Garfield Talks Mainstream and More / Teaser for The Human Factor

 GARFIELD TALKS MAINSTREAM AND MORE

Gia Coppola's Mainstream opened  this past weekend.  The film stars Andrew Garfield making a return of sorts after a two year break since Under the Silver Lake.  Mainstream appeared on Telluride's list of films that would have played at its 47th edition had it occurred.

Garfield has been in a number of TFF films over the past decade and a half : Red Riding, Never Let Me Go and 99 Homes.

Recently he was interviewed by David Ehrlich for Indiewire as Mainstream was about to open.  

That interview is linked here.

TEASER FOR THE HUMAN FACTOR

Dror Moreh's The Human Factor opened in the United States this weekend.  The documentarian's film is described at IMDb as:

"The epic behind-the-scenes story of the United States' 30-year effort to secure peace in the Middle East. Recounted from the unique perspective of the American mediators on the frontlines."

The film played as a part of the program of TFF #46.

With its release this weekend Sony Pictures Classics tweeted a new teaser.  That is linked here.

Moreh previously screened The Gatekeepers at Telluirde in 2012 at TFF #39.  The Gatekeepers was nominated for the Best Documentary Academy Award.

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Indiewire Looks Ahead to Oscar Contenders for 2022 / Kohn Talks Cannes / New Mainstream Teaser

 INDIEWIRE LOOKS AHEAD TO OSCAR CONTENDERS FOR 2022

The industry turn of the page from the end of Oscar #93's season continued this past week with Indiewire's look forward to potential Oscar players for what we think will be an Oscar ceremony that happens roughly 10 months from now.

As is the custom here at MTFB, I look at their list of possible films to try to sniff out some Telluride possibilities.  This soon after The Academy Awards is always iffy in terms of projecting what might be in play by the time Labor Day comes around.  Compounding the parsing, of course, is the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic and what transpires because of it.  

Nevertheless, here's a list of films from the Indiewire piece that could be Telluride choices (in the order they're presented in the story):

Paul Schrader's The Card Counter

Guillermo Del Toro's Nightmare Alley

Denis Villenueve's Dune

Jane Campion's The Power of the Dog

Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch

Joel Coen's The Tragedy of Macbeth

Michael Showalter's The Eyes of Tammy Faye

The complete Indiewire article is linked here.

KOHN TALKS CANNES

Thierry Fremaux, the Cannes Film Festival director, has been very vocal and adamant about that French fest's intent to be a live event from early to mid July.  Eric Kohn, writing at Indiewire raises some concerns about what films and film distribution outlets would be willing to be on the Croisette in nine weeks.

With announcement date now less than a month away, plans will have to come together very quickly for all involved.  Some titkles are known-Leos Carax's Annette, which is set to open the fest, wes Anderson's The French Dispatch and Paul Verhoeven's Benedatta.  Several other films have serious speculation swirling about them.

That said, Kohn raises some salient points that will surely have to be dealt with by all parties prior to the May 27th announcement.

Check out Kohn's story linked here.

NEW MAINSTREAM TEASER

On Friday The Playlist tweeted a new 17 second teaser for Gia Coppola's Mainstream.  The film stars Andrew Garfield and Maya Hawke.  It's set for release on May 7th.

You can take a peek at the peek by accessing the original tweet from IFC Films linked here.

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Oscar Winners Predix #3: Picture and More / Mainstream Trailer / More Cannes Date Speculation

 OSCAR WINNERS PREDIX #3: PICTURE AND MORE

I'm back predicting the winners of this year's Oscars with 17 days left until the awards are passed out.  Today I am updating Best Picture and Director categories as well as predicting the winners for Cinematography, Film Editing and Production Design for the first time since nominations were announced.  As always TFF #47 film are in Bold.

BEST PICTURE

1) Nomadland

2) Promising Young Woman

3) The Trial of the Chicago 7

4) Minari

5) Judas and the Black Messiah

6) Mank

7) Sound of Metal

8) The Father

BEST DIRECTOR

1) Chloe Zhao/Nomadland

2) Emerald Fennell/Promising Young Woman

3) David Fincher/Mank

4) Lee Isaac Chung/Minari

5) Thomas Vinterberg/Another Round

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

1) Nomadland

2) Mank

3) News of the world

4) The Trial of the Chicago 7

5) Judas and the Black Messiah

BEST FILM EDITING

1) Sound of Metal

2) The Trial of the Chicago 7

3) Nomadland

4) Promising Young Woman

5) The Father

    BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

1) Mank

2) News of the World

3) Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

4) The Father

5) Tenet

MAINSTREAM TRAILER 

Goa Coppola's Mainstream was to have been a film that would have screened ata TFF #47 had it happened.  The film stars Andrew Garfield and Maya Hawke and has been dated for release on May 7th.  IFC, which is distributing the film, dropped a new trailer for the film earlier this week.  That trailer is here via YouTube:

MORE CANNES DATE SPECULATION

Roger Friedman's ShowBiz411 wrote yesterday that:

"I’ve already reported that the Film Festival has been eyeing a move to October. No one would be against that. It would put the festival in closer proximity to Oscar buzz."

That continues to fan the flames of the possibility of a Cannes fall festival that could turn the entire film fest season on its ear.

The complete Friedman article is linked here.

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BFI-London Announces / Teaser Trailers for Nomadland and Mandibles / New Photos of Mainstream and Mandibles/ Interviews: Zhao, Coppola and More / Ronstadt Short Doc Acquired

BFI-LONDON ANNOUNCES

The BFI-London Film Festival announced its 2020 slate on Tuesday morning.  Five of the feature films selected for its main slate were also among the 29 films officially selected by the Telluride Film Festival for its 47th edition that had to be canceled.

Three of the titles have become common place additions to a number of film fests:

Francis Lee's Ammonite
Chloe Zhao's Nomadland
Gianfranco Rosi's Notturno

In addition to those three LFF also selected After Love and Never Gonna Snow Again.

The BFI-London Film Festival will take place Oct. 7-18 and will largely be presented virtually but will have a live cinema presentation of some films as a part of its programming.


TEASER TRAILERS FOR NOMADLAND AND MANDIBLES

Teaser for Nomadland:

Mandibles Trailer from YouTube:

NEW PHOTOS OF MAINSTREAM AND MANDIBLES

From Mandibles:

From Mainstream:

INTERVIEWS WITH THE CREATORS OF NOMADLAND, MAINSTREAM, THE DUKE AND NEVER GONNA SNOW AGAIN



***Chloe Zhao/Nomadland from The Hollywood Reporter

***Gia Coppola/Mainstream from The Hollywood Reporter

***Roger Michell/The Duke from Variety

***Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert/Never Gonna Snow Again from Variety



RONSTADT SHORT DOC ACQUIRED

photo via Variety and The Shout! Factory

Last year at TFF #46 programmers selected to screen the fantastic documentary Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice.  Now comes news that a second Ronstadt doc that was chosen for inclusion on the TFF #47 list has been acquired for release by Shout! Studios.

The short doc (runtime about 40 min.) is titled: Linda Ronstadt and the Mockingbirds focuses on a trip to Mexico as Ronstadt explores her musical roots.

The story was reported by Variety and says that the new work is a follow on to last year's film.

Variety reports that the new film is expected to have a 2020 release on various platforms.

The complete Variety story is linked here.

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Telluride at Home- My List / What I Would Have Seen / Lists from Others / McCarthy Reminisces / Venice Begins: Hot Films per The Playlist

TELLURIDE AT HOME- MY LIST

Here it is.  My planned viewing over the next few days as the Mrs. and I celebrate the Telluride Film Festival that could not be by re-visiting some of our favorite films that we've seen from TFFs since we began attending in 2006.

I estimate that between the two of us, my wife and I have seen something more than 150 films that have been screened at Telluride over the past 14 years.  From that list, I whittled down to 35+ films and then we both selected 10ish films each.  About half a dozen made both of our lists and then we added two each plus a special addition of Alejandro Inarritu's Babel-the first film we saw in 2006 at TFF #33

Included is my "programming" for the next few days with the caveat that the following is what we intend to do but just like the real Telluride Film Festival...you never know how circumstances will alter your plans.

Drumroll please...

9/3 THURS. BABEL (‘06 #33)

9/4 FRI.         FIRST MAN (‘18  #45), FRANCES HA (‘12 #39)

9/5 SAT.         12 YEARS A SLAVE (‘13 #40), THE DIVING BELL AND THE                                                          BUTTERFLY(‘07 #34), LADY BIRD (‘17 #44)

9/6 SUN. THE ARTIST (‘11 #38), SHAME (‘11 #38), WILD TALES (‘14 #41)

9/7 MON. A SEPARATION (‘11 #38), BIRDMAN (‘14 #41)

BABEL/NETFLIX

FIRST MAN/AMAZON PRIME

FRANCES HA/NETFLIX

12 YEARS A SLAVE/AMAZON PRIME

THE DIVING BELL…/HBO

LADY BIRD/NETFLIX

THE ARTIST/NETFLIX

SHAME/AMAZON PRIME

WILD TALES/AMAZON PRIME

A SEPARATION/AMAZON PRIME

BIRDMAN/AMAZON PRIME

WHAT I WOULD HAVE SEEN

And while we're on the subject of Telluride lists...here's my list of the 10 films from TFF #47's announced list that I would have likely sought out had the fest actually happened and I had been in The Ride (in alpha order):

All In: The Fight for Democracy

Ammonite

The Bee Gees: How Do You Mend a Broken Heart

Charlatan

The Duke

The Father

Mainstream

MLK/FBI

Nomadland

The Truffle Hunters

How about you?  What would you have tried to get in?

LISTS FROM OTHERS

As promised, I am including "Telluride at Home" lists from friends who have responded to me over the last ten days or so.

From MTFB friend Jack Wertzberger:

So here, on an equal level are my top ten since 2006:

Moonlight

4 months, 3 weeks, 2 days

Nebraska

Slumdog Millionaire

Parasite

California Typewriter

Roma

The Lives of Others

Seymour

La La Land

Films I wish I had seen:

He Named Me Malala

Mr Turner

First Cow

Peggy Guggenheim

Love, Cecil

Biggest Little Farm

Eyes of Orson Welles

Judy

Uncut Gems

Carmichael & Shane

Jack's list and mine don't overlap but I can say a ton of his were nearly on mine including near misses: La La Land, Moonlight, Slumdog and Nebraska.

MTFB friend and "tiffgraffer" Rich Young:

As I mourn for many things this year, including TIFF and TFF, I hope you’re well.  Here’s my list of Telluride faves from my years of attendance:

Anomalisa 15

The Artist 11 (with my 9 and 13 year old kids, transfixed in the open air screening)

Best of Youth 03 (fun banter in line with multiple directors over 2 successive midnight screenings)

Blue Is the Warmest Colour 13

The Descendants 11

Dogville 03

Inside Llewyn Davis 13

LadyBird 17

Lost In Translation 03

Son of Saul 15

Under The Skin 13

Rich and I both included Lady Bird and The Artist.

The very kind and thoughtful friend of the blog Chris Schneider:

So here is my list. Some I want to revisit and some I just haven't seen yet. I'm going to settle in this weekend and make my way through the list. 

Frances Ha 2012

Inside Llewyn Davis 2013

Tim's Vermeer 2013

Wild Tales 2014

Foxcatcher 2014

Carol 2015

Hitchcock/Truffaut 2015

Toni Erdmann 2016

Moonlight 2016

The Cotton Club Encore 2017

The Rider 2017

First Man 2018

Portrait of a Lady on Fire 2018

First Cow 2019

Bonus flick in case I'm needing a late night bust of energy: Uncut Gems 2019

Chris and I double up on Frances Ha, Wild Tales and First Man.


And from longtime MTFB reader and friend Patrick Pringle:


Here is the combined list from Patrick and I. It’s a bit weird. In no particular order...

Stories We Tell
The Insult
A Separation
Parasite
Biggest Little Farm
The Descendants
The Lyrebird
Ladybird
Marriage Story
Spotlight

So Patrick and I would be in the same theater for A Separation and Lady Bird.


MC CARTHY REMINISCES

Todd McCarthy, formerly of The Hollywood Reporter and currently of Deadline.com penned a wonderful look back at his time at the Telluride Film Festival on Wednesday.  McCarthy first attended TFF in 1976-that was TFF #3. 

You can find McCarthy's personal walk down The SHOW's memory lane from Deadline linked here.

VENICE BEGINS: HOT FILMS PER THE PLAYLIST

The Venice Film Festival is underway in Italy.  As many MTFB readers know, there has been, especially in the past few years, a significant overlap of films that screen both at Venice and Telluride and that remained true for this Covid-impacted year.

