Obsessing about the Telluride Film Festival and the film awards season since 2008!
"The best blog out there for predicting what will be going to Telluride."-Matt Neglia, Next Best Picture
"The Nostradamus of Telluride"
-Tim Appelo, Movies for Grownups
TELLURIDE TIME TRAVEL- THE 11TH TELLURIDE FILM FESTIVAL
I'm continuing my TFF history project in today's post includes a quick look back at the 11th Telluride Film Festival. TFF #11 occurred on Aug. 31-Sept. 2, 1984. Highlights:
Tribute Recipients were: Henry Hathaway, Janet Leigh and Andrzej Wajda.
SHOWS:
Act of Violence
Almonds and Raisins
America and Lewis Hine
Camila
Cheaters
Coup De Torchon
Everything for Sale
Full Moon in Paris
Go Masters
Go Tell It on the Mountain
The Holy Innocents
L'Hirondelle et la Mesange
The Last Campaign
Lonely Hearts
Love in Germany
Maidstone
Man of Flowers
Milky Way
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
My First Wife
Paris, Texas
Peter Ibbetson
A Poet in the Cinema: Andrey Tarkovsky
Providence
Raw Deal
Reign of Terror
Repo Man
Slightly Scarlett
Steaming
Stranger than Paradise
Sunday in the Country
The Times of Harvey Milk
To the Last Man
Where the Green Ants Dream
Wooden Crosses
Participants (partial list):
Ry Cooder
Athol Fugard
Werner Herzog
Jim Jarmusch
Klaus Kinski
Jessica Lange
Norman Mailer
Sam Sheperd
Dean Stockwell
Bertrand Travernier
Harry Dean Stanton
Wim Wenders
TFF #11 became an important fest to remember this year with the death of Harry Dean Stanton.
LOOKING BACK AT LAST YEAR'S OSCAR PREDICTIONS
Every year after the Oscar ceremony ends, there are some pundits who turn the page very quickly and predict possible players for the Oscar race a year out. I scour those for clues about films that could become Telluride invitees.
I thought today, with Oscar 2018 less than a month away, it might be interesting to see what that looked like. For example, in my Mar. 2, 2017 post I included a link to an Awards Circuit story that named 50 anticipated films.
From that list I named Downsizing, Battle of the Sexes and Wonderstruck as TFF possibilities (and they have zero nominations between them). I also incorrectly guessed The Current War, Suburbicon and Molly's Game.
A more Oscar specific Awards Circuit article was referenced on Mar. 9th.
I culled that list of films and named possible TFF films which included: Battle of the Sexes, Downsizing, Wonderstruck, Lean on Pete and The Shape of Water.
And Glenn Whipp took a stab for the L.A. Times which I evaluated and named Downsizing, Wonderstruck and hinted at Darkest Hour.
So as we move to the end of Oscar season, know this...there will be a new set of these type of articles soon and I will examine those for TFF #45 possibilities.
Welcome back from the Thanksgiving weekend...hope you survived your food-induced coma...
UPDATING THE LEAD ACTING OSCAR PREDICTIONS
As we get ready to ring down the curtain on November, here is an update of where The Film Awards Clearinghouse now thinks the Best Actress and Best Actor categories stand.
Our last look at these two categories was on Nov. 2nd.
As always, potential nominees from TFF #44 films are in Bold.
BEST ACTRESS
Here were the standings on Nov. 2nd:
1) Frances McDormand/Three Billboards 2) Sally Hawkins/The Shape of Water
3) Margot Robbie/I, Tonya
4) Meryl Streep/The Post 5) Saoirse Ronan/Lady Bird
Others: Emma Stone/Battle of the Sexes, Jessica Chastain/Molly's Game, Kate Winslet/Wonder Wheel
And today's new set of predictions:
1) Frances McDormand/Three Billboards
2) Sally Hawkins/The Shape of Water
3) Meryl Streep/The Post
4) Margot Robbie/I, Tonya
5) Saoirse Ronan/Lady Bird
Others: Jessica Chastain/Molly's Game, Kate Winslet/Wonder Wheel and Judi Dench/Victoria and Abdul
Comment: It feels like the top four are bunched very tightly and that Emma Stone's chances for a back-to-back Oscar win have all but disappeared.
BEST ACTOR
Here's where the Best Actor race seemed to be three weeks ago:
1) Gary Oldman/Darkest Hour
2) Jake Gyllenhaal/Stronger
3) Timothee Chalamet/Call Me By Your Name
4) Daniel Day Lewis/Phantom Thread
5) Denzel Washington/Roman Israel, Esq.
Others: Steve Carell/Last Flag Flying, Andrew Garfield/Breathe, Tom Hanks/The Post
And here's the most recent FAC predictions for the category:
1) Gary Oldman/Darkest Hour
2) Jake Gyllenhaal/Stronger
3) Timothee Chalamet/Call Me By Your Name
4) Tom Hanks/The Post
5) Daniel Day Lewis/Phantom Thread
Others: James Franco.The Disaster Artist, Denzel Washington/Roman Israel Esq. and Andrew Garfield/Breathe
Comment: Hanks has some serious buzz now that some people have actually seen The Post in screenings.
TFF TIME TRAVEL- A LOOK AT TFF #14
The Telluride Film Festival historical retrospective that has been an on-going project on this site since I began with a throw back to 2005's in April continues today with a look back to the 14th Telluride Film Festival. TFF #14 took place Sept. 4-7, 1987.
Tributes: Don Siegel, Stephen Frears and Tenghiz Abuladze.
SHOWS:
Acting Our Age
Au Revoir Les Enfants
Babette's Feast
Barfly
The Beguiled
The Blot
Brightness
Broken April
Candy Mountain
Confession
A Flame in My Heart
Hail, Hail Rock and Roll
Haiti Dreams of Democracy
The Houses Are Filled with Smoke
A Hungry Feeling: The Life and Death of Brendan Behan
I've Heard the Mermaids Singing
The Magic Toyshop
The Magic Tree
Manon of the Spring
The Marvelous Life of Joan of Arc
Molba
Polyester
Repentance
Sammy and Rosie Get Laid
Sans Soliel
Shy People
They Made Me a Fugitive
This Is Our Home, It Is Not for Sale
Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done
The Tingler
Traveling North
Wagonmaster
Walter and June
The Whales of August
Guests:
Harry Carey, Jr.
Taylor Hackford
Ben Johnson
Chuck Jones
Louis Malle
Leonard Maltin
Helen Mirren
Bill Plympton
Barbet Schroeder
John Waters
DOUG JONES IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Actor Doug Jones has been a frequent collaborator with Guillermo Del Toro and that relationship continues with Del Toro's The Shape of Water. Jones plays "The Asset", the focus of Sally Hawkins desire and Michael Shannon's obsession.
Jones was profiled this past week in an article from Jenna Marotta for Indiewire.
Hey kids, this Harry Dean Stanton for an Oscar nomination thing seems to have at least a little traction. A cursory examination of some of the best of Oscar prediction websites have Harry Dean in play. Here's where he is placed by some of those sites:
Awards Daily has HDS at #15
Awards Circuit #15
Scott Feinberg/THR #18
The Film Experience #16
Awards Watch #17
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com
After having premiered at Telluride and playing Toronto and being announced as the opening film for the Rome Film Fest, Scott Cooper's Hostiles has finally gained distribution.
The news was revealed Tuesday that Byron Allen's fledgling Entertainment Studios. Reports suggested that plans for the film will include an Oscar qualifying release before the end of the year and a wider release in January.
Those plans mean that Christian Bale and Rosamund Pike are probably both part of the awards conversation for acting honors and that the film could be a player in the Best Picture, Direction and Screenplay categories as well.
The film was received in a generally positive way at both Telluride and Toronto especially Bale for his portrayal of a 19th century U.S. Army Captain charged with escorting a Native American Chief (Wes Studi) to Montana from New Mexico. The film currently has a 67 on Rotten Tomatoes and a 63 from Metacritic.
FOr those that have been following along, the Harry Dean Stanton for Best Actor Oscar campaign may have gotten a boost this week as Scott Feinberg, The Hollywood Reporters chief awards writer, included Stanton in his latest Feinberg Forecast,
Feinberg, doing an update of FF at the halfway mark of the New York Film Festival lists HDS as a "New" entrant on the race as a part pf a group he labels as "Major Threats". That puts the late Stanton in Feinberg's top 12 for Oscar Best Actor.
Paul McGuigan's Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool starring Annette Bening as film star Gloria Grahame and Jamie Bell has a new poster as it moves towards its Dec. 29th limited release date in the U.S.. The film is under the umbrella of Sony Pictures Classics. and in addition to having premiered at Telluride played Toronto and will play London, Mill Valley and Middleburg.
A24 announced earlier this week that Paul Schrader's First Reformed has been added to the lineup of the on-going New York Film Festival. The film played Telluride, Venice and Toronto. The film stars Ethan Hawke and Amanda Seyfried.
It is scheduled to screen tomorrow evening at 6:00pm in Alice Tully Hall. A release date has not yet been set.
As Focus Features readies Joe Wright's Darkest Hour for its release on Nov. 22 they released a new trailer for the film this week. Here it is from YouTube:
So, I'm sure you've noticed over the past two weeks plus my minute campaign to jump start a campaign to get Harry Dean Stanton into the Best Actor Oscar conversation for his final film, Lucky. Well, heads up friends...I'm not the only one. David Ehrlich took up the cause late this past week at Indiewire with an article entitled: "Why 'Lucky' Should Earn the Late Harry Dean Stanton His First Oscar".
Well, I was thrilled. You might say David has a larger platform to make the point than I do. I know David just a little bit as he has been kind enough over the past few years to be one of the Telluride Pros who shares his ratings of the films he sees at Telluride that I then post so it was very gratifying to see that post pop up this week echoing the sentiment that I have been feeling since the passing of Stanton in Sept. 15.
So, friends, be aware. The Harry Dean Stanton drumbeat is going to be continuing here (and from my Twitter and Facebook accounts) for the foreseeable future. I hope it doesn't annoy and my apologies if it does.
I received a friendly email from MTFB reader and TFF patron Patrick Healy this week. Patrick is working hard currently in the run up to the Middleburg Film Fest in Middleburg, Va. Patrick works for the fest in PTR and wanted to alert me to the fests lineup and dates. It grabbed my interest because Patrick has been a respondent to my requests for the "People's Ratings" for TFF and also because the MFF lineup is A) Fantastic! and B) includes a ton of TFF titles.
Middleburg TFF #44 films: Darkest Hour (their opener), Lady Bird (their centerpiece) as well as Faces/Places, A Fantastic Woman, Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool, Loveless, The Other Side of Hope and Wonderstruck. MFF has also programmed such intriguing titles as Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, Last Flag Flying, Happy End, Call Me By Your Name, I Tonya, Mudbound and Breathe.
Last Monday I posted a story about film preservationists in Mexico challenged due to the recent earthquake there. Gary Meyer of Eat Drink Films and former co-director of the Telluride Film Festival pointed out that, among other things, there is a very definite connection to TFF.
From Gary's email:
Michael,
Thanks for posting about Viviana's situation with her archive. Obviously it has it roots with Telluride. Tom saw a very rough cut of PERDIDA in Morelia and became interested because of his own passion for some Mexican films and especially the actress Nino Sevilla who got a Silver Medallion in 1995 and we showed a documentary about her as well as the classics VICTIMS OF SIN and AVENTURERA. He met Viviana in Morelia and gave her extensive comments about the film and also introduced her to some key people for her story, some she did not know were still alive.
I sent this email out to many archive and press friends and art house operators.
In the process researching she found hundreds of reels of Calderon films that included everything from genre films like El Santo and Aztec Mummy wrestling movies to classics like Emilio Fernández'VICTIMS OF SIN with Ninon Sevilla.
She and her husband Alistair have been unearthing, cataloguing and restoring the films.
Here is a short video of Viviana recovering films.
And then the earthquake hit this week
badly damaging
the archive building
and films
.
Our mutual friend and Berkeley-based collector Peter Conheim and archivist has been working with them and set up a Go Fund Me page where you can also donate:
Yesterday he sent out this letter and the attached letter from Viviana with photos of the damage.
This evening Peter reports: "I spoke to Viviana at around 7pm and got a further update, which was actually quite amazing – an armada of 30-some volunteers have managed to get the films off the floor. But now a lot of them are in people’s cars! "
Your support would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Gary
That's going to do it for your MTFB Monday post. I'll have more on Thursday...
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com
Thus week Russia announced that its official entrant into Oscar's Best Foreign Language race will be Andrey Zvyaginstev's Loveless. The choice is a, perhaps, a bit of a surprise because the film, as was Zyvaginstev's previous Oscar nominated Leviathan, offers a critique of modern day Russia.
The film had a great response at Cannes and Telluride did nothing to diminish that. Loveless will screen at the London, Hampton and Mill Valley Film Fests soon.
Other TFF #44 films in announced for the FLF race:
Cambodia: First They Killed More Father
Chile: A Fantastic Woman
Israel: Foxtrot
Lebanon: The Insult
Other non-TFF #44 films of note announced:
Austria: Happy End
France: BPM
Poland: Spoor
Sweden: The Square
VIEWS OF DOWNSIZING AND FIRST THEY KILLED MY FATHER
This week we were treated to a new clip from Alexander Payne's Downsizing and a new trailer for Angelina Jolie's Oscar Foreign Language contender First They Killed My Father.
Downsizing is set to open in the U.S. on Dec. 22nd:
Meanwhile, First They Killed My Father has begun screening on Netflix on Sept. 15th. The film was theatrically released as well:
Both videos are posted via YouTube.
LADY BIRD FLIES A WEEK EARLIER
A24 has announced that they are moving the initial limited release of Greta Gerwig's Telluride smash, Lady Bird up a week to Nov. 10th. The film had been set for Nov. 17th and will go wider that weekend and even wider as Thanksgiving weekend.
The MTFB push to get Harry Dean Stanton into the awards conversation for his final film, Lucky continues today with a couple of articles from this week. The film opens tomorrow in limited release in New York and Los Angeles.
First, The Hollywood Reporter had this story this week that focused on a gathering of a number of his close friends in Stanton's s favorite L.A. watering hole.
And Variety filed this report with the cast and crew of Lucky celebrating the L.A. premiere of the film.
HOSTILES: STILL NO DISTRIBUTOR BUT A TRIP TO ROME
As of my typing this on Thursday morning Scott Cooper's Hostiles is still without a distributor. The name Netflix keeps buzzing about but there's nothing solid. Meanwhile, The Hollywood Reporter says that the film will open the Rome Film Fest on Oct. 26th.
My retrospective of the history of Telluride Film Festival continues today as I resume after a six week hiatus with a look at the 19th TFF. Now that TFF #44 has concluded, I'll get back to this project with the hope that I can conclude it episodically between now and the Oscar ceremony on Mar. 4th.
Bad Lieutenant
The Chosen One
Close to Eden
The Cranes Are Flying
The Crying Game
The Donner Party
El Mariachi
Feed
The Firm
From Hollywood to Hanoi
The Godless Girl
Homeland
I Am Cuba
I Want to See Angels
La Virgen de la Caridad
Laughter
Leolo
Lessons of the Darkness
The Letter That Was Never Sent
Life in Shadows
The Long Day Closes
The Loveless
Made in Britain
The Magnificent Seven
Momento Mori
Nail in the Boot
The Oak
Olivier Olivier
Peter's Friends
Reservoir Dogs
Road
The Sound of Fury
Strictly Ballroom
Tous Les Matins Du Monde
Victim of Sin
Visions of Light
Guests:
Kathryn Bigelow
Werner Herzog
Chuck Jones
Michael Moore
Gary Oldman
Robert Rodriguez
Tim Roth
1992's lineup seems amazing to me as it included: Reservoir Dogs, The Crying Game, Bad Lieutenant, El Mariachi and Strictly Ballroom. Mike Leigh also had his short film A Sense of History at the fest.
MORE ON HARRY DEAN STANTON
I wrote in Monday's post about the loss of the great Harry Dean Stanton. Yes...I am the one man campaign for a Best Actor nomination for him this year for Lucky.
But I also pointed out that I wasn't certain that Stanton was in Telluride for the screening of Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas in 1984. I couldn't confirm or deny based on the official program from that year. I asked for further information from MTFB readers and my request was rewarded.
Long time Telluride Film Festival staffer Jim Bedford confirmed via email that Stanton was, in fact, in Telluride in 1984. From Jim's email:
From 1973-1983 I ran the Sheridan Opera House for Bill Pence's small chain of Denver and ski town theatres. In the early years Bill would do the programming from Denver and give us three-month schedules with three films a week, two for three days each and an art film on Wed only. Anything that worked would be brought back (think THE KING OF HEARTS, CHINATOWN, MCCABE, etc.) for rep runs. Boy, did I see a bunch of great movies during those years.
In 1975 we showed RANCHO DELUXE which our Telluride audience fell in love with and my love of Harry Dean Stanton (which was reinforced by Stella Pence, who was also a fan) continued from that time on. My guess is that we showed RANCHO at least a half dozen times over those years and it never failed to draw a quite pleased audience. Our little town embraced this film's quirky ethic, great one-liners and indelible characters (including clearly HDS).
In 1981 when Bill, Stella, Tom Luddy and Bill Everson did the second year of the Santa Fe Film Festival as a tribute to the Western Film and I convinced Bill that RANCHO was a Modern Western, a perfect foil for the real end of the Old West (sort of an anti-THE WILD BUNCH). It was included in the program and I got to present it at the Lensic Theatre and give Santa Fe Festival sterling silver belt buckles to Tom McGuane and Harry Dean on stage (pictures are available).
Two years later at the TFF, HDS was certainly in town for PARIS, TEXAS. Bill had also scheduled a by-then out-of-circulation REPO MAN in 16mm in the Community Center (it had premiered in Berlin earlier that winter and died after a short March release). (Meanwhile, the TFF early arrival staff had screened REPO MAN on 16mm on the TFF office wall two weeks before so we were all nuts about it already.)
It was my job to get Harry Dean from the New Sheridan Hotel to the CC for the screening so I picked him up and we walked up the hill while I think he smoked 2-3 cigs on the way. It was a packed show at the CC that included Roger Ebert. After the screening Roger talked to HDS and later that week gave REPO MAN (which he had not seen or reviewed yet) a 3.5 star review. Universal then gave the film another release and the rest is history; REPO MAN became one of the great Cult Films from then on.
(PARIS, TEXAS wasn't bad either. I got to watch its premiere sitting on the SOH floor and then watch Wim Wenders take the stage after the film joined by Kit Carson, Hunter Carson, Nastassja Kinski, Dean Stockwell [a surprise visitor up from Santa Fe], and of course, Harry Dean.)
Jim also kindly included two photos. A still of Stanton from Telluride as well as one from the ceremony at the 1981 Santa Fe Fest:
CAMBODIA CHOOSES JOLIE'S FILM, ISRAEL WILL FOXTROT
Since my last post on Monday there have been some moves from various nations to put forth their films for consideration for the Foreign Language Film Oscar. Cambodia jolted the race and the calculations with regard to nominations by announcing that their choice is Angelina Jolie's First They Killed My Father.
Jolie holds citizenship in Cambodia.
The film ranked # 10 on MTFB's Composite Ratings of Telluride films with a decent 7.05 combined rating.
Meanwhile, Israel's Ophir Awards have determined that Foxtrot will be their entry in the FLF Oscar sweepstakes. The Samuel Maoz directed film dominated the Israeli "Oscars" winning 8.
Though it didn't receive enough ratings from wither the Pros or the People to establish a rating last week, Mohammad Rasoulof's A Man of Integrity seemed to be well received by the TFF patrons that I ran into and that had seen it. The film also won the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes last May.
Rasoulof was detained by Iranian authorities this past week as he returned to Iran from Telluride. The film maker had to surrender his passport and has been ordered to court.
Welcome back from the weekend. Hope you had a good one.
THE COMPOSITE TELLURIDE
Here it is for TFF #44. The composite mash-up of ratings from both the People and the Professionals. The Composite Telluride combines the ratings for films that came from both sets of Telluride attendees that I canvas immediately after the fest.
I began doing The Composite in 2013 and in each year the film that has finished at the top has gone on to win the Best Picture Oscar.
Here's a quick look at the top five Composite films for each year since I started:
In 2013 the top five composite films were:
1) 12 Years a Slave (9.25)
2) Tim's Vermeer (8.97)
3) Gravity (8.75)
4) Nebraska (8.38)
5) All is Lost (8.26)
In 2014 the top five were:
1) Birdman (9.18)
2) Foxcatcher (8.83)
3) The Imitation Game (8.79)
4) Wild Tales (8.43)
5) '71 (8.15)
In 2015 the top five were:
1) Spotlight (8.86)
2) Son of Saul (8.74)
3) Beasts of No Nation (8.62)
4) Steve Jobs (8.17)
5) Carol (8.13)
In 2016 the top five were:
1) Moonlight (9.19)
2) La La Land (8.91)
3) Manchester by the Sea (8.13)
4) Arrival (8.01)
5) Maudie (7.89)
And so, here are the results of this year's Composite Telluride (with their composite score and ratings position each had from The People and then The Pros):
1) The Shape of Water (8.72-2-1)
2) Lady Bird (8.58-1-5)
3) Faces Places (7.96-5-2)
4) Darkest Hour (7.90-3-8)
5) Hostiles (7.78-4-9)
6) The Rider (7.63-10-2)
7) Battle of the Sexes (7.62-6-7)
8) First Reformed (7.32-13-6)
9) Lean on Pete (7.16-7-12)
10) First They Killed My Father (7.05-15-10)
11) Loving Vincent (7.00-12-11)
12) Wonderstruck (6.68-10-13)
13) Downsizing (6.17-16-14)
14) Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool (6.16-8-15)
There was some substantial disparity between The People and The Pros this year as no less than half of the films that were rated by enough members of both groups had a rank disparity of five spots or more. The three most divisive films were The Rider and First Reformed which The Pros favored much more and also Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool which The People preferred considerably more than The Pros.
A couple of other notes...based on what past Telluride ratings have told us it looks to me like The Shape of Water, Lady Bird and Darkest Hour look like solid Best Picture nomination contenders. Battle of the Sexes, as I said in my last post, might be in some serious jeopardy in as far as Best Picture is concerned. I know some Oscar predictors think it's in good shape but these results suggest that it might be a stretch.
Additionally, the results also look grim for Best Picture chances for Wonderstruck, Downsizing, First They Killed My Father and Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool.
Finally, I have opined that TFF #44 seemed to me to have a bunch of good films but maybe didn't have a great film and , again, the ratings might provide some evidence for that as no film from 2017 cracked the all time (well since 2013) Telluride Composite ratings list. This year's highest rated composite film, The Shape of Water and its 8.72 rating missed making the top ten by 2/100ths of a point.
So the top ten continue to be:
1) 12 Years a Slave (9.25) 2013
2) Moonlight (9.19) 2016
3) Birdman (9.18) 2014
4) Tim's Vermeer (8.97) 2013
5) La La Land (8.91) 2016
6) Spotlight (8.86) 2015
7) Foxcatcher (8.83) 2014
8) The Imitation Game (8.79) 2014
9) Gravity (8.75) 2013
10) Son of Saul (8.74) 2015
GOODBYE HARRY DEAN
Harry Dean Stanton was an "all timer". A GOAT, if you will. The long time character actor was in everything and great every time:
Partial list of films:
Cool Hand Luke
The Missouri Breaks
Straight Time
Alien
Escape from New York
Repo Man
Paris, Texas (TFF 1984)***
Red Dawn
Pretty in Pink
Wild at Heart
The Straight Story
The Green Mile
and coming on Sept. 29th...Lucky.
***TFF's old timeline that used to be on the official website said that Stanton was present in Telluride that weekend. The official program from 1984 only lists Wim Wenders as being with the film. If anyone out there knows for sure one way or the other, drop me a line.
Stanton died on Friday at the age of 91.
Just recently we saw him back in David Lynch and Mark Frost's Twin Peaks: The Return on Showtime resurrecting the character that he had played in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me. It was a reminder of what an authentic and honest presence he was on screen.
Saturday, on Twitter, I suggested that I wanted to get the ball rolling on a Best Actor Oscar movement for Harry Dean's Lucky performance...and why not?
Most of my friends that are Oscarologists have suggested that the Best Actor Oscar field isn't as over- loaded this year and the critical response to Lucky from its festival screenings-beginning with South by Southwest back in March and has included a slew of domestic and international fests including: Nantucket, Indianapolis, Locarno, Melbourne, Helsinki and will soon include The Harry Dean Film fest as well as the BFI London Fest.
Variety's Joe Leydon writes: "Everything in his career, and his life, has brought Harry Dean Stanton to his moment of triumph."
Indiewire's David Ehrlich said "Harry Dean Stanton gives a performance for the ages."
Brian Tallerico for RogerEbert.com wrote that Stanton is "giving one of the best performances of his remarkable career."
So...readers of MTFB...that's my drumbeat for Oscar for this year. Harry Dean Stanton for Best Actor (OK, I'm also all about Richard Jenkins for Supporting Actor in The Shape of Water).
The Toronto International Film Festival named its prize winners yesterday afternoon and it's a rare year in that there was almost no Telluride/Toronto crossover. Faces Places won the Audience Award for Docs which is the only instance that I could find. TIFF's feature award went to Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, First Runner-up was I, Tonya and Second Runner-up was Call Me By Your Name.
I had thought that either The Shape of Water or Lady Bird would/could take the award.
The win for Three Billboards may underscore how unsettled the awards landscape is even after the Telluride/Venice/Toronto triumvirate.
TRAILERS FOR FILM STARS AND FACES, PLACES
Take a look at trailers for Paul McGuigan's Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool starring Annette Bening and Jamie Bell:
as well as for Agnes Varda and JR's Faces Places:
POST FEST OVERVIEWS
In the afterglow of Telluride, Venice and Toronto, a number of film and Oscar pundits are beginning to get serious about what we've seen and what's still to be seen.
The Hollywood Reporter posted a piece this weekend assessing their "Best of the Fall Fests" which included this TFF #44 fare:
Battle of the Sexes
Downsizing
Foxtrot
Hostiles
Lady Bird
Lean on Pete
The Shape of Water
Meanwhile, Sasha Stone at Awards Daily analyzes Best Actress Oscar prospects of a number of films from a post-T-ride/TIFF/Venice perspective.
Her top five include these TFF #44 players:
Best Actress: Sally Hawkins (The Shape of Water), Emma Stone (Battle of the Sexes) and Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird). She also suggests that Rosamund Pike might be a possibility for Hostiles.
