Checking the Distributors: Amazon & MGM / A Sudden Glimpse / Metacritic's Ranking of Best Picture Winners

 CHECKING THE DISTRIBUTORS: AMAZON AND MGM

We're close to winding up our look at film distribution outfits.  Today's look is at the amalgam that is Amazon Studios, Amazon-MGM and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as those are all under the same umbrella now.  Thursday we'll do a grab bag of smaller companies some years get to TFF.

Here's what has been at Telluride from Amazon and the rest since 2016:

2023: Cassandro, Saltburn

2022: Wildcat, Good Night Oppy

2021: Encounter, A Hero

2020: All In: The Fight for Democracy

2019: The Aeronauts, The Report

2018: Peterloo, Cold War

2017: Wonderstruck

2016: Manchester by the Sea

This year the conglomerate of companies has these films in play:

Nickel Boys/Ross

Hedda/DaCosta

Long Days Journey Into Night/Kent

Unstoppable/Goldenberg (added to this list on 7/10 after a comment from a reader)

Then there's the film that you'd think was a T-ride possible but looks like it's not .  I'm talking about Rachel Morrison's The Fire Inside (Flint Strong).  Even with a pedigree that includes Barry Jenkins writing and producing, it appears it's not going to make it to the San Juans.  Jordan Ruimy writing at World of Reel on Tuesday said that the film has had a troubled production history.

So,  here are the chances for these films to make the TFF #51 lineup:

Nickel Boys 40%

Long Days Journey Into Night 25%

Unstoppable 25%

Hedda 10%

The Fire Inside 2%

A SUDDEN GLIMPSE

I had already placed Mark Cousins documentary A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things on the "possibles" list for Telluride and likely I'll bump it up into the 4th Ten Bets on Thursday in the wake of the film winning the Crystal Globe.  That's the top prize from the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival just completed on Saturday.

Cousins who is a TFF "regular" and a member of the fest's "Esteemed Council of Advisors" has had a number of films over the years appear as a part of TFF lineups including: The Story of Film, The March on Rome, My Name is Alfred Hitchcock and and The Eyes of Orson Welles among others.

Here's the IMDb description of the film:

"Exploring the pivotal 1949 experience atop Switzerland's Grindelwald glacier that reshaped British modernist painter Wilhelmina Barns-Graham's artistic perspective for decades to come."

You can find a complete rundown of all the award winners for KVIFF here from Indiewire.

METACRITIC'S RANKING OF BEST PICTURE WINNERS 

I ran across this list from Metacritic a couple of days ago and was curious as to where TFF films that had Best Picture ranked.  The list's oldest film is The Last Emperor from 1987.  It includes 37 films with 1988's Rain Man the lowest ranked film.  Last year's BP winner, Oppenheimer is at #9.

Here's where the 11 films that have screened at TFF and then won the Best Picture Oscar rank with their Metacritic compiled rating:

22) Slumdog Millionaire (84)

18) Argo (86)

15) The Shape of Water (87)

13) Nomadland (87)

12) Birdman (87)

11) The King's Speech (88)

10) The Artist (89)

7) Spotlight (93)

3) 12 Years a Slave (96)

2) Parasite (97)

1) Moonlight (98)

You can find the entire list here.

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RIP Pierre Rissient 1936-2018 / Views from Long Days Journey Into Night / Trailer for Portman's Eating Animals

Good Monday


RIP PIERRE RISSIENT 1936-2108

Photo via Institut Lumiere and Variety

News from France yesterday that film friend and Telluride staple Pierre Rissient has died.  He was 81.  Rissient has been described as a "warrior of cinema" as tributes and remembrances have poured in over the past 24 hours.

Rissient's presence has been such in Telluride's film history that the La Pierre Theater (adjoining the Palm) was named in his honor.   Rissient received Telluride's Silver Medallion in 1992.  The earliest reference I can find to Rissient and Telluride is his participation in 1983 with a presentation called "Lino Brocka: Cinema's Robin Hood".  Rissient, as of last year's fest, was still named a "resident curator".

IMDb lists Rissient as the director of two films Alibis in 1977 ans Five and the Skin in 1982.  Rissient was to have presented a restored version of Five and the Skin at Cannes this year.

The death of Rissient was noted throughout the film community.  I have linked stories from:

Variety

The Hollywood Reporter

Indiewire

[Correction: An earlier version of this post had Rissient's birth year as 1926-my apologies]

VIEWS FROM LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT

The film Stage posted a story this week about Bi Gans' Cannes competition film Long Day's Journey Into Night which The Film Stage calls its most anticipated film of the Canes Palme competition.  The article which went up on Saturday includes multiple stills from the film.

As it is on my Telluride/Cannes list of potential crossover films, I have included a few of those here:

Long Days Journey is scheduled to premiere at Cannes on May 16.

The complete article from The Film Stage is here.



TRAILER FOR PORTMAN'S EATING ANIMALS


Making a splash at TFF #44 last Labor Day was the Natalie Portman produced documentary Eating Animals.  The doc is scheduled for release on June 15th and focuses on the effects globally of the reliance on animal flesh as a food source.

The film is being distributed by IFC Films and Sundance Selects and a trailer for it appeared this last week:

Trailer via YouTube

The Playlist included this coverage of the film this past week.

That's a wrap for this Monday.  More to come on Thursday.

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