MTFB Oscar Take: Supporting Players and More / Interviews and Profiles: Dinklage, Branagh, Farhadi and Others

MTFB OSCAR TAKE: SUPPORTING ACTORS AND MORE

Here's your update on the Supporting Acting races as well as Score, Song and Costumes.  These predictions were last updated on Jan. 3rd.  TFF #48 performances/films are indicated in Bold and their previous position in my predictions are indicated to the right in parentheses.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1) Ariana DeBose/West side Story (1)

2) Caitriona Balfe/Belfast (2)

3) Kirsten Dunst/The Power of the Dog (4)

4) Aujunue Ellis/King Richard (3)

5) Ruth Negga/Passing (5)

Alternates: Anne Dowd/Mass, Cate Blanchett/Nightmare Alley and Rita Moreno/West Side Story

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Kodi Smit-McPhee/The Power of the Dog (1)

2) Troy Kotsur/CODA (3)

3) Ciaran Hinds/Belfast (2)

4) Bradley Cooper/Licorice Pizza (Alt.)

5) Jared Leto/House of Gucci

Alternates: Jamie Dornan/Belfast and Ben Affleck/The Tender Bar

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

1) Dune (1)

2) The Power of the Dog (2)

3)The French Dispatch (4)

4) Don't Look Up (3)

5) Parallel Mothers (Alt.)

Alternates: Spencer and Encanto

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

1) No Time to Die/No Time to Die (2)

2) Be Alive/King Richard (1)

3) Dos Oruguitas/Encanto (4)

4) Down to Joy/Belfast (Alt.)

5) Just Look Up/Don't Look Up (3)

Alternates: Guns Go Bang/The Harder They Fall and Here I Am/Respect

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

1) Cruella (1)

2) Dune (2)

3) West Side Story (3)

4) House of Gucci (4)

5) Nightmare Alley (Alt.)

Alternates: Spencer and The French Dispatch

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Actor Peter Dinklage on Cyrano from The Playlist

Dinklage and actress Haley Bennett plus more from Cyrano from Variety

Writer/Director Asghar Farhadi on A Hero from The Hollywood Reporter

Writer /Director Kenneth Branagh plus actors: Jude Hill, Caitriona Balfe, Jamie Dornan and Ciaran Hinds 

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MTFB Oscar Update: Supporting Acting and More / Interviews and Profiles

 MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: SUPPORTING ACTING, SCORE, SONG AND COSTUMES

Here's your update on the Supporting Acting races as well as Score, Song and Costumes.  These predictions were last updated on Dec. 20th.  TFF #48 performances/films are indicated in Bold and their previous position in my predictions are indicated to the right in parentheses.

BEST SUPPORTING SCTRESS

1) Ariana DeBose/West Side Story (2)

2) Caitriona Balfe/Belfast (1)

3) Aujunue Ellis/King Richard (4)

4) Kirsten Dunst/The Power of the Dog (3)

5) Ruth Negga/Passing (5)

Alternates: Rita Moreno/West Side Story and Anne Dowd/Mass

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Kodi Smit-McPhee/The Power of the Dog (2)

2) Ciaran Hinds/Belfast (1)

3) Tony Kotsur/CODA (3)

4) Jamie Dornan/Belfast (4)

5) Jared LKodieto/House of Gucci (5)

Alternates: Bradley Cooper/Licorice Pizza and Ben Affleck/The Tender Bar

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

1) Dune (1)

2) The Power of the Dog (2)

3) Don't Look Up (3)

4) The French Dispatch (5)

5) Spencer (4)

Alternates: Parallel Mothers and Encanto

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

1) Be Alive/King Richard (1)

2) No Time to Die/No Time to Die (2)

3) Just Look Up/Don't Look Up (4)

4) Dos Oruguitas/Encanto (5)

5) Guns Go Bang/The Harder They Fall (New)

Alternates: Down to Joy/Belfast and So May We Start/Annette

BEST COSTUMES

1) Cruella (2)

2) Dune (1)

3) West Side Story (3)

4) House of Gucci (New)

5) Spencer (Alt.)

Alternates: The French Dispatch and Nightmare Alley

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Writer/Director Asghar Farhadi on A Hero from The National Board of Review

Cinematographer Robert Yeoman/The French Dispatch from Next Best Picture

Film Editor Una Ni Dhonghaile/Belfast from Gold Derby

The Crew from Procession from Indiewire

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

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MTFB Oscar Update: Supporting Acting and More / L.A. Film Critics and TFF #48 / Interviews and Profiles: Will Smith, Kenneth Branagh and More

 MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: SUPPORTING ACTING, SCORE, SONG AND COSTUMES

Here's your update on the Supporting Acting races as well as Score, Song and Costumes.  These predictions were last updated on Dec. 6th.  TFF #48 performances/films are indicated in Bold and their previous position in my predictions are indicated to the right in parentheses.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1) Caitriona Balfe/Belfast (1)

2) Ariana DeBose/West Side Story (Alt.)

