Obsessing about the Telluride Film Festival and the film awards season since 2008!
"The best blog out there for predicting what will be going to Telluride."-Matt Neglia, Next Best Picture
"The Nostradamus of Telluride"
-Tim Appelo, Movies for Grownups
"But it's our job." - Anne Thompson, Indiewire
A parenthetical note before we begin...both Kenneth Lonergan's Manchester by the Sea and Ben Younger's Bleed for This opened this past weekend, thus explaining the slew of pieces/posts that we saw about both films from the latter part of the previous week...
MANY MANCHESTER MOMENTS THIS WEEK
Kenneth Lonergan's Manchester by the Sea was the focus of a good amount of publicity this weekendas it opened for public consumption. The film has garnered terrific reviews ( 95 on Metacritic and 99% on Rotten Tomatoes) and is considered to be in play for a number of high profile Oscar nominations (Picture, Director, Original Screenplay and it has at least four cast members that are part of the conversation with Casey Affleck and Michelle Williams thought to be very likely nominees).
Consequently, here are links to a few of the stories for MBTS that popped at the end of the week:
And Indiewire's Bill Desowitz writes about the constrction of the film's flashback sequences.
BLEED FOR THIS HIGHLIGHTED
Also opening this past weekend was Ben Younger's boxing flick based on the life of boxer Vinnie Pazienza. Miles Teller (of Whiplash fame) plays Pazienza and Aaron Eckhart shines as his trainer Kevin Rooney).
Last Thursday I posted a link to a story from Variety that featured among other things about the film, a focus on the music that is such a fundamental part of it. As the weekend approached I started seeing stories elsewhere that included a full rendition of the song City of Stars from La La Land's soundtrack (it's a very likely Oscar nominee for Best Original Song). The stories also included the complete track list from the film's forthcoming album (I can't really wait for the album to become available).
Here, for your listening pleasure is the YouTube version of Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone dueting their hearts out:
And here are links to a three of those stories that include the duet as well as the film's official track list:
Good Thursday everyone...hope you survived Tuesday...
ARRIVAL ARRIVES AMID ACCOLADES
Denis Villenueve's SciFi think piece/adventure yarn Arrival will arrive in theaters tomorrow. The film currently sits at Metacritic with an 81 score and from Rotten Tomatoes, the film is certified fresh at 97%. The film did reasonably well in the post T-ride MTFB ratings with a 4.13 rating (out of 5.0) and a #6 ranking from The People's Telluride, a 3.88 and #7 rating/ranking form The Professionals and a 8.01 rating and a #4 rank from The Composite Telluride. The film also continues to flirt in a number of Oscar categories as you have seen here on the periodic FAC updates that I post.
With its imminent release, the film has continued this week to receive a lot of attention in the media including Anne Thompson's piece at Indiewire from yesterday that discusses the reasons that the film could not have been made within the traditional studio environment. Also appearing this week we saw this post from Variety that focused on Amy Adams and the importance of communication as a part of the story of the film.
Scott Feinberg continued his ongoing Awards Chatter podcast series at The Hollywood Reporter yesterday with a sit down with Bleed for This (77% at RT with only 13 reviews, TFF rates/ranks: Peeps: 3.41 #14, Pros: 2.71 #13, Comp: 6.12 #13) star Miles Teller. The true life boxing story opens next week (11/18).
The Post from THR includes a profile as well as the podcast and you can snag it here.
LA LA LANDS JOURNEY TO THE SCREEN
The Hollywood Reporter's Rebecca Ford wrote a fairly lengthy piece this week detailing the travails of the development of Damien Chazelle's Oscar favorite (at least for the time being) La La Land. La La Land is scheduled to open Dec. 16 and is set to play as part of the AFI Fest next week. It currently looks on track to reach double digit Oscar nominations and quite conceivably be the most nominated film of the year on Jan. 24th.
The film has had a very charmed run through the fall film festivals with a Best Actress prize for Emma Stone from Venice and the Audience Award from Toronto.
Keep this on your radar for the next 10 months or so. Paramount will open Alexander Payne's Downsizing on Dec. 22, 2017. That puts it smack in the awards calendar window and also in a position to make the lineup for Telluride. Payne has become one of TFF's "Usual Suspects" over the last decade or so after having Guest Directed in 2009 he has since screened The Descendants (2011) and Nebraska (2013) at the fest. Downsizing stars Matt Damon and Kristen Wiig and tells the story of a man who chooses miniaturization as a solution to some of the issues in hos life.
Continuing our look at film distribution companies who have had notable profiles at the Telluride Film Festival over the past decade or so, today we take a look at the outfit that has been the fourth most consistent player in that time frame: Fox Searchlight.
Since 2004, the film company has been represented at Telluride each year but two: 2009 and 2012. In that time FS has averaged 1.4 films per year. Fox Search has also had Best Picture Oscar winners at Telluride in Slumdog Millionaire, 12 Years a Slave and Birdman. So you have to believe that if Fox Searchlight thinks its git a film that can play, they'll pursue a slot at T-ride.
Here's what we have seen from them at Telluride over the past 12 years:
2004: Kinsey
2005: Bee Season
2006: The Last King of Scotland, The Namesake
2007: Juno, The Savages
2008: Slumdog Millionaire
2009: ZIP
2010: Never Let Me Go, 127 Hours, Black Swan, Millions
2011: Shame, The Descendants
2012: ZIP
2013: 12 Years a Slave
2014: Birdman, Wild
2015: He Named Me Malala
So what's in the Fox Searchlight larder as I write? According to the latest IMDb entries here's what FS has in play as we move into the fall:
Wilson
Birth of a Nation
That's it. Two films.
If you look back to last Friday's Ten Bets list you'll see that I have Craig Johnson's Wilson ranked at #1. The reasons are clear. In addition to being on Fox Searchlight's very short list in combination with their long Telluride history, the film also is being produced by Telluride regular and former Guest Director Alexander Payne. Payne, at one point, was set to direct the film itself.
I'd be very surprised if Wilson is not at Telluride.
Then there's The Birth of a Nation. Nate Parker took Sundance by storm winning the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award. Fox Searchlight dropped a ton of dough (north of $17 million) for the rights to distribute the film.
As you know, normally that Sundance play would be enough to mean that I wouldn't even consider it as a Telluride possibility. As I have written here any number of times, Telluride has made rare exceptions for Sundance films to their "North American premiere" rule. Sembene! (2015), The An Education (2009) and The Savages (2007) are the rare examples of exceptions.
It's worth noting that The Savages was a Fox Searchlight film and was executive produced by...Alexander Payne.
Also, I have to say that I have been seeing/hearing some rumbles that this film could be one of those exceptions. Scott Feinberg suggested a Telluride play might be in the works back in April (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/oscars-are-any-contenders-cannes-883959) and since there have been others who have suggested that it could happen. It's been a hot enough rumor that I included Birth of a Nation in the "Close" list of films just below the Ten Bets last week.
So...odds for Telluride:
Wilson 90%
Birth of a Nation 50%
A24 SETS DATES FOR AMERICAN HONEY, MOONLIGHT AND PICKS UP WOMEN
American Honey trailer via YouTube
Distributor A24 has announced release dates for two films that both made last week's Ten Best list. Andrea Arnold's American Honey has been set for Sept. 30th and Barry Jenkins Moonlight has been set for Oct. 21st. Both openings will be limited on those dates and expansions then planned for both films.
American Honey was listed at #6 and Moonlight at #7 last Friday on MTFB's first Telluride Ten Bets list. A new Ten Bets list will be posted tomorrow.
The release dates for both out them in positions to play Telluride, Venice and/or Toronto. That date for American Honey indicates that it's off the table for the B+New York Film Fest. Moonlight's date leaves it in play for NYFF.
Coverage of the announcement is here-including mxdwn.com's speculation that American Honey "may be a part of the Telluride/Toronto film lineups":
Meanwhile, the news broke yesterday afternoon that A24 had nabbed the distribution for Mike Mills' 20th Century Women. That's a film I've mentioned a couple of times and this acquisition makes the film somewhat more Telluride-probable. Here's a number of links to coverage of the buy, many of which suggest a fall fest play but I couldn't find a mention of Telluride specifically.
Ben Younger's Bleed for This has been a blip on my TFF #43 radar this spring into summer. I'm aware of it and it's from Open Road which brought last year's Oscar winner for Best Picture, Spotlight, to Telluride. It may be Open Road's best shot to return to The SHOW as its other big player is Oliver Stone's Snowden which is possible for Telluride but my feel for it at this point is that it's maybe more likely for TIFF/NYFF/AFI. Anyway...
A trailer for the film came down the pike yesterday. Here it is via YouTube:
Not for nothing is it noted that one of the executive producers of the film is Martin Scorsese who has had a common presence in Telluride as a producer in recent years. The film is also dated to open on November 4th. Possible?
Here are a series of stories that accompanied the trailer's arrival yesterday:
