT FILMS

The announcement of the Director's Fortnight section of films for Cannes came on Tuesday.  The overlap between the Director's Fortnight section and films that play at Telluride is small/tenuous, there have been a couple of films in recent years that have played the Cannes segment and then played on Labor Day in the San Juans.  Specifically, "Jodorowsky's Dune" in 2013 and "No" in 2012.  And there's a title or two that I could see popping up in T-ride among the films that were announced earlier this week.  For example:  Miguel Gomes' "Arabian Nights" and Arnaud Desplechin's "My Golden Years".


Here's the breakdown of the Director's Fortnight films from Ioncinema and Variety:

http://www.ioncinema.com/news/film-festivals/2015-directors-fortnight-saulniers-green-room-bidegains-les-cowboys-among-dope-selections

http://variety.com/2015/film/festivals/cannes-directors-fortnight-lineup-unveiled-1201476479/


NEWS ABOUT CAESAR

And since we've already mentioned the Coen Brothers above, lets note that we found out some more details about their upcoming (and almost certainly NOT Telluride abound) film "Hail Caesar via frequent Coens collaborators Carter Burwell and Skip Lievsay in The Hollywood Reporter.  The most important of which is that it may not be as comic as we have been led to believe up to this point.  "Hail Caesar" has been frequently mentioned as part three of the Coens purported "Numbskill Trilogy" featuring George Clooney (the preceding films being "O Brother Were Art Thou?" and "Intolerable Cruelty").  The complete THR post is here:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/coen-brothers-hail-caesar-new-790580


DO YOU REMEMBER THIS PROJECT?

I wrote about this months and months ago...a film version that examines the "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs that took place in the '70s'.  Now comes news that a cast has been brought together and it's very cool.  The Wrap reports that Steve Carell and Emma Stone are set to play the two tennis stars under the direction of Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton ("Little Miss Sunshine).  The project is being developed by Fox Searchlight and produced by Danny Boyle.  Both of those factors suggest that the film might be a theoretical Telluride possibility in the next year or two.

The post from The Wrap is here:

http://www.thewrap.com/emma-stone-steve-carell-to-play-tennis-stars-billie-jean-king-bobby-riggs-in-battle-of-the-sexes/


More on Monday.  Have a great weekend and if you're at the Oklahoma City Festival of the Arts...come by and see me in Tent 12B...I'll be slinging some art!

The FAC #3 Part Two/Interviews: The Coens, Penn and Teller/The Past Trailer/Gravity's Companion

Good Thursday Everyone...

Here's the second part of the latest Film Awards Clearinghouse focusing on Supporting Acting and Screenplays.

I use the publicly posted predictions of these Oscar experts:

Sasha Stone/Awards Daily

Kris Tapley/HitFix-InContention

Anne Thompson/Thompson on Hollywood

Peter Knegt/IndieWire

Alex Carlson/Film Misery

Nathaniel Rogers/Film Experience

Scott Feinberg/The Hollywood Reporter

Clayton Davis/Awards Circuit

Brad Brevet/Rope of Silicon

The position on the last FAC is in parenthesis.  Telluride #40 films are Bold.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Michael Fassbender/12 Years (2)

2) Jared Leto/Dallas Buyers Club (1)

3) Tom Hanks/Saving Mr. Banks (3)

4) Barkhad Abdi/Capt. Phillips (5)

5) Daniel Bruhl/Rush (4)

6) James Gandolfini/Enough Said (6)

7) Bradley Cooper/American Hustle (7)

8) Jonah Hill/Wolf of Wall Street (NR)

9) John Goodman/Inside Llewyn Davis (10)

10) Jeremy Renner/American Hustle (8)

Drop Out: Matthew McConnaughey

Hot: Jonah Hill

Not: Renner

Comment:

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1) Lupita Nyong’o/12 Years (2)

2) Oprah Winfrey/The Butler (1)

3) June Squibb/Nebraska (3)

4) Julia Roberts/August: Osage County (4)

5) Jennifer Lawrence/American Hustle (5)

6) Margo Martindale/August: Osage County (8)

7) Octavia Spencer/Fruitvale Station (6)

8) Sally Hawkins/Blue Jasmine (7)

9) Carey Mulligan/Inside Llewyn Davis (9)

10) Sarah Paulson/12 Years (NR)

Drop Out: Amy Adams

Hot: Martindale

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1) 12 Years a Slave (1)

2) Captain Phillips (2)

3) Before Midnight (3)

4) August; Osage County (4)

5) Philomena (5)

6) The Wolf of Wall Street (6)

7) Blue is the Warmest Color (8)

8) Labor Day (7)

9) Short Term 12 (9)

10) The Book Thief (10)

No drop outs.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1) Blue Jasmine (3)

2) Inside Llewyn Davis (1)

3) Nebraska (2)

4) American Hustle (4)

5) Her (5)

6) Saving Mr. Banks (7)

7) Gravity (6)

8) Fruitvale Station (9)

9) The Butler (8)

10) Enough Said (NR)

Drop Out: Dallas Buyers Club

Hot: Blue Jasmine

Eight Telluride #40 films have a presence in this edition of the FAC led by "12 Years a Slave".

"12 Years": Six "Noms": Picture, Direction, Actor, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress and Adapted Screenplay.  Also a new "possible": Sarah Paulson for Best Supporting Actress.

"Nebraska": Four "Noms": Picture, Actor, Supporting Actress and Original Screenplay. "Possible" for Direction.

"Inside Llewyn Davis": Three "Noms": Picture, Direction and Adapted Screenplay.  "Possibles" for Actor, Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress.

"Gravity": Three "Noms": Picture, Direction and Actress and one "Possible" for Original Screenplay.

"All is Lost": Two "Noms": Picture and Actor.  One "Possible" for Direction.

"Blue is the Warmest Color" has two "Possibles": Actress and Original Screenplay.

"Labor Day" has two "Possibles": Actress and Adapted Screenplay.

"The Past" has one "Possible" for Actress.

Total for Telluride films in the Big Eight Categories: 18 "Nominations" and 12 "Possibles".  Three weeks ago those numbers were: 18 "Noms" and 10 "Possibles".

Among non-Telluride films, Paul Grengrass' "Captain Phillips" has five "Noms" and  David O. Russell's "American Hustle" has four "Noms" and four more "Possibles".  "august: Osage County" and "Saving Mr. Banks" also appear strong as they each would have three "Noms" and two other "Possibles".

The film with the most "Possibles" and no expected nominations is Ryan Coogler's "Fruitvale Station" with four "Possibles".

Next Monday, I'll take a look at how The FAC stacks up to The Gold Derby website and also "The Gurus of Gold" from Movie City News.

INTERVIEWS:

Kris Tapley of HitFix/InContention talks to Joel and Ethan Coen about "Inside Llewyn Davis"...The soundtrack is playing in stereo in my office as I type this.

http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/joel-and-ethan-coen-discuss-inside-llewyn-davis-long-time-collaborations-and-the-allure-of-new-york

Meanwhile, Beth Hanna of Thompson on Hollywood talks "Tim's Vermeer" with Teller...

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/teller-speaks-talking-wondrously-mind-boggling-art-doc-tims-vermeer


THE PAST TRAILER

Asghar Farhadi's "The Past" now has a U.S. trailer.  Rope of Silicon posted that here:

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/past-official-u-s-movie-trailer-berenice-bejo/

GRAVITY'S COMPANION

Alfonso Cuaron's son, Jonas, co-wrote the film with his father and also directed a short film that played at Telluride as well.  It is a companion piece to "Gravity".  If you haven't seen the film, you may want to wait until you catch it before taking a look at the short which you'll find in any of the following posts:

CriticWire:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/criticwire/gravitys-companion-short-aningaaq-finally-hits-the-web

The Playlist:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/watch-jonas-cuarons-7-minute-gravity-spin-off-short-aningaaq-in-full-20131120

The Hollywood Reporter:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/gravity-spinoff-watch-side-sandra-657919

Rope of Silicon:

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/watch-jonas-cuarons-gravity-companion-piece-short-film-aningaaq/


More on Monday...