3) Kirsten Dunst/The Power of the Dog (2)

4) Aujunue Ellis/King Richard (3)

5) Ruth Negga/Passing (4)

Alternates: Anne Dowd/Mass and Rita Moreno/West Side Story

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Ciaran Hinds/Belfast (1)

2) Kodi Smit-McPhee/The Power of the Dog (2)

3)Tony Kotsur/CODA (New)

4) Jamie Dornan/Belfast (4)

5) Jared Leto/House of Gucci (5)

Alternates: Ben Affleck/The Tender Bar and Bradley Cooper/Licorice Pizza

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

1) Dune (1)

2) The Power of the Dog (2)

3) Don't Look Up (5)

4) Spencer (3)

5) The French Dispatch (4)

Alternates: Nightmare Alley and Cyrano

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

1) Be Alive/King Richard (1)

2) No Time to Die/No Time to Die (2)

3) Down to Joy/Belfast (3)

4) Just Look Up/Don't Look Up (5)

5) Dos Oruguitas/Encanto (New)

Alternates: Every Letter/Cyrano and Beyond the Shore/CODA

BEST COSTUMES

1) Dune (1)

2) Cruella (2)

3) West Side Story (3)

4) Cyrano (New)

5) The Tragedy of Macbeth (New)

Alternates: Spencer and The French Dispatch

L.A. FILM CRITICS AND TFF #48

The Los Angeles Film Critics Association held their annual meet-up to name the Best of Film for 2021 on Saturday.  Seven TFF #48 films were named either a winner or runner-up in one of the LAFCA's 16 categories. TFF #48 films performances that were named either the winner or runner-up were:

The Power of the Dog: Winner: Best Direction (Campion), Best Supporting Actor (Smit-McPhee), Best Cinematography.  Runner-up: Best Picture, Best Actor (Cumberbatch), Best Score.

Flee: Winner: Best Animated Film

Petite Maman: Winner: Best Foreign Language Film

Red Rocket: Winner: Best Actor (Rex)

Procession: Runner-up: Best Documentary

King Richard: Runner-up: Best Supporting Actress (Ellis)

Spencer: Runner-up: Best Score

Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Drive My Car was named Best Picture of the Year but The Power of the Dog was the most noted film of the day with its three wins and three runners-up.

The complete list of LAFCA winners and runners-up is linked here from Indiewire.

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Writer/Director Sean Baker/Red Rocket/Gold Derby

Writer/Director Kenneth Branagh/Belfast/Deadline

Writer/Director Asghar Farhadi/A Hero/Gold Derby

Actor Will Smith/King Richard/Variety

Actor Dakota Johnson/The Lost Daughter/Awards Watch

 

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MTFB Oscar Update: Supporting Acting, Score, Song, Costumes / Interviews, Profiles and Podcasts

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: SUPPOTING ACTING, SCORE, SONG, COSTUMES

Here's your update on the Supporting Acting races as well as Score, Song and Costumes.  These predictions were last updated on Nov. 22nd.  TFF #48 performances/films are indicated in Bold and their previous position in my predictions are indicated to the right in parentheses.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1) Caitriona Balfe/Belfast (1)

2) Kristen Dunst/The Power of the Dog (2)

3) Aujunue Ellis/King Richard (3)

4) Ruth Negga/Passing (4)

5) Anne Dowd/Mass (Alt.)

Alternates: Judi Dench/Belfast and Adriana DeBose/West Side Story.  Note: Look out for up and comer Rita Moreno from West Side Story

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Ciaran Hinds/Belfast (1)

2) Kodi Smit-McPhee/The Power of the Dog (5)

3) J. K. SImmons/Being the Ricardos (3)

4) Jamie Dornan/Belfast (4)

5) Jared Leto/House of Gucci (Alt.)

