Obsessing about the Telluride Film Festival and the film awards season since 2008!
"The best blog out there for predicting what will be going to Telluride."-Matt Neglia, Next Best Picture
"The Nostradamus of Telluride"
-Tim Appelo, Movies for Grownups
"But it's our job." - Anne Thompson, Indiewire
Well, after a 24 hour delay the 78th Cannes Film Festival announced more than a dozen new titles to the fest yesterday scattered across various platforms.
Three films that I had suggested on Monday that could be announced were, in fact, announced. Lynne Ramsay’s Die, My Love was added to competition, Kristen Stewart’s The Chronology of Water went to Un Certain Regard and Hylnur Palmason’s The Love That Remains was added to the Cannes Premieres section. I feel (and have felt) that those three films could potentially also screen at Telluride.
One other film of interest, at least to me, and isn’t really on my T-ride radar, is Ethan Coen’s Honey Don’t which was added to the Midnight section. The IMDb description is literally “Two women ( Margaret Qualley and Aubrey Plaza) take a road trip.”
I'm getting back to checking in on the current Oscar predictions for TFF #51 films from some Oscar experts. Today I turn to Awards Radar's Joey Magidson. Magidson's website currently has 11 TFF #51 films predicted to get 47 total nominations lead by Conclave and Saturday Night. Awards Radar currently has no predictions for Original Song, International feature, Documentary feature or any of the Shorts categories.
Here's the breakdown:
Conclave (10): Best Picture, Direction, Actor (Fiennes), Supporting Actress (Rossellini), Supporting Actor (Tucci), Adapted Screenplay, Production Design, Cinematography, Film Editing and Score.
Saturday Night (10): Best Picture, Direction, Original Screenplay, Production Design, Cinematography, Film Editing, Costumes, Makeup/Hair, Sound and Score.
Emilia Perez (9): Best Picture, Direction, Actress (Gascon), Supporting Actress (Saldana), Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Film Editing, Makeup/Hair and Score. (Note here that I fully expect Emilia to pick up at least one nomination for Song)
Anora (5): Best Picture, Direction, Actress (Madison), Original Screenplay, Film Editing.
Maria (5): Best Actress (Jolie), Cinematography, Costumes, Makeup/Hair and Sound.
September 5 (2): Best Picture, Original Screenplay.
The Apprentice (2): Best Actor (Stan), Supporting Actor (Strong).
The Outrun (1): Best Actress (Ronan).
A Real Pain (1): Best Supporting Actor (Culkin).
The Piano Lesson (1): Best Supporting Actress (Deadwyler).
Via Next Best Picture and YouTube, here is the post-screening Q+A for Maria from the New York Film Festival featuring Angelina Jolie, Ed Lachman and director Pablo Larrain:
Here's my last "Ten Bets" before the clarity that will descend next week as Toronto and Venice begin to announce their lineups. As the rest of the summer unfolds into early fall Toronto will continue to add film selections weekly and we'll add to that selections from New York and London and end up with a fairly comprehensive and largely correct listing of films for Telluride's 44th edition.
As a reminder here's last week's Ten Bets:
1) Wonderstruck
2) Visages/Villages
3) Loveless
4) The Florida Project
5) A Fantastic Woman
6) Battle of the Sexes
7) 120 BPM
8) The Other Side of Hope
9) You Were Never Really Here
10) Downsizing
And this week's:
1) Wonderstruck (with a trailer out yesterday...see below)
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
On Monday...MTFB's "Telluride Wish List"...yes, there are films that I wish for.
WONDERSTRUCK REVEALS A TRAILER
Todd Haynes film based on Brian Selznick's novel has been sitting on top of the MTFB Ten Bets for the last two weeks. It opened the first "Ten Bets" at #3. Suffice to say that I strongly believe it will play TFF #44. So I was excited yesterday evening to discover that the Cannes competition film dropped a trailer. Here it is from YouTube:
I'm not sure what it portends but Darren Aronofsky's mother! has been scheduled for anew release date a full month earlier than it had been originally planned. The film was set for an Oct. 13th date but that changed yesterday with a move up to Sept. 15th.
Variety pointed out that it could still mean a play for the film at Telluride, Venice and even Toronto.
Aronofsky's Black Swan played Venice, Telluride and Toronto in 2010 but that was with a December release date. Black Swan earned five Oscar nominations including a win for Natalie Portman for Best Actress and nominations for Best Picture and Best Direction.
The film stars Oscar winners Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem.
In other mother! news...word is that a trailer appeared in some theaters that were playing Dunkirk yesterday which means we could expect to see it soon.
Gotta tell you, I kind of think it might show up at The SHOW now.
Further coverage of the move for mother! is here from:
We started this week with the awful news of the passing of George Romero and Martin Landau and it only feels right to end there as well.
Former TFF Co-director Gary Meyer put together a fantastic reminder, reverie and recognition of the two men at Eat, Drink, Films. Check it out here.
That's all for this Friday. Enjoy your weekend...I'm in Salem, Oregon through Sunday night at The Salem Art and Festival. If you're around, drop by and say hello.
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com
After the dearth of British production houses involved with Telluride possible films that we explored in yesterday's post, it's good to see that several of the French houses have a stronger hand. We'll look at a couple of them today beginning with Canal+.
