Sasha Stone's Pre-Thanksgiving Oscar Picks / Studi Talks Hostiles / Wormwood: Academy Says It's Not Eligible / The Making of the Beast

Good Monday movie fans...


SASHA STONE'S PRE-THANKSGIVING OSCAR PICKS

Each Friday, Sasha Stone, founder of Awards Daily, updates her latest Oscar forecast.  As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday, I thought I'd take a quick peek at what she thinks are likely nominations regarding TFF #44 films.

Sasha is currently picking 11 major categories and she has both Darkest Hour and The Shape of Water with eight nominations from those categories:

The Shape of Water: Picture, Direction, Actress, Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay, Editing, Cinematography and Production Design.


Darkest Hour: Picture, Direction, Actor, Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay, Editing, Cinematography, Production Design.

Lady Bird: borderline Best Picture, Actress, Supporting Actress.

Wonderstruck: Adapted Screenplay

Stone's complete "Predictions Friday" column is here.


STUDI TALKS HOSTILES

Oklahoma native Native American actor Wes Studi spoke recently with Jazz Tangcay of Awards Daily about his experiences making Scott Cooper's western.

The film is set for release on Dec. 22nd and is drawing some serious discussion about Christian Bale's performance as a potential Best Actor nominee.

That interview is here.



WORMWOOD: ACADEMY SAYS IT'S NOT AN ELIGIBLE DOCUMENTARY

Errol Morris' Wormwood which was often a topic of conversation in lines at this year's TFF, will not be eligible for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar according to Indiewire's Anne Thompson.

It appears that Wormwood runs afoul of Academy rules that have been recently adopted to exclude the kind of episodic format that Wormwood is in.

Wormwood is set to bow on Netflix on Dec. 15th

Thompson's story is here.



THE MAKING OF THE BEAST

Recently The Shape of Water's writer/director Guillermo Del Toro shred extensive notes about the creation of the creature at the center of his love story that was brought to life by actor Doug Jones.

SlashFilm gathered all of that together and this past week put together a story that delineates that process.

The SlashFilm story is here.

The Shape of Water opens in the U.S. on Dec. 8th.


I'll have more on Thanksgiving morning including the latest Best Picture and Best Direction Oscar predictions from The Film Awards Clearinghouse.

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

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT TO THE BLOG

FAC Oscar Predix: Supporting / New Trailer for Downsizing / Future Telluride: Mike Leigh's Peterloo / Interviews: Gerwig, Oldman, Jolie and Cooper

Monday, Monday...Nov. 6, 2017


FAC OSCAR PREDIX: SUPPORTING

Today's post begins with an update of the FAC (Film Awards Clearinghouse) Predictions for nominations for the Supporting Acting categories.

Telluride films are in Bold.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Last posted prediction for this category was Oct. 16th and it looked like this:

1) Alison Janney/I, Tonya
2) Laurie Metcalf/Lady Bird
3) Holly Hunter/The Big Sick
4) Octavia Spencer/The Shape of Water
5) Melissa Leo/Novitiate

Others: Kristen Scott Thomas/Darkest Hour, Mary J. Blige/Mudbound, Hong Chau/Downsizing

Today's update:

1) Alison Janney/I, Tonya
2) Laurie Metcalf/Lady Bird
3) Holly Hunter/The Big Sick
4) Octavia Spencer/The Shape of Water
5) Kristen Scott Thomas/Darkest Hour

Others: Melissa Leo/Novitiate, Mary J. Blige/Mudbound, Hong Chau/Downsizing


SUPPORTING ACTOR

From Oct. 16:

1) Sam Rockwell/Three Billboards
2) Willem Dafoe/The Florida Project
3) Armie Hammer/Call Me By Your Name
4) Michael Stuhlbarg/Call Me By Your Name
5) Ben Mendelsohn/Darkest Hour

Others: Michael Shannon/The Shape of Water, Mark Rylance/Dunkirk, Kevin Spacey/All the Money in the World


Today's update:

1) Willem Dafoe/The Florida Project
2) Sam Rockwell/Three Billboards
3) Armie Hammer/Call Me By Your Name
4) Michael Stuhlbarg/Call Me By Your Name
5) Michael Shannon/The Shape of Water

Others: Mark Rylance/Dunkirk, Ben Mendelsohn/Darkest Hour, Richard Jenkins/The Shape of Water



NEW TRAILER FOR DOWNSIZING

Paramount released a new trailer this week for Alexander Payne's Downsizing.  The film is slated to hot theaters on Dec. 22.  Here's the new trailer from YouTube:

I have also linked some coverage of the trailer's release from Alex Billington's FirstShowing.net.  That is linked here.

FUTURE TELLURIDE

Back in the Sept. 25th post I included a segment on possible future Telluride films called "Looking Ahead".  The list consisted of ten films (out of 56) that I have been tracking that still could, eventually, be in a TFF lineup.  One of the films that was not on that list of ten but is in the long list is Mike Leigh's Peterloo.

I mention this because Peterloo popped up this week with a "first look" still from the film:

It appears the thinking is that Leigh will have the film ready for Cannes.  Should that be true, I'd think it was a very solid choice to be at the top of the TFF #45 speculation list.  Leigh has had a significant history with Telluride.  Additionally, the film will be distributed by Amazon Studios which also does not hurt its T-ride chances.

Peterloo is based on the 1819 massacre of protesters in Manchester, England.  60,000 protesters were gathered seeking voting reform.  15 were killed.

Leigh's previous films at Telluride include: Mr. Turner, Another Year and Happy-Go-Lucky.

Here are a couple of stories about the photo and the film from Indiewire and from The Film Stage.

INTERVIEWS: GERWIG, OLDMAN, JOLIE AND COOPER

I have included here the link to a new Indiewire interview with Lady Bird director and writer Greta Gerwig.  The interview is with Anne Thompson.

 Also, The Deadline Contender series of interviews was rolled out this week and includes interviews with Gary Oldman (Darkest Hour) , Angelina Jolie (First They Killed My Father) and Scott Cooper (Hostiles).

The Oldman (with Joe Wright as well) interview is here conducted by Pete Hammond.

Jolie and her subject, Luong Ung are interviewed here.

Cooper (along with actors Wes Studi and Q'orianka Kilcher) is interviewed here.

That's your MTFB for Monday, Nov. 6th.  There will be more on Thursday.


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

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page


COMMENT TO THE BLOG

The Inventory from TFF #44 / FAC Oscar Update:Best Picture and Direction / Eligible Documentaries Announced / Releasing News

Good final Monday in October to you...



THE INVENTORY FROM TFF #44

I recently completed my annual canvas of minutiae from this year's Telluride Film Festival and thought I'd share some of the tidbits of the information from that.

Starting with the distributors.  Long time Telluride attendees and/or readers of this space know that Sony Pictures Classics is almost always well represented at the festival.  I've been going to Telluride since 2006 and in that time SPC has averaged nearly five films per fest.  SPC held true to that form this year with five films: A Fantastic Woman, Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool, Foxtrot, Loveless and The Rider.

Five other distributors screened multiple films over Labor Day weekend:

A24: First Reformed, Lady Bird and Lean on Pete
Fox Searchlight: Battle of the Sexes and The Shape of Water
Cohen Media Group: Faces Places and The Insult
Netflix: First They Killed My Father and Wormwood
Amazon Studios: Wonderstruck and Human Flow

Nine other distributors had films on the TFF #44 schedule including Focus Features (Darkest Hour), Paramount (Downsizing),  HBO Films (Arthur Miller:Writer) and PBS (The Vietnam War).

Unusually, there were no films from Sundnace Selects/IFC Films, Open Road, Lionsgate/Roadside Attractions or Warner Brothers which have all been common players in recent years at Telluride.  And, also, no films from the currently beleaguered Weinstein Company.

As of this post, seven TFF #44 films did not yet have distribution in the U.S.:

Eating Animals
Hostages
Land of the Free
Love, Cecil
A Man of Integrity
Tesnota
The Venerable W

Film Festival crossovers...films that were shared by TFF and some other major fests:

Berlin: A Fantastic Woman, Hostages and The Other Side of Hope

Cannes: Faces Places, Film Worker, Loveless, A Man of Integrity, The Rider, Tesnota, The Venerable W., Wonderstruck

Venice: Downsizing, First Reformed, Foxtrot, Human Flow, The Insult, Lean on Pete, The Shape of Water and Wormwood

Toronto: Battle of the Sexes, Darkest Hour, Downsizing, Faces Places, A Fantastic Woman, Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool, First Reformed, First They Killed My Father, Foxtrot, Hostiles, Human Flow, The Insult, Lady Bird, Lean on Pete, Loveless, The Other Side of Hope, The Rider and The Shape of Water

New York: Arthur Miller: Writer, Faces Places,Film Worker, First Reformed, Lady Bird, The Other Side of Hope, The Rider. The Venerable W. and Wonderstruck

London: Battle of the Sexes. Downsizing, Faces Places, A Fantastic Woman, Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool, Film Worker, Foxtrot, Lady Bird, Lean on Pete, Loveless, Loving Vincent, The Rider, The Shape of Water, The Venerable W. and Wonderstruck


FAC OSCAR UPDATE: BEST PICTURE AND DIRECTION


Our last Film Awards Clearinghouse look at the Best Picture and Best Direction categories came on Oct. 12th.  With the conclusion of the New York Film Festival and the announcement of the Independent Film Projects Gotham Award nominees, I thought I'd update the Best Picture and Best Direction categories.

TFF #44 films are Bold.


BEST PICTURE

This was the list on Oct. 12th:

1) Dunkirk
2) The Shape of Water
3) Darkest Hour
4) Three Billboards
5) The Post
6) Call Me By Your Name
7) Get Out
8) The Florida Project

Others: Blade Runner 2049, Mudbound, Lady Bird


The updated list as of today:

1) Dunkirk
2) The Shape of Water
3) Darkest Hour
4) Three Billboards
5) Call Me By Your Name
6) The Post
7) Get Out
8) The Florida Project

Others: Lady Bird, Mudbound, I Tonya

Notes: Call Me By Your Name and The Post trade spots and Lady Bird and I Tonya show some momentum.  Also, I suspect that Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread may start to make an appearance after seeing its trailer last week.


BEST DIRECTION

From Oct. 12th:

1) Christopher Nolan/Dunkirk
2) Guillermo Del Toro/The Shape of Water
3) Steven Spielberg/The Post
4) Joe Wright/Darkest Hour
5) Martin McDonagh/Three Billboards

Other Possibilities: Sean Baker/Florida Project, Luca Guadagnino/Call Me By Your Name, Dee Rees/Mudbound

Updated list:

1) Christopher Nolan/Dunkirk

2) Guillermo Del Toro/The Shape of Water

3) Joe Wright/Darkest Hour

4) Martin McDonagh/Three Billboards

5) Steven Spielberg/The Post

Other Possibilities: Luca Guadagnino/Call Me By Your Name, Jordan Peele/Get Out, Dee Rees/Mudbound

Notes: Wright and Mc Donagh benefit from some slippage by Spielberg.  Sean Baker loses some steam as Jordan Peele pops into the "Other Possibilities" list.

ELIGIBLE DOCUMENTARIES ANNOUNCED

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have released a list of 170 feature documentaries eligible for Oscar consideration for this year.  From that list I find at least nine that played either TFF #43 or TFF #44.  They are:

From TFF #44:

Arthur Miller: Writer
Faces Places
Human Flow
An Inconvenient Sequel

From TFF #43:

The B Side
California Typewriter
Chasing Trane
Finding Oscar
I Called Him Morgan

The complete list of all 170 films is here from Variety.



RELEASING NEWS

I discovered a couple of notes concerning release dates fro films that played the 44th edition of the Telluride Film Festival.

Scott Cooper's Hostiles (recently acquired by Entertainment Studios) has been dated for initial domestic release for Dec. 22nd.  This, as expected puts it into play for Oscar consideration.  Their has been a good deal of speculation that Christian Bale, who leads the western drama, might be a serious contender in the Best Actor category.

Additionally, Indiewire reported at the end of last week that Guillermo Del Toro's The Shape of Water will have a bi-coastal opening.  Rather than open in New York and Los Angeles on the same date, the film will open in NYC first on Dec. 1st and then in Los Angeles one week later essentially creating two red carpet opportunities.

Here is that story from Indiewire.


And that's your Monday MTFB.  I'll have more on Thursday.


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

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT TO THE BLOG

Interviews: Haynes, Gerwig, Waltz, McCarten / AFI Adds Films From TFF #44 / New Poster for Lady Bird

Welcome to Thursday, Oct. 26, 2017...

INTERVIEWS: HAYNES, GERWIG, WALTZ AND MC CARTEN

A slew of interviews popped up these past few days from a number of outlets associated with films that played at TFF #44.  I have included links to several of them here.

We begin with an interview of Wonderstruck (and Carol) director Todd Haynes from Indiewire's Anne Thompson.

Staying with directors and , in this case, screenwriter Greta Gerwig who was the creative force behind Lady Bird starring Saoirse Ronan.  Here's the video of a post-screening interview of her from the New York Film Festival.

I have also added this SAG-AFTRA Foundation conversation with two time Oscar winner and co-star of Alexander Payne's Downsizing, Christoph Waltz:

And, for good measure, here is an interview with the screenwriter of Darkest Hour, Anthony McCarten,  conducted by Jazz Tangcay for Awards Daily.

AFI ADDS FILMS FROM TFF #44

The American Film Institutes's Film Fest will start on Nov. 9th and they continue to announce titles that will be p;laying as a part of their program.  TFF #44 title Hostiles had already been named a centerpiece gala and a version of Errol Morris' Wormwood had also been announced.

Earlier this week three more TFF #44 films were added to the AFI schedule: The Shape of Water, Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool and Film Worker.

Complete coverage of the entire set of films added to the AFI lineup can be found here from Indiewire.

NEW POSTER FOR LADY BIRD

Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird will open on Nov. 3rd and as we move closer to that date A24 dropped a new poster for the film this week:

The accompanying story is here from, the Irish based website Entertainment.ie.

That's tour MTFB on this Thursday.  More to come on Monday...

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

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT TO THE BLOG

Gotham Awards Nominations Begin the Season / Ai Weiwei and Human Flow / New Poster for The Shape of Water / Hostiles and Wormwood Named to the AFI Fest

Good Monday to everyone...It's Oct. 23, 2017


GOTHAM AWARDS NOMINATIONS START THE SEASON

The Independent Film Project announced their lost of nominees for this year on Thursday.  Jordan Peele's Get Out led the way with four mentions for Best Picture, Direction, Actor and Screenplay.Actress.

TFF #44 film Lady Bird was next on the list with three nominations for Breakthrough Director, Screenplay and Actress for Saoirse Ronan.

Call Me By Your Name and The Florida Project also were nominated for three awards apiece.

The complete list of nominees is here at The Gotham Awards website.

I have also linked analysis from Indiewire's Anne Thompson as well as Ioncinema's Eric Lavallee.





NEW POSTER FOR THE SHAPE OF WATER

The Film Stage reported over the weekend that Guillermo Del Toro's The Shape of Water had released a new poster which you can see above.  The film is scheduled to open on Dec. 8th.



AI WEIWEI AND HUMAN FLOW

Human rights activist and film maker Ai Weiwei's Human Flow was featured at this year's Telluride Film Festival and opened this past weekend.  Indiewire's David Ehrlich interviewed Weiwei recently about the documentary which is headlined as the definitive film about the global refugee crisis.  That interview is here.



HOSTILES AND WORMWOOD NAMED TO THE AFI FEST

The American Film Institute announced their centerpiece galas and a tribute this week.  Scott Cooper's Hostiles was named as one of three centerpiece galas.  Hostiles was a part of the TFF #44 lineup and recently was acquired for distribution by Entertainment Studios.

The other galas are Call Me By Your Name and The Disaster Artist.

AFI also announced that there will be a tribute screening of Errol Morris' Wormwood which also played Telluride. 

The announcement from The American Film Institute can be found here.




That's a wrap for this Monday.  I'll have another update on Thursday.


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

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT TO THE BLOG

Reprising TFF #44 / Stone's Take on the Oscar Race / Shape of Water and Wonderstruck Views / Foreign Language Field Is Set

Welcome back from the weekend everyone...

REPRISING TFF #44

Was perusing Gary Meyer's Eat, Drink Films website over the weekend and discovered a fine wrap-up of this year's Telluride Film Festival from Risa Nye.  I have linked it here.

Risa hits many of the highlights of the weekend and specifically talks Downsizing, Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool, Darkest Hour, Lean on Pete, Lady Bird, Jamaica Man, The Rider, Hostiles, Love Cecil, An Inconvenient Sequel, Wonderstruck, The Cotton Club Encore and Battle of the Sexes.


STONE'S TAKE ON THE OSCAR RACE

Awards Daily's Sasha Stone updates her Oscar prediction every Friday so I thought I'd take a look at last Friday's list and sort of get a feel for where this year's Telluride crop might be headed.  I t should be noted that Stone doesn't list all 24 categories as yet but does mention 14 of them.

Currently she has Joe Wright's Darkest Hour and Guillermo Del Toro's The Shape of Water leading the way with 10 nominations each.

She has Darkest Hour with:  Picture, Direction, Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Costumes and Makeup.

The Shape of Water would have these nominations: Picture, Direction, Actress, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor (Jenkins), Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Costumes and Makeup.

Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird would land three nominations: Picture, Supporting Actress and Original Screenplay.

Battle of the Sexes gets a nomination for Emma Stone for Best Actress.

Hostiles gets a nomination for Adapted Screenplay as does Wonderstruck.

Faces/Places gets nominated for Documentary Feature.

Loving Vincent gets a nom for Animated Feature.

She also lists "Contenders", films/performers that she doesn't currently list as nominees but which could get in. 

That potential exists for other nominations for:

The Shape of Water: Supporting Actor (Shannon)

Lady Bird: Direction, Actress

Battle of the Sexes: Picture, Direction

Hostiles: Picture

Wonderstruck: Picture, Direction

Downsizing: Picture, Direction, Actor, Supporting Actress

Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool: Actress

The complete "Awards Daily Predictions Friday" post is here.
 

SHAPE OF WATER AND WONDERSTRUCK

We got a new "inside look" at Del Toro's The Shape of Water this weekend from SlashFilm.  The story and the video are both here.

Additionally, we also got a new clip from Todd Haynes Wonderstruck that runs just over four minutes.  The new clip is below from YouTube:

The Shape of Water opens on Dec. 8 and Wonderstruck opens on Oct. 20.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILED OS SET

The deadline has passed for the submission of films for consideration for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.  The Playlist reports that a record 92 nations submitted films for consideration.  

Among them are five films that played as a part of the TFF #44 lineup:

First They Killed My Father (Cambodia)

A Fantastic Woman (Chile)

Foxtrot (Israel)

The Insult (Lebanon)

Loveless (Russia)

The complete list and The Playlist story are here.

That's your MTFB for this Monday...more on Thursday.

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

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT TO THE BLOG

Byron Allen Gets Friendly With Hostiles / The Stanton Oscar Express Making Headway? / New Poster for Film Stars / First Reformed Added to NYFF

Welcome to the first Thursday in October...


BYRON ALLEN GETS FRIENDLY WITH HOSTILES

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.

Further coverage is here from:

Variety

Indiewire



THE STANTON OSCAR EXPRESS MAKING HEADWAY?


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.

The complete and updated version of The Feinberg Forecast is here



.NEW POSTER FOR FILM STARS


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.

Check the new poster:

Also take a look at the story from The Express (UK).


FIRST REFORMED ADDED TO NYFF

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.

Here's the rundown from NYFF.

Foreign Language Field Grows / Views of Downsizing and First They Killed My Father / Lady Bird Flies a Little Earlier / More Harry Dean Stanton Goodness / Hostiles: Still No Distrib But a Trip to Rome

Good Thursday Film Fans...



FOREIGN LANGUAGE FIELD GROWS

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


Details and a complete list can be found here from Awards Watch.


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.

Details and the story are here from Deadline.com.



MORE HARRY DEAN STANTON GOODNESS

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.

That report is here.


Last note for the day is that we are expecting a Darkest Hour trailer later today.  I'll be looking for that.


Until Monday, my friends...

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

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT TO THE BLOG

The People's Telluride 2017 / Official Downsizing Trailer / Awards Daily Oscar Podcasts- All This and the Oscars Too-Have Begun / Foreign Language Oscar Candidates / Jolie's Film Gets an Oscar Run

Welcome back to MTFB for this Thursday, Sept. 14, 2017.

THE PEOPLE'S TELLURIDE

For the sixth consecutive Telluride Film Festival I have solicited film ratings from the readers of this space for the films they saw last week.  This year I had responses from more than 40 film patrons.  It has been said that TFF fans are some of the most discerning film goers on the world and I think that the results of this poll over the past few years bares that out.  Up until last year the film that finished as the #2 People's film went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.  Moonlight upset that apple cart for 2016 by topping The People's chart (it edged out La La Land by 4/100ths of a point) and then winning Best Picture.

Here's your brief People's history of the top three films for each year:

2012:

1) Stories We Tell- 4.80
2) Argo- 4.75
3) The Attack- 4.70

2013:

1) Tim's Vermeer (4.67)
2) 12 Years a Slave (4.55)
3) Gravity (4.40)

2014:

1) The Imitation Game (4.73)
2) Birdman (4.46)
3) Wild Tales (4.23)

2015:

1) Room (4.47)
2) Spotlight (4.45)
3) Beasts of No Nation (4.35)

2016:

1) Moonlight (4.37)
2) La La Land (4.33)
3) Maudie (4.29)

And now, the 2017 People's Telluride results...16 films received enough responses to be included in the poll...

1) Lady Bird (4.38)
2) The Shape of Water (4.22)
3) Darkest Hour (4.04)
4) Hostiles (3.99)
5) Faces Places (3.71)
6) Battle of the Sexes (3.68)
7) Lean on  Pete (3.66)
8) Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool (3.57)
9) The Other Side of Hope (3.45)
10) Wonderstruck (3.43)
11) The Rider (3.38)
12) Loving Vincent (3.37)
13) First Reformed (3.33)
14) A Fantastic Woman (3.32)
15) First They Killed My Father (3.27)
16) Downsizing (3.07)

The single most rated film was Darkest Hour which had 35 respondents rate it.

The Peeps response probably bodes well for Oscar chances for Lady Bird, The Shape of Water and Darkest Hour.  Battle of the Sexes may be in some trouble Oscar-wise.

I was struck at how The People reacted to big time films from big name film makers as Angelina Jolie's First They Killed My Father, Todd Haynes' Wonderstruck and Alexander Payne's Downsizing all finished in the bottom half of the list.

I'll have The Composite Telluride, the combination of The Peeps and The Pros in Monday's blog post.  I might note that The Composite may now be a better indicator of possible Oscar success than the stand alone People's ratings have been.


OFFICIAL DOWNSIZING TRAILER

After screening at Telluride Venice and Toronto Alexander Payne's Downsizing and Paramount released a trailer for the film this week.  Here it is from YouTube:

And a story about the trailer's release from Indiewire.



AWARDS DAILY OSCAR PODCASTS HAVE BEGUN

Sasha Stone has started recording and posting the Awards Daily Oscar Podcasts for the coming season.  The first two are up with yours truly making an appearance on the first one recorded in Telluride (and also a special appearance from both my wife, Kristy, and a guy named Guillermo Del Toro.  That podcast is here. 

I show up around the 19 minute mark and Del Toro follows right after.

The second podcast gets to the business of the season and was recorded after Telluride and features not only Stone but also Mark Johnson of Awards Circuit and Tomris Laffly who freelances for many publications including Film Journal and Film School Rejects.

That podcast is linked here.


FOREIGN LANGUAGE OSCAR SUBMISSIONS

Two TFF #44 films have already been named by their host countries for consideration for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.  Chile has submitted Sebastian Lelio's A Fantastic Woman and Lebanon has submitted Ziad Douieri's The Insult.

A number of other films have also been announced with many more scheduled to be named in the next couple of weeks.

Awards Watch has a very good article up that has an up to date list of films as well as a schedule for the rest of September for FLF Oscar submissions.

Check that article here.


ANGELINA JOLIE'S FILM GETS AN OSCAR QUALIFYING RUN

The Wrap reports that Netflix will open Angelina Jolie's First They Killed My Father will get a contemporaneous theatrical release in a number of U.S. cities this week coinciding with its availability on the streaming service.

The film will screen in Los Angeles and New York as well as eight other major markets on Friday.

The Wrap's story is here.


And that's going to do it for this Thursday.  Come back for Monday's post which will include the 2017 Composite Telluride Film Ratings that combine the ratings from both the people and the professionals.  I've been doing this since 2013 and the film that has topped the Composite Poll has won the Best Picture Oscar each year.

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

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT TO THE BLOG

Some Notes About TFF #44 and MTFB / My Film Ratings for Telluride 2017 / Critical Response to TFF #44 / Trailers for Hostiles and Lady Bird / Rate the TFF #44 Films

Welcome to Thursday...

SOME NOTES ABOUT TFF #44 AND MTFB

I wanted to share some thoughts regarding TFF #44 and MTFB:

1) 96%- I have already noted that the final Ten (25) Bets last week had 24 titles correctly.  I missed on the inclusion of Before We Vanish.  How'd that happen?  Here's the answer.  When the New York Fest announced the film absent a premiere status, I concluded that meant a Telluride play and, essentially bumped Ai WeiWei's Human Flow from my list.  My error?  I didn't check the Fantastic Fest lineup which does, as a matter of fact, include Before We Vanish.  Fantastic Fest will screen the film prior to its NYFF play which explains why NYFF didn't list it as a U.S. Premiere.

Always room for improvement.

2) I have also mentioned that 7 of the original Ten Bets made the TFF #44 lineup...a bit better than the average over the past six years of the Ten Bets style.  The average is 5.5 of the original Ten Bets.  Seven films is also a significant leap from last year's three films and 2015's four.

The first Ten Bets also included another two films that were listed as "possibles" that ended up making the lineup.

Additionally, the Ten Bets had seven films correct in each of the four weeks that I put up the bets prior to Toronto's first announcement.  The July 14th and 21st Ten Bets each had four films listed as additional possibilities prior to TIFF's initial announcement of films that began to give concrete clues to TFF films based on premiere status.

3) I always think it's fun to look back and see when I first began thinking a film might make the list.  Most of the time it's within the year of the fest.  For example, I first mentioned Joe Wright's Darkest Hour in March, 2017.

Sometimes, though, I track a film for years.  Three examples from this year:

I started tracking Alexander Payne's Downsizing in August of 2010.
Todd Haynes' Wonderstruck in Dec. 2016.
Dayton and Faris' Battle of the Sexes in June of 2014.


MY FILM RATINGS FOR TELLURIDE 2017

I felt going into this year's fest that there were a lot of good films and I was hoping to see that some of them were great.  As I have reflected on this past weekend's offerings I feel like that original take proved out.  Many good films but not one that really grabbed me like a Diving Bell and the Butterfly or 12 Years a Slave or Moonlight.

Still, plenty of good stuff, though, as you'll see below, I don't necessarily line up with some of the critical community.  Here are the ranks/ratings for the ten films I saw at TFF #44:

1) Darkest Hour-4-Give Gary Oldman the Oscar now and save some broadcast time.
2) Lady Bird-4- The more I reflected, the higher this film crept up my list.
3) Battle of the Sexes-3.5
4) Lean on Pete-3.5
5) The Shape of Water-3.5
6) Hostiles-3.5
7) Downsizing-3
8) Wonderstruck-3
9) Loving Vincent-2.5
10) Faces Places-2

I am busy collecting your ratings as well as those of The Pros and expect to have those soon...see below.


CRITICAL RESPONSE TO TELLURIDE 2017

The past few years Eric Kohn and Indiewire have also done a collection of critical responses to the Fest.  This year was no different as Eric asked four questions of a group of 15 critics and bloggers including some who are participating in the MTFB set of Professionals such as: Kohn himself, Indiewire's David Ehrlich and Anne Thompson, Variety's Peter DeBruge.  It's possible that a certain Telluride-centric blogger might also have been included in Indiewire's survey...

Kohn's questions and answers:

1) Best Film?  Tie between The Shape of Water and Lady Bird (I chose Darkest Hour as you can see above)
2) Best Performance? Saoirse Ronan in Lady Bird (My vote: Oldman/Darkest Hour)
3) Best Documentary?  Faces Places (I abstained here as I only saw one doc-Faces Places and I was not as enthralled as many)
4) Best Director? Also a tie between Guillermo Del Toro for The Shape of Water and Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird (I opted for Gerwig).

The complete article can be found here from Indiewire.


TRAILERS FOR HOSTILES AND LADY BIRD

In the immediate aftermath of Telluride 2017 we got trailers for two of the most talked about titles.  Both Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird and Scott Cooper's Hostiles have trailers to tease any and all that didn't catch either film last weekend.  Both films are headed to Toronto.

Hostiles trailer via YouTube:

Lady Bird Trailer also via YouTube:

RATE THE TFF #44 FILMS

And I am reminding everyone again to get me your ratings for The People's Telluride.  I'm going to leave the polls open through Tuesday, Sept. 12th with a plan to post those a week from today.  My hope is that I have The Professionals up for Monday's post.  As always I will also do a combination poll as well as taking a look at 2017 films in the context of the films that have been rated through this process through the past several years.

But to make it work...I have to have your input through any of the contact methods listed here:


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

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT TO THE BLOG

The 44th Telluride Film Festival Lineup Has Been Announced / Reminding Guillermo / Rate Those Movies Folks!

Welcome to Thursday...TFF #44  IS IN ONE DAY!!!

THE 44TH TELLURIDE FILM FESTIVAL LINEUP HAS BEEN ANNOUNCED

Here is the announced lineup for the 44th Telluride Film Festival:

·       ARTHUR MILLER: WRITER (d. Rebecca Miller, U.S., 2017)

·       BATTLE OF THE SEXES (d. Valerie Faris, Jonathan Dayton, U.S., 2017)

·       DARKEST HOUR (d. Joe Wright, U.K., 2017)

·       DOWNSIZING (d. Alexander Payne, U.S., 2017)

·       EATING ANIMALS (d. Christopher Quinn, U.S., 2017)

·       FACES PLACES (d. Agnes Varda, JR, France, 2017)

·       A FANTASTIC WOMAN (d. Sebastián Lelio, Chile-U.S.-Germany-Spain, 2017)

·       FILM STARS DON’T DIE IN LIVERPOOL (d. Paul McGuigan, U.K., 2017)

·       FIRST REFORMED (d. Paul Schrader, U.S., 2017)

·       FIRST THEY KILLED MY FATHER (d. Angelina Jolie, U.S.-Cambodia, 2017)

·       FOXTROT (d. Samuel Maoz, Israel, 2017)

·       HOSTAGES (d. Rezo Gigineishvili, Georgia-Russia-Poland, 2017)

·       HOSTILES (d. Scott Cooper, U.S., 2017)

·       HUMAN FLOW (d. Ai Weiwei, U.S.-Germany, 2017)

·       THE INSULT (d. Ziad Doueiri, France-Lebanon, 2017)

·       LADY BIRD (d. Greta Gerwig, U.S., 2017)

·       LAND OF THE FREE (d. Camilla Magid, Denmark-Finland, 2017)

·       LEAN ON PETE (d. Andrew Haigh, U.K.-U.S., 2017)

·       LOVELESS (d. Andrey Zvyagintsev, Russia-France-Belgium-Germany, 2017)

·       LOVE, CECIL (d. Lisa Immordino Vreeland, U.S., 2017)

·       LOVING VINCENT (d. Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman, U.K.-Poland, 2017)

·       A MAN OF INTEGRITY (d. Mohammad Rasoulof, Iran, 2017)

·       THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE (d. Aki Kaurismäki, Finland, 2017)

·       THE RIDER (d. Chloé Zhao, U.S., 2017)

·       THE SHAPE OF WATER (d. Guillermo del Toro, U.S., 2017)

·       TESNOTA (d. Kantemir Balagov, Russia, 2017)

·       THE VENERABLE W. (d. Barbet Schroeder, France-Switzerland, 2017)

·       THE VIETNAM WAR (d. Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, U.S., 2017)

·       WORMWOOD (d. Errol Morris, U.S., 2017)

·       WONDERSTRUCK (d. Todd Haynes, U.S., 2017)

REMINDING GUILLERMO

I posted the following on Monday and am re-posting today as I am still working on making this happen.  To be honest, I have had a couple of great leads that are still percolating but nothing has come to fruition yet.  So...if you missed it Monday...here it is again:

DEAR GUILLERMO...

This section of MTFB is going to be a little different than what you readers commonly see here but...

First, most everyone reading here knows that I have been very sure these past few weeks that Guillermo Del Toro's The Shape of Water will be announced on Thursday as a part of the TFF #44 lineup.  I am very excited about the film but you know who's insane about it?

My wife.

Let me tell you why because it goes beyond the excitement about seeing GDT's new film in the incredible setting that is Telluride.

Some of you know that both my wife and I teach high school in a rural town (pop. 12,500)  in the Oklahoma Panhandle.  She's the art teacher here and damned good at what she does.  Especially in light of our current student body.

Please understand, that's not a slam about our kids but our situation is really unique.

In 1992 a massive pork processing facility opened in our community and to fill their workforce they have scoured the planet to find workers willing to re-locate.  That has meant a reliance on immigrants, refugees and others.

In the last 20 or so years our demographics have shifted from a majority Anglo population to one in which minority students are the majority.  Mostly kids from about every country south of the southern border of the U.S. but we're not exclusively Latin.  We have have significant student populations from Burma, S. Korea, Thailand, Eritrea, Sudan, Somalia and more.

Our school administration tells us we have somewhere between 25-30 languages spoken in our high school (enrollment is a shade under 900 kids grades 9-12).  Imagine that in a Podunk Oklahoma town.

Many of you also know that Del Toro had a harrowing childhood and turned to art as a kid to deal with that.  My wife sure does.  Del Toro's story and artwork have become an integral part of the curriculum in her classwork because...you know..it resonates with these kids...immigrant kids. They can relate to Del Toro's story because, for many of them, it's a lot like their stories.  Del Toro's body of film work plays a part too.  All these kids know Hellboy.

And, of course, because it's art, the language barrier is a much smaller problem in my wife's classroom than about anywhere else in the building.  For some of her students, it's the safest and most comfortable place they find themselves every day and that's not an exaggeration.  Some of her refugee kids spell out the terrors that they have lived through from refugee camps to predatory traffickers to hiding from death squads and civil war.

Needless to say, Guillermo has a more than special place in her heart.

So...I've never done this before in the nine years I've been writing this thing...but

If anyone knows anyone in the Del Toro camp (and I'm assuming here that he will make the trip with the film from Venice to Telluride), I'm asking for a favor.  You know what I'm going to say here...

A meeting between Kris and Guillermo would be...um...nice.  Well, she'd likely lose her mind at least a little bit.  She's already got a big honking copy of Guillermo's Cabinet of Curiosities and will be hauling it this weekend on the off chance that she might be able to get an autograph.  I'd like to make it a little less "chancy".

If anyone has some insight about making this happen, please contact me using any of the methods listed at the bottom of this post.

And Senor Del Toro, if YOU are reading this, hear my plea and reach out to me.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled blog post.

RATE THOSE MOVIES FOLKS

Don't forget, my friends, I want your ratings of the films you see next weekend.  Use a 0-5 scale with 0 being "putrid" and 5 being "best film since..."

I will publish The People's Telluride film ratings a week to ten days after the festival concludes.  Join in!

That's all for now.  More to come...

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

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT TO THE BLOG