Alternates: Jon Bernthal/King Richard and Ben Affleck/The Tender Bar

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

1) Dune (1)

2) The Power of the Dog (2)

3) Spencer (3)

4) The French Dispatch (4)

5) Don't Look Up (5)

Alternates: Nightmare Alley and The Tragedy of Macbeth

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

1) Be Alive/King Richard (1)

2) Not Time to Die/No Time to Die (2)

3) Down to Joy/Belfast (3)

4) Guns Go Bang/The Harder They Fall (4)

5) Just Look Up/Don't Look Up (New)

Alternates:  So May We Start/Annette and Columbia Mi Encanto/Encanto

BEST COSTUME

1) Dune (2)

2) Cruella (1)

3) West Side Story (Alt.)

4) Spencer (3)

5) Nightmare Alley (4)

Alternates: Being the Ricardos and The French Dispatch

INTERVIEWS, PROFILES AND PODCASTS

SPENCER

Indiewire

Deadline

ENCOUNTER

Variety

THE CARD COUNTER

Deadline

THE LOST DAUGHTER

Deadline

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

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MTFB's Oscar Take: Predictions for Screenplays, Visual Effects, Sound and Hair/Makeup / Interview with Belfast's Jamie Dornan

 MFTB OSCAR TAKE: PREDICITONS FOR SCREENPLAYS, VISUAL EFFECTS, SOUND AND HAIR/MAKEUP

Here are the latest nomination predictions for these five categories.  These were last predicted on Nov. 11th.  TFF #48 films are indicated in Bold.  The film's previous ranking is indicated to the right in parentheses.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1) Belfast (1)

2) Licorice Pizza (2)

3) King Richard (3)

4) C'mon C'mon (4)

5) Don't Look Up (5)

Alternates: Becoming the Ricardos and A Hero

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1) The Power of the Dog (1)

2) The Lost Daughter (2)

3) CODA (3)

4) Nightmare Alley (4)

5) Passing (5)

Alternates: Dune and West Side Story

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

1) Dune (1)

2) The Matrix: Resurrections (2)

3) Eternals (3)

4) Spiderman: No Way Home (4)

5) Godzilla vs. Kong (Alt.)

Alternates: Don't Look Up and Free Guy

BEST SOUND

1) Dune (1)

2) West Side Story (2)

3) No Time to Die (3)

4) Belfast (4)

5) The Power of the Dog (5)

Alternates: Nightmare Alley and Eternals

BEST HAIR/MAKEUP

1) Dune (1)

2) The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2)

3) House of Gucci (3)

4) Cruella (4)

5) Spencer (5)

Alternates: The French Dispatch and King Richard

INTERVIEW WITH BELFAST'S JAMIE DORNAN

The Irish Times

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

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MTFB Oscar Predicitons Update: Supporting Acting, Score, Song and Costumes / Marcel Has a Home / Interviews, Profiles and Podcasts

MTFB OSCAR PREDICTION UPDATE

Here's your update on the Supporting Acting races as well as Score, Song and Costumes.  These predictions were last updated on Nov. 8th.  TFF #48 performances/films are indicated in Bold and their previous position in my predictions are indicated to the right in parentheses.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS 

1) Caitriona Balfe/Belfast (1)

2  Kirsten Dunst/The Power of the Dog (2)

3) Aujunue Ellis/King Richard (3)

4) Ruth Negga/Passing (4)

5) Judi Dench/Belfast (Alt.)

Alternates: Ann Dowd/Mass and Marlee Matlin/CODA

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Ciaran Hinds/Belfast (1)

2) Bradley Cooper/Licorice Pizza (2)

3) J.K. Simmons/Being the Ricardos (New)

4) Jamie Dornan/Belfast (3)

5) Kodi Smit-McPhee/The Power of the Dog (5)

Alternates: Jared Leto/House of Gucci and Ben Affleck/The Tender Bar

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

1) Dune (1)

2) The Power of the Dog (2)

3) Spencer (3)

4) The French Dispatch (4)

5) Don't Look Up (5)

Alternates: Nightmare Alley and The Tragedy of Macbeth

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

1) Be Alive/King Richard (1)

2) No Time to Die/No Time to Die (2)

3) Down to Joy/Belfast (3)

4) Guns Go Bang/The Harder They Fall (5)

5) Every Letter/Cyrano (Alt.)

Alternates: So May We Start/Annette and Columbia Mi Encanto/Encanto

BEST COSTUMES

1) Cruella (1)

2) Dune (2)

3) Spencer (3)

4) Nightmare Alley (4)

5) House of Gucci (5)

Alternates: West Side Story and The French Dispatch

MARCEL HAS A HOME

News that I've been waiting for arrived this past week with the announcement that A24 had acquired North American distribution rights to Dean Fleischer-Camp's Marcel the Shell with Shoes On.  The film debuted at Telluride and topped my industry insiders and professionals poll that I do each year.

