Gotham Awards Nominations / Occupied City Poster and Trailer / Interviews and Profiles: Payne, Hawke and More

GOTHAM AWARDS NOMINATIONS

The Gotham Awards nominees for 2023 were revealed on Tuesday.  It's the first of many, many awards groups and critics' group's recognitions for film of the year.

Seven TFF #50 films combined to earn 13 nominations lead by Andrew Haigh's All of Us Strangers with four.  Here's the nomination breakdown as reported by Next Best Picture. 

All of Us Strangers: Best International Feature, Lead Performance (Andrew Scott), Supporting Performance (Claire Foy) and Screenplay.

The Zone of Interest: Best International Feature, Supporting Performance (Sandra Huller), Screenplay.

Anatomy of a Fall: Best International Feature, Screenplay.

Poor Things: Best International Feature.

Totem: Best International Feature.

The Taste of Things: Best Supporting Performance (Juliette Binoche)

The Holdovers: Best Supporting Performance (Da'Vine Joy Randolph)

The Gotham Awards will be presented on Nov. 27th.

OCCUPIED CITY POSTER AND TRAILER

A24 has released a poster and a trailer for Steve McQueen's four hour long documentary focusing on the city of  Amsterdam; its occupation during World War II and the after effects of that.

Here's the poster:

And the trailer from YouTube:

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES: PAYNE, HAWKE AND MORE

Alexander Payne on The Holdovers from The Upcoming on YouTube.

Ethan Hawke on Wildcat from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Koji Yakusho on Perfect Days from The Hollywood Reporter.

Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi on Nyad from Vanity Fair.

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Anatomy of a Fall Poster and Trailer / Lenny Kravitz Sings for Rustin / Overlooked Possibility / Calling All People

ANATOMY OF A FALL POSTER AND TRAILER

Ahead of its expected appearance at Telluride next week, distributor Neon has released a poster (above) and a trailer. 

The film won this year's Palme d'Or at Cannes and stars Sandra Huller (Toni Erdmann).  IMDb describes it as follows:

"A woman is suspected of her husband's murder, and their blind son faces a moral dilemma as the sole witness."

Here's the official trailer from YouTube:

LENNY KRAVITZ SINGS FOR RUSTIN

Variety reports that singer/songwriter Lenny Kravitz has recorded an original song for the biopic Rustin.  I expect the film to be playing in Telluride over Labor Day weekend.  

Rustin stars Colman Domingo as Bayard Rustin, the true life civil and human rights activist that helped to create the 1963 March on Washington.  Domingo is already getting some Oscar buzz as Clayton Davis at Variety is currently predicting that he will be one of the five nominees.

Rustin is directed by George C. Wolfe and was written by Oscar winner Dustin Lance Black and Julian Breece.

Rustin is due in theaters on Nov. 17th.

OVERLOOKED POSSIBILTY

Still from Occupied City

I neglected to mention a week and a half ago that Steve McQueen's huge documentary (listed at IMDb at 246 min.) about the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam during World War II was announced for the New York fest without any premiere designation.  As it has not screened anywhere else since its debut at Cannes last May, we can probably expect to see it at Telluride.

The NYFF announcement says that the film will be screened there with an intermission.

McQueen has a solid history with TFF having screened Hunger, Shame and 12 Years a Slave at the fest.

CALLING ALL PEOPLE

For the 11th non-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".

Report your ratings to: mpgort@gmail.com 

The deadline for this year to turn in your ratings will be Sept. 15th.

I'll compile all of your responses and post those a few days after the festival.

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Checking the Distributors: A24 / More Venetian Thoughts

CHECKING THE DISTRIBUTORS: A24

Today continues our parade through film distribution companies that have had the largest presence at Telluride over the last 7-8 years and because of that are generally the most likely to place films into the TFF #50 lineup.  Today's candidate is A24 which, since 2015, has been the third most ubiquitous distrib at TFF with an average of just under hair under 2 films each year chosen to be in the Telluride list:  Here's their rundown of films since 2015:

2015-Room

2016-Moonlight

2017-First Reformed, Lady Bird, Lean on Pete

2019-Uncut Gems, Waves, First Cow

2021-C'mon C'mon, Red Rocket, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

2022-Aftersun, Close

Prior to 2015 A24 also screened Ginger + Rosa in 2012 and Under the Skin in 2013.

For 2023 and TFF #50 A24 has these films that are the most likely to appear and the chance that actually happens:

The Zone of Interest-50%

Priscilla-40%

Occupied City-30%

Love Lies Bleeding-20%

Tuesday-10%

MORE VENETIAN THOUGHTS

From The Hollywood Reporter this week, another spec piece about films that could play The Lido.  And then, of course, our job is to look at that list and parse what might be scheduled early enough to cross the Atlantic and be in Telluride a day or so later.

From the THR list, here are my guesses as to the films that could follow that scenario:

Poor Things/Lanthimos

Challengers/Gaudagnino

Maestro/Cooper

Saltburn/Fennell

Io Capitano/Garrone

Priscilla/Coppola

The Book of Clarence/Samuels

Nyad/Chin and Vasarhelyi

Drive Away Dolls/Coen

The Holdovers/Payne

Daaaaaali!/Dupieux

From this list the most likely by far is Alexander Payne's The Holdovers (though I think Nyad is a solid prediction too).  Least Likely are Bradley Cooper's Maestro and Ethan Coen's Drive Away Dolls.

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Kaurismaki's Fallen Leaves Has a Trailer / Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey Tops WOR Poll / McQueen's Occupied City Is Four Hours Long

KAURISMAKI'S FALLEN LEAVES HAS A TRAILER

Aki Kaurismaki's Fallen Leaves has been on the MTFB TFF #50 watch list for some time.  For moths it was rumored to be a choice for Cannes and that proved to be true as it was announced as a part of the Palme d'Or competition lineup back on April 13th.  

The film is set to be screened in Cannes on May 22nd.

Sales agent The Match Factory has released a trailer for the film ahead of its screening at Cannes.  Here it is from YouTube:

Here's the Variety story about the film and its trailer release.

KUBRICK'S 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY TOPS WOR POLL

I wrote on Monday that I had participated in World of Reel's latest "decade" poll.  This one called on a group of critics, bloggers and such to name the best films of the 1960s. Well, the results are in and Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey topped the poll with 53 votes.  Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho was #2 which was just outside the ten films I submitted.

Here's the top ten from World of Reel:

1) 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick) 53 votes

2) Psycho (Hitchcock) 50

3) Dr. Strangelove (Kubrick) 35

4) Lawrence of Arabia (Lean) 34

5) The Graduate (Nichols) 27

6) Bonnie and Clyde (Penn) 27

7) Persona (Bergman) 27

8) Rosemary’s Baby (Polanski) 22 

9) 8 1/2 (Fellini) 21

10) The Apartment (Wilder) 20

And a reminder of my top ten:

2001: A Space Odyssey

The Apartment 

Cool Hand Luke

Dr. Strangelove

The Graduate

The Hustler 

Lawrence of Arabia

Midnight Cowboy 

To Kill a Mockingbird

They Shoot Horses Don't They

WOR's story lists the top forty vote getters and you can see that entire list here.

MC QUEEN'S OCCUPIED CITY IS  FOUR HOURS LONG

The program for Cannes screenings reveals that Steve McQueen's documentary about Amsterdam and the effect World War II had on that city-Occupied City- is listed as being 4 hours and 6 minutes long.  That seems daunting but I can still see it as a TFF #50 selection. 

Here's the IMDb description of the film:

"The past collides with the present in this excavation of the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam: a journey from World War II to recent years of pandemic and protest and a provocative, life-affirming reflection on memory, time and what's to come."

McQueen has some Telluride history-Hunger, Shame, 12 Years a Slave.  The film is being distributed by A24 which certainly has had a presence at Telluride in recent years. 

Additionally, McQueen's other project-Blitz- which is a feature film focused on the Blitz of London during WW II,  may not be ready in time for TFF.  Jordan Ruimy at World of Reel indicated as much in his Venice post on May 5th. Absent its availability for TFF/Venice/TIFF Occupied City may be a hot commodity for the fall fests.

You can see the Cannes program here.

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Cannes: What's In and What's Out / Hiatus Time Starts Today

CANNES: WHAT'S IN AND WHAT'S OUT

The Cannes Film Festival has announced their lineup across several different categories and generally speaking the various outlets that have been speculating what will play have been spot on.

These are the films that seem the most likely to make the crossover between Cannes and Telluride from each of the various sections:

Competition:

The Zone of Interest/Glazer

Fallen Leaves/Kaurismaki

Monster/Kore-eda

La Chimera/Rohrwacher

May/December/Haynes

Perfect Days/Wenders

Un Certain Regard:

The New Boy/Thornton

Out of Competition:

Killers of the Flower Moon/Scorsese

Cobweb/Jee-woon

Special Screenings:

Occupied City/McQueen

Anselm/Wenders

Short Films:

Strange Way of Life/Almodovar

As has often been the case with Cannes,  Festival Director Thierry Fremaux revealed that there will be other films added in the coming days.  I'll be eagerly watching for those additions to see if the added films might also smell like they could be Telluride bound.

Here's the complete lineup from Variety.

HIATUS TIME STARTS TODAY

MTFB will be on Hiatus for the next three weeks.  I'll still be keeping an eye on the buzz from Cannes and other possible sources of intell re: TFF #50.  

Should anything vital emerge over the next three weeks I'll post that on my Twitter account @Gort2 and/or MTFB's Facebook page.

MTFB will return on May 4th. 

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