MTFB Oscar Update: First Predix for the Final Five Feature Categories . The Deluge Begins: New York Film Critics Circle, Gotham Awards, National Board of Review

 MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: FIRST PREDIX FOR FINAL FIVE FEATURE CATEGORIES

Today we add final five feature categories with initial predictions for Production Design, Makeup/Hair, Costumes, Sound and Visual Effects.  All TFF #52 films are in Bold.    Here they are:

PRODUCTION DESIGN

1) Frankenstein

2) Hamnet

3) Wicked: For Good

4) Sinners

5) Avatar: Fire and Ash

Others: Marty Supreme, One Battle After Another and The Phoenician Scheme.

COSTUME DESIGN

1) Wicked: For Good

2) Frankenstein

3) Sinners

4) Hamnet

5) Kiss of the Spiderwoman

Others: One Battle After Another, Hedda and Marty Supreme.

MAKEUP AND HAIR

1) Frankenstein

2) Wicked: For Good

3) The Smashing Machine

4) Sinners

5) Weapons

Others: 28 Years Later, Bugonia and One Battle After Another.

SOUND DESIGN

1) F1

2) Sinners

3) Wicked: For Good

4) One Battle After Another

5) Avatar: Fire and Ash

Others: Frankenstein, Sinners, Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning and Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere..

VISUAL EFFECTS

1) Avatar: Fire and Ash

2) F1

3) Wicked: For Good

4) Superman

5) Frankenstein

Others: Sinners, Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning and The Fantastic Four.

Sooo...at this point, if the nominations were announced tomorrow, MTFB is currently predicting the following :

Hamnet (11): Best Picture, Direction, Actress, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Casting, Cinematography, Editing, Score, Production Design and Costumes.

Sentimental Value (8): Best Picture, Direction, Actress, Two in Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor Original Screenplay, and International Feature.

Frankenstein (7): Best Picture, Cinematography, Score, Production Design, Costumes, Makeup/Hair and Visual Effects.

It Was Just an Accident (4): Best Picture, Direction, Original Screenplay and International Feature.

Jay Kelly (3): Best Picture, Supporting Actor and Original Screenplay.

Bugonia (2): Best Actress and Adapted Screenplay.

The Secret Agent (2): Best Actor and International Feature.

Single nominations for:

Blue Moon: Best Actor.

Cover-Up: Best Documentary.

and from TFF #51: Apocalypse in the Tropics: Best Documentary.

That's 10 TFF films nominated and a total of  40 nominations.

THE DELUGE BEGINS

Pre-nomination Oscar precursors bean to weigh in with force the past few days.  TFF films were faring moderately well.

New York Film Critics Circle: TFF films awarded were:

Best Direction: Jafar Pahani/It Was Just an Accident.

Best International Film: The Secret Agent.

Best actress: Rose Byrne/If I Had Legs I'd Kick You.

Best Actor: Walter Moura/The Secret Agent.

The Gotham Awards and TFF films:

Best Direction: Jafar Panahi/It Was Just an Accident

Best International Feature: It Was Just an Accident.

Best Original Screenplay: It Was Just an Accident.

Pillion: Best Adapted Screenplay.

National Board of Review:

Best Actress: Rose Byrne/If I had Legs I'd Kick You.

Best Supporting Actress: Inga Idsbotter Lileaas/Sentimental Value.

Best International Film: It Was Just an Accident.

Best Documentary: Cover-Up.

 From NBR's Top Films list: Frankenstein, Jay Kelly.

From NBR's Top Five International Films: The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value.

From NBR's Top Ten Independent Films: If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, The Mastermind, Urchin.

The complete NBR list is here.

Finally, The Golden Globe nominations will be announced on Monday.  I'll have that then.

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MTFB Oscar Update: Lead Acting and More / New York Film Critics and TFF / Independent Spirit Awards and TFF / National Board of Review and TFF / Gotham Awards and TFF /

 MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: LEAD ACTING AND MORE

I'm updating the Lead Acting categories today and adding three other categories going forward: Cinematography, Editing and Production Design.  The acting categories were last updated on Nov. 21st.  An actor's previous position is indicated in (parentheses).  TFF #51 films are in Bold. 

BEST ACTRESS

1) Mikey Madison/Anora (1)

2) Angelina Jolie/Maria (2)

3) Karla Sofia Gascon/Emilia Perez (3)

4) Saoirse Ronan/The Outrun (5)

5) Marianne Jean-Baptiste/Hard Truths (-)

Others: Nicole Kidman/Babygirl, Demi Moore/The Substance and Cynthia Erivo/Wicked.

BEST ACTOR

1) Ralph Fiennes/Conclave (1)

2) Adrien Brody/The Brutalist (2)

3) Timothee Chalamet/A Complete Unknown (4)

4) Colman Domingo/Sing Sing (3)

5) Daniel Craig/Queer (5)

Others: Paul Mescal/Gladiator II, Sebastian Stan/The Apprentice and Jesse Eisenberg/ A Real Pain.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

1) Dune Part Two

2) The Brutalist

3) Maria

4) Nosferatu

5) Gladiator II

Others: Conclave, Emilia Perez and Nickel Boys.

BEST EDITING

1) The Brutalist

2) Anora

3) Emilia Perez

4) Dune Part Two

5) Conclave

Others: Gladiator II, September 5 and Wicked.

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

1) Dune Part Two

2) Wicked

3) Gladiator II

4) The Brutalist

5) Blitz

Others: Conclave, Nosferatu and A Complete Unknown.

NEW YORK CRITICS AND TFF

TFF films had a good day Tuesday with a number awards from The New York Film Critics Circle.

Best Director: RaMell Ross/Nickel Boys

Best Supporting Actor: Kieran Culkin/A Real Pain

Best Screenplay: Sean Baker/Anora

Best International Feature: All We Imagine as Light

Best Cinematography: Nickel Boys

Best Non-Fiction Film: No Other Land

Best First Film: Janet Planet (TFF #50)

The Brutalist was named Best Film of 2024.

The complete list of winners is here from the NYFCC website.

INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARDS NOMINATIONS AND TFF

Fully nine TFF films received at least Independent Spirit Award nomination yesterday.  The nine films totaled 20 nominations collectively led by Anora's five.  Here's the breakdown by film:

Anora (5): Best Feature, Direction, Performance (Madison), Supporting Performance (Burisov) and another Supporting Performance (Karagulian).

The Apprentice (3): Best Direction, Editing.

Janet Planet (from TFF #50) (3): Best First Feature, First Screenplay and Cinematography.

Nickel Boys (2): Best Feature and Cinematography.

A Real Pain (2): Best Screenplay and Supporting Performance (Culkin).

The Piano Lesson (2): Best First Feature and Supporting Performance (Deadwyler).

September 5 (1): Best Editing.

No Other Land (1): Best Documentary.

All We Imagine as Light (1); Best International Feature.

Here's the complete list of all nominees from FilmIndependent.org

NATIONAL BOARD OF REVIEW AND TFF

The National Board of Review released its annual list of best films from the year yesterday. TFF films fared well. from their various categories:

Top Ten Films included Anora, Conclave and A Real Pain.

Top Five international Films included: All We Imagine as Light and Santosh.

Top Five Documentaries included: Will and Harper.

Top Ten Independent Films included: Bird.

Among acting awards Conclave was named Best Ensemble.  Kieran Culkin was named Best Supporting Actor for A Real Pain and Mikey Madison was named Breakthrough Performance for Anora.

Other Special Awards for TFF films included anming The Seed of the Sacred Fig as Best International Film and NBR' Freedom of Expression Award went to No Other Land.

Wicked was named Best Film and its director, Jon M. Chu was named Best Director.

The full list of NBR awards for 2024 can be accessed here from their website.

GOTHAM AWARDS AND TFF

The Gotham Awards were presented Monday and here's a look at what TFF films were winners:

Best Director: RaMell Ross/Nickel Boys

Best International Feature: All We Imagine as Light

Best Documentary Feature: No Other Land

Breakthrough Performer: Brandon Wilson/Nickel Boys

Among Gotham Tributes were:

Performer Tribute to Angelina Jolie for Maria.

Complete Results are here from Variety.

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MTFB Oscar Update: Screenplays / Gotham Awards Nominations and TFF / TFF Films Being Honored /New Clip from A Real Pain / Interviews and Profiles: Rossellini, Stewart, Sarsgaard and More

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: SCREENPLAYS

Here are updated nomination predictions for the Screenplay categories for the 97th Academy Awards.  These categories were last predicted on Oct. 17th.  An film's previous rank appears to the right of their names in parentheses.  TFF #51 actors/films are in Bold.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1) Conclave (1)

2) Emilia Perez (2)

3) Sing Sing (3)

4) Nickel Boys (4)

5) Dune Part Two (5)

Others: The Room Next Door, A Complete Unknown and Gladiator II.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1) Anora (1)

2) The Brutalist (2)

3) A Real Pain (3)

4) September 5 (4)

5) Saturday Night (5)

Others: The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Hard Truths and The Substance.

GOTHAM AWARDS NOMINATIONS AND TFF #51

Seven TFF #51 films and one other from TFF #50 earned a combined 14 Gotham Awards nominations which were announced on Tuesday, Oct. 29th.  Sean Baker's Anora led all films with four nominations.  Here's the breakdown of TFF nominees:

Anora (4): Best Feature, Direction, Lead Performance (Madison), Supporting Performance (Borisov).

Nickel Boys (3): Best Feature, Direction and Breakthrough Performance (Wilson).

All We Imagine as Light (2): Best International Feature, Direction.

No Other Land (1): Best Documentary.

The Outrun (1): Best Lead Performance (Ronan).

A Real Pain (1): Best Supporting Performance.

The Piano Lesson (1): Best Supporting Performance (Deadwyler).

And from TFF #50: Janet Planet (1): Best Screenplay.

A rundown of all the Gotham nominations is linked here from IndieWire.

TFF FILMS BEING HONORED

We are in the midst of various organizations honoring films in this interim between the start of the awards season and nomination morning.  TFF films are reaping their share.  Just this week we saw a number of those.

Will Ferrell and Harper Steele honored by the ACLU with their "Bill of Rights" Award.

The Santa Barbara Film Festival named Ralph Fiennes Performer of the Year.

The Palm Springs International Film Festival announced that Emilia Perez will receive its Vanguard Award.

NEW CLIP FROM A REAL PAIN

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Martha Stewart on her documentary from Entertainment Weekly.

John Magaro for September 5 from Variety.

Peter Sarsgaard for September 5 from The Hollywood Reporter.

Karla Sofia Gascon for Emilia Perez from Deadline.

Karla Sofia Gascon, Zoe Saldana and Selena Gomez for Emilia Perez from The Los Angeles Times.

Isabella Rossellini for Conclave from The Credits (MPA).

Sean Baker for Anora from The Contending.

Behind the Scenes of Saturday Night from Gold Derby.

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MTFB Oscar Update: Supporting Acting / Gotham Awards and TFF / Interviews and Profiles: Giamatti, Mescal, Randolph, Keoghan and More

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: SUPPORTING ACTING

Here's your Oscar Update for today's post.  This is a check on predicted nominees for the Supporting Acting categories.  They were last posted here on Nov. 16th.  Previous positions on the MTFB Oscar Update is listed to the right in parentheses.  As always TFF films are Bold.

 BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1) Da'Vine Joy Randoplh/The Holdovers (1)

2) Emily Blunt/Oppenheimer (2)

3) Danielle Brooks/The Color Purple (4)

4) Jodie Foster/Nyad (3)

5) Julianne Moore/May December (5)

Alternates: Penelope Cruz/Ferrai, Taraji P. Henson/The Color Purple,  and America Ferrera/Barbie

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Ryan Gosling/Barbie (2)

2) Robert Downey, Jr./Oppenheimer (1)

3) Mark Ruffalo/Poor Things (4)

4) Robert DeNiro/Killers of the Flower Moon (3)

5) Charles Melton/May December (-)

Alternates: Willem DaFoe/Poor Things, Dominic Sessa/The Holdovers, Sterling K. Brown/American Fiction.

I'll have Screenplays predictions up on Monday as well as updated totals for TFF films in the eight big categories.

GOTHAM AWARDS AND TFF

The Gotham Awards were announced last Monday evening.  Of TFF films the only film to take home a win was Justine Triet's Anatomy of a Fall which snagged two awards: one for best International Feature and the other  Screenplay.

Celine Song's Past Lives was named Best Feature Film of 2023.

TFF films had been nominated for a total of 13 awards with Andrew Haigh's All of Us Strangers up for four which was made it the most nominated film of the bunch.

The complete list of winners is linked here from Variety.

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES: GIAMATTI, MESCAL, RANDOLPH, KEOGHAN AND MORE

   

THE HOLDOVERS

Paul Giamatti for The Holdovers from Awards Radar.

 Da'Vine Joy Randolph for The Holdovers from Awards Radar.

Dominic Sessa for The Holdovers from Awards Radar.

POOR THINGS

Yorgos Lanthimos for Poor Things from Indiewire.

Producers Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe for Poor Things from Gold Derby.

ALL OF US STRANGERS

Paul Mescal for All of Us Strangers from Gold Derby.

SALTBURN

Emerald Fennell and Barry Keoghan for Saltburn from Next Best Picture.

ORLANDO, MY POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY

Director Paul B. Preciado for Orlando: My, Political Biography from Indiewire.

Paul B. Preciado for Orlando, My Political Biography from Film Comment.

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Gotham Awards Nominations / Occupied City Poster and Trailer / Interviews and Profiles: Payne, Hawke and More

GOTHAM AWARDS NOMINATIONS

The Gotham Awards nominees for 2023 were revealed on Tuesday.  It's the first of many, many awards groups and critics' group's recognitions for film of the year.

Seven TFF #50 films combined to earn 13 nominations lead by Andrew Haigh's All of Us Strangers with four.  Here's the nomination breakdown as reported by Next Best Picture. 

All of Us Strangers: Best International Feature, Lead Performance (Andrew Scott), Supporting Performance (Claire Foy) and Screenplay.

The Zone of Interest: Best International Feature, Supporting Performance (Sandra Huller), Screenplay.

Anatomy of a Fall: Best International Feature, Screenplay.

Poor Things: Best International Feature.

Totem: Best International Feature.

The Taste of Things: Best Supporting Performance (Juliette Binoche)

The Holdovers: Best Supporting Performance (Da'Vine Joy Randolph)

The Gotham Awards will be presented on Nov. 27th.

OCCUPIED CITY POSTER AND TRAILER

A24 has released a poster and a trailer for Steve McQueen's four hour long documentary focusing on the city of  Amsterdam; its occupation during World War II and the after effects of that.

Here's the poster:

And the trailer from YouTube:

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES: PAYNE, HAWKE AND MORE

Alexander Payne on The Holdovers from The Upcoming on YouTube.

Ethan Hawke on Wildcat from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Koji Yakusho on Perfect Days from The Hollywood Reporter.

Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi on Nyad from Vanity Fair.

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MTFB Oscar Update: Picture and Direction / Gotham Awards and TFF #49 / Mark Johnson's Good as Gold and TFF #49 / Visitations: Blanchett and Mescal

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: PICTURE AND DIRECTION

In today's post I am updating Oscar predictions for Best Picture and Best Direction which were last posted on Nov. 17th.  TFF #49 films are in Bold.

BEST PICTURE

1) The Fabelmans (1)

2) The Banshees of Inisherin (2)

3) Everything Everywhere All at Once (5)

4) Women Talking (3)

5) Top Gun: Maverick (4)

6) TAR (6)

7) Elvis (7)

8) Babylon (12)

9) Avatar: The Way of Water (New)

10) Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (9)

11) Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (8)

12) Triangle of Sadness  (10)

Out: She Said (11)

BEST DIRECTION

1) Steven Spielberg/The Fabelmans (1)

2) Sarah Polley/Women Talking (2)

3) Martin McDonagh/The Banshees of Inisherin (3)

4) Todd Field/TAR (4)

5) The Daniels/EEAAO (5)

6) Damien Chazelle/Babylon (6)

7) Rueben Ostlund/Triangle of Sadness (7)

GOTHAM AWARDS AND TFF #49

The Gotham Awards which celebrate the best of independent film were announced earlier this week with two TFF #49 films earning some recognition but The Daniels' Everything Everywhere All at Once having the best evening of any film winning Best Feature and Best Supporting Performance for Ke Huy Quan.

The two TFF #49 films that were recognized were:

Bingham Ray Award for Breakthrough Director: Charlotte Wells/Aftersun

Best Screenplay: Todd Field/TAR

The complete coverage for all winners is here from Indiewire.

MARK JOHNSON'S GOOD AS GOLD AND TFF #49

Mark Johnson of Gold as Gold ahs been a good friend to MTFB over the years but, unfortunately had to miss TFF #49 this past Labor Day due to health concerns.  It's alos taken him a bit to get his prediction site-Good as Gold (housed at Awards Daily) up and running for the new Oscar season.  But Mark has posted his first stab at picking 2023 Oscar nominees and here is where he places TFF #49 films in the 11 categories he has focused on (the Big Eight plus Documentary, Animated Feature and International Feature):

Women Talking (6): Best Picture, Direction, Supporting Actress (Buckley), Supporting Actress (Foy), Supporting Actor (Whishaw), Adapted Screenplay.

TAR (3): Best Picture, Actress (Blanchett), Original Screenplay

Good Night Oppy, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed and Sr. for best Documentary.

Close for best International Feature

and from TFF #48: Marcel the Shell with Shoes On for Best Animated Feature.

You can find all of Mark's predictions here.

VISTATIONS

Cate Blanchett and crew of TAR from Variety

Actor Paul Mescal on Aftersun from Entertainment Weekly

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MTFB Oscar Take: Supporting Acting / Gotham Award Nominations and TFF #49 / U.K Trailer for Tori and Lokita / New Poster for Armageddon Time / Visitations: Anthony Hopkins, James Gray and Charlotte Wells / Behind the Scenes with Marcel the Shell, Late Breaking Marcel Wins Saturn and FYC

MTFB OSCAR TAKE: SUPPORTING ACTING

I am updating predictions in the categories of Best  Supporting Actress and Best Supporting Actor.  These were last predicted on Oct. 13th.  Past ranking is to the right of the performer in parentheses.  Performances from TFF #49 are in Bold.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1) Jesse Buckley/Women Talking (1)

2) Clare Foy/Women Talking (2)

3) Hong Chau/The Whale (3)

4) Carey Mulligan/She Said (New)

5) Kerry Condon/The Banshees of Inisherin (4)

6) Jamie Lee Curtis/Everything Everywhere All at Once (6)

7) Janelle Monae/Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (7)

Out: Nina Hoss/TAR

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Brendan Gleeson/The Banshees of Inisherin (1)

2) Ke Huy Quan/Everything Everywhere All at Once (2)

3) Judd Hirsch/The Fabelmans (3)

4) Ben Whishaw/Women Talking (4)

5) Paul Dano/The Fabelmans (5)

6) Eddie Redmayne/The Good Nurse (7)

7) Anthony Hopkins/Armageddon Time (New)

Out: Jeremy Strong/Armageddon Time

 

GOTHAM AWARDSNOMINATIONSAND TFF #49

The Gotham Awards announced their nominations for the best in independent film.  TFF #49 title TAR scared five nominations to lead all films.

Here's the breakdown of Telluride entrants who were nominated on Tuesday:

TAR (5): Best Feature, Lead Performance (Blanchett), Supporting Performance (Hoss), Supporting Performance (Merchant), Screenplay

Aftersun (4): Best Feature, Breakthrough Director (Wells), Lead Performance (Mescal) Breakthrough Performer (Corio)

Women Talking (3); Best Supporting Performance (Buckley), Supporting Performance (Whishaw), Screenplay

Bones and All (2): Best Supporting Performance (Russell), Supporting Performance (Rylance)

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (1): Best Documentary

Armageddon Time (1): Best Screenplay

In total, TFF #49 films accounted for 16 Gotham nominations for 2022.

The complete list of all nominees is here.

U.K. TRAILER FOR DARDENNES TORI AND LOKITA

Hot off the presses...so to speak, here is the new U.K. trailer for the Dardenne Brothers' Tori and Lokita via YouTube:

NEW POSTER FOR ARMAGEDDON TIME

VISITATIONS

Deadline with James Gray on Armageddon Time

Associated Press with Anthony Hopkins on Armageddon Time

Indiewire with Charlotte Wells on Aftersun

Indiewire with James Gray on Armageddon Time

BEHIND THE SCENES WITH MARCEL THE SHELL

LATE BREAKING MARCEL NEWS: SATURN AWARDS NAME MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON AS BEST ANIMATED FEATURE OF 2022 LAST NIGHT.

From Collider

The one man campaign for TFF 48's Marcel the Shell with Shoes On begins today here at MTFB.  

FYC: Marcel the Shell with Shoes On:

BEST PICTURE

BEST DIRECTION

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

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MTFB Oscar Take: Updated Supporting Acting Categories / Gotham Awards Nominations and Telluride / Critics Say The Power of the Dog Is Tops / And Speaking of Jane Campion... / Trailer for The Real Charlie Chaplin /

 MTFB OSCAR TAKE: UPDATED SUPPORTING ACTING CATEGORIES

Here's your update on the Supporting Acting races.  This updates the predictions last posted for these categories on Oct. 11th.  TFF #48 performances are indicated in Bold and their previous position in my predictions are indicated to the right in parentheses.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1) Kirsten Dunst/The Power of the Dog (1)

2) Anne Dowd/Mass (2)

3) Caitriona Balfe/Belfast (4)

4) Aunjunue Ellis/King Richard (3)

5) Judi Dench/Belfast (Alt.)

Alternates: Ruth Negga/Passing and Marlee Matlin/CODA

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Bradley Cooper/Licorice Pizza (1)

2) Ciaran Hinds/Belfast (2)

3) Jamie Dornan/Belfast (New)

4) Ben Affleck/The Tender Bar or The Last Duel (Alt.)

5) Kodi Smit-McPhee/The Power of the Dog (Alt.)

Alternates: Jared Leto/House of Gucci and Jason Isaacs/Mass

GOTHAM AWARDS NOMINATIONS AND TELLURIDE

The New York based Gotham Awards, which aim to highlight independent film releases, announced its 2021 nominees on Thursday.  Here's how TFF #48 films fared:

The Lost Daughter: Best Feature, Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director (Gyllenhaal), Best Screenplay, Outstanding Performance (Colman). Outstanding Supporting Performance (Buckley)

Flee: Best Documentary Feature

The Card Counter: Best Screenplay, Outstanding Performance (Isaac)

Red Rocket: Best Screenplay, Outstanding Performance (Rex), Breakthrough Performance (Son)

C'mon C'mon: Outstanding Performance (Phoenix), Outstanding Supporting Performance (Hoffman)

Complete Gotham nominations are here from Deadline.com.

CRITICS SAY POWER OF THE DOG IS TOPS

Jordan Ruimy/World of Reel has conducted and informal poll of over 50 critics asking them to name the best film of 2021 to date.

Winning the poll is Jane Campion's The Power of the Dog which currently sits in the #3 spot on MTFB's Oscar Take for a Best Picture Academy Award nomination.

Other TFF #48 films to make Ruimy's list include Bergman Island (#13) and Red Rocket (#15).  The Father, from the TFF #47 list, made the grade at #8.

Ruimy's complete list is here.

AND SPEAKING OF JANE CAMPION

The Film Stage has gathered interviews from The New York Film Festival with Campion as well as Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst and KodiSmit-McPhee that accompanied The Power of the Dog's NYFF screening.

That's all linked from The Film Stage post which you can find here.

TRAILER FOR THE REAL CHARLIE CHAPLIN

Altitude Films and Showtime have released a trailer for the Peter Middleton and James Spinney's documentary The Real Charlie Chaplin.  The trailer appeared on YouTube on Oct. 20th.  Here it is:

 AND INTERVIEWS:

Indiewire with Todd Haynes on The Velvet Underground

Entertainment Weekly with Will Smith on King Richard getting a song from Beyonce.

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Oscar Update: Best Picture / The Truffle Hunters on a Hot Streak / Nomadland Leads the Gothams

 OSCAR UPDATE: BEST PICTURE

Here are my latest Oscar nomination predictions for Best Picture updated since I last posted this category on  Dec. 14th.  A film's past position is indicated to the right in parentheses.  TFF #47 films are indicated in Bold.

1) Nomadland (1)

2) The Trial of the Chicago 7 (3)

3) Mank (2)

4) One Night in Miami (5)

5) Minari (4)

6) Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (6)

7) The Father (7)

8) News of the World (8)

9) Judas and the Black Messiah (9)

10) Promising Young Woman (-)

Other Possibles: Da Five Bloods, Sound of Metal, Pieces of a Woman

Hot: The Trial of the Chicago 7, Promising Young Woman

Not: Da Five Bloods, Mank

THE TRUFFLE HUNTERS ON A HOT STREAK

The past week has been a very good one for Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw's documentary The Truffle Hunters.  The film has picked up serious critical and awards season love over the past few weeks including nominations for Best Documentary of the Year from the London Critics Circle Film Awards and the Denver Film Critics Society .  Last week, the film was named Best Documentary by Capri, Hollywood-The International Film Festival.

Additionally, The Truffle Hunters were highlighted this week as a part of Deadline's Contender Series which features an interview with Dweck and Kershaw.

And if all that wasn't enough, Oscar experts are weighing in on the film's chances of ending up with an nomination for Best Documentary.  Currently the Truffle love is showing up in predictions from:

Clayton Davis at Variety who lists the film at #3 on his list of potential Oscar nominees.

Scott Feinberg at The Hollywood Reporter at #5.

Erik Anderson at Awards Watch at #5.

Matt Neglia at Next Best Picture at #8.

NOMADLAND LEADS THE GOTHAMS

TFF #47 selection Nomadland was on top at the recently announced Gotham Awards.  The film picked up wins for Best Feature and the Audience Award.

Other main winners including Riz Ahmed for Best Actor for Sound of Metal.  

Nicole Behaire for Best Actress for Miss Juneteenth.

Kinglsey Ben-Adir as Breakthrough Actor for One Night in Miami.

Variety has the complete list of nominees and winners for the Gothams linked here.

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Oscar Update: Best Picture / TFF and the Gotham Nominations / Waiting for Kurt

OSCAR UPDATE: BEST PICTURE 

Here are my latest Oscar nomination predictions for Best Picture updated since I last posted this category on  Oct. 19th.  A film's past position is indicated to the right in parentheses.  TFF #47 films are indicated in Bold.

1) Nomadland (2)

2) Mank (3)

3) The Trial of the Chicago 7 (1)

4) The Father (5)

5) One Night in Miami (6)

6) Minari (10)

7) Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (9)

8) Da 5 Bloods (7)

9) News of the World (4)

10) Soul (-)

Hot: Minari, Ma Rainey, Soul

Not: News of the World, Judas and the Black Messiah, Ammonite, On the Rocks, Tenet

TFF AND THE GOTHAMS

Gotham Award nominations were announced this past week.  The Gothams are out of the gate as the first of 2020 end of year awards.  The Gothams aim to recognize independent films.  TFF #46 and #47 films were named to the list of nominees.

Kelly Reichardt's First Cow (TFF #46) led the field with four nominations: Best Feature, Best Screenplay, Best Actor (Joe Magaro) and Breakthrough Actor (Orion Lee).

TFF #46's The Assistant also was nominated for Best Feature.  

TFF #46's Beanpole was nominated for Best International Feature.

TFF #47's Nomadland had nominations for Best Feature and Best Actress (Frances McDormand).

Here's coverage of the complete list of nominations from Erik Anderson/Awards Watch.

WAITING FOR KURT

Some followers of MTFB know that I am a big fan of the late great Kurt Vonnegut.  One of the highlights of my life was to catch a lecture from here back in February of 2003 at Oklahoma City University.  I took a personal day to do it, which, if you know me, is such a rare occurrence.  Usually the only time I use personal days to miss school is for TFF.

Got to see the man talk with a couple of my former students which, if you saw Vonnegut's standard lecture at the time, turned out to be very cool.  The man asked the audience to remember a teacher from our past, so sitting with those "kids" was special.

All of that is to mention that it looks like the Robert B. Weide/Don Argott doc about Vonnegut will likely be released sometime next summer.  The doc has been four decades in the making.  The film has been acquired by IFC Films.  No specific date has been set as yet.

Here's the brand new teaser for the film via YouTube:

Rolling Stone highlighted the news this past week in the article linked here.

Also, if you're so inclined, here's the link to the Daily Oklahoman story about Vonnegut's lecture I attended back in 2003.

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NBR and Telluride / AFI and Telluride / Gotham Award Winners: Marriage Story Wins Big / NY Critics and Telluride / And It's Never Too Early... / Updated Oscar Predictions: International, Documentary, Animated Features

NBR AND TELLURIDE

The National Board of Review released its choices for the best films in 2019 on Tuesday.  Martin Scorsese's The Irishman was named best film of the year.  NBR also includes superlatives in a number of lists and categories.  TFF #46 standout Parasite was named Best Foreign Language Film.

Among their Ten Best films of the year were these TFF #46 entrants:

Ford v Ferrari
Marriage Story
Uncut Gems
Waves

From the NBR list of the five Best Foreign Language Films:

Pain and Glory
Portrait of a Lady on Fire

And from their list of the Ten Best Independent Films:

A Hidden Life
Judy

Other individual awards from NBR for TFF #46 films/performances included:

Adam Sandler-Best Actor-Uncut Gems
Renee Zellweger-Best Actress-Judy
Uncut Gems-Best Original Screenplay


The complete rundown of the NBR's awards is linked here from Indiewire.


AFI AND TELLURIDE

In addition to the NBR announcement on Tuesday we also saw revealed the "Best of 2019" list from the American Film Institute.

In as far as far as TFF films are concerned, only Noah Baumbach's Marriage Story made the AFI Top Ten list.  AFI did name Bong Joon-ho's Parasite as a special award winner.


Here's the complete lowdown of AFI's lists from The Wrap.


GOTHAM AWARD WINNERS: MARRIAGE STORY WINS BIG

The Gotham Awards were passed out earlier this week and Noah Baumbach's TFF #46 film Marriage Story did very, very well.  It was named Best Feature, Best Screenplay and Adam Driver was named Best Actor.  The film was also named winner of the Gotham's Audience Award.

The other TFF #46 awarded film came for Taylor Russell as Breakthrough Performer for Waves.

The complete Gothams award list is linked here from Indiewire.


NEW YORK CRITICS AND TELLURIDE

The New York Film Critics Circle also announced their " Best of" for 2019 yesterday and the list of winners included these TFF #46 entrants:

Best Director: The Safdie Brothers/Uncut Gems
Best Actor: Antonio Banderas/Pain and Glory
Best Supporting Actress: Laura Dern/Marriage Story and Little Women
Best Cinematography: Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Best Foreign Language Film: Parasite
and Randy Newman was awarded a "Special Award" One has to think that, in part, he was being recognized for his work on the score for Marriage Story


The NYFCC named Martin Scorsese's The Irishman as the Best Film of the year.

You can see the entire list of NYFCC award winners from Indiewire by clicking here.


AND IT'S NEVER TOO EARLY...

The first big list of most anticipated films for 2020 is out from The Playlist.  That outlet posted its 100 Most Anticipated Films for 2020 on Tuesday and I have culled it for the dozen films that seem the most TFF #47 friendly...at least on the surface.

Largely these 12 films make my cut based on TFF history.  Here they are (in reverse order of their position on The Playlist list):

83) The White Tiger (d. Ramin Bahrani)
66) Mainstream (d. Gia Coppola)
64) Good Night Midnight (d. George Clooney)
59) Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (d. George C. Wolfe)
55) The Trial of the Chicago 7 (d. Aaron Sorkin)
48) Stillwater (d. Tom McCarthy)
27) Nomadland (d. Chloe Zhao)
17) I'm Thinking of Ending Things (d. Charlie Kaufman)
16) Bergman Island (d. Mia Hansen-Love)
13) Nightmare Alley (d. Guillermo Del Toro)
9) Mank (d. David Fincher)
4) Dune (d. Denis Villnueve)

The Playlist's top anticipated film is Christopher Nolan's Tenet.

The complete list of 100 films plus some honorable mentions is linked here.


UPDATED OSCAR PREDICTIONS: INTERNATIONAL, DOCS, ANIMATED FEATURE

I'm updating my predictions today for three categories: International, Documentary and Animated Features.  Their last predicted position is indicated in parentheses;  TFF #46 films are Bold.

INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

1) Parasite (1)
2) Pain and Glory (2)
3) Les Miserables (3)
4) Atlantics (4)
5) This Invisible Life (-)
6) Corpus Christi (-)

Other possibles: And Then They Danced, Monos, Beanpole

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

1) American Factory (1)
2) Apollo 11 (2)
3) One Child Nation (3)
4) For Sama (-)
5) Honeyland (-)
6) The Biggest Little Farm (-) (TFF #45)

Other possibles: Sea of Shadows, Edge of Democracy, The Cave, The Kingmaker

ANIMATED FEATURE

1) Toy Story 4 (1)
2) Frozen II (2)
3) I Lost My Body (4)
4) The Missing Link (3)
5) How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (5)
6) Klaus (-)

Other possibles: Abominable, Funan


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