Who's Got What? Distributors-Sony Pictures Classics / Whispers: Elsinore??? / The Debut of The Debut?

 WHO'S GOT WHAT? DISTRIBUTORS-SONY PICTURES CLASSICS

Here's the third installment for 2026 for taking a look at distribution companies which have had a strong relationship with the Telluride Film Festival.  Today we gaze at Sony Pictures Classics (SPC) which likely has the longest connection to the fest overall.  Though SPC comes in as the third most represented distributor over the last five years with 13 films appearing, the SPC/TFF connection goes back many more fests.  SPC is always a strong bet to have a film or films at TFF.

Here's the five year track record:

2021: The Duke, Julia

2022: Living, One Fine Morning, The Return of Tanya Tucker, Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams.

2023: Daddio, The Teachers' Lounge, They Shot the Piano Player.

2024: Don't Let's Go to the Dog's Tonight, The Outrun.

2025: Blue Moon, A Private Life

It's solid five year run averaging between two and three films per year,

Now, here's what's in the SPC treasure chest for a possible TFF #53 spot and my current guess about each film's probability of playing:

(If it's ready) The Statement/McCarthy  50%

Bunker 50%

Bitter Christmas/Almodovar 50%

Rehearsals for a Revolution/Ahangarani 30%

Iron Boy/Clichy 25%

[Revised 7-13-26]

WHISPERS: ELSINORE???

Andrew Scott at TFF #52 (Getty Images)

Maybe keep an eye out for Elsinore starring Andrew Scott.  The film is being shopped for U.S. distribution with a deal expected "soon".

The logline: A powerful, deeply moving and inspiring story of the actor Ian Charleson who faced incredible odds while preparing to give the performance of his life in Hamlet at the National Theatre in London.

Scott is starring as Charleson who is probably best known to Americans for playing Eric Liddell in Chariots of Fire.

Anyway, World of Reel and The Playlist reported in the last few days that it could be a surprise entry at the end of this year into the Oscar race.  

An intriguing note from The Playlist story:  Ellwood claims the film has been accepted by multiple film fests writing:

"This (Elsinore) is also a movie that, like “Artificial,” has gotten into every festival it has screened for."

Of course we have no way of knowing which and how many fests are being referenced but it certainly doesn't disqualify the possibility of T-ride.

Scott, who attended TFF last year with Richard Linklater's Blue Moon, could return.  

Keep an ear to the ground regarding who picks up distribution for the film.

THE DEBUT OF THE DEBUT?

I think everyone who reads this space with any frequency has figured out that I'm really excited about Jesse Eisenberg's The Debut.  

Now comes news that the film has been confirmed by Eisenberg to be premiering at a "fall film festival".  That news comes via an interview with Screen Daily as Eisenberg is at the Karlovy Film Fest to receive its President's Award.

From Screen Daily/Screen International's X account:

Sooo...not a lock for Telluride, but not ruling it out either.

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MTFB Oscar Update: The Big Eight Penultimate Predix / Carol Doda Has a Trailer / Interviews and Profiles

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: THE BIG EIGHT

We're down to less than three weeks before they open the envelopes on March 10th.  Here's is my latest update on the predicted winners in the "Big Eight" of the 23 Oscar categories. Today's listing also includes a film/performers previous MTFB rank to the right in parentheses.  TFF films are indicated in Bold.

BEST PICTURE

1) Oppenheimer (1)

2) Poor Things (2)

3) The Holdovers (3)

4) Anatomy of a Fall (6)

5) American Fiction (7)

6) Killers of the Flower Moon (4)

7) Barbie (5)

8) The Zone of Interest (8)

9) Maestro (9)

10) Past Lives (10)

BEST DIRECTION

1) Christopher Nolan/Oppenheimer (1)

2) Yorgos Lanthimos/Poor Things (2)

3) Martin Scorsese/Killers of the Flower Moon (3)

4) Jonathan Glazer/The Zone of Interest (4)

5) Justine Triet/Anatomy of a Fall (5)

BEST ACTRESS

1) Lily Gladstone/Killers of the Flower Moon (1)

2) Emma Stone/Poor Things (2)

3) Sandra Huller/Anatomy of a Fall (3)

4) Annette Bening/Nyad (4)

5) Carey Mulligan/Maestro (5)

BEST ACTOR

1) Cillian Murphy/Oppenheimer (2)

2) Paul Giamatti/The Holdovers (1)

3) Bradley Cooper/Maestro (3)

4) Jeffrey Wright/American Fiction (4)

5) Colman Domingo/Rustin (5)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1) Da'Vine Joy Randolph/The Holdovers (1)

2) Emily Blunt/Oppenheimer (2)

3) America Ferrera/Barbie (4)

4) Danielle Brooks/The Color Purple (3)

5) Jodie Foster/Nyad (3)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Robert Downey, Jr./Oppenheimer (1)

2) Ryan Gosling/Barbie (2)

3) Mark Ruffalo/Poor Things (3)

4) Robert DeNiro/Killers of the Flower Moon (4)

5) Sterling K. Brown/American Fiction (5)

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1) American Fiction (3)

2) Barbie (2)

3) Oppenheimer (1)

4) Poor Things (4)

5) The Zone of Interest (5)

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1) Anatomy of a Fall (1)

2) The Holdovers (2)

3) Past Lives (3)

4) Maestro (4)

5) May December (5)

Comment: Seem to be locked: Oppy for Best Picture, Nolan/Direction, Randolph/Supporting Actress, Downey for Supporting Actor and new to the "locked" category, Anatomy of a Fall for Original Screenplay.  The Holdovers seems to have lost steam in the past couple of weeks in its bid for Original Screenplay.

Too close to call: Lead Acting races between Lily Gladstone and Emma Stone as well as Cillian Murphy and Paul Giamatti.  At the moment I am currently giving the edge to Gladstone and Murphy due to SAG Awards wins.  Also to close to call is Adapted Screenplay.  It has been a three horse race but American Fiction and Barbie seem to have created a little separation from Oppenheimer.

Currently I have TFF films winning in two of these eight categories: Da'Vine Joy Randolph/The Holdovers and Anatomy of a Fall for Original Screenplay.

Final predictions for these categories will be posted on Oscar morning, March 10th in a special MTFB post.

 

CAROL DODA HAS A TRAILER

Picturehouse has dropped a Red Band trailer for the TFF #50 Documentary Carol Doda: Topless at the Condor.  That became available on Tuesday.  Here it is from YouTube:

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Da'Vine Joy Randolph for The Holdovers from NPR.

Producer Ed Guiney for Poor Things from The Hollywood Reporter.

Producer James Wilson for The Zone of Interest from The Hollywood Reporter.

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MTFB Oscar Update: The Final Seven / SAG Awards and TFF / Interviews and Profiles

 MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: THE FINAL SEVEN

Here's your MTFB Update for the remining seven Oscar categories that I have not updated in this latest round of predictions.  TFF films are in Bold.

COSTUMES

1) Poor Things

2) Barbie

3) Killers of the Flower Moon

4) Oppenheimer

5) Napoleon

MAKEUP/HAIR

1) Maestro

2) Poor Things

3) Oppenheimer

4) Golda

5) Society of the Snow

VISUAL EFFECTS

1) The Creator

2) Godzilla Minus One

3) Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3

4) Napoleon

5) Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning

SOUND

1) Oppenheimer

2) The Zone of Interest

3) Maestro

4) The Creator

5) Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning

ANIMATED SHORT

1) War Is Over

2) Letter to a Pig

3) Ninety Five Senses

4) Our Uniform

5) Pachyderme

DOCUMENTARY SHORT

1) The Last Repair Shop

2) The ABCs of Book Burning

3) Nai Nai and Wai Po

4) The Barber of Little Rock

5) Island in Between

Comment: Almost all of these categories are competitive.  Documentary Short is particularly tight between Last Repair Shop and ABCs of Book Burning with Nai Nai and Barber of Little Rock also possible.  Costumes is also a very close category as Poor Things and Barbie appear to be duking it out in multiple craft categories.

As you can see from above MTFB predicts (for the moment) that TFF films Poor Things and The Last Repair Shop will win Oscars on March 10th.  Across all 23 categories MTFB projects TFF films winning a total of six Oscars.  In addition to the two listed above MTFB has The Holdovers winning two acting awards for Giamatti and Randolph.  Anatomy of a Fall winning Original Screenplay and The Zone of Interest winning International Feature.  

Additionally, Emma Stone could win over Lily Gladstone for Best Actress.  The Holdovers could sub- out for Anatomy of a Fall for Original Screenplay.  Poor Things could upend Barbie for Production Design.

Over the next three posts, I'll update each group (Big Eight, Middle Eight and Final Seven) one more time before final predictions on March 10th.

SAG AWARDS AND TFF

TFF films had a tough night at the SAG Awards Saturday night as the only TFF winner was Da'Vine Joy Randolph for Best Supporting Actress for Alexander Payne's The Holdovers. Other TFF acting contenders that were thought to have a chance were edged out.  Emma Stone from Poor Things was overtaken by Lily Gladstone for Killers of the Flower Moon and Cillian Murphy from Oppenheimer won over The Holdover's Paul Giamatti.

Oppenheimer won the Best Performance by a Cast award setting the stage for a Big Night for the film on March 10th.

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Paul Giamatti for The Holdovers from A.Frame.

Paul Giamatti for The Holdovers from USA Today.

Paul Giamatti for The Holdovers from The Awardist/Entertainment Weekly.

Da'Vine Joy Randolph for The holdovers from Vanity Fair.

Producer Mark Johnosn on The Holdovers from The Hollywood Reporter.

Emma Stone for Poor things from A.Frame.

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MTFB Oscar Update: International, Documentary and Animated Features and Song / What the Experts Are Saying / Interviews and Profiles: Scott, Mescal, Glazer and More

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: INTERNATIONAL, DOCUMENTARY,  ANIMEATED FEATURES AND SONG

In this post I'm continuing my first "educated" set of predictions for who/what will win on Oscar night, March 10th.  The focus for this post is initial projections for the International. Documentary, and Animated Feature races as well Best Original Song.  As always TFF films are in Bold.

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

1) The Zone of Interest/United Kingdom

2) Society of the Snow/Spain

3) The Teachers' Lounge/Germany

4) Perfect Days/Japan

5) Io Capitano/Italy

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

1) 20 Days in Mariupol

2) Bobi Wine: The People's President

3) Four Daughters

4) The Eternal Memory

5) To Kill a Tiger

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

1) Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse

2) The Boy and the Heron

3) Elemental

4) Nimona

5) Robot Dreams

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

1) What Was I Made For?/Barbie

2) I'm Just Ken/Barbie

3) It Never Went Away/American Symphony

4) Whazhazhe/Killers of the Flower Moon

5) The Fire Inside/Flamin' Hot

Comment: Of the five TFF nominees from this group of categories only The Zone of Interest looks like a winner.  

At the moment the closest of these four categories looks to be Original Song where the two tunes from Barbie appear to be slugging it out.  It does beg the question of whether the two songs might split enough votes that something else sneaks in for the win.

WHAT THE EXPERTS ARE SAYING

I've decided for each post between now and the Oscars to share where some of the top Oscarologists are in terms of predicting the 23 category winners. Today I'm sharing the publicly posted current predictions from Variety's Clayton Davis and The Hollywood Reporter's Scott Feinberg.  as with my predictions above, TFF films are in Bold.

From Clayton Davis...the current predictions have Oppenheimer winning eight Oscars.

Oppenheimer (8): Best Picture, Direction, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Score and Sound.

The Holdovers (2): Best Actor and Supporting Actress.

Poor Things (2): Production Design and Costumes.

Single wins for:

Killers of the Flower Moon: Best Actress.

Barbie: Best Song (What Was I Made For?)

Anatomy of a Fall: Best Original Screenplay.

The Zone of Interest: Best International Feature.

Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse: Best Animated Feature.

20 Days in Mariupol: Best Documentary Feature.

Maestro: Best Makeup/Hair.

The Creator: Best Visual Effects.

The Last Repair Shop: Best Documentary Short.

Letter to a Pig: Best Animated Short.

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar: Best Live Action Short.

If Clayton nails it, TFF films snag seven Oscar wins.

Here's the link to Clayton's predictions.

Meanwhile, Scott Feinberg at The Hollywood Reporter is currently predicting the same category wins for Oppenheimer that Davis has.

Oppenheimer (8): Best Picture, Direction, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay. Cinematography, Editing, Score and Sound.

The Holdovers (3): Best Actor, Supporting Actress and Original Screenplay.

Barbie (3): Costumes, Song (What Was I Made For?), and Production Design.

Single wins for:

Poor Things: Best Actress.

The Zone of Interest: Best International Feature.

Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse: Best Animated Feature.

Bobi Wine: The People's President: Best Documentary Feature.

Maestro: Best Makeup/Hair.

Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3: Best Visual Effects.

War Is Over: Best Animated Short.

The ABC's of Book Burning: Best Documentary Short.

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar: Best Live Action Short.

If Feinberg is 100% accurate, TFF films earn six Oscar wins.

Here's the link to Scott's predictions.

INETRVIEWS AND PROFILES: 

Behind the scenes of Poor Things from On the red Carpet via YouTube.

Composer Jerskin Fendrix for Poor Things from Gold Derby.

Writer/Director Jonathan Glazer behind the scenes of The Zone of Interest from A24 on X.

Producer James Wilson on The Zone of Interest from Gold Derby.

Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal for All of Us Strangers from Pop Culture Confidential.

Writer/Director Lila Aviles for Totem from The Los Angeles Times.

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MTFB Oscar Update: Picture, Direction and Lead Acting / Clip from Totem / Interviews and Profiles

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: FIRST WINNER PREDICTIONS: PICTURE, DIRECTION, LEAD ACTING

Here's my first "educated" set of predictions for who/what will win on Oscar night, March 10th.  TFF films are in Bold.

BEST PICTURE

1) Oppenheimer

2) The Holdovers

3) Poor Things

4) American Fiction

5) Barbie

6) Killers of the Flower Moon

7) Anatomy of a Fall

8) The Zone of Interest

9) Maestro

10) Past Lives

Comment: It looks like, as has seemed true for months, that Best Picture is Oppenheimer's to lose.  I had thought that if The Holdovers could have gotten nominations for Payne, Sessa and Editing that we might have a real race.  With that scenario not coming to fruition it doesn't feel like any film is going to catch Oppy.

BEST DIRECTION

1) Christopher  Nolan/Oppenheimer

2) Yorgos Lanthimos/Poor Things

3) Martin Scorsese/Killers of the flower Moon

4) Justine Triet/Anatomy of a Fall

5) Jonathan Glazer/The Zone of Interest

Comment: If anything, Nolan has a tighter grip on this Oscar than Oppy has on Best Picture.

BEST ACTRESS

1) Lily Gladstone/Killers of the Flower Moon

2) Emma Stone/Poor Things

3) Sandra Huller/Anatomy of a Fall

4) Annette Bening/Nyad

5) Carey Mulligan/Maestro

Comment: Where Best and Direction seem foregone conclusions, this race is, at the moment, a barn-burner.  It really could go either way.  For the moment I gave Gladstone winning by the slimmest of margins.

BEST ACTOR

1) Paul Giamatti/The Holdovers

2) Cillian Murphy/Oppenheimer

3) Bradley Cooper/Maestro

4) Jeffrey Wright/American Fiction

5) Colman Domingo/Rustin

Comment: Giamatti is looking strong but Murphy is certainly still in play.

TFF films with 12 nominations in theses six categories and a projected win for Best Actor.

Next post: Supporting Acting and Screenplays. 

CLIP FROM TOTEM

Janus Films has released a clip from Mexico's entry for Oscar's International Feature award.  Totem, however, did not make the list of five nominees announced last week.  Here's the clip from YouTube:

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Writer/Director Lila Aviles for Totem from Inocinema.

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Critics Choice Awards / Producers Guild Nominates / MTFB Oscar Update: Score, Song and More / The Film Stage's Hot 100 for 2024 / Interviews and Profiles: Giamatti, Domingo

CRITICS CHOICE AWARDS

Oppenheimer and Barbie dominated the Critics Choice Awards last night with the former winning eight trophies including Best Picture and Direction.  Barbie won six.

Three TFF films earned awards with The Holdovers dominating in acting categories.  Paul Giamatti won Best Actor, Da'Vine Joy Randolph won Best Supporting Actress and Domnic Sessa was named Best Young Actor.  Emma Stone won Best Actress for Poor Things and Anatomy of a Fall was named Best Foreign Language Film.

The complete winners list is here from Variety.

The next big precursor is the announcement of BAFTA nominees on Thursday.

PRODUCERS GUILD NOMINATES

The Producers Guild of America named their 10 nominees for Best Film of  the Year on Saturday.  Four films that screened at TFF #50 made the list: Anatomy of a Fall, The Holdovers, Poor Things and The Zone of Interest.

The other six films nominated were: American Fiction, Barbie, Killers of the Flower Moon, Maestro, Oppenheimer and Past Lives.

In a twist, the PGA's ten finalists also happen to be the ten films that MFB currently is predicting to be the ten nominees for the Best Picture Oscar (here's the current MTFB Best Picture list from Jan. 8th).

The PGA announces its winner on Feb. 25th.

Here's the official announcement from the PGA website.

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: SCORE, SONG AND MORE

Here's the latest MTFB Oscar Update.  Today I'm updating the Original Song, Original Score, Animated Feature, Production Design, Visual Effects and Sound categories. These categories were last posted on Jan. 1st.   As usual TFF #50 films are in Bold.  A film's previous position on the MTFB Oscar chart is listed in parentheses.

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

1) What Was I Made For/Barbie (1)

2) I'm Just Ken/Barbie (2)

3) Road to Freedom/Rustin (3)

4) The Fire Inside/Flamin' Hot (4)

5) It Never Went Away/American Symphony (5)

Dance the Night Away/Barbie, High Life/Flora and Sun and Superpower (I)/The Color Purple.

BEST SCORE

1) Oppenheimer (1)

2) Killers of the Flower Moon (2)

3) Poor Things (4)

4) Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse (3)

5) The Zone of Interest (5)

Alternates: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Society of the Snow and The Boy and the Heron.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

1) Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse (1)

2) The Boy and the Heron (2)

3) Elemental (3)

4) Nimona (4)

5) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (-)

Alternates: Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, Wish and Robot Dreams.

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

1) Barbie (1)

2) Poor Things (2)

3) Oppenheimer (4)

4) Killers of the Flower Moon (3)

5) Maestro (5)

Alternates: Asteroid City, The Color Purple and Napoleon

VISUAL EFFECTS

1) The Creator (1)

2) Poor Things (3)

3) Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3 (-)

4) Godzilla Minus One (2)

5) Society of the Snow (5)

Alternates: Spiderman Across the Spider-Verse, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Napoleon.

SOUND

1) Oppenheimer (1)

2) Maestro (2)

3) Ferrari (4)

4) The Zone of Interest (3)

5) Killers of the Flower Moon (5)

Alternates: Barbie, Napoleon and The Killer.

THE FILM STAGE'S HOT 100

Last week The Film Stage posted its annual list of 100 "Most Anticipated" films for 2024.  As usual, I parsed the list for titles that seem like a reasonable possibility to be at TFF #51.  Last year I came up with a list of 25 films of which seven actually made the TFF #50 lineup:

El Conde, The Royal Hotel, Poor Things, All of Us Strangers, The Holdovers, Fallen Leaves and The Zone of Interest.

Last year's Film Stage list also included five films I din not put in my guesses that made it to T-ride: Fingernails, Anatomy of a Fall, Janet Planet, The Bikeriders and La Chimera.

So, with that as a preface, here are 18 films from the 2024 Film Stage list that could show up on Labor Day (with director listed in parentheses):

96) Maria (Larrain)

61) Holland, Michigan (Cave)

60) The History of Sound (Hermanus)

58) Emilia Perez (Audiard)

54) Queer (Guadagnino)

53) The Rivals of Amziah King (Patterson)

46) The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol (Chemet)

44) Kinds of Kindmess (Lanthimos)

39) Rumours (Maddin)

38) Bird (Arnold)

25) Anora (Baker)

19) Oh, Canada (Schrader)

14) Blitz (McQueen)

12) The Nickel Boys (Ross)

8) The End (Oppenheimer)

7) Mickey 7 (Joon Ho)

2) The Way of the Wind (Malick)

1) Megalopolis (Coppola)

And your link to the complete Film Stage 2024 Most anticipated list.

INETRVIEWS AND PROFILES

Paul Giamatti for The Holdovers from The Hollywood Reporter.

Colman Domingo for Rustin from Deadline.

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SAG and DGA Nominees and TFF / MTFB Oscar Update: Screenplays and More / Interviews and Profiles

SAG AND DGA NOMINEES AND TFF

The Screen Actors Guild and the Directors Guild of America announced their nominees for excellence in film in 2023 yesterday.  Four TFF films received nominations from SAG for acting excellence totaling seven nominations:

The Holdovers: Paul Giamatti-Lead Actor, Da'Vine Joy Randolph-Supporting Actress.

Poor Things: Emma Stone-Lead Actress and Willem Dafoe-Supporting Actor

Nyad: Annette Bening-Lead Actress and Jodie Foster-Supporting Actress

Rustin: Colman Domingo-Lead Actor

I was surprised that Mark Ruffalo was not nominated for Poor Things and that PT also missed for Best Ensemble.

Meanwhile, the Directors' Guild also announced their five nominees yesterday and two TFFers made the list of five names.  Alexander Payne for The Holdovers and Yorgos Lanthimos for Poor Things were each nominated.  They were joined Martin Scorsese (Killers of the Flower Moon), Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer) and Greta Gerwig (Barbie).

The Sag Awards will be presented on Feb. 24th and the DGA will announce their winners on Feb. 10th.

The Producers Guils announces their nominees tomorrow.

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: SCREENPLAYS AND MORE

Today I'm updating the Screenplay, International Feature, Documentary Feature, Cinematography and Editing categories.  As usual TFF #50 films are in Bold.  A film's previous position on the MTFB Oscar chart is listed in parentheses.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1) The Holdovers (1)

2) Past Lives (3)

3) Anatomy of a Fall (4)

4) May December (5)

5) Maestro (-)

Alternates: Air, Saltburn, The Iron Claw.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1) Oppenheimer (1)

2) Poor Things (3)

3) American Fiction (2)

4) Barbie (-)

5) Killers of the Flower Moon (4)

Alternates: All of Us Strangers, The Zone of Interest, and Are You There God, It's Me Margaret. 

BEST DOCUMENTARY 

1) American Symphony (1)

2) 20 Days in Mariupol (2)

3) Beyond Utopia (3)

4) Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie (4)

5) Four Daughters (5)

Alternates: The Eternal Memory, Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project and Stamped from the Beginning.

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

1) The Zone of Interest (1)

2) Society of the Snow (3)

3) The Taste of Things (2)

4) The Teachers' Lounge (4)

5) Fallen Leaves (5)

Alternates: Perfect Days, 20 Days in Mariupol and Totem.

CINEMATOGRAPHY

1) Oppenheimer (1)

2) Killers of the Flower Moon (2)

3) Poor Things (3)

4) Maestro (4)

5) The Zone of Interest (5)

Alternates: Saltburn, Barbie and The Color Purple.

FILM EDITING

1) Oppenheimer (1)

2) Poor Things (3)

3) Killers of the Flower Moon (2)

4) Barbie (4)

5) The Holdovers (-)

Alternates: Maestro, Anatomy of a Fall and Air.

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Jodie Foster and Annette Bening for Nyad from Netflix via YouTube.

Annette Bening for Nyad from Awards Watch.

Behind the Scenes for The Zone of Interest from The Hollywood Reporter.

Behind the Scenes for All of Us Strangers from FirstShowing.net.

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MTFB Oscar Update: Makeup/Hair and Costumes Plus First Predictions for Shorts / Coming Up... / Interviews and Profiles: Giamatti, Glazer and More

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: MAKEUP/HAIR AND COSTUMES PLUS FIRST PREDICTIONS FOR SHORTS

In today's MTFB Oscar Update I update predictions for the Makeup/Hair and Costume categories as well as adding first predictions for the Shorts.  For Makeup/Hair their previous rank appears in parentheses to the right of the title.  As always, TFF films are in Bold.

COSTUMES (last predicted on Dec. 21st)

1) Barbie (1)

2) Poor Things (2)

3) Killers of the Flower Moon (4)

4) The Color Purple (3)

5) Maestro (5)

Alternates: Oppenheimer, Napoleon and Wonka.

MAKEUP AND HAIR

1) Maestro (1)

2) Poor Things (2)

3) Oppenheimer (-)

4) Killers of the Flower Moon (-)

5) Society of the Snow (-)

Alternates: Golda, Napoleon and Ferrari.

ANIMATED SHORT

1) War Is Over Inspired by the Music of John and Yoko

2) Once upon a Studio

3) I'm Hip

4) A Kind of Testament

5) Eeva

Alternates: Boom, Wild Summon and Letter to a Pig.

LIVE ACTION SHORT

1) The Wonderful Life of Henry Sugar

2) Strange Way of Life

3) Good Boy

4) The After

5) Knight of Fortune

Alternates: The Anne Frank Gift Shop, Yellow and Invincible.

DOCUMENTARY SHORT

1) The Last Repair Shop

2) Last Song from Kabul

3) The ABCs of Book Banning

4) The Barber of Little Rock

5) Deciding Vote

Alternates: Oasis, Camp Courage and Black Girls Play: The Story of Hand Games.

As of this morning's post I am predicting TFF films with a total of 36 nominations with another 16 "alternates".  Here's the TFF breakdown:

Poor Things (11 noms and one alternate) : Best Picture, Direction, Actress, Supporting Actor (Ruffalo), Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Score, Production Design, Visual Effects and Makeup/Hair.  The alternate is a second Supporting Actor nomination for Willem Dafoe.

The Zone of Interest (Six noms and two alternates): Best Picture, Direction, International Film, Cinematography, Score and Sound.  Alternates are Huller for Supporting Actress and Adapted Screenplay.

The Holdovers (Four noms and three alternatives): Best Picture, Actor, Supporting Actress and Original Screenplay.  Alternates are for Direction, Supporting Actor and Editing.

Anatomy of a Fall (Three noms and one alternate):Best Picture, Actress and Original Screenplay and the alternate is for Original Screenplay.

American Symphony (Two noms): Best Doc feature and Song.

All of Us Strangers (One nom and one alternate): The nom for Adapted Screenplay and a Best Actor alternate.

Nyad (One nom and one alternate): The nom for Supporting Actress with a Best Actress alternate.

Rustin (One nom and one alternate): The nom for Best Song with an alternate possibility for Best Actor.

In addition to The Zone of Interest in International Feature I'm predicting three other TFF films to be nominated in that category: The Taste of Things, The Teachers' Lounge and Fallen Leaves.  Totem and Perfect Days could also make it into the category.  Were it not for Society of the Snow I'd likely be predicting that all five nominees for International Feature would be TFF films.

In Documentary feature, in addition to American Symphony, I have Beyond Utopia making it into the list of nominees.

And finally, in the Shorts categories I have three TFF films being nominated as you can see above: Strange Way of Life, The Last Repair Shop and Last Song from Kabul.

In terms of other predictions not TFF films I have Killers of the Flower Moon leading the pack with 12 nominations.  Could KOTFM replicate The Irishman and have this many nominations and not win any?  Percentages right now suggest that is unlikely.  Lily Gladstone isn't certain to win Best Actress but she is certainly the frontrunner.  That said, she could be the only winner for KOTFM on Oscar night.

Other non-TFF films with double nomination totals predicted:  Oppenheimer with 11 and Barbie with 10 though Barbie could add up to three additional nominations.  Maestro is now predicted for seven  nominations with a shot at two others.

COMING UP...

It's a big Oscar pre-cursor period between now and MTFB's next post on Monday.  

Tomorrow the BAFTA longlists are released.

Saturday we'll see the National Society of Film Critics announce the top three vote getters in each of 10 categories.

And on Sunday The Golden Globes announce their winners.

I'll have a lot to talk about in Monday's post.

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Paul Giamatti for The Holdovers from Indiewire.

Dominic Sessa for The Holdovers from The Playlist.

Alma Poysti for Fallen Leaves from Vanity Fair.

Jonathan Glazer for The Zone of Interest from Indiewire.

Andrew Haigh for All of Us Strangers from Awards Radar.

Claire Foy for All of Us Strangers from Awards Radar.

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MTFB Oscar Update: Picture, Direction and Acting / The Oscar Shortlists and TFF / Surprise: Bening Tribute to Happen After All / Interviews and Profiles: Elordi, Kravitz, Randolph and More

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: PICTURE, DIRECTION AND ACTING

Here's MTFB's  Oscar Update.  As we move to within a month of nomination announcements I am consolidating categories for each post. Today I'm updating the Best Picture, Direction and Acting  categories.  As usual TFF #50 films are in Bold.  A film's previous position on the MTFB Oscar chart is listed in parentheses.

BEST PICTURE

1) Oppenheimer (1)

2) Barbie (2)

3) Killers of the Flower Moon (4)

4) Poor Things (5)

5) The Holdovers (6)

6) American Fiction (3)

7) Maestro (7)

8) Past Lives (8)

9) Anatomy of a Fall (-)

10) The Zone of Interest (10)

Alternates:  The Color Purple, Air and May December.

BEST DIRECTION

1) Christopher Nolan/Oppenheimer (1)

2) Martin Scorsese/Killer of the Flower Moon (2)

3) Yorgos Lanthimos/Poor Things (4)

4) Greta Gerwig/Barbie (3)

5) Jonathan Glazer/The Zone of Interest (-)

Alternates: Bradley Cooper/Maestro, Alexander Payne/The Holdovers and Celine Song/Past Lives.

BEST ACTRESS

1) Lily Gladstone/Killers of the Flower Moon (1)

2) Emma Stone/Poor Things (2)

3) Carey Mulligan/Maestro (3)

4) Sandra Huller/Anatomy of a Fall (4)

5) Margot Robbie/Barbie (-)

Alternates: Greta Lee/Past Lives, Annette Bening/Nyad and Fantasia Barrino/The Color Purple.

BEST ACTOR

1) Bradley Cooper/Maestro (1)

2) Paul Giamatti/The Holdovers (3)

3) Cillian Murphy/Oppenheimer (2)

4) Jeffrey Wright/American Fiction (5)

5) Leonardo DiCaprio/ Killers of the Flower Moon (-)

Alternates: Colman Domingo/Rustin, Andrew Scott/All of Us Strangers and Barry Keoghan/Saltburn.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1) Da'Vine Joy Randolph/The Holdovers (1)

2) Danielle Brooks/The Color Purple (2)

3) Emily Blunt/Oppenheimer (3)

4) Jodie Foster/Nyad (5)

5) Julianne Moore/May December (4)

Alternates: America Ferrera/Barbie, Rosamund Pike/Saltburn and Sandra Huller/The Zone of Interest.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Ryan Gosling/Barbie (2)

2) Robert Downey, Jr./Oppenheimer (1)

3) Mark Ruffalo/Poor Things (3)

4) Robert DeNiro/Killers of the Flower Moon (4)

5) Charles Melton/May December (5)

Alternates: Willem Dafoe/Poor Things, Dominic Sessa/The Holdovers, Sterling K. Brown/American Fiction.

From these six categories, here's how TFF films are predicted:

Poor Things with four nominations and one other possibility: Picture, Direction, Actress (Stone) and Supporting actor (Ruffalo), Willem Dafoe is the added possibility for Supporting Actor.

The Holdovers with three nominations and two other possibilities: Picture, Actor (Giamatti), Supporting Actress (Randolph).  The other two possibilities are Direction and Supporting Actor (Sessa).

The Zone of Interest with two nominations and an added possibility: Picture, Direction and a possible shot at Supporting Actress (Huller).

Anatomy of a Fall with two nominations: Picture and actress (Huller).

Nyad with one nomination and one other possibility.  The nomination for Supporting Actress (Foster) and the possibility for Lead Actress (Bening).

Saltburn with no nominations but possible in two categories: Actor (Keoghan) and Supporting Actress (Pike).

All of Us Strangers possible for Actor (Scott).

Rustin possible for Actor(Colman).

Thursday's categories to be updated will be Screenplays, International Film, Documentary Feature, Cinematography and Editing.

THE OSCAR SHORT LISTS AND TFF

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the Oscar Shortlists for 10 categories on Thursday.  Those 10 categories: Documentary Feature, Documentary Short, International Feature, Makeup and Hair Styling, Original Score, Original Song, Animated Short, Live Action Short, Sound and Visual Effects.  

Making the short list in these ten categories means that a film is eligible for nomination in them.

Here's where TFF films landed on the various lists:

Poor Things, The Zone of Interest and American Symphony each made it to three of the lists.

Poor Things: Score, Makeup/Hair and Visual Effects.

The Zone of Interest: International Feature, Score and Sound.

American Symphony: Documentary Feature, Score and Song.  

No other TFF films made multiple lists but 18 other TFF films were shortlisted in various categories.  Most impressive was in the International Feature category which had nine TFF films listed.  In addition to the above mentioned The Zone of Interest these films also made that shortlist:

The Monk and the Gun

The Promised Land

Fallen Leaves

The Taste of Things

The Teachers' Lounge

Godland (from TFF #49)

Perfect Days

Totem.

In addition to American Symphony three other TFF docs made that shortlist:

Beyond Utopia

Bobi Wine: Ghetto President (TFF #49)

Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy (TFF #49)

In addition to Poor Things and American Symphony, two TFF films are also on the shortlist for Best Score:

The Holdovers

Saltburn

Three TFF films made the Documentary Shortlist:

If Dreams Were Lightning

The Last Repair Shop

Last Song from Kabul

And finally 27 made it to the Animated Short List and Strange Way of Life made it onto the Live Action Short list.

In all 27 TFF films are still alive in these 10 categories.  Nominations are announced on Jan. 23rd.

Here's the link to the complete announcement from The Academy.

SURPRISE: BENING TRIBUTE TO HAPPEN AFTER ALL

In a surprise move, Telluride's Silver Medallion that was to have been presented last Labor Day weekend to actress Annette Bening will, instead be presented at a special event in Los Angeles on January 6th.

Bening, like most actors, was unable to attend TFF #50 due to the SAG/Aftra Strike that was ongoing at the time of the fest.

The Hollywood Reporter, among other outlets, reports that the event will include a career retrospective complete with clips from Bening's films as well as moderation from her Nyad co-star Jodie Foster.  Meg Ryan will present the Silver Medallion.

The complete THR story is linked here.

 

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Da'Vine Joy Randolph for The Holdovers from desertsun.com

Jacob Elordi for Saltburn from Entertainment Weekly

Jamie Bell for All of Us Strangers from The Playlist

Lenny Kravitz for Rustin from Vanity Fair

Christian Friedel for The Zone of Interest from The Film Stage

Andrew Haigh for All of Us Strangers from Time

Tran Ahn Hung for The Taste of Things from Ioncinema

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

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