MTFB's Initial Set of Oscar Predictions: Supporting Acting / Gotham Awards to Honor TFF #53 Films / Visitations: Sandra Huller and Sophia Coppola

MTFB'S INITIAL SET OF OSCAR PREDICTIONS: SUPPORTING ACTING

MTFB starts out its Oscar nomnation predicitions for the 2027 awards with our initial predix for Best Supporting Actress and Actor. TFF #53 artists are in Bold.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1) Anne Hathaway/The Odyssey

2) Penelope Cruz/The Invite

3) Samntha Morton/The Odyssey

4) Sandra Huller/Project Hail Mary

5) Penelope Cruz/La Bola Negra

Others:  TBA/You Can See Everything, Kate O'Flynn/Tender Loving Care, Olivia Colman/Elsinore.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Andrew Garfield/Artificial

2) Paul Giammati/The Debut

3) Sam Rockwell/Wild Horse Nine

4) John Leguizamo/The Odyssey

5) Guitarricadelafuente/La Bola Negra

Others: Edward Norton/The Invite, Robert Pattinson.The Odyssey, Colman Domingo/Michael

GOTHAM AWARDS TO HONOR TFF #53 FILMS

Late ast week the Gotham Film and Media Institute announced that a number of TFF 353 films would be honored this year.  The list:

Elsinore: Gotham Legacy Tribute in honor of Ian Charleson.

La Bola Negra: Gotham Vanguard Tribute

Danny Boyle will receive the Gotham Directors tribute for Ink.

The full rundown of Gotham tributes is linked here from Next Best Picture.

https://nextbestpicture.com/the-gotham-awards-to-present-elsinore-with-the-legacy-tribute-in-honor-of-ian-charleson/

NEW CLIP FRPM FATHERLAND

From YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik6W8-d-A14

VISITATIONS

Sandra Huller on Fatherland, Rose and More from Indiewire.

https://www.indiewire.com/features/interviews/sandra-huller-interview-fatherland-rose-project-hail-mary-1235215300/

Sophia Coppola on making Marie Antoinette.

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Counting Down / The People's Telluride #14 / Indiewire Points to Possible Double Oscar Nominees / This and That

COUNTING DOWN

As I post this on Monday morning ( August 24th) the reality of TFF #53 is now down to 10 days.  As with most years, the anticipation is what dominates now.  Most of the detective work is complete.  Oh, sure, they'll be some continued scuttlebutt to pass a long but in the last two weeks before the fest, additional information is hard to come by.  So now, it's about the wait.

The Patterson's will be pulling on Wednesday morning next week.  Some years ago we began to give ourselves a two day window to drive.  Breaking the journey into a two day affair gives us a bit of time to acclimate before the fest cranks up on Friday.  

It's a special year in 2026 as my grandson will be joining us.  He says he's very excited.  

So...the wait... 

THE PEOPLE'S TELLURIDE-14TH EDITION

For the 14th 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.

INDIEWIRE TALKS POSSIBLE DOUBLE OSCAR NOMINEES FOR THIS YEAR

Anne Thompson at Indiewire had a piece up on which actors might have a shot at getting more than one acting Oscar nomination for this year.  The article includes some folks who might be in Telluride next week.  

Here's the rundown from her list of possibilities who probably have films at TFF #53 (listed in the order that Thompson addresses them in the post):

Sandra Huller:  MTFB thinks Huller will have two films at Telluride: Fatherland and Rose.  She also has her roles in Project Hail Mary and Digger that could merit some Oscar conversation.

Penelope Cruz: We think Cruz's La Bola Negra will be at TFF #53.  Cruz also has roles in The Invite and Bunker.

Willem Dafoe: His Tenzing is probable for Telluride.  He also is in Werewolf and Late Fame. 

Other outside shots mentioned by Thompson include Anne Hathaway who could still potentially be at Telluride with Verity and Robert Pattinson if Primetime makes a late run from Venice to T-ride.

The complete rundown is linked here.

https://www.indiewire.com/awards/predictions/oscars-2027-double-nominees-sandra-huller-robert-pattinson-brad-pitt-1235211354/

THIS AND THAT...

***Netflix has made it official that Saturn Returns will not be a 2026 release.  That all but closes the door on any Telluride appearance.

***Tenzing will have a limited theatrical release on Oct. 9th.

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Who's Got What? Distributors: A24 / The Artificial Switcheroo / SPC Adds Bunker

 WHO'S GOT WHAT? DISTRIBUTORS: A24

Our fifth look at frequent film distribution companies that have been represented at Telluride over the last five years lands today on A24.

Over the last five TFFs, these are the films from A24 that have screened:

2021: Red Rocket, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On.

2022: Aftersun, Close.

