The Distributors 2018: Netflix / Widows Has a New T.V. Spot / Coming Friday: Ten Bets #1

Hello on this late Tuesday in June...


THE DISTRIBUTORS 2018: NETFLIX

I talked last week about Amazon Studios and how the streaming giant has developed a robust relationship with Telluride over the past few years.  Also making in-roads with Telluride is the other streamer that has changed the face of how film/TV relate and are integrated/ignored vis-a-vis film festivals.  Netflix has made its mark in Telluride over the past few years.  To wit:

2015- Beasts of No Nation, Winter on Fire
2016- The Ivory Game, Into the Inferno
2017- First They Killed My Father, Wormwood

So, a couple of things each year for the last three years.

It will be interesting to see if the Cannes/Netflix dustup from earlier this year has any effect on Netflix's TFF profile.

Netflix certainly has projects that could make a play at T-ride and/or, perhaps Venice since none of their stable played at Cannes.

Here are some of the films that are under the Netflix banner that could make the grade for Labor Day weekend:

Orson Welles' The Other Side of the Wind
Alfonso Curaron's Roma
David Mackenzie's Outlaw King
Alice Rohrwacher's Happy as Lazzaro
Lukas Dhnot's Girl

and a couple of wild cards...

IMDb reports that J.C. Chandor's Triple Frontier has gone into post-production.  Could it be ready for an early September bow?  It's unlikely but not impossible.

And then there is the biggest of Netflix's big fish, Martin Scorsese's The Irishman which is dated for release until 2019 but has reported been in post-production since February.

All of these could make a play at TFF #45 but, as you'd expect, some have a better shot than others.

Probably the most likely is the finished project from Orson Welles.  I am increasingly bullish on its chances of making the fest.

The two Cannes acquisitions, Girl and Happy as Lazzraro, are next in line in terms of TFF probability.

Curaon's Roma also has a decent shot to play as the buzz on it is strong and it's probably Netflix's best shot at breaking into this year's Oscar race.

I get the sense that the Mackenzie film is less likely and, of course, both the Chandor and Scorsese are extremely unlikely.

Netflix almost certainly has a documentary or two that I am overlooking that could/will make the TFF lineup.

This could be the first year Netflix lands more than two films at Telluride-or-because of the rift with Cannes-none.

Chances...

The Other Side of the Wind- 80%
Girl and/or Happy as Lazzaro- 50%
Roma- 40%
Outlaw King- 25%
Triple Frontier- 15%
The Irishman- 5%

Thursday's Distributor d'jour will be the Cohen Media Group.


WIDOWS HAS A NEW T.V. SPOT

Steve McQueen's Widows continues to draw a lot of attention and that interest was stoked once again earlier this week with the release of a new television spot for the film.

Widows tells the story of a group of women (Viola Davis, Carrie Coon and Michelle Rodriguez among them) who face the aftermath of a failed crime that their dead husbands tried to commit.  The film is slated to open Nov. 16th.

Here's the new spot courtesy of YouTube:

COMING FRIDAY: TEN BETS #1

That's right, three days hence comes the first "official" stab at ten films that I think will play at the 45th Telluride Film Festival.  I'll post a new "Ten Bets" each Friday until the fest with a special final "Ten Bets" on Wednesday, August 29th, the day before TFF announces the lineup.

Between this Friday and then we'll gain clarity from announcements about the lineups for Toronto, Venice, New York, London and Fantastic Fest (Austin).

Also, the "Ten Bets" will actually expand as more and more information becomes available.  Last year, the final list before the TFF announcement contained 25 films (24 of which played the festival).

So, mark your calendar you Telluride film fans...Friday is day one as the countdown to Labor Day weekend gets real.



That's a wrap for today's MTFB.  More to come on Thursday.


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Widows Pics and Trailer / Indiewire Scans Foreign Language Oscar Players

Welcome to the first Monday in June and the start of the MTFB grind to TFF #45.

I start the summer posting protocol with the expansion of posts.  Normally, I post on Monday and Thursday mornings but starting this week, I'll be adding posts on Tuesday and Friday as we move our way closer and closer to TFF #45 scheduled for this year from Aug. 31-Sept. 3.

Hope you enjoy and find the next three months of goo...useful.


WIDOWS PICS AND TRAILER

Any number of sources reported over the weekend that Steve McQueen's Widows had dropped stills and would be dropping a trailer today.  I have included a couple of stills from The Film Stage here and will include the trailer in tomorrow's post.

I'm about 50/50 on Widows' chances of making the TFF #45 lineup.  Working in its favor is the strong presence that McQueen has had at the fest over the years with screenings of Hunger ('08), Shame ('11) and 12 Years a Slave ('13) and personally, Shame and 12 Years are two of the best films that I have seen at Telluride.  So that kind of track record suggests TFF #45 could happen.

Countering that are two factors.  Widows, from all descriptions, sounds like a genre film which none of McQueen's previous Telluride films could be called and it's housed at 20th Century Fox, which has certainly had plenty of play at Telluride via its indie arm-Fox Searchlight, but 20th Century Fox itself...not so much.

So that's why Widows is a 50/50 prediction for TFF #45 at this point.

Trailer tomorrow here on the blog.


INDIEWIRE SCANS FOREIGN LANGUAGE OSCAR PLAYERS

Anne Thompson posted a speculative piece on Indiewire Friday looking at films that she feels have the best inside track for a Foreign Language Oscar nomination as the summer begins.  All five of what Anne lists as front-runners are films that played at Cannes and are all possible Telluride players.

They are:

Capernaum
Cold War
Everybody Knows
Happy as Lazarro
Shoplifters

Among other films listed as contenders that I feel, at least at this point, like T-ride players are: Ayka and Girl.

In an interesting twist, Anne does not include Lee Chang-dong's Burning.  The film was the undeniable critical champ at Cannes but also received no prizes in the official competition.

I have it on my T-ride watch list because it scored so well with critics and because Chang-dong has played Telluride previously with Secret Sunshine and Poetry.

The complete article is linked here.


More tomorrow including, I hope, the Widows trailer.

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The Awards From the 71st Cannes Film Festival / Analyzing the Cannes Awards History for TFF Clues / The Last Round of Critics for Cannes 2018 / A Couple of Other Cannes Notes / A First Look at Beautiful Boy

Welcome back from your weekend...hope it was a good one...


THE AWARDS FROM THE 71ST CANNES FILM FESTIVAL

The Cannes Film Fest closed Saturday with the presentation of awards.  The winners were:

Main Competition:

Palme d'Or: Shoplifters
Grand Prix: BlacKkKlansman
Jury Prize: Capharnaum
Director: Pawel Pawlikowski-Cold War
Screenplay: Happy as Lazzaro and Three Faces
Actress: Samal Yeslyamova-Ayka
Actor: Marcello Fonte-Dogman
Special Palme: The Image Book

Here's the trailer for the Palme d'Or winner from YouTube:

Un Certain Regard:

UCR Prize: Border
Screenplay: Sofia
Best Performance: Victor Polster-Girl
Director: Sergei Loznitsa-Donbass
Special Jury Prize: The Dead and the Others

From among the Palme winners, I suspect every film is a potential TFF player at this point with the exception of Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman which Focus Features has set for release on Aug. 10th and I also have my doubts about Goddard's Image Book.

Another wrinkle is the acquisition of Happy as Lazzaro and Girl during the fest and, at this point, trying to divine what that will me for how those films get released and the implications for a possible Telluride play are difficult.

Netflix has been a presence at Telluride the past three years but that was prior to the brouhaha that played out in France this past few weeks that resulted in Netflix screening nothing in Cannes.  How that factors into their plans heading to the fall and if it has a residual effect regarding TFF programmers...I don't know.

In addition to the Cannes acquisitions, Netflix also has Martin Scorsese's The Irishman which one would think would be a major player come awards season if it's done... and that's a BIG IF.  And they also have Alfonso Cuaron's Roma and Orson Welles' The Other Side of the Wind (which I really believe will play TFF #45).

Stand by to hear what the Netflix plan is for releasing these acquisitions.  Maybe that will give us some insight.

Here is the official list of winners from Cannes.



ANALYZING THE CANNES AWARDS HISTORY FOR TFF CLUES

Regular readers of this space probably know from past posts that the Cannes/Telluride crossover averages between seven and eight films each year.  Most of those titles come from the main competition and Un Certain Regard sections that.  Occasionally titles will come from some part of the non-competition slate or even the Directors Fortnight presentations.

So, as I have said, the Cannes/Telluride crossover is strong and has a lengthy history but the connection to the Cannes prize winners is fairly tenuous.  Over the past decade, only three Palme d'Or winners have made the journey to Telluride: The White Ribbon ('10), Amour ('12) and Blue Is the Warmest Colour ('13).

Actually, in the last ten years, the film that wins the Grand Prix (second place essentially) is more likely to make the trip to the San Juans: Gomorrah ('08), A Prophet ('09), Of Gods and Men ('10), Inside Llewyn Davis ('13), Son of Saul ('15).

The other modestly successful predictor, weirdly, is Best Actor: Biutiful ('10), The Artist ('11), The Hunt ('12), Nebraska ('13), Mr. Turner ('14).

Other Cannes prizes and their TFF crossovers the past ten years are:

Jury Prize (third place): Fish Tank ('09), Loveless ('17)
Director: Foxcatcher ('14), Graduation ('16)
Actress: The Past ('13), Carol ('15)
Screenplay: Poetry ('10), Footnote ('11), Leviathan ('14)
UCR Prize: Tulpan ('08), Rams ('16), A Man of Integrity ('17)

This history suggests that the most likely Cannes plays for TFF #45 would be BlacKkKlansman but we know it won't be as it will be released three weeks before the festival which points us toward the Best Actor winner-Dogman.  That has a real shot.



THE LAST ROUND-UP OF CRITICS FOR CANNES 2018

Here's the final critical assessment of films that played these last two weeks in Cannes beginning with the behemoth from Reini Urban:

Overall from all sections the top five films critically were:

1) Dead Souls
2) Burning
3) Thunder Road
4) Shoplifters
5) Happy as Lazarro

(Note: the short film Ultra Purple/Apocalypse After actually would sit at #4 but was scored by only five critics.  Dead Souls was also only scored by 16 critics)


Top five from the Palme d'Or section:

1) Burning (8.10/10)
2) Shoplifters (7.67)
3) Happy as Lazarro (7.63)
4) The Wild Pear Tree (7.49)
5) Cold War (7.42)

Top three from the UCR section

1) Long Days Journey Into Night (7.40)
2) Girl (7.15)
3) The Dead and the Others (6.91)

Complete Reini Urban compilation of critics is linked here.


Todas Criticas...

Top Five from the Palme section:

1) Happy as Lazarro (8.31/10)
2) Burning (8.16)
3) The Image Book (8.13)
4) The Wild Pear Tree (7.44)
5) Ash Is The Purest White (7.23)

Top three in UCR:

1) Long Days Journey Into Night (7.98)
2) The Dead and the Others (7.17)
3) Girl (6.69)


The complete Todas Criticas board is here.


From Ioncinema's ratings of the Palme d'Or competition:

1) Burning (3.8/5-TIE)
1) The Wild Pear Tree (3.8)
3) Cold War (3.7)
4) Shoplifters (3.6)
5) Ash Is the Purest White (3.3 TIE)
5) Leto (3.3)
5) Three Faces (3.3)


The Ioncinema chart is here.


Screen Daily's grid at the completion of the Palme films:

1) Burning (3.8/4)
2) Shoplifters (3.2)
3) The Image Book (3.0)
4) Cold War (2.9 TIE)
4) Ash Is the Purest White (2.9)
4) Happy as Lazarro (2.9)

The Screen Daily grid is here.


The International Cinephile Society's ratings

Top five from the Palme d'Or comp:

1) Burning (4.50/5)
2) The Image Book (4.28)
3) Ash Is the Purest White (4.08)
4) Shoplifters (4.03)
5) Cold War (3.74)


The ICS critics' grid is here.


A COUPLE OF OTHER CANNES NOTES...

Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote has finally screened for live humans in a theater!!!

And now that it has...I can't say that I'm surprised that I have been seeing a number of reviews that have used words like "confused" and "missing a bit of soul".  As I type (with a small number of reviews counted, RT has it at 57% and Metacritic has it at a 50.

It sounds like what I've come to expect from Gilliam...

Does that mean it's off the table for TFF #45?  Can't say that yet.

Another note about the 71st Cannes:  I was a little alarmed at how often I saw the phrase "slow burn" in takes about films that played...which I sometimes think is code for "it's slow but important".

Now that Cannes is in the books, I'll pay attention to acquisition news and release dates concerning these titles for additional TFF clues.


 A FIRST LOOK AT BEAUTIFUL BOY

Felix Van Groeningen's Beautiful Boy will probably be on my first Ten Bets list (which is about six weeks away).  From Amazon Studios, the film features Timothee Chalamet (Oscar nominated last year for Call Me By Your Name) and Steve Carell (Oscar nominated for Foxcatcher) as son and father dealing with the youngsters addiction to meth.

It's likely going to be a part of our conversations for the next several months.

That said, this week, we saw the first footage for the film via a 30 second teaser which is here from YouTube:

Additionally, here is coverage from Indiewire and The Playlist of the release of the teaser.


That's your MTFB for this Monday.  Have a good week everyone...and more to come on Thursday.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com

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The Seventh Telluride Film Festival Re-Visited / Updated Critical Responses from France / Indiewire Handicaps the Palme Contenders

THE SEVENTH TELLURIDE FILM FESTIVAL RE-VISITED

My review of the history of Telluride Film Festival's continues today with a glance at the 7th TFF.  It ran from Aug. 29-Sept. 1, 1980.

Tributes: Robert Altman, Maurice Pialat, Karl Struss

SHOWS:

Afternoon of War
All Quiet on the Western Front
The Big Combo
Brewster McCloud
Bye Bye Brazil
The Cheat
Contempt
Courage of the West
Death of a Guide
Devil to Pay
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Every Man for Himself
Faster Pussycat, Kill, Kill
Final Accord
The First Teacher
Gun Crazy
Health
Here's Lookin' at You Kid
It Always Rains on Sunday
Journey into Fear
L'enfance Nue
LouLou
McCabe and Mrs. Miller
The Mirror
The Mouth Agape
Mudhoney
My Life to Live
Night World
The Perfumed Nightmare
Plan of a 19 Year Old
A Slave of Love
The Story of Temple Drake
Sunrise
Thieves Like Us
Thunder Trail
Vertigo
We Will Not Grow Old Together
Which Way to the Front


Guests:

Lew Ayres
Ronee Blakley
Keith Carradine
Shelley Duvall
Jean-Luc Goddard
Joan Hackett
Werner Herzog
Russ Meyer
Volker Schlondorff
Paul Schrader
Barbet Schroeder


UPDATED CRITICAL RESPONSES FROM FRANCE

Since Monday, the critical winds in Cannes have shifted as new films have been screening.  Very few are left to premiere before we get to Saturday and the close of the festival.

At this point, here are your critical leaders in the Palme d'Or competition from several different compilations (with at least two dozen critics reporting).

Reini Urban (the largest database of Cannes critics out there):

1) Burning (d: Lee Chang-dong) 7.90/10
2) Shoplifters (d. Hirekazu Kore-eda)7.67
3) Happy as Lazzaro (d. Alice Rohrwacher) 7.47

Todas Criticas:

1) The Image Book (d. Jean-Luc Goddard) 8.35
2) Happy as Lazzaro 8.20
3) Burning 8.09

Ioncinema:

1) Burning 3.9/5
2) Cold War (d. Pawel Pawlikowski) 3.7
3) Shoplifters 3.6

International Cinephile Society:

1) Burning 4.83/5
2) The Image Book 4.43
3) Shoplifters 4.12


Complete looks at each sources ratings are linked:

Reini Urban

Todas Criticas

Ioncinema

ICS


INDIEWIRE HANDICAPS THE PALME CONTENDERS

Eric Kohn at Indiewire has been updating their estimation of which films have the best shot at winning the Palme d'Or this weekend in France.

The most recent update has the top three as:

1) Happy as Lazzaro
2) Shoplifters
3) Cold War

The complete updated post is here.


As of my post this morning, however, Kohn has not yet included Burning and the critical response suggests that it could easily move into Kohn's top three with his next update.


That's your update for this Thursday...more on Monday (with probable Cannes updates over the weekend).



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