Venetian Announcements...What Do They Mean???

Frieda Pinto on the set of Julian Schnabel's "Miral"


The 67th Venice Film Festival has announced their competition line up. What's most intriguing is what is left off the list. Missing are "Tree of Life," "True Grit," Eastwood's "Hereafter," "The King's Speech," "London Boulevard, " "The Way Back," "127 Hours," "Another Year" and "The Debt." So, these are likely not ready, will go somewhere else or will show up in T-Ride.


Included in the list are: "Black Swan," Somewhere," and Schnabel's "Miral." Julie Taymor"s "The Tempest" is closing the festival.

The complete list from Ioncinema is here:

http://www.ioncinema.com/news/id/5362/67th-venice-film-festival-gallo-coppola-reichardt-selected-in-the-main-comp

The Festival has also announced that they will add another film half way through the presentations. Hummmm????

Ioncinema also seems pretty sure that "The American" and "The Town" will be at the Lido out of competition.

More when both Venice and Toronto announce the rest of their lineups.

Toronto Begins Announcing...What Does It Mean?

Sean Penn and Naomi Watts in Doug Liman's "Fair Game" Coming to Telluride???

The 35th Toronto International Film Festival has begun announcing their lineup for this year. TIFF usually has a substantial lineup overlap with Telluride.

You can find Anne Thompson's post regarding the announcement today at this link:

http://www.indiewire.com/article/toronto_announces_2010_titles

So, almost certainly you can peruse this list and see some titles that will almost certainly be at Telluride. Some "suspects" included on the Toronto list that we've been following for a good long time include: Another Year, Biutiful, Miral, Tamara Drewe, Conviction, Brighton Rock, The Town, The King's Speech, and Casino Jack (Bagman). Maybe Blue Valentine...from Sundance...

Some "suspects" that weren't announced for Toronto on the initial list: Fair Game, Tree of Life, True Grit, 127 Hours, Love and Other Drugs, The Way Back and The Descendents.

Ondaatje Part Deux

Jay Fernandez and The Hollywood Reporter add some detail to what we reported yesterday, that author Michael Ondaatje (The English Patient) will be this year's guest director for TFF #37. Here's the link:

http://riskybusiness.hollywoodreporter.com/2010/06/30/telluride-film-festival-taps-michael-ondaatje-as-2010-guest-director/

The TFF #37 Guest Director Is....

Author Michael Ondaatje has been selected to Guest Direct the 37th Telluride Film Festival according to Kris Tapley at In Contention.


Ondaatje is best known as the author of "The English Patient" which won the Booker Prize and, of course, became the film of the same name that won 9 Academy Awards including Best Picture. Ondaatje shared the USC scripter award that year with Director/Screenwriter Anthony Minghella.

Ondaatje was born in Sri Lanka in 1943...but moved to England in 1954 and then to Canada in 1962. He's lived there ever since. He was primarily a poet in his early writing career.

Interesting tidbit: He authored a book in 2002 about Walter Murch and editing. Murch was a Telluride tributee in 2006.

It will be interesting to see what the author of "The English Patient" programs as his selections in this year's festival.

You can check out Ondaatje's "Contemporary Writers" page at:
http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth205

TFF #37 and Cannes

Word out of Cannes today that Sony Picture Classics has picked up the distribution for Mike Leigh's "Another Year". As I write, it still seems to be the biggest critical darling of Cannes and the days are dwindling for that Festival. The SPC decision increases it's chances to be a Telluride picture. I'm almost to the point of saying "count on it" being at TFF #37.

Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu's "Biutiful" has apparently earned split reactions, and very vehement disagreement between critics. I still think it's got a pretty good shot.

Godard's "Socialism" on the other hand sounds like it has landed with a thud and thus drops in our estimation of it's likelihood of being in Telluride.

"Blue Valentine" is getting good press. The knock on it is that it was a Sundance picture, which used to be a disqualifier for Telluride, til last year, when "An Education" showed up both places...so, maybe.

That's what we have for now...check in later...

Cannes and TFF#37

Anthony Hopkins and Naomi Watts on the set of Woody Allen's "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger" set to appear at the Cannes Film Festival next month.

Here are the films chosen for inclusion in the Cannes Film Festival announced last weekend. You can almost certainly count on seeing 6-12 of these at TFF #37 if past trends hold true. I have included some notes for some of the films that may have the best likelihood of being in Telluride.

IN COMPETITION

Tournee, directed by Mathieu Almaric...25% chance...

Des Hommes des Dieux, directed by Xavier Beauvois

Biutiful, directed by Alejandro Gonzales Innaritu...maybe the most likely due to “Babel’s” success at Telluride

Hors-la-loi, directed by Rachid Bouchareb

Un Homme Qui Crie, directed by Mahamat-Saleh

HarounHousemaid, directed by Im Sangsoo

Copie Conforme, directed by Abbas Kiarostami

Outrage, directed by Takeshi Kitano

Poetry, directed by Lee Chang-dong

Another Year, directed by Mike Leigh...”Happy Go Lucky” 2 years ago

Fair Game, directed by Doug Liman...just got a feeling

You, My Joy, directed by Sergei Lovnitsa...ditto

La Nostra Vita, directed by Daniele Luchetti

Utomlyonnye Solntsem 2, directed by Nikita Mikhalkov

La Princesse de Monptpensier, directed by Bertrand Tavernier...because it's Tavernier

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul...intuition again

OUT OF COMPETITION

You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger, directed by Woody Allen...because its SPC

Tamara Drewe, directed by Stephen Frears...because its Frears

Wall Street – Money Never Sleeps, directed by Oliver Stone

MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS

Kaboom, directed by Gregg Araki

L’Autre Monde (Blackhole), directed by Gilles Marchand

UN CERTAIN REGARD

Blue Valentine, directed by Derek Cianfrance...only a guess

O Estranho Caso de Angelica, directed by Manouel de Oliveira

Les Amours Imaginaires (Heartbeats), directed by Xavier Dolan

Los Labios, directed by Ivan Fund and Santiago LozaSimon

Werner a Disparu… directed by Fabrice Gobert

Film Socialisme, directed by Jean-Luc Godard...because its Godard and a doc

Unter Dir Die Stadt (The City Below), directed by Christoph Hochhausler

Rebecca H. (Return to the Dogs), directed by Lodge Kerrigan

Pal Adreinn (Adrienn Pal), directed by Agnes Kocsis

Udaan, directed by Vikramaditya Motwan

Marti Dupa Craciun (Tuesday, After Christmas), directed by Radu Muntean

Chatroom, directed by Hideo Nakata

Aurora, directed by Cristi Puiu...Romainia returns to TFF?

Ha Ha Ha, directed by Hong Sangsoo

Life Above All, directed by Oliver Schmitz

Octubre, directed by Daniel Vega

R U There, directed by David Verbeek

Rizhao Chongqing (Chongqing Blues), directed by Xiaoshuai Wang

SPECIAL SCREENINGS

Inside Job, directed by Charles Ferguson

Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow, directed by Sophie Fiennes

Nostalgia for the Light, directed by Patricio Guzman

Draquila - L’Italia Che Trema, directed by Sabina Guzzanti

Chantrapas, directed by Otar Iosseliani

Abel, directed by Diego Luna

Other notes...reportedly Cannes organizers might still slip in Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life” if it’s “finished”...doesn’t seem likely now, which may increase its chances at being at Telluride.
I was a little surprised that I did not see Julian Schnabel’s “Miral” or Sofia Coppola’s “Somewhere”.