New Toronto Titles Reveal Little / First They Killed Trailer / Early Oscar and TFF #44

It's Thursday, Aug. 4, 2017...TFF #44 begins four weeks from tomorrow!

NEW TORONTO TITLES REVEAL LITTLE

The Toronto International Film Fest announced its slate of Documentaries, Midnight Madness and Short Cuts Tuesday and none of those announcements added as single title to TFF #44.  They did, however, take a player off the TFF #44 table after we were under the impression that Frederick Wiseman's Ex Libris: The New York Public Library.  We had that impression due to this Ioncinema story:

But despite what seemed to be a claim that Ex Libris would do the same path that Human Flow is looking like it will do, the TIFF announcement lists Ex Libris as a North American Premiere.  Ex Libris is currently listed as opening in NYC on Sept. 13.

This likely means that the film isn't playing T-ride but there is still enough to be a bit tentative about making a definitive call.  The most probable explanation is that it will premiere at TIFF sometime before its NYC bow on Sept. 13.

In terms of other news from the TIFF reveal Tuesday was that every film announced was a World or North American Premiere except for one and that was a seven minute film from the Midnight Madness section named Great Choice which was listed as a Canadian Premiere.  Investigation revealed that the film bowed in February at the Borscht Film Fest in Miami.

JUST BREAKING: TIFF'S PLATFORM SELECTIONS

It might be noted that Moonlight played the Platform section last year and was the only Platform selection that was shared by both TFF and TIFF and this year that will NOT be replicated as no film in the section will play both fests.

The TIFF announcement lists all twelve films as either a World or North American Premiere which means that none of them will have played TFF the week before.

While we can infer no additions to the Telluride lineup, we can glean films that won't make the trip to the San Juans.

Among the films announced this morning that I thought had a shpt at T-ride:

The Death of Stalin

Brad's Status 

Sweet Country

I am particularly disappointed that The Death of Stalin won't be playing Telluride.  It was relatively high on my wish list.

FIRST THEY KILLED TRAILER

In all the hubbub the last week or so about the casting methods used or not used for Angelina Jolie's First They Killed My Father, which we believe will play TFF #44 owing to its listing for Toronto as a Canadian Premiere, came the release yesterday of the first trailer for the film:

(trailer via YouTube)

I have also linked coverage of the film and the trailer's release here from:

Variety

Indiewire


HOSTILES CONFIRMED

After playing this game for awhile, I can tell you none of this prediction stuff is ever 100% certain. That goes as well for trying to read the TIFF tea leaves.  I'm pretty sure about those claims but as you can see above in the case of Ex Libris, sometimes things are confused or mis-labeled or just wrong.

That's why I continue to look for information that validates what we think we know and I had a fine example of how that works since my last post on Tuesday.

Combing through social media on Tuesday night I came across this reference on Twitter:

That's Native American actor and activist Wes Studi (a fellow Oklahoman by the way).  So naturally, I followed up:

Looks good to me.  Hostiles will be making the trip along with Mr. Studi.




EARLY OSCAR AND TFF #44

The big Oscar prognosticators seem to be getting their ducks lined up prior to the start of the fall film fest Trifecta (and now after lineup announcements from TIFF and Venice).

Tuesday we included Sasha Stone's assessment of the Picture, Director and Lead Acting fields. Today, here is the link to her view of the screenplay races.

Stone mentions probable Telluride players The Shape of Water, Downsizing, Battle of the Sexes and Wonderstruck as screenplay possibilities.

Meanwhile, Clayton Davis and his crew at Awards Circuit are up with another edition of their podcast: Circuit Breaker that surveys the field as well as a number of other items including some talk about TFF #44 that might well feature a massive reference to a certain Telluride Film Fest blog.  That happens at the 18 minute mark.  Take a listen.


That's your Thursday.

A reminder, I will update this post today should we find out anything of interest regarding TFF #44 from Toronto and don't forget, tomorrow...a new Ten Bets list...

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

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Ten Bets #5 / Another Venice Doc Confirmed? / Wonder Wheel Rolls Off the T-ride List / Parsing the Announcements This Week...

Good Friday to you  It's been a busy week for tracking down Telluride films for 44th edition of The SHOW...



TEN BETS #5

Here's your weekly guess at films that will play Telluride this Labor Day weekend.  Last week's list looked like this:

1) Wonderstruck
2) Downsizing
3) Visages/Villages
4) Loveless
5) Battle of the Sexes
6) The Florida Project
7) You Were Never Really Here
8) A Fantastic Woman
9) The Other Side of Hope
10) The Current War


Other possibles: 120 BPM, The Shape of Water, The Rider, Loving Vincent, mother!, Happy End, Redoubtable, The Death of Stalin, Ken Burns Vietnam

With the Toronto and Venice information this week we think these films are probably playing TFF #44:

1) Wonderstruck
2) Downsizing
3) Battle of the Sexes
4) A Fantastic Woman
5) The Shape of Water
6) The Rider
7) Hostiles
8) Lady Bird
9) First They Killed My Father
10) Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool***

Additionally other detective work seems to be indicating Darkest Hour, Loving Vincent, Human Flow (see below) and Wormwood are likely for  Telluride.

Other films that could still play Telluride: Visages/Villages, The Other Side of Hope, Lean on Pete, Mektoub My Love Canto Uno, First Reformed, The Leisure Seeker, Ex Libris, Our Souls at Night, First Reformed, Sweet Country and La Camera Insabbiata, You Were Never Really Here, The Florida Project, Happy End, Loveless, Ken Burns' Vietnam and Mary Magdalene.

***Assuming I have this right on Film Stars, it would almost certainly play without star Annette Bening in attendance as she is presiding over Venice's Golden Lion jury.



ANOTHER VENICE DOC CONFIRMED?


In its coverage of the Venice announcement yesterday Ioncinema confirms that AiWeiwei's documentary,  Human Flow will play Telluride and seems to also indicate that Frederick Wiseman will also play T-ride with Ex Libris: The New York Public Library.

Here's a screenshot of the relevant section:

So add Ex Libris to our growing list of films we're relatively confident about making the journey to southwest Colorado.

The complete Ioncinema article is here.

WONDER WHEEL ROLLS OFF THE T-RIDE LIST

Earlier in the week I had a mild buzz of excitement as news was leaking that Woody Allen's Wonder Wheel would close the New York Film Fest.  The reason for the excitement: no news story about the selection was including the film's premiere status.  That led me to believe that there was the slimmest possibility of a play somewhere else.

Alas, not so much.  Official word came yesterday that the film would indeed close NYFF and that it would be the film's World Premiere.  So endeth the speculation.

The official announcement form NYFF is here.


PARSING THE ANNOUNCEMENTS THIS WEEK...

Variety's Kristopher Tapley wrote yesterday about this week's reveals in terms not only of what's going where but also in his capacity as chief awards guru for that publication.

Tapley also concludes, as I have here, that Battle of the Sexes, First They Killed My Father, Darkest Hour, Lady Bird and Hostiles will play (and first screen) at Telluride.

It's a good look at the general lay of the land as we come to the end of this crazy, crazy week.

Take a look at it here.


That's it for Friday.  Have a great weekend!

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

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