Golden Globe Nominations / New Trailers: Loveless and Lean on Pete / Documentary Short List

Good Monday to everyone...


GOLDEN GLOBE NOMINATIONS

I'll publish this morning before the nomination announcement...so...come back a little later today and I'll have the nominees and a note or two about what happened and TFF #44's impact on whatever is announced.

TFF #44 Golden Globe nominations: 19

The Shape of Water led all nominees with 7.

The Shape of Water (7): Best Picture-Drama, Best Actress/Drama-Sally Hawkins, Supporting Actress-Octavia Spencer, Supporting Actor-Richard Jenkins, Direction, Screenplay, Score.

Lady Bird (4): Best Picture-Musical/Comedy, Best Actress-Saoirse Ronan, Supporting actress-Laurie Metcalf, Screenplay.

Battle of the Sexes (2): Best Actress-Musical/Comedy-Emma Stone, Best actor-Musical/Comedy-Steve Carell

Darkest Hour (1): Gary Oldman

Downsizing (1): Supporting Actress-Hong Chau

Loving Vincent (1)-Animated Film

First They Killed My Father (1)-Foreign Language Film

A Fantastic Woman (1)-Foreign Language Film

Loveless (1)-Foreign Language Film

You can find a complete list of all the Golden Globe nominations here.

NEW TRAILERS FOR LOVELESS AND LEAN ON PETE

Trailer for Loveless from YouTube:

Trailer for Lean on Pete from YouTube:

DOCUMENTARY SHORT LIST

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences named the 15 documentary features on this year's short list for Oscar consideration.  TFF #44 docs are CAPITALIZED*


Abacus: Small Enough to Jail
Chasing Coral
City of Ghosts
Ex Libris
FACES PLACES*
HUMAN FLOW*
Icarus
AN INCONVIENENT SEQUEL:TRUTH TO POWER*
Jane
LA92
Last Men in Aleppo
Long Strange Trip
One of Us
Strong Island
Unrest

More coming later today following the Golden Globe announcement.


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FAC Oscar Update: Lead Acting / Oscar Updates from Experts / Interviews with TFF #44 Guests / Correction

It's November and here is your first MTFB of the new month...


FILM AWARDS CLEARINGHOUSE OSCAR UPDATE: LEAD ACTING

Oscar season continues and so does my meager attempt to predict the eventual nominees.  Today's focus is on the lead acting races which were first predicted here on Oct. 12th.

As always, predicted nominees connected with TFF #44 are in Bold.

Let's get to it...

BEST ACTRESS

Here is what the last FAC set of predictions had for the Best Actress race:

1) Frances McDormand/Three Billboards
2) Sally Hawkins/The Shape of Water
3) Meryl Streep/The Post
4) Margo Robbie/I, Tonya
5) Jessica Chastain/Molly's Game

Others: Kate Winslet/Wonder Wheel, Emma Stone/Battle of the Sexes, Saoirse Ronan/Lady Bird


And the updated predictions:


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

BEST ACTOR

From Oct. 12th:

1) Gary Oldman/Darkest Hour
2) Jake Gyllenhaal/Stronger
3) Daniel Day Lewis/Untitled Paul Thomas Anderson Film
4) Timothee Chalamet/Call Me By Your Name
5) Hugh Jackman/The Greatest Showman

Others: Andrew Garfield/Breathe, Denzel Washington/Roman Israel Esq., Tom Hanks/The Post

And today's updated predictions:

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


OSCAR UPDATES FROM THE EXPERTS

Both Scott Feinberg of The Hollywood Reporter and Jason Osiason of Fantastic Film Fans (and also one of The Gold Rush Gang over at Awards Watch) have updated their Oscar predictions as of Nov. 1.

The latest Feinberg Forecast can be found here.

Osaison's latest take is linked here.

Feinberg  predicts 15 categories and has the following nominations predicted for films that played at Telluride in 2017:

The Shape of Water: Best Picture, Direction, Actress, Original Screenplay, Production Design, Cinematography and Score.

Lady Bird: Best Picture, Actress, Supporting Actress, Original Screenplay

Darkest Hour: Best Picture, Direction, Actor, Cinematography and Score

Wonderstruck: Supporting Actress, Production Design, Cinematography, Score

Loving Vincent: Animated Feature

Foxtrot: Foreign Language Film

Loveless; Foreign Language Film

Downsizing: Production Design

An Inconvenient Sequel: Best Song

Osiason predicts the major eight categories including these for TFF #44 films:

The Shape of Water: Best Picture, Direction, Actress, Original Screenplay

Lady Bird; Best Picture, Actress, Supporting Actress, Original Screenplay

Darkest Hour: Best Picture, Actor

MORE INTERVIEWS WITH TFF #44 GUESTS

Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird opens tomorrow.  The film, which was quite the hit at T-ride,  has continued to gain fans through the rest of the fall film festival season.  Writer-director Gerwig was recently interviewed by Harry Haun for Film Journal which posted it this week.

Here's the link to that from Film Journal.


Meanwhile, Joe Wright's Darkest Hour, the detailed account of the events that led to the rescue at Dunkirk, opens Thanksgiving weekend.  Gary Oldman plays Winston Churchill and is widely regarded as the prohibitive favorite to pick the Best Actor Oscar next March.

Oldman is featured by Interviewmagazine.com in a piece authored by Jack White.

You can read that here.


CORRECTION

In my previous post on Oct. 30th I wrote that Ai Weiwei's refugee documentary, Human Flow, was still without distribution.  An eagle-eyed reader, who shall remain anonymous, pointed out that Human Flow was picked up for distribution by Amazon back in June according to The Hollywood Reporter.

I regret the error.  The original story has been corrected to reflect this.

That's your MTFB for this Thursday.  As always, there will be more on Monday.




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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.


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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.


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Dear Guillermo... / Tribute Clues / WeiWei Interview / Screen Talk Talks Fall Fests / Reminder to Rate Your Films

Welcome back from the weekend.  It's Monday, August 28, 2017.  The 44th Telluride Film Festival begins in four days.


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.


TRIBUTES CLUES

Many of you know that in the days before the beginning of the festival that, usually a couple of films are screened in Elks Park and that they almost always hint at who the tribute recipients will be.

A Telluride local and friend of the blog, who I am keeping anonymous, emailed me the an ad that has run locally in T-ride for the films that have been scheduled:

The choice of these two films seems to confirm earlier speculation that tributes are set for Christian Bale and cinematographer Ed Lachman.  As to the third tribute, I think I have that nailed down as well but am going to keep that under wraps for the time being.

WEIWEI INTERVIEW

Artist, dissident and film maker Ai Weiwei is certainly set for screening his documentary Human Flow at Venice this week and then is very likely to bring it Telluride this weekend.  He was the subject of a substantial interview with Variety this past week in which he speaks about the film.

Nick Vivarelli writes.  Here's the interview.

SCREEN TALK TALKS FALL FESTS

This week's podcast of Screen Talk with Indiewire's Anne Thompson and Eric Kohn spends a good deal of time focused on some of the upcoming launch of the fall film fests and Oscar season.  Although neither of them can name films that will be at Telluride, they do make mention of the fest and make no bones about Downsizing being there.  Among other films that they mention that I'm feeling will lay are: Lady Bird, Darkest Hour and The Shape of Water.

The Screen Talk podcast is here.


REMINDER TO RATE YOUR FILMS THIS WEEK

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 tomorrow and on Wednesday I'll post a special edition of MTFB with the final "Bets" for TFF #44.

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Another One Bites the Dust / Crazy Ideas Re-visited / A Trailer for Human Flow

Welcome back from your weekend.  It's Monday, August 21, 2017...ten days to TFF #44...

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST

I started seeing some social media mention on Friday that Xavier Dolan's The Death and Life of John F. Donovan was probably not going to be ready for exhibition.  Indiewrie confirmed that in a post on Friday afternoon.

The film's french distributor is sourced in the article specifically saying that the film won't be ready for Toronto which necessarily also means that it wouldn't be ready for the earlier occurring TFF #44. John F. Donovan has been on my dwindling list of films that could still pop up at Telluride but that changes now.

One other note about Toronto; they do have one more round of films to be announced Tuesday.  Last week one of the major film outlet had suggested that TIFF was finished naming films but a friendly reader messaged me with the news that TIFF wasn't quite done which made more sense to me as I had gotten used to TIFF making their announcements in five installments.  So, look for a final wave of films and parsing coming tomorrow.

Consequently, my list of films which might still make The SHOW is now:

Final Portrait
L'amant Double
Marshall
Mary Magdalene
Our Souls at Night
The Snowman
Wonder
You Were never Really Here

CRAZY IDEAS RE-VISITED

Four things that are really far-fetched but...you never know...

Alejandro Inarritu's VR installation Carne y Arena.  It's played at Cannes and the L.A. County Museum.  

Denis Villenueve surprises by showing up with, at a minimum, scenes from Blade Runner 2049. Maybe the whole film.

William Friedkin is feted and shows The Devil and Father Amorth plus the recently restored Sorcerer and perhaps even The Exorcist.

David Lynch drops the final two episodes of Twin Peaks:The Return in Telluride prior to them airing on Sunday night, Sept. 3rd on Showtime.

Final word: make all these crazy ideas happen...

A TRAILER FOR AI WEI WEI'S HUMAN FLOW

One of the documentaries we expect to see in Telluride in a few days is Ai Wei Wei's Human Flow. The film is known to bow in Venice and we then think it'll make the trip to southwest Colorado.  Wei Wei focuses on the global refugee crisis after having filmed in nearly two dozen countries according to Indiewire which reported over the weekend that the doc has a trailer.

And here it is from YouTube:

That's Monday.  More tomorrow...

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Ten (21) Bets #8 / New Posters: Human Flow and Film Stars / Maybe There Is Another Film from Venice?

It's Friday, August 18, 2017...13 days until The SHOW...

TEN (21) BETS #8

Here's your weekly update about expectations for films at TFF #44.

Last Week's Ten (actually 16) Bets were:

1) Downsizing
2) Wonderstruck
3) The Shape of Water
4) Battle of the Sexes
5) Darkest Hour
6) Loving Vincent
7) Hostiles
8) Lady Bird
9) A Fantastic Woman
10) The Rider
11) Visages/Villages
12) First They Killed My Father
13) Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool
14) The Other Side of Hope
15) Wormwood
16) Before We Vanish

This week's 21 Bets are:

1) Downsizing
2) Wonderstruck
3) The Shape of Water
4) Battle of the Sexes
5) Darkest Hour
6) Loving Vincent
7) Hostiles
8) Lady Bird
9) A Fantastic Woman
10) The Rider
11) Visages/Villages
12) First They Killed My Father
13) Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool
14) The Other Side of Hope
15) Wormwood
16) Before We Vanish

17) Lean on Pete

18) First Reformed

19) Loveless

20) Foxtrot

21) The Insult

Based on past festivals there might be somewhere between five and ten further films/programs that we haven't figured out as yet.  The best chances to be added, I think, are You Were Never Really Here, L'amant Double and some of Ken Burns' Vietnam documentary.

NEW POSTERS: HUMAN FLOW AND FILM STARS

We had our first glimpses of posters from both Paul McGuigan's Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool as well as Ai Weiwei's Human Flow appear yesterday.  Weiwei also tweeted that a Human Flow trailer should be expected today.  Here are the posters:

Human Flow:

Film Stars:

MAYBE THERE IS ANOTHER FILM FROM VENICE?


Thanks go out to eagle-eyed Kamil Ahsan who communicated with me yesterday to ask about the chances of Woodshock playing at Telluride.  I had all but dismissed it as Venice has scheduled it to play on Sept. 4th.  Additionally,  Variety, Entertainment Weekly and The Hollywood Reporter have all reported that Errol Morris' Wormwood is the only non-World Premiere at Venice.

But Kamil pointed me to this tweet from the official Woodshock film account that clearly says that the film will be a European Premiere at Venice.

This could mean that the film from the Muleavey sisters will drop early in the Telluride schedule and then move to Venice.  

So something has to give here.  It'll be interesting to see what happens but for those looking forward to catching Woodshock at TFF #44 there seems to be a glimmer of hope.

That's the MTFB for this Friday, Aug. 18th.  Have a great weekend!


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LATE BREAKING; Venice Schedule Released; Clues for Telluride

LATE BREAKING:

The schedule for the Venice Film Festival was posted overnight and gives clues about what films we think may play both places.

We already have had some clues.  I was already fairly certain about things like Downsizing, The Shape of Water, Wormwood and Human Flow due to their Toronto status or other reporting.  Those films seem to be in good shape for Telluride with Venice dates that will allow them to do Venice and then come to T-ride or the reverse...do Telluride and then to Venice.

We also know that Venice director Alberto Barbera has said that there are likely 7-8 films that would play both places.

Downsizing opens Venice on Aug. 30
The Shape of Water plays Aug. 31
Human Flow plays Sept.1...which is probably as late as a film can play Venice and still make T-ride.

Then...

Wormwood plays Sept. 6 which would allow a Telluride bow before Errol Morris headed to Italy.

Other films we have been pointing out that fall into either the early or late windows:

Early:

Aug. 31-Paul Schrader's First Reformed and (though I haven't had this on my radar) William Freidkin's The Devil and Father Amorth (yes please)
Sept. 1- Andrew Haigh's Lean on Pete and Ritesh Batra's Our Souls at Night

Late:
Sept. 6-Warwick Thornton's Sweet Country
Sept. 7-Mektoub My Love Canto Uno

That's six films in addition to the four that we thought were already probable to make the journey.  My guess is that the additional three or four are among these.

The full Venice Schedule is here.

More analysis on Monday...

Ten Bets #5 / Another Venice Doc Confirmed? / Wonder Wheel Rolls Off the T-ride List / Parsing the Announcements This Week...

Good Friday to you  It's been a busy week for tracking down Telluride films for 44th edition of The SHOW...



TEN BETS #5

Here's your weekly guess at films that will play Telluride this Labor Day weekend.  Last week's list looked like this:

1) Wonderstruck
2) Downsizing
3) Visages/Villages
4) Loveless
5) Battle of the Sexes
6) The Florida Project
7) You Were Never Really Here
8) A Fantastic Woman
9) The Other Side of Hope
10) The Current War


Other possibles: 120 BPM, The Shape of Water, The Rider, Loving Vincent, mother!, Happy End, Redoubtable, The Death of Stalin, Ken Burns Vietnam

With the Toronto and Venice information this week we think these films are probably playing TFF #44:

1) Wonderstruck
2) Downsizing
3) Battle of the Sexes
4) A Fantastic Woman
5) The Shape of Water
6) The Rider
7) Hostiles
8) Lady Bird
9) First They Killed My Father
10) Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool***

Additionally other detective work seems to be indicating Darkest Hour, Loving Vincent, Human Flow (see below) and Wormwood are likely for  Telluride.

Other films that could still play Telluride: Visages/Villages, The Other Side of Hope, Lean on Pete, Mektoub My Love Canto Uno, First Reformed, The Leisure Seeker, Ex Libris, Our Souls at Night, First Reformed, Sweet Country and La Camera Insabbiata, You Were Never Really Here, The Florida Project, Happy End, Loveless, Ken Burns' Vietnam and Mary Magdalene.

***Assuming I have this right on Film Stars, it would almost certainly play without star Annette Bening in attendance as she is presiding over Venice's Golden Lion jury.



ANOTHER VENICE DOC CONFIRMED?


In its coverage of the Venice announcement yesterday Ioncinema confirms that AiWeiwei's documentary,  Human Flow will play Telluride and seems to also indicate that Frederick Wiseman will also play T-ride with Ex Libris: The New York Public Library.

Here's a screenshot of the relevant section:

So add Ex Libris to our growing list of films we're relatively confident about making the journey to southwest Colorado.

The complete Ioncinema article is here.

WONDER WHEEL ROLLS OFF THE T-RIDE LIST

Earlier in the week I had a mild buzz of excitement as news was leaking that Woody Allen's Wonder Wheel would close the New York Film Fest.  The reason for the excitement: no news story about the selection was including the film's premiere status.  That led me to believe that there was the slimmest possibility of a play somewhere else.

Alas, not so much.  Official word came yesterday that the film would indeed close NYFF and that it would be the film's World Premiere.  So endeth the speculation.

The official announcement form NYFF is here.


PARSING THE ANNOUNCEMENTS THIS WEEK...

Variety's Kristopher Tapley wrote yesterday about this week's reveals in terms not only of what's going where but also in his capacity as chief awards guru for that publication.

Tapley also concludes, as I have here, that Battle of the Sexes, First They Killed My Father, Darkest Hour, Lady Bird and Hostiles will play (and first screen) at Telluride.

It's a good look at the general lay of the land as we come to the end of this crazy, crazy week.

Take a look at it here.


That's it for Friday.  Have a great weekend!

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