Does San Sebastian List Tell Us Anything? / I'm Thinking of Ending Things Goes Early / Sasha Weighs In on Oscar

DOES SAN SEBASTIAN LIST TELL US ANYTHING?

San Sebastian is planning for its film fest which runs Sept. 18-26...roughly two weeks after TFF and a week after Toronto.  They've announced their first set of selected films which include a number of Cannes "branded" films.  Of not to Telluride watchers probably are Summer of '85, Another round and True Mothers...which, barring being World Premieres for TIFF might indicate them as possibilities for TFF #47.

I'll point out again that when TIFF announced their Cannes titles a few weeks back, I pointed out that the TIFF press language called their selections as "premieres" without any qualifying status (i.e. "World" or "North American".  My point was the notion that if TIFF could have announced them as a "World" or "North American" premiere they would have.  Of course, I could be totally wrong.

Still, perhaps these selections are pointing to the most likely Cannes "crossovers" this year.


Here's the San Sebastian initial announcement from Variety.


I'M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS GOES EARLY

Netflix has announced that Charlie Kaufman's I'm Thinking of Ending Things will drop on Sept. 4th which is now the second day of the Telluride Film Festival.  The announcement would certainly suggest that the film would not be at TFF #47 in a "normal" world.  In a Covid-19 world, who knows?

But it also probably underscores Netflix's earlier revelation that they won't be including ANY of their titles at ANY film fest this fall.

As many of you know, I have been harboring a theory that there Netflix might pop some of their titles at Telluride under cover of Telluride's policy of not revealing titles until the day before the fest starts.

My takeaway from this information that my theory seems even less likely to come to pass and it was a highly unlikely scenario to begin with.  Still, I'm not likely to abandon it it completely.


SASHA WEIGHS IN ON OSCAR

My friend Sasha Stone, founder of Awards Daily posted some serious and early Oscar prognostication since my last post.  Included in the article re her picks for Best PIc as well as a list forwarded to her from another friend.  I can tell you that Sasha's friend is also pretty good at predicting Oscar fortunes.

The friend's list includes:

Da 5 Bloods (Netflix)
The French Dispatch (Searchlight)
Hamilton (Disney)
Mank (Netflix)
Minari (A24)
Nomadland (Searchlight)
Stillwater (Focus)
Tenet (Warner Bros.)
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Netflix)
West Side Story (Fox/Disney)

Sasha's list includes:

Mank
West Side Story
Nightmare Alley
News of the World
Tenet
Nomadland
Stillwater
Trial of the Chicago 7
The Father
Da 5 Bloods

Films on both lists: Mank, Da Five Bloods, Chicago 7, Nomadland, Stillwater, Tenet and West Side Story.  Of those only Nomadland seems to me to be a solid TFF prospect.  Da Five Bloods, Mank and Chicago 7 are all Netflix joints now and I don't see Tenet or West Side Story being at a fest at all.  Stillwater from Focus is intriguing.  Whether it's a serious TFF possibility depends on if it's finished and what path Focus Features decides to follow.

The friend's other three films are: The French Dispatch, Hamilton and Minari.  Of that list only The French Dispatch might be in the cards for TFF.  Hamilton is playing now on Disney+,  Minari was a Sundance film.

Sasha's other four are: The Father (also a Sundance title), Guillermo Del Toro's Nightmare Alley which recent reports suggest wasn't quite half-filmed when production shut down due to the pandemic-I don't think it'll be close to ready for TFF.  Actually, I'll be surprised of it's ready in time for Oscar consideration this year even with the extended release window currently in place.  Sasha's third film is Paul Greengrass' News of the World which hasn't been high on my list for TFF all along as Greengrass has never played anything at Telluride and also due to the lack of much a Telluride profile from its distributor/studio (Columbia/Universal).

Sasha's complete article is here and includes some mention of Best Director and Best Actor possibilities.

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SPECIAL: NO NETFLIX FOR FALL FESTS

SPECIAL: NO NETFLIX FOR FALL FESTS

It is rare that I deviate from the publishing schedule for MTFB but this news justifies and additional post today.  Anne Thompson at Indiewire has reported that Netflix has determined that they will be sending no films to any of the major fall fests Telluride included.

That report came late yesterday.

The news means that a number of high profile projects are no longer in play for TFF as well Venice, Toronto and New York.

Titles from Netflix that have been a part of the conversation:  Mank, Hillbilly Elegy, I'm Thinking of Ending Things, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and White Tiger.

The news could impact Telluride considerably as Netflix has been a major presence at the fest over the last few years:

2015: Beasts of No Nation, Winer on Fire
2016: The Ivory Game, Into the Inferno
2017: First They Killed My Father, Wormwood
2018: Roma, Dovlatov, Girl, Reversing Roe, The Other Side of the Wind, They'll Love Me When I'm Dead
2019: Marriage Story, The Two Popes, Tell Me Who I Am, Inside Bill's Brain

Thompson's claim is pretty definitive as she writes:

"As awards groups adjust to the evolving post-pandemic reality, so will the studios. And the first up is everyone’s favorite Oscar insurgent, Netflix: While it will provide sponsorship for some major festivals in 2020, it’s not planning to send any of their films or talent to attend them."

Thompson's complete article is linked here.

Whispers from Vulture / Cannes Reveries and Analysis / Coppola On the Rocks / HN Updates Oscar Predix

WHISPERS FROM VULTURE

Nate Jones posted yesterday on Vulture.com a piece entitled "How Each Major Film Festival Is Responding to the Coronavirus.  Included in his assessment is Telluride along with Cannes, Venice, Toronto and New York.

The Telluride segment doesn't really offer much new save for this sentence:


"However, organizers tell Vulture they are proceeding as if the festival will happen. Otherwise, the only news out of Telluride came in mid-April, when the fest proposed extending its schedule by an extra day"

The key words being: "they (TFF) are proceeding as if the festival will happen"

No clues as to which "organizers" are the source of the claim but it's encouraging.

The Vulture article is linked here.


CANNES REVERIES AND ANALYSIS

The 73rd Cannes Film Festival was to have been going by today.  The original schedule had envisioned an opening night film on Tuesday night and as you know that did not happen.  As the original start date has come and gone a variety of outlets have offered memories and retrospectives about past Cannes as well as a number of assessments of Cannes place in the film universe.

I'm passing along a link to a couple of those here.

The first is a look at Cannes and its past from the perspective of three Indiewire veterans who all have  wealth of experience to draw on.  Anne Thompson, Eric Kohn and David Ehrlich (all of which have been kind enough over the years to participate in my annual round-up of industry veterans at the end of TFF) offer up their reminiscences of their personal experiences in southern France as well as a look at Cannes' past and potential future influence on the film industry.

Take a look at their stories here.

Meanwhile, Deadline has published the highlights of a France TV interview with Cannes President Pierre Lescrue.  Nancy Tartaglione's post went up yesterday.

Lescrue revealed that Cannes would be naming films that would have been selected would include roughly 50 titles.  Previous reports had established that the announcement of those titles will come sometime in early June.

It's my belief that some of those titles that would have played Cannes will be among the films that also play TFF and it will be interesting to parse that announcement for clues and possibilities.

The Deadline story is linked here.


COPPOLA ON THE ROCKS

photo via Empire Online

One of the films that may well be on that list next month is Sofia Coppola's latest collaboration with Bill Murray.  Her film, On the Rocks, she says, is done.  That information leads one to believe that it certainly is a possible title for the Cannes list and then some presentation among the fall fests that are currently still planning on occurring in some fashion including, perhaps, T-ride.

Coppola's last Bill Murray film was, of course, Lost in Translation which played Telluride with Coppola in attendance back in 2003.

Coppola is featured in an article this week (along with Kirsten Dunst) in Empire Online.

You can check that here.


HN UPDATES OSCAR PREDIX

In an exercise of faith or chutzpah or wishful thinking, Hollywood News' Joey Magidson has updated his Oscar predictions for the month of May.  Consequently, in the same spirit, I have mined those predictions for Telluride possibles.

Among his top ten Best Picture picks are TFF potentials: Nomadland, Ammonite and Stillwater.  Also in his top ten are Mank and The Trail of the Chicago 7 both of which could be Telluride players if they're finished.

In his second tier of Best Picture picks are other "Maybes" for Telluride: The French Dispatch, I'm Thinking of Ending Things, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Annette and On the Rocks.

Magidson's complete rundown of Oscar predictions are linked here.



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L.A. Times Looks at Films That Could Still Be in Play / Annecy Proceeds Online

L.A. TIMES LOOKS AT FILMS THAT COULD STILL BE IN PLAY

Frances McDormand in Nomadland (via Indiewire)

Earlier this week The Los Angeles Times' Glenn Whipp assessed the field of films that he thinks could still be in the sites of FIlm Fests and in Oscar play.  Whipp essentially comes down to three pieces of information about each of the 29 films that make it into his story: Distributor, production status and whether the film currently has a scheduled release date.

So, let's take a look at Whipp's list and talk about what titles based on his information and assessments might be festival bound...and, more specifically, Telluride-possible.

