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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Oscar Experts Predict: Sasha Stone-Awards Daily / World of Reel's 35 most Anticipated / New Views of Nomadland / Metacritic on This Year's Films

OSCAR EXPERTS PREDICT: SASHA STONE-AWARDS DAILY

As I have been doing periodically, here's a look at where an Oscar expert is currently predicting for Best Picture and the number and categories of nominations that she is predicting for each.  

Today's expert is founder and head of Awards Daily, website that is regarded as one of the most influential Oscar sites on the web.

The films are ordered by number of nominations.  TFF films are in Bold.

Mank (12 noms): Picture, Director (Fincher), Actor (Oldman), Supporting Actress (Seyfried), Supporting Actor (Howard), Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Film Editing, Production Design, Sound, Costumes, Original Score.

News of the World (10 noms): Picture, Director (Greengrass), Actor: (Hanks), Supporting Actress (Zengel), Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Film Editing, Production Design, Costumes, Original Score,

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (8): Picture, Actress (Davis), Actor (Boseman), Adapted Screenplay, Production Design, Sound, Costumes, Original Score.

Nomadland (6 noms): Picture, Director (Zhao), Actress (McDormand), Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Film Editing

The Father (5 noms): Picture, Director (Zeller), Actor (Hopkins), Supporting Actress (Colman), Adapted Screenplay.

The Trial of the Chicago 7 (4 noms): Picture, Supporting Actor (Langella), Film Editing.

Minari (3 noms): Picture, Director (Chung), Supporting Actress (Youn).

One Nigh in Miami (3 noms): Picture, Supporting Actor (Odom), Adapted Screenplay.

Promising Young Woman (3 noms): Picture, Actress (Mulligan), Original Screenplay.

The United States vs. Billie Holiday (1 nom): Picture

 

WORLD OF REEL'S 35 MOST ANICIPATED

Jordan Ruimy's World of Reel website has posted its list of the 35 most anticipated titles for 2020.  Much like I did The Playlist's list earlier this week I have tried to parse the WOR list for TFF #48 possibilities.  Here's what I found (with the position on Jordan's list):

#27) Stillwater

#26) Bergman Island

#24 Petite Maman

#23) Next Goal Wins

#22) C'mon C'mon

#20) Babylon

#19) The Card Counter

#17) The Last Duel

#16) The Power of the Dog

#15) Armageddon Time

#13) Annette

#6) Blonde

#5) Nightmare Alley

#4) The French Dispatch

#3) The Tragedy of Macbeth

Ruimy's complete list with descriptions is linked here.

NEW VIEWS FOR NOMADLAND

We have a new trailer for Chloe Zhao's marvelous Nomadland (I've actually seen it twice).  Also a new poster for the film as well.

Here's the new poster:

And also, via YouTube, here's the new trailer for the film:

METACRITIC ON THIS YEAR'S FILMS

Here's a scan of Metacritic's current Top 25 films for 2020 thus far with my eye toward where films are that either played TFF #46 or where selected for inclusion in TFF's announced list of films for TFF #47.  By their position on the Metacritic chart:

#18) Beanpole (TFF #46)

#17) The Assistant (TFF #46)

#2) Nomadland (TFF #47)

#1) First Cow (TFF #46)

The complete list is linked here.

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MTFB's First Oscar Stab for 2019 / TFF Oscar History Part Five-2000-2004 / All in One Place / Most Viewed of TFF #46 / Metacritic After T-ride, Venice and TIFF

MTFB'S FIRST OSCAR STAB FOR 2019

It's that time of year.  The festival has concluded, the Pros, People and their Composite ratings have been gathered calculated and reported.  The next TFF is 11 1/2 months away and Oscar season is upon us.

As many of you know, I've been asked to Guru the Oscars again this year for Movie City News' Gurus of Gold so expect to see links and references to that website as we head to Oscar night, Feb. 9, 2020.

So we turn the focus of this space from puzzling out and speculating about the Telluride lineup to puzzling out and speculating how that lineup figures into the race for Oscar glory.  

I'm opening this year's Oscar guessing game with my first prediction for nominations for Best Picture, Best Actress and Best Actor.  Films from TFF #46 are Bold.

BEST PICTURE

1) The Irishman

2) Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

3) Marriage Story

4) Ford v. Ferrari

5) Parasite

6) 1917

7) JoJo Rabbit

8) The Farewell

9) The Two Popes

10) A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Others: Little Women, Just Mercy, Joker, Waves, Judy, Ad Astra

BEST ACTRESS

1) Renee Zellweger/Judy

2) Scarlett Johansson/Marriage Story

3) Cynthia Ervio/Harriet

4) Awkwafina/The Farewell

5) Alfre Woodard/Clemency

Others: Saoirse Ronan/Little Women, Lupita N'yongo/Us, Helen Mirren/The Good Liar

BEST ACTOR

1) Adam Driver/Marriage Story

2) Leonardo DiCaprio/Once Upon a Time...

3) Jonathan Pryce/The Two Popes

4) Joaquin Phoenix/Joker

5) Antonio Banderas/Pain and Glory

Others; Michael B. Jordan/Just Mercy, Robert DeNiro/The Irishman, Ian McKellan/The Good Liar

Next week I'll take a crack at the Supporting Acting categories and Best Director.

TFF OSCAR HISTORY PART FIVE-2000-2004

Here's the continuation of my project to chart every Oscar nominee in the 21 feature categories that played at the Telluride Film Festival since the first TFF in 1974.

So today we move to 2000-2004.  The number of nominations and wins are indicated in parentheses for each year.

2000 (17/4)

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon- Foreign Language-WON, Original Score-WON, Cinematography-WON, Art/Set Direction-WON, Picture, Director-Ang Lee, Adapted Screenplay, Film Editing, Costumes, Song

Quills- Actor-Geoffrey Rush, Costumes, Art/Set Direction

Sweet and Lowdown- Actor-Sean Penn, Supporting Actress-Samantha Morton

Shadow of the Vampire- Supporting Actor-Willem Dafoe, Makeup


2001 (7/1)

Amelie- Foreign Language, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Art/Set Direction, Sound

Mulholland Drive- Director- David Lynch

No Man's Land- Foreign Language- WON


2002 (13/4)

Frida- Score-WON, Makeup-WON, Actress- Salma Hayek, Song

City of God- Director-Fernando Meirelles, Adapted Screenplay, Film Editing, Cinematography

Talk to Her- Original Screenplay-WON, Director- Pedro Almodovar

Spirited Away- Animated -WON

Bowling for Columbine- Documentary- WON

The Man Without a Past- Foreign Language


2003 (12/3)

The Barbarian Invasions- Foreign Language-WON, Original Screenplay

The Fog of War-Documentary-WON

Lost in Translation- Original Screenplay-WON, Picture, Director-Sophia Coppola, Actor-Bill Murray
Girl with a Pearl Earring- Costume, Cinematography, Art/Set Direction

The Triplets of Belleville- Animated, Song


2004 (3)

Being Julia- Actress-Annette Bening

The House of Flying Daggers- Cinematography

Kinsey- Supporting Actress-Laura Linney


ALL IN ONE PLACE

As a coda to this year's ratings averages from The People, The Professionals and The Composite...I have gathered them all here in one re-post as well as the current All Time Top Ten for each categorization as well:

THE PROFESSIONALS:

1) Parasite (4.75)
2) The Two Popes (4.42)
3) Marriage Story (4.40)
4) Waves (4.29)
5) A Hidden Life (4.20)
6) Portrait of a Lady on Fire (4.17)
7) Ford v. Ferrari (4.11)
8) The Report (3.87)
9) Pain and Glory (3.83)
10) Uncut Gems (3.78)
11) Motherless Brooklyn (3.58)
12) The Climb (3.50)
13) Judy (3.13)
14) The Aeronauts (3.08)
15) The Assistant (2.75)

TOP TEN SINCE 2012:

1) Moonlight (4.87) (16)
2) Parasite (4.75) (19)
3) Roma (4.73) (18)
4) Birdman (4.72) (14)
5) 12 Years a Slave (4.70-tie) (13)
6) Central Park Five (4.70-tie) (12)
7) Foxcatcher (4.63) (14)
8) La La Land (4.58) (16)
9) Argo (4.50-tie) (12)
9) The Shape of Water (4.50-tie) (17)
10) Son of Saul (4.44) (15)

THE PEOPLE:

1) The Two Popes (4.51)
2) Parasite (4.36)
3) Ford v. Ferrari (4.35)
4) Marriage Story (4.14)
5) Pain and Glory (3.81-Tie)
5) A Hidden Life (3.81-Tie)
7) Judy (3.80)
8) The Aeronauts (3.67)
9) The Report (3.66)
10) Motherless Brooklyn (3.64)
11) Lyrebird (3.62)
12) Waves (3.61)
13) Inside Bill's Brain (3.39)
14) Uncut Gems (3.22)
15) The Climb (3.07)
16) First Cow (3.02)

TOP TEN SINCE 2012

1) Stories We Tell (4.80) (12)
2) Argo (4.75) (12)-Won Best Picture
3) The Imitation Game (4.73) (14) Nominated Best Picture
4) The Attack (4.70) (12)
5) Tim's Vermeer (4.67) (13)
6) 12 Years a Slave (4.55) (13) Won Best Picture
7) The Two Popes (4.51) (19)
8) Roma (4.47) (15) TIE Nominated Best Picture
8) Room (4.47) (18) TIE Nominated Best Picture
10) Birdman (4.46) (14) Won Best Picture


THE COMPOSITE

1) Parasite (9.11) [2/1]
2) The Two Popes (8.93) [1/2]
3) Marriage Story (8.54) [4/3]
4) Ford v. Ferrari (8.46) [3/7]
5) A Hidden Life (8.01) [5/5]
6) Waves (7.90) [12/4]
7) Pain and Glory (7.63) [5/9]
8) The Report (7.53) [9/8]
9) Motherless Brooklyn (7.22) [10/11]
10) Uncut Gems (7.00) [14/10]
11) Judy (6.93) [7/13]
12) The Aeronauts (6.75) [8/14]
13) The Climb (6.57) [15/12]


TOP TEN SINCE 2012

1) 12 Years a Slave (9.25) 2013 Tie (Won Best Picture)
1) Argo (9.25) 2012 Tie (Won Best Picture)
3) Roma (9.20) 2018 (Won Best Foreign Language Film)
4) Moonlight (9.19) 2016 (Won Best Picture)
5) Birdman (9.18) 2014 (Won Best Picture)
6) Parasite (9.11) 2019
7) Stories We Tell (9.10) 2012
8) Tim's Vermeer (8.97) 2013
9) The Two Popes (8.93) 2019
10) La La Land (8.91) 2016 (Won Best Director)


MOST VIEWED OF TFF #46

Another metric of buzz and popularity that I just started looking at last year is the number of respondents to my Peoples poll that went to each film.  By that measure, Noah Baumbach's Marriage Story won the day.  Here are the top ten for this year expressed for each film as a percentage of the total number of respondents.

1) Marriage Story 71.43%
2) Motherless Brooklyn 58.57%
3) Uncut Gems 57.14%
4) Ford v. Ferrari 55.71%
5) Parasite 52.86%
6) Judy 50.00%
6) Waves 50.00%
8) The Report 48.57%
9) Lyrebird 47.14%
10) The Two Popes 44.29 %



METACRITIC AFTER TELLURIDE, VENICE AND TORONTO

Metacritic, the aggregate critic website, posted yesterday the composite critical ratings for several of the films that played at one of the triumvirate of film festivals just concluded.  I took the opportunity to cull those aggregate ratings for films that played at Telluride and here's what they reported:

1) Marriage Story 95 (actually, the top aggregate score for any film on the list from any of the three fests)
2) Uncut Gems 88
3) The Two Popes 83
4) Waves 81
5) The Kingmaker 77
6) First Cow 76
7) The Aeronauts 73
8) Ford v. Ferrari 71
9) Judy and The Assistant 65
11) Motherless Brooklyn 62


My guess as to the absence of films such as Parasite, The Report, Pain and Glory and others is that they were likely excluded having screened earlier at either Cannes or Sundance.