Here's their profile for the past dozen years or so at Telluride:
2003: The Barbarian Invasions, Dogville, Love Me If You Dare, The Tripletts of Belleville
2004: The Weeping Meadow
2005: The Child, Cache, Lemming, Live and Become
2006: Volver, Indigenes, The Page Turner
2007: The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, Terror's Advocate, Jellyfish
2008: With a Little Help From Myself, I've Loved You So Long
2009: Farewell, Coco Before Chanel, A Prophet, The White Ribbon
2010: The Illusionist, Carlos, Of Gods and Men, The Princess of Montpensier
2011: Crazy Horse, Albert Nobbs, Goodbye First Love, The Kid with a Bike, The Artist, Le Havre
2012: Rust and Bone, Superstar, The Attack
2013: Blue is the Warmest Color", Le Maison de la Radio", "The Past"
2014: Two Days One Night, The Price of Fame
And what might be a T-ride play for Canal+ this year?
"Youth"
"Amnesia"
"The Measure of a Man"
"The Lobster"
are the most likely Canal+ supported titles.
Additionally, another French production house to pay attention to is StudioCanal. Here's their recent track record at TFF:
2003: Young Adam, Love Me If You Dare
2005: Cache
2006: Indigines, Catch a Fire
2010: The Princess of Montpensier
2012: Love, Marilyn
2013: Inside Llewyn Davis
No StudioCanal film played Telluride in 2014 and as you can see, their presence is sporadic but there are three films with them aiding in production that could make the TFF #42 lineup:
"A Bigger Splash"
"The Program"
"Mon Roi"
Tomorrow, a look at more French production firms.
"STEVE JOBS" GETS REACTIONS
Michael Fassbender as "Steve Jobs"
Various and sundry of the folks I follow on Twitter revealed that test audiences have seen Danny Boyle's "Steve Jobs" over the past few days. From all accounts, reactions have been good. Jeff Wells/Hollywood Elsewhere posted this story about the screening last night:
I have been wary of the film's Telluride possibilities as it is in the hands of Universal which has had a negligible presence at TFF. Still, the fact that its a Danny Boyle film makes you think that it should SHOW and the Wells piece reminded me that Scott Rudin is producing the film and he also has a significant film track record at Telluride. Of course, Rudin produces a ton of films but still, here's his T-ride connection over the past few years:
2006: "Venus"
2007: "There Will Be Blood" (clip), "Margot at the Wedding"
2010: "The Way Back"
2012: "Frances Ha"
2013: "Inside Llewyn Davis"
2014: "Rosewater"
So, perhaps Rudin's involvement tips Steve Jobs" a bit more in Telluride's direction.
"JOY" ERUPTS WITH TRAILER
"Joy" trailer via YouTube
It was hard to miss on the internet yesterday...the above trailer for David O. Russell's "Joy" starring Jennifer Lawrence as the inventor of the Miracle Mop. The film is set to open on Dec. 25 and is being distributed by 20th Century Fox arm, Fox 2000.
Now, David O. Russell has never been to Telluride and Fox 2000 hasn't either (the 20th Century Fox branch that does do T-ride is Fox Searchlight so the chances of this being in the San Juans on Labor Day weekend are pretty small but never say never.
The film is produced, in part, by Annapurna Pictures/Megan Ellison, who brought a film to Telluride for the first time last year ("Foxcatcher"). There's your tiny glimmer of hope.
The reality is that the film will likely do what Russell's "The Fighter" and "American Hustle" did and not play any fest at all.
If it is scheduled for a fest appearance, I'd think that Toronto, New York or AFI would all have a better shot before Telluride (Russell has played Toronto twice with "I Heart Huckabees" and "Silver Linings Playbook").
Still, the trailer looks interesting.
Here are a number of links to stories that covered the drop of the trailer yesterday:
Late word yesterday that Fox Searchlight has pushed Jean-Marc Vallee's "Demolition" to an April, 2016 release date. That moves the film out of awards season 2015 and probably means no fest exposure whatsoever for the Jake Gyllenhaal starrer.
Fox Searchlight is probably down to three possible films for Telluride: "Youth", "He Names Me Malala" and "A Bigger Splash". "Demolition's" move likely means that the "Malala" documentary is a bit more likely to make the Telluride lineup.
Keeping last week's promise, here's the first of what will likely be several entries regarding films that are floating around various stages of genesis/production that have at least some potential to play as a part of some future Telluride Film Festival. Since teasing the notion that I keep this file last week, I have added information about this week's announcements that Jennifer Lawrence will be in Gary Ross's new version/adaptation of John Steinbeck's classic "East of Eden". Look at a couple of posts about that tantalizing prospect here from The Playlist and The Hollywood Reporter:
This project isn't really a film that immediately says: "Telluride" but I'm personally intrigued by the thought of it. I think it would be interesting to see this pair away from "The Hunger Games" and what Ross might do. I'm an admirer of both "Seabiscuit" and "Pleasantville". I like J. Law too.
On a more conventional prospect for Telluride, of the ten or so films I mentioned in last week's post about potential T-ride projects, none has a greater likelihood of playing than Werner Herzog's "Queen of the Desert". Over the past few months I have collected numerous posts about its development (from The Playlist and Empireonline.com):
A lot of movement occurred this week in regards to the Foreign Language Oscar as the Oct. 1 deadline for submission looms. Iran officially is back in the FLF race as they chose Asghar Farhadi's "The Past" and Israel chose "Bethlehem" as their entry. Poland has "Ida" all of which played Telluride this year. Links below to stories on each of the three films:
Steve McQueen's "12 Years a Slave" has a lot going for it and has been received rapturously at both Telluride and Toronto and is soon to be bow at the New York Film Fest (Oct. 8). One of its surprises is the emergence of Lupita Nyong'o in the role of a young woman who has captured the fancy of the evil plantation owner played by Michael Fassbender. Nyong'o is very new to American audiences but does have some credits on her resume. Among them: soap opera work in her native Kenya. Take a look at this CNN video in which the young actress talks about her early career:
