Oscar #97 in the Rear View / Forging Ahead

OSCAR #97 IN THE REAR VIEW

Sunday night's Oscar ceremony brought few, if any, real upsets.  I personally was 16 of 23 for a 69.6% success rate which is among the lowest rates of success since I started posting Oscar predictions on this site. 

Still, in the case of the seven misses, my "Possible Upset" picked up the statuette in five of the seven categories: Actress, Documentary, Animated Feature, Editing and Documentary Short.  Leaving out the Shorts categories, I was a much more respectable 16 of 20 for 80% among the Feature categories.

I felt some better the next morning when Gold Derby posted the records of their experts..  Had I been among them (there are 38 of them) I would have tied for eighth overall.  Among those with which I tied were Indiewire's Anne Thompson and The Contending's Mark Johnson.  Some experts over which I had a better score were: The Hollywood Reporter's Scott Feinberg (65.2%), Deadline's Pete Hammond (65.2%), ABC's Peter Travers (56.5%)  and Variety's Clayton Davis (56.5%).

So, as I said after the nominations dropped in January...where do I apply to be a Gold Derby expert?

Again. TFF films nabbed 10 Oscars.  That's the best since the 2016 edition of TFF when fest films earned 12 Oscars (the year of Moonlight and La La Land).  This year's collection is either tied for second or third most depending if you count the 2008 year wherein Slumdog Millionaire won eight and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button which won three.  Button only screened a few minutes as a part of the tribute to David Fincher.  So 2008 might be eight or eleven if you count Button.

TFF's 2013 edition had 10 Oscars.  That was the 12 Years a Slave (3) and Gravity (7) year.

Here's another thing that I found revealing.  Since I started the polling of Telluride attendees both with the People and the Professionals TFF has had nine films win Best Picture:

Argo

12 Years a Slave

Birdman

Spotlight

Moonlight

The Shape of Water

Parasite

Nomadland***

Anora

Eight of the nine finished at #1 on the Composite Telluride ratings where I add the ratings from the People and the Professionals together.  The only exception was Nomadland which, of course, couldn't be polled as the fest didn't happen due to Covid.  I still count it as TFF film Best Picture Oscar winner as the fest went out of its way  to premiere the film in Los Angeles as a Drive-In experience.

Seems to me that hitting that #1 Composite spot is kind of telling.  

Other films since I started polling that had the #1 Composite rating but did not win Best Picture:

2018- Roma

2021-The Power of the Dog

2022-TAR

2023-Poor Things

Anora became the 12th TFF film to win Best Picture.

Of the 12, six World Premiered at Telluride: 

Slumdog Millionaire

The King's Speech

Argo

12 Years a Slave

Moonlight

Nomadland (see above)

Three screened at Venice before Telluride:

Birdman

Spotlight

The Shape of Water

Three screened at Cannes before telluride:

The Artist

Parasite

Anora

Of the five other films that have won Best Picture since Slumdog in 2008, no other festival World Premiered the subsequent Best Picture more than once:

2009: The Hurt Locker (Venice, so it totals five)

2018: Green Book (Toronto)

2021: CODA (Sundance)

2022: Everything, Everywhere, All at Once (South by Southwest)

2023: Oppenheimer (No Festival appearance)

FORGING AHEAD

So Oscar is done for another season and MTFB turns to the sleuthing of films for the TFF #52 lineup.  Regular readers have already seen some analysis here based on "Most Anticipated" lists from a couple of outlets since the turn of the year.

Now our attention will turn to two primary areas that can give clues...early Oscar predictions and Cannes speculation.  I'll start parsing that with Monday's post.

For those who might remember last year's debacle concerning purchasing tickets...no problem this year.  We've got them and lodging locked down.  Bring on TFF #52!

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Telluride News Coming This Week? / Venice Festival Dipsy-Do / 21st Century Films and Telluride

TELLURIDE NEWS COMING THIS WEEK?

Deadline's Andreas Wiseman wrote an article posted Tuesday that discusses the potential of five different fall film fests occurring in a Covid-19 world.  Telluride is one of the five fests that gets assessed.  The article drops this tantalizing bit of info:

"Telluride (September 4 – 7/8): A spokesperson for the picturesque and famously press-shy Telluride Film Festival has told us that they are “hoping to have some information this week” regarding the event’s status and planning in light of the Coronavirus. The Oscar-bellwether was expected to expand to five days this year after the Town Council approved an additional day earlier this month. Colorado has recorded close to 10,000 positive cases of COVID-19 and 422 deaths. The state garnered international headlines this week when healthcare workers blocked anti-lockdown protests."