No word as yet what the release plans will be and if their is any agreement about an Oscar qualifying run but I, for one, hope there is.

Here a slew of links for the acquisition details:

Variety

The Hollywood Reporter

Screen Daily

Deadline

Vulture

The Wrap

Collider 

Nylon

INTERVIEWS PROFILES AND PODCASTS

C'MON C'MON

The Playlist

The Los Angeles Times

Entertainment Weekly

The Film Stage

Indiewire

Vulture

BELFAST

Black TV and Film

The Hollywood Reporter

SPENCER

Variety

Yahoo

THE HAND OF GOD

Deadline

THE VELVET UNDERGROUND

Gold Derby

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MTFB Oscar Predictions Updated: Supporting Acting and New Categories: Score, Song, Costumes / New Trailers; The Power of the Dog and Citizen Ashe / Variety Awards Circuit Podcasts: Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan / Interviews: Branagh, Smith and Mills

 MTFB OSCAR PREDICITONS UPDATED

Here's your update on the Supporting Acting races.  This updates the predictions last posted for these categories on Oct. 25th.  TFF #48 performances are indicated in Bold and their previous position in my predictions are indicated to the right in parentheses.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1) Caitriona Balfe/Belfast (3)

2) Kirsten Dunst/The Power of the Dog (1)

3) Aunjunue Ellis/King Richard (4)

4) Rutyh Negga/Passing (New)

5) Ann Dowd/Mass (2)

Alternates: Judi Dench/Belfast and Marlee Matlin/CODA

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Ciaran Hinds/Belfast (2)

2) Bradley Cooper/Licorice Pizza (1)

3) Jamie Dornan/Belfast (3)

4) Jared Leto/House of Gucci (New)

5) Kodi Smit-McPhee/The Power of the Dog (5)

Alternates: Ben Affleck/The Tender Bar and Jason Isaacs/Mass

NEW CATEGORIES FIRST PREDICTIONS

ORIGINAL SCORE

1) Dune

2) The Power of the Dog

3) Spencer

4) The French Dispatch

5) Don't Look Up

Alternates: Nightmare Alley and The Tragedy of Macbeth

ORIGINAL SONG

1) Believe/King Richard

2) No Time to Die/No Time to Die

3) Down to Joy/Belfast

4) So May We Start/Annette

5) Guns Go Bang/The Harder They Fall

Alternates: Colombia Mi Encanto/Encanto, Believe/The Rescue and Every Letter/Cyrano

BEST COSTUME

1) Cruella

2) Dune

3) Spencer

4) Nightmare Alley

5) House of Gucci

Alternates: The French Dispatch and West Side Story

TRAILERS

NEW TRAILER FOR THE POWER OF THE DOG

CITIZEN ASHE

VARIETY'S AWARDS CIRCUIT PODCAST:

DAKOTA JOHNSON/THE LOST DAUGHTER

JAMIE DORNAN/BELFAST

INTERVIEWS: BRANAGH, SMITH, MILLS

I've linked interviews from the past week with some TFF #48 players.

Kenneth Branagh/Belfast from Anne Thompson/Indiewire

Will Smith/King Richard from Alexia Smith/People

Mike Mills/C'mon C'mon from Jack Smart/Backstage

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MTFB Oscar Take: Updated Supporting Acting Categories / Gotham Awards Nominations and Telluride / Critics Say The Power of the Dog Is Tops / And Speaking of Jane Campion... / Trailer for The Real Charlie Chaplin /

 MTFB OSCAR TAKE: UPDATED SUPPORTING ACTING CATEGORIES

Here's your update on the Supporting Acting races.  This updates the predictions last posted for these categories on Oct. 11th.  TFF #48 performances are indicated in Bold and their previous position in my predictions are indicated to the right in parentheses.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1) Kirsten Dunst/The Power of the Dog (1)

2) Anne Dowd/Mass (2)

3) Caitriona Balfe/Belfast (4)

4) Aunjunue Ellis/King Richard (3)

5) Judi Dench/Belfast (Alt.)

Alternates: Ruth Negga/Passing and Marlee Matlin/CODA

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Bradley Cooper/Licorice Pizza (1)

2) Ciaran Hinds/Belfast (2)

3) Jamie Dornan/Belfast (New)

4) Ben Affleck/The Tender Bar or The Last Duel (Alt.)

5) Kodi Smit-McPhee/The Power of the Dog (Alt.)

Alternates: Jared Leto/House of Gucci and Jason Isaacs/Mass

GOTHAM AWARDS NOMINATIONS AND TELLURIDE

The New York based Gotham Awards, which aim to highlight independent film releases, announced its 2021 nominees on Thursday.  Here's how TFF #48 films fared:

The Lost Daughter: Best Feature, Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director (Gyllenhaal), Best Screenplay, Outstanding Performance (Colman). Outstanding Supporting Performance (Buckley)

Flee: Best Documentary Feature

The Card Counter: Best Screenplay, Outstanding Performance (Isaac)

Red Rocket: Best Screenplay, Outstanding Performance (Rex), Breakthrough Performance (Son)

C'mon C'mon: Outstanding Performance (Phoenix), Outstanding Supporting Performance (Hoffman)

Complete Gotham nominations are here from Deadline.com.

CRITICS SAY POWER OF THE DOG IS TOPS

Jordan Ruimy/World of Reel has conducted and informal poll of over 50 critics asking them to name the best film of 2021 to date.

Winning the poll is Jane Campion's The Power of the Dog which currently sits in the #3 spot on MTFB's Oscar Take for a Best Picture Academy Award nomination.

Other TFF #48 films to make Ruimy's list include Bergman Island (#13) and Red Rocket (#15).  The Father, from the TFF #47 list, made the grade at #8.

Ruimy's complete list is here.

AND SPEAKING OF JANE CAMPION

The Film Stage has gathered interviews from The New York Film Festival with Campion as well as Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst and KodiSmit-McPhee that accompanied The Power of the Dog's NYFF screening.

That's all linked from The Film Stage post which you can find here.

TRAILER FOR THE REAL CHARLIE CHAPLIN

Altitude Films and Showtime have released a trailer for the Peter Middleton and James Spinney's documentary The Real Charlie Chaplin.  The trailer appeared on YouTube on Oct. 20th.  Here it is:

 AND INTERVIEWS:

Indiewire with Todd Haynes on The Velvet Underground

Entertainment Weekly with Will Smith on King Richard getting a song from Beyonce.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

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MTFB Oscar Take: Screenplays / Indiewire Critic's Survey of the Fall Fests / Todd Haynes on The Velvet Underground / Belfast Adults Are All Supporting

MTFB OSCAR TAKE: SCREENPLAYS

Here's your latest Oscar predictions for Screenplay writing from MTFB.  These categories were last updated here on Sept. 30th.  TFF #48 films are in Bold.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1) Belfast (1)

2) Licorice Pizza (2)

3) King Richard (4)

4) C'mon C'mon (5)

5) Don't Look Up (3)

Alternates: Mass and Spencer 

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1) The Power of the Dog (1)

2) Nightmare Alley (2)

3) The Lost Daughter (New)

4) CODA (4)

5) The Tragedy of Macbeth (5)

Alternates: House of Gucci, Dune and West Side Story

INDIWIRE'S CRITICS' SURVEY OF THE FALL FESTS

Indiewire surveyed 137 critics and charged them with evaluating the films they had seen through the run of fall fests including Telluride, Venice, Toronto and New York'  Here's how TFF #48 films from that survey:

The overall #1 film from all four fests combined was Jane Campion's The Power of the Dog. 

 

#5 Celina Sciamma's Petite Maman

#8 Sean Baker's Red Rocket

#9 Mia Hansen-Love's Bergman Island\

#11 Pablo Larrain's Spencer

#14 Mike Mill's C'mon C'mon

#15 Maggie Gyllenhaal's The Lost Daughter

C'mon C'mon was the critic's favorite specifically focused on Telluride alone.

The top three documentaries all played TFF #47: Flee, The Velvet Underground and The Rescue.

The Power of the Dog was also named Best Directed Film.

Best Performances from all of the fests combined included Benedict Cumberbatch in The Power of the Dog at #3 and Kristen Stewart in Spencer at #4.

The complete results can be found here.

TODD HAYNES ON THE VELVET UNDERGROUND

As mentioned above, Todd Haynes' doc about The Velvet Underground was named as one of the three best documentaries that played the fall festivals.  Haynes was recently featured in an interview for The Playlist.

Check out what Haynes has to say.  The interview is linked here.

BELFAST ADULTS ARE ALL SUPPORTING

Focus Features has announced that all of the adult actors in Kenneth Branagh's Belfast will be campaigned as Supporting players for the awards season.  That puts an end to speculation that both Jamie Dornan and Caitriona Balfe would possibly be categorized as leading performers.  Now, child actor Judah Hill will be the lone Belfast cast member who is campaigned as a leading actor.

Variety's Clayton Davis broke the details on Monday.  That story is linked here.

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