Oscar Update: Best Picture / New Looks at Ammonite / Fireball Trailer and Poster / The Way I See It

OSCAR UPDATE: BEST PICTURE

Here are my latest Oscar nomination predictions for Best Picture updated since I last posted this category on  Sept. 17th.  A film's past position is indicated to the right in parentheses.  TFF #47 films are indicated in Bold.

1) The Trial of the Chicago 7 (3)

2) Nomadland (1)

3) Mank (2)

4) News of the World (6)

5) The Father (11)

6) One Night in Miami (13)

7) Da 5 Bloods (5)

8) Judas and the Black Messiah (-)

9) Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (14)

10) Minari (15)

Others: On the Rocks, Ammonite, Tenet

NEW LOOKS AT AMMONITE

Francis Lee's Ammonite (a TFF #47 pick) has both a new trailer and a new poster as the film heads toward its announced release date of Nov. 13th.  Here, from YouTube, is the latest trailer:

And here's a look at the latest poster for the film as well:

FIREBALL TRAILER AND POSTER

Here's a first trailer for Werner Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer's Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds:

And a poster too:

THE WAY I SEE IT

With its screening this past weekend on MSNBC, there was a good deal of news that was put forth about the documentary The Way I See It which focuses on the career of photographer Pete Souza who photographed both the Reagan and Obama White Houses.

The documentary originally screened last month in theaters.

Check out the following articles:

The Hollywood Reporter

Time.com

Variety

 

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Two Weeks... / Telluride at Home / First Looks: Fireball and Mainstream / The Usual Suspects-Covid Edition

TWO WEEKS...

Are you like me?

We're two weeks from what would have been the last day of TFF #47.

It's not that I haven't internalized that the fest isn't going to happen this year.  I had been contemplating the possibility for quite a while before the announcement dropped on July 14th.  However, as the dates approach that would have been the 47th edition of the Telluride Film Festival (and my 15th time to attend) I, like I suspect many of you, have a serious pang of longing and regret that our normally glorious weekend of film and fun will come and go more or less as just another weekend in Covid-19 America.

It will be weird and dis-orienting two weeks from today, when I would be winding the weekend down.  My habit over the past few years has been to get up on Labor Day to grab an early screening of something that has become buzzy over the weekend (the last two years that my films on Monday morning have been Cold War and Parasite...not bad, eh?) and then booking to Town Park to grab lunch and ice cream, say goodbye to whomever I could find there that needed saying goodbye to...that's how I met Barry Jenkins four years ago.  And then climb in the mini-van and head south and east.

This year, I'll already be "south and east" when I wake up on Labor Day.  Sooooo....


TELLURIDE AT HOME

I've decided that I'm programming a weekend at home of Telluride films from that past 14 editions that either I have seen or missed when they were in T-ride and that I still haven't visited.  The wife and I started compiling a list yesterday.  We'll whittle it down until we get to 10 or so films.  Then, in the tradition of Telluride, I'll announce my list for "Telluride at Home" on Thursday, Sept. 3rd.  The day before my festival starts.

What about you?  If you were to program a Telluride Fest from the years you've been attending, what would you include?  What would re-visit?  What films did you miss that you still haven't seen but wished you had?  Make a list of ten.

Drop me a line with your list if you feel like it.  I might well publish those here.


FIRST LOOKS: FIREBALL AND MAINSTREAM


As a result of their selections for TIFF and Venice, we have our first glimpses of would-be TFF #$7 films.  Werner Herzog's Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds and Gia Coppola's Mainstream.

From the Toronto PR for Fireball, it's Clive Oppenhiemer and Herzog as they search the world for meteors and stories of meteors.

From Venice, we got a still from her new film, Mainstream via Twitter.  It looks intriguing:

THE USUAL SUSPECTS: COVID-19 EDITION

Helen Mirren and Jim Broadbent in Roger Michell's The Duke 

Looking over the 29 feature film titles that were announced as what would have been selections had TFF #47 taken place, I can't help but notice that a number of folks who have had a presence at TFF in past Telluride Film Festivals were returning.  Some, like Chloe Zhao were returning after a maiden voyage with the fest.  Zhao's The Rider screened at Telluride in 2017.  The lineup also included Werner Herzog who is a mainstay of many, many TFF lineups.

Here's a quick rundown of folks that are or may soon be on my list of TFF"s "Usual Suspects" that are included in the TFF #47 lineup:

*Liz Garbus/All In: The Fight for Democracy  (Love, Marilyn TFF #39)
*Andrey Tarkovsky/Andrey Tarkovsky: A Cinema Prayer (Tarkovsky's works have often been featured at TFF)
*Frank Marshall/The Bees Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart (Marshall is on TFF's Board of Advisors)
*Roger Michell/The Duke (Michell's TFF credits include: Venus, Hyde Park on Hudson and Enduring Love)
*Gia Coppola/Mainstream (Coppola's first and only feature thus far, Palo Alto, was at TFF #40)
*Chloe Zhao/Nomadland (Zhao's The Rider was at TFF #44)
*Gianfranco Rosi/Notturno (Rosi was last at Telluride in 2016 with Fire at Sea)
*Mohammad Rasoulof/There Is No Evil (TFF tribute recipient in 2013, last film at TFF was 2017's A Man of Integrity)
*Lisa Immordino Vreeland/Truman and Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation (multiple TFF appearances: Love, Cecil, Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict, Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel)

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A Week Later... / Nomadland to "Play Telluride" (and Other Places) / Herzog's Fireball Has a Home

A WEEK LATER...

So a week ago I posted a segment suggesting the possibility that the 2020 Oscar season might already be locked in.  My notion was that some possible players will ultimately end up missing the eligibility window as studios/distributors will opt to hold their release until later in 2021.

Then the past week happened and films began to disappear from the announced release schedule.  It was a little surreal.  Tenet...who knows?  Mulan...same.  Even The French Dispatch-which we suspect will be announced as a TFF #47 selection- has gone from an Oct. 16th release date to indeterminant.

I'm beginning to think my idle speculation about what the 2020 Oscar race ends up looking like might actually be what happens.

Here's how I laid out the Oscar race a week ago using the predictions from Clayton Davis' Awards Circuit and ignoring films that I thought might get scheduled outside the window of Oscar eligibility with probable TFF #47 films in Bold:

1) Nomadland
2) Mank
3) Ammonite
4) The Trial of the Chicago 7 (set to drop on Netflix on Oct. 16th)
5) Soul
6) The French Dispatch
7) Hillbilly Elegy
8) The White Tiger
9) Stillwater (???)
10) The Father
11) Da 5 Bloods
12) Minari
13) Greyhound
14) Palm Springs
15) Untitled Fred Hampton Project
16) The Glorias
17) I'm Thinking of Ending Things
18) Those Who Wish Me Dead
19) Respect
20) Onward


It seems to me that the slew of announcements from Warners, Paramount and Disney made the above scenario more likely.

Now, I will note here that I have seen some scuttlebutt on social media arguing that the Academy should, at this point, do a combined 2020-2021 Oscar season.  Though that's possible, I don't see that as very likely.  My guess...and it is just a guess, is that the Academy will stick to its guns having already extended Oscar season to two months and providing studios with the ability for a film to have Oscar eligibility even with its premiere occurring non-theatrically.

I have linked a number of re-scheduling stories from this past week below:

ShowBiz411

Hollywood Elsewhere

The Film Stage


NOMADLAND TO "PLAY TELLURIDE" AFTER ALL (AND OTHER PLACES)

Chloe Zhao's Nomadland will play Telluride...after a fashion.  Indiewire reports that there will be a special drive-in presentation of the film under the banner of "Telluride from Los Angeles".

Thom Geier at The Wrap reports that the drive-in experience will happen on the evening of Sept. 11th-the same night it co-world premieres at both Venice and Toronto and that director Chloe Zhao and star Frances McDormand are scheduled to appear.

Other Nomadland news was revealed, however, as Indiewire's Zach Sharf reports that the film has been selected as the New York Film Fest's centerpiece and that it will also screen as apart of the official program for both Toronto and Venice.

The occurrence of a film playing all four fests is unusual but I suspect that we'll see more of that than this year because of the disruption created by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Nomadland as yet, no announced release date.

The Wrap's story can be found here.

The Indiewire story can be found here.




HERZOG'S FIREBALL HAS A HOME

Apple TV+ has acquired the Werner Herzog documentary Fireball according to Deadline.com.  That acquisition means the film is still a possibility to be named as one of the 20 or so films that are expected to be announced as "TFF #47" choices any day.

And speaking of TFF #47 choices, I'm expecting that list any day now.  With Venice announcing their lineup tomorrow and Toronto likely to name some of their lineup later this week, I wouldn't be stunned should we get that information before close of day on Friday.

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