The most intriguing part of that assessment is the "spokesperson's..."hoping to have some information this week".

Additionally, Deadline mentions the extra fifth day reportedly approved by the Telluride Town Council last week.

What's confusing?  The Deadline author lists the dates for the fest as Sept.4-7/8 meaning that their assumption is that Telluride is tacking the fifth day onto the end of the fest rather than, as I had assumed, the Thursday before the fest as TFF did in 2013 for its 40th iteration.

Further confusing the date situation is that the original reporting from the Telluride Watch/Daily Planet cites the added date as Sept. 1 which would be the Tuesday before the traditional and originally schedule Friday start.  From The Daily Planet last week:

Sooo....

The complete Deadline article is linked here.

VENICE FESTIVAL DIPSY-DO

Just a day after an interview with Venice Biennale President Roberto Cicutto (the film fest's parent organization) said that no collaboration with Cannes was planned, came another interview with festival's artistic director, Alberto Barbera that suggests just the opposite.  

The Hollywood Reporter's Scott Roxborough in a post that went up on Tuesday afternoon that Barbera had some strong thoughts about a Cannes partnership with Venice.  From the post:

"The Venice International Film Festival has "a concrete will" to collaborate with Cannes this year, in what Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera says would be a "sign of solidarity towards the cinema world" during the coronavirus crisis."

"ANSA quoted Barbera as saying he had not excluded the possibility of "a real collaboration with the Cannes Film Festival, which would be a sign of solidarity towards the cinema world, which is now more than ever in difficulty."  Barbera said he was in talks with Frémaux and that there was a "concrete will" on both sides to find a solution."


The story suggests that Venice, at least at this point, continues to stay the course on its planned dates of Sept. 2-12.

The full THR story is here.



21ST CENTURY FILMS AND TELLURIDE

I missed this back a few weeks ago when Empire Online published their list of the 100 Greatest Films of the 21st Century (so far).  Empire says in the introductory paragraphs that the list (originally published on Jan. 8th) that they combined the thoughts of their team with thousands of responses from their readers in compiling the list.

So, as you might expect...I had to see how many and at what spots within the 100 that Telluride films popped up.  Here's what I discovered...19 TFF films made the list.  Here they are presented with their position and the year that they screened at TFF:

95- A Prophet (09)
90- Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (00)
83- Frances Ha (12)
72- Birdman (14)
63- Under the Skin (13)
60- Carol (15)
54- Brokeback Mountain (05)
46- Inside Llewyn Davis (13)
44- Roma (18)
36- Lady Bird (17)
35- Arrival (16)
34- Zodiac (08)
31- Amelie (01)
24- La La Land (16)
23- City of God (02)
15- Spirited Away (02)
11- There Will Be Blood (scenes screened as part of Daniel Day Lewis tribute 07)
10- Lost in Translation (03)
5- Moonlight (16)

Notes: 
*The #1 film on the list: George Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road.

*You could make a case for 2016 being TFF's strongest year with three films making this list: #5 Moonlight, #24 La La Land and #35 Arrival.

* TFF 2002 landed two films on the list: #15 Spirited Away and #23 City of God.  TFF 2013 also has two films making the grade: #46 Inside Llewyn Davis and #63 Under the Skin.

*Ang Lee is the only director to land two TFF films on the list: #54 Brokeback Mountain and #90 Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.

*The Noah Baumbach/Greta Gerwig team scores with #83 Frances Ha (Baumbach directed and co-wrote with Gerwig who stars in it) and #36 Lady Bird (written and directed by Gerwig.  Baumbach gets a "Special Thanks" mention in the credits).


Check out the complete list of 100 films from Empire Online linked here.



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Oscar History and TFF Part Eight / More from Renee Zellweger / Portrait Is Not France's Choice / Motherless Opens Rome

OSCAR HISTORY AND TFF PART EIGHT

Here's the concluding installment of my review of the history of Oscar nominations for films that played as a part of the Telluride Film Festival from its 1974 inception to last year's Oscar ceremony.  Today's installment covers the years from 2015 to the present.  Numbers in parentheses following each year are total number of nominations from TFF films for that year followed by the number of Oscars won by TFF films.


2015 (23/4)

Spotlight- Picture-WON, Original Screenplay-WON, Director- Tom McCarthy, Supporting Actress- Rachel McAdams, Supporting Actor-Mark Ruffalo, Film Editing

Son of Saul-Foreign Language-WON

Room- Actress-Brie Larson-WON, Picture, Director-Lenny Abrahamson, Adapted Screenplay

Carol- Actress-Cate Blanchett, Supporting Actress-Rooney Mara, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Score, Costume

Steve Jobs- Actor-Michael Fassbender, Supporting Actress-Kate Winslet

45 Years- Actress-Charlotte Rampling

Anomalisa- Animated

Winter on Fire- Documentary

The Look of Silence- Documentary


2016 (35/12)

Moonlight-Picture-WON, Supporting Actor-Mahershala Ali-WON, Adapted Screenplay-WON, Supporting Actress-Naomie Harris, Director-Barry Jenkins, Score, Cinematography, Film Editing

La La Land- Actress-Emma Stone-WON, Director-Damien Chazelle-WON, Score-WON, Original Song-WON, Production Design-WON, Cinematography-WON, Picture, Actor-Ryan Gosling, Original Song, Original Screenplay, Film Editing, Costume, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing

Manchester by the Sea- Actor-Casey Affleck-WON, Original Screenplay-WON, Picture, Director-Kenneth Lonergan, Supporting Actor-Lucas Hedges, Supporting Actress-Michelle Williams

Arrival- Sound Editing-WON, Picture, Director-Denis Villenueve, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Film Editing, Production Design, Sound Mixing

Toni Erdmann-Foreign Language

Fire at Sea-Documentary

Sully-Sound Editing


2017 (29/6)

The Shape of Water- Picture-WON, Director-Guillermo Del Toro-WON, Score-WON, Production Design-WON, Actress-Sally Hawkins, Supporting Actor-Richard Jenkins, Supporting Actress-Octavia Spencer, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Film Editing, Costume, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing

Darkest Hour- Actor-Gary Oldman-WON, Makeup-WON, Picture, Cinematography, Production Design, Costume

Lady Bird- Picture, Director-Greta Gerwig, Actress-Saoirse Ronan, Supporting Actress-Laurie Metcalf, Original Screenplay

A Fantastic Woman-Foreign Language

The Insult-Foreign Language

Loveless-Foreign Language

Loving Vincent-Animated

Faces Places-Documentary


2018 (33/6)

Roma- Director-Alfonso Cuaron-WON, Foreign Language-WON, Cinematography-WON, Picture, Actress-Yalitza Aparicio, Supporting Actress-Marina de Tavira, Original Screenplay, Production Design, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing

The Favourite- Actress-Olivia Colman-WON, Picture, Director-Yorgos Lanthimos, Supporting Actress-Emma Stone, Supporting Actress-Rachel Weisz, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Film Editing, Production Design, Costume

First Man-Visual Effects-WON, Production Design, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing

Free Solo- Documentary-WON

Can You Ever Forgive Me?- Actress-Melissa McCarthy, Supporting Actor-Richard E. Grant, Adapted Screenplay

Cold War- Director- Pawel Pawlikowski, Foreign Language, Cinematography

Shoplifters- Foreign Language

Border- Makeup



What will  we add for 2019?



MORE FROM RENEE ZELLWEGER

Rupert Goold's Judy opened this past weekend to middling reviews except in the case of Renee Zellweger's performance in the role of the icon Judy Garland.  Since its bow in Telluride, Zellweger has become the established front runner (along with Marriage Story's Scarlett Johannson) to earn a Best Actress Oscar nomination and win the gold man in early February.

Zellweger continued to be highlighted through the end of the past week with profiles and interviews in a number of outlets.  I linked several of those last Wednesday/Thursday and am adding a couple of more of them today:

From Variety

Indiewire



PORTRAIT IS NOT FRANCE'S CHOICE

France announced its choice of film for consideration for the Best International Feature (formerly the Foreign Language Film category) for this year's Oscars and it was not Celine Sciamma's TFF featured Portrait of a Lady on Fire.  In what was thought to be a very tough decision, the French instead chose Ladj Ly's Les Miserable.  Alice Wincour's Proxima was also said to have received serious consideration.

Portrait was the recipient of the Best Screenplay award at Cannes whereas Les Miserables was a Jury Prize winner for that fest.

Complete details of the decision are covered in this story by Zack Sharf linked from Indiewire.


MOTHERLESS OPENS ROME

We also found out over the weekend that Edward Norton's Motherless Brooklyn has been chosen to open the Rome Film Festival.  That fest takes off on Oct. 17th.

The complete Rome Film Fest lineup is set to be revealed on Friday.

I have included this link to the announcement for Motherless Brooklyn from The Hollywood Reporter.



That's today's MTFB.  More on Thursday.

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COMMENT TO THE BLOG

More Peering Into the Oscar Crystal Ball / Barry Jenkins Oscar Speech / Arthur Miller Has a Trailer

Good Monday morning and apologies for today's tardiness.  Still trying to manage the switch to daylight savings time.


MORE PEERING INTO THE OSCAR CRYSTAL BALL

More Oscar prognosticators have begun to turn the page from the 90th Oscars to begin to lay the groundwork for the 91st.  As is my custom, I am mining their predictions for potential players for TFF #45.

Erik Anderson of Awards Watch posted his first pass this past week.  Included on his Best Picture list are these films that might make the Telluride lineup:

Backseat-The Adam McKay directed biopic of Dick Cheney with Christian Bale and Amy Adams.

Black Klansman- This is my first inclusion on the prospective Telluride 2018 list.  It's from Spike Lee and is based on the true story of  Ron Stallworth, an African-American lawman who infiltrated the KKK.  My primary reason for inclusion:  It's distributed by Focus Features which played Darkest Hour at TFF last year.

Boy Erased- dir: Joel Edgerton

Can You Ever Forgive Me?-Melissa McCarthy stars in a drama. Marielle Heller directs and its from Fox Searchlight...which had a good year last year with a little film that played Telluride called The Shape of Water.

Everybody Knows-  Asghar Farhadi is back.  The film maker played past Tellurides with A Separation and The Past but did  not in 2016 with The Salesman.  A return could happen with this project that stars Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem.

First Man- Damian Chazelle's La La Land follow up about astronaut Neil Armstrong.

The Front Runner-Jason Reitman's focus on Gary Hart's flame out presidential run in with Hugh Jackman playing the Senator.

If Beale Street Could Talk- Barry Jenkins...

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote- Terry Gilliam's multi-decade passion project.

Mary, Queen of Scots- Saorise Ronan and Margot Robbie go toe to toe in this historical biopic.  I'm actually back and forth about its chances, but it's also from Focus Features which, for the moment, tipped the scales for me to include it here.

Old Man and the Gun- Fox Searchlight again and Robert Redford...a past TFF tribute recipient.

Peterloo- Mike Leigh directs the story of labor strife in England.

Roma- Alfonso Cuaron could be back after Gravity's play in 2013.

Widows-Steve McQueen directs.  That, by itself, might be enough to mean a Telluride play.

And maybe, again, maybe...Martin Scorsese's The Irishman...depending on what Netflix decides to do with its delivery.

Here's is Anderson's complete post.


Meanwhile, Joey Magidson has 2018-19 10 Oscar Best Picture picks up at Hollywood News.  They include, as you'd expect, many of the same films that Anderson has named:

First Man, Backseat, The Front Runner, The Irishman and Boy erased.  He also includes The Women of Marwen starring Steve Carrel.

Magidson's post is here


BARRY JENKINS OSCAR SPEECH

Photo from Indiewire

In the melee that was the end of the Oscar telecast in 2017, and with the reversal of fortune that presented itself after it was discovered that the winner was Moonlight and not La La Land, Barry Jenkins didn't get a chance to say what he intended to say as the telecast concluded.

That oversight was corrected, at least in some measure, yesterday in Austin, TX at the South by Southwest Fest where Jenkins was a keynote speaker. 

Among other comments, Jenkins discussed the importance of not placing limitations on oneself.

Here is linked coverage of the address from Jenkins from:

Variety

Deadline

Indiewire

Got to say that I'm glad Jenkins gt the chance.


ARTHUR MILLER HAS A TRAILER

Rebecca Miller and HBO Docs brought Arthur Miller; Writer to TFF #45 last fall and now HBO has set its reveal for Mar. 19th.  Consequently, a trailer for the documentary has been released.  Here that is from YouTube:

That's all for today.  More to come on Thursday.

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Future Telluride?: Barry Jenkins' Next Project Announced / The Square Drops a Trailer / Whither Toronto?

As promised yesterday, today's post is a bit late in the posting but here it is...


FUTURE TELLURIDE?: BARRY JENKINS' NEXT PROJECT ANNOUNCED

It's no secret that a lot of Telluride regulars feel a little proprietary with regard to Barry Jenkins meteoric success last year.  Jenkins, as most if not all readers of this space know, kind of "grew up" as a film maker at T-ride over the past 15 years and that process culminated last year with the fest selecting and screening Moonlight which then went on to collect three Oscars last February including the memorable win for Best Picture in the Oscar snafu for the ages.

Naturally, I think, those of us who love the fest and obsess over it are more than a little interested in what direction Jenkins goes next.

It had been announced that he was set to work on an adaptation of Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winning The Underground Railroad but that all changed yesterday with announcement that Jenkins is set to begin filming an adaptation of James Baldwin's If Beale Street Could Talk.

Multiple sources were reporting yesterday that filming on the project is set to begin in October.  The film will be the first of his deal that he signed in May with Megan Ellison's Annapurna Pictures. Brad Pitt's Plan B will also be producing as was true for Moonlight.

Variety was the first to report the story yesterday.


Other outlets reported the story as the day progressed including:

The Hollywood Reporter

Shadow and Act

and Indiewire.

I think it's a fair bet to suggest that we need to keep an eye on this film's development with a notion that it could be on the SHOW list for TFF #45.


THE SQUARE DROPS A TRAILER

Ruben Ostlund's Cannes Palme d'Or winner The Square has a trailer.  The tease was released yesterday in preparation for the film's Swedish release next month.  It's scheduled release in the U.S. is Oct. 27th.

The Square is being domestically distributed by Magnolia Pictures.

Its success at Cannes suggests that we should consider it as a real possibility for TFF #44.

Here's the trailer from YouTube:

The Square, should it play TFF #44 would be the first Plame winner to make the Telluride lineup since 2013's Blue is the Warmest Color.

WITHER TORONTO?

I've spent a lot of time over the years writing about the Toronto International Film Festival because of its inter-relationship with Telluride.  To say that the dynamic between the two fests (and Venice as well) has evolved since I started the blog back inn  2008 would be an understatement.

Now, as we approach another dance of fest acquisition, announcement and analysis comes this meditation from Deadline's Michael Cieply.  Cieply suggests that this year's TIFF iteration may be a crucial determiner as to what TIFF looks like going forward.  Of particular note is TIFF's decision this year to reduce the number of films playing there by about 20%.

Will that become the standard for TIFF going forward or will other changes be coming in the near future? 

And ultimately, what do the answers to the questions mean for our San Juan SHOW paradise as we move into the future?  

Read Cieply's article here.

That's your Tuesday MTFB post.  More to come on Thursday.

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Telluride and The New York Times 25 Best Films of the 21st Century / Oscar's Foreign Language Race and Labor Day

Welcome back from the weekend...

TELLURIDE AND THE NEW YORK TIMES 25 BEST FILMS OF THE 21ST CENTURY

The New York Times got social media going over the last few days as they posted a list of what A.O. Scott and Manohla Dargis have determined are the 25 best films that have been released since the calendar rolled over to the new century.  

It will likely not surprise you that a good number of those films had ties to TFF.  For example, their too choice is Paul Thomas Anderson's masterpiece There Will Be Blood as the top film.  As many TFFers will recall, TWBB scenes were screened in 2007 as a part of the tribute that year to Daniel Day Lewis.

Other films that make the NYT list with Telluride histories include:

#2 Spirited Away played Telluride in 2002.

#6 Yi Yi 2000

#11 Inside Llewyn Davis 2013

#14 L'enfant 2005

#17 Three Times 2005

#20 Moonlight 2016

#22 I'm Not There 2007

So better than a third of the list (8/25) made a stop in the San Juans in their journey to the NYT list (if you include TWBB, which I do).

The complete NYT list of 25 with commentary from Scott and Dargis is linked here.

OSCARS FOREIGN LANGUAGE RACE, FESTS AND LABOR DAY

Shane Slater at Awards Circuit posted an interesting article over the weekend with some thoughts about the major fests that have already come and gone and the impact that they might have on the foreign language Oscar race.

As a result, we can look at some of those as potential titles for TFF.  

Slater mentions films from Sundance, Berlin, Tribeca and Cannes.

From those films he mentions these probably have the best T-ride shot:

The Other Side of Hope 

Spoor

Loveless

120 BPM

The Square

Happy End

Check out the entire post from Awards Circuit here.

That's Monday...

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First Looks at You Were Never Really Here / Wakefield Begins to Emerge / Barry Jenkins Profiled / Burns Presents Vietnam at Harvard / A Look Back at TFF #31

It's your weekly Thursday...howdy!



FIRST LOOKS FOR YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE

Among the films chosen to play at Cannes that has caught my eye as a possibility to play Telluride in September is Lynne Ramsay's You Were Never Really Here.  The film stars Joaquin Phoenix.

The combination of Ramsay (who played T-ride in 2011 with We Need to Talk About Kevin), a Cannes selection and Amazon with distribution (Amazon had Manchester by the Sea at Telluride last year) make me believe that the film has a good shot at a T-ride slot.

Amazon released the first images for the film this past week which included the still from above.

Details and other photos can be accessed with these links:

from The Film Stage

and from The Playlist.

WAKEFIELD BEGINS TO EMERGE

One of the films that I salivated the most about prior to TFF #43 was Bryan Cranston's Wakefield. The film dropped a complete trailer this week in its run up to a release on May 19th.  You can see the trailer above and find more about the film, the trailer and its release here:

from Entertainment Weekly

from Indiewire

and from FirstShowing.Net

BARRY JENKINS PROFILED

Director/writer Barry Jenkins has had a whirlwind going since Moonlight dropped at Telluride last Labor Day weekend.  The film became a key player in the awards season earning eight Academy Award nominations and it won Oscars for Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay and Supporting Actor. Jenkins was busy throughout.

The Denver Post recently profiled the film maker who, as you might expect, is red hot as a result of Moonlight's success.  Take a look by clicking on the link.





BURNS PRESENTS VIETNAM AT HARVARD

I mentioned this as a potential SHOW addition in the last post: Ken Burns screening some of the 18 hours that will make up his documentary Vietnam that is scheduled to begin screening on PBS on Sept. 17th.

Burns recently screened some of the footage at Harvard and also appeared to answer some questions.
Coverage and clues about the project can be found here From The Harvard Gazette.



A LOOK BACK AT TFF #31

I continue the project I wrote about last week in today's post as I try to expend the history of past Telluride Film Festivals beyond the program links on the official Telluride Film Festival website.

Today, it's the 31st fest which ran from Sept. 3-6, 2004. Here's the review of the program:

Guest Director: Buck Henry

Tributes:

Theo Angelopoulous

Jean-Claude Carriere

Laura Linney

Special Medallion:

Fred Roos

Shows:

Aaltra

Adam and Paul

Bad Education

Baober in Love

Being Julia

Blackmail

Ecstasy

Enduring Love

Erotikon

Francis, George and Theo

From Saturday to Sunday

Gunner Palace

Harvest Time

House of Flying Daggers

Hunger

Keane

Kinsey

Kontroll

Landscape in the Mist

Maugham and the Secret Agent

Million $ Legs

Moolaade

Nobody Knows

Overlord

P.S.

Palindromes

Payday

THX 1138

Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow

Unforgiveable Blackness

Viva La Muerte

Yes

Guests included:

Buck Henry

Laura Linney

Rip Torn

Daniel Craig

Joan Allen

Sally Potter

Peter Sellars

Lenny Abrahamson

Annette Bening

Ellen Barkin

Todd Solondz

Bill Condon

Gael Garcia Bernal

George Lucas

Ken Burns

Peter Bogdanavich

Andrea Arnold is included with a short entitled Wasp.

 And that's that for this Thursday...more on Monday.

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More Thoughts on the Cannes Lineup / Some Tidbits about Moonlight and La La Land / Big News from Film Land This Week

MORE THOUGHTS ON THE CANNES LINEUP

The Playlist published its 21 film Cannes wish list this week and. as you might expect, I'm parsing their expertise for hints, clues and desires as regards the films that could double up between Cannes and Telluride.

From their list:

Michael Haneke's Happy End
Todd Haynes' Wonderstruck
Lynne Ramsay's You Were Never Really Here
Andrew Haigh's Lean on Pete

From the concluding section of their article...what they label as "Honorable Mentions":

Andrey Zvyagnistev's Loveless
Lazlo Nemes' Sunset
Alexander Payne's Downsizing
Ari Folman's Where Is Anne Frank
Michel Hazanavicicus' Le Redoubtable
Matteo Garrone's Pinocchio
Wim Wenders" Submergence
George Clooney's Suburbicon
Stephen Frears' Victoria and Abdul
Xavier Beauvois' Le Gardiennes
Ziad Doueiri's L'Insulte


The complete post from The Playlist is here.


SOME TIDBITS ABOUT MOONLIGHT AND LA LA LAND

During each Oscar season in the rush to get material posted in the midst of the non-stop deluge of stories, posts, articles and releases, some things get shuffled to the bottom of the pile.  Not because they're inherently less informative or useful but mostly because of the limits of time and space.

With the horse race that Oscar #89 turned out to be between Berry Jenkins' Moonlight and Damian Chazelle's La La Land. the following stories stayed in my inbox but never made it into the blog.  So I'm correcting that here and now:  Here are a few posts regarding Moonlight:

Barry Jenkins other film festival from The Playlist

How I Write-Barry Jenkins' video from The New York Times

Jenkins' student short film Josephine via The Playlist.

Musical homages/references video in La La Land from Indiewire.


BIG NEWS FROM FILM LAND THIS WEEK

A couple of announcements that probably don't mean anything in terms of TFF #44 but were interesting to film lovers, I suspect.  Terry Gilliam has confirmed that filming has begun on his long gestating passion project The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.  He's been after this for years...and has begun filming in the past.  Here's hoping that he can get all the way to the end...and that it is more cohesive than many of his past efforts have been.

And...Stephen Spielberg has shelved  The Kidnapping of Edgardo Motara which was supposed to be his next project in favor of a quickly developing project titled The Post based on The Pentagon Papers case and how it was handles by The Washington Post in the early '70's.  Tom Hanks is set to play Post editor Ben Bradlee and Meryl Streep is on board to play Post owner/publisher Katherine Graham.  The word is that will begin filming in May and be released THIS YEAR...wow.

Terry Gilliam/Don Quixote story from The Playlist.

Speilberg Switches Projects from Awards Watch


That'll do for this Monday.  More on Thursday...


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May I Have the Envelope Please...No, No, the Correct Envelope / Oscars Love Telluride's 2016 Lineup

Welcome to Monday


OSCARS LOVE TELLURIDE'S 2016 LINEUP


It was an insane night full of surprises large and small with the largest being the announcing of one Best Picture winner only to have that reversed in favor of a surprise upset winner.  Moonlight won Best Picture but only found out after La La Land had been announced and a number of thank you speeches had come from La La Land producers.

Here is that moment from ABC News and YouTube:

Here are your winners from the 89th Academy Awards:

Picture: Moonlight

Director: Damien Chazelle/La La Land
Actress: Emma Stone/La La Land

Actor: Casey Affleck/Manchester by the Sea
Supporting Actress: Viola Davis/Fences
Supporting Actor: Mahershala Ali/Moonlight
Original Screenplay: Manchester by the Sea
Adapted Screenplay: Moonlight
Film Editing: Hacksaw Ridge
Cinematography: La La Land

Original Score: La La Land
Original Song: City of Stars/La La Land
Animated Feature: Zootopia
Documentary: OJ: Made in America
Foreign Language Film: The Salesman
Production Design: La La Land
Costumes: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Makeup/Hair: Suicide Squad
Sound Mixing: Hacksaw Ridge

Sound Editing: Arrival
Visual Effects: The Jungle Book

Animated Short: Piper Pearl
Live Action Short: Sing
Documentary Short: The White Helmets



Moonlight wins three Oscars: Best Picture, Supporting Actor and Adapted Screenplay
La La Land wins six Oscars: Best Actress, Director, Score, Song, Cinematography and Production Design
Manchester by the Sea wins two Oscars: Best Actor and Original Screenplay

Other Telluride 2016 wins Arrival for Best Sound Editing and The White Helmets for Best Short Documentary.

Telluride's 43rd iteration hosted films with 13 Oscar wins out of 42 nominations.

For the seventh straight year (and eighth of the last nine years)  the Oscar Best Picture winner has "premiered" for the first time on the North American continent at the Telluride film festival.

The FAC had a lackluster night going 15 of 24.  In the other categories, the "upset" winner listed in Thursday's post won and in six categories the winner was off the FAC altogether on Thursday.

I'm really re-thinking how or even if The FAC is viable in its current incarnation.

Past FAC results:

2016: 15/24
2015: 20/24
2014: 22/24
2013: 18/24 (25 tie in Sound Editing)
2012: 18/24
2011: 17/24
2010: 14/24

So, there's that.

Finally another huge shout out to Barry Jenkins and the entire Moonlight crew.  In all the years I've been writing about Telluride and the Oscars there has never been a truer expression of TFF in terms of the Oscar Best Picture winner than this at a number of levels and Barry's a good guy to boot.  You can't ask for a better ending than that despite the weird way that it went down.

Congratulations Barry and Mahershala and Tarell.

Now, it's time to return to the first purpose of this space which is to begin to puzzle out the films that will make their way to the San Juans over Labor Day weekend in six months time.

More on Thursday.


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The (Probably) Final FAC Predictions for Oscar #89 / Final Oscar Calls from Experts (Updated) / Late Breaking: Toronto Down to Downsize

Good Thursday to you...


THE (PROBABLY) FINAL FAC FOR OSCAR #89

We are just days away from the Oscars -on Sunday night on ABC- and here are the (probably) final predictions from The Film Awards Clearinghouse.  Barring some weird movement or unforeseen circumstance, this will be the last post from MTFB/FAC until Monday's regularly scheduled post.  In that, I'll do some semblance of analysis based on the results of Sunday's ceremony.

