Conclave Has a Trailer / Ioncinema on Venice / Hard Truths Delayed / Nickel Boys to Open New York Fest

CONCLAVE HAS A TRAILER

Edward Berger's Conclave currently sits at #2 on the MTFB Ten Bets for TFF #51.  There's a lot of buzz that the film will premiere early in the Venice lineup and then hop the Atlantic to screen in Telluride.  The film stars Ralph Fiennes, John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci and Isabella Rossellini.  It's set to release in the U.S. on Oct. 6th.

Here's the description from IMDb:

"Cardinal Lawrence is tasked with leading one of the world's most secretive and ancient events, selecting a new Pope, where he finds himself at the center of a conspiracy that could shake the very foundation of The Church."

And here's the trailer from YouTube:

 Lots of fun here thinking about which talent might make the trip.  Fiennes seems fairly likely but it would be cool if Lithgow, Tucci and/or Rossellini also made it to town.  Also, it feels like any of the four could be potential tribute recipients, though, again, Fiennes seems the most likely to me.

Erik Anderson of Awards Watch currently has the film predicted as a Best Picture nominee.  He also has Berger as a Directing nominee, Fiennes for Best Actor, Lithgow for Supporting Actor and Rossellini for Supporting Actress.  

IONCINEMA ON VENICE

Ioncinema put up its extensive set of speculated titles for Venice (which is reportedly announcing its lineup tomorrow).  From their list, here are what seem the most likely titles to play Venice then Telluride.

I'm Still Here/Salles

Chocobar/Martel

In the Hand of Dante/Schnabel

Maria/Larrain

Nickel Boys/Ross

Queer/Guadagnino

The Brutalist/Corbet

The Last Shopgirl/G. Coppola

The Return/Pasolini

The Room Next Door/Almodovar

Interesting that there is no mention here of Conclave.  This makes me think that the film may World Premiere at TFF #51.  On the other hand, the release of the trailer a week before the Venetian announcement could portend a World Premiere in Italy.

We'll find out more tomorrow.

HARD TRUTHS DELAYED

World of Reel reports that Bleecker Street has moved Mike Leigh's Hard Truths off of its original release date in October to Jan. 10th 2025.  The move comes after news that the Venice Film Festival  has not chosen to screen the film.

These factors don't definitively tell us anything about TFF #51 but I have to say it doesn't sound like the film is likely to make an appearance at The SHOW.

Leigh's films have been frequently been included in past Telluride lineups beginning with High Hopes in 1988 and subsequently: Naked (1993), Secrets & Lies (1996), Happy-Go-Lucky (2008), Another Year (2008), Mr. Turner (2014) and Peterloo (2018).

NICKEL BOYS TO OPEN NEW YORK FEST

Just minutes ago the New York Film Festival announced that RaMell Ross's Nickel Boys will be their opening night film.  I have had Nickel Boys as a Ten Bets often in the last month and I'm not sure that this announcement changes that.  The media release does not mention the film's release status.  If I were running the P.R. I would have its World Premiere status in the announcement if that were the case.  The absence of a designation of status suggests to me that it will have screened elsewhere before Sept. 27th.

Additionally, The favourite opened NYFF after playing at Telluride, so there is precedent.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

X (TWITTER): @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

BLUE SKY: https://bsky.app/profile/gort2.bsky.social

MTFB's Facebook Page

MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

Steve McQueen's Blitz-Off the Table? / Screen Daily and the Venice Lineup / Bikeriders Riding Into Theaters Next Week

STEVE MC QUEEN'S BLITZ-OFF THE TABLE?

I wrote in the MTFB May 30th post:

"I'd reallllly...love for Blitz to get to TFF and McQueen has a solid past with the fest, but...given the story is about the blitz of London by the Nazis in WWII, I can see McQueen wanting to hold the World Premiere as a part of the London Film Fest in October."

Now, we're hearing that Blitz may not be in play for TFF or Venice adding some credence to the possibility of my theory.

