The Best Picture Race at the Holiday Break / TFF #43 Directors on Their Films

Good Monday world, if you celebrated Christmas, I hope it was good.  If you're celebrating Hanukkah, I hope it is good.

THE BEST PICTURE RACE AT THE HOLIDAY BREAK

As we move past Christmas and through the rest of Hanukkah toward New Year's Day, here's a quick look at the two broadest measures of Oscar sentiment for Best Picture.  By that I mean a look at Movie City News' Gurus of Gold and The Gold Derby.

MCN's Gurus currently have four Telluride films in the top five potential nominees for Best Picture: La La Land at #1, Moonlight at #2, Manchester by the Sea at #3 and Arrival at #5.  Additionally, Clint Eastwood's Sully sits at what would be the #13 spot.  The highest ranked non-Telluride film is Denzel Washington's Fences at #4.

The complete holiday Gurus of Gold Best Picture chart is here.

Meanwhile, The Gold Derby has La La Land on top at 9 to 2, Manchester second at 13 to 2, Moonlight third at odds of 7 to 1.  Arrival, Silence, Lion and Hacksaw Ridge are all tied at fifth with odds of 14 to 1.

Complete odds from The Gold Derby are linked here.


TFF #43 DIRECTORS ON THEIR FILMS

Damien Chazelle/La La Land from Alex Billington/FirstShowing.net: Interview

Barry Jenkins/Moonlight from Greg Tate/The Village Voice: Profile

Maren Ade/Toni Erdmann from Esther Zuckerman/The A.V. Club: Interview


That's it for a truncated holiday edition of MTFB/FAC.  I'll have more later this week on Thursday.

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

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The Screenplay Races After Category Reassignment / Critics Loved Telluride Films / Talking Toni Erdmann

It is Thursday and welcome to it.


THE SCREENPLAY RACES AFTER CATEGORY RE-ASSIGNMENT

We found out a week ago that the scripts for Moonlight and Loving that we had been thinking would be in the Original Screenplay category for Oscar consideration will instead be classified as Adapted Screenplays and I thought at the time that the re-classification would turn the screenplay categories inside out.  The FAC for screenplays bears that supposition out.  See below.

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 parentheses.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY (which includes Moonlight and Loving for the first time)

1) Moonlight (NR)
2) Fences (1)
3) Arrival (2)
4) Lion (4)
5) Silence (3)

6) Hidden Figures (6)
7) Loving (NR)
8) Sully (5)
9) Hacksaw Ridge (NR)
10) Nocturnal Animals (8)

Hot: Moonlight, Loving, Hacksaw Ridge
Not: Sully, Nocturnal Animals, Love and Friendship, Elle, Live by Night
On the Cusp: Love and Friendship
Comment:  The addition of Moonlight and Loving have altered the Adapted Screenplay race in a fundamental way.  The last time we checked the screenplay categories Moonlight was the #2 Original Screenplay candidate.  The Moonlight lead in the FAC is by a single pint over Fences.


ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1) Manchester by the Sea (1)
2) La La Land (3)
3) Hell or High Water (4)
4) The Lobster (8)
5) 20th Century Women (6)

6) Captain Fantastic (9)
7) Jackie (5)
8) Zootopia (NR)
9) Miss Sloane (NR)
10) Florence Foster Jenkins (10)

Hot: The Lobster, 20th Century Women, Captain Fantastic, Miss Sloane, Zootopia
Not: Jackie
On the Cusp: Toni Erdmann
Comment: The Lobster, 20th Century Women and Capt. Fantastic really benefited from the Moonlight/Loving move.


CRITICS LOVED TELLURIDE FILMS IN 2016

Indiewire surveyed 200+ critics to determine the collectively best received films and performances of 2016 and TFF #43 was ridiculously well represented in every category that Indiewire polled for.

Here are Telluride specific results for each category:

Best Film: 1) Moonlight, 2) Manchester by the Sea, 3) La La Land, 4) Toni Erdmann, 8) Arrival, 27) Things to Come, 45) Fire at Sea, 47) Neruda

Best Direction: 1) Barry Jenkins/Moonlight. 2) Damien Chazelle/La La, 3) Maren Ade/Toni Erdmann, 4) Kenneth Lonergan/Manchester

Best Actress: 2) Sandra Huller/Toni Erdmann, 4) Emma Stone/La La

Best Actor: 1) Casey Affleck/Manchester, 4) Peter Simonscheck/Toni Erdmann

Best Supporting Actress: 2) Michelle Williams/ Manchester, 3) Naomie Harris/Moonlight

Best Supporting Actor: 1) Mahershala Ali/Moonlight, Lucas Hedges/Manchester, 5) Trevante Rhodes/Moonlight

Best Documentary: 6) Fire at Sea

Best Undistributed Film: 6) Una

Best Screenplay: 1) Manchester, 2) Moonlight

Best Score: 2) La La, 3) Moonlight, 4) Arrival

Best Cinematography: 1) Moonlight, 2) La La Land, 3) Arrival

Best Editing: 1) Moonlight, 3) La La Land

The complete poll results are here.

Analysis of the results of the poll are here.


TALKING TONI ERDMANN

Slant Magazine posted an interview this week with Toni Erdmann Writer/director Maren Ade and actress Sandra Huller as they talk about the film that is the likely front runner for the Best Foreign Language Oscar.  You can find that interview here.


That's it for this Thursday.  More to come on Boxing Day (Monday).


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

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TFF #43 Directors Talking Their Films / Oscar Biz Buzz: Tapley's Top 20 and Stone's Take on Original Screenplay

Good Monday and I hope it was a pleasant weekend for all.


TFF #43 DIRECTORS TALKING THEIR FILMS


As the major fall film fests have come to a conclusion and with a number of the films that played there now beginning to open, you're seeing the full court press of interviews and profiles of the key personnel for those that are getting a serious awards push.

That gives us Telluriders another opportunity to connect with the films and film makers that we fell in love with over Labor Day weekend.  It also allows those of us that become Oscar watchers to keep an eye on the films that are being positioned for those and other awards.

I have linked interviews and profiles for:

Barry Jenkins (and others) talking about Moonlight from the Toronto International Film Festival via YouTube.  The presentation runs a bit over 25 minutes.

Additionally, The Toronto Sun's Peter Howell also talked to Jenkins  prior to Moonlight's Toronto opening.

Entertainment Weekly posted  a piece this week from La La Land writer and director Damien Chazelle about the casting process that led to Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling as the leads.

The Playlist offers a retrospective on the career of Kenneth Lonergan who wrote and directed Manchester by the Sea.

Indiewire published both an article a small video featurette from Arrival director Denis Villeneuve. That can be found here.

And the New York Film Festival posted a "Director's Dialogue" with Toni Erdmann writer/director Maren Ade.

Enjoy!


OSCAR BIZ BUZZ

Variety/In Contention's Kristopher Tapley posted his list of the "20 Top Contenders in the Oscar Best Picture Race" over the weekend.  Films are listed with a still and a brief description.  Included on the alphabetical listing are :  Arrival, La La Land, Manchester by the Sea, Moonlight and Sully from TFF #43.  You can catch the complete list here.

Also, Awards Daily's Sasha Stone posted a lengthy piece on the correlation this year between Best Picture front runners and the potential nominees for Best Original Screenplay with particular focus on three films that played at Telluride:  Moonlight, La La Land and Manchester by the Sea.  Sasha's insights are found here.


There's your Monday post from MTFB/FAC.  More to come on Thursday.


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

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