Telluride and the Oscar Part Six: Supporting Actor / Chazelle Back in the Game / THR's 20 Venice Possibles

Welcome to the Monkey House...


TELLURIDE AND THE OSCAR PART SIX: BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Today is Part Six of my series looking at the relationship between films from the Telluride Film Festival and the Oscars "Big Eight" categories with the focus today on Best Supporting Actor.  Beginning with 2005 (the year before I began attending the fest) here are all the Oscar nominees for that category.  Winners are indicated with ***.


2005: Jake Gyllenhaal/Brokeback Mountain
2006: Jackie Earle Haley/Little Children
2007: Hal Holbrook/Into the Wild
2008: No nominees
2009: Christopher Plummer/The Last Station
2010: Geoffrey Rush/The King's Speech
2011: No nominees
2012: Alan Arkin/Argo
2013: Michael Fassbender/12 Years a Slave
2014: Mark Ruffalo/Foxcatcher, Edward Norton/Birdman
2015: Mark Ruffalo/Spotlight
2016: Mahershala Ali/Moonlight***, Lucas Hedges/Manchester by the Sea
2017: Richard Jenkins/The Shape of Water
2018: Richard E. Grant/Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Notes:  The category that Telluride has held the least sway over in the 14 years with only 14 nominations during that time and just the single win for Mahershala Ali in 2016.

Mark Ruffalo is the only actor with two nominations in this category from TFF films and they came in back to back years with Foxcatcher in 2014 and Spotlight in 2015.

2008 and 2011 saw no nominations at all from T-ride films in the category.

To the best of my ability, it appears that the first TFF nominee in this category was Jaye Davidson for The Crying Game in 1992.

Thursday a look at Best Adapted Screenplay.



CHAZELLE BACK IN THE GAME

Emma Stone and Damien Chazelle

(Photo via Michael Buckner/Deadline/Shutterstock)

Mike Fleming writing at Deadline.com has reported as of yesterday that Damien Chazelle is in the process of lining up his next project.  Fleming reports that the film is an "original drama set in period Hollywood.  He further reports that Chazelle's Oscar winning star of his La La Land, Emma Stone, is considering taking the lead and that Lionsgate, which distributed  La La Land is said to be in the running to do the same for the new picture.

Deadline reports that the film's current title is Babylon.

It's worth noting for TFF fans as Chazelle's last two films have made their way there-La La Land and First Man.

Deadline does not report any specific timeline for the film.

The Deadline story is here.

Variety has reported that Paramount is also interested.

The Hollywood Reporter suggests that Netflix may also be interested and that Stone may be looking at playing real life early Hollywood star Clara Bow.


THR'S 20 VENICE POSSIBLES

The Hollywood Reporter's Scott Roxborough published a story yesterday listing 20 films that he/THR feel have some likelihood of playing the Venice Fest.  They announce the bulk of their lineup on July 25th.

As most readers here know, the Venice/Telluride connection has been significant over the past few years.

Among the 20 titles the one's that seem to have the most chance of being a Venice/Telluride combo film are:

James Gray's Ad Astra
Taika Waititi Jojo Rabbit
Kelly Reichardt's First Cow
Chloe Zhao's Nomadland
Fernando Meirelles' The Pope
Pablo Larrain's Ema
Hirokazu Kore-eda's The Truth

A couple of others to mention that are outside shots: Todd Phillips' Joker and Steven Soderbergh's The Laundromat

The article also includes Martin Scorsese's The Irishman which almost everyone believes will not be ready for Venice (and Hence Telluride).  Also mentioned is Greta Gerwig's Little Women, which is the only film among the 20 that Roxborough specifically mentions as a Telluride possibility...though he does also write about the current bizz that Little Women may not do any fest at all.

The complete THR article is linked here.


That'll do for this Tuesday.  I'll have more on Thursday.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT TO THE BLOG

Ten Bets 2019 #2 / Country Music at the Ryman / Focusing on Toronto and Venice

The first week of July comes to and...




TEN BETS 2019 #2

Well, a week has gone by and there is a bit of movement and shuffling regarding the Ten Bets.

Here's what the first installment looked like a week ago:


10) The Good Liar
9) Little Women
8) A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
7) Jojo Rabbit
6) Family Romance LLC
5) Portrait of a Lady on Fire
4) Lucy in the Sky
3) Varda by Agnes
2) Nomadland
1) Parasite

Other films in serious play: The Goldfinch, Untitled Noah Baumbach Project, Untitled Todd Haynes Project, Atlantics, The Climb, The Laundromat, Radioactive, Country Music, The Lighthouse, Harriet, The Truth, Synonyms, Motherless Brooklyn, Ad Astra.


And here is the latest Ten Bets...

10) Jojo Rabbit
9) The Good Liar
8) Nomadland
7) Untitled Noah Baumbach Project
6) The Climb
5) Little Women
4) Portrait of a Lady on Fire
3) Family Romance LLC
2) Varda by Agnes
1) Parasite

Other films in serious play: The Goldfinch, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Untitled Todd Haynes Project, Atlantics, The Laundromat, Radioactive, Country Music, The Lighthouse, Harriet, The Truth, Synonyms, Motherless Brooklyn, Ad Astra, Molly, Lucy in the Sky.



COUNTRY MUSIC AT THE RYMAN

We've been following the growing anticipation for Ken Burn's newest documentary on the history and reach of country music in America.  We have known that the 8 part series will kick off on PBS on Sept. 15th.  I have been thinking for some time that we'd have a good chance to see some of the doc at TFF #45.  Now, I have a guess as to how that will happen and what form it might take.

I knew that the Doc's crew had recorded an evening of performances and reminiscences at The Ryman Auditorium (home of The Grand Ole Opry) in Nashville on March 27th.  I had assumed some of that footage would make its way into the doc and perhaps it will.  What I also discovered over the last day or two is that PBS is going to air the concert on Sept. 8th-a week before the full doc hits the network.

So, my guess at this point is that Telluride attendees have the chance the concert footage during Labor Day weekend.

I tumbled across the news in an article describing the concert from SoulCountry.net.  That article, which is fairly detailed in its description of the evening, is linked here.



FOCUSING ON TORONTO AND VENICE

I was reminded in a couple of places since Tuesday's post that we will begin to get some very serious insight as o films and which fests will have what in less that three weeks now.  Toronto makes the first of its multiple announcements on June 23rd.  That set of films will give us clues in terms of which films we've been tracking will likely play Telluride first and which ones won't play TFF at all.  It's not a comprehensive list, however as the Toronto organizers will continue to roll out new announced films the four weeks following their initial announcement on June 23rd.

Venice announces on June 25th.  Over the past few years, the Venetian announcement has served as a flag for films that could still play both in Venice and Telluride.  Last year as astounding nine films shared screenings in both places.  We'll get more clues about what this year's group of films that will be shared when Venice announces its actual screening schedule.

Stay tuned...


That's MTFB for the Fifth of July 2019.  I'll have more on Monday.



EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT TO THE BLOG

The Distributors 2019: Many a Firm Part Two / Deadline Looks at Venice / Telluride and Oscar Part One: Best Picture / Forman v. Forman Trailer

Welcome back from the weekend and to July 2019!


THE DISTRIBUTORS 2019: MANY A FIRM PART TWO:

Today looking at the chances for two films from two different distribution companies: A24 and Annapurna

-A24

After s strong build over five years from 2012-2016. 2017 seemed like a real breakout year for A24 with three films making he TFF lineup.  But the relatively new firm didn't place a film at the fest in 2018.  Here's the history:

2018: No SHOW
2017: Lean on Pete, First Reformed, Lady Bird
2016: Moonlight
2015: Room
2014:  No SHOW
2013: Under the Skin
2012: Ginger and Rosa

Now with the 46th edition of the Telluride Film Festival fast approaching, A24 finds itself in much the same situation as last year when Jonah Hill's Mid 90's seemed their only possible play.  This year A24 looks to have only Robert Eggers" The Lighthouse as a possible TFF contender.

