Time to Look at Distributors: A24 / Pics from The Bikeriders / So, About Anora

TIME TO LOOK AT DISTRBUTORS: A24

We're in early June which means that Cannes is done; Venice announcing its lineup is on the horizon and the first "Ten Bets:" for TFF #51 is two weeks away.  That means our annual summer review of what frequent TFF distribution companies have in the various film larders is nigh and we try to get a sense, from that perspective, about films that could be at Telluride on Labor Day weekend.

This year we start with A24.  I might not start there most years but I'm prodded by an article posted from Deadline.com that points to A24's fall crop of films making it an easy place to begin.

Last year A24 had four films make the TFF grade:

The Zone of Interest

Occupied City

Tuesday

Janet Planet

Previous years at TFF for A24:

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

In order of mention, these are the seven films that Deadline's Anthony D'Alessandro's piece:

The Front Room/Eggers Brothers

A Different Man/Aaron Shimberg

We Live in Time/John Crowley

Heretic/Scott Beck and Bryan Wood

Babygirl/Halona Reijn

On Becoming a Guinea Fowl/Rungano Nyoni

Parthenope/Paolo Sorrentino

My assessment of these film's chances of playing TFF:

Parthenope 50%

We Live in Time 45%

Babygirl 40%

On Becoming a Guinea Fowl 35%

Heretic 5%

The Front Room 5%

A Different Man 5%

An outside shot might be David Lowery's Mother Mary which has been in post-production since July of 2023.

Of the list, We Live in Time would be at the top of my list of these titles to actually see with my own eyeballs in T-ride.

Here's the complete Deadline piecenull.

PICS FROM THE BIKERIDERS

A late breaking entry from TFF #50 is Jeff Nichols The Bikeriders.  The film is set for release on June 21st.  Back when it screened at Telluride it looked like it would be a fall release but those plans changed.

Nevertheless, I was a moderately big fan of the film back at TFF and am looking forward to its release.  When it screened at Telluride there was a good deal of buzz about Jodie Comer's performance especially.  It'll be interesting to see if she can get some buzz going here at the beginning of summer.

Anywho...The Hollywood Reporter has some new pics from the film.

You can see them here.

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SO, ABOUT ANORA

Yes, the Sean Baker film won the Plame d'Or at Cannes a couple of weeks back.  Discerning MTFB readers may have noticed that I had sort of edged away from including it as a TFF possibility because I was sure that I had seen somewhere that a summer release was going to happen.

After it won the Palme, I saw some speculation that if could play Telluride.  I reached out to a couple of friends who told me no such summer release was happening.  

As if to bolster that point, Variety and other sources reported Tuesday that Anora will be released on Oct. 18th.  That puts it in good shape to be a TFF selection and actually will likely make it among the 10 films in MTFB's initial "Ten Bets" for TFF #51 coming in two weeks on June 20th.

Here's the Variety story on the release date:null 

And...turns out I didn't make the summer release date story up.  A now deleted post on X from The Film Stage from April 24th said that:

 

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The Critics Past the Cannes Half Way Point / Rasoulof Saga Continues / Deadline Details Film Fest Woes / Interviews and Profiles from Cannes: Gary Oldman

THE CRITICS PAST THE CANNES HALF WAY POINT:

Screen Daily has their top five thus far (on a four point scale):

1) Anora 3.3

2) Grand Tour 3.0

3) The Substance 2.7

4) Caught by the Tides 2.6

5) Emilia Perez 2.5

Link to the Screen Daily chart.

Ioncinema's panel's top five (on a five point scale):

1) Anora 3.5

2) Emilia Perez 3.4

3) Bird 3.0

3) Oh, Canada 3.0

3) Caught by the Tides 3.0

Link to Ioncinema's chart.

The International Cinephile Society's top five (on a four point scale):

1) Anora 3.55

2) Grand Tour 3.50

3) Caught by the Tides 3.28

4) Bird 3.0

5) The Substance 2.79

Link to the ICS chart.

RASOULOF SAGA CONTINUES

The latest wrinkle in the saga of Mohammad Rasoulof, his film, the government of Iran and Cannes is that the film maker will attend the 77th edition of the prestigious fest.

Multiple sources are reporting Rasoulof will be in Cannes in person for the screening of his The Seed of the Scared Fig.  Here's the story from Indiewire and The Hollywood Reporter.

The film is set to premiere tomorrow.

DEADLINE DETAIILS FILM FEST WOES

Deadline's Matthew Carey contributed to an article on Film Fests and their current tribulations that was published on Tuesday, May 21st.  The article focuses on European and North American fests and details some of the challenges facing a number of major festival including Telluride.

In the North American section of the story Carey writes of TFF :

"Both Sundance and the Telluride Film Festival benefit from the allure of their exclusive mountain settings, but the high price of travel and lodging have made it increasingly difficult for industry to attend.

“Telluride is really under pressure for the cost to house their own programmers and just to house the people who work for the festival,” says a senior sales agent and veteran Telluride attendee. “We feel that, just attending the festival alone. It is so high and it’s getting higher.”

The complete Deadline article is here.

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES FROM CANNES

Gary Oldman on Parthenope from The Hollywood Reporter.

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Megalopolis Trailer / Third Trailer for The Bikeriders / Parthenope Has a Home

MEGALOPOLIS TRAILER

Just this weekend American Zoetrope released an initial trailer for Francis ford Coppola's anticipated Megalopolis.  The film is set to debut at Cannes.  I have wondering (hoping?) if it might be a TFF #51 selection.  

Here's the trailer from YouTube and JoBlo:

THIRD TRAILER FOR THE BIKERIDERS

This past week we got a new poster for Jeff Nichol's The Bikeriders which world premiered at Telluride in September.  A day or so later Focus Features dropped a third teaser/trailer for the film .  Here that is from YouTube and JoBlo Upcoming Movies:

The Bikeriders opens June 21st.

PARTHENOPE HAS A HOME

Many of the early Oscar predictions and looks at "Most Anticipated" lists that I have been looking at to get a sense of what films might be in line for a T-ride berth have included Paolo Sorrentino's Parthenope.  The case for a possible screening at TFF #51 may have been strengthened this week as the film was picked by A24 for U.S. distribution ahead of its premiere screening in competition at the Cannes Film Festival in a couple of weeks.

A24 has become a consistent presence at Telluride in recent years including screening of The Zone of Interest (2023). Aftersun (2022) and Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (2021) among many others.

The acquisition of Parthenope by A24 doesn't guarantee anything, but it also doesn't hurt.

Here are the details from Deadline.com.

Parthenope is described as follows (from the Deadline article):

"The movie follows Parthenope, who born in the sea of Naples in 1950, searches for happiness over the long summers of her youth, falling in love with her home city and its many memorable characters." 

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Cannes Lineup Revealed

CANNES LINEUP REVEALED

Early this morning the Cannes Film Festival officially revealed most of its lineup.  This is of particular interest to Telluride Film Fest followers because most years there is a substantial cross over from Cannes to T-ride.  The average is somewhere around 7-8 films per year.  So let's see what Cannes 2024 will be screening.  Per Variety:

OPENER

“Second Act,” Quentin Dupieux

COMPETITION

“All We Imagine as Light,” Payal Kapadia

“Anora,” Sean Baker

“Bird,” Andrea Arnold

“Caught by the Tides” (“Feng Liu Yi Dai”), Jia Zhang-Ke

“Emilia Perez,” Jacques Audiard

“Grand Tour,” Miguel Gomes

“Kinds of Kindness,” Yorgos Lanthimos

“L’Amour Ouf,” Gilles Lellouche

“Limonov: The Ballad,” Kirill Serebrennikov

“Marcello Mio,” Christophe Honore

“Megalopolis,” Francis Ford Coppola

“Motel Destino,” Karim Ainouz

“Oh Canada,” Paul Schrader

“Parthenope,” Paolo Sorrentino

“The Apprentice,” Ali Abbasi

“The Girl With the Needle,” Magnus von Horn

“The Shrouds,” David Cronenberg

“The Substance,” Coralie Fargeat

“Wild Diamond” (“Diamant Brut”), Agathe Riedinger

UN CERTAIN REGARD

“Armand,” Halfdan Ullman Tondel

“Black Dog” (“Gou Zhen”), Guan Hu

“The Damned” (Les Damnes”), Roberto Minervini

“L’Histoire de Souleymane,” Boris Lojkine

“Le Royaume,” Julien Colonna

“My Sunshine” (“Boku No Ohisama”), Hiroshi Okuyama

“Norah,” Tawfik Alzaidi

“On Becoming a Guinea Fowl,” Rungano Nyoni

“Santosh,” Sandhya Suri

“September Says,” Ariane Labed

“The Shameless,” Konstantin Bojanov

“Viet and Nam,” Truong Minh Quy

“The Village Next to Paradise,” Mo Harawe

“Vingt Dieux!,” Louise Courvoisier

“Who Let the Dog Bite?” (“Le Proces du Chien”), Laetitia Dosch

OUT OF COMPETITION

“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” George Miller

“Horizon, an American Saga,” Kevin Costner

“Rumours,” Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson, Guy Maddin

“She’s Got No Name,” Chan Peter Ho-Sun

CANNES PREMIERE

“C’est Pas Moi,” Leos Carax

“En Fanfare” (“The Matching Bang”), Emmanuel Courcol

“Everybody Loves Touda,” Nabil Ayouch

From these lists it seems like the most probable TFF choices might include:

Andrea Arnold's Bird

Jacques Audiard's Emilia Perez

Francia Ford Coppola's Megalopolis

Paul Shrader's Oh, Canada

Paolo Sorrention's Parthenope

Ali Abbasi's The Apprentice

Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson's Rumours

Rithy Pahn's Rendezous with Pol Pot

I had been including Sean Baker's Anora but this past week World of Reel suggested that the film would be released this summer.

Here's the entire Variety story.

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More Cannes Thoughts / The Cannes-Oscar Scoreboard

MORE CANNES THOUGHTS 

With a week left until the announcement of the lineup for the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, I've added a look at analysis from Deadline as to what may be in and out.

Those films that Deadline mentions that feel like a Telluride possibility include:

Parthenope- Dir: Paolo Sorrentino

Bird- Dir: Andrea Arnold

Conclave- Dir: Edward Berger

Touch- Dir: Baltasar Kormakur

Deadline also mentions Frances ford Coppola's Megalopolis is still possible but uncertain due to Coppola's aiming for an IMAX release.

The piece also includes a listing of a number of films that have had Cannes speculation that likely will not be in France in May including:

Pablo Larrain's Maria

Sean Baker's Anora

Paul Schrader's Oh, Canada

Mike Leigh's Hard Truths

Luca Guadagnino's Queer

Joshua Oppenheimer's The End

Ali Abbasi' The Apprentice

Jacques Audiard's Emilia Perez

And one other surprising Telluride related nugget:  Deadline suggests that Jeff Nichol's The Bikeriders which played at TFF #50 might actually get a slot at Cannes.  Author Andreas Wiseman writes:

"Another movie in the wildcard section of this discussion is Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeriders, which is being discussed by insiders for a potential slot somewhere in the lineup. On paper, this seems an unlikely choice given that it launched at North American festivals and at London last year but Nichols has history with Cannes and the starry movie isn’t released until June. The door isn’t shut on this one."

That would be a wild reversal of the often occurring Cannes to Telluride pipeline.

The complete Deadline post is here.

THE CANNES-OSCAR SCOREBOARD

Beginning with my March 14th post I have been scouring early Oscar predictions and Cannes spec pieces for clues about films which could be potential selections for TFF #51.  I'll have a couple of more Cannes looks on Monday next week prior to the actual announcement from France.  right now, though, these are the films that have shown up on the lists most frequently and how many times they've been mentioned:

Magalopolis (7)

Bird (6)

Conclave (6)

Maria (6)

Parthenope (5)

The End (5)

The Apprentice (5)

Blitz (5)

The Piano Lesson (5)

Queer (5)

Emilia Perez (4)

The Actor (4)

The Nickel Boys (4)

Long Day's Journey Into Night (4)

Anora (3)

Hard Truths (3)

SNL 1975 (2)

Oh, Canada (2)

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More Cannes Speculation / Orlando Has a Date

 MORE CANNES SPECULATION

Over the weekend I checked in on Jordan Ruimy /World of Reel's evolving list of possible films that will be invited to the Cannes Film Festival in less than two weeks (April 11th).  As always, I look to Cannes for the emergence of films that could World Premiere there in May and then emerge at Telluride as North American premieres.

Looking at Ruimy's list, it seems like there is a lot of agreement with films that I included from Screen Daily's Cannes list last week.  Here are the films from Ruimy's post that I feel like have the most likely chance of playing TFF:

Megalopolis-Dir: Frances Ford Coppola (although there's a good deal of buzz that it may NOT appear at Cannes after all.  It seems that Coppola wants a distribution deal in place before the film screens anywhere and if that doesn't happen, the focus for its first public screening might switch to a fall festival scenario-stay tuned).

Anora- Dir: Sean Baker

Bird- Dir: Andrea Arnold

Emilia Perez- Dir: Jacques Audiard

Hard Truths- Dir: Mike Leigh

Parthenope- Dir: Paolo Sorrentino

The End- Dir: Joshua Oppenheimer

The Apprentice- Dir: Ali Abbasi

In the Hands of Dante- Dir: Julian Schnabel

Rumors- Dir: Guy Maddin

WOR's complete list is linked here.

ORLANDO HAS A DATE

Janus Films has announced a release date for physical media sales of Paul B. Preciado's Orlando: My Political Biography.  Blu-Ray and DVD sales of the documentary will begin on June 25th.

Here's the IMDb description of the film:

"Academic virtuoso turned filmmaker Paul B. Preciado's Berlin Film Festival award-winning doc tells his and others' stories of transition through unique reenactments and visual interpretations of Virginia Woolf's Orlando: A Biography."

And here is the announcement from Janus Films.

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Some Other Post Oscar Notes / So Early, But... / Interviews and Profiles

SOME OTHER POST OSCAR NOTES

2023's edition of the Telluride Film Festival was much more Oscar connected than the 2022 SHOW.  The 49th TFF had films that earned 17 total nominations and a single win for Best Adapted Screenplay for Sarah Polley's Women Talking.

The 50th version saw a dramatic jump in both nominations and wins.  35 total nominations and an a solid nine wins.  For context the 35 nominations tied 2016 and 2021 TFFs for the years with the most nominations.  The nine Oscar wins is the third largest number of Oscar wins for TFFs. 2016 saw TFF films win 12 Oscars and in 2013 TFF films won 10.

For other trivia about the TFF/Oscar connection take a look next week at my TFF Unofficial Oscar History page which has a link above.

SO EARLY, BUT...

Gold Derby is up with an incredibly early list of 20 films that they bill as "Early Contenders" for Oscar glory a year from now.  That gives me an opportunity to begin looking at those films and see which ones could be TFF #51 contenders as well.

What to kook for?  TFF history with a film's director, producer and/or distributor.  Or sometimes it's a gut feeling irrespective of any of those characteristics.

At any rate...here are films from the list of 20 that seem like TFF possibilities:

The Apprentice Dir: Ali Abbasi.

Bird Dir: Andrea Arnold.

Blitz Dir: Steve McQueen.  Distrib: Apple TV+

Conclave Dir: Edward Berger.  Distrib: Focus Features

Maria Dir: Pablo Larrain (it probably also doesn't hurt for TFF chances that the cinematographer is Ed Lachman)

Megalopolis Dir: Frances Ford Coppola

Parthenope Dir: Paolo Sorrentino

The Piano Lesson Dir: Malcolm Washington. Distrib: Netflix

Queer Dir: Luca Guadagnino

Here's the link to the entire piece from Gold Derby.

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Actor Christian Friedel for the two time Oscar winning The Zone of Interest from The Hollywood Reporter.