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
THE FAC LOOKS AT TWO NEW CATEGORIES: FILM EDITING AND CINEMATOGRAPHY
One of the most common refrains in Oscar season is that a Best Picture contender needs a film editing nomination to be a real player for the big prize. Last year's winner: Spotlight, fulfilled that criteria. A film doesn't have to win it, but it does seem to be helpful to get the Film Editing nomination. So we're going to take our first look today at the films that the The FAC Oscar pundits think have the inside track for a nomination there as well as for Cinematography...which for the first time in three years will NOT be won by Emmanuel Lubezki (2013-Gravity, 2014-Birdman, 2015-The Revenant).
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 inBold.
Here's the first FAC for those two categories:
FILM EDITING
1) La La Land
2) Silence 3) Arrival 4) Moonlight
5) Live by Night
Comment: If true when the nominations are actually announced, TFF #43 films would be three of the five nominated films in this category.
CINEMATOGRAPHY
1) La La Land
2) Silence 3) Arrival
4) Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk
5) Jackie
6) Live by Night
7) Rules Don't Apply
8) Hail Caesar
9) The Jungle Book
10) Cafe Society
Comment: La La Land would add another nomination here as would Arrival.
OSCAR BIZ BUZZ
THE VIOLA DAVIS MOVE
I reported here Monday that Viola Davis will be campaigning for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Fences rather than Best Actress. That creates a completely different dynamic for both categories. The decision almost certainly opens a spot in the Best Actress categories and also crowds out someone in the Supporting category as well as making it a much more competitive race.
We've been waiting to see the complete American Film Institute's full lineup as well as if John Madden's Miss Sloane starring Jessica Chastain would play there for some time now. We got our answer Tuesday as The AFI folks have set the film for its World Premiere on Nov. 11.
Scott Feinberg talks to Oscar Best Supporting Actor contender Mahershala Ali about his role in Barry Jenkins Moonlight as well as other topics in the most recent edition of The Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter.
It's a Wednesday in August. The month is half over and we're staring down the barrel of slightly two more weeks until TFF #43...and it may have just gotten awesomer! (Is that a word? Should be).
LATEST TORONTO NEWS AND TELLURIDE
The organizers of the Toronto International Film Festival reveled more of their selections yesterday and is my custom, I began parsing the information and premiere statuses for Telluride clues.
Here's what I think we can say...
First, and most attention grabbing, it appears that Wakefield from writer/director Robin Swicord (The Jane Austen Book Club, co-writer of The Promise...which I will mention in a bit) and starring Bryan Cranston will probably be playing Telluride. That stems from its classification as an International premiere in Toronto. An International Premiere means the first play outside of its nation of origin (which is the USA) so unless there is some other screening of the film someplace I can't track down, the most likely scenario is that it's coming to southwestern Colorado.
Now, there's no guarantee that Cranston make the trip to T-ride. We've been disappointed before when we thought an actor was going to make the trip and then didn't (Benedict Cumberbatch/Imitation Game...I'm looking at you). And to be sure, Cranston is a busy man as he is cast in the currently filming Power Rangers film. Still, I'm hopeful that he could be in town. Would be cool.
Wakefield's IMDb plot description says: "A man's nervous breakdown causes him to leave his wife and live in his attic for several months". IMDb also does not list a current distributor for the film.
Other big news for additions to our T-ride spec list is that it looks like Joseph Cedar's Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer will make an appearance at Telluride. The film was previously titled The Oppenheimer Strategies. The film has been on the MTFB radar since as early as last March because of Cedar's previous Telluride presence with his 2011 film Footnote. Norman was listed by TIFF as an International Premiere as well...see above for why I think this means a T-ride play.
Other things we learned, Wim Wenders The Beautiful Days of Aranjuez appears to be headed directly from Venice to Toronto as it was listed as a North American Premiere. Terrence Malick's The Voyage of Time appears to be doing the same.
The Promise, which we have been keeping an eye on of late is also not T-ride bound as it was announced as a World Premiere.
No other International or Canadian Premieres seem to be likely for Telluride.
One piece of weirdness. Pedro Almodovar's Julieta, was NOT listed last week by the New York Film Festival with ANY premiere designation which lead me to conclude it was probably Telluride-bound (or else it would probably be called a "U.S. Premiere by NYFF) was listed yesterday by TIFF as a North American premiere. So, it's now more likely that Julieta is going to play somewhere else in the U.S. after Toronto and before New York, thereby meaning no Telluride play.
If Toronto follows their traditional pattern, they'll have one more set of films added to the lineup next week.
We saw a great teaser and a few images last week from Denis Villenueve's Arrival and it definitely has our interest piqued. In all honesty, it's now the film I'm most excited about seeing if it plays Telluride as we presume from its announced status as a Canadian Premiere for Toronto.
Yesterday, the folks behind the hype parade for the film smacked us with two trailers and posters as well.
I'll be honest, I'm not watching the trailer(s). I loved the teaser last week, but that's all I want to know now. I'm going to try to keep the blinders on until I see it at The Zog (I assume).
Nevertheless, here's the trailer via YouTube:
And, the international trailer, also from YouTube:
And, to further whet your appetite...posters:
There are several more...
Check these stories for more news about Arrival, it's trailers and images:
It's looking increasingly unlikely that John Madden's Miss Sloane starring Jessica Chastain will be playing Telluride. The film has always been a very outside chance with an announced release date of Dec. 9th...which is pretty deep in the season and no inclusion in either NYFF or Toronto (at least at this point) it seems to be improbable.
It's not impossible, however. So, I'm still trailing it mostly because I'd like for it to be at T-ride. We had a new image of the film published online yesterday.
Here's some of the online coverage from yesterday:
Here's today's reminder to join your fellow Telluride Film Fest attendees and rate the films you see for MTFB. I'm asking you to rate each film you catch on a 1 to 5 scale with 1 being awful and 5 being great. Send those ratings via email (see below), comment to this blog, Twitter (see below). I'll compile them and let you know The People's consensus.
I'l also be doing The Professionals Telluride. I've asked a number of industry pros to rate the films as well and I'll be reporting their consensus as well.
Agreeing this year to participate are :
Alex Billington/FirstShowing
David Ehrlich/Indiewire
Greg Ellwood/AwardsCampaign.com
Scott Feinberg/The Hollywood Reporter
Eric Kohn/Indiewire
Mark Johnson/AwardsCircuit.com
Tomris Laffly/Film Journal
Kenny Miles/TheMovieBlog.com
Christopher Schiller/ScriptMag.com
Sasha Stone/Awards Daily
Kristopher Tapley/Variety-InContention
Anne Thompson/Indiewire
There could be a couple of others.
And a reminder that you can now more easily follow Michael's Telluride Film Blog and the Film Awards Clearinghouse. I've set up a "FOLLOW" button on the blog page in the upper right hand corner. Just click on it for an easy way to get every post as we preview, view and then review TFF #43. Then you can follow the prospects of Telluride's films as they wend their way through awards season. Just click that "FOLLOW" button!
That's it for Wednesday...more to come tomorrow.
Contact MTFB at:
mpgort@gmail.com
OR on Twitter @Gort2
OR check out Michael's Telluride Film Blog on Facebook:
Hello on a Thursday everyone...lots to dissect from yesterday...plus French producer Canal+
FINDING THE FOUNDER
I have spent months not concerned about whether or not John Lee Hancock's The Founder starring Michael Keaton as Ray Kroc, the man who made McDonalds into the global behemoth it is today. Initially the film was supposed to be a November release but that changed this spring when The Weinstein Company moved its release date to August. That move meant no Telluride, no Toronto...
Then yesterday, TWC announces that they've decided to move the film back into the thick of Awards season with a new release date of Dec. 16.
So, does that also mean it should be in the conversation for fall festivals? My head hurts.
Here's the trailer from YouTube:
Here are any number of posts/stories about the new date change for The Founder:
Look at the history of Canal+ as a producer of films that played at Telluride over the last decade:
2003: The Barbarian Invasions, Dogville, Love Me If You Dare, The Tripletts of Belleville
2004: The Weeping Meadow
2005: The Child, Cache, Lemming, Live and Become
2006: Volver, Indigenes, The Page Turner
2007: The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, Terror's Advocate, Jellyfish
2008: With a Little Help From Myself, I've Loved You So Long
2009: Farewell, Coco Before Chanel, A Prophet, The White Ribbon
2010: The Illusionist, Carlos, Of Gods and Men, The Princess of Montpensier
2011: Crazy Horse, Albert Nobbs, Goodbye First Love, The Kid with a Bike, The Artist, Le Havre
2012: Rust and Bone, Superstar, The Attack
2013: Blue is the Warmest Color", Le Maison de la Radio", "The Past"
2014: The Price of Fame, Two Days One Night, Diplomacy
2015: Marguerite
Despite a connection to a single film last year, which, as you can see is anomaly, Canal+ has the chance to be represented by multiple films at Telluride in 2016. The most likely are:
Things to Come
Elle
Slack Bay
Peshmerga
Check back tomorrow for more on French production companies.
A LOOK AT LA LA LAND
In a big news day yesterday, one of the highlights was the relelase of the first trailer for Damien Chazelle's La La Land. The film has a lot of heat at the moment and has been announced as the opening night film for the Venice Film Fest. A good number of people think it has a real shot at making the T-ride lineup. The trailer intrigues. Here it is:
And linked here is a ton of coverage that came with the trailer's release:
Another trailer dropping yesterday was for Focus Feature's J.A. Bayona directed A Monster Calls. It's Telluride profile was negligible until recently but has warmed somewhat in the last week or so. Check the trailer here from YouTube:
Additionally, here's some of the coverage that accompanied the trailer's appearance:
Late breaking news last night was the upstart distributor EuropaCorpUSA has dated the Jessica Chastain starring John Madden (Shakespeare in Love) directed gun control drama Miss Sloane for Dec. 9. Awards season? Yes. Festival possibility? It is now. The cast, in addition to Chastain is quite inpmressive: Mark Strong, John Lithgow, Michael Stuhlbarg, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Sam Waterston. Note to Telluride...yes please.
