Indiewire's Cannes Wish List / Herzog on Gorbachev / More Country Music News

Welcome to Thursday...


INDIEWIRE'S CANNES WISH LIST

As we edge closer to the official announcement of the Cannes Film Festival lineup Indiewire has published its list of 50 films on their wish list for the 72nd edition of the French film affair.

Again, Scorsese's The Irishman and other Netflix titles are off the list and also likely off the Cannes list is James Gray's As Astra.

Among the 50 films that are on the Indiewire's hopefuls are these that I think seem Telluride-possible.  Most of the following titles have now become repeat mentions from previous Cannes' speculation pieces.  Alphabetically, those films are:

Ahmed (The Dardennes Brothers)
Ema (Pablo Larrain)
First Cow (Kelly Reichardt)
One Second (Zhang Yimou)
Radegund (Terrence Malick)
The Truth (Hirokazu Kore-eda)


The complete Indiewire list is here.


HERZOG ON GORBACHEV

Herzog at the Kremlin (via The Orchard and Indiewire)

Indiewire's Christian Blauvelt sat down with legendary filmmaker and Telluride "Esteemed Council of Advisors" member (and who has a TFF theater named for him) Werner Herzog last week to talk about his latest documentary film Meeting Gorbachev which premiered at TFF #45 last September.

Herzog's exploration of the former Russian/Soviet leader is scheduled for a May 3rd U.S. release from The Orchard.

The Indiewire interview with Herzog also includes an exclusive look at a trailer for the film.

You can find that interview here.


MORE COUNTRY MUSIC NEWS

The Tennessean reports that Ken Burns will donate a trove of the interviews that he and his crew have done for the upcoming PBS documentary Country Music to the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

Burns is currently in the midst of promoting the 8 part 16 hour doc before it screens on PBS on  September 15th.

Burns past extensive connection to Telluride and his frequent presence at the festival with various projects leads me to think that there is a better than fair chance that at least some of the doc will bow at TFF #46 over the Labor Day weekend.

The Tennessean reports that Burns will be donating all of the recorded interviews and transcripts from over 40 artists.

The complete Tennessean article is linked here.


That will do for today.  I'll have more on Monday.

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Los Angeles Critics' Name 2018's Top Films / Oscar Predictions Update / Acquiring Minds Want to Know / Berlin Announces Opening Film

Good Monday film friends...


LOS ANGELES CRITICS' NAME 2018'S TOP FILMS

The LA Film Critics Association met and voted for their top films and performances for the past year yesterday and here are their results with Telluride films in Bold.

Best Picture
Winner: Roma
Runner-up: Burning

Best Direction
Winner: Debra Granik/Leave No Trace
Runner-up: Alfonso Cuaron/Roma

Best Actress
Winner:Olivia Colman/The Favourite
Runner-up: Toni Collette/Hereditary

Best Actor
Winner:Ethan Hawke/First Reformed (TFF #44)
Runner-up:Ben Foster/Leave No Trace

Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Regina King/If Beale Street Could Talk
Runner-up: Elizabeth Debicki/Widows

Best Supporting Actor
Winner: Steven Yeun/Burning
Runner-up: Hugh Grant/Paddington 2

Best Screenplay
Winner: Nicole Holofcener and Tim Whitty/Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Runner-up: Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara/The Favourite

Best Production Design
Winner: Black Panther
Runner-up: The Favourite

Best Editing
Winner: Minding the Gap
Runner-up: Roma

Best Cinematography
Winner: Roma
Runner-up: If Beale Street Could Talk

Best Music Score
Winner: If Beale Street Could Talk
Runner-up: First Man

Best Foreign Language Film
Winner: (Tie) Burning and Shoplifters

Best Documentary/Non-Fiction Film
Winner: Shirkers
Runner-up: Minding the Gap

Best Animation:
Winner: Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse
Runner-up: Incredibles 2

New Generation: Chloe Zhao

Special Citation: The Other Side of the Wind

Douglas Edwards Award: Green Fog

Lifetime Achievement: Hayao Miyazaki

The complete list and a bit of commentary is linked here from Indiewire.

OSCAR PREDICTIONS UPDATE

Here's my latest take on four major Oscar categories.  The film/performer's position as of my last set of predictions for that category follow in parentheses and TFF #45 films are Bold.

BEST PICTURE (Last updated Nov. 26th)

1) A Star Is Born (1)

2) Roma (2)

3) Green Book (3)

4) The Favourite (4)

5) Black Panther (8)

6) BlacKkKlansman (7)

7) If Beale Street Could Talk (6)

8) Vice (5)

9) Mary Poppins Returns (12)

10) First Reformed (-)***TFF #44

Others: First Man, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Widows, Boy Erased

BEST DIRECTION (Last update Nov. 26th)

1) Alfonso Cuaron/Roma (1)

2) Bradley Cooper/A Star Is Born (2)

3) Spike Lee/BlacKkKlansman (3)

4) Barry Jenkins/If Beale Street Could Talk (4)

5) Yorgos Lanthimos/The Favourite (5)

Others: Peter Farrelly/Green Book, Ryan Coogler/Black Panther, Rob Marshall/Mary Poppins Returns, Adam McKay/Vice

BEST ACTRESS (Last updated Nov. 8th)

1) Glenn Close/The Wife (1)

2) Lady Gaga/A Star Is Born (2)

3) Olivia Colman/The Favourite (3)

4) Melissa McCarthy/Can You Ever Forgive Me? (4)

5) Emily Blunt/Mary Poppins Returns (-)

Others: Yalitza Aparicio/Roma, Nicole Kidman/Destroyer, Viola Davis/Widows

BEST ACTOR (Last Updated Nov. 8th)

1) Christian Bale/Vice (3)

2) Bradley Cooper/A Star Is Born (1)

3) Viggo Mortensen/Green Book (2)

4) Ethan Hawke/First Reformed (-)***TFF#44

5) Rami Malek/Bohemian Rhapsody (4)

Others: Lucas Hedges/Boy Erased, WIllem Dafoe/At Eternity's Gate, Ryan Gosling/First Man

ACQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW

A couple of interesting and Telluride related news items concerning film distribution deals emerged this week.

First...

The long awaited Aretha Franklin documentary Amazing Grace has been picked up for release by specialty outfit Neon.  The film was scheduled to be screened at T-ride in both 2015 and 2016 but legal issues prevented that from occurring in both years.

As a side note, the film was recently screened at a Telluride Film Festival event in San Francisco.  So, in a sense, the twice scheduled and twice denied film finally did screen for TFFers.

Here's a sampling of coverage of the film's acquisition from: Variety, Deadline, Indiewire, The Wrap.

Meanwhile, Werner Herzog's documentary conversation with former Soviet Union Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, Meeting Gorbachev, that played this year's TFF #45 was also acquired for distribution this week by The Orchard.  Reporting is that The Orchard will release the film early next year.

Here are details from The Wrap and Deadline.


BERLIN ANNOUNCES OPENING FILM

The 69th Berlin Film Fest will open with Lone Scherfig's newest The Kindness of Strangers with Zoe Kazan , Andrea Riseborough and Bill Nighy.  The film is set for release sometime in 2019 and, as yet, has no U.S. distribution.

It is of note for Telluride fans as T-ride usually has a film or two from Berlin in the TFF lineup.  This year included Berlin entry Dovlatov and in 2017 TFF screened Berlin films A Fantastic Woman, The Other Side of Hope and Hostages.

Additionally, Lone Scherfig has a bit of a Telluride history having screened Italian for Beginners in 2001 and An Education in 2009.

So, until we have a definite distributor and release date, maybe put this on your TFF #46 possibles list.

IMDb describes The Kindness of Strangers as "The story of four strangers suffering through the worst crises of their lives."

The press release from the Berlinale is linked here.


That's today's semi-packed MTFB.  More to come on Thursday...including Screen Actors Guild/Aftra and Critics' Choice (BFCA) nominations!

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

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Ten (Plus) Bets #7 / Reading TIFF and Venice's Thursday Reveals / The Favourite Will Go to London

Welcome to Friday...mt last Friday of the Summer of '18...I'm back at school on Monday for my regular teaching gig...

TEN (PLUS) BETS #7

We inch closer and closer to the start of the 45th Telluride Film Festival..  The fun begins in three weeks.  Here's my weekly assessment and best guesses about what films are likely to make the grade and be part of the 2018 version of The SHOW.

Last week's Ten (Plus) Bets were:

1) First Man
2) Roma
3) The Old Man and the Gun
4) The Front Runner
5) Cold War
6) Dogman
7) Shoplifters
8) Can You Ever Forgive Me?
9) Non Fiction
10) The Favourite
11) Peterloo
12) White Boy Rick
13) The Other Side of the Wind
14) Border
15) Girl


This week's Ten (Plus) Bets are:


1) First Man
2) Roma
3) The Old Man and the Gun
4) The Front Runner
5) Destroyer
6) Cold War
7) Dogman
8) Shoplifters
9) Can You Ever Forgive Me?
10) Non-Fiction
11) The Favourite
12) White Boy Rick
13) Peterloo
14) The Other Side of the Wind
15) Meeting Gorbachev


Girl, Border, , They'll Love Me When I'm Dead, Graves Without a Name, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, The Eyes of Orson Welles, On the Basis of Sex, He Dreams of Giants, Free Solo, Angels Are Made of Light, The Biggest Little Farm, Ghost Fleet, Cheney (Backseat), Nothing Like a Dame, Mid 90s, Mary Queen of Scots, Boy Erased, Ad Astra


READING TIFF AND VENICE'S THURSDAY REVEALS

Within the last few hours the Toronto International Film Fest announced its Midnight Madness and Documentary selections and Venice announced its schedule.  Here's the takeaway from those revelations.

No films appear to be scheduled for Toronto's Midnight Madness section that will crossover and play Telluride.

The TIFF announcements tell us that among documentaries Errol Morris' American Dharma, Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 11/9 and Mark Cousins' Women Make Film will all miss TFF #45 as they were announced as North American or World Premieres.

All but confirming my earlier reporting was the designation of Werner Herzog's Meeting Gorbachev as a Canadian Premiere.

Also listed as Canadian Premieres that don't appear to have played in North America before Telluride are: Angels Are Made of Light and Rithy Pahn's Graves Without a Name which is playing as a part of Venice Days.  I certainly expect the Pahn doc to screen at Telluride as a result of that designation.

Docs that were announced as International Premieres that might fit the bill for Telluride are:

The Biggest Little Farm-d. John Chester
Free Solo-d. Chin and Vasarhelyi
Ghost Fleet-d. Service and Waldron

Free Solo seems like a decent bet for Telluride.

The Venice schedule announcement sets up well enough to seemingly confirm some previously expected TFF #45 titles with scheduling early for:

First Man (opener), Roma, The Favourite, The Other Side of the Wind and Non-Fiction.

And possibly early enough for: Peterloo.

Films with early Venice screening dates but which we haven't previously included as films we're predicting for TFF #45: The Mountain, They'll Love Me When I'm Dead (the "making-of" documentary for The Other Side of the Wind) and Suspiria.

They'll Love Me When I'm Dead seems particularly likely to play Telluride but scheduling it on Sept. 1 in Italy makes for a tight window.  The Mountain merits some consideration as a TFF player and I'd honestly be a bit surprised if Suspiria plays Telluride BUT... remember that TFF has screened Under the Skin and the original Paranormal Activity in its past.

Films that seem to be scheduled late enough to screen at Telluride first and then play Venice: Vox Lux, Blood Kin, Never Look Away, 22 July and The Nightingale.

I have to say, though, these films would all likely be World Premieres and are probably out of the Telluride conversation with the possible exception of the Ramin Bahrani short documentary Blood Kin.

American Dharma is also playing late enough but the TIFF doc announcement referenced above rules it out for Telluride.


Here's the link to the TIFF documentary announcement.

And to the TIFF Midnight Madness announcement.

Here's the link to the scheduling for Venice.



THE FAVOURITE WILL GO TO LONDON

The BFI/London Film Fest announced this week that Yorgos Lanthimos will be their Centerpiece film.  The Favourite is believed to be screening in Telluride after world premiering in Venice on Aug. 30th.  The film is scheduled for its U.K. Premiere on Oct. 18th.

Here's coverage of the announcement from Screen Daily and also from Variety.


That's the week!

More coming on Monday...


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

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Add Werner to The SHOW / Awards Watch Looks at Oscar and Fests / Redford Restates: It's My Last / My Nomination for an Episodic Selection / Four of Eight / The Poster Remains a Mystery

Good Tuesday friends...


ADD WERNER TO THE SHOW

Composer Nicholas Singer (nominated for an Emmy in 2014 for his work on the music for Night Must Fall) tweeted yesterday that the documentary he has been working on will premiere at Telluride.  What makes the claim credible is that he says the film was made with Werner Herzog.  The film is titled Meeting Gorbachev.

Though IMDb does not list the film in Singer's or Herzog's credits, it exists as Singer also tweeted a link to this RealScreen.com story that confirms its existence and that it will European premiere at the Leipzig Fest.  The film is reported to be the opening night film on Oct. 29th.

As the tweet also says that the film will play Toronto, we can expect to see that in their announcements today or next week.

The film is described in the RealScreen story as a "portrait of Mikhail Gorbachev".



AWARDS WATCH LOOKS AT OSCAR AND FESTS

Erik Anderson of Awards Watch posted a longish piece over the weekend in which he takes a look at what he believes are the biggest Oscar contenders and where we know or where he thinks films are going to play as we move into the next few weeks.

The piece is interesting and notable because he adds some spicy choices to the list of films that he thinks are likely for Telluride.  Films that either haven't been announced anywhere as yet or, in the case of A Star Is Born, have been announced but for which Anderson expresses a contrarian view.

What I mean is, I have certainly bagged the chances of seeing  A Star Is Born at T-ride as Toronto announced it as a North American premiere.  That designation has been rock solid as an indicator that a film will NOT play at Telluride since Toronto began the policy of requiring that films that they program reveal whether they're going to Telluride or not.  To my knowledge there has been only one exception and that came in the first year of TIFF's "honest premiere status" policy and that was Escobar: Paradise Lost.

I'd like to be wrong, though.

In as far as other morsels of interest...

Anderson has a bunch of what have become the consensus Telluride players based on previous announcements from other fests: Cold War, Dogman, Roma, The Favourite, First Man, The Other Side of the Wind, Peterloo, The Old Man and the Gun, White Boy Rick.

Of more interest are films that have not been announced that he thinks probably/possibly be at Telluride: Boy Erased, Green Book, Mary Queen of Scots and Mid 90s make that list.

The entire post is linked here.


REDFORD RESTATES: IT'S MY LAST

Entertainment Weekly posted an interview with Robert Redford yesterday in which the Oscar winning director of Ordinary People re-confirmed that The Old Man and the Gun will be his last acting gig.

Redford had said the same thing previously but seems to really put an exclamation mark to the notion with this story.

Redford's last film acting is expected to screen (for the first time for a public audience...call it a world premiere if you want to) in Telluride in three-ish weeks.

Here's the Entertainment Weekly interview.


MY NOMINATION FOR AN EPISODIC SELECTION

I've been interested in Maniac sense I learned that it was going to exist.  The combination of Cary Joji Fukunaga (directing all 10 episodes) and Emma Stone was more than enough to get my attention.

Now, with the decision to turn the Coen Brothers Ballad of Buster Scruggs from a six part limited series into a feature film, I humbly submit that TFF should program Maniac as an episodic presentation (like Wormwood from last year).

The Netflix release date is Sept. 21 so it would fit nicely...

The notion also crossed my mind yesterday as a new trailer was released...and it's goooood...

From YouTube:

FOUR OF EIGHT

Variety's Kristopher Tapley cryptically tweeted a list of nine films last week.  One assumes it is his first take on nine films that will ultimately end up being nominated for Best Picture.

Here's the list:

The reason for my excitement...half of Tapley's list is probable for T-ride-The Favourite, First Man, The Front Runner and Roma.  BlacKkKlansman and Black Panther have or will have already been released before Telluride and A Star Is Born will not be playing there as revealed by its North American Premiere status for Toronto.  The only film left on the list is tha Adam McKay film about Dick Cheney which could conceivably still make the Telluride lineup but I have seen/heard some scuttlebutt that McKay prefers to wait for its release later indicating that, perhaps an AFI berth is possible or no Fest play at all.

Still, I'm excited that so much appears on Tapley's list that we're probably going to see in the San Juans in three and a half weeks.

THE POSTER REMAINS A MYSTERY

It's August 6th and we still have seen no release of the 45th TFF official poster.  Last year was also a late reveal.  Even then, though, it was released on July 13th and that was the latest poster release in the last seven years.

Now we're behind that by three weeks.

Depending on the news we get today from other fests, I may post an update a little later today and as always...More to come on Thursday.

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