FAC Updates Best Picture and Director / Nomination News: BIFA, H'Wood Music, CinemaEye / Jeremy Renner in Arrival / Views of Manchester

Good Thursday film friends...

THE FAC UPDATES BEST PICTURE AND DIRECTOR

The last look by The FAC for these two major categories was three weeks ago (Oct. 13) and, woo-boy, have the fortunes have changed for Ang Lee's Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk.  I noted a couple of weeks back as I was updating the screenplay categories that we were beginning to see the results of a less than stellar NYFF reception to the film as the script had dropped from 1st to fifth in the Adapted Screenplay category.  As you'll see below, the fall is all but complete for the film that was at one time regarded as a real contender for multiple major awards.


I have used the publicly available Oscar predictions from the following pundits:

Erik Anderson/Awards Watch
Clayton Davis/Awards Circuit
Greg Ellwood/The Playlist-Awards Campaign
Scott Feinberg/The Hollywood Reporter
Joey Magidson/Hollywood News
Nathaniel Rogers/Film Experience
Sasha Stone/Awards Daily
Kristopher Tapley/Variety-InContention
Anne Thompson/Indiewire

TFF #43 films are in Bold.  The film's previous position follows its title in parenthesis.

BEST PICTURE

1) La La Land (1)
2) Manchester by the Sea (3)
3) Fences (4)
4) Moonlight (5)
5) Lion (7)
6) Silence (6)
7) Jackie (8)
8) Arrival (9)

9) Loving (10)
10) Sully (11)
11) Hidden Figures (N/R)
12) (TIE) Hell or High Water (N/R), Live By Night (N/R), 20th Century Women (12)

Hot: La La Land, Lion
Stone COLD: Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk
On the Cusp: A Monster Calls
Comment:  La La Land couldn't move up any spots because it was previously at #1 but its stranglehold on the top spot has only strengthened on the past three weeks.  Billy Lynn's Long Walk has gotten impossibly long regarding major Oscar nominations.  It dropped from the #2 spot to a tie for 20th.  I'm not sure I recall any more precipitous drop in the years The FAC has been in existence.

This note too:  I'm getting the feeling that the biggest challenge to La La Land might well be Garth Davis' Lion.  It seems to be picking up a lot of Audience Awards at various regional film fests.


BEST DIRECTOR

1) Damien Chazelle/La La Land (1)
2) Kenneth Lonergan/Manchester by the Sea (3)
3) Barry Jenkins/Moonlight (5)
4) Martin Scorsese/Silence (4)
5) Denzel Washington/Fences (7)

6) Denis Villenueve/Arrival (8)
7) Pablo Larrain/Jackie (6)
8) Garth Davis/Lion (9)
9) Jeff Nichols/Loving (10)
10) Clint Eastwood/Sully (N/R)

Hot: Jenkins, Washington
Not: Lee
On the Cusp: Ben Affleck/Live by Night
Comment:  Ang Lee also takes a hit in this category with the BLLHTW swoon.

NOMINATION NEWS

     BIFA NOMS THREE TFF #43 FILMS

The British Independent Film Association announced the nominees for their superlatives earlier this week.  Obviously the films that received the most attention were British.  The leading film was Ken Loach's Palme d'Or winner I, Daniel Blake.  

Telluride 2016 films popped up in a big way in the Best International Film category with Moonlight, Manchester by the Sea and Toni Erdmann earning nominations in the category.  The other two films nominated were Hunt for the Wilderpeople and Mustang.

Find full coverage of the BIFA nominations here from BIFA itself as well as from Indiewire here. 



     LA LA LANDS MUSIC NOMS

Justin Hurwitz and his collaborators have been thrice nominated for music in Damien Chazelle's La La Land.  Hurwitz was nominated by The Hollywood Music in Media awards for Original Score and two songs from the original musical were nominated for Best Original Song Audition and City of Stars which Hurwitz co-wrote with Benj Pasek and Justin Paul.  La La Land led the pack with the three nominations.  Additionally, Howard Britell was nominated for Score for Moonlight.  Coverage of all of the nominations is here from Variety.