As of right now though, I'm feeling fairly bullish on the film's chances especially in light of its very strong positive critical reaction from Cannes.  Reini Urban's collective Cannes critical response had it at #2 among the entire fest's films trailing only Bong Joon-ho's Palme d'Or winning Parasite.

Meanwhile...

-ANNAPURNA

Annapurna's connection to Telluride in its short tenure has been as a producer of films as opposed to a distributor, which is a fairly recent development for the firm.  TFF films as a production/distribution company include: Destroyer (2018) and Foxcatcher (2014).  As with A24, it feels like Annapurna has a single film that could possibly make TFF #46.

Up until this weekend it was references as the Untitled Miranda July project but as of this past weekend is now called Kijillionaire.  Evan Rachel Wood, Debra Winger and Richard Jenkins star in a crime drama. Brad Pitt and Dede Gardner's Plan B  (12 Years a Slave, Moonlight) is also producing which doesn't hurt the film's TFF profile.

The chances for each of these films...

The Lighthouse-55%
Kijillionaire-40%



DEADLINE LOOKS AT  VENICE (and a little at Telluride)

Deadline writers Nancy Tartaglione and Andreas Wiseman posted a piece last week speculating about what films...especially awards season films...might find their way to the Venice Film Fest.  We probably need to pay heed.

The Venice-Telluride connection has become very solid in recent years.  Last year the two fests shared a total of nine films: First Man, Graves Without a Name, Non-Fiction, Peterloo, Roma, The Favourite, The Great Buster, The Other Side of the Wind and They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead.

Though the changing interactions of film fests and streamers like Netflix and Amazon may alter that symbiosis, I expect we’ll see another substantial connection between the two fests’ lineups again this year.  Consequently, the programming and scheduling for Venice is valuable for TFF clues.

So back to the Deadline story...

Among the films that they suggest have a shot at the Lido are:

Joker
Untitled Noah Baumbach Project- which gets a specific Telluride mention in the article
Against All Enemies
The Aeronauts
Ad Astra
Ford v. Ferrari
The Pope
The King
The Last Thing He Wanted
The Laundromat
Bad Education (which also gets a specific Telluride mention)
Judy
Jojo Rabbit
Ema

Also mentioned are Roman Polanski’s An Officer and a Spy and Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman both of which are unlikely for Telluride for very different reasons.

The complete Deadline article is linked here.

Venice is set to announce its lineup on July 25th.


TELLURIDE AND OSCAR PART ONE: BEST PICTURE

I spent nearly a year working on my Telluride Film Festival history project in 2017-18.  You can see the links for that at the top of this page.

Now, I’ve decided to dive into the relationship between TFF and the Oscars.

Regular readers know that when the fest concludes each year that I devote the blog to following the awards season with emphasis on the films that played at the festival.  Then, once Oscar is done, I return to the primary reason that I started writing this thing back in 2008 which is the attempt to divine the films that will make up the program for The SHOW.

In the course of the “Oscar” portion of the year I have written a lot about how T-ride has been a huge factor in the Best Picture race.  You can’t escape the fest’s track record over the past decade plus.  Green Book’s win last year notwithstanding, I suspect Telluride’s presence in the Best Picture category will continue for the foreseeable future.

Recently, I decided to take a look back at Telluride’s place in the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar race.  I knew on a surface level that the connection had been substantial but I wanted to quantify it.  So I did the homework and put that story up back on June 10th.

After I finished the work on that post, I got to thinking that a bigger look at the Telluride-Oscar connection might be interesting...fun...worth the time.

So, I decided to expand the field and look at how Telluride films have fared in the other seven major Oscar categories: Direction, Actress, Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay and Original Screenplay.

I’ll be rolling these out over the next couple of weeks and by way of introducing the collection, here’s a reminder of all the films that have been nominated for Best Picture that played Telluride since 2005 (with winners denoted with ***):

2005: Brokeback Mountain, Capote
2006: Babel
2007: Juno, There Will Be Blood (I always count this and Benjamin Button even though we only saw a portion of each film in tributes to Daniel Day Lewis and David Fincher)
2008: Slumdog Millionaire***, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
2009: (first year of expanded field of nominees): An Education, Up in the Air
2010: The King’s Speech***, 127 Hours, Black Swan
2011: The Artist***, The Descendants
2012: Argo***, Amour
2013: 12 Years a Slave***, Gravity,  Nebraska
2014: Birdman***, The Imitation Game
2015: Spotlight***, Room
2016: Moonlight***, Arrival, La La Land, Manchester by the Sea
2017: The Shape of Water***, Darkest Hour, Lady Bird
2018: The Favourite, Roma

In the 14 years included here 32 TFF films were nominated for Best Picture with nine of them winning Oscar’s highest honor including the incredible eight straight year run from 2010-2017.

The first TFF film to earn a nomination for Best Picture was Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation in 1974, the very first Telluride Film Festival.  The second wouldn't happen until 1989 with Jim Sheridan's My Left Foot.

Tomorrow, a look at Best Director candidates from TFFs past.



FORMAN VS. FORMAN TRAILER

The Karlovy Vary Fest is ongoing as I write and one of the docs screening there that has caught my eye as a potential TFF selection is Jakub Henja and Helena Trestikova’s Forman vs. Forman focusing on the life and career of the late, great Milos Forman.

With its screening at the Czech fest, the producers have released a trailer which I have included here from YouTube:

That's your first July MTFB.  More to come tomorrow...

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT TO THE BLOG

The Distributors 2019: Fox Searchlight / Return of The Jesus? / Ad Astra T.V. Spot

Good Thursday everybody!

THE DISTRIBUTORS 2019: FOX SEARCHLIGHT

Yesterday we began our look at film distributors as a way of setting the table for the expectations of films that could end up selected for a spot in the TFF #46 lineup this year by looking at Sony Pictures Classics.  As I mentioned yesterday, over the last decade and a half, SPC has had the most consistent relationship with TFF but the distribution group that may have had the most successful run at TFF over that time span has been Fox Searchlight.

The specialty film arm of 20th Century Fox has had an incredible run over the past several years:

2018: The Favourite, Can You Ever Forgive Ne?, The Old Man and the Gun (3)
2017: The Shape of Water (Best Picture Oscar), Battle of the Sexes (2)
2016: No Show
2015: He Named Me Malala (1)
2014: Birdman (Best Picture), Wild (2)
2013: 12 Years a Slave (Best Picture) (1)
2012: No Show
2011: Shame, The Descendants (2)
2010: Never Let Me Go, 127 Hours, Black Swan (3)
2009: No Show
2008: Slumdog Millionaire (Best Picture) (1)
2007: Juno, The Savages (2)
2006: The Last King of Scotland, The Namesake (2)
2005: Bee Season (1)
2004: Kinsey (1)

That's right.  Four Best Picture winners from Fox Searchlight since 2008's win for Slumdog Millionaire; the others being 12 Years a Slave (2013), Birdman (2015) and The Shape of Water (2017).

Over the year's included above Fox Searchlight films that played T-ride have earned a total of 80 Oscar nominations.  I addition to the above listed Best Picture winners, Fox Searchlight has also screened five other films that were nominated for Best Picture at Telluride: The Favourite, The Descendants, 127 Hours, Black Swan and Juno.

Last year, here's how I assessed the Searchlight slates chances of playing TFF:

The Old Man and the Gun 50%
The Favourite 45%
Wendy 30%
Can You Ever Forgive Me?  25%

Ultimately, Benh Zeitlin's Wendy was not released.

Finally, as you can see from above, FS doesn't always play TFF.  2009, 2012 and 2016 were all years in which FS did not have a film screen at The SHOW.  Over the 15 years covered here, FS has screened 21 films for an average of 1.4 films per year.