Nearly a quarter of the feature films on TFF's announced list for what would have been TFF #47 are going to screen in some form as a part of the Venetian fest over the next several days.  

The Playlist published a list and descriptions this week (on Monday) of  what they termed "Must see" films.  I culled that article to determine what films the two fests would have shred that made that list and they were:

Mainstream

Nomadland

Mandibules

and from their Honorable Mentions list: Notturno.

The Playlist list is here.

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Two Weeks... / Telluride at Home / First Looks: Fireball and Mainstream / The Usual Suspects-Covid Edition

TWO WEEKS...

Are you like me?

We're two weeks from what would have been the last day of TFF #47.

It's not that I haven't internalized that the fest isn't going to happen this year.  I had been contemplating the possibility for quite a while before the announcement dropped on July 14th.  However, as the dates approach that would have been the 47th edition of the Telluride Film Festival (and my 15th time to attend) I, like I suspect many of you, have a serious pang of longing and regret that our normally glorious weekend of film and fun will come and go more or less as just another weekend in Covid-19 America.

It will be weird and dis-orienting two weeks from today, when I would be winding the weekend down.  My habit over the past few years has been to get up on Labor Day to grab an early screening of something that has become buzzy over the weekend (the last two years that my films on Monday morning have been Cold War and Parasite...not bad, eh?) and then booking to Town Park to grab lunch and ice cream, say goodbye to whomever I could find there that needed saying goodbye to...that's how I met Barry Jenkins four years ago.  And then climb in the mini-van and head south and east.

This year, I'll already be "south and east" when I wake up on Labor Day.  Sooooo....


TELLURIDE AT HOME

I've decided that I'm programming a weekend at home of Telluride films from that past 14 editions that either I have seen or missed when they were in T-ride and that I still haven't visited.  The wife and I started compiling a list yesterday.  We'll whittle it down until we get to 10 or so films.  Then, in the tradition of Telluride, I'll announce my list for "Telluride at Home" on Thursday, Sept. 3rd.  The day before my festival starts.

What about you?  If you were to program a Telluride Fest from the years you've been attending, what would you include?  What would re-visit?  What films did you miss that you still haven't seen but wished you had?  Make a list of ten.

Drop me a line with your list if you feel like it.  I might well publish those here.


FIRST LOOKS: FIREBALL AND MAINSTREAM


As a result of their selections for TIFF and Venice, we have our first glimpses of would-be TFF #$7 films.  Werner Herzog's Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds and Gia Coppola's Mainstream.

From the Toronto PR for Fireball, it's Clive Oppenhiemer and Herzog as they search the world for meteors and stories of meteors.

From Venice, we got a still from her new film, Mainstream via Twitter.  It looks intriguing:

THE USUAL SUSPECTS: COVID-19 EDITION

Helen Mirren and Jim Broadbent in Roger Michell's The Duke 

Looking over the 29 feature film titles that were announced as what would have been selections had TFF #47 taken place, I can't help but notice that a number of folks who have had a presence at TFF in past Telluride Film Festivals were returning.  Some, like Chloe Zhao were returning after a maiden voyage with the fest.  Zhao's The Rider screened at Telluride in 2017.  The lineup also included Werner Herzog who is a mainstay of many, many TFF lineups.

Here's a quick rundown of folks that are or may soon be on my list of TFF"s "Usual Suspects" that are included in the TFF #47 lineup:

*Liz Garbus/All In: The Fight for Democracy  (Love, Marilyn TFF #39)
*Andrey Tarkovsky/Andrey Tarkovsky: A Cinema Prayer (Tarkovsky's works have often been featured at TFF)
*Frank Marshall/The Bees Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart (Marshall is on TFF's Board of Advisors)
*Roger Michell/The Duke (Michell's TFF credits include: Venus, Hyde Park on Hudson and Enduring Love)
*Gia Coppola/Mainstream (Coppola's first and only feature thus far, Palo Alto, was at TFF #40)
*Chloe Zhao/Nomadland (Zhao's The Rider was at TFF #44)
*Gianfranco Rosi/Notturno (Rosi was last at Telluride in 2016 with Fire at Sea)
*Mohammad Rasoulof/There Is No Evil (TFF tribute recipient in 2013, last film at TFF was 2017's A Man of Integrity)
*Lisa Immordino Vreeland/Truman and Tennessee: An Intimate Conversation (multiple TFF appearances: Love, Cecil, Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict, Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel)

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