MTFB Oscar Update: International, Animated, Doc and More / Writer's Guild and Independent Spirits / Visitations: Blanchett and Slate

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE

We're staring down the last six days before the Oscars on Sunday night.  The last of the Guilds have spoken as well as the Independent Spirit Awards.  Oscar voting ends tomorrow.  It's almost time people.

Here are the next to last predictions for the categories of International Feature, Animated Feature, Documentary Feature,  Original Score, Original Song and Makeup/Hair.  Final predictions for all 23 categories will go up here on Sunday morning.

INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

1) All Quiet on the Western Front (1)

2) Argentina 1985 (2)

3) Close (3)

4) EO (4)

5) The Quiet Girl (5)

ANIMANTED FEATURE

1) GDT's Pinocchio (1)

2) Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (2)

3) Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (3)

4) Turning Red (4)

5) The Sea Beast (5)

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

1) Navalny (2)

2) Fire of Love (1)

3) All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (3)

4) All That Breathes (4)

5) The House of Splinters (5)

PRODUCTION DESIGN

1) Elvis (1)

2) Babylon (2)

3) All Quiet on the Western Front (3)

4) Avatar: The Way of Water (4)

5) The Fabelmans (5)

COSTUME DESIGN

1) Elvis (1)

2) Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2)

3) Babylon (3)

4) Everything Everywhere All at Once (4)

5) Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (5)

MAKEUP/HAIR

1) Elvis (1)

2) The Whale (2)

3) All Quiet on the Western Front (4)

4) The Batman (3)

5) Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (5)

WRITER'S GUILD

Sarah Polley won Best Adapted Screenplay at the WGA as well as the USC Scripter Award (which focuses exclusively on Adapted screenplays) this past weekend.  That's a good indicator that the TFF #49 film is in prime position to pick up that Oscar on Sunday.  There had been a sense that All Quiet on the Western Front might have the inside track to the Oscar.  That sentiment seems quelled now with this weekend's double win for Polley.

INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARDS

TFF #49 was represented in the list of Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday by wins for:

Best Documentary: All the Beauty and the Bloodshed

Best Cinemtography: TAR

Robert Altman Award: Women Talking

Best First Feature: Aftersun

Everything Everywhere All at Once was the big winner of the evening with wins for Best Feature, Direction, Actress (Yeoh), Supporting Actor (Quan), Breakthrough Performance (Hsu), Screenplay and Editing.

Complete winners are linked here at the Spirit's website.

VISITATIONS

TAR: Cate Blanchett with Variety.

MARCEL THE SHELL: Jenny Slate with Indiewire.

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Fred Ward 1942-2022 / Marcel Creators Have a Word / Official Clip for Holy Spider / NEON Nabs Broker / Marty Back in Oklahoma

FRED WARD 1942-2022

Fred Ward at TFF #36 (photo via Salon.com and Getty Images)

I will miss Fred Ward.  The actor died on May 8th at the age of 79.  Fred's credits included some great stuff: Escape from Alcatraz, Southern Comfort, The Right Stuff, The Player and, of course, Tremors.  Tremors is one of my wife's favorite movies. For years we've been talking about writing and producing a stage musical adaptation.  Can you envision singing Graboids?

I just watched The Player again a couple of weeks ago.

Ward was in Telluride in 2009 for The SHOW as a part of the group that was there with the foreign film Farewell, a gripping cold war true story that featured Ward as Ronald Reagan.  I saw the film at the fest and it was quote good.

Salon.com had a nice write up about Fred this week.  That's linked here.

MARCELS'S CREATORS HAVE A WORD

Recently, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On co-creators Dean Fleischer Camp and Jenny Slate sat down with Joshua Rothkopf writing for Entertainment Weekly for an interview ahead of the films release on June 24th.  The result of that interview was posted at EW.com on Friday the 13th.

Frequent readers of this space already know that I am an outspoken fan of the film so I am pleased to provide the link to the interview, encourage you to read (regarding the genesis of the project and other matters) and then make sure to go see the film or re-watch it of you caught it at Telluride or one of its other film fest stops (SXSW, San Francisco, Seattle, Milwaukee).

OFFICIAL CLIP FOR HOLY SPIDER

On the TFF #49 watch list is Ali Abbasi's Cannes Plame d'Or contender Holy Spider.  The film focuses on a series of murders in Iran and the female journalist that is trying to unravel the story.

Here's the newly released first look clip from YouTube:

NEON NABS BROKER

NEON has acquired North American distribution rights for Hirokazu Kore-eda's Broker according to multiple sources including Variety.  This is of note to Telluride Film Fest fans as the film now checks off a bunch of boxes that could signal a TFF #49 appearance.

Cannes competition choice...check

Foreign auteur that's played TFF before... check (Kore-eda's Shoplifters in 2018)

Distributor with a history at T-ride...check (NEON)

Assuming reviews are strong out of Cannes, Broker's lineage could land it on my first "Ten Bets" list.

Here's the news of the acquisition from Variety.

MARTY BACK IN OKLAHOMA

Jordan Ruimy of World of Reel reports that additional filming is underway in the northeast part of my home state for Killers of the Flower Moon.  Jordan, as a part of his story, links to a report from Louise Red Corn writing for The Osage News from last Tuesday with photos showing crew and equipment back in Pawhuska.

Speculation is that they'll be filming a social dance that will include an number of the locals that were filmed earlier as extras and background players.

Here's the link to Jordan's story.

Here's the link to the Osage News story.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

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More Marcel News

MORE MARCEL NEWS

Distributor A24 has released a trailer for TFF #48 hit Marcel the Shell with Shoes On.  The film has also been dated for a June 24th release.  

Additionally Marcel will screen as a part of the San Francisco International Film Festival on April 22nd after having been screened recently at South by Southwest and the Seattle Film Festival.  The screening will also include a Tribute Conversation with Marcel's voice and co-creator Jenny Slate.  Information about he screening and conversation is linked here from SFFilm.

Marcel the Shell topped MTFB's annual survey of film writing professionals besting both The Power of the Dog and Belfast.

Here is the new trailer via YouTube:

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MTFB Oscar Take: Picture and Director / Changes to the Pages / Jenny Slate and The Boston Globe / Time's Look at Nuclear Family

 MTFB OSCAR(r) TAKE: PICTURE AND DIRECTOR

Here's an update for Academy Award predictions for Best Picture and a first take for Best Direction.  A film's past position is indicated in parentheses.  As always TFF #48 films are indicated in Bold.

BEST PICTURE

1) Belfast (2)

2) The Power of the Dog (1)

3) King Richard (4)

4) Licorice Pizza (5)

5) Dune (3)

6) West Side Story (6)

7) Nightmare Alley (7)

8) Macbeth (New)

9) Spencer (New)

10) Don't Look Up (8)

Alternates: House of Gucci and CODA

BEST DIRECTION

1) Kenneth Branagh/Belfast 

2) Jane Campion/The Power of the Dog

3) Denis Villenueve/Dune

4) Paul Thomas Anderson/Licorice Pizza

5) Guillermo del Toro/Nightmare Alley

Alternates: Reinaldo Marcus Green/King Richard and Pablo Larrain/Spencer

Current predicted nominations for TFF #48 films in the "above the line" categories:

Belfast (6): Picture, Direction, Supporting Actress (Balfe), Supporting Actress (Dench), Supporting Actor (Hinds), Original Screenplay.

The Power of the Dog (6): Picture, Direction, Actor (Cumberbatch), Supporting Actress (Dunst), Supporting Actor (Smit-McPhee), Adapted Screenplay.