The complete article from Metacritic is linked here.


That's the MTFB for this Thursday.  More here on Monday.  Have a great weekend!

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End of Year Critics Lists / Darkest Hour Short Listed for Makeup and Hair / Morris on Wormwood

Welcome to the Monkey House as Kurt Vonnegut said...


END OF YEAR CRITICS LISTS

Both Indiewire and Metacritic this week have posted stories with accumulated data from multiple critics.  Here's your review of where TFF #44 films ended up on those lists.

Beginning with Indiewire's poll of over 200 critics.

Best Film: #2-Lady Bird, #6-The Shape of Water (Jordan Peele's Get Out edged out Lady Bird for the top spot)
Director: #3-Greta Gerwig/Lady Bird
Best Actress: #1-Saoirse Ronan/Lady Bird, #4-Sally Hawkins/The Shape of Water
Best Actor: #5-Gary Oldman/Darkest Hour
Supporting Actress- #1-Laurie Metcalf/Lady Bird
Screenplay- #2-Lady Bird
Documentary- #1-Faces/Places
Foreign Language Film: #2 Faces/Places
Cinematography- #4 The Shape of Water
Animated Feature- #3 Loving Vincent
Best Films of 2018 That Have Already Been Seen: #2-The Rider, #3-First Reformed, #5-Lean on Pete

The complete story from Indie wire is here.


Metacritic posted two different stories.  The first focused on collating end of the year critics groups accolades, the other collated critics year end top ten lists.

From the collation of critics awards highlighted TFF #44 films as follows:

Top Ten Films:

#2 The Shape of Water
#4 Lady Bird

Director: #1-Guillermo Del Toro/The Shape of Water, #3- Greta Gerwig-Lady Bird
Actor- #1 Gary Oldman/Darkest Hour
Actress- #2-Sally Hawkins/The Shape of Water, #3-Saoirse Ronan/Lady Bird
Supporting Actor- #3-Richard Jenkins/The Shape of Water
Supporting Actress- #1- Laurie Metcalf/Lady Bird
Screenplay- #2-Lady Bird, #7- The Shape of Water
Cinematography- #3-The Shape of Water
Film Editing- #3-The Shape of Water
Foreign Language Film- #3 First They Killed My Father
Documentary- #2- Faces/Places
Animated Feature- #2- Loving Vincent

The complete rundown from Metacritic is here.

Metacritic's compilation of critical ratings of top ten lists for 2017 films came down with these TFF #44 films in the Top 20:

#2- Lady Bird
#7-The Shape of Water
#10- Faces/Places

The complete list plus the top tens from critics are here.


DARKEST HOUR SHORT LISTED

Seven films have been short listed by AMPAS for the Makeup/Hair Oscar.  That list will be whittled to three by Oscar nomination announcement morning.

TFF #44's Darkest Hour was short listed for turning Gary Oldman into the physical presence of Winston Churchill.

Indiewire has that story here.


MORRIS ON WORMWOOD

Errol Morris spoke recently with Variety about his multi-part CIA docudrama Wormwood which bowed over Labor Day weekend at Telluride.  Wormwood is now available for streaming on Netflix.

The Variety interview is accessible here.


That's all for today.  I'll have a short post on Christmas morning and be back to business as usual next Thursday.

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"Wild" Unleashed/"Imitation Game" Starts Strong/"Mr. Turner's" Mike Leigh/Critics' View/Couple of Notes

Good Monday All.  Hope your Thanksgiving holiday was terrific.  The New York Film Critics are supposed to announce their choices for the best in 2014 film making.  I'll have a bonus post about that later this morning...


WILD UNLEASHED

Jean Marc Vallee's "Wild" is unleashed on Friday.  The film premiered at Telluride.  The film tells the true story of Cheryl Strayed who walked the Pacific Coast Trail as an act of revival and redemption.  The film stars (and was partially produced by) Reese Witherspoon who has received considerable awards buzz as has co-star Laura Dern.

I have linked interviews/profiles with Vallee, Witherspoon and Strayed below from The LA Times, Mother Jones and Newsday:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-jean-marc-vallee-wild-director-20141130-story.html#page=1

http://www.motherjones.com/media/2014/11/wild-cheryl-strayed-reese-witherspoon-jean-marc-vallee-laura-dern-pacific-crest-trail

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/movies/wild-a-charged-experience-for-reese-witherspoon-1.9655502


IMITATION GAME STARTS STRONG

The word from this weekend is that Morten Tyldum's "The Imitation Game" starring Benedict Cumberbatch opened very strongly in limited NY/LA release.  The film based on the life of Alan Turing was surprisingly snubbed by The Independent Spirit awards earlier last week but if early box office and Academy buzz is any indication...it looks to still be a strong awards contender.

Here's Variety's report of the strong box office opening in only four theaters in New York and L.A. from the weekend:

http://variety.com/2014/film/news/imitation-game-box-office-benedict-cumberbatch-oscars-1201367234/

The New York Times Arts Beat posted this video of director Morten Tyldum narrating a segment of the film:

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/11/27/morten-tyldum-narrates-a-scene-from-the-imitation-game/?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytmovies


MR. TURNER'S MIKE LEIGH

Writer/director Mike Leigh talks process and other items in this discussion about "Mr. Turner" with Anne Thompson/Thompson on Hollywood:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/cannes-mr-turner-q-as


CRITICS' VIEW

Critic's have started announcing their ten best lists and such as we enter the last month of 2014.  Awards Daily's Sasha Stone takes a look at what the critics' collectives tell us:

http://www.awardsdaily.com/blog/2014/11/checking-in-with-the-critics-as-we-head-into-critics-
week/

Sight and Sound has posted it's "Ten" Best list.  It's here and below the link is the list of TFF #41 an #40 films that made their cut.

http://blogs.indiewire.com/criticwire/sight-sounds-top-10-movies-of-2014-boyhood-goodbye-to-language-and-grand-budapest-20141128

"Leviathan"
"Under the Skin" (TFF #40)
"Ida" (TFF #40)
"Mr. Turner"
"Birdman"
"Two Days, One Night"
"The Look of Silence"
"The Wind Rises" (TFF #40)


COUPLE OF NOTES

I saw "Birdman" a second time in Albuquerque (there for the Rio Grande Art Show).  It's s till great...genius...masterpiece.  Likely the #1 film when I put together my year end list.  Go see it if you didn't see it in T-ride or someplace else later...or see it again.

I also saw Damien Chazelle's "Whiplash" and maybe I suffered from too much anticipation or perhaps I can't leave my "teacher" lenses aside (believe me, I've "tough loved" my share of kids) but...ummm...no.  The film has been a critical darling since Sundance (look at Sasha's story above about the critical response so far).  My objections:  It's over heated, has zero subtlety and the ending...which a lot of people love...fundamentally unbelievable.  Now, I'm a huge J.K. Simmons fan and there's a lot of reason to believe he's going to win a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for this and to give him his due, he does a terrific job of committing to the character but in the end, even J.K. can't make me buy the way it all plays out.

Bottom line is that "Whiplash" is a B- film.  That's my two cents.

More on Thursday including an updated FAC for Best Picture, Director Lead Actress and Actor.

Oscar Thoughts/Cannes 66 Dates/IFC and Frances/Royal Foreign Affair/Metacritic/New Players for Oscar/Lincoln Closing/NYFF

OSCAR THOUGHTS

OSCAR TALK

This week's edition of Oscar Talk from Kris Tapley (InContention/HitFix) and Anne Thompson (Thompson on Hollywood).  Links from both of their blogs:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/oscar-talk-considering-new-entry-hitchcock-moving-oscar-dates-the-zeitgeist-and-foreign-language

http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/oscar-talk-ep-88-academy-changes-dates-while-searchlight-adds-a-
new-contender

OSCAR POKER

This week's issue of Oscar Poker with Sasha Stone (Awards Daily) and Jeff Wells (Hollywood Elsewhere):
http://www.awardsdaily.com/podcasts/oscarpoker/episode93.mp3

FEINBERG FORECAST

With the news that Fox Searchlight is going to release "Hitchcock" (see below), Scott Feinberg of The Hollywood Reporter factors that into his latest Oscar predictions...I've looked at them.  He thinks it will have some significant impact.  Check it:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/oscars-scott-feinberg-forecast-371171



CANNES HAS A DATE

The Cannes Film Festival has released the date for the 66th Edition along with a peculiarly American take on their promotional poster:

Here's the tweet from Cannes:

https://twitter.com/cannes_66

IFC AND FRANCES

The Independent Film Channel peeps have nabbed distribution for Telluride (and Toronto) hit from Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig, "Frances Ha".  Reports below from The Movie City News, The Chicago Tribune and Movie Scope:

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-09-20/entertainment/sns-201209201700reedbusivarietynvr1118059563-20120920_1_greta-gerwig-arianna-bocco-ifc-films


http://www.moviescopemag.com/features/ifc-acquires-new-gerwig-and-baumbach-vehicle-frances-ha/

http://moviecitynews.com/2012/09/ifc-films-takes-north-and-latin-american-rights-to-noah-baumbachs-frances-ha/


A ROYAL AFFAIR FOR FOREIGN

Denmark has chosen "A Royal Affair" which played at Telluride a few weeks back as a part of the Mads Mikkelsen tribute, as its official entry for the Foreign Language Oscar.  It edged out Susan Bier's "Love is All You Need".  Mikkelsen was very pleasant to talk to wen I caught him Sunday night of the festival at The New Sheridan Bar.  He said he had been amazed at how friendly the entire atmosphere of the festival was.

Here's a post from The Hollywood Reporter about Denmark's announcement:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/a-royal-affair-is-denmarks-372919

METACRITIC AND TELLURIDE (AND CANNES)

Metacritic.com posted a lengthy round-up of critical response to a number of films that have played the fest circuit (Telluride, Venice, Toronto) so I have provided that link here:  I also included a link to their Cannes round-up from last May that includes a number of films that played at Telluride.  You can see the films and links below:

From Telluride (and Venice, Toronto):
http://www.metacritic.com/feature/reviews-from-tiff-telluride-venice-film-festivals-2012

"Argo"
"At Any Price"
"Frances Ha"
"Ginger and Rosa"
"Hyde Park on Hudson"
"Stories We Tell"


From Cannes:
http://www.metacritic.com/feature/cannes-film-festival-reviews-2012

"Amour"
"The Hunt"
"No"
"Paradise: Love"
"Rust and Bone"
"The Sapphires"

NEW OSCAR PLAYERS

There has always been some thought that Gus Van Sant's "Promised Land" might get a shot at an Oscar run and we now know hat is true.  What was more surprising this past week was the announcement from Fox Searchlight that they're going to drop the Sacha Gervasi directed Anthony Hopkins starring "Hitchcock" in time for an Oscar run as well.

At some point this last summer I had mentioned both of these as possible Telluride programs depending on whether they were complete or not.  Looks like it was close on both of them.

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/trailer-and-poster-for-gus-van-sants-promised-land/

"Promised Land's IMDb entry:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2091473/

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/fox-searchlight-puts-hitchcock-oscar-372431

"Hitchcock's" IMDb entry:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0975645/



LINCOLN WILL CLOSE AFI FEST

For the second consecutive year Stephen Spielberg will have a film concluding the AFI Film Fest.  "Lincoln" has been announced for that spot.  Here are links to that story via IndieWire and The Wrap:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/steven-spielbergs-lincoln-to-make-world-premiere-as-closing-film-of-afi-fest-20120920

http://www.thewrap.com/movies/article/steven-spielbergs-lincoln-premiere-afi-fest-57286
 


THE NEW YORK FILM FEST BORROWS FROM T-RIDE

The New York Film Festival includes from this year's Telluride program:

"Amour"
"Barbara"
"Frances Ha"
"The Gatekeepers"
"Hyde Park on Hudson"
"No"

More on Thursday...have a great week...

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