     CINEMAEYE NOMS FIRE AT SEA

And in other nomination news, Gianfranco Rosi's Fire at Sea which played Telluride and won the Golden Bear at this year's Berlin Film Fest was nominated for Best feature documentary by CinemaEye.  Rosi was also nominated for outstanding documentary direction.  The complete coverage of the CinemaEye nominations can be found here from The Wrap.





JEREMY RENNER IN ARRIVAL

Amy Adams has gotten the lion's share of attention for her leading role in Denis Villenueve's Arrival including serious Best Actress Oscar buzz (which may well have gotten a boost last week with the announcement that Viola Davis would be campaigned for a Supporting Actress nomination for Fences).  Capably offering solid support for Adams is Jeremy Renner.  Renner was profiled recently as the focus of this featurette at Collider.



VIEWS OF MANCHESTER

The Playlist passed along a couple of clips from Kenneth Lonergan's Manchester by the Sea earlier this week including this 38 second clip that introduces one of the best acted scenes from any film this year.  At this point, I am all about a nomination for Best Supporting Actress for Michelle Williams and the win.  Casey Affleck is tremendous in the scene as well, but Williams...oh my.  

Here's the clip via YouTube:

The second clip and story can be found via this link to The Playlist.

That will wrap it for this Thursday.  More for your perusal next Monday.  Have a good weekend friends.


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Chang and Variety Dissect Telluride and Toronto (And Venice Too)/Not So Fast on "Foxcatcher"/New Views of Stewart's "Rosewater"/"Also New Looks at "Kill the Messenger"

Welcome to Thursday...

In one week I WILL BE IN TELLURIDE!

CHANG AND VARIETY DISSECT TELLURIDE AND TORONTO (AND VENICE TOO)

Variety's Justin Chang was up yesterday with a lengthy piece that goes to great lengths to outline the current skirmish between film festivals.  The article/story/post zinged around the Internet with great velocity so there's a good chance you've already seen it.  If not it's linked here:

http://variety.com/2014/film/news/new-toronto-fest-strategy-puts-telluride-on-the-defensive-in-awards-buzz-films-battle-1201286444

Makes for an interesting read.

NOT SO FAST "FOXCATCHER"

"Foxcatcher" trailer from YouTube and Coming Soon

Jeff Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere was commenting at his site on the same Justin Chang/Variety story reference above.  In a piece called "Close Tabs" he says that he's heard " 'Foxcatcher' wasn't going to Telluride".

Now, that flies in the face of most of what we've been seeing/hearing for a long while.  "Foxcatcher" has been at or near the top of this summer's "Ten Bets" but, remember, this enterprise is still mostly guesswork and deduction...so you never know.

That said, I still feel pretty good about our chances to see the Bennett Miller film next week.  It was just last week that we inferred from a Deadline.com post that it was likely to make the trip to the San Juans.

Still, you can expect that "Foxcatcher" may not be in the #1 spot on tomorrow's "Ten Bets".

Here's the complete Jeff Wells story:

http://www.hollywood-elsewhere.com/2014/08/53721/


NEW PICS OF STEWART'S "ROSEWATER"

Director Jon Stewart on the set of "Rosewater" via The Playlist

A much anticipated potential Telluride title is this directorial debut from comedian and Daily Show host Jon Stewart.  "Rosewater" tells the true story of Iranian journalist Maziar Bahari and his detention in Iran in 2009. The Playlist had a couple of new photos from the film yesterday.  I have reposted them above and below.

Stewart also reveals that he picked the brains of Ron Howard and J.J. Abrams in his preparation for the film. Check The Playlist story here:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/new-pics-from-rosewater-jon-stewart-says-he-got-input-on-the-script-from-jj-abrams-and-ron-howard-20140820

NEW LOOKS AT "KILL THE MESSENGER"

Jeremy Renner in "Kill the Messenger" from Rope of Silicon

The last few days I think the blog has drawn more questions about the possibility of "Kill the Messenger" playing at Telluride than any other film.  And I don't know any really useful info about the film.  It could play.  It could not.  Its distributor, Focus Features, has occasionally played the fest but isn't a presence every year.  Nevertheless, a Rope of Silicon post splashed several new photos from the film onto the web yesterday and so I pass them along here:

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/new-pictures-kill-messenger-starring-jeremy-renner/

More tomorrow...

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