The Distributors 2019: Lionsgate-Roadside Attractions / Sorry We Missed You Trailer / Pain and Glory Trailer

Welcome to Friday and the end of a long week for me from the National Speech Tournament in Dallas, Texas.


THE DISTRIBUTORS 2019: LIONSGATE-ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS

Lionsgate and affiliated film company Roadside Attractions have a solid appearance history with the Telluride Film Festival.

Lionsgate at Telluride:

2017: Hostiles
2016: La La Land
2013: All Is Lost

Roadside Attractions was repped at T-ride as follows over the past few years:

2018: Trial by Fire
2016: Manchester by the Sea
2014: '71, Mommy, The Homesman
2013: All is Lost, Gloria
2012: Stories We Tell
2011: Albert Nobbs
2010: Biutiful

Between the two affiliated distributors is an average of about one film each year.  1.2 films per year to be exact.

For 2019, between the firms, there seem to be two possibilities.

One is the Judy Garland biopic starring Renee Zellweger and directed by Rupert Goold.  The other is the Jay Roach directed, John Lithgow starring film about Roger Ailes and the working environment at Fox News.  The film also stars Nicole Kidman, Charlize Theron and Margot Robbie and is due in theaters on Dec. 20th

I'd put the Telluride chances for both of these films at 40%.



SORRY WE MISSED YOU TRAILER


We have a trailer for Ken Loach's social drama Sorry We Missed You.  he film played at Cannes to moderately good critical response.  It's still unacquired for U.S. distribution and as such is not yet dated for release in the United States.

Here' the trailer for the film via YouTube:

I've linked an article about the film and its trailer debut from Alex Billington at FirstShowing.net here.


PAIN AND GLORY TRAILER


Another Cannes success has a new trailer for the UK. Pedro Almodovar's Pain and Glory which features Cannes Best Actor winner Antonio Banderas.  Penelope Cruz also stars in the film.Almodovar's semi-autobiographical film is under the auspices of Sony Pictures Classics and is set for U.S. release on Oct. 4th.

Could Pain and Glory be Almodovar's return to TFF?

Here's the trailer via YouTube.

That's the MTFB for the week.  Come back next Monday for more.


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COMMENT TO THE BLOG

Looking Toward the Fall / More of the Critics' View from France / The Goldfinch Trailer, Stills, Poster

Good Thursday to you faithful readers...and everyone else as well.


LOOKING TOWARD THE FALL

Jordan Ruimy wrote a piece on his website World of Reel this week focusing on films that he thinks are in the mix to play one or more of the triumvirate of film festivals of late August-early September-i.e. Telluride, Venice and Toronto.

The list has expanded over the past couple of days as Jordan solicited input from readers and as I punch the publish to publish this morning the list has over four dozen possibilities.

I took a look at them and, based on history and/or distribution, these are the films that seem most likely from Jordan's list to make the TFF #46 SHOW.  I have listed them here in the order that Jordan has them on his original listing and with the numbering he has used:

8) A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood/Heller/TriStar-Sony
10) Lucy in the Sky/Hawley/Fox Searchlight
11) Nomadland/Zhao/Fox Searchlight
14) Dry Run/Haynes/Focus Features
18) Little Women/Gerwig/Columbia-Sony
24) Antlers/Cooper/Fox Searchlight
31) Against All Enemies/Andrews/Amazon Studios
32) Motherless Brooklyn/Norton/Warner Bros.
39) The Truth/Kore-eda/No current U.S. distribution
40) Ema/Larrain/No current U.S. distribution
41) Bergman Island/Hansen-Love/No current U.S. distribution
50) Radioactive/Satrapi/Amazon Studios

Of course there are numerous others in the list that could play or that I'd like to see on the list when it's released: Scorsese's The Irishman, Waititi's Jojo Rabbit, Gray's Ad Astra, Crowley's The Goldfinch to name a few.

The other note here is that Ruimy's list are all films that have yet to premiere.  He does not include films from Berlin or Cannes that could be a pert of the TFF program.

Ruimy's complete list of films is linked here.


MORE OF THE CRITICS' VIEWS FROM CANNES

Having linked Reini Urban's critical compilation for the films from Cannes quite a bit the last couple of weeks, I took a suggestion from a reader via the comments section and decided to relay critical reactions that had been put together by other sources.

The specifically mentioned critical review of the Palme competition films was from David Hudson writing for The Criterion Collection.  You can find that here.


Additionally, Eric Kohn at Indiewire put together the critical reception from 50 or so critics.  The Indiewire group chose Bong Joon-ho's Parasite as the best film as, of course, did the jury.

The article with the top five vote-getters in four categories: Best Film (Parasite), Direction (Sciamma/Portrait of a Lady on Fire), Screenplay (Parasite) and First Film (Atlantics).

The Indiewire critics article is linked here.

Among the critics included were a few who have participated in my annual collection of responses from industry types following TFF: including Kohn/Indiewire, Anne Thompson/Indiewire, Peter DeBruge/Variety, Gregory Ellwood/The Playlist and David Ehrlich/Indiewire.


THE GOLDFINCH TRAILER, STILLS, POSTER

The folks at Warner Bros. and Amazon have started rolling out the publicity for John Crowley's The Goldfinch based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Donna Tartt.  Appearing this week were stills, a poster and a teaser trailer which is here from YouTube:

Additionally stills were released for the film which first appeared at USA Today:

And finally we saw a teaser poster for the film as well.  Here that is from Awards Watch:

The Goldfinch is set for U.S. release on Sept. 13th.


That's today's version of MTFB.  I'll be back with more on Monday.

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The New Malick at TFF #46? / The Critics at Cannes /Coming Soon

Hope that your week has been going well.  It's Thursday!

THE NEW MALICK AT TFF #46?

Like a lot of the film community, I've been keeping an eye on the latest film, A Hidden Life,  from auteur Terrence Malick for...well...a long time.  News appeared this week that might nudge its chances of playing at Telluride a bit closer to a reality.

Fox Searchlight acquired the film for U.S. distribution after its play in Cannes.  The film was reportedly acquired for somewhere between $12-14 million.  

The anticipation at this point is that Searchlight will likely position the film for a fall release, plays at a fall fest or fests and campaign it as an awards contender.

Malick is notoriously reclusive and his previous Telluride brief, as best as I can sniff it out, came in 1998 as a producer for the film Endurance (IMDb link here).

Fox Searchlight's participation certainly doesn't hurt the films chances of playing at TFF #46 as the distributor has become a frequent presence in the San Juans over Labor Day weekend.  Last year Searchlight was at the fest with Can You Ever Forgive Me, The Favourite and The Old Man and the Gun.  In 2017, FS screened The Shape of Water at TFF #44 which, of course, went on to capture the Oscar for Best Picture.  Searchlight has also has Best Picture wins in the last decade with 12 Years a Slave and Birdman both of which also played the Telluride fest.

So...this week's acquisition activity probably bumps up the chances that A Hidden Life makes its way to southwest Colorado in about thee months.

THE CRITICS AT CANNES

Checking in with Reini Urban's collection of critical responses to the films that have been screening this last week-plus at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival.

With just a few days left before awards are handed out Bong Joon-Ho's Parasite sits atop the overall critical reception.  The film boasts a cumulative 8.57 rating on a scale of 10 (with over 200 critics counted) making it not only the highest rated film of the Palme competitors but the top rated film when all categories are considered.

Parasite has U.S. distribution from a relative newcomer on the scene: Neon.  Despite its youth, Neon has been well represented at Telluride the past few years with The B Side: Elsa Dorfman's Portrait Photography (2016), Border (2018) and The Biggest Little Farm (2018) all making the TFF lineup so Parasite becomes a serious potential TFF #46 film.

Other notes from the critical compilation: 3 other Palme competing films are in the critics top ten at the moment.  That includes Almodovar's Pain and Glory (8.43 at #3) , Sciamma's Portrait of a Lady on Fire (7.76 at #6) and Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in...Hollywood (7.57 at #9).

Robert Eggers The Lighthouse is at #2 with a 8.48 rating.  The Lighthouse is being distributed domestically by A24.  Aside from the Tarantino film which with be released in the U.S. on July 26th, the other four films have a shot at Telluride.

Other Cannes films that I've taken note of as potential TFF choices and their critical response at this point include:

Young Ahmed/Dardennes- 5.47
A Hidden Life/Malick- 6.93
Matthias and Maxime/Dolan 5.84
Frankie/Sachs 5.53
Joan of Arc/Dumont 6.30
Port Authority/Lessovitz 5.56
Diego Maradona/Kapadia 7.11
Family Romance/Herzog 5.95
The Climb/Covino 6.76

A rating above 6.0 is generally regarded as good to great but hasn't necessarily been a determinative factor regarding whether TFF programs a Cannes film.


The Palme and other awards will be announced tomorrow and Saturday.

The Urban critical compilation is linked here.


COMING SOON

Still of Sarah Paulson in The Goldfinch (from IMDb)

Anton Volkov's Trailer Track website says we're about to get the first trailer for John Crowley's The Goldfinch.  Based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel, the film stars Nicole Kidman, Sarah Paulson and Ansel Engort. 

The film is set for U.S. release on Sept. 13th and is distributed by Warner Bros with Amazon Studios distributing worldwide and also acting as a production company for the film.

All of this means that it's a TFF #46 possibility.

Stay tuned for the trailer.

That's it for today.  Come back Monday for a look at Cannes awards results and if that menas anything for Labor Day weekend.


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COMMENT TO THE BLOG

Shoplifters Arrives / Destroyer Clip / Deadline Interviews: Grant and Jackman / The Wrap Talks with Ali Abbasi

Happy Thanksgiving everyone...grateful to have you along for a look at what's in MTFB today.


SHOPLIFTERS ARRIVES

Hirokazu Kore-eda's Cannes Palme d'Or winner Shoplifters opens in the U.S. this holiday weekend.  The TFF #45 entrant has been a critical smash and has become one of the few films thought to be able to challenge for the foreign language Oscar against Alfonso Cuaron's Roma Pawel Pawlikowki's Cold War.

As you might expect, with its U.S. release, there has been, over the past few days, a glut of news and interviews surrounding the film.

Included in that is this David Ehrlich interview for Indiewire.

Awards Daily also provided the route to a new clip released for the film which is here from YouTube:

DESTROYER CLIP

Nicole Kidman makes a play for inclusion as Best Actress with her turn as a detective seeking redemption in Karyn Kusama's Destroyer.  The film is set to open on Dec. 25th.  Annapurna pictures previewed a new clip from the film this week via Indiewire.

The link to that story from Zach Sharf and clip is here.

Destroyer's official trailer is here from YouTube:

DEADLINE INTERVIEWS: GRANT AND JACKMAN

Deadline.com has a couple of interviews of recent vintage that focus on participants from TFF #45.

Joe Utichi talks to Richard E. Grant for Can You Ever Forgive Me?  That's linked here.

And Utichi also filed this interview with Hugh Jackman who plays Sen. Gary Hart in The Front Runner.  You can find that here.

AND THE WRAP TALKS WITH ALI ABBASI

Continuing the string of interviews with TFF #45 personal, here's an interview from this week conducted by Steve Pond of The Wrap with Ali Abbasi, the director and co-writer of Cannes Un Certain Regard winner Border.

That interview is accessed here.

That's your Turkey Day MTFB.  Have a great holiday and I'll have more on Monday including some new Oscar predictions/updates.

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COMMENT TO THE BLOG

Oscar Predictions Update: Supporting Actress and Actor / TFF #45 Represents in the European Film Awards Noms / Time Breaks Down the Story of The Front Runner / Indiewire Focuses on Free Solo and Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Howdy everyone.  Welcome back from the weekend.


OSCAR PREDICTIONS UPDATE: SUPPORTING ACTRESS AND ACTOR

Here's MTFB's latest set of predictions for Best Supporting Actress and Actor updating the last shot I took at them from Oct. 22nd.

The new rankings list the performer's last position and, as always, TFF #45 performers are Bold.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS


1) Regina King/If Beale Street Could Talk (1)
2) Emma Stone/The Favourite (3)
3) Claire Foy/First Man (2)
4) Nicole Kidman/Boy Erased (4)
5) Rachel Wiesz/The Favourite (5)

In the Mix: Amy Adams/Vice, Emily Blunt/A Quiet Place, Elizabeth Debicki/Widows, Marina DeTaviria/Roma, Linda Cardellini/Green Book


BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Mahershala Ali/Green Book (1)
2) Sam Elliott/A Star Is Born (3)
3) Richard E. Grant/Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2)
4) Timothee Chalamet/Beautiful Boy (4)
5) Adam Driver/BlacKkKlansman (-)

In the Mix: Sam Rockwell/Vice, Michael B. Jordan/Black Panther, Russell Crowe/Boy Erased, Daniel Kaluuya/Widows


TFF#45 REPRESENTS IN THE EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS NOMINATIONS

Several films from the 2018 edition of the Telluride Film Festival made their presence known as the European Film Awards nominations were announced.  TFF #45 films pulled in 16 total nominations with an additional nomination for a TFF #44 film.

Cold War led the way with five nominations for Best European Film, Direction, Actress, Actor and Screenwriting.

Both Border and Dogman garnered four nominations each.  For Border they were: Best European Film, Direction, Actress and Screenwriting.  For Dogman: Best European Film, Direction, Actor and Screenwriting.

Girl was nominated in three categories: Best European Film, Direction and Actor.

TFF #44's Foxtrot was nominated for Best Direction.

Here, from the official EFA website, is the complete list of nominees.


TIME BREAKS DOWN THE STORY OF THE FRONT RUNNER

With The Front Runner's  limited release on election day last week and its imminent expansion at hand, Time.com posted a look at the story of Sen. Gary Hart's run for President in 1987 (for the '88 election) that is the basis for the film.

Time establishes a timeline for all of the key moments that occurred and assesses those events.

That story is linked here.



INDIEWIRE FOCUSES ON FREE SOLO AND CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?

Indiewire this past week included in their IDA Screening Series a conversation with the people behind Free Solo.  That video can be found in this story.

Meanwhile, Indiewire's Toolkit podcast this week included Can You Ever Forgive Me? Director Marielle Heller.  That podcast is linked here.


That's a wrap for this Monday's MTFB.  I'll have more for you on Thursday.

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

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COMMENT TO THE BLOG

Updated Oscar Predictions: Screenplays / Gurus Assembled / Cuaron Talks Roma

It's a truncated MTFB today as I am smack in the middle of our state's One Act Play Contest Final.  My kids are doing a truncated version of The Crucible.


UPDATED OSCAR PREDICTIONS: SCREENPLAYS

Here's where I am predicting the screenplay contests as they stand at the moment.  I last had them picked on Oct. 4th.

These predictions are followed by their position in parentheses at that last posting.  Telluride films are Bold.


ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1) If Beale Street Could Talk (1)
2) A Star Is Born (6)
3) BlacKkKlansman (4)
4) First Man (2)
5) Can You Ever Forgive Me? (3)

Others: Boy Erased, Widows, Black Panther, The Front Runner

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1) Roma (1)
2) The Favourite (3)
3) Green Book (2)
4) Eighth Grade (4)
5) Vice (6)

Others: First Reformed, Ben Is Back, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs


GURUS ASSEMBLED

Movie City News Gurus of Gold is up with its second posting for this brand new Oscar season and as I have posted earlier, I have been asked to Guru for MCN this season...Thanks MCN!

Highlights of the new post are predictions for Best Picture as well as Best Actress and Supporting Actress.

Telluride films in play for Best Picture according to the Gurus are Roma, First Man, The Favourite and Can You ever Forgive Me?  Also mentioned from TFF are: First Reformed (TFF #44), Boy Erased, Cold War and The Front Runner.

Among the Best Actress contenders are Telluriders Olivia Colman/The Favourite and Melissa McCarthy/ Can You Ever Forgive Me?  Also possible: Yalitza Aparicio/Roma.

And in the Supporting Actress category: Claire Foy/First Man, Emma Stone/The Favourite and Nicole Kidman/Boy Erased.  Also possible: Rachel Weisz/The Favourite and Vera Farmiga/The Front Runner.

The complete new Gurus of Gold is here.


CUARON TALKS ROMA

Alfonso Cuaron is the focus of an extensive profile in Variety from Kristopher Tapley.  Take a look at that from the director of Roma.

That link is here.

Also, Tapley weighs in for the first time this season with hos view about Oscars for Best Picture, actor and Actress.

TFF is represented on Tapley's first list as follows...

Best Pic: Can You Ever Forgive Me?, The Favourite, First Man and Roma

Actor: Noop...

Actress: Colman/The Favourite and McCarthy/Can You Ever...

His complete analysis is linked here.



Again, apologies for the short post today...I hope to have a larger post for you on Monday!

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

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COMMENT TO THE BLOG

Updated Oscar Predictions: The Supporting Races / Gotham Awards Nominations Revealed / Coverage for Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Welcome Back from the weekend.  It's Monday...all...day...


UPDATED OSCAR PREDICTIONS: THE SUPPORTING RACES

Here's the latest of my Oscar predictions for the Supporting Acting categories.  The last pass at these categories was Oct. 4th. 

Each prediction is followed by its previous position 0n Oct. 4th in parentheses.  Telluride performances are in Bold. 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1) Regina King/Beale Street (2)
2) Claire Foy/First Man (1)
3) Emma Stone/The Favourite (4)
4) Nicole Kidman/Boy Erased (3)
5) Rachel Weisz/The Favourite (5)

Others: Amy Adams/Vice, Marina de Tavira/Roma, Tomasin McKenzie/Leave No Trace, Elizabeth Debecki/Widows


BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Mahershala Ali/Green Book (1)
2) Richard E. Grant/Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2)
3) Sam Elliott/A Star Is Born (4)
4) Timothee Chalamet/Beautiful Boy (3)
5) Sam Rockwell/Vice (5)

Others: Michael B. Jordan/Black Panther, Russell Crowe/Boy Erased, Adam Driver/BlacKkKlansman, Nicholas Hoult/The Favourite

Meanwhile, after having told everyone that a new Gurus of Gold would be up at Movie City News last Friday, it seems that I was premature and that the newest Gurus will post sometime this week.

I'll let you know when I know.



GOTHAM AWARDS NOMINATIONS REVEALED

Telluride films from both TFF #45 and TFF #44 scored well as the Gotham Awards nominations were announced this past week.  The Gothams focus on rewarding excellence in independent film making.

Both The Favourite (TFF #45) and First Reformed (TFF#44) were out front with three nominations each.

The Favourite had nominations for Best Feature, Best Screenplay and a Special Award for the three actresses that are highlighted in the film: Olivia Colman, Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz.

First Reformed was nominated for Best Feature, Best Screenplay and Ethan Hawke for Best Actor.

Chole Zhao's The Rider (also from TFF #44) was nominated for Best Feature.

Richard E. Grant was nominated for Best Actor for TFF #45 favorite Can You Ever Forgive Me? and Yalitza Aparicio was nominated for Breakthrough Performance for Alfonso Cuaron's Roma.

Here is the complete rundown of nominees from Indiewire.



LOTS OF COVERAGE FOR CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?

With its limited release this week, we saw a real surge in profiles, interviews and other pieces about Marielle Heller's Can You Ever Forgive Me? starring Oscar contenders Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant.

Indiewire

Entertainment Weekly

Time

That's today's MTFB.  I have more for you on Thursday.


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COMMENT TO THE BLOG

Updated Oscar Predictions: Best Actress and Actor / Can You Ever Forgive Me? Emerges / Destroyer Has a Trailer / The Favourite Categorized

Good Thursday Film Friends...


UPDATED OSCAR PREDICTIONS: BEST ACTRESS AND BEST ACTOR

Here are my latest thoughts for the Lead Acting categories.  Each individual's position in my last predictions is in parentheses.  Those from TFF #45 films are Bold.


BEST ACTRESS

1) Glenn Close/The Wife (1)
2) Lady Gaga/A Star Is Born (2)
3) Melissa McCarthy/Can You Ever Forgive Me? (3)
4) Olivia Colman/The Favourite (4)
5) Viola Davis/Widows (-)

Others: Yalitza Aparicio/Roma, Julia Roberts/Ben Is Back, Toni Collette/Hereditary, Nicole Kidman/Destroyer


BEST ACTOR

1) Bradley Cooper/A Star Is Born (1)
2) Viggo Mortensen/Green Book (2)
3) Ryan Gosling/First Man (3)
4) Christian Bale/Vice (-)
5) Lucas Hedges/Boy Erased (4)

Others: Hugh Jackman/The Front Runner, Rami Malek/Bohemian Rhapsody, Ethan Hawke/First Reformed***, Lucas Hedges/Ben Is Back, John David Washington/BlacKkKlansman

***Played TFF #44

And, by the by, you might look for the a new Gurus of Gold at Movie City News tomorrow.  It will be my second contribution as a "Guru".


CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME? EMERGES

The fantastic Can You Ever Forgive Me? gets its U.S. release tomorrow.  The film was well received at TFF #45 finishing as the #5 film in The Composite Ratings for MTFB.  It was #5 among the Pros and #8 in The People's Telluride.

With the film's release, as you'd expect, has been a focus in media circles this week on it and its star Melissa McCarthy.

I have linked a couple of the profiles that have her appeared about her this week from:

The Hollywood Reporter

Indiewire

I am currently predicting McCarthy to earn her second Oscar nomination for her work in the film as real life forger Lee Daniels.  I also think the film will be nominated for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Richard E. Grant getting a nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Here's the trailer for it from YouTube:

DESTROYER HAS A TRAILER

Annapurna Pictures has released a trailer for Karyn Kusama's gritty detective drama Destroyer starring a nearly unrecognizable Nicole Kidman who is likely to be a part of the Best Actress conversation for the role.

Here's the trailer from YouTube:

Destroyer is currently slated to open domestically on Dec. 25th.

THE FAVOURITE CATEGORIZED

 After a good deal of consternation and speculation Scott Feinberg of The Hollywood Reporter tells us this week that the acting categorization for Awards consideration for the three ladies of Yorgos Lanthimos' The Favourite have been determined.

Feinberg reports that Olivia Colman, who plays England's Queen Anne in the film, will be the lone consideration for the Lead Actress category with both Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz competing in the Best Supporting Actress Category.

Feinberg also reports on a number of other categorization decisions that have been made as we get ready to swing into the full awards season melee.

Feinberg's article can be found here.


That's MTFB for this Thursday.  I'll have another post on Monday in which I will update Oscar predictions for the supporting acting categories.  And don't forget to take a peek at Movie City News and the new Gurus of Gold post tomorrow.


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COMMENT TO THE BLOG

First Oscar Predictions for 2018-Part Two / Peterloo Moves / Lowery Talks The Old Man

Hello on this first Thursday in October!


FIRST OSCAR PREDICTIONS FOR 2018-PART TWO

Continuing from Monday's post, here are my first attempts at parsing the Oscar nominees for the Supporting Acting and Screenplay categories.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Emma Stone in The Favourite

1) Claire Foy/First Man
2) Regina King/Widows
3) Nicole Kidman/Boy Erased
4) Emma Stone/The Favourite
5) Rachel Wiesz/The Favourite

Others: Olivia Colman/The Favourite***, Marina deTavira/Roma, Amy Adams/Vice, Michelle Yeoh/Crazy Rich Asians, Elizabeth Debicki/Widows

***depending on category placement

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Me with Richard E. Grant of Can You Ever Forgive Me?

1) Mahershala Ali/Green Book
2) Richard E. Grant/Can You Ever Forgive Me?
3) Timothee Chalamet/Beautiful Boy
4) Sam Elliott/A Star Is Born
5) Sam Rockwell/Vice

Others: Michael B. Jordan/Black Panther, John C. Reilly/Stan and Ollie, Adam Driver/BlackKklansman, Joel Edgerton/Boy Erased

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1) Roma
2) Green Book
3) The Favourite
4) Eighth Grade
5) First Reformed

Others: Vice, A Quiet Place, Ben Is Back, Stan and Ollie


BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1) If Beale Street Could Talk
2) First Man
3) Can You Ever Forgive Me?
4) BlackKklansman
5) Boy Erased

Others: A Star Is Born, Widows, The Front Runner, Wildlife, Beautiful Boy


The TFF #45 breakdown should the predictions in these four categories be 100% accurate:

The Favourite (3): Stone and Wiesz/Supporting Actress and Original Screenplay
First Man (2): Foy/Supporting Actress and Adapted Screenplay
Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2): Grant/Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay
Roma (1) Original Screenplay
Boy Erased (2) Kidman/Supporting Actress and Adapted Screenplay

Also additional possibilities:

The Favourite (1): Colman/Supporting Actress
Roma (1) deTavira/Supporting Actress
Boy Erased (1): Edgerton/Supporting Actor
The Front Runner (1): Adapted Screenplay


AND...added to Monday's totals, the accumulated predictions for the eight major categories are:

The Favourite-6
First Man-5
Can You Ever Forgive Me?-4
Roma-3
Boy Erased-3

Added Possibilities:

The Front Runner-3
Boy Erased-2
Roma-2
The Favourite-1
Destroyer-1

And from TFF #44

First Reformed is predicted to be nominated for Best Original Screenplay and Ethan Hawke is a possible nominee for Best Actor.


PETERLOO MOVES

It was announced on Tuesday that Mike Leigh's Peterloo, which played TFF #45 as well as Venice, Toronto and will play as past of the BFI London Fest, will move its release date .  The film was scheduled to be released in the U.S. on Nov. 9th but now Amazon Studios has pushed the release date to April 5, 2019.

The distributor also said that the film will be released this fall in the U.K. so that it will qualify for the BAFTAs.

The film has had something of a rough go this year as it was reportedly not chosen for Cannes.  At Telluride last month the response to my polls of both fest-goers and industry professionals revealed that Peterloo didn't draw enough respondents from either group to merit including it in the ratings lists.

Peterloo details the true story of a Labor movement in Britain in August of 1819 that was organized to gain the right to vote.  That resulted in the deaths of 15 people with another 400 injured as the in an action taken by the cavalry that has become known as the Peterloo Massacre.

For more details concerning the delay of its release, here is the link to the story from The Hollywood Reporter.



LOWERY TALKS THE OLD MAN

Chris O'Falt at Indiewire posted his latest Toolkit podcast this week.  His guest is The Old Man and The Gun director David Lowery.  Lowery also adapted the screenplay from an article by David Grann from his New Yorker article.  Grann was also represented at Telluride by Trial by Fire, also based on another of his New Yorker articles.

Lowery spends some time talking about the making of the film which may or may not but probably is Robert Redford's last acting gig.

The story and the link to the podcast are here.


More to come on Monday.


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Early Notes

EARLY NOTES

My view this morning:

Plan for Friday--

Grab pass and lanyard

Stop at Brigadoon

Food

Press meet up

Patron screening

Din Din

Evening Films...leaning to Roma and the Cuaron tribute...maybe Destroyer...

More later

New Announcements Reveal Possibilities / Awards Daily's Comprehensive Review of Fests and Oscar Players / First Look at Nicole in Destroyer

Good Thursday everyone...we're just a week away from being on the road to Telluride. 


NEW ANNOUNCEMENTS REVEAL POSSIBILITIES

Since Tuesday's post we have seen new announcements from Fantastic Fest (its second wave), the New York Film Fest  and the last of Toronto's announcements.  Each has given us a few more tidbits to chew on.

New York's documentary announcements give us the most information of interest.  The NYFF announces with some films having NO premiere designation.  Those appear to be films that have had their U.S. premiere somewhere prior to New York's dates.  Three documentaries fit that criteria that also do not have any credited U.S. screening that I can find up to this point:  Angels Are Made of Light...which almost assuredly confirms it for Telluride after its earlier announcement for Toronto as a Canadian Premiere.

The other two are The Waldheim Waltz and Watergate.  Waldheim is from film maker Ruth Beckermann while Watergate is from Oscar winner (Inside Job) Charles Ferguson.  Ferguson has played Telluride in 2010.  Seems like Ferguson could well be returning to The SHOW.

Meanwhile, Toronto's last announcement left us with a couple of items of interest.  We know that Brady Corbet's Vox Lux starring Natalie Portman won't make the trip from Venice as TIFF lists it as a North American Premiere.  However, Lukas Dhont's Girl, which made a splash at Cannes in the Un Certain Regard section, is all but confirmed for TFF #45 with its Canadian Premiere designation.

And Fantastic Fest announced Ali Abassi's Border as a Texas Premiere.  I had some confusion a couple of weeks back when the L.A. Film Fest announced it (prior to its inclusion later by Toronto) as a "California Premiere" rather than a U.S. Premiere and thought that made the film a pretty decent bet for T-ride.  Seems I was wrong.

I'll have all of this figured into tomorrow's post with a brand new Ten Bets that will probably be 20 films. 

Here are links to the latest news from the New York Film Festival (via Variety)

The Toronto International Film Festival

Fantastic Fest (from ComingSoon.net)




AWARDS DAILY'S COMPREHENSIVE REVIEW OF FESTS AND OSCAR PLAYERS

Yesterday my friend Sasha Stone of Awards Daily posted a substantial piece detailing what film festivals have what films and which seem to be playing that are probable Oscar contenders.  The piece is quite informative and, to blow my own horn here, the Telluride section includes a fairly significant chunk of MTFB.

Here's the link.

And my thanks to Sasha for including my work on her website.


FIRST LOOK AT NICOLE IN DESTROYER


You probably saw it all over the web the last day or so.  I'm taking the photo of Nicole Kidman in character for her film Destroyer which we are relatively certain will be a part of the TFF #45 lineup when it's officially announced a week from today.  If you haven't seen it, take a gander:

Here's a woman going full Charlize Theron in Monster.

Kidman plays a former cop that attempts to correct a part of her past.  

Could this be the role that nets her a third Oscar?  Maybe.

Vanity Fair published the photo with an interview of the film's director Karyn Kusawa which you can find here.

That's your Thursday MTFB.  More tomorrow including the next to last Ten Bets for 2018.  The SHOW draws near!


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The First Telluride Film Festival-1974 / Tribute Odds / Indiewire's Fall Movie Preview / The People's Telluride

Good Tuesday everyone... Ten Days until the 45th Telluride Film Festival...



THE FIRST TELLURIDE FILM FESTIVAL-1974

The long developing TFF history project comes to a way station today with a review of the first Telluride Film Festival which occurred in Telluride on Aug. 30-Sept. 2, 1974.

I started this with a post on April 13, 2017 with a look at the 32nd TFF.  That was the starting point as you can still access programs for the festival beginning with the one from 2006 on the official Telluride Film Festival website.

I plan to add this style of history for each of those years soon.  Ultimately, I plan to add pages to the History section of this space by permanently placing all of my synopses there in full.  My goal is to have a one stop spot where anyone can access a somewhat expanded history of the fest.  That's going to drop next week just prior to the beginning of this year's fest.

So, though today is a milestone, it's still not the completion of the project.

That said, here's the review of TFF #1:

Tributes: Francis Ford Coppola, Gloria Swanson, Leni Riefenstahl

SHOWS:

BBC Interview with Leni Riefenstahl
The Blue Light
The Chinese in Paris
The Conversation
Das Stahltier
Don't Touch the White Woman
Finian's Rainbow
Olympia
Peau Danne
Queen Kelly
The Rain People
Rivers of Sand
Sadie Thompson
Solaris
Stage Struck
Sunset Boulevard
Sweet Movie
The Thief of Baghdad
Triumph of the Will
White Hell of Pitz Palu
Why Change Your Wife
You're a Big Boy Now

In addition to the tribute recipients, British actress Julie Christie was reported to have attended the festival.


TRIBUTE ODDS

As the picture continues to get clearer about probable films that will part of the TFF #45 program, I thought it might be time to return to the contemplation of who might be tribute recipients this year.

I touched on this topic in a post on July 31st and since then, we've added some more film titles that are probable for Telluride...most notably Destroyer with Nicole Kidman starring.

So...here are ten people would could be tributed and what I guessing their odds are:

1) Nicole Kidman/Destroyer and Boy Erased Odds-2 to 1.
2) Sissy Spacek/The Old Man and the Gun Odds 3 to 1.
3) Alfonso Cuaron/Roma Odds- 3 to 1
4) Juliette Binoche/Non-Fiction Odds - 4 to 1
5) Hugh Jackman/The Front Runner Odds-5 to 1
6) Matthew McConaughey/White Boy Rick Odds-5 to 1
7) Ryan Gosling/First Man Odds- 10 to 1
8) Hirokazu Kore-eda/Sholifters Odds- 15 to 1
9) Rachel Wiesz/The Favourite Odds-20 to 1
10) Guillaume Canet/Non-Fiction Odds 25 to 1

Runner-up-Olivier Assayas/Non-Fiction Odds 30 to 1


INDIEWIRE'S FALL MOVIE PREVIEW

The staff at Indiewire have put together their "awards contenders" list of 25 films for the fall film season and listed them chronologically by release date.

If the latest Ten Bets list from last Friday is accurate (and I think it's pretty accurate) then nine TFF #45 films made their list:

White Boy Rick- Sept. 21
The Old Man and the Gun- Sept. 28
First Man- Oct. 12
Boy Erased- Nov. 2
The Other Side of the Wind- Nov.2
Peterloo- Nov. 9
The Favourite- Nov. 23
Cold War- Dec. 21
Roma- undated but likely a December release

On the list of the Indiewire films that could still land at Telluride: Mary Queen of Scots (Dec. 7), Welcome to Marwen (Dec. 21), Adam McKay's untitled Dick Cheney film (Dec. 21), Ad Astra (Dec. 21) and On the Basis of Sex (Dec. 25)

Check out the entire list at Indiewire.


THE PEOPLE'S TELLURIDE

For the seventh consecutive year MTFB is soliciting your input for The People's Telluride.  All you have to do is watch films during the fest and then, when it's all over, report to me your assessment of each film on a 1-5 scale with 1 being "UGH!" and 5 being "GREAT".

When the time comes, you can send those ratings to me in any of the following ways listed as contact info for me listed below.

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

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

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In Case You Missed It: Toronto and Venice News / Old Friends / Non-Fiction Has Distribution / The Elephant in the Room / And the Poster

Welcome to Thursday...


IN CASE YOU MISSED THEM

I am re-posting a couple of special items that came down the pike since my last regularly scheduled post on Tuesday morning:

TORONTO NEWS

From today's announcement of new titles from the Toronto International Film Festival:

Twelve films were added to the TIFF lineup Wednesday for their Platform Section.  All but one are listed as World or North American premieres taking them out of the Telluride conversation.  However Karyn Kusama's Destroyer starring Nicole Kidman with Sebastian Stan is listed as an International Premiere which indicates that it is now a likely title for The SHOW.

Destroyer has not yet been dated for U.S. release but you have to expect an awards qualifying date must be in the offing.  Destroyer is being distributed by Annapurna.

Let me just mention...a Nicole Kidman tribute?

Here's coverage of the announcement of Toronto's Platform section from:

The Hollywood Reporter

Indiewire

The Wrap

Deadline


 VENICE NEWS

It appears that the Venice Film Fest will announce their schedule earlier than expected.  The schedule was originally to have been announced on Friday but we should see the it on Thursday now according to the Twitterverse:

The schedule for films screening at the Venice Film Festival, which although not definitive in and of themselves, can offer clues about which films that are screening there could conceivably also make the lineup for TFF #45.  For example, if Errol Morris' American Dharma is scheduled Aug.29-31 or Sept. 6-8...that would indicate at least a temporal possibility for the documentary to play both in Venice and Telluride.

Based on last year's fests, I am expecting a half a dozen or so films to play both places.  We already are expecting: First Man, Roma, The Favourite and Peterloo.

These films are all potentially possible for a Venice play in addition to Telluride: Vox Lux, 22 July, Suspiria, Never Look Away, The Nightingale, American Dharma, They'll Love Me When I'm Dead, The Other Side of the Wind, The Mountain, Blood Kin and the new extended version of Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life.

My best guess here would be the two documentaries: Errol Morris' Steve Bannon doc; American Dharma and the Morgan Neville doc about making The Other Side of the Wind; They'll Love Me When I'm Dead.

OLD FRIENDS

Each year, at some point during the summer, I assess what I call "The Usual Suspects".  That's the list of directors, producers, actors, etc. that have seemed to established a relationship with Telluride through the years.

Almost without exception when the actual lineup is finalized, it feels a little like that might be an exercise in futility.  So, over the last couple of days, I took a look at the films that we are predicting/relatively confident about for 2018 to see if "The Usual Suspects" is a worthwhile metric.

At this point, I'm thinking we have  films that feature directors that have established a TFF connection after having screened films their previously:

First Man (Damian Chazelle-La La Land)
Roma (Alfonso Cuaron-Gravity)
Peterloo (Mike Leigh-Another Year and others)
The Front Runner (Jason Reitman-Up in the Air and others)
Dogman (Matteo Garrone-Gomorrah)
Cold War (Pawel Pawlikowski-Ida)
Meeting Gorbachev (Werner Herzog-he's had a few)
Non-Fiction (Olivier Assasyas-Carlos)

Then there's The Other Side of the Wind which is Orson Welles but also includes Frank Marshall and Peter Bogdanovich in significant roles getting the film done.

Ina addition, among other films we think will play that don't have a directing connection there are The Favourite which stars Emma Stone who has been to T-ride for two straight years.  The Old Man and the Gun which stars 2013 TFF Tributee Robert Redford and 2016 Tributee Casey Affleck.  White Boy Rick features 1993 TFF Tributee Jennifer Jason Leigh and Bruce Dern who attended TFF in 2013.  It also credits Darren Aronofsky as a producer who was at TFF in 2010 as the director of Black Swan.


So, I suppose, "The Usual Suspects" is still a useful metric.


NON-FICTION HAS DISTRIBUTION

Photo via Variety.com

We learned yesterday that Sundance Selects has acquired the rights to distribute Olivier Assasyas' Non-Fiction in the United States.

That story is covered here by The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline.

We believe that Non-Fiction will play as a part of the lineup at the Telluride Film Festival. 

Sundance Selects has had a significant history with Telluride along with their distributing partner IFC Films.  That tradition looks as if it will continue with Non-Fiction.


AND THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

I'm sure many of you saw the news from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences yesterday about changes coming to Oscar over the next season or two.

There were three significant changes announced:

Some categories will be shuffled off the live telecast...the categories were unnamed.
A new category will be added for Best "Popular" Film
And, the 2020 telecast will be moved up by a couple of weeks to Feb. 9th.

Largely the reaction in the Film Twitter world was negative, although there were a couple of notable defenders of the Best Popular Film move.

Of more interest to me was the decision to push the ceremony to earlier in February which, as a number of people noted yesterday, probably increases the importance of Telluride in regards to Oscar. 

That notion kind of makes my head spin a bit.  Telluride's influence vis-a-vis Oscar has grown dramatically over the years I have been attending (since 2006).  Whether that's by happenstance or design isn't particular important.  What is key is that as we move through the next couple of years, it's doubtful that T-ride's role in the Oscar season is going to wain.

It's likely to mean that a ticket that was tough to get last March (selling out in a couple of days) gets even more dicey for 2019 and 2020.

Honestly, I suspect that some changes will be forthcoming regarding ticketing for The SHOW. 

Stay tuned...


AND THE POSTER

It's true.  A poster exists.  I have been told that a copy of said poster has been hung in the window in The Nugget Theater in Telluride.

I have seen photographic evidence.

I am refraining from posting at this point as I await the official announcement from the festival.

Believe me, though, a poster exists.


That's all for now...more coming tomorrow including an updated Ten (Plus) Bets list and an analysis of the Venice schedule as it sets up potential Telluride players.


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

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