First...films that don't seem probable for Telluride:

Two Sundance films on the list meaning, if tradition holds, that no Telluride play would be in the cards: Florian Zeller's The Father starring Anthony Hopkins and Lee Issac Chung's Minari.

Then there are a dozen films from the Whipp list that have never really felt like Telluride films.  They're films that I don't feel as if they ever planned a fall film fest appearance.

Spike Lee's Da 5 Bloods (Netflex/locked/unscheduled)

Denis Villeneuve's Dune (Warner Bors./post-prod/Dec. 18)

Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch (Searchlight/locked/Oct. 16)***

Ridley Scott's The Last Duel (20th Century/production suspended)

George C. Wolfe's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (Netflix/post-prod/unscheduled)

Paul Greengrass' News of the World (Universal/post-prod/Dec. 25)

Ryan Murphy's The Prom (Netflix/post-prod/unscheduled)

Liesl Tommy's Respect (MGM, post-prod/Dec. 25)

Docter and Powers' Soul (Disney/post-prod/Nov. 20)

Joanna Hogg's The Souvenir: Part II (A24/post-prod/unscheduled)

Christopher Nolan's Tenet (Warner Bros./locked/July 17)

Steven Spielberg's West Side Story (20th Century/post-prod/Dec. 18)

That said...within an unclear pandemic universe...who knows?  Maybe some of these films end up playing at a festival.

The next categorization are films that are locked that feel like they could be Telluride and/or other fall film fest entrants:

Francis Lee's Ammonite (Neon/unscheduled)

Charlie Kaufman's I'm Thinking of Ending Things (Netflix/unscheduled)

Edoardo Ponti's The Life Ahead (Netflix/unscheduled)

Chloe Zhao's Nomadland (Searchlight/unscheduled- a note here, the article actually says its production status is uncertain...my feeling is that it's likely complete)

Then there are the films listed as being in post-production that, should they be completed in time, seem like Telluride and fall film fest possibles (included here is the post-production start date according to IMDb):

Leos Carax's Annette (Amazon/post-11-22-19/unscheduled)

Michael Showalter's The Eyes of Tammy Faye (Searchlight/post 12-23-19/unscheduled)

Ron Howard's Hillbilly Elegy (Netflix/post-IMDb says the film is complete/unscheduled)

David Fincher's Mank (Netflix/post-2-3-20/unscheduled)***

Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Memoria (Neon/post-10-13-19/unscheduled)

George Clooney's The Midnight Sky (Netflix/post-1-2-20/unscheduled)

Sofia Coppola's On the Rocks (A24/post-7-4-19)

Glen Keane's Over the Moon (Netflix/post-1-2-20/unscheduled)

Tom McCarthy's Stillwater (Focus Features/post-1-2-20/unscheduled)

Aaron Sorkin's Trail of the Chicago 7 (Paramount/post-12-17-19/unscheduled)***

Joe Wright's The Woman in the Window (20th Century/post-10-29-18/unscheduled...though it has been dated for release a couple of times)

***I have read somewhere that both Mank and Trial of Chicago 7 will likely not be ready for any of the fall fests.

Additionally, you'd have to expect that films that went into post after the start of 2020 are suspect simply because those films would only have been in post for a few weeks before the shutdown happened: The Midnight Sky, Over the Moon, Stillwater.  

Even The Eyes of Tammy Faye with a Dec. 2019 post-production start date seem iffy to me.

Finally, for fun, let's factor in in directors who have been to Telluride in some capacity (director, writer or star) from these last two groups: Kaufman, Zhao, Fincher, Clooney, Coppola, McCarthy, Sorkin, Wright and I'll take a stab at five of these films making a Telluride lineup for 2020:

1) Nomadland

2) I'm Thinking of Ending Things

3) On the Rocks

4) Hillbilly Elegy

5) Ammonite

Whipp's complete article with his commentary is linked here.

ANNECY PROCEEDS ONLINE

The Annecy Animation Film Fest, the largest animated film festival on the planet announced a few weeks back that this year's event had been cancelled but the fest will move forward with a completely online version of the event.  The online fest will run June 15-20.

The details were reported by John Hopewell and Jamie Lang for Variety last Thursday.

Over the years, several films that have played the Annecy Fest have gone onto to play over the Labor Day weekend in Telluride.  Examples that come to mind include: Loving Vincent and Chico and Rita.

The Variety story includes claims by the fest organizers that many of its customary players will be back for the virtual event.

May 18th is the date for the fest to announce its competition lineup.

The full story is here.

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