Surveying the Landscape / 2.5 Million Views / La Bola Negra Has a Poster / Tidbits

SURVEYING THE LANDSCAPE

Here's a quick snapshot of films that I believe could still make the Telluride lineup:

Ancient History

The Basics of Philosophy

Bucking Fastard

Company

Diamond

The Dreamed Adventure

Everytime

Fatherland

Musk

Primetime

Rose

Saturn Return

Sense and Sensibility

Wild Horse Nine

Yellow Letters

and if there is a Sundance crossover:

Josephine

The Only Living Pickpocket in New York

The Weight

TWO AND ONE HALF MILLION VIEWS

MTFB swept past 2.5 million views in is 18 year history over the weekend.  those views are from 2477 posts that have posted since august of 2008.  Average per post 1009.2 views.

Thanks to all the readers!

LA BOLA NEGRA (THE BLACK BALL) HAS A POSTER

TIDBITS

***Gentle Monster to open in the U.S. on Oct. 30th

***Fatherland to open in the U.S. on Oct. 23rd.

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Late Breaking from Toronto / The Palm Under Water / Rebecca Hall Is Your TFF #53 Guest Director / This and That /

LATE BREAKING FROM TORONTO

The Toronto Fest announced a number of titles for TFF 2026 and from their premiere designations we can infer that the following films are likely playing Telluride:

A Long Winter

Elsinore

La Bola Negra (The Black Ball)

Fjord

Minotaur

Ink

The debut

Tender Loving Care

and others.

Not going to Telluride:

Coward (the biggest surprise to me)

All of a Sudden

Bunker

Prima Facie

Bitter Christmas

Clarissa

More to come...

THE PALM UNDER WATER

Although not strictly a story about The SHOW...it is.  Telluride endured a substantial mudslide last Friday and The Palm and the Intermediate and Middle schools were all affected.  The Palm especially.  A breach in a loading door allowed immense amounts of water and move to move into The Palm Theater.  Heres' the pic that has been most prevalent coming out of Telluride (the photo is from The Telluride Times):

That's the floor of The Palm.

How does affect the fest?  Will it affect the Fest?

More details can be found here from The Telluride Times.

https://www.telluridenews.com/news/article_32546b30-de8d-4012-8929-88d83de86934.html

Stay tuned.

REBECCA HALL IS YOUR TFF#53 GUEST DIRECTOR

The Telluride Film Festival has named actress-director-writer Rebecca Hall to act as Guest Director for its 53rd edition.  Here's the scuttlebutt from Tellurideinside.com:

Festival organizers annually select one of the world’s great film enthusiasts to join them in the creation of the Festival’s program lineup. The Guest Director serves as a key collaborator in Telluride Film Festival’s programming decisions, bringing new ideas, unique perspectives and overlooked films to the gathering. In keeping with Telluride Film Festival tradition, Hall’s film selections, along with the rest of the Festival lineup, will remain a secret until just before Opening Day.

“Rebecca Hall is a unique and brilliant person with an extraordinary basket of gifts who embodies the magical combination we look for in a Guest Director,” comments Telluride Film Festival director Julie Huntsinger. “Whether she is acting, writing or directing, her work reflects an uncommon curiosity, intelligence and generosity of spirit – and she is adventurous to boot! She approaches cinema with the same thoughtfulness that she brings to every creative endeavor, and we know her wonderful background and perspective will make her an inspired Guest Director. We are thrilled to welcome Rebecca to Telluride and can’t wait to experience the films that have shaped and continue to inspire her remarkable artistic journey.”

Rebecca Hall is a celebrated British-American actress, writer and director whose work spans independent films, major studio productions, television and the stage. She will next star in Adam Wingard’s A24 action thriller “Onslaught” and appears in the upcoming season of Netflix’s “Monster,” as well as “The Man I Love” and “The End of It,” both of which premiered at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival. Hall recently completed production on the zombie thriller “Zero Protocol” and is set to write, direct and star in “Four Days Like Sunday.”

Hall made her directorial debut with “Passing,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival to widespread critical acclaim and earned BAFTA nominations for Outstanding British Film and Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer. As an actor, she has received Golden Globe, BAFTA, Independent Spirit, Critics’ Choice, Gotham and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations for performances in films including “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”; Christine,Peter Hujar’s Day, “The Town”; “The Prestige”; “The Night House”; “Godzilla vs. Kong”; and “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.”

Her distinguished career also includes award-winning work in television and lauded performances on both the West End and Broadway.

“This will be my first time at Telluride,” says Rebecca. “But I’ve been hearing tales of this annual utopian film community for years, always alongside sentences like ‘the one filmmakers love the most.’ ‘Your favorite film festival’s favorite film festival.’ ‘The one where you get to watch more films than promote them.’ I always hoped I’d get to come with a film, so to get to bring 6 films feels like an incredible act of generosity on the part of the universe. I can’t wait to watch all of them with you.”

Past Guest Directors include Laurie Anderson, Peter Bogdanovich, John Boorman, Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Don DeLillo, Jean-Pierre Gorin, Buck Henry, Pico Iyer, Barry Jenkins, Edith Kramer, Rachel Kushner, Jonathan Lethem, Phillip Lopate, Guy Maddin, Errol Morris, Michael Ondaatje, Joshua Oppenheimer, Alexander Payne, B. Ruby Rich, Salman Rushdie, Peter Sellars, John Simon, Volker Schlöndorff, Stephen Sondheim, Bertrand Tavernier, Caetano Veloso and Slavoj Žižek.

THIS AND THAT

Interesting notes from the past four days:

***James Gray's Paper Tiger has been named the opening night film for the New York Film Festival and is billed as a World Premiere.  That means the film, which I have had consistently as one my Ten Best for The SHOW, will not be screening at The SHOW...unless some behind-the-scenes action turns it into a "sneak" at TFF.

***Sources say that Aaron Sorkin's The Social Reckoning will not be ready for Venice in time.  That would mean it also won't be ready for Telluride either.  

***World of Reel reports that Joel Coen's Jack of Spades is likely not releasing until next year-so no Telluride.

***Danny Boyle's Ink has been chosen to open The Venice Film Fest,  It will screen on Sept, 2nd giving it a window to also make the TFF #53 lineup.  Additionally Ink has been acquired by Netflix which doesn't hurt its Telluride chances.

***Gold Derby hints at Telluride slots for Behemoth! and The Debut in an article about the selection of Rebecca Hall as TFF #53's Guest Director.

https://www.goldderby.com/film/2026/rebecca-hall-telluride-2026-guest-director-movie-slate-dates/

***The Toronto International Film Festival announced five titles for its latest edition.  Of note was the billing of  The Alpha Gang as an International Premiere which could indicate a play at Telluride.  The only other possible explanation I can come up with is that TIFF and Fantastic Fest overlap...barely.  TIFF runs Sept. 10-20 and Fantastic Fest run Sept. 17-24.  I suppose that Alpha Gang could play Fantastic Fest early and Toronto late and that would explain TIFF labeling the film as an International Premiere.  We'll have to wait on the film announcements from Fantastic Fest for further clarity.

IONCINEMA GUESSES FOR VENICE

Ioncinema took a shot at guessing some Venetian possibilities and also, inadvertently made some claims about Telluride possibilities in and post from Saturday.  In the article they mention four of their Venice guesses as possibly going to T-ride as well:

Behemoth!

The Debut

Wild Horse Nine

Musk

Among other titles they predict for Venice there are some that I think have some Telluride crossover chances:

Bucking Fastard

Bunker

Tender Loving Care

The Basics of Philosophy

Here Comes the Flood

We should see the Venice lineup announcement this week sometime.  Of more import following that will be the Venice schedule which can give hints as to possible Telluride films.

The link to the Ioncinema post is here.

https://www.ioncinema.com/news/film-festivals/2026-venice-film-festival-projecting-the-lido-lineup

FILM DATING

Newly announced release dates for some films that could be in the mix for Telluride:

Musk Oct. 16th.

Club Kid Nov. 6th

All of a Sudden Nov. 25th.

Tender Loving Care Dec. 4th.

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Who's Got What? Distributors: Netflix / Venetian Speculation: The Hollywood Reporter

WHO'S GOT WHAT?  DISTRIBUTORS: NETFLIX

Each summer it has become the habit here at MTFB to take a look at the film distribution companies that have the largest presence at TFF historically and scan their list of films for potential titles that could end up in the San Juans come Labor Day.

This year, I calibrated the last five TFFs to determine which companies on which to focus.  Here's the number of films that each of the eight most frequent distributors over hat time have screened at Telluride:

Netflix 24

Neon 15

Sony Pictures Classics 13

Focus Features 11

A24 10

Mubi 9

Amazon-MGM 7

Searchlight 5

Not all of these distributors can be expected every year but commonly are.

So, we start the 2025 parade of distributors with the outfit that has been to TFF the most over the most half decade and that's Netflix with 24 films.

2021:The Power of the Dog, The Hand of God, The Lost Daughter, Procession.

2022: Bardo, Sr. The Wonder, lady Chatterley's Lover.

2023: Nyad, Rustin, El Conde.

2024: Emilia Perez, Maria, Martha, The Piano Lesson, Will and Harper, Apocalypse in the Tropics.

2025: Frankenstein, Jay Kelly, The Ballad of a Small Player, The Secret Agent, Cover-Up, Nouvellle Vague, The New Yorker at 100.

24 films over these last five years (13 in the last two) but this year seems like Netflix may not be as present.  It feels like the streamer just doesn't have the depth of potential films as they may have had in the past.

For awhile I thought they might release Narnia: The Magician's Nephew for the holiday season and that it might actually be a Telluride possibility because of the film's director, Greta Gerwig, who has had, along with her husband Noah Baumbach, a fairly substantial relationship with TFF.  But it has been dated for theatrical release on Feb. 12, 2027 which suggests that there's not a chance it goes to Telluride (and realistically, there wasn't much chance outside my head).

Then there's Greg Kwedar's Saturn Return (Train Dreams, Sing Sing) which is on Variety's "first look" at 2026-27 Oscar predictions BUT is listed at IMDb as being under Netflix's control for VOD and has only a very non-specific "2026" listed as its release date.  Kwedar, along with producing partner Clint Bentley are on a roll.  The cast includes Rachel Brosnahan and Will Poulter.

Additionally, Fernando Meirelles could return to Telluride with Here Comes the Flood.  It has an ambiguous "2026" release and some big name stars: Denzel Washington, Robert Pattinson and Daisy Edgar-Jones.  Meirelles was at Telluride in 2019 with The Two Popes... that followed a long absence after his previous TFF experience in 2002 with City of God.

Netflix has a couple of films that played Cannes that are also likely in play: Gentle Monster and La Bola Negra (The Black Ball).

Marie Kreuzter's Gentle Monster had a tough time at Cannes with a middling critical response at best and no prize from being with the Palme d'Or competition.

And finally, what is probably Netflix's most likely Telluride player: La Bola Negra (The Black Ball).  A critical success (85 on Metacritic) and co-winners for Best Director at Cannes. Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo shred the prize for direction with Fatherland's Pawel Pawlikowski.

So here are your chances per MTFB for each film of making the TFF #53 lineup:

The Black Ball 70%

Saturn Return 50%

Gentle Monster 40%

Here Comes the Flood 30%

***Netflix added Ink on July 18th

It's also very likely that Netflix will have other titles not listed here that do make the TFF #53 lineup.

Coming up on Monday...Neon...and they are loaded.

VENETIAN SPECULATION

The Hollywood Reporter, among other outlets, unleashed speculation about what films could be announced for the Venice Film Festival.  Frequent readers of MTFB know that the Venice to Telluride connection is very powerful and I expect this year to be no different with 6-8 titles making an early play at Venice and then screening a day or two later at T-ride.  

The key to puzzling that out is a two step process.  See what's been selected and then wait to find out when a film is scheduled to play in Venice.  If your film plays withing the first 3-4 days in Italy...there's a decent chance it will also play in Colorado.

So here's a selection of potential Venetian titles that could jump the pond using The Hollywood Reporter's list from just over a week ago,  THR has listed 40 title in alphabetical order...so I will too with director and U.S. distributor where possible:

A Long Winter (Haigh/Mubi)

Behemoth! (T. Gilroy/Searchlight)

Being Heumann (Heder/Apple)

Bucking Fastard (Herzog/???)

Bunker (Zeller/???)

Here Comes the Flood (Meirelles/Netflix)

Ink (Boyle/???)

I Play Rocky (Farrelly/Amazon-MGM)

Untitled Jesse Eisenberg [The Debut] (Eisenberg/A24)

Look Back (Kore-eda/GKIDS)

Musk Gibney/Bleecker Street)

Primetime (Oppenheim/A24)

Saturn Return (Kwedar/Netflix)

Tender Loving Care (Leigh/Bleecker Street)

The Basics of Philosophy (Schrader/???)

The Social Reckoning (Sorkin/Columbia)

The Statement (McCarthy/SPC)

Wild Horse Nine (McDonagh/

Interestingly, the THR mentions Telluride as a possible stop for films on their list:

A Long Winter

Being Heumann

Ink

The Social Reckoning

and Paul Greengrass's The Uprising...which, as you can see, isn't on my list above.

The other thing that's interesting is that the list includes Alejandro Inarritu's Digger, which, as far as I know, is still on record from Warners as having no fall fest plans...interesting.

The complete THR list of 40 films is linked here.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/venice-2026-buzz-dune3-digger-mike-leigh-werner-herzog/the-statement-director-tom-mccarthy/

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