King Richard (4): Picture, Actor (Smith), Supporting Actress (Ellis), Original Screenplay.  Alternate for Direction (Green)

Spencer (2): Picture, Actress (Stewart), Alternate for Direction (Larrain) and Original Screenplay

C'mon C'mon (2): Actor (Phoenix), Original Screenplay

The Lost Daughter: Alternate for Adapted Screenplay

Cyrano: Alternate for Actor (Dinklage)

CHANGES TO THE PAGES

As I mentioned last Thursday. I have, as of today, added a new page to the "Pages" section of MTFB that features my ongoing Oscar (r) predictions for this year.  I'll update that page each time I update any categories  throughout the season.  In addition to that addition I have updated "History of the Telluride Film Festival Part Two: 1996-Present" include 2020 and 2021.  I have also retired the Select History of the Fest page as it is redundant with the larger History sections.  Take a look!

JENNY SLATE AND THE BOSTON GLOBE

films was 

The voice of and co-creator of Marcel the Shell, Jenny Slate, was recently interviewed by The Boston Globe as she was participating at the Globe Summit.  Naturally Slate's film, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, was a part of that conversation.

Here's the link to The Globe interview.

TIME'S LOOK AT NUCLEAR FAMILY

Floating under the threshold of getting enough votes in either MTFB's Professional or People's polls of TFF #48 films was Ry Russo-Young's Nuclear Family.   Thorough the Labor Day weekend, however, I persistently heard good things about the film while I was in line.

Time.com has profiled the film maker and her family in post from last week.

That post is linked here.

And, from YouTube, here is the official trailer:

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Jenny Slate and Isabella Rossellini Talk Marcel the Shell / MTFB Oscar Take: Lead Actress and Actor / Music Video from The French Dispatch / Crested Butte Film Fest Opens Tomorrow

JENNY SLATE AND ISABELLA ROSSELINI TALK MARCEL

Actress and Marcel the Shell co-creator Jenny Slate and her co-star Isabella Rossellini sat down recently together as a part of Vulture's Two Fiends video project and discussed the plucky Mollusk's feature film debut as well as other topics.  Vulture posted the video on Sept. 7th.  

You can find it linked here.

MTFB OSCAR TAKE: LEAD ACTRESS AND ACTOR

Here' my opening salvo as I continue to make initial guesses re: the newly commenced Oscar race.  Today first stabs at both Lead Acting categories with TFF #48 performances in Bold.

BEST ACTRESS

1) Kristen Stewart/Spencer

2) Jessica Chastain/The Eyes of Tammy Faye

3) Lady Gaga/House of Gucci

4) Nicole Kidman/Being the Ricardos

5) Penelope Cruz/Parallel Mothers

Alternates: Jennifer Hudson/Respect and Jodie Comer/The Last Duel

BEST ACTOR

1) Benedict Cumberbatch/The Power of the Dog

2) Will Smith/King Richard

3) Denzel Washington/The Tragedy of Macbeth

4) Andrew Garfield/tick, tick...Boom

5) Joaquin Phoenix/C'mon C'mon

Alternates: Peter Dinklage/Cyrano and Leonardo DiCaprio/Don't Look Up

MUSIC VIDEO FROM THE FRENCH DISPATCH

Searchlight has released a Wes Anderson directed music video for the song Aline which is featured in the film.  From YouTube: 

CRESYED BUTTE FILM FEST OPENS TOMORROW

I met Michael and Jennifer Brody several years ago when the wife and I were doing an art show in Crested Butte and we've kept in touch since then even occasionally running into each other at TFF.  The Brody's run the Crested Butte Film Festival each year st the end of September.  It's a class affair.

This year the fest has scheduled a number of notable films including Celine Sciamma's Petit Maman which played as a part of TFF #48 as well as Cannes.  Other noteworthy narrative films include Joe Bell, Nine Days, Jagged, the Alanis Morissette documentary, and Jacque Audiard's Paris 13th District. 

The fest starts tomorrow with its in-person screenings in Crested Butte and runs through the weekend.  Virtual screenings will run through Oct. 3rd. 

You can find all the information here.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

TWITTER @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

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