Today's predictions include updated data for the eight categories that have seemed to have been the most contentious over the past few weeks since nominations were announced:  Actor, Original Screenplay,Sound Editing, Costumes, Makeup/Hair and the three Short Form categories: Live Action, Animated and Documentary.  I also did a quick update on Best Picture.

On Oscar night itself, I'll be semi-live-tweeting.  Also probably a good deal of re-tweeting.  Check out my Twitter account @Gort2.


As always, The FAC uses the published predictions of the following experts to derive its picks:

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.  Categories that were deemed "Toss Ups" are indicated with ***

***LIVE ACTION SHORT
Winner: Enemies Interiors
Upset: Timecode
Comment: Since last week, a big surge for  Ennemis Interieurs puts it on top, marginally over Timecode.

***DOCUMENTARY SHORT

Winner; Joe's Violin
Upset: The White Helmets
Comment:  Last week's two leaders switch places but the metric still makes this a squeaky tight race.

***ANIMATED SHORT
Winner: Piper
Upset: Pearl
Comment:  Piper's lead has increased substantially over the past week.  Still not a lock by any means.


SOUND MIXING:
Winner: La La Land
Upset: Hacksaw Ridge

***SOUND EDITING
Winner: Hacksaw Ridge
Upset: La La Land

VISUAL EFFECTS
Winner; The Jungle Book
Upset: Rogue One

***MAKEUP/HAIR
Winner: Star Trek Beyond
Upset: A Man Called Ove

***COSTUMES
Winner: Jackie
Upset: La La Land
Comment:  Jackie has opened up a slight, but real,  lead in this category.  La La Land could still sneak a win here, however.

PRODUCTION DESIGN

Winner: La La Land
Upset: Arrival or Fantastic Beasts

ORIGINAL SONG
Winner: City of Stars/La La Land
Upset: Could come from Moana or Trolls

ORIGINAL SCORE
Winner: La La Land
Upset: Moonlight or Lion

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Winner: The Salesman
Upset: Toni Erdmann

ANIMATED FEATURE
Winner: Zootopia
Upset: Kubo and the Two Strings

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Winner: OJ: Made in America
Upset: 13th or I Am Not Your Negro

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Winner: La La Land
Upset: Lion

FILM EDITING
Winner: La La Land
Upset: Arrival

***ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Winner: Manchester by the Sea
Upset: La La Land
Comment: Manchester has moved into a more secure position in the last week.

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Winner: Moonlight
Upset: Arrival

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Winner: Mahershala Ali/Moonlight
Upset: Dev Patel/Lion

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Winner: Viola Davis/Fences
Upset: Michelle Williams/Manchester by the Sea

***ACTOR
Winner: Denzel Washington/Fences
Upset: Casey Affleck/Manchester by the Sea
Comment: Still a whisker thin margin for Washington.

ACTRESS
Winner: Emma Stone/La La Land
Upset: Isabelle Huppert/Elle

DIRECTOR

Winner: Damien Chazelle / La La Land
Upset: Barry Jenkins/Moonlight

BEST PICTURE

Winner: La La Land
Upset: Moonlight
Comment: Other possible upset players: Hidden Figures, Manchester by the Sea and Lion

Expected win totals:

La La Land 9
Moonlight 2
Fences 2
 No other film with more than a single win.

TFF #43 films with 13 wins.

A last thought.  I'm feeling a bit of  an intuition that La La Land might actually upset in both Original Screenplay and Costumes.


 FINAL OSCAR CALLS FROM THE EXPERTS (UPDATED)

Here the FINAL OSCAR PREDICTIONS from various experts.  I WILL BE UPDATING this section through Sunday:

Kristopher Tapley/Variety

Scott Feinberg/The Hollywood Reporter

Clayton Davis (and Friends)/Awards Circuit

Awards Daily

Film School Rejects

Awards Watch Podcast

Gold Derby

Metacritic

Movie City News Gurus of Gold

Anne Thompson/Indiewire

Indiewire Critics Survey

Nathaniel Rogers/The Film Experience

Jason Osiason/Fantastic Film Fans




LATE BREAKING: TORONTO TO DOWNSIZE

There are multiple reports that the Torotno International Film Festival is going to shrink its feature film lineup by about 20% or from approximately 300 films down to 240ish.

Here's that story from:

The Hollywood Reporter

Indiewire

The Playlist



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

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