Obsessing about the Telluride Film Festival and the film awards season since 2008!
"The best blog out there for predicting what will be going to Telluride."-Matt Neglia, Next Best Picture
"The Nostradamus of Telluride"
-Tim Appelo, Movies for Grownups
Hard news over the weekend as cinephiles the world over learned of and mourned the passing of revered filmmaker Agnes Varda.
Varda was a giant of European cinema as one of the prominent voices that emerged with the French New Wave.
Varda was an Oscar nominee for Best Documentary for her 2017 collaboration with artist JR: Faces Places which played at TFF #43. Varda also was a recipient of an Honorary Oscar. She was among TFF's first tribute recipients being recognized at the 4th Telluride Film Festival. Here's a snap of the entry for her tribute from the official TFF #4 program:
Tributes and reminiscences poured in from the film community from around the world over the weekend and I have linked several of those below:
It wouldn't surprise me that Varda could have the TFF #46 program dedicated to her in five months much like Pierre Rissient last year. I had already thought that some version of her latest and last film, Varda by Agnes (listed by IMDb as a television series), which screened at the Berlin Fest in February, might show up as a part of the TFF #46 program and with her death, I suspect that becomes even more likely. That is unless the producers/distributors choose to release it in the U.S. before Labor Day weekend.
One other note...among my favorite things to stumble across as I was preparing this story was the IMDb entry for Varda's 1967 documentary short Uncle Yanco which featured none other than Tom Luddy. Yes. There's a picture and a credit and the description mentions that the two were friends. Here's the pictorial evidence:
GARRONE'S BIG WEEKEND
Word this weekend that Matteo Garrone's Dogman, which played TFF #45 fared very well at the David di Doantello Awards picking up nine trophies out of a total of 15 nominations including Best Picture, Direction and Screenplay. The David di Donatello Awards are described by Varitey as Italy's equivalent of the Oscars.
Meanwhile, almost simultaneously, we got our first glimpse of Garrone's next project...a live action version of Pinocchio starring Oscar winner Roberto Begnini.
Here's a pic of Begnini as Pinocchio's creator Geppeto:
Still via Greta De Lazzaris via The Hollywood Reporter
THR reports that Garrone plans to wrap principal photography by May... which could mean that with a quick turnaround...maybe people might see it as early as Labor Day...just saying...
Welcome to Michael's Telluride Film Blog and The Film Awards Clearinghouse (FAC).
THE FAC UPDATED PREDICTIONS FOR SUPPORTING AND SCREENPLAYS
Taking a look today at four categories to update them as we begin the new year. Also a mention that the Golden Globe Awards are less than a week away. They'll be announced on Sunday, Jan. 7th.
As always, the films/performers from TFF #44 films are indicated with Bold.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
The Supporting races were last predicted in this space on Dec. 4th. In that post the Supporting Actress race looked like this :
1) Alison Janney/I, Tonya 2) Laurie Metcalf/Lady Bird
3) Holly Hunter/The Big Sick 4) Octavia Spencer/The Shape of Water
5) Mary J. Blige/Mudbound
Others: Hong Chau/Downsizing, Leslie Manville/Phantom Thread, Melissa Leo/Novitiate
Comment: Blige has really seen a surge over the past couple of weeks. The top spot is still very tight but Metcalf seems to have the edge at the moment.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
From a month ago:
1) Willem Dafoe/The Florida Project
2) Sam Rockwell/Three Billboards
3) Armie Hammer/Call Me By Your Name
4) Michael Stuhlbarg/Call Me By Your Name
5) Mark Rylance/Dunkirk
Others: Richard Jenkins/The Shape of Water, Ben Mendelsohn/Darkest Hour, Ray Romano/The Big Sick
The updated predictions:
1) Willem Dafoe/The Florida Project
2) Sam Rockwell/Three Billboards 3) Richard Jenkins/The Shape of Water
4) Woody Harrelson/Three Billboards
5) Armie Hammer/Call Me By Your Name
Others: Michael Stuhlbarg/Call Me By Your Name, Christopher Plummer/All the Money in the World, Steve Carell/Battle of the Sexes
Comment: Nice surges for Jenkins and Harrelson. Dafoe looks like the solid favorite to win at this point.
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
The screenplay categories are being updated for the first time since Nov. 9th...
Here's what was out front nearly two months back:
1) Call Me By Your Name
2) Mudbound
3) Molly's Game
4) The Disaster Artist
5) Last Flag Flying
Others: Wonderstruck, Stronger, Wonder Woman
And today's update:
1) Call Me By Your Name
2) Mudbound
3) Molly's Game
4) The Disaster Artist
5) Wonder
Others: Victoria and Abdul, Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool, Wonderstruck
Comment: A very stable category for the last two months. The fifth spot is a toss up. The top four seem to be in good shape.
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
From Nov. 9th:
1) Three Billboards 2) The Shape of Water
3) Get Out 4) Lady Bird 5) Darkest Hour
Others: The Post. The Big Sick, I, Tonya
And the new FAC prediction says:
1) Three Billboards
2) Get Out
3) Lady Bird
4) The Post
5) The Shape of Water
Others: The Big Sick, Phantom Thread, I Tonya
Comment: Phantom Thread supplants Darkest Hour in the conversation for the last spot.
TELLURIDE TIME TUNNEL-RE-VISITING TFF #13
MTFB continues its months long review of the history of the Telluride Film Festival.
You may recall that I started this project back on April 13, 2017. The goal here is to provide a place on the interwebs where someone could get a relatively complete look at what played at each Telluride Film Fest (in as far as feature films are concerned) since its inception.
As I have written on a couple of occasions, the current official Telluride Film Festival website has links to the programs for fests from 2006 to last year's program. Prior to 2006, I am unaware of any other collection of data for TFF online. This is an attempt to provide that.
So, we pick up where we left off with a look at the films and personalities of TFF #13. The 13th Telluride Film Festival took place from Aug. 29-September 1, 1986.
Tributes: Alexander Mackendrick, Jiri Menzel and Isabelle Huppert.
Also of note, a retrospective of the films of Anthony Mann labeled Mann of the West that featured the one and only Jimmy Stewart in person.
SHOWS:
The Biscuit Eater
Blue Velvet
Cactus
Closely Watched Trains
The Decline of the American Empire
Devil in the Flesh
Document: Fanny and Alexander
Eat the Peach
Eraserhead
The Gay Desperado
The Interrogation
The Lacemaker
The Ladykillers
A Lonely Woman
Los Inundados
The Man form Laramie
Mother Teresa
My Little Village
No End
The River's Edge
The Sacrifice
Sacrificed Youth
Seize the Day
Smasher
The Sweet Smell of Success
Therese
Tire Die
Too Far to Go
We Are the Living
Winchester 73
The Witch
Working Girls
Guests:
Denys Arcand
Laura Dern
Crispin Glover
Agnieszka Holland
Chuck Jones
David Lynch
Kyle MacLachlan
Anne Meara
Jerry Stiller
James Stewart
Robin Williams
I'm trying to imagine a weekend where I might have seen James Stewart, Robin Williams and David Lynch around town and also have caught screenings of Blue Velvet, The River's Edge, Winchester 73 and The Sweet Smell of Success.
RT'S TOP 100 FILMS OF 2017
Rotten Tomatoes has released its list of the top 100 films rated on their site for 2017. The list includes a number of titles from both TFF #44 as well as TFF #43.
Those from TFF #44 making the grade are:
#91-The Other Side of Hope
#68-Human Flow
#67-Battle of the Sexes
#26-Faces Places
#20-The Shape of Water
#5-Lady Bird
Jordan Peele's Get Out is rated as the top film by RT for 2017.
TFF #43 films that made the RT Top 100 are:
#97-Maudie
#81-Frantz
#64-I Called Him Morgan
#61-The B-Side:Elsa Dorfman's Portrait Photography
#44-Graduation
#35-Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds
Welcome to the Monkey House as Kurt Vonnegut said...
END OF YEAR CRITICS LISTS
Both Indiewire and Metacritic this week have posted stories with accumulated data from multiple critics. Here's your review of where TFF #44 films ended up on those lists.
Beginning with Indiewire's poll of over 200 critics.
Best Film: #2-Lady Bird, #6-The Shape of Water (Jordan Peele's Get Out edged out Lady Bird for the top spot)
Director: #3-Greta Gerwig/Lady Bird
Best Actress: #1-Saoirse Ronan/Lady Bird, #4-Sally Hawkins/The Shape of Water
Best Actor: #5-Gary Oldman/Darkest Hour
Supporting Actress- #1-Laurie Metcalf/Lady Bird
Screenplay- #2-Lady Bird
Documentary- #1-Faces/Places
Foreign Language Film: #2 Faces/Places
Cinematography- #4 The Shape of Water
Animated Feature- #3 Loving Vincent
Best Films of 2018 That Have Already Been Seen: #2-The Rider, #3-First Reformed, #5-Lean on Pete
The complete story from Indie wire is here.
Metacritic posted two different stories. The first focused on collating end of the year critics groups accolades, the other collated critics year end top ten lists.
From the collation of critics awards highlighted TFF #44 films as follows:
Top Ten Films:
#2 The Shape of Water
#4 Lady Bird
Director: #1-Guillermo Del Toro/The Shape of Water, #3- Greta Gerwig-Lady Bird
Actor- #1 Gary Oldman/Darkest Hour
Actress- #2-Sally Hawkins/The Shape of Water, #3-Saoirse Ronan/Lady Bird
Supporting Actor- #3-Richard Jenkins/The Shape of Water
Supporting Actress- #1- Laurie Metcalf/Lady Bird
Screenplay- #2-Lady Bird, #7- The Shape of Water
Cinematography- #3-The Shape of Water
Film Editing- #3-The Shape of Water
Foreign Language Film- #3 First They Killed My Father
Documentary- #2- Faces/Places
Animated Feature- #2- Loving Vincent
Errol Morris spoke recently with Variety about his multi-part CIA docudrama Wormwood which bowed over Labor Day weekend at Telluride. Wormwood is now available for streaming on Netflix.
Was perusing Gary Meyer's Eat, Drink Films website over the weekend and discovered a fine wrap-up of this year's Telluride Film Festival from Risa Nye. I have linked it here.
Risa hits many of the highlights of the weekend and specifically talks Downsizing, Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool, Darkest Hour, Lean on Pete, Lady Bird, Jamaica Man, The Rider, Hostiles, Love Cecil, An Inconvenient Sequel, Wonderstruck, The Cotton Club Encore and Battle of the Sexes.
STONE'S TAKE ON THE OSCAR RACE
Awards Daily's Sasha Stone updates her Oscar prediction every Friday so I thought I'd take a look at last Friday's list and sort of get a feel for where this year's Telluride crop might be headed. I t should be noted that Stone doesn't list all 24 categories as yet but does mention 14 of them.
Currently she has Joe Wright's Darkest Hour and Guillermo Del Toro's The Shape of Water leading the way with 10 nominations each.
She has Darkest Hour with: Picture, Direction, Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Costumes and Makeup.
The Shape of Water would have these nominations: Picture, Direction, Actress, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor (Jenkins), Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Costumes and Makeup.
Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird would land three nominations: Picture, Supporting Actress and Original Screenplay.
Battle of the Sexes gets a nomination for Emma Stone for Best Actress.
Hostiles gets a nomination for Adapted Screenplay as does Wonderstruck.
Faces/Places gets nominated for Documentary Feature.
Loving Vincent gets a nom for Animated Feature.
She also lists "Contenders", films/performers that she doesn't currently list as nominees but which could get in.
Additionally, we also got a new clip from Todd Haynes Wonderstruck that runs just over four minutes. The new clip is below from YouTube:
The Shape of Water opens on Dec. 8 and Wonderstruck opens on Oct. 20.
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILED OS SET
The deadline has passed for the submission of films for consideration for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. The Playlist reports that a record 92 nations submitted films for consideration.
Among them are five films that played as a part of the TFF #44 lineup:
We're through the triple threat of Telluride, Venice and Toronto. New York and London loom in October with the AFI Fest set to run in November. It's time to get serious about awards season and the Oscarologists have begun to get serious as well.
And what they have to say is...nobody knows nothin'.
Across the board the pundits and experts are saying that it's the most wide open Best Picture race years. We've had what were perceived as close races recently but those have generally two pony races: 12 Years a Slave and Gravity in 2013 and Birdman/Boyhood in 2014. But this year it seems like a multi-horse race. Then, when you add in the preferential ballot...
So...after consulting some of my usual gurus (OK, not real consultation, I just read their various websites)..Here's what looks to me like what could be some Oscar nominees when they are announced on January 23rd.
Best Picture:
Three films seem to have become consensus picks to be nominees:
Dunkirk
The Shape of Water
Darkest Hour
After that it becomes murky...
Possibles:
Lady Bird
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri
Last Flag Flying
Call Me By Your Name
The Post
Phantom Thread (or whatever its title will be)
The Florida Project
Others that could play:
Get Out
The Big Sick
Mudbound
Battle of the Sexes
It seems to me that mother!, Downsizing and Wonderstruck are not likely and I'm not sold on The Greatest Showman.
Best Actress: This field is loaded and is going to be fiercely competitive. Just getting a nomination will be difficult. Candidates:
Sally Hawkins/Shape of Water
Judi Dench/Victoria and Abdul
Saoirse Ronan/Lady Bird
Emma Stone/Battle of the Sexes
Meryl Streep/The Post
Kate Winslet/Wonder Wheel
Frances McDormand/Three Billboards
Margot Robbie/I Tonya
Daniela Vega/A Fantastic Woman
Glenn Close/The Wife
Jessica Chastain/Molly's Game
Jennifer Lawrence/mother!
Annette Bening/Film Stars
Carey Mulligan/Mudbound
It feels like Hawkins, Streep and McDormand are probable but this list of 14 is formidable.
Best Actor: A thinner field than the ladies...so says the experts and I tend to agree:
Gary Oldman/Darkest Hour (and your prohibitive favorite I suspect)
Tom Hanks/The Post
Daniel Day Lewis/Phantom Thread/PTA Film
Timothee Chalamet/Call Me By Your Name
Jake Gyllenhaal/Stronger
Andrew Garfield/Breathe
Hugh Jackman/The Greatest Showman
Bryan Cranston/Last Flag Flying
And, of course, the dark horse candidate that I'm pushing: Harry Dean Stanton for Lucky.
Best Supporting Actress:
Laurie Metcalf/Lady Bird
Alison Janney/I Tonya
Nicole Kidman/Sacred Deer
Hong Chau/Downsizing
Holly Hunter/Big Sick
Octavia Spencer/Shape of Water
Mary J. Blige/Mudbound
Best Supporting Actor:
Willem Dafoe/Florida Project
Mark Rylance/Dunkirk
Armie Hammer/Call Me By Your Name
Sam Rockwell/Three Billboards
Michael Stuhlbarg/Call Me By Your Name
Richard Jenkins/Shape of Water
Michael Shannon/Shape of Water
Steve Carell/Last Flag Flying
Dustin Hoffman/The Meyerowitz Stories
Ben Mendelsohn/Darkest Hour
At a guess, your winners will be: Dafoe, Metcalf, Oldman, McDormand or Hawkins, Nolan and Dunkirk.
CATCHING UP ON TRAILERS: WONDERSTRUCK, FILM STARS, FACES PLACES
LOOKING AHEAD
It won't surprise any of you that I constantly save articles and posts about upcoming films that I think may be Telluride players at some future fest. I email myself all the time and store them in a file call "Future Telluride".
Every now and then I clean it as events overtake what has been collected. For example, I dumped articles on Friday that I had collected on TFF #44 films Battle of the Sexes, Downsizing, Lady Bird First Reformed and Darkest Hour.
But there are plenty of films that live there too that I think might show at The SHOW and then don't like: Happy End, The Current War, Molly's Game, The Snowman, Our Souls at Night and The Leisure Seeker.
And those were all from 2016 or earlier.
So, you might ask, what's still in there?
Here are the top ten film projects that have a least three articles still living in my "Future Telluride: file:
1) First Man-Damian Chazelle on Neil Armstrong with Ryan Gosling
2) Widows-Steve McQueen with Viola Davis, Carrie Coon
3) The Man Who Killed Don Quixote-Terry Gilliam's passion project for the last million years or so
4) Roma-Alfonso Cuaron
5) This Above All- Focuses on the Westboro Baptist Church
6) Black Money-Maybe a Coen Brothers project
7) The Irishman-Scorsese gets the old band back together: DeNiro, Pacino,Keitel, Pesci
8) The Front Runner-Jason Reitman telling the Gary Hart story with Hugh Jackman as Hart
9) On the Other Side-Carey Mulligan
10) The Death and Life of John F. Donovan-Xavier Dolan...a film many thought might be making the rounds this fall. It's now dated for a January release in Italy...but I wouldn't rule out a play at Berlin or Cannes.
I have 46 other films in the hold.
THE EARTHQUAKE IN MEXICO
I had a couple of different sources point me in the direction of the story of film preservation nin Mexico endangered by the aftermath of the recent earthquake.
First, here's the explanation from Viviana Garcia Besne, director of the Permancia Volunatria Film Archive:
The wire need to be processed though one of the following US banks:
CHASUS33XXX(ABA 021-000-021)JP Morgan Chase BankNew York, NY. USA
BOFAUS6SXXX(ABA 121-000-358)Bank of America NASan Francisco, CA. USA
PNBPUS33XXX(ABA 026-005-092)Wells Fargo BankNew York, NY. USA
SCBLUS33XXX(ABA 026-002-561)Standard Chartered BankNew York, NY. USA
Welcome back to MTFB for this Thursday, Sept. 14, 2017.
THE PEOPLE'S TELLURIDE
For the sixth consecutive Telluride Film Festival I have solicited film ratings from the readers of this space for the films they saw last week. This year I had responses from more than 40 film patrons. It has been said that TFF fans are some of the most discerning film goers on the world and I think that the results of this poll over the past few years bares that out. Up until last year the film that finished as the #2 People's film went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Moonlight upset that apple cart for 2016 by topping The People's chart (it edged out La La Land by 4/100ths of a point) and then winning Best Picture.
Here's your brief People's history of the top three films for each year:
2012:
1) Stories We Tell- 4.80
2) Argo- 4.75
3) The Attack- 4.70
2013:
1) Tim's Vermeer (4.67)
2) 12 Years a Slave (4.55)
3) Gravity (4.40)
2014:
1) The Imitation Game (4.73)
2) Birdman (4.46)
3) Wild Tales (4.23)
2015:
1) Room (4.47)
2) Spotlight (4.45)
3) Beasts of No Nation (4.35)
2016:
1) Moonlight (4.37)
2) La La Land (4.33)
3) Maudie (4.29)
And now, the 2017 People's Telluride results...16 films received enough responses to be included in the poll...
1) Lady Bird (4.38)
2) The Shape of Water (4.22)
3) Darkest Hour (4.04)
4) Hostiles (3.99)
5) Faces Places (3.71)
6) Battle of the Sexes (3.68)
7) Lean on Pete (3.66)
8) Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool (3.57)
9) The Other Side of Hope (3.45)
10) Wonderstruck (3.43)
11) The Rider (3.38)
12) Loving Vincent (3.37)
13) First Reformed (3.33)
14) A Fantastic Woman (3.32)
15) First They Killed My Father (3.27)
16) Downsizing (3.07)
The single most rated film was Darkest Hour which had 35 respondents rate it.
The Peeps response probably bodes well for Oscar chances for Lady Bird, The Shape of Water and Darkest Hour. Battle of the Sexes may be in some trouble Oscar-wise.
I was struck at how The People reacted to big time films from big name film makers as Angelina Jolie's First They Killed My Father, Todd Haynes' Wonderstruck and Alexander Payne's Downsizing all finished in the bottom half of the list.
I'll have The Composite Telluride, the combination of The Peeps and The Pros in Monday's blog post. I might note that The Composite may now be a better indicator of possible Oscar success than the stand alone People's ratings have been.
OFFICIAL DOWNSIZING TRAILER
After screening at Telluride Venice and Toronto Alexander Payne's Downsizing and Paramount released a trailer for the film this week. Here it is from YouTube:
Sasha Stone has started recording and posting the Awards Daily Oscar Podcasts for the coming season. The first two are up with yours truly making an appearance on the first one recorded in Telluride (and also a special appearance from both my wife, Kristy, and a guy named Guillermo Del Toro. That podcast is here.
I show up around the 19 minute mark and Del Toro follows right after.
The second podcast gets to the business of the season and was recorded after Telluride and features not only Stone but also Mark Johnson of Awards Circuit and Tomris Laffly who freelances for many publications including Film Journal and Film School Rejects.
Two TFF #44 films have already been named by their host countries for consideration for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. Chile has submitted Sebastian Lelio's A Fantastic Woman and Lebanon has submitted Ziad Douieri's The Insult.
A number of other films have also been announced with many more scheduled to be named in the next couple of weeks.
Awards Watch has a very good article up that has an up to date list of films as well as a schedule for the rest of September for FLF Oscar submissions.
ANGELINA JOLIE'S FILM GETS AN OSCAR QUALIFYING RUN
The Wrap reports that Netflix will open Angelina Jolie's First They Killed My Father will get a contemporaneous theatrical release in a number of U.S. cities this week coinciding with its availability on the streaming service.
The film will screen in Los Angeles and New York as well as eight other major markets on Friday.
And that's going to do it for this Thursday. Come back for Monday's post which will include the 2017 Composite Telluride Film Ratings that combine the ratings from both the people and the professionals. I've been doing this since 2013 and the film that has topped the Composite Poll has won the Best Picture Oscar each year.
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com
3:00p, Land of the Free, 28 (program number), Cinephile
Le Pierre
3:30p, Arthur Miller: Writer, 19, Cinephile
Galaxy
4:15p, Lady Bird, 2
Masons Hall Cinema
7:30p, Great Expectations, 43, Cinephile
Galaxy
7:45p, Hostiles, 7a
Werner Herzog
10:00p, Loving Vincent, 15, Cinephile
Le Pierre
10:30pm, A Man of Integrity, 14, Cinephile
Masons Hall Cinema
10:30p, Faces Places, 17, Cinephile
Noon Seminar, Elks Park FREE
Sponsored by Participant Media
Moderated by Annette Insdorf
Is acting still the art, as Elia Kazan said, “of turning psychology into behavior”?
With Greta Gerwig, Tracy Letts and Gary Oldman
QUICK NOTES ON FRIDAY'S FILMS
DOWNSIZING: Liked not loved. Seems a little longish. Hong Chau is fab
DARKEST HOUR: Gary Oldman is amazing as Winston Churchill. Rest of the cast is solid but Oldman gives a performance for the ages.
FACES/PLACES: Um, a film that was lauded at Cannes...maybe too much Varda worship.
Today's likely films: Lean on Pete, Lady Bird and Wonderstruck...then see how we feel.
3:00p, Land of the Free, 28 (program number), Cinephile
Le Pierre
3:30p, Arthur Miller: Writer, 19, Cinephile
Galaxy
4:15p, Lady Bird, 2
Masons Hall Cinema
7:30p, Great Expectations, 43, Cinephile
Galaxy
7:45p, Hostiles, 7a
Werner Herzog
10:00p, Loving Vincent, 15, Cinephile
Le Pierre
10:30pm, A Man of Integrity, 14, Cinephile
Masons Hall Cinema
10:30p, Faces Places, 17, Cinephile
Noon Seminar, Elks Park FREE
Sponsored by Participant Media
Moderated by Annette Insdorf
Is acting still the art, as Elia Kazan said, “of turning psychology into behavior”?
With Greta Gerwig, Tracy Letts and Gary Oldman
QUICK NOTES ON FRIDAY'S FILMS
DOWNSIZING: Liked not loved. Seems a little longish. Hong Chau is fab
DARKEST HOUR: Gary Oldman is amazing as Winston Churchill. Rest of the cast is solid but Oldman gives a performance for the ages.
FACES/PLACES: Um, a film that was lauded at Cannes...maybe too much Varda worship.
Tomorrow's likely films: Lean on Pete, Lady Bird and Wonderstruck...then see how we feel.
I am piecing together a schedule for tomorrow based on what I am seeing on the TFF #44 App...which I am suggesting you get certainly until you can snag a hard copy of the program.
OPENING NIGHT FEED/COLORADO AVE.
5:30pm
By Venue for Friday, Sept. 1, 2017
PALM
6:30pm-Darkest Hour- Joe Wright, Gary Oldman and Ben Mendelsohn
9:30pm Lean on Pete-Andrew Haigh, Travis Fimmel
GALAXY
7:00pm-Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool-Paul McGuigan, Jamie Bell
9:45pm-Darkest Hour
5:15pm-A Man of Integrity-Mohammed Rasoulof
8:00pm-The Rider-Chloe Zhao
10:15pm-Loving Vincent-Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman
MASONS HALL
5:30pm-Land of the Free-Camilla Magid
8:00pm-Titicut Follies
10:15pm-Tesnota-Kantemir Balagov
LE PIERRE
5:00pm-Hostages-Rezo Gigneishvili
7:45pm-The Other Side of Hope
10:15-Faces/Places-Rosalie Varda. JR
ABEL GANCE/ELKS PARK
8:30pm-The Rider
Personal note: My schedule is likely to depend on what the patron screening is Friday afternoon. It looks to me like the big gets tomorrow might be Darkest Hour and Downsizing or maybe Lean on Pete. I'd also be really interested late in Loving Vincent or Faces/Places. Depends.
More tomorrow and I will be tweeting some throughout the day. My Twitter handle is @Gort2.
MTFB DOES WELL...BUT NOT PERFECT
If you were keeping Score (and I always do) the final Ten (25) Bets was 24 of 25. my mistake was inadvertantly bumping AiWeiWei's Human Flow off the list and keeping Before We Vanish. My mistake.
Seriously, I had Human Flow in the Bets for awhile and then just seemed to loose track of it.
Still, 96% isn't awful.
RANDOM THOUGHTS
Weird that we only have two tributes lined up this year. One for Christian Bale/Hostiles and the other for Ed Lachman/Wonderstruck. I suspect that the third tribute existed in some way but was derailed at the past minute.
Might have to be at The Abel Gance Sunday Night for Al Gore and An Inconvenient Sequel.
Thrilled Billie Jean King and Emma Stone will be in town for Battle of the Sexes.
Also pretty stoked that Richard Jenkins will be here with Guillermo Del Toro for The Shape of Water.
Come back for more here tomorrow...
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com
It is a Thursday and that must mean another post at MTFB...
CANNES TURNS TOWARD THE FINISH LINE
By the time I punch the button to post the next edition of MTFB on Monday the 70th Cannes Film Festival will have concluded and winners of various prizes will have been announced. As the last few competition films take their bow over the next two days speculation will increase dramatically as to which films and film makers will be rewarded. We can join that fun with the caveat that the juries for each of the sections which present awards will almost certainly defy expectations, It seems they always do. That said...
Indiewire has been running a continually updated article that handicaps the race. As I post this morning (and it could have changed since then) their favorite for the Palme d'Or is Robin Campillo's 120 Beats per Minute. At the #2 spot is Andrey Zyvagintsev's Loveless and at #3 is Todd Haynes' Wonderstruck.
At Cannes, as films are unspooling and critics and juries are assessing there is also the story of films that are getting picked up for U. S. distribution.
Indiewire has been keeping a running compilation of Cannes Fest acquisitions. Of note:
The Cohen Media Group has snagged L'Amant Double (at TFF #43 last year-Journey Through French Cinema)
The Orchard has 120 BPM (last year @ TFF-Neruda)
Sony Pictures Classics has acquired Loveless and The Rider TFF 2016- Toni Erdmann, Maudie, Norman).
These deals probably up the chances of each of these four films to make it to Labor Day in the San Juans.
