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
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
Last week, I reported that Quentin Tarantino had committed to retro-fitting 50 screens across the nation to be able to screen "The Hateful Eight" in 70mm. News emerged over the weekend that revealed the release date and strategy for the film that was shot near Telluride last winter.
The film will be released on Christmas Day in 70mm and then go wide two weeks later digitally. Over the weekend a number of the Telluride Film Fest faithful and I engaged in a fairly involved Twitter convo about the chances that we might still see "Hateful" at TFF #42.
My feeling is that time doesn't favor that approach but that we might see a sequence or a selection of clips. It would be a thrill to get Tarantino in Telluride during Labor Day weekend. We'll see...
Here's coverage of the "Hateful" release story from Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Indiewire, The Playlist, Rope of Silicon and The Wrap:
Julianne Moore and Ellen Page in "Freeheld" via Entertainment Weekly
Lionsgate has the distribution for the Julianne Moore, Ellen Page, Steve Carell starrer "Freeheld" based on the true life experience of policewoman Laurel Hester (Moore) who fought the power when she was faced with dying and wanted her survivor benefits to go to her same sex partner (Page).
The Lionsgate as distributor might seem to be a TFF disqualifier (listed as a distrib for "all is Lost" in 2013...and that's all) but the Lionsgate/Roadside Attractions (also "All is Lost" as well as "Mommy", "The Homesman", "'71") /Saban ( "The Homesman") connections make it a possibility. "Freeheld" is directed by Peter Sollett ( "Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist").
Entertainment Weekly had the image (above) and the story:
