MTFB Oscar Take: Second Predictions for International, Documentary and Animated Features and Casting / New York Film Critics Online Announce 2025 Nominees / Visitations

MTFB OSCAR TAKE: SECOND PREDICTIONS FOR INTERNATIONAL, DOCUMENTARY AND ANIMATED FEATURES AND CASTING

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

1) Sentimental Value (Norway) (1)

2) It Was Just an Accident (France) (2)

3) The Secret Agent (Brazil) (3)

4) No Other Choice (South Korea) (4)

5) Sirat (Spain) (NR)

Others: The Voice of hind Rajab, Left-Handed Girl (Taiwan) and 2000 Meters to Andriivka.

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

1) The Perfect Neighbor (1)

2) 2000 Meters to Andriivka (2)

3) Apocalypse in the Tropics (TFF #51) (3)

4) Cover-Up (5)

5) The Alabama Solution (4)

Others: Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk, Orwell: 2+2=5,  and Come See Me in the Good Light.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

1) K-Pop Demon Hunters (1)

2) Zootopia 2 (3)

3) Arco (2)

4) Little Amelie or the Character of Rain (NR)

5) Elio (4)

Others: In Your Dreams, The Magnificent Life, Scarlet.

BEST CASTING

1) Sinners (2)

2) One Battle After Another (1)

3) Marty Supreme (3)

4) Hamnet (5)

5) Wicked: For Good (4)

Others: Jay Kelly, Wake Up Dead Man and Nouvelle Vague.

 NEW YORK CRITICS ONLINE ANNOUNCE 2025 NOMINEES

13 Telluride #52 films earned 41 nominations this past week from The New York Film Critics Online.  Hamnet and Sentimental lead the way for TFF films with each film grabbing 10 nominations.  Here's the list:

Hamnet (10): Best Picture, Direction, Screenplay, Actress, Supporting Actor (X2), Ensemble, Use of Music, Cinematography and Breakthrough Performance.

Sentimental Value (10): Best Picture, Direction, Screenplay, Actress, Supporting Actress (X2), Supporting Actor, Ensemble, Breakthrough Performance and International Feature.

It was Just an Accident (4): Best Picture, Direction, Ensemble and International Feature.

If I Had Legs I'd Kick You (3): Best Picture, Screenplay and Actress.

Bugonia (3): Best Screenplay, Actress and Actor.

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

Frankenstein (2): Best Supporting Actor and Cinematography.

Pillion (2): Best Supporting Actor and Debut Director.

Blue Moon (1): Best Actor.

Jay Kelly (1): Best Supporting Actor.

Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (1): Best Use of Music.

Urchin (1): Best Debut Director.

Cover-Up (1): Best Documentary.

VISITATIONS

The Making of Frankenstein from The Hollywood Reporter.

Noah Baumbach on Jay Kelly and More from The Hollywood Reporter.

The Jacobi Brothers on Hamnet from Awards Watch.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

X (Twitter) @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

Bluesky: @gort2.bsky.social

MTFB's Facebook Page

MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

If you would like to be added to the MTFB e-mail list send an email to mpgort@gmail.com

MTFB Update: Screenplays Plus Animated Feature and Production Design / New York Film Critics Online and TFF / Interviews and Profiles: Stone, Bening, Scott and More

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: SCREENPLAYS PLUS ANIMATED FEATURE AND PRODUCTION DESIGN

Here's your Oscar Update for today's post.  This is a check on predicted nominees for the Screenplay categories.  They were last posted here on Dec. 4th.  Previous positions on the MTFB Oscar Update Chart are listed to the right in parentheses.  I have also included my first predictions for Best Animated Feature and Production Design.  As always TFF films are Bold.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1) The Holdovers (1)

2) Barbie (2)

3) Past Lives (3)

4) Anatomy of a Fall (5)

5) Maestro (4)

Alternates: May December, Air, Saltburn.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1) Oppenheimer (1)

2) American Fiction (3)

3) Poor Things (2)

3) American Fiction (3)

4) Killers of the Flower Moon (4)

5) All of Us Strangers (5)

Alternates: The Zone of Interest, Are You There God, It's Me Margaret and The Color Purple. 

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

1) Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse

2) The Boy and the Heron

3) Elemental

4) Nimona

5) Wish

Alternates: Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem and Super Mario Bros. Movie.

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

1) Poor Things

2) Barbie

3) Oppenheimer

4) Killers of the Flower Moon

5) Maestro

Alternates: Asteroid City, The Color Purple and Napoleon

NEW YORK FILM CRTICS ONLINE AND TFF

The NYFCO announced their choices for the best film work of 2023 on Friday.  TFF was fairly well represented with three films making their Top Ten of the Year list: Anatomy of a Fall, The Holdovers and Poor Things.  Those three films also earned some individual mention.

Anatomy of a Fall was named thrice for Best International Film, Best Actress for Sandra Huller and Best Screenplay.  The Holdover's Da'Vine Joy Randolph was named Best Supporting Actress while Poor Things' Mark Ruffalo earned honors as Best Supporting Actor.

Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer was named in four categories, the most of any film> Direction, Actor, Ensemble and Cinematography but not Best Picture which NYFCO awarded to Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon.

The complete rundown of the NYFCO awards can be found here.

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos for Poor Things from Awards Radar.

Annette Bening on Nyad from Deadline.com.

Juliette Binoche for The Taste of Things from Next Best Picture.

Da'Vine Joy Randolph for The Holdovers from The Playlist.

Andrew Scott for All of Us Strangers from Indiewire.

Christian Friedel for The Zone of Interest from Indiewire.

Lenny Kravitz for Rustin from Awards Daily.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

X (TWITTER): @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

BLUE SKY: https://bsky.app/profile/gort2.bsky.social

MTFB's Facebook Page

MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

NBR, AFI, Spirit Noms and More / Oscar Updates: Animated Feature, Production Design, Score and Song / The Gurus are Back

 NBR, AFI, SPIRIT NOMS AND MORE

If you are a fan of Oscar precursors, you have to have been giddy with delight this week as a cascade of  high profile organizations revealed their choices for the best films of this pandemic marred year.  Herewith a breakdown of the major awards news of the week with emphasis, of course on films that were selected to play at the Telluride Film Festival.

NATIONAL BOARD OF REVIEW

The NBR list named Spike Lee's Da 5 Bloods as film of the year.  TFF #47's Nomadland was touted as having the Best Cinematography for the year.  Nomadland also was named as one of the top ten films of the year in addition to TFF #46's First Cow.  Other TFF #47 films making the NBR grade:

Apples on the list of five Best Foreign Language Films

All In: The Fight for Democracy and The Truffle Hunters on the list of five Best Documentaries 

The Climb (from TFF #46) as one of the 10 Best Independent Films

Missing from the NBR lists: The Father, Ammonite, The Assistant, Notturno, The Way I See It, MLK/FBI, Charlatan and Never Going to Snow Again.

Here's Deadline's coverage of the NBR lists.

AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE

The AFI list of the ten best films for 2020 included Chloe Zhao's Nomadland.  It was the only TFF film from either #47 or #46 to make the list.  

Nomadland joined Da 5 Bloods, Judas and the Black Messiah, Minari, Soul and Sound of Metal as films honored by both NBR and AFI.

The complete AFI list is here from Next Best Picture.

SPIRIT NOMINATIONS

Then there were the nominations this week for the Independent Spirit awards. Never rarely Sometimes Always lead all films with seven total nominations.  TFF #47's Nomadland was well represented with five including Best Feature, Best Director (Zhao), Best Female Lead (McDormand) Best Cinematography and Best Editing.

TFF #46 films First Cow and The Assistant also landed Spirit nominations.

First Cow is nominated for Best Feature, Director (Reichardt) and Supporting Male (Lee)

The Assistant is nominated for Female Lead (Green), Best First Screenplay and Best Cinematography.

Indieiwire can be accessed here for the complete list of all Spirit nominees.

USC SCRIPTER

The USC Scripter nominees were also announced this week.  The award goes to the best adaptation of existing material into a screenplay.  The five nominees included: Nomadland (TFF #47) and First Cow (TFF #46).  Other nominees were One Night in Miami, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Bad Education.

NEW YORK FILM CRITICS ONLINE

Telluride films that were lauded by the NYFCO on their top ten list included The Assistant, First Cow and Nomadland.  Also singled out for specific praise by the group were Nomadland's Chloe Zhao for Best Director.  Nomaldand was also heralded for Best Cinematography.

The Way I See It was named Best Documentary Feature.

The organization named Minari as Best Film of the Year.

The complete listing of all of the NYFCO awards is here from Variety.

OSCAR UPDATES: MORE FRESH PREDIX

Last Monday I began adding Oscar categories to my ongoing listing of Oscar nomination predictions.  Beyond the eight major categories that I have been tracking for months I added Documentary and International Features as well as Best Cinematography and Film Editing.

Today I'm going to add first time nomination predictions for Animated Feature, Production Design, Original Score and Original Song.   Here goes nothin'!

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

1)Soul

2) Wolfwalkers

3) Over the Moon

4) Onward

5) A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon

6) The Willoughbys

7) Trolls: World Tour

8) Earwig and the Witch

9) The Croods: A New Age

10) Demon Slayer

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

1) Mank

2) Mulan

3) News of the World

4) Emma

5) The Personal History of David Copperfield

6) Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

7) Tenet

8) The Trial of the Chicago 7

9) Midnight Sky

10) One Night in Miami

 

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

1) Soul

2) News of the World

3) Mank

4) Midnight Sky

5) Minari

6) Tenet

7) The Trial of the Chicago 7

8) Da 5 Bloods

9) The Little Things

10) One Night in Miami

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

1) Speak Now/One Night in Miami

2) Seen/The Life Ahead

3) Rocket to the Moon/Over the Moon

4) Wear Your Crown/The Prom

5) Hear My Voice/The Trial of the Chicago 7

6) Husavik/Eurovision Song Contest

7) Wuhan Flu/Borat Subsequent Moviefilm

8) Just Sing/Trolls World Tour

9) If Only You Could Save Me/Mank

10) Fight for You/Judas and the Black Messiah

THE GURUS ARE BACK

For the third straight year I've been invited to be a Guru of Gold for Movie City News.  The first posting of that cumulative Oscar prognostication group went up yesterday morning.  In addition to yours truly, the site includes such Oscar predicting luminaries as: 

Awards Daily's Sasha Stone

TCM's Dave Karger

The Playlist's Gregory Ellwood

Collider's Jeff Sneider

The Wrap's Steve Pond

The Film Experience's Nathaniel R

The Toronto Star's Pete Howell

Awards Daily's Good as Gold's Mark Johnson 

Black Film and TV's Wilson Morales

MCN's David Poland 

and Oscar experts Thelma Adams and Robyn Bahr

Looking at the first pass from the Gurus...I land in agreement with collective at the #1 spot in all five categories that are included: Best Picture, Director, Actress, Actor and Animated Feature.

Here's the link to the brand new Gurus.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

TWITTER @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

MTFB's Facebook Page

MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

The FAC Update on Best Actress and Actor / Critic's Choice Awards / New York Critics Online / Golden Globe Nominations On the Way

Here's another edition of MTFB and The Film Awards Clearinghouse for the second Monday in December...we don't believe these results have been hacked by the Russians...


THE FAC UPDATE ON BEST ACTRESS AND ACTOR

Here's the latest look at what The FAC metric says the best guesses are for Best Actress and Actor at this point in mid-December prior to last night's Critics' Choice and today's Golden Globe nominations.

I have used the publicly available Oscar predictions from the following pundits:

Erik Anderson/Awards Watch
Clayton Davis/Awards Circuit
Greg Ellwood/The Playlist-Awards Campaign
Scott Feinberg/The Hollywood Reporter
Joey Magidson/Hollywood News
Nathaniel Rogers/Film Experience
Sasha Stone/Awards Daily
Kristopher Tapley/Variety-InContention
Anne Thompson/Indiewire

TFF #43 films are in Bold.  The person's previous position follows its title in parentheses.

BEST ACTRESS

1) Emma Stone/La La Land (1)
2) Natalie Portman/Jackie (2)
3) Annette Being/20th Century Women (3)
4) Ruth Negga/Loving (4)
5) Isabelle Huppert/Elle (7)

6) Amy Adams/Arrival (6)
7) Meryl Streep/Florence Foster Jenkins (5)

8) Taraji P. Henson/Hidden Figures (9)

9) Jessica Chastain/Miss Sloane (8)

10) Marion Cotillard/Allied (10)

Hot: Huppert

Not: Streep

On the Cusp: Jennifer Lawrence/Passengers

Comment: the top four remain exactly the same and the top ten remain the top ten with a bit of jostling.  I'm getting a vibe that Ruth Negga (as well as Joel Edgerton) and the while Loving campaign might be waning.

BEST ACTOR

1) Casey Affleck/Manchester by the Sea (2)

2) Denzel Washington/Fences (1)

3) Tom Hanks/Sully (4)

4) Ryan Gosling/La La Land (3)

5) Joel Edgerton/Loving (5)

6) Andrew Garfield/Hacksaw Ridge (7)

7) Warren Beatty/Rules Don't Apply (6)

8) Viggo Mortensen/Captain Fantastic (8)

9) Andrew Garfield/Silence (9)

10) Adam Driver/Paterson (NR)

Hot: Driver

Not: Matthew McConnaughey/Gold who dropped put of the top ten.

On the Cusp: Michael Keaton/The Founder

Comment: See above Re: Loving and Edgerton.  The flip flopping between Washington and Affleck is likely to play right through Oscar night.  That's your race.

At this point TFF #43 looks to have highlighted four Oscar nominated lead performances and possibly five depending on whether Amy Adams can sneak in.  I still think she has a relatively good shot.

CRITICS' CHOICE AWARDS

Last night the Broadcast Film Critics Association named its winners for film awards for 2016.  La La Land was a huge winner collecting eight trophies including: Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay (tie),  Best Young Actor/Lucas Hedges, Cinematography, Production Design, Film Editing, Song (City of Stars) and Score.

Manchester by the Sea's Casey Affleck won Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay (tie).

Moonlight won for Mahershala Ali as Best Supporting Actor and Ensemble.

Arrival won Best Adapted Screenplay and Best SciFi/Horror Film.

All told, TFF #43 films bagged 14 Critics Choice Awards.

Complete coverage is here from:

Indiewire

Entertainment Weekly

The Playlist

NEW YORK ONLINE CRITICS

The New York Critics Circle Online named their "Best of " for 2016 yesterday and the results were as follows:

Meanwhile, Moonlight dominated the New York Film Critics Online awards that were voted on yesterday with five wins.

Moonlight: Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actor, Screenplay and Cinematography
Manchester by the Sea's Casey Affleck won Best actor (again)
La La Land won Best Use of Music

Here's coverage of the NYFCO results from Awards Watch 

GOLDEN GLOBE NOMINATIONS

Here are this morning's Golden Globes nominations totals by film:

La La Land 7
Moonlight 6
Manchester By The Sea 5
Florence Foster Jenkins 4
Lion 4
Hacksaw Ridge 3
Hell or High Water 3
Nocturnal Animals 3
20th Century Women 2
Arrival 2
Deadpool 2
Elle 2
Fences 2
Hidden Figures 2
Moana 2
Loving 2
Sing 2
Captain Fantastic 1
Divines 1
The Edge of Seventeen 1
Gold 1
Jackie 1
Kubo And The Two Strings 1
The Lobster 1
Miss Sloane 1
My Life As A Zucchini 1
Neruda 1
Rules Don’t Apply 1
The Salesman 1
Sing Street 1
Toni Erdmann 1
Trolls 1
War Dogs 1
Zootopia 1

La La Land gathers nominations for Picture (Comedy/Musical), Director, Screenplay, Actor (C/M), Actress (C/M), Score and Song.

Moonlight landed nominations for Picture (Drama), Director, Screenplay, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress and  Score.

Manchester by the Sea was nominated for Best Picture (Drama), Director, Actor, Supporting Actress and  Screenplay.

Arrival was nominated for Best Actress and Score.

Neruda and Toni Erdmann were nominated for Best Foreign  Langauage Film.

In all Telluride 2016 films earned 22 Glden Globe nominations.  

Complete coverage can ne found at The Golden Globes official website.

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

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT to the blog.

Peter Knegt's Take/L.A. Critics/New York Online/Boston Society/

Good Monday Everyone!

I'm continuing to look at how the Oscar nominations may shake out for TFF #40 films through the individual predictions of some of the Oscar experts that I use to calibrate The Film Awards Clearinghouse standings. Today I am looking at the predictions of IndieWire's Peter Knegt.  Here's where he is:

12 Years a Slave: Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Film Editing, Production Design, Costume, Score, Makeup/Hair.  Total-12

Gravity: Best Picture, Director, Actress, Cinematography, Film Editing, Score, Visual Effects, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing.  Total-9

Nebraska: Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actress, Original Screenplay.  Total-5

Inside Llewyn Davis: Best Picture, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Production Design, Costume. Total-5

All is Lost: Best Actor, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing.  Total-3.

Single nominations for:

Gloria: Best Foreign Film
The Past: Best Foreign Film
Tim's Vermeer: Best Doc
The Wind Rises": Best Animated Feature
Prisoners: Cinematography

TOTAL TFF #40 nominations: 39

Also 4 nominations for TFF #39 Films:

The Hunt and Wadjda for Best Foreign Film
The Act of Killing and Stories We Tell for Best Documentary


LOS ANGELES FILM CRITICS:

Yesterday the L.A. film critics met up to vote on their choices for the best of 2013.  There was an occasional surprise here and there including three ties.  Here are the results from L.A. (Telluride films in bold):



Best Picture (tie) Gravity and Her
Best Actress (tie) Cate Blanchett/Blue Jasmine and Adele Exarchopolous/Blue is the Warmest Color
Best Screenplay: Before Midnight (Runner Up; Her)
Best Actor: Bruce Dern/Nebraska (Runner Up; Chiwetel Ejiofor/12 Years a Slave)
Best Director: Alfonso Cuaron/Gravity (Runner Up: Spike Jonze/Her)
Best Foreign Language Film: Blue is the Warmest Color (Runner Up: The Great Beauty)
Best Documentary: Stories We Tell (Runner Up: The Act of Killing)
Best Score: Inside Llewyn Davis (Runner Up: Her)
Best Animated Feature: Ernest and Celestine (Runner Up: The Wind Rises)
Best Supporting Actor: (tie): James Franco/Spring Breakers and Jared Leto/Dallas Buyers Club
Cinematography: Gravity (Runner Up: Inside Llewyn Davis)
Best Ediitng: Gravity (Runner Up: Upstream Color)
Supporting Actress: Lupita Nyong'o/12 Years a Slave (Runner Up: June Sqibb/Nebraska)
Best Production Design : Her (Runner Up: Inside Llewyn Davis)
 
Telluride #40 films named in 9 of 14 categories.  TFF #39 film also named Best Doc.  TFF #40 films also runners-up in 5 categories.


NEW YORK ONLINE AND BOSTON

Additionally, New York's Online Critics and Boston's Society of Film Critics organization also announced their winners yesterday.  As usual, Telluride films are bolded for your reading enjoyment.

From The Boston Society of Film Critics:

Best Picture:
12 Years a Slave

Best Foreign Language Film:
Wadjda

Best Director:
Steve McQueen for 12 Years a Slave

Best Actor:
Chiwetel Ejiofior for 12 Years a Slave

Best Actress: 
Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine

Best Supporting Actor: 
James Gandolfini for Enough Said

Best Supporting Actress:
June Squibb for Nebraska

Best Ensemble Cast:
Nebraska

Best Screenplay:
Nicole Holofcener for Enough Said

Best Documentary: 
The Act of Killing

Best New Filmmaker:
Ryan Coogler for Fruitvale Station

Best Animated Film:
The Wind Rises

Best Cinematography: 
Gravity (Emmanuel Lubezki)

Best Editing:
Rush (Daniel P. Hanley, Mike Hill)

Best Use of Music in a Film:
Inside Llewyn Davis

TFF #40 films with 8 of the BSFC 15 awards with TFF #39 acounting for 2 others.

The winners of the 2013 New York Film Critics Online Awards are:

Best Picture:
12 Years a Slave

Best Foreign Language Film:
Blue is the Warmest Color

Best Documentary:
The Act of Killing

Best Animated Feature:
The Wind Rises

Best Actor:
Chiwetel Ejiofor for 12 Years a Slave

Best Actress:
Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine

Best Director:
Alfonso Cuaron for Gravity

Best Debut Director:
Ryan Coogler for Fruitvale Station

Best Supporting Actor:
Jared Leto for Dallas Buyers Club

Best Supporting Actress:
Lupita Nyong'o for 12 Years a Slave

Best Ensemble:
American Hustle

Best Breakthrough Performance:
Adele Exarchopoulos for Blue is The Warmest Color

Best Cinematography:
Emmanuel Lubezki for Gravity

Best Use of Music:
Inside Llewyn Davis

 The NYFCO awards TFF #40 films 9 of their 14 with TFF #39 picking up an additional award.

Of these three groups, probably the biggest noise comes from the L.A. critics signaling a very good day fro "Gravity".  Spike Jonze's "Her" also was well represented in L.A.'s announcement. "12 Years a Slave" had an "okay" day with a win for Nyong'o but much stronger showings in the NYFCO and BSFC balloting.

Totals from all three critics groups taken together:

TFF #40 Films:

Gravity-8
12 Years-7
Blue is the Warmest-4
Nebraska-3
Inside Llewyn Davis-3
The Wind Rises-2


TFF #39 Recognized films: Act of Killing-2, Stories We Tell-1, Wadjda-1

No love for Wolf of Wall Street, Capt. Phillips or Saving Mr. Banks and only one mention  for American Hustle.

COENS AND LLEWYN

Movies.com talks to the Coen Brothers about "Inside Llewyn Davis":

http://www.movies.com/movie-news/coen-brothers-interview-inside-llewyn-davis/14306


TIM TALKS

Thompson on Hollywood posted this discussion of process with the subject of Penn and Teller's "Tim's Vermeer":

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/exclusive-video-inventor-tim-jenison-discusses-how-he-cracked-a-350-year-old-mystery-in-oscar-shortlisted-doc-tims-vermeer



More on Thursday including Golden Globe nominations.