Ten Bets for TFF #51-Third Edition / Blitz Goes to London / Trailer and Poster for Napoleon Restoration

TEN BETS FOR TFF #51-THIRD EDITION

Happy Independence Day to everyone!

Here's 2024's third installment of MTFB's "Ten Bets" for the Telluride Film Festival.  The big move this week is that Steve McQueen's Blitz comes off the possibilities list (see the story below).  Additionally Emilia Perez and The Room Next Door move up a couple of spots while Anora and The Seed of the Sacre Fig each drop a couple of spots. Nickel Boys moves up to #5.

Here's this week's Ten Bets for TFF #51:

1) Emilia Perez/Jacques Audiard

2) The Room Next Door/Pedro Almodovar

3) Anora/Sean Baker

4) The Seed of the Scared Fig/Mohammad Rasoulof

5) Nickel Boys/Ross

6) Bird/Andrea Arnold

7) Maria/Pablo Larrain

8) The End/Joshua Oppenheimer

9) Queer/Luca Guadagnino

10) Conclave/Edward Berger

Other possibilities:

We Live in Time/Crowley

I'm Still Here/Salles

Parthenope/Sorrentino

In the Hand of Dante/Schnabel

Hard Truths/Leigh

The Piano Lesson/Washington

Untitled Noah Baumbach

Megalopolis/Coppola

Napoleon (new restoration)/Gance

Leonardo DaVinci/Burns

A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things/Cousins

Oh, Canada/Schrader

The Actor/Johnson

SNL 1975

BLITZ GOES TO LONDON

(Saorise Ronan in Blitz via Apple)

Apple+ and the BFI London Film Festival announced on Monday that Steve McQueen's Blitz will World Premiere as the Opening Night Film. Assuming that the premiere designation is accurate that means that the film will not play Telluride nor Venice and Toronto.

I had written here on the blog on May 30th that:

"I'd reallllly...love for Blitz to get to TFF and McQueen has a solid past with the fest, but...given the story is about the blitz of London by the Nazis in WWII, I can see McQueen wanting to hold the World Premiere as a part of the London Film Fest in October."

Looks like I was spot on.

Now, Ioncinema posted this on X Monday:

"BLITZ could still premiere in Telluride ... but chances are indeed low." and "Telluride has "grabbed" world premiere status titles away from other fests before. It's unlikely, but could happen."

And that's true as far as it goes but since Toronto started announcing what they call "honest" premiere designations, the occurrence of a film being designated as a World Premiere somewhere else but still playing at T-ride has become almost non-existent.

Here are the details from The Hollywood Reporter.

TRAILER AND POSTER FOR NAPOLEON RESTORATION

Ever since Cannes screened the newly renovated version of Abel Gance's Napoleon I have thought there was a real chance that the film (now nearly seven hours long!) could be a part of the TFF #51 lineup.  Now we have a new poster as well as a new trailer for the film.  You can see the poster above and here's the trailer from YouTube: 

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Another Early Oscar Look / Will Abel Screen at Abel? / Speaking of Cannes...

ANOTHER EARLY OSCAR LOOK

Joey Magidson of Awards Radar has posted his first set of picks for the 2025 Oscars and as has been my way, I've looked through them for possible TFF #51 titles.  Magidson has divided them into two parts.  Part One went up last Friday focusing on "Above the Line" categories.  Part Two will be posted later this week.

Here's what I'm seeing from Part One beginning with films Magidson thinks are Best Picture contenders:

Blitz-Steve McQueen

Conclave-Edward Berger

Maria-Pablo Larrain

The Nickel Boys-Ross

SNL 1975-Reitman

Queer-Gaudagnino

Bird-Arnold

The End-Oppenheimer

The Apprentice-Abbasi

The Piano Lesson-Washington

From the other "Above the Line" Categories:

Megalopolis-Coppola

The Actor-Johnson

We Live in Time-Crowley

Here's the link to Magidson's post.

WILL ABEL SCREEN AT ABEL?

News this week that a newly restores print of Abel Gance's monumental silent film Napoleon will lead off the Cannes Classics section on May 14th.

From Cannes' press release:

"A legend known to cinephiles the world over, a major work of the silent era, one of the most monumental restorations in the history of filmmaking will be unveiled on May 14 as a world premiere: Napoléon by Abel Gance (1st period), in a version resulting from a colossal, passionate effort by the Cinémathèque française, with the support of the CNC."

Naturally that makes one think that the restoration could be a natural choice for TFF.  I can see this screening at Elk Park which is re-christened the Abel Gance Open Air Cinema each year for the festival.

The entire press release is here.

AND SPEAKING OF CANNES...

Here's the official poster for the 77th Edition of the Cannes Film Festival:

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Let's Talk Big Picture: Part One / Napoleon?

LET'S TALK BIG PICTURE: PART ONE

Every year I have been writing this thing devoted to the Telluride Film Festival we reach a new starting point for serious speculation about what might play beginning in December. 

I currently have two big lists that I'm working from.  The first is from a file I constantly add to called "Future Telluride".  I work from a number of sources anything that seems to indicate a film project that might tempt programmers from The SHOW.  Guidelines for making the list include directors with a Telluride title on their credits, distributors with same and general intuition.

I clean up that list from time to time by culling film projects that debut without playing Telluride and those that do.  I still have a couple of potential projects in the list from as far back as 2014 (It's a Steve McQueen project that was announced in November of that year).

That's the Big Picture I'll be sharing today.

Big Picture Part Two will come on Monday.

So, here's what's been in the "Future Telluride" file of films that I have been keeping an eye on chronologically listed beginning with films listed first in 2018:

2018

The Zone of Interest/Glazer

Killers of the Flower Moon/Scorsese

2019

Occupied City/McQueen

Flint Strong/Morrison

Next Goal Wins/Waititi

Maestro/Cooper

The Way of the Wind or The Last Planet/Malick

2020

Nightbitch

2021

The Killer/Fincher

Tuesday/Oniunas-Pusic

Poor Things/Lanthimos

Foe/Davis

May/December/Haynes

Shirley/Ridley

2022

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar/Anderson

Nyad/Chin and Vasarhelyi

The New Boy/Thonton

Untitled Ethan Coen Film/Coen

The Royal Hotel/Green

Mother's Instinct/Delhomme

The Book of Solutions/Gondry

The Bastard/Arcel

Blitz/McQueen

Fallen Leaves/Kaurismaki

Strangers/Haigh

Strange Way of Life/Almodovar

The Bikeriders/Nichols

The Holdovers/Payne

The End We Start From/Belo

AND/Lanthimos

Freud's Last Session/Brown

Challengers/Guadagnino

Monster/Kore-eda

2023

The American Buffalo/Burns

The Miracle Club/O'Sullivan

There you have 34 potential TFF #50 selections.

Monday's list has nearly 60 possible titles.  Many of the above are on that list as well.

NAPOLEON?

Still from Napoleon via Apple

Ridley Scott's Napoleon has a release date.  Apple announced this week that the film will be released theatrically on Nov. 22nd.  That puts it in position to play Telluride, Venice, Toronto, New York and/or London in any combination.  Or other fests as well.

I think its chances for Telluride, at least at the moment, are smallish.  over the years there have been a number of Scott films that I thought had some potential to play Telluride including: The Counselor, The Martian, All the Money in the World and The Last Duel.  Of course, none of those happened.

But...you never know...

Here's Variety on the announced release date.

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