The FAC and Other Oscar Categories / Oscar Matters: Pods / Focus On: "Spotlight", "Suffragette" and "Black Mass"

It's Thursday.

THE FAC LOOKS AT SOME OTHER OSCAR CATEGORIES

As we hit the mid-point of November, we're edging ever closer to the releases of a slew of year end critic's Ten Best lists.  December is rife with those and that's just around the corner.  They act as a constant reminder that the race for Oscar is about to get really serious.

Consequently, I thought I'd take the time today to run the numbers on a four Oscar categories that we haven't considered here at the FAC thus far for this season.  So today we look at Film Editing, Cinematography, Foreign Language Film and Documentary Feature.


For the purpose of The FAC I gather data from the publicly posted predictions of the following:

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

TFF #42 films are in Bold.


BEST FILM EDITING

1) The Revenant
2) Spotlight
3) Mad Max: Fury Road
4) Bridge of Spies
5) Steve Jobs

6) The Martian
7) Joy
8) Sicario
9) The Hateful Eight
10) Jurassic Park

Comment: The category that has become semi-mythical in terms of its pairing with the eventual Best Picture winner seems to be among the top six films here.  Though, any of these ten could get in.


BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

1) The Revenant
2) Sicario
3) Mad Max; Fury Road
4) Carol
5) Bridge of Spies

6) The Hateful Eight
7) The Martian
8) In the Heart of the Sea
9) The Danish Girl
10) Son of Saul

Comment:  The five nominees probably come from the top seven listed here.

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

1) Son of Saul
2) Labyrinth of Lies
3) Mustang
4) Second Mother
5) The Assassin

6) Rams
7) Viva
8) Goodnight Mommy
9) The Club
10) A Pigeon Sat on a Branch...

Comment:  This category is largely believed to be about narrowing the field down to the four films that eventually lose to "Son of Saul".  In a year where most categories are still fairly unpredictable, "Saul" might be the surest bet for Oscar of any film in any category.


BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

1) Amy
2) The Look of Silence (TFF #41)
3) Going Clear
4) Best of Enemies
5) The Hunting Ground

6) Where Do We Invade Next?
7) He Named Me Malala
8) Listen to Me Marlon
9) Miss Simone
10) Cartel Land


Comment: Reflecting the sense that I got at Telluride this year, there's only one TFF #42 documentary that seems to have a shot this year and "Malala" is playing from behind.  TFF #41's "Look of Silence" looks solid.

If The FAC is 100% on the money, TFF #42 films earn another five nominations from these four categories with another four possibilities.


OSCAR MATTERS: PODS

Continuing our Thursday theme focused on the latest Oscar info, here are links to Oscar Poker with hosts Sasha Stone of Awards Daily and Jeffrey Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere and with special guest Erik Anderson of Awards Watch:

http://www.awardsdaily.com/podcasts/oscarpoker/episode115.mp3

and Awards Chatter featuring The Hollywood Reporter's Scott Feinberg:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/awards-chatter-podcast-michael-moore-838623


And here's a handy overview of over thirty films culled by the staff at Variety that they believe have the largest Oscar potential.  The list includes Telluride #42 films: "Anomalisa", "Beasts of No Nation", "Black Mass", "Carol", "45 Years", "Room", "Son of Saul", "Spotlight", "Steve Jobs" and "Suffragette".  Here's the link to the complete list:


http://variety.com/gallery/best-pictures-oscar-contenders-2015/


FOCUS ON: "SPOTLIGHT", "SUFFRAGETTE" AND "BLACK MASS"

This section includes interviews from "Suffragette" director Sarah Gavron, "Black Mass' star Johnny Depp and "Spotlight" director Tom McCarthy.  There's also a link to a dissection of "Spotlight" from Uproxx:


Sarah Gavron:

http://theyoungfolks.com/review/sarah-gavron-interview-suffragette/66460

Johnny Depp:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/afi-fest-johnny-depp-talks-black-mass-auditioning-for-the-coen-brothers-working-with-scott-cooper-more-20151109

Tom McCarthy:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/telluride-director-tom-mccarthy-puts-spotlight-on-sexually-predatory-catholic-priests-20150908

"Spotlight" feature:

http://uproxx.com/movies/2015/11/spotlight-inside-story/


That's the Thursday edition of MTFB/FAC.  Come back on Monday for more and have a great weekend...

Contact me at:

michael_speech@hotmail.com OR

mpgort@gmail.com OR

via Twitter @Gort2 OR to

Michael's Telluride Film Blog's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Michaels-Telluride-Film-Blog-and-The-Film-Awards-Clearinghouse/107846269309712

"Anomalisa" Trailer / Abi Morgan and "Suffragette" / "Spotlight" in the T.V. Spotlight / Oscar Matters: The Gurus Speak and Oscar Poker

Good Thursday to All...

"ANOMALISA" TRAILER

A lot of fanfare occurred this week with the release of a trailer for Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson's stop motion animated "Anomalisa" which was a big hit among the Professionals at Telluride according to their responses to my informal survey posted last month.  Check the trailer here and a number of stories that announced its release below:

"Anomalisa" trailer via YouTube

http://variety.com/2015/film/news/anomalisa-trailer-charlie-kaufman-1201631571/

http://www.indiewire.com/article/watch-anomalisa-trailer-introduces-charlie-kaufman-weird-and-wonderful-stop-motion-world-20151102

http://thefilmstage.com/trailer/charlie-kaufman-returns-with-first-trailer-for-anomalisa/

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/watch-first-trailer-for-charlie-kaufmans-stop-motion-animated-film-anomalisa-20151102

ABI MORGAN AND "SUFFRAGETTE"

"Suffragette" scribe Abi Morgan talks to Word and Film about the film:

http://www.wordandfilm.com/2015/11/mavericks-movement-a-qa-with-suffragette-writer-abi-morgan/

"SPOTLIGHT" IN THE T.V. SPOTLIGHT

"Spotlight" from director/writer Tom McCarthy dropped a 30 second television spot this week.  The film opens Friday.  Check the exclusive online posting of the T.V. spot at Indiewire here:

http://www.indiewire.com/article/watch-exclusive-spotlight-tv-spot-teases-one-of-the-years-best-films-20151029

OSCAR MATTERS: THE GURUS SPEAK

Movie City News has their first installment of The Gurus of Gold posted for the 2015-16 Oscar campaign.  The first pass includes Best Picture, Director and all four Acting categories.  Of interest to Telluride aficionados might be the following about TFF #42 films from the various categories:

Best Picture: "Spotlight" at #1 (barely edging "The Martian"), "Room" at #3, "Steve Jobs" at #8 and "Carol" at #9.  "Son of Saul" is at the #13 spot and "Beasts of No Nation' and "45 Years" each had a vote from the Gurus.

Best Direction: McCarthy/"Spotlight" #1, Haynes/"Carol" #7, Boyle/"Jobs" #8, Abrahamson/"Room" #9 and Nemes/"Saul" #10

Best Actress: Larson/"Room" #1, Blanchett/"Carol" #3, Mulligan/"Suffragette" #5, Rampling/"45 Years" #7.

Best Actor: Fassbender/"Jobs" #1, Depp/"Black Mass" #6.  Geza Rohrig from "Son of Saul" gets a vote.

Best Supporting Actress: Mara/"Carol" #1, Winslet/"Jobs" #3, Allen/"Room" #6, McAdams/"Spotlight" #8.  Juliette Nicholson from "Black Mass" gets a vote.

Best Supporting Actor: Keaton/"Spotlight" #2, Ruffalo/"Spotlight" #3, Elba/"Beasts" #5, Tremblay/"Room" #8 and Edgerton/"Black Mass #10.

If the Gurus are 100% accurate (and there are nine Best Picture nominations) then Telluride 2015 films will earn 14 nominations from these five categories.

The complete Gurus of Gold can be found here:

http://moviecitynews.com/2015/11/gurus-o-gold-in-the-starting-gate/

OSCAR MATTERS: OSCAR POKER

And Sasha Stone/Awards Daily and Jeffrey Wells/Hollywood Elsewhere are up with their latest edition of their podcast "Oscar Poker".  Here's the link to that:

http://www.awardsdaily.com/podcasts/oscarpoker/episode114.mp3

That's all for Thursday...and actually ON Thursday this week (unlike last week).  Have an excellent weekend and come back to see what I've got on Monday...

Contact me at:

michael_speech@hotmail.com OR

mpgort@gmail.com OR

via Twitter @Gort2 OR to

Michael's Telluride Film Blog's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Michaels-Telluride-Film-Blog-and-The-Film-Awards-Clearinghouse/107846269309712

Interviews and Backgrounds for "Malala", "Steve Jobs" and "Room" / Oscar Matters: Screen Talk, Oscar Poker and The Awards Pundits

Good Monday to all.  Back from Dallas and headed back to the every day...


INTERVIEWS AND BACKGROUNDS FOR...

"HE NAMED ME MALALA"

Time's Eliza Berman is behind this "Behind the scenes"featurette about the creation of the Davis Guggenheim documentary "He Named Me Malala".

That is here:

http://time.com/4075739/malala-yousafzai-featurette/


"STEVE JOBS"

The National Board of Review talks about the Danny Boyle film that peers at the life of Apple co-creator Steve Jobs,  Included in the Q and A are Boyle, Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Jeff Daniels and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin.

Here that is:

http://www.nationalboardofreview.org/2015/10/qa-with-michael-fassbender-jeff-daniels-danny-boyle-aaron-sorkin-and-kate-winslet/


"ROOM"

The NBR folks also spent some time with Brie Larson discussing her film, "Room".  Here's the link for that:

http://www.nationalboardofreview.org/2015/10/qa-with-brie-larson/


OSCAR MATTERS:  SCREEN TALK AND THE AWARDS PUNDITS

Here's the link to the latest installment of Screen Talk featuring Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood and Eric Kohn of Indiewire.  Included are discussions of "Room" and "Beasts of No Nation":

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/screen-talk-we-handicap-the-awards-chances-of-a-slew-of-new-weekend-openers-20151016

Sasha Stone and Jeff Wells (with special guest Erik Anderson of Awards Watch) are here with their latest look at the Oscar field on Oscar Poker:

http://www.awardsdaily.com/2015/10/18/oscar-poker-dives-into-the-top-categories/

Meanwhile, over at The Hollywood Reporter, there's another edition of "The Awards Pundits" with Scott Feinberg and Steve Galloway.  "Beasts of No Nation" also gets a mention in there discussion as does "Steve Jobs".  That is here:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/awards-pundits-oscar-presidential-race-832659



That's it for a Monday in October.  More to come on Thursday including a new look at the Film Awards Clearinghouse for Best Picture, Director, Actress and Actor.


Contact me at:

michael_speech@hotmail.com OR

mpgort@gmail.com OR

via Twitter @Gort2 OR to

Michael's Telluride Film Blog's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Michaels-Telluride-Film-Blog-and-The-Film-Awards-Clearinghouse/107846269309712

The Professionals Telluride / Speaking of Saul / Tis the Season...For Oscar Speculation / Rate the Films!

Welcome to Monday...a week removed from the conclusion of TFF #42 and it already seems too long ago and, of course, too long until TFF #43.

THE PROFESSIONALS TELLURIDE

The Pros have spoken.  The results below after a word or two.

In all 13 additional professionals were kind enough to lend their input to this project, now in its fourth incarnation.  Mark Johnson of AwardsCircuit.com was a late entry to the project and I was happy to add his voice to those of the others.

The compete list of professionals is as follows:

Nick Allen/Chicago Film Critics Assn. member/RogerEbert.com
Alex Billington/FirstShowing.net..
David Ehrlich/Time Out New York
Greg Ellwood/HitFix
Scott Feinberg/The Hollywood Reporter
Eric Kohn/Indiewire
Mark Johnson/AwardsCircuit.com
Tomris Laffly/Movie Mezzanine/Film Journal
Kenny Miles/The Movie Blog
Christopher Schiller/ScriptMag.com
Sasha Stone/Awards Daily
Kristopher Tapley/Variety/InContention
Anne Thompson/Thompson on Hollywood

You should know that I only included films that received ratings from at least one third of the panel which left films like "Rams" and "Hitchcock/Truffaut just off of the list.  In all 13 films made the cut with enough ratings to be included.

Here are your results for 2015 with their cumulative rating following in parenthesis:

1) Son of Saul (4.44)
2) Anomalisa (4.42)
3) Spotlight (4.41)
4) Steve Jobs (4.31)
5) Beasts of No Nation (4.27)
6) Carol (4.11)
7) 45 Years (4.06)
8) Taxi (4.00)
9) Black Mass (3.85)
10) Time to Choose (3.57)
11) Room (3.50)
12) Suffragette (3.49)
13) He Named Me Malala (2.83)


"Son of Saul" tops The Professionals poll for TFF #42.  You might recall from last week that "Saul" also topped Indiewrie's Critic's poll for the fest as well.  Compared to past poll leaders, "Saul" lagged a bit.  In 2014 "Birdman" lead the Pros ratings with a combined 4.72.  Even second place film "Foxcatcher" rated better at 4.63.

In 2013, "12 Years a Slave led the way with a 4.7 rating.  In 2012, the first year for the project, "The Central Park Five was on top with a 4.7 rating as well.

Thursday, we'll see how The People compare when I post those results.  If you haven't sent me your ratings...now is the time as Wednesday at 5pm Pacific Daylight Time is the deadline for inclusion.


SPEAKING OF "SAUL"

The probable front runner for Best Foreign Language Oscar and Cannes Grand Prix winner, "Son of Saul" is also making a splash at Toronto.  That fest started on Sept. 10 and runs until this weekend (The 20th).  The Film Stage linked a 30 minute interview with the films young rookie director, Laszlo Nemes that you can access here:

http://thefilmstage.com/news/watch-son-of-saul-director-laszlo-nemes-30-minute-tiff-discussion-on-his-cannes-winning-drama/


TIS THE SEASON...FOR OSCAR SPECULATION

It has begun and won't end until the end of February.  Oscar season is upon us with Venice and Telluride concluded and Toronto half way over.  What's the Oscar buzz?

Check out Oscar Poker with Sasha Stone/Awards Daily and Jeffrey Wells/Hollywood Elsewhere:

http://www.awardsdaily.com/podcasts/oscarpoker/episode108.mp3


As well as Sasha's first take after Toronto got underway:

http://www.awardsdaily.com/blog/2015/09/whats-the-buzz-out-of-toronto-so-far/



ANOTHER REMINDER: DON'T FORGET TO SEND YOUR RATINGS BY WEDNESDAY!

michael_speech@hotmail.com OR

mpgort@gmail.com OR

via Twitter @Gort2 OR to

Michael's Telluride Film Blog's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Michaels-Telluride-Film-Blog-and-The-Film-Awards-Clearinghouse/107846269309712

Oscar in the Headlights/Directors Talking

Good Monday Everyone...hope you had a good weekend.

OSCAR IN THE HEADLIGHTS

It's down to less than a week until the envelopes are unsealed and the closest Best Picture race in a good long while comes to an end.  I'll have a final FAC Check of the Oscar categories on Thursday with the possibility of some tweaking on Friday and Saturday...maybe even Sunday morning.  As I wrote last week, I am planning to include all 24 Oscar categories including the "Shorts" in this final prognostication.

What's buzzing as we move into the last two days of Oscar balloting (remember balloting must be done by 5PM Pacific Time tomorrow)?

***It's still a horse race for Best Picture.  "12 Years a Slave" with a perceived slight edge over "Gravity" with no one completely dismissing the chance that it could be "American Hustle".

***Almost everyone that thinks they know this stuff is saying that Alfonso Cuaron wins Best Director regardless of the Best Picture outcome.

***Three of the four four acting categories have front runners that seem virtual locks: McConaughey for Actor for "Dallas Buyers Club", Leto for Supporting in the same film and Cate Blanchett for Actress for "Blue Jasmine".  Best Supporting Actress is a closer contest with Lupita Nyong'o Of  "12 Years" perceived to have a small advantage over Jennifer Lawrence for "Hustle".

I have been hearing some buzz about a possible DiCaprio surprise for Actor but Leto and Blanchett appear solid.  There's even a bit of a Chiwetel Ejiofor buzz after his BAFTA win last week.

***"Gravity" is going to win the most trophies Sunday night.  The questions are: How many? and Which ones?

***"Hustle" could end the night with no wins despite having the most nominations of any film (10, tied with "Gravity").  It's best chance is in Original Screenplay where it's thought that it's in a very tight race with "Her".  It's next best chance is Lawrence and its third best shot might actually be Best Picture.

***I mentioned this on my last post, at the end of the night the film with the second most wins may very well be "Dallas Buyers Club" which is seen as likely winning three: Actor, Supporting Actor and Makeup/Hair.  If "12 Years" goes down in Best Picture, Supporting Actress and/or Adapted Screenplay all of which could happen.

***As a matter of fact, "12 Years" could go home empty handed.

Anyway, the Oscar season is in full force for six more days...

Here are some of the last few days key Oscar prognosticators:

Gurus of Gold and their "top three" edition:

http://moviecitynews.com/2014/02/gurus-o-gold-top-3/

Also the Gurus "If We Could Sway the Academy" edition:

http://moviecitynews.com/2014/02/gurus-o-gold-if-we-could-sway-the-academy/

Here's a link to Scott Feinberg's next to last Feinberg Forecast...he still has "12 Years" listed on top for Best Picture:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/feinberg-forecast-whos-up-whos-680714

Feinberg has also posted his "Forecast" for the Shorts categories.  You can find that here:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/oscars-winner-predictions-whos-going-682650

And Sasha Stone has her latest installment of "The State of the Race" in which she says what I say...it's about Telluride:

http://www.awardsdaily.com/blog/the-state-of-the-race-down-to-the-wire-best-picture-still-set-on-telluride-time/

And Stone and Jeff Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere have put up a rare version of Oscar Poker as we enter this last week before the awards:

http://www.hollywood-elsewhere.com/2014/02/oscar-poker-pulse/


DIRECTORS TALKING

Fox Searchlight tweeted this link to an interview with "12 Years a Slave" director Steve McQueen over the weekend:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3f2x189cLoo&feature=youtu.be

And Daniel Montgomery of Gold Derby has this interview with Oscar nominated documentarian and TFF #39 participant Joshua Oppenheimer whose "The act of Killing" is in hot competition to win the Best Doc Oscar on Sunday night:

http://www.goldderby.com/news/5694/oscars-documentary-act-of-killing-joshua-oppenheimer-entertainment-news-37485960.html


More on Thursday...