All of that acts as your background to contemplate the possibilities for Fox Searchlight films that might make an appearance over Labor Day weekend.  These are the seven films that I'm aware of from them that could be in the conversation for a TFF berth:

Malick's A Hidden Life
Cooper's Antlers
Zhao's Nomadland
Hawley's Lucy in the Sky
Zeitlin's Wendy (again)
Faxon and Rash's Downhill
Waititi's Jojo Rabbot

Any and all of them are possible for TFF, although none seem to be a dead certainty at this point.  Malick's probably the most "prestige" film among the group but its Cannes reception was modest...decent critical response but no love from the Cannes Palme jury.  Additionally, the fact that a Malick-directed film has never played T-ride.

On the other hand, Bill Pohlad is listed as one of several Executive Producers for the film and Pohlad has a history with TFF.  He was a producer or executive producer on 12 Years a Slave, Wild, Into the Wild, Fur and Brokeback Mountain all of which played Telluride so that adds some weight to the notion that A Hidden Life might be included in the 2019 edition of The SHOW.

Pohlad has a strong history with Malick as well.  In addition to his credit on A Hidden Life, Pohlad is also listed among the producers or acknowledged with thanks for The Tree of Life, Voyage of Time, Knight of Cups and To the Wonder.

Scott Cooper has certainly had a good Telluride resume over his brief career with both Black Mass and Hostiles making appearances.  That kind of frequency of invitation would normally make me think that his latest film is very likely to make the grade.  But since neither of those films made many waves financially, critically or in the awards season I wonder if Antlers gets the invite.

Honestly, the best shot might be Chloe Zhao's Nomadland starring two time Oscar winner Frances McDormand.  Zhao's last film, The Rider, played TFF in 2017 and received terrific critical response.  The film follows the life of a woman who is struggling to make it through America's Great Recession.  To me, it sets up as the kind of film that Telluride programmers would be very, very fond of.

Downhill is the remake of Reuben Ostlund's Force Majuere.

Personally, I'd love to see either Lucy in the Sky and/or Jojo Rabbit make it to Telluride.

Lucy in the Sky features Natalie Portman as a female astronaut who has emotional issues upon her return to earth.  Jojo Rabbit seems wild with writer, director, actor Taika Waititi creating an "anti-hate satire" with Waititi playing Adolf Hitler.  Sam Rockwell and Scarlett Johansson also star.

And as to the Zeitlin...still may not be ready and, honestly, I wasn't all that enamored of his Beasts of the Southern Wild.

My estimate of chances:

Nomadland 50%
Lucy in the Sky 40%
A Hidden life 40%
Antlers 35%
Jojo Rabbit 35%
Wendy 25%
Downhill 20%

I'm guessing Fox Searchlight lands two films at Telluride this year.

RETURN OF THE JESUS?

John Turturro as Jesus Quintana in The Big Lebowski (via Indiewire)

John Turturro has made a lot of films playing a lot of characters.  He's done that several times for the Coen Brothers and perhaps none more memorably than Jesus Quintana, the "pederast" in The Big Lebowski.

Turturro has long wanted to return to that character and, in fact, has in a film he developed, wrote, directed (with the blessing of but no participation from the Coens) and will star in.  The film is titled Going Places.

Turturro was recently interviewed by The Independent in England mostly owing to his role in Sebastian Lelio English language remake of his own film-Gloria.  However, in the course of that interview, Turturro spends some time talking about Jesus and Going Places.

Indiewire's Zack Sharf picked up there and expanded on the Going Places story in a piece posted on Monday which includes the assertion that Going Places still has no announced release plans "but at this point a fall film festival debut seems likely."

So, despite the lack of a release date and no announced distributor, I'm putting the film on my TFF #46 watch list...and my wish list as well.

The original Independent interview is linked here.

The Indiewire story is linked here.


AD ASTRA T.V. SPOT


Last week we had the debut of the first trailer for James Gray's Ad Astra starring Brad Pitt and Tommy Lee Jones.

This week we have an edited down version of it that has appeared as a television commercial.  Here that is from YouTube:

Ad Astra is one of the most highly anticipated titles this fall and is set to open on Sept. 20th.


Thursday is in the books.  More from MTFB tomorrow including my "If I Had To" segment.


EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT TO THE BLOG