One of Those Detective Stories / Venice and TIFF Announcements Looming / Ioncinema Looks at Toronto / World of Reel's Latest Venice List / The Playlist's Oscar List

ONE OF THOSE DETECTIVE STORIES

Every now and then I run across pieces of information that either enlighten me about what will play at TFF or , conversely, won't play at TFF.  Sometimes I get tidbits that tell me something but doesn't quite get all the way to a definitive conclusion.  That last circumstance happened at the end of this past week.

On Wednesday. last week, I got a message from a follower of MTFB that he'd seen an announcement from Focus Features that they were hosting a contest for a chance to get tickets to a Gala Presentation for one of their films on Saturday, Sept. 9th at Roy Thomson Hall.  If you really follow all of this Premiere status closely over these past few years, you're aware that Toronto has made clear that ONLY WORLD PREMIERES will play Roy Thomson on TIFF's opening weekend.

Then, couple of days later, I was reading Eric Lavallee's (Ioncinema) June 28 post entitled 2023 Toronto International Film Festival (Strictly) World Premiere Predictions!  As many of you know, a World Premiere at Toronto (except in extremely weird or confused instances) means a film will not play at Telluride).  Early in the piece Lavallee writes:

"My golden calf prognostication is Alexander Payne‘s The Holdovers. We are predicting that it’ll bypass Telluride and Venice and what is somewhat fitting is that the Focus Features property was actually picked up at TIFF last year in a private market screening for buyers."

Well, those sentences set me back.  I have had The Holdovers as #1 on this year's first Ten Bets. 

So, does this mean no Holdovers at Telluride?  

Maybe.  BUT... not necessarily.  The other big Focus title that's on everyone's radar has been Ethan Coen's Drive-Away Dolls.  That film is set for U.S. release on Sept. 22nd.  It's the only other Focus property that I can see that would fill the bill for a Gala Opening at TIFF on Sept. 9th.

Jordan Ruimy writing at World of Reel in a piece about Venice's announcement date wrote this:

"Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers” would be a great get for Venice, but Focus, which is handling the film, has a tight friendship with Toronto and might just skip the Lido. The same could potentially be said about Ethan Coen’s “Drive-Away Dolls,” which is also Focus."

That sounds to me like Ruimy might be looking at the same information I am.

The bottom line seems to be that, at a minimum, one of the two films will be playing at Roy Thomson/TIFF on Sept. 9th and consequently will not play TFF #50.  It could actually portend that neither film is In Telluride on Labor Day weekend.

My best guess is that The Holdovers still plays at TFF and that Drive-Away Dolls is what fills the bill in Toronto.  I just have a hard time believing that Alexander Payne, a member of the TFF Board of Directors (at least as of last year), a past TFF Guest Director and who has screened three of his films at the fest since 2011, won't be bringing his latest film to the 50th TFF celebration.

Saying the same thing this week in his "Halfway to Oscars 2024 Qualifying: 40 Films in the Mix" post for The Playlist, Gregory Ellwood wrote:

“The Holdovers“*

Alexander Payne and Paul Giamatti reunite for the sort of melancholy dramedy that put them both on the map. If it doesn’t have its world premiere at Telluride (Payne attends almost every year), we’ll be shocked."

So, I'll be anxiously watching Toronto announcements to see if this puzzle can be solved.  And speaking of announcements...

VENICE AND TOTONTO ANNOUNCEMENTS LOOMING

We have known for a bit that TIFF will announce a big chunk of their lineup on July 19th.  We found out over the last few days that, per Screen Daily , the Venice lineup announcement will be on July 25th.

Both announcement's can be instructive re: The SHOW.  Toronto's announcement's can, by virtue of their Premiere Status designation, can tell us whether a film will or won't play at Telluride.  It's not 100% accurate, but it's close.

Venice, on the other, doesn't actually eliminate any TFF possibility but doesn't confirm anything either.  It's lineup points to films that could still be in play for a Telluride berth.  The other piece of the Venice puzzle is to scour their screening schedule when it gets released.  As a general rule, if a film is scheduled for Venice during the first three days (four at the outside) it still has a decent chance of showing up in the San Juans.

So keep those factors in mind as we wait for the dominos to begin to fall over the next two-three weeks.

IONCINEMA LOOKS AT TORONTO

As mentioned above, Eric Lavallee at Ioncinema published a speculative list of films that he suggests could World Premiere at Toronto and thus not make the TFF #50th.  We've already dissected the claim that TIFF will World Premiere The Holdovers, but what other films are on Lavallee's list that I have been thinking might be prime contenders for  T-ride?  Here's a list culled from Lavallee's in the order presented in the post:

Nyad/Chin and Vasarhelyi

Nightbitch/Heller

Foe/Davis

Saltburn/Fennell

Tuesday/Pusic

Freud's Last Session/Brown

The Royal Hotel/Green

The entire post is linked here.

WORLD OF REEL'S LATEST VENICE LIST

World of Reel's Jordan Ruimy has updated his list of Venice possibilities with the fest's announcement date news this week.  Here are films from his list that could do the Venice/Telluride two-step categorized as "Good Chance", "Maybe" and "Outside Shot"...at least in my current estimation:

GOOD CHANCE:

El Conde/Larrain

Poor Things/Lanthimos

Strangers/Haigh

MAYBE:

Priscilla/Coppola

The Royal Hotel/Green

Saltburn/Fennell

OUTSIDE SHOT:

Maestro/Cooper

The Captain/Garrone

Fingernails/Nikou

Drive-Away Dolls/Coen...but, you know, see above.

AND FINALLY...THE PLAYLIST'S OSCAR LIST

I mentioned above the comment from Gregory Ellwood's piece this week for The Playlist concerning The Holdovers and it's possibility for Telluride.  So, naturally, I ran down his list of 40 possible Best Picture contenders to evaluate it for TFF #50 players.  Ellwood has the films categorized as: Likely, Close, In the Mix, Curious and Need Convincing.  From each, the TFF possibles are:

LIKELY:

The Zone of Interest/Glazer

CLOSE:

Maestro/Cooper

IN THE MIX:

Anatomy of a Fall

May December

Saltburn

CURIOUS:

The Bikeriders

The Book of Clarence

The Boys in the Boat

Freud's Last Session

Foe

The Holdovers

Nightbitch

Nyad

Perfect Days

The Pot au Fou

Poor Things

Priscilla

Rustin

Strangers

NEED CONVINCING:

Challengers

As an added note, Ellwood has Scorsese's Killer of the Flower Moon as "Likely" and Fincher's The Killer as "Need Convincing".

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Checking the Distributors: Sony Pictures Classics / Journalistic Clarity / New Trailer for Poor Things

 My apologoes as MTFB is 24 hours late for its regular Thursday posting.  Here it is!

CHECKING THE DISTRIBUTORS: SONY PICTURES CLASSICS

Last Monday I started the annual MTFB tradition of running down the distribution companies that are usually significantly present at Telluride each year.   We began with Netflix which, since its first appearance at T-ride in 2015, has screened more features than any other distributor.

The next biggest over that same time period has been Sony Pictures Classics with 20 films over the seven years I'm counting (leaving out the Covid-displaced fest of 2020).  That works our to just shy of three films per year from SPC.  But SPC has a much longer history with The SHOW dating back many, many years.  It's entirely likely that in the entire 50 year history of The SHOW, SPC has likely placed more features and/or documentaries in the lineup than anyone else. 

With that in mind, here's my assessment of what SPC has that could play and the chances that they will play.

Currently, as far as I can tell, SPC has ten films that haven't set U.S. release dates but seem finished.  None of them seem to be slam dunks.  The best SPC bets appear to be:

Ilker Catak's The Teachers' Lounge which played Berlin and won a couple of awards and scored really well among critics.  Chances: 50%.

Freund's Last Session from director Matt Brown starring Anthony Hopkins in the title role.  It has a Dec. 7th released date listed at IMDb for Russia.  40%.

After those two films, everything I can find for SPC doesn't seem very likely.

A few weeks back I floated the notion that SPC might be able to get A Little Prayer starring David Stratharin into the TFF lineup despite having played Sundance much like they would have done with Anthony Hopkins and The Father in 2020 (if it had happened) and what they did do with Bill Nighy and Living last year.  However, since then the film has also screened at Santa Barbara and Nantucket thus killing my scenario.

There's the animated They Shot the Piano Player which comes from the creative team that had Carlos and Rita at Telluride in 2010.  However, the film played the 2022 Annecy Animation Fest which begs the question "why didn't TFF schedule it last year?"  25%.

Also floating around is Pedro Almodovar's short film (31 min.) Strange Way of Life starring Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal.  Almodovar means we have to pay attention.  Luke warm critical reaction to the film from Cannes takes some of the shine from it. 25%.

Then there's the John Prine: Hello In There documentary that's listed as being in post since Feb. of 2019... Does it even exist?

In addition to A Little Prayer having played Sundance, other SPC films that did that include: The Persian Version, Shadya and Shortcomings.  Tribeca has The Miracle Club (another SPC film I thought might see the light of day at TFF #50), Carlos and Downtown Owl.

SPC does have a couple of animated films that IMDb lists as "filming" in 2022.  maybe they will be in play.  Sylvain Chomet's The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol.  Chomet has had a presence at TFF in the past with The Illusionist and The Triplets of Belleville.   The other is A Winter's Journey from Alex Helfrecht.

JOURNALISTIC CLARITY

Well, I rolled the dice this year on my application for press credentials at TFF #50.  I did all the required steps.  Included the required documentation.  I also included a fairly passionate "letter" arguing the merits of MTFB being accredited.  As a part of that I concluded with:

"I would argue that the blog benefits the fest much more than any

issues that may annoy festival organizers.  MTFB is nothing if not a

love letter to TFF.

Ultimately, if MTFB is never to be accredited again, I’d prefer that

you just tell me that now so that I can quit wasting your time with my

application each year."

Well, I got my response on Monday...and mind you, the deadline to apply doesn't land until June 30th.  Here is the reply:

"Hi Michael,

Thank you for applying for media accreditation. Festival organizers have concluded that accreditation is unnecessary for the type of festival coverage produced on your blog. This applies to this year and future festivals. Your Festival-level pass will provide you with all the access you need to cover the event. We have many journalists and bloggers who attend and successfully cover Telluride without accreditation. We look forward to seeing you at the 50th Telluride Film Festival."

So, there you have it.  Never going to happen again.  Worthy of accreditation from 2012-2019.  Forever not from 2020 on.

NEW TRAILER FOR POOR THINGS

Yorgos Lanthimos' Poor Things is a very likely Venice Fest selection.  The film has also been on my radar for some time as a possible TFF #50 selection.  Lanthimos last film, The Favourite, played very well at The SHOW back in 2018.  The Favourite was distributed by Searchlight and so is Poor Things which also bodes well for a possible TFF screening.  Finally, the film is set for release in the U.S. on Sept. 8th.  That allows for the possibility of screenings at both Venice and Telluride.  It's also just inside the window for Toronto which opens on Sept. 7th though that seems very unlikely.  

I posted the first teaser for the film back on May 15th.  Now, we have a new full trailer that was released by Searchlight yesterday.  Here it is:

The more I see of this the more intrigued I am.  Hope it makes it to TFF #50.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

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