Jordan Ruimy writing for his website Word of Reel has been following this Blitz situation this past week posting on June 10th an article headlined: Where Is Steve McQueen's Blitz?

Then yesterday Ruimy had more to say in an article titled: Blitz Not Submitted to Venice or Telluride.  In that piece Ruimy writes:

"...until I hear anything different, it looks like “Blitz” might not premiere on the Lido. Same with Telluride, which is said to still be in hot pursuit of the film."

A couple of takeaways here.  First, if Ruimy is correct then Blitz is seemingly off the TFF table.  BUT...that last sentence suggests that T-ride is still on the hunt to land the film.

Here's where I am.  Unless we find out more between now and next Thursday when my first "Ten Bets" for Telluride will be posted, Blitz will not be on that list.  But, I'm keeping the door open the slimmest of cracks on the basis that Ruimy's correct and the fest is still trying to get it.

SCREEN DAILY'S VENICE SPECULATION

Screen Daily posted their speculative piece about the films that could be at The Venice Film Festival on Monday.

I've been through the article trying to pick out films that might make their initial bow in Italy and then do the quick turnaround to come to Colorado.  From their list, here are the films that I think have the best shot at that (in the order they appear on the article):

Luca Guadagnino's Queer

Pablo Larrain's Maria

Edward Berger's Conclave

Julian Schnabel's In the Hand of Dante

Walter Salles' I'm Still Here

Mike Leigh's Hard Truths

Joshua Oppenheimer's The End

Malcolm Washington's The Piano Lesson

As a side note, Screen Daily included Steve McQueen's Blitz as a Venice possibility but see the above story.

BIKERIDERS RIDING INTO THEATERS NEXT WEEK

I've made no secret of the fact that I really enjoyed Jeff Nichols' The Bikeriders last year at TFF #50 but, admittedly, that feeling wasn't universal.  In my polls post-fest, my group of industry pros ended with it ranked 9th of the 12 films that had enough eyeballs on it. The People's Telluride poll had it at 10th of 16 and the Composite poll landed it at #8 out the 10 films that met the criteria for making that field.  

It seems, however that critics have embraced it a bit better.  Metacritic has it it with a respectable 73 and its Rotten Tomatoes score is a better than respectable 84.

At any rate, the film opens next week in theaters and consequently we're seeing a lot of P.R. about it ahead of that.  Here's a taste:

Director Jeff Nichols with The Hollywood Reporter.

Austin Butler via TheBikeriders X account.

Austin Butler and Jodie Comer from IGN.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

X (TWITTER): @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

BLUE SKY: https://bsky.app/profile/gort2.bsky.social

MTFB's Facebook Page

MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

More Venice Musings / Sundance Theory

MORE MUSINGS ON VENICE

We're still several weeks away from any announcement concerning the films which will be chosen for this year's Venice Film Festival but already there's some serious speculation about what those may be.

In my last post I started to look at that with an overview of World of Reel's first stab at figuring out the Venice lineup.  Today I look at a Variety article by Nick Vivarelli that was posted last Thursday.  among the films Vivarelli predicts there are five that feel like possibilities for TFF #51:

Maria/Pablo Larrain

Queer/Luca Guadagnino

In the Hands of Dante/Julian Schnabel

Hard Truths/Mike Leigh

I'm Still Here/Walter Salles

All five of these directors have had at least one film make a Telluride lineup in the past.  These five films also were included on the WOR list I posted last Thursday.

See the complete article from Variety here.

SUNDANCE THEORY

Seems like I do one of these every year now.  This is the post where I suggest that there might be a Sundance feature film that cracks the TFF lineup.  

Telluride history and commentary suggest that TFF has a standard that films that play Labor Day weekend must be either a World or North American premiere.  But there have been exceptions:

An Education in 2009

Manchester by the Sea in 2016

The Report in 2019

The Father (would have screened had TFF happened) in 2020

Living in 2022

There are others.

In some of these cases a TFF Tribute was involved:  Casey Affleck in 2016, Adam Driver in 2019 and Anthony Hopkins would have been a Tribute recipient in 2020.

Last year I was all over A Little Prayer doing the Sundance/Telluride thing.  As you know that didn't happen.  BUT...I have a candidate for this happening again in 2024!

Readers...I give you Nora Fingscheidt's The Outrun starring Saorise Ronan.

Here's the case.  Ronan was rumored to have been set to get a Tribute in 2017 with Lady Bird's screening put that purportedly fell through.  I have often thought that Telluride would look for a way to make a Ronan tribute happen.  This could be that opportunity especially if the fest invites Blitz, which also features Ronan.  Perhaps Ronan would pull double duty as Driver did in 2019 with both The Report and Marriage Story making the TFF #46 lineup.

How confident am I about this...not that much but, like I said, it's happened before.

For hoots, here's the trailer for The Outrun:

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

X (TWITTER): @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

BLUE SKY: https://bsky.app/profile/gort2.bsky.social

MTFB's Facebook Page

MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

Final Cannes Speculation / Amy Adams Film Back in the Game? / Janet Planet Trailer, Poster and Release Date

FINAL CANNES SPECULATION

All of the anticipation about what films will be selected for the 77th Cannes film Festival comes to a conclusion on Thursday when the bulk of the films that have been invited will be revealed.  The unveiling is set for 11:00 AM Paris time.  That should mean I'll have the skinny in Thursday morning's regularly scheduled post.  A quick note here, however, is that may mean that Thursday's post doesn't go up as early in the morning as it usually does.  

With that, here are the final two Cannes spec pieces that I'll pass along with my guesses from those lists which films seem most Telluride-ish.  From Indiewire and Ioncinema.

From Indiewire:

Bird- Dir: Andrea Arnold

The End- Dir: Joshua Oppenheimer

Juror #2- Dir: Clint Eastwood

Marcel and Mister Pagnol- Dir: Sylvain Chomet

Megalopolis- Dir: Francis Ford Coppola

Oh, Canada- Dir: Paul Schrader

Queer- Dir: Luca Guadagnino

Rumours- Dir: Guy Maddin

Parthenope- Dir: Paolo Sorrentino

The complete list from Indiewire is here.

And from Ioncinema:

Anora- Dir: Sean Baker

Bird- Dir: Andrea Arnold

Emilia Perez- Dir: Jacques Audiard

Hard Truths- Dir: Mike Leigh

Parthenope- Dir: Paolo Sorrentino

The End-  Dir: Joshua Oppenheimer

 

And here are three films that are included on Ioncinema's list and have been on others that I've not included previously on my guess list but...do have a slim possibility of a T-ride play"

The Shrouds- Dir: David Cronenberg

The Most Valuable Commodity- Dir: Francois Ozon

When Autumn Comes- Dir: Michel Hazanavicius

The Ioncinema list is here.

 Let's see what happens on Thursday!

AMY ADAMS FILM BACK IN THE GAME?

I had written off Marielle Heller's Nightbitch starring TFF tribute recipient Amy Adams (2016) last year amid reports that Searchlight was unsure what to do with the film.  I had included it in early TFF #50 speculation owing to Adams past tribute and that Heller had Can You Ever Forgive Me? at TFF 2018 and that film earned three Oscar nominations (Best Actress for Melissa McCarthy, Best Supporting Actor for Richard E. Grant and Best Adapted Screenplay for Jeff Whitty and Nicole Holofcener)  All that seemed like a confluence of factors that made for a solid case that we'd see it announced for the TFF #50 lineup.  But noop.

Now comes news that Searchlight has announced an awards friendly release date of  Dec.6th.  That makes me think that a TFF #51 play could be in the cards.

The hubbub last year was that the film sounds, well...weird.  The IMDb description is fairly innocuous:

"A woman pauses her career to be a stay-at-home mom, but soon her domesticity takes a surreal turn."

Left unsaid in that description is that the "surreal turn" is that the woman believes that she's turning into a dog.

What motivated Searchlight to finally decide to release the film in the awards window?  I have no real proof but I wonder if the response to Yorgos Lanthimos' Poor Things (also from Searchlight) convinced them that "weird" was okay?

Here's more of the lowdown from The Hollywood Reporter.

JANET PLANET TRAILER, POSTER AND RELEASE DATE

A24 has just released a trailer and poster for Annie Baker's Janet Planet which screened at TFF #50.  The film will be released on June 21st.  Here's the trailer from YouTube:

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

X (TWITTER): @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

BLUE SKY: https://bsky.app/profile/gort2.bsky.social

MTFB's Facebook Page

MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

More Cannes Speculation / Orlando Has a Date

 MORE CANNES SPECULATION

Over the weekend I checked in on Jordan Ruimy /World of Reel's evolving list of possible films that will be invited to the Cannes Film Festival in less than two weeks (April 11th).  As always, I look to Cannes for the emergence of films that could World Premiere there in May and then emerge at Telluride as North American premieres.

Looking at Ruimy's list, it seems like there is a lot of agreement with films that I included from Screen Daily's Cannes list last week.  Here are the films from Ruimy's post that I feel like have the most likely chance of playing TFF:

Megalopolis-Dir: Frances Ford Coppola (although there's a good deal of buzz that it may NOT appear at Cannes after all.  It seems that Coppola wants a distribution deal in place before the film screens anywhere and if that doesn't happen, the focus for its first public screening might switch to a fall festival scenario-stay tuned).

Anora- Dir: Sean Baker

Bird- Dir: Andrea Arnold

Emilia Perez- Dir: Jacques Audiard

Hard Truths- Dir: Mike Leigh

Parthenope- Dir: Paolo Sorrentino

The End- Dir: Joshua Oppenheimer

The Apprentice- Dir: Ali Abbasi

In the Hands of Dante- Dir: Julian Schnabel

Rumors- Dir: Guy Maddin

WOR's complete list is linked here.

ORLANDO HAS A DATE

Janus Films has announced a release date for physical media sales of Paul B. Preciado's Orlando: My Political Biography.  Blu-Ray and DVD sales of the documentary will begin on June 25th.

Here's the IMDb description of the film:

"Academic virtuoso turned filmmaker Paul B. Preciado's Berlin Film Festival award-winning doc tells his and others' stories of transition through unique reenactments and visual interpretations of Virginia Woolf's Orlando: A Biography."

And here is the announcement from Janus Films.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

X (TWITTER): @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

BLUE SKY: https://bsky.app/profile/gort2.bsky.social

MTFB's Facebook Page

MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

Vanity Fair's Too Early Oscar Picks and TFF / Cannes Speculation and TFF / The Best Docs of the 21st Century and TFF

VANITY FAIR'S TOO EARLY OSCAR PICKS AND TFF

I'm continuing my current project of scouring early Oscar prognostications for possible titles that might pop up at the 51st Telluride Film Festival.  Today's source is Joe Reid of Vanity Fair. These predicted films seem to me to have the best chance at TFF (listed in the order they are presented in the article):

Megalopolis- Dir: Frances Ford Coppola

Hard Truths- Dir: Mike Leigh

Blitz- Dir: Steve McQueen

Bird- Dir: Andrea Arnold

The End- Dir: Joshua Oppenheimer

Conclave- Dir: Edward Berger

The Actor- Dir: Duke Johnson

The Piano Lesson- Dir: Malcolm Washington

Maria- Dir: Pablo Larrain

The Nickel Boys- Dir: RaMell Ross

Queer; Dir: Luca Guadagnino

Long Day's Journey Into Night- Dir: Jonathan Kent

The Apprentice- Dir: Ali Abbasi

SNL 1975- Dir: Jason Reitman

The complete list of Vanity Fair predictions is linked here.

CANNES SPECULATION AND TFF

In addition to Oscar speculation as a way to sense some of the films that could be on their way to Telluride, the films that are selected for inclusion at the Cannes Film Festival merit investigation.

Each year there are a number of films that end up playing at Cannes in May and again as a North American premiere at TFF.  Last year I logged 10 films that played both fests including Anatomy of a Fall, The Zone of Interest and The Teachers' Lounge.  The average is around eight per year.

So, to begin that part of the process, I took a look at Screen Daily's annual Cannes speculation  article that was posted a week ago.  Screen Daily divides its list geographically.  That said, here are what feel like films that could possibly make the Cannes/Telluride connection:

Anora- Dir: Sean Baker

Maria- Dir: Pablo Larrain

Megalopolis- Dir: Frances Ford Coppola

Bird- Dir: Andrea Arnold

The End- Dir: Joshua Oppenheimer

Emilia Perez-Jacques Audiard

Dear Paris- Dir: Marjane Satrapi

The complete Screen Daily article is linked here.

THE BEST DOCS OF THE 21ST CENTURY AND TFF

Indiewire posted a list of what they have determined to be the 52 best documentaries of the 21st century.  Not surprisingly a good number of the films that made the list also made an appearance at the Telluride Film Festival.

Here's the list of docs from the top 52 that screened at TFF.  These are listed in reverse order by where Indiewire ranked them.  The year the doc appeared at Telluride is indicated to the title's right in parentheses:

43) The Central Park Five (2012)\

31) Procession (2021)

29) Fire at Sea (2016)

17) Waltz with Bashir (2008)

13) Bowling for Columbine (2002)

10) The Look of Silence (2015)

9) Stories We Tell (2013)

6) Faces Places (2017)

5) All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022)

4) Flee (2021)

1) The Act of Killing (2013)

The complete list of 52 including description and analysis is linked here.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

X (TWITTER): @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

BLUE SKY: https://bsky.app/profile/gort2.bsky.social

MTFB's Facebook Page

MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

Variety's Early Oscar Predictions and TFF / MTFB's Unofficial TFF Oscar History Updated / Trailers: Wildcat and Food Inc. 2 / Interviews and Profiles

VARIETY'S EARLY OSCAR PREDICITONS AND TFF

I'm continuing my current project of scouring early Oscar prognostications for possible titles that might pop up at the 51st Telluride Film Festival.  Today's source is Clayton Davis from Variety.  For this source I looked at Best Picture Predictions first and then for other possibilities from the acting, directing and screenplay categories.

So here are the films from those predictions that seem to me to be the most Telluride-ific.

From Clayton's 10 Best Picture predictions:

Andrea Arnold's Bird

Steve McQueen's Blitz

Edward Berger's Conclave

Joshua Oppenheimer's The End

Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis

RaMell Ross' The Nickel Boys

Malcolm Washington's The Piano Lesson

From Clayton's alternates for Best Picture:

Ali Abbasi's The Apprentice

Mike Leigh's Hard Truths

Pablo Larrain's Maria

Paolo Sorrentino's Parenthope

Luca Gaudagnino's Queer

Jason Reitman's SNL 1975

And from the other categories:

Paul Schrader's Oh Canada

Duke Johnson's The Actor

Jonathan Kent's Long Day's Journey Into Night

Linked here are Clayton's complete set of early Oscar predictions for Variety.

MTFB'S UNOFFICIAL TFF OSCAR HISTORY UPDATED

As promised, the Unofficial TFF Oscar History Page has been updated to reflect the results of the recently concluded Oscar season.  Highlighted updates are that TFF films collectively went over 600 total nominations (607 to be exact).  TFF films have won 127 Oscars.  

I have included a new nugget with this update and that is a list of TFF films that earned four or more Oscar wins.

See all the newly included info from this year's Oscars plus the new section by using the link above on the masthead.

TRAILERS

FOR ETHAN HAWKE'S WILDCAT

AND FOR ROBERT KENNER AND MELISSA ROBLEDO'S FOOD INC. 2

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Costume Designer Holly Waddington for Poor Things from A.Frame.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

X (TWITTER): @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

BLUE SKY: https://bsky.app/profile/gort2.bsky.social

MTFB's Facebook Page

MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays