MTFB Oscar Update: First Predix for the Final Five Feature Categories . The Deluge Begins: New York Film Critics Circle, Gotham Awards, National Board of Review

 MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: FIRST PREDIX FOR FINAL FIVE FEATURE CATEGORIES

Today we add final five feature categories with initial predictions for Production Design, Makeup/Hair, Costumes, Sound and Visual Effects.  All TFF #52 films are in Bold.    Here they are:

PRODUCTION DESIGN

1) Frankenstein

2) Hamnet

3) Wicked: For Good

4) Sinners

5) Avatar: Fire and Ash

Others: Marty Supreme, One Battle After Another and The Phoenician Scheme.

COSTUME DESIGN

1) Wicked: For Good

2) Frankenstein

3) Sinners

4) Hamnet

5) Kiss of the Spiderwoman

Others: One Battle After Another, Hedda and Marty Supreme.

MAKEUP AND HAIR

1) Frankenstein

2) Wicked: For Good

3) The Smashing Machine

4) Sinners

5) Weapons

Others: 28 Years Later, Bugonia and One Battle After Another.

SOUND DESIGN

1) F1

2) Sinners

3) Wicked: For Good

4) One Battle After Another

5) Avatar: Fire and Ash

Others: Frankenstein, Sinners, Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning and Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere..

VISUAL EFFECTS

1) Avatar: Fire and Ash

2) F1

3) Wicked: For Good

4) Superman

5) Frankenstein

Others: Sinners, Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning and The Fantastic Four.

Sooo...at this point, if the nominations were announced tomorrow, MTFB is currently predicting the following :

Hamnet (11): Best Picture, Direction, Actress, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Casting, Cinematography, Editing, Score, Production Design and Costumes.

Sentimental Value (8): Best Picture, Direction, Actress, Two in Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor Original Screenplay, and International Feature.

Frankenstein (7): Best Picture, Cinematography, Score, Production Design, Costumes, Makeup/Hair and Visual Effects.

It Was Just an Accident (4): Best Picture, Direction, Original Screenplay and International Feature.

Jay Kelly (3): Best Picture, Supporting Actor and Original Screenplay.

Bugonia (2): Best Actress and Adapted Screenplay.

The Secret Agent (2): Best Actor and International Feature.

Single nominations for:

Blue Moon: Best Actor.

Cover-Up: Best Documentary.

and from TFF #51: Apocalypse in the Tropics: Best Documentary.

That's 10 TFF films nominated and a total of  40 nominations.

THE DELUGE BEGINS

Pre-nomination Oscar precursors bean to weigh in with force the past few days.  TFF films were faring moderately well.

New York Film Critics Circle: TFF films awarded were:

Best Direction: Jafar Pahani/It Was Just an Accident.

Best International Film: The Secret Agent.

Best actress: Rose Byrne/If I Had Legs I'd Kick You.

Best Actor: Walter Moura/The Secret Agent.

The Gotham Awards and TFF films:

Best Direction: Jafar Panahi/It Was Just an Accident

Best International Feature: It Was Just an Accident.

Best Original Screenplay: It Was Just an Accident.

Pillion: Best Adapted Screenplay.

National Board of Review:

Best Actress: Rose Byrne/If I had Legs I'd Kick You.

Best Supporting Actress: Inga Idsbotter Lileaas/Sentimental Value.

Best International Film: It Was Just an Accident.

Best Documentary: Cover-Up.

 From NBR's Top Films list: Frankenstein, Jay Kelly.

From NBR's Top Five International Films: The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value.

From NBR's Top Ten Independent Films: If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, The Mastermind, Urchin.

The complete NBR list is here.

Finally, The Golden Globe nominations will be announced on Monday.  I'll have that then.

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MTFB Oscar Update: Lead Acting and More / New York Film Critics and TFF / Independent Spirit Awards and TFF / National Board of Review and TFF / Gotham Awards and TFF /

 MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: LEAD ACTING AND MORE

I'm updating the Lead Acting categories today and adding three other categories going forward: Cinematography, Editing and Production Design.  The acting categories were last updated on Nov. 21st.  An actor's previous position is indicated in (parentheses).  TFF #51 films are in Bold. 

BEST ACTRESS

1) Mikey Madison/Anora (1)

2) Angelina Jolie/Maria (2)

3) Karla Sofia Gascon/Emilia Perez (3)

4) Saoirse Ronan/The Outrun (5)

5) Marianne Jean-Baptiste/Hard Truths (-)

Others: Nicole Kidman/Babygirl, Demi Moore/The Substance and Cynthia Erivo/Wicked.

BEST ACTOR

1) Ralph Fiennes/Conclave (1)

2) Adrien Brody/The Brutalist (2)

3) Timothee Chalamet/A Complete Unknown (4)

4) Colman Domingo/Sing Sing (3)

5) Daniel Craig/Queer (5)

Others: Paul Mescal/Gladiator II, Sebastian Stan/The Apprentice and Jesse Eisenberg/ A Real Pain.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

1) Dune Part Two

2) The Brutalist

3) Maria

4) Nosferatu

5) Gladiator II

Others: Conclave, Emilia Perez and Nickel Boys.

BEST EDITING

1) The Brutalist

2) Anora

3) Emilia Perez

4) Dune Part Two

5) Conclave

Others: Gladiator II, September 5 and Wicked.

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

1) Dune Part Two

2) Wicked

3) Gladiator II

4) The Brutalist

5) Blitz

Others: Conclave, Nosferatu and A Complete Unknown.

NEW YORK CRITICS AND TFF

TFF films had a good day Tuesday with a number awards from The New York Film Critics Circle.

Best Director: RaMell Ross/Nickel Boys

Best Supporting Actor: Kieran Culkin/A Real Pain

Best Screenplay: Sean Baker/Anora

Best International Feature: All We Imagine as Light

Best Cinematography: Nickel Boys

Best Non-Fiction Film: No Other Land

Best First Film: Janet Planet (TFF #50)

The Brutalist was named Best Film of 2024.

The complete list of winners is here from the NYFCC website.

INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARDS NOMINATIONS AND TFF

Fully nine TFF films received at least Independent Spirit Award nomination yesterday.  The nine films totaled 20 nominations collectively led by Anora's five.  Here's the breakdown by film:

Anora (5): Best Feature, Direction, Performance (Madison), Supporting Performance (Burisov) and another Supporting Performance (Karagulian).

The Apprentice (3): Best Direction, Editing.

Janet Planet (from TFF #50) (3): Best First Feature, First Screenplay and Cinematography.

Nickel Boys (2): Best Feature and Cinematography.

A Real Pain (2): Best Screenplay and Supporting Performance (Culkin).

The Piano Lesson (2): Best First Feature and Supporting Performance (Deadwyler).

September 5 (1): Best Editing.

No Other Land (1): Best Documentary.

All We Imagine as Light (1); Best International Feature.

Here's the complete list of all nominees from FilmIndependent.org

NATIONAL BOARD OF REVIEW AND TFF

The National Board of Review released its annual list of best films from the year yesterday. TFF films fared well. from their various categories:

Top Ten Films included Anora, Conclave and A Real Pain.

Top Five international Films included: All We Imagine as Light and Santosh.

Top Five Documentaries included: Will and Harper.

Top Ten Independent Films included: Bird.

Among acting awards Conclave was named Best Ensemble.  Kieran Culkin was named Best Supporting Actor for A Real Pain and Mikey Madison was named Breakthrough Performance for Anora.

Other Special Awards for TFF films included anming The Seed of the Sacred Fig as Best International Film and NBR' Freedom of Expression Award went to No Other Land.

Wicked was named Best Film and its director, Jon M. Chu was named Best Director.

The full list of NBR awards for 2024 can be accessed here from their website.

GOTHAM AWARDS AND TFF

The Gotham Awards were presented Monday and here's a look at what TFF films were winners:

Best Director: RaMell Ross/Nickel Boys

Best International Feature: All We Imagine as Light

Best Documentary Feature: No Other Land

Breakthrough Performer: Brandon Wilson/Nickel Boys

Among Gotham Tributes were:

Performer Tribute to Angelina Jolie for Maria.

Complete Results are here from Variety.

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MTFB Oscar Take: Lead Acting Update / New York Film Critics Circle and TFF #49 / Trailers, Teasers and Clips / Visitations : Downey Jr., Inarittu, Guadagnino and More

MTFB OSCAR TAKE: LEAD ACTING UPDATE 

I am updating predictions in the categories of Best Actress and Best Actor.  These were last predicted on Nov. 21st.  Past ranking is to the right of the performer in parentheses.  Performances from TFF #49 are in Bold.

BEST ACTRESS

1) Cate Blanchett/TAR (1)

2) Michelle Yeoh/Everything Everywhere All at Once (2)

3) Michelle Williams/The Fabelmans (4)

4) Danielle Deadwyler/Till (3)

5) Margot Robbie/Babylon (5)

6) Viola Davis/The Woman King (7)

7) Olivia Colman/Empire of Light (6)

BEST ACTOR

1) Brendan Fraser/The Whale (1)

2) Colin Ferrell/The Banshees of Inisherin (2)

3) Austin Butler/Elvis (3)

4) Bill Nighy/Living (4)

5) Tom Cruise/Top Gun: Maverick (6)

6) Hugh Jackman/The Son (7)

7) Gabriel LaBelle/The Fabelmans (New)

Out: Diego Calva/Babylon

NEW YORK FILM CRITICS CIRCLE AND TFF #9 FILMS

New York critics tapped three TFF #49 films and a TFF #48 film with a total of five awards on Friday with Todd Field's TAR leading the charge winning awards for Best Feature and Best Actress for Cate Blanchett's searing performance.  Charlotte Wells' Aftersun was lauded for Best First Feature.  The other TFF #49 recognition was for Laura Poitras' documentary on the life and work of photographer and activist nan Goldin: All the Beauty and the Bloodshed.

TFF #48's Marcel the Shell with Shoes On was named the year's Best Animated Feature.  Congrats to Dean Fleischer Camp and Jenny Slate and the whole Marcel crew.  Regular readers know that Marcel is on of my passions this awards season.

In other NYFCC news of note, Martin McDonagh's The Banshees of Inisherin made noise with two wins.  One for Best Actor for Colin Farrell and the other for McDonagh's Screenplay.

The complete list of winners is linked here from the NYFCC.

TRAILERS, TEASERS AND CLIPS

Trailer for Hirokazu Kore-eda's Broker from YouTube:

Trailer for Mia Hansen-Love's One Fine Morning from YouTube:

Clip from Sam Mendes' Empire of Light from YouTube:

VISITATIONS

Robert Downey, Jr. on his documentary about his father- Sr. from the Associated Press.

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarittu on Bardo: A False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths from Awards Watch.

Also Inarittu from Deadline.

Luca Guadagnino on Bones and All from Deadline. 

Actor Micheal Ward on Empire of Light from The Hollywood Reporter.

Director Ryan White on Good Night Oppy from Variety.

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Oscar Update-New Categories: International Feature, Documentary, Cinematography, Film Editing / NYFCC and More / Kershaw Talks Truffles

    OSCAR UPDATE: NEW CATEGORIES!

After several weeks of posting and updating the topline Oscar categories (Picture, Director, Acting and Writing), here's my first stab at additional categories beyond those eight.  As always, TFF films are in Bold.

INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

1) Another Round

2) Quo Vadis Aida

3) Collective

4) I'm No Longer Here

5) The Night of Kings

6) The Two of Us

7) Dear Comrades

8) A Sun

9) My Little Sister

10) Charlatan

Other Possibles: Sun Children, This Is a Burial Not a Resurrection, Notturno

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Stacey Abrams from All In: The Fight for Democracy

1) Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution

2) Dick Johnson Is Dead

3) Collective

4) Boys State

5) Time

6) All In: The Fight for Democracy

7) Welcome to Chechnya

8) The Truffle Hunters

9) John Lewis: Good Trouble

10) The Dissident

Other Possibles: The Way I See It, MLK/FBI, Totally Under Control, The Social Dilemma

CINEMATOGRAPHY

1) Mank

2) Nomadland

3) News of the World

4) Tenet

5) Judas and the Black Messiah

6) Minari

7) Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

8) Da 5 Bloods

9) The Trial of the Chicago 7

10) First Cow

Other Possibles: One Night in Miami, Midnight Sky, I'm Thinking of Ending Things

FILM EDITING

1) The Trial of the Chicago 7

2) Nomadland

3) Mank

4) News of the World

5) Tenet

6) The Father

7) Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

8) One Night in Miami

9) Da 5 Bloods

10) Judas and the Black Messiah

Other Possibles: Minari, Sound of Metal

NYFCC AND MORE

The New York Film Critics Circle awarded their superlatives for film in 2020 last night.  The NYFCC announcement kicks off a week that will see a number of major film awards announcements including the American Film Institute, the National Board of Review and The Independent Spirit nominations among others.

From the NYFCC, TFF winners:

Best Picture: First Cow

Best Director: Chloe Zhao/Nomadland

KERSHAW TALKS TRUFFLES

The Truffle Hunters has come on like gangbusters as we have moved through the end of 2020 into the beginning of 2021 as a serious threat in the Oscar race for Best Documentary Feature.  The TFF #47 selection from Sony Pictures Classics sits in my first pass at predicting the nominees for that category just outside the possible nominees at #8 (in an incredibly competitive category).  Meanwhile Variety's Clayton Davis has the film at #3 and Scott Feinberg at The Hollywood Reporter has it at #5.

In light of all of that, Gold Derby featured an interview with co-director Gregory Kershaw this week.

You can take a look at that using this link.

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Oscar Update: Best Director / LA and NY Film Critics Award 2020 Films / Indiewire's Best of 2020 / Nightmare at Christmas (And Maybe Labor Day?) / Two Telluride Favorites Talk Film: Barry and Chloe

 OSCAR UPDATE: BEST DIRECTOR

Here are my latest Oscar nomination predictions for Best Direction updated since I last posted this category on  Nov. 19th.  A director's past position is indicated to the right in parentheses.  TFF #47 films are indicated in Bold.

1) Chloe Zhao/Nomadland (1)

2) David Fincher/Mank (2)

3) Aaron Sorkin/The Trial of the Chicago 7 (3)

4) Lee Isaac Chung/Minari (7)

5) Regina King/One Night in Miami (4)

6) George C. Wolfe/Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (9)

7) Florian Zeller/The Father (5)

8) Paul Greengrass/News of the World (8)

9) Spike Lee/Da 5 Bloods (6)

10) Shaka King/Judas and the Black Messiah (10)

Other Possibles: Darius Marder/Sound of Metal, Emerald Fennell/Promising Young Woman. Kornel Mundruczo/Pieces of a Woman

Hot: Lee Isaac Chung/Minari, George C. Wolfe/Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

Not: Florian Zeller/The Father, Spike Lee/Da 5 Bloods

INDIEWIRE'S BEST OF 2020

Indiewire polled over 200 critics worldwide for their 2020 Best Of poll.  The website posted their lists of top tens in multiple categories on Dec. 14th.  Among the various categories, here is where Tff $6 and TFF #47 films landed in each category:

Best Picture: #1) Nomadland (47), #3) First Cow (46), #6) Beanpole (46)

Best Director #1) Chloe Zhao/Nomadland (47), #4) Kelly Reichardt/First Cow, #9) Kantemir Balegov/Beanpole (46)

Best Performance: #2) Frances McDormand/Nomadland (47)

Best Cinematography: #1) Nomadland (47) #7) First Cow (46), #9) Beanpole (46)

Best Screenplay: #2) First Cow (46)

Best International Film: #2) Beanpole (46)

Best First Film: #7) The Assistant (46), #10) The Climb (46)

The complete listing in each category is linked here.

LA AND NY FILM CRITICS AWARD 2020 FILMS

Both The Los Angeles Film Critics Association and The New York Film Critics Circle named their "Best Of" for 2020 films over the weekend.  Here's how that played out for Telluride films from both TFF #47 and #46 is as follows:

From New York (From Variety):

Best Film: First Cow (TFF #46)

Best Director: Chloe Zhao/Nomadland (TFF #47)

The complete list of NYFCC winners is here from Variety.

Meanwhile the LAFCA had the following TFF films on its list:

Best Picture Runner-up: Nomadland (TFF #47)

Best Director: Chloe Zhao/Nomadland (TFF #47)

Best Foreign Language Film: Beanpole (TFF 346)

Best Editing: The Father (TFF #47)

Best Production Design Runner-up: Beanpole (TFF #46)

Best Cinematography Runner-up: Nomadland (TFF #47)

The complete list of LAFCA winners is here from The Hollywood Reporter.

 

NIGHTMARE AT CHRISTMAS (AND MAYBE LABOR DAY?)

Indiewire reported this week that Guillermo Del Toro has wrapped Nightmare Alley, his film noir starring Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Willem Dafoe and Richard Jenkins.  The article also includes a Tweet from the film's distributor, Searchlight, confirming an earlier Tweet from the film's co-writer, Kim Morgan, revealing that the film will be released in December of 2021.

The information that the film is wrapped combined with the release date allows for the possibility that we could see it pop up at TFF #48 perhaps after a Cannes or Venice bow or even as a first time ever screening at TFF.

Del Toro was on hand in Telluride in 2017 with The Shape of Water which had premiered at Venice.  after its Telluride play it went on to win the Best Picture Oscar and Del Toro won for Best Director.

Check out more details in the story from Indiewire linked here.

TWO TELLURIDE FAVORITES TALK FILM: BARRY AND CHLOE

They're two of the hottest directing/writing talents in the current film firmament.  They've also been at Telluride.  I'm talking Barry Jenkins, who has been a part of TFF since his college days and debuted Oscar winner Moonlight there in 2016 and Chloe Zhao who has been at T-ride with both The Rider in 2017 and this year's Nomadland.  As a matter of fact, the two met originally in Telluride in 2017 (per Variety's reporting).

So, Variety got the two together recently for a conversation.  Thanks Variety!

Here's the link to the print and video of their conversation.

BERLIN FEST MOVES AND WILL BE A HYBRID

The Berlin Film Festival, which often premieres a couple of films that make it into the Telluride lineup each year, has announced changes from their traditional dates and structure as Covid-19 continues to change the shape of the film world at large and film festivals in particular.

Variety reports that:

"The festival is now looking to present the festival selections to the film industry in early March, Variety understands, with the European Film Market running as a digital event at the same time. A mini-festival with a series of onsite world premieres is being planned for early June."

The complete Variety article with further details can be found here.

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NBR and Telluride / AFI and Telluride / Gotham Award Winners: Marriage Story Wins Big / NY Critics and Telluride / And It's Never Too Early... / Updated Oscar Predictions: International, Documentary, Animated Features

NBR AND TELLURIDE

The National Board of Review released its choices for the best films in 2019 on Tuesday.  Martin Scorsese's The Irishman was named best film of the year.  NBR also includes superlatives in a number of lists and categories.  TFF #46 standout Parasite was named Best Foreign Language Film.

Among their Ten Best films of the year were these TFF #46 entrants:

Ford v Ferrari
Marriage Story
Uncut Gems
Waves

From the NBR list of the five Best Foreign Language Films:

Pain and Glory
Portrait of a Lady on Fire

And from their list of the Ten Best Independent Films:

A Hidden Life
Judy

Other individual awards from NBR for TFF #46 films/performances included:

Adam Sandler-Best Actor-Uncut Gems
Renee Zellweger-Best Actress-Judy
Uncut Gems-Best Original Screenplay


The complete rundown of the NBR's awards is linked here from Indiewire.


AFI AND TELLURIDE

In addition to the NBR announcement on Tuesday we also saw revealed the "Best of 2019" list from the American Film Institute.

In as far as far as TFF films are concerned, only Noah Baumbach's Marriage Story made the AFI Top Ten list.  AFI did name Bong Joon-ho's Parasite as a special award winner.


Here's the complete lowdown of AFI's lists from The Wrap.


GOTHAM AWARD WINNERS: MARRIAGE STORY WINS BIG

The Gotham Awards were passed out earlier this week and Noah Baumbach's TFF #46 film Marriage Story did very, very well.  It was named Best Feature, Best Screenplay and Adam Driver was named Best Actor.  The film was also named winner of the Gotham's Audience Award.

The other TFF #46 awarded film came for Taylor Russell as Breakthrough Performer for Waves.

The complete Gothams award list is linked here from Indiewire.


NEW YORK CRITICS AND TELLURIDE

The New York Film Critics Circle also announced their " Best of" for 2019 yesterday and the list of winners included these TFF #46 entrants:

Best Director: The Safdie Brothers/Uncut Gems
Best Actor: Antonio Banderas/Pain and Glory
Best Supporting Actress: Laura Dern/Marriage Story and Little Women
Best Cinematography: Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Best Foreign Language Film: Parasite
and Randy Newman was awarded a "Special Award" One has to think that, in part, he was being recognized for his work on the score for Marriage Story


The NYFCC named Martin Scorsese's The Irishman as the Best Film of the year.

You can see the entire list of NYFCC award winners from Indiewire by clicking here.


AND IT'S NEVER TOO EARLY...

The first big list of most anticipated films for 2020 is out from The Playlist.  That outlet posted its 100 Most Anticipated Films for 2020 on Tuesday and I have culled it for the dozen films that seem the most TFF #47 friendly...at least on the surface.

Largely these 12 films make my cut based on TFF history.  Here they are (in reverse order of their position on The Playlist list):

83) The White Tiger (d. Ramin Bahrani)
66) Mainstream (d. Gia Coppola)
64) Good Night Midnight (d. George Clooney)
59) Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (d. George C. Wolfe)
55) The Trial of the Chicago 7 (d. Aaron Sorkin)
48) Stillwater (d. Tom McCarthy)
27) Nomadland (d. Chloe Zhao)
17) I'm Thinking of Ending Things (d. Charlie Kaufman)
16) Bergman Island (d. Mia Hansen-Love)
13) Nightmare Alley (d. Guillermo Del Toro)
9) Mank (d. David Fincher)
4) Dune (d. Denis Villnueve)

The Playlist's top anticipated film is Christopher Nolan's Tenet.

The complete list of 100 films plus some honorable mentions is linked here.


UPDATED OSCAR PREDICTIONS: INTERNATIONAL, DOCS, ANIMATED FEATURE

I'm updating my predictions today for three categories: International, Documentary and Animated Features.  Their last predicted position is indicated in parentheses;  TFF #46 films are Bold.

INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

1) Parasite (1)
2) Pain and Glory (2)
3) Les Miserables (3)
4) Atlantics (4)
5) This Invisible Life (-)
6) Corpus Christi (-)

Other possibles: And Then They Danced, Monos, Beanpole

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

1) American Factory (1)
2) Apollo 11 (2)
3) One Child Nation (3)
4) For Sama (-)
5) Honeyland (-)
6) The Biggest Little Farm (-) (TFF #45)

Other possibles: Sea of Shadows, Edge of Democracy, The Cave, The Kingmaker

ANIMATED FEATURE

1) Toy Story 4 (1)
2) Frozen II (2)
3) I Lost My Body (4)
4) The Missing Link (3)
5) How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (5)
6) Klaus (-)

Other possibles: Abominable, Funan


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COMMENT TO THE BLOG

New York Critics Love Roma (and First Reformed) / Latest Gurus o' Gold / Satellite Nominations Announced / More Interviews

Welcome back from your weekend and to the first of December.


NEW YORK CRITICS LOVE ROMA (AND FIRST REFORMED)

The New York Film Critics Circle met in NYC on Thursday last week and named the recipients of their accolades for 2018.  Telluride films from TFF #45 and TFF #44 had some results to be pleased with.

Alfonso Cuaron's TFF #45 entry Roma was named Best Film of 2018 and was also named winner for Direction and Cinematography.  Other TFF #45 awards went to Pawel Pawlikowski's Cold War as Best Foreign Language Film and Richard E. Grant for his Supporting Performance in Marielle Heller's Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Meanwhile Paul Schrader's First Reformed from TFF #44 was named winner for Best Screenplay and its lead, Ethan Hawke, was named Best Actor.

Telluride films claimed seven of the 12 competitive awards that were determined by the NYFCC.

My take: We probably need to take Ethan Hawke seriously as a potential Oscar nominee for Best Actor as well as First Reformed as a possible Best Picture nominee.

Coverage of the NYFCC awards is linked here from Indiewire.



LATEST GURUS OF GOLD

The newest Gurus o' Gold at Movie City News went up on Friday.  We Gurus were asked to update Best Picture as well as ranking for possible nominees for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Documentary.

My ballot looked like this:

Best Picture

1. A Star Is Born
2. Roma
3. Green Book
4. The Favourite
5. Vice
6. If Beale Street Could Talk
7. Black Panther
8. BlacKkKlansman
9. First Man
10. Can You Ever Forgive Me?
11. Mary Poppins Returns
12. First Reformed

Best Documentary

1. Won't You Be My Neighbor
2. RBG
3. Free Solo
4. Minding the Gap
5. Science Fair
6. Qunicy
7. Crime + Punishment

Best Foreign Film

1. Roma
2. Cold War
3. Shoplifters
4. Burning
5. Capernaum
6. Sunset
7. Border

The TFF presence from the complete Gurus assessment from Friday has


The complete new Gurus o' Gold chart is linked here.


SATELLITE NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED

The International Press Academy announced their nominees for their 23rd annual Satellite Awards on Thursday last week.

Among Telluride films, Yorgos Lanthimos' The Favourite was the most nominated film with nine competitive nominations as well as a special ensemble prize.  It was nominated for Best Feature-Musical/Comedy, Best Actress Musical or Comedy (Colman), Best Supporting Actress (both Stone and Weisz), Direction, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Costumes and Art Direction/Production Design.

Alfonso Cuaron's Roma was nominated in eight categories: Best International Film, Best Actress Drama- Yalitza Aparicio, Direction, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Film Editing, Sound, Art Direction/Production Design.

Damian Chazelle's First Man was nominated seven times: Best Feature-Drama, Best Actor-Drama (Gosling), Best Supporting Actress (Foy), Score, Sound, Film Editing, Art Direction/Production Design.

Joel Edgerton's Boy Erased was nominated in four categories: Best Actor-Drama (Hedges), Best Supporting Actress (Kidman), Best Supporting Actor (Crowe), Song.

Marielle Heller's Can You Ever Forgive Me was thrice nominated: Best Actress-Drama (McCarthy), Best Supporting Actor (Grant), Best Adapted Screenplay.

Paul Schrader's TFF #44 entry First Reformed was nominated three times: Best Independent Feature, Best Actor-Dram (Hawke) and Best Original Screenplay.

Pawel Pawlikowski's Cold War was a two time nominee for Best International Feature and Cinematography.

Other TFF #45 films that earned one nomination were:

Destroyer-Best Actress-Drama (Kidman)
The Old Man and the Gun-Best Actor-Drama (Redford)
Shoplifters- Best International Feature
Free Solo-Best Documentary Feature

TFF #45 films nabbed a total of 37 Satellite nominations.

The full list of all nominees is here from the IPA.


MORE INTERVIEWS

Melissa McCarthy in Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Melissa McCarthy/Can You Ever Forgive Me? from Deadline

Joel Edgerton/Boy Erased from Deadline

Robbie Ryan (cinematographer)/The Favourite from The Film Stage

Justin Hurwitz (composer)/First Man from Gold Derby


That's your MTFB for this Monday.  I'll have more on Thursday in a post that will be updated during the day to reflect Golden Globe nominations and Telluride's impact on them.  Until then...


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

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The FAC Updates Supporting Categories / NY Loves Lady Bird and LA Loves Name and Shape / The Week and a Half Ahead / Profile and Interview Grab Bag

Hope everyone had a fine weekend...and welcome back to MTFB.


THE F(ilm) A(wards) C(learinghouse) UPDATES SUPPORTING CATEGORIES


Our last look at the Supporting Actress and Actor categories came back on Nov. 6th.  After a month of that has seen the actual beginnings of award frenzy, there has been some movement in those categories.

As always, films/performers from TFF #44 films are Bold.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Here's where the category stood a month ago:

1) Alison Janney/I, Tonya
2) Laurie Metcalf/Lady Bird
3) Holly Hunter/The Big Sick
4) Octavia Spencer/The Shape of Water
5) Kristen Scott Thomas/Darkest Hour

Others: Melissa Leo/Novitiate, Mary J. Blige/Mudbound, Hong Chau/Downsizing


And here's today's update:

1) Alison Janney/I, Tonya
2) Laurie Metcalf/Lady Bird
3) Holly Hunter/The Big Sick
4) Octavia Spencer/The Shape of Water
5) Mary J. Blige/Mudbound

Others: Hong Chau/Downsizing, Leslie Manville/Phantom Thread, Melissa Leo/Novitiate

Comment: Phantom Thread screenings have moved Manville into the convo (as well as the film and Daniel Day Lewis into stronger positions in the Best Picture and Actor categories.  Paul Thomas Anderson is also a serious player for Original Screenplay and possibly Director).  Scott Thomas falls out of immediate consideration which mirrors the general pull back from Darkest Hour that seems to have developed.  It's still regarded as a two pony race between Janney and Metcalf.


BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

The Best Supporting Actor race looked like this a month ago:

1) Willem Dafoe/The Florida Project
2) Sam Rockwell/Three Billboards
3) Armie Hammer/Call Me By Your Name
4) Michael Stuhlbarg/Call Me By Your Name
5) Michael Shannon/The Shape of Water

Others: Mark Rylance/Dunkirk, Ben Mendelsohn/Darkest Hour, Richard Jenkins/The Shape of Water

 Today's update looks like this:

1) Willem Dafoe/The Florida Project
2) Sam Rockwell/Three Billboards
3) Armie Hammer/Call Me By Your Name
4) Michael Stuhlbarg/Call Me By Your Name
5) Mark Rylance/Dunkirk

Others: Richard Jenkins/The Shape of Water, Ben Mendelsohn/Darkest Hour, Ray Romano/The Big Sick


Comment: The top four stay solidly the same and, as with the women, the real race appears to be between the top two: Dafoe and Rockwell with everyone else jockeying for the "honor to be nominated" spots.  Michael Shannon's performance has lost forward momentum and that has boosted Rylance and Jenkins (who, of course, has been my personal choice on this category since seeing the film in Telluride over Labor Day).


NY LOVES LADY BIRD AND LA LOVES NAME AND SHAPE

The New York Film Critics Circle named their "Best Of" for 2017 on Thursday with Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird winning the top honor as Best Film.  Lady Bird star Saoirse Ronan was also honored as Best Actress.  The other TFF #44 film named by the NYFCC was Agnes Varda and JR's Faces Places as Best Non-fiction film.

Other key winners were:

Direction: Sean Baker/The Florida Project
Actor: Timothee Chalamet/Call Me By Your Name
Supporting Actress: Tiffany Haddish/Girl's Trip
Supporting Actor: Willem Dafoe/The Florida Project
Screenplay: Paul Thomas Anderson/Phantom Thread

The complete list of NYFCC winners is here from Variety.

Meanwhile, yesterday, The Los Angeles Film Critics Association named their film superlatives for 2017 which was dominated by Luca Guadagnino's Call Me By Your Name and Guillermo Del Toro's The Shape of Water.

TFF #44 recognition from the LAFCA was spearheaded by the three awards that Shape of Water received: Best Direction for Del Toro (in a tie with Guadagnino), Best Actress for Sally Hawkins and Best Cinematography.  It was also runner-up for Production Design and Score.

Other TFF #44 winners were Laurie Metcalf as Best Supporting Actress for her role in Lady Bird, Agnes Varda and JR's documentary Faces Places and Andrey Zvyagintsev's Loveless which tied with BPM for Best Foreign Language Film.

The L.A. critics also recognized Lady Bird writer/director Greta Gerwig with their New Generation Award.

Awards Daily's Sasha Stone says that Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird might be the Oscar frontrunner right now.  I'm  not all the way there yet.  I still think that if I were a betting fellow that the best bet is still Chris Nolan's Dunkirk.  That said, I have been suggesting for almost a month now that I do think the preferential ballot maybe does boost Lady Bird and Sasha is way smarter and more experienced than most of the planet about Oscar.

Call Me By Your Name was recognized as Best Film (The Florida Project was named runner-up) along with recognition for Timothee Chalamet as Best Actor and the nod for Guadagnino's direction.

Coverage of the LAFCA awards is here from:

Indiewire

Deadline

Entertainment Weekly


THE WEEK AND A HALF AHEAD

Today's post continues its theme of focusing on the awards season as I turn to Sasha Stone's/Awards Daily's weekend post that identifies all of the awards dates/deadlines that are looming over the next ten days or so.  Key organizations and the dates of their reveals are:

Dec. 6th-Critic's Choice Nominations are announced.
Dec. 7th-American Film Institute announce their films of the year.
Dec. 11th-Golden Globe nominations are announced.
Dec. 13th-SAG-AFTRA nominations are announced.

And after that we won't see any other major group announcements until after the first of the year.


PROFILE AND INTERVIEW GRAB BAG:

Here's a collection of interviews and profiles I've collected the past few days about films that appeared as a part of the program for the 2017 edition of The SHOW:

Downsizing film editor Kevin Trent from Variety.  And also from Awards Circuit.

Wonderstruck (and TFF #44 Tribute recipient) Director of Photography Ed Lachman from Deadline.

20+ images from Guillermo Del Toro's The Shape of Water from Entertainment Weekly.

Director Rebecca Miller on her doc Arthur Miller: Writer from Indiewire.

Darkest Hour score composer Dario Marianelli from Indiewire.



That's your wrap from MTFB for this Monday, Dec. 4th.  I'll be back with more on Thursday!


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

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And the Madness Continues: BFCA, L.A. and N.Y. Critics Weigh-In / Visual Effects Short List: TFF #43 Films in the Mix

It's the first Monday in December friends...and we're still here.

AND THE MADNESS CONTINUES: BFCA, L.A. AND NEW YORK CRITICS WEIGH IN

My last post on Thursday focused on the announcement of year end film awards recognition from The National Board of Review and The Gotham Awards.  The Independent Spirit Award nominations were announced the week before.  In those announcement came the first solid evidence that the TFF #43 lineup is going to be front and center as we move through the awards season.  I think many of us thought something extraordinary was happening over Labor Day.

The end of this week saw the announcement of of awards and/or nominations from The New York Film Critics Circle, The Los Angeles Film Critics Association and The Broadcast Film Critics Association (Critics' Choice Awards).  This latest round of awards seems to confirm the first onslaught.  Here's what happened at the end of this past week...

Three TFF #43 films have been dominant in these early accolades: La La Land, Moonlight and Manchester by the Sea.  There has also been reasonable mentions at various points for Arrival, Sully and Toni Erdmann.

The Broadcast Film Critics/Critics Choice nominations saw La La Land lead the field with 12 followed closely by Moonlight and Arrival with 10 each.  Manchester by the Sea had eight nominations.  Each of those four films had a nomination for Best Picture included in their haul. Additionally, Sully was nominated for Best Picture as well as three other awards.  Neruda and Toni Erdmann were nominated for Best Foreign Language Film.  All told TFF #43 films collected 46 BFCA nominations.

Coverage of the BFCA nominations is here from Indiewire and here from SlashFilm.

Meanwhile, The Los Angeles critics met yesterday and cast ballots and Barry Jenkins' Moonlight dominated with four awards including: Best Picture, Direction, Supporting Actor/Ali and Cinematography.  La La Land won Best Original Score and Isabelle Huppert was Best Actress in part for Things to Come (Elle was also mentioned).

La La Land and Manchester by the Sea were the runners-up in a number of categories.  La La was runner-up for Picture, director, film editing, cinematography and production design while Manchester finished second for Actor/Affleck, Supporting Actress/Williams and Screenplay.  Toni Erdmann was the Best Foreign Language Film runner-up.

Coverage and analysis of the L.A. critics is here from:

Variety

Entertainment Weekly

Indiewire

Movie City News

Awards Circuit

The New York Film Critics Circle announced their winners for 2016 on Thursday and Telluride 2016 films dominated that landscape as well with TFF accounting for awards in 75% of the NYFCC categories.  Damien Chazelle's La La Land was named Best Picture, Barry Jenkins Moonlight won Best Director, Best Supporting Actor/Mahershala Ali and Cinematography.  Kenneth Lonergan's Manchester by the Sea also was named thrice: Best Actor/Casey Affleck, Best Supporting Actress/Michelle Williams and Best Screenplay.  Isabelle Huppert was named Best Actress, in part for Things to Come.  Toni Erdmann was named the Best Foreign Language Film.

New York reportage can be found here from Indiewire and here from Entertainment Weekly.

Coming up this week will be the announcement of The American Film Institutes's list of Best Films as well as the Critics Choice Awards on Sunday.  Additionally, Golden Globe nominations are announced a week from today.

For my money, among all we've had slung at us awards wise over the past two weeks, I can tell you that I mostly pay attention to NBR, BFCA, NY and LA critics.  Among the news to come I pay most attention to: AFI, Golden Globe nominations, BAFTA nominations and the guilds: SAG, DGA, PGA, WGA.


For analysis of what some of these early nominations and awards may mean in the context of the Oscar race I have provided links here to Anne Thompson and Eric Kohn's ScreenTalk podcast as well as this piece from Awards Daily's Sasha Stone.


VISUAL EFFECTS SHORT LIST:  TFF #43 FILMS IN THE MIX

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the 20 films that have made their preliminary short list for the Visual Effects Oscar.  That's not a category that TFF films normally find themselves but this year two films from #43 are alive and kicking.  Clint Eastwood's Sully and Denis Villenueve's Arrival made the initial cut.  AMPAS will cut this list down to 10 for nomination voting. Awards Daily has the complete list here.


That's your Monday.  Stay tuned for more on Thursday.

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

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