CHECKING THE DISTRIBUTORS: FOCUS FEATURES
I'm continuing the assessment of various distribution companies and their past TFF profiles as a method of trying to predict the films that will be selected for inclusion to TFF #50. Today's specimen is Focus Features.
Focus has had a robust presence at The SHOW for the last few years:
2022- TAR, Armageddon Time
2021- Belfast, The Card Counter, Red Rocket
2020- The Way I See It
2019- Waves
2018- Boy Erased
2017- Darkest Hour
2015- Suffragette
2012- Hyde Park on Hudson
2006- Catch a Fire
2017- Darkest Hour
2015- Suffragette
2012- Hyde Park on Hudson
2006- Catch a Fire
As you can see, Focus has been more present at Telluride the last couple of years and has had one TFF selection every year since 2017. Focus has also had three of its films from TFF nominated for Best Picture: TAR, Belfast and Darkest Hour over the past six years.
So as we contemplate their 2023 we land on two films. One seems to me to be a no-brainer for inclusion at Telluride and the other has a chance.
The no-brainer is Alexander Payne's The Holdovers starring Payne's old Sideways pal Paul Giamatti. Payne has huge connections to Telluride after having served as Guest Director in 2009 as well as serving on the fest's Board of Governors. In addition, he has screened The Descendants (2011), Nebraska (2013) and Downsizing (2017) at TFF.
As a matter of fact, if you saw last Thursday's post of 2023's first "Ten Bets" you'll have seen that I have The Holdovers as the #1 "bet".
The other Focus film that's in the mix is Ethan Coen's first solo directing effort since he and brother Joel decided to split...at least for the time being. The film is Drive Away Dolls which IMDb Pro says went into post-production in May. I'm much less confident that Drive Away is at TFF. Yes, Coen was part of a three-way Tribute at TFF #40 in 2013 with his brother and T. Bone Burnett and Inside Llewyn Davis was screened. But since then both Hail, Caesar! (2016) and The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018) have come and gone without making a stop at TFF. It remains the only Coen Brothers film to have played at Telluride.
Hail, Caesar! played the Berlin, Glasgow and Belgrade Film Fests after its Feb. 5th premiere and was distributed by Universal. Buster Scruggs played Venice, New York, BFI London and AFI among others prior to its release on Nov. 16th and was from Netflix.
Coen also directed the doc Jerry Lee Lewis; Trouble In Mind which screened at Cannes in 2022 and seems to be under A24's umbrella but has yet to be released in the United States.
All of which is to say that history points to the unlikelihood that Drive Away drives into the San Juans on August 31st.
That said, Ioncinema's Eric Lavallee writing about the film on April 17th said Telluride was in the mix for the film:
"It’s called Drive-Away Dolls. It’s dropping on September 22nd. Telluride, Venice Film Festival and TIFF programmers have their tasers pointed."
Other outlets such as Gold Derby, SlashFilm and The Playlist have at least mentioned the possibility so I can't dismiss it completely.
All of the other Focus films for 2023 have already screened at a domestic film fest-Every Body, A Thousand and One, or have been released-Asteroid City or seem unlikely-My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 set for U.S. release on Sept. 8th.
So for now...chances for Telluride:
The Holdovers 80%
Drive Away Dolls 25%
Serendipitously, as I was writing this portion of the post for today Focus dropped a poster and a trailer for Drive Away Dolls:
Interestingly, Roger Freidman at ShowBiz411.com wrote on Friday:
“Drive Away Dolls” premieres September 22nd, so look for it to be front and center at the Telluride and Toronto film fests."
I don't know what he knows but that sounds promising.
GUEST DIRECTING FOR THE 50TH
10 years ago, we had gotten down to August 5th and no guest director had yet been named for TFF #40. In my post that day I had a segment on that mystery in which, among other things, I suggested:
"Have 6 of them...I'll bet you have at least 6 past Guest Directors in attendance. Have each of them select one film from the list they originally programmed. Or cross-pollinate them...have an Alexander Payne program one film from Errol Morris' original list."
I even had a list of possible choices for the "half dozen" concept:
"I have to believe that Morris, Tavernier, Sellars, Rushdie, Payne and maybe Bogdanovich, Henry and Boorman will be in town."
Then, when we did find out what TFF had done it WAS six guest directors who had been past Guest Directors: Don DeLillo, Buck Henry, Phillip Lopate, Michael Ondaatje, B. Ruby Rich and Salman Rushdie.
So I had gotten the notion right and two of the six directors.
Honestly, I just sort of blindly stumbled onto what eventually happened.
But, with that in mind, could the fest do something similar for the 50th?
Of that list of six from 2013, all but Buck Henry are still living. Bring all five back? Or a brand new set of six. Or a mix of some from the 40th and other past guest directors.
OR---other thoughts...
*A Guest director from each of the decades since the position was established in 1988.
*Some really BIG NAMES...from entertainment or politics. I suggested this also back in 2013. Maybe names like Obama, Jagger, McCartney?
*Some really BIG NAMES from directing: Scorsese, Spielberg?
*Some TFF regulars who have never Guest Directed: Ken Burns and Werner Herzog unbelievably have never Guest Directed.
I'm very excited to find out what the fest's plans are in this regard.
IT WAS PARTY TIME LAST WEEK
Telluride annually has hosted a party during the summer months in Los Angeles. That happened last Tuesday as was evidenced by a couple of attendees posting pics of their invites on social media.
Deadline's Pete Hammond was there and as he has done in the past, wrote a bit about the evening last Friday. In the post, Hammond makes a claim that I have always thought was likely true:
"The annual June kickoff event in Los Angeles was packed, and as one awards pundit told me, “I always love this party because you can totally get clues as to what movies are going to Telluride just by seeing which studios show up here.”
Hammond then goes on to list at least some of the outfits that were there:
"...there were reps out in force from the likes of Searchlight, Focus Features, Roadside Attractions, Sony Pictures Classics, Netflix, Amazon Studios, and many more, so take your guesses."
If you've been reading this space the last few weeks you'll see a number of distributors on Pete's list that I have already profiled with an analysis of what films that might be bringing to TFF #50:
Focus Features today, Searchlight on June 19th, SPC on June 9th, Netflix on June 5th. I have Amazon teed up for Thursday's post but the Roadside Attractions mention is a little puzzling. For the life of me I can't find a title under the Roadside banner that feels like a TFF candidate.
The film they have that seems the most likely is Bill Pohlad's Dreamin' Wild but it is currently set for release a month before the festival. Sooooo...I'm flummoxed.
TORONTO TEASE
Reportedly the Toronto International Film Festival will announce some information about their fest on Wednesday. Likely it will be an announcement of their opening night film and/or some splashy World Premiere.. Last year at this time TIFF announced that Rian Johnson's Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery would World Premiere there.
What will we hear from them on Wednesday? Maybe The Color Purple? Maestro? The Killer? Or, perhaps the North American Premiere of Killers of the Flower Moon? That last, I think, is still much more likely to show up at the New York Film Fest which opens a week before Flower Moon's announced limited release date of Oct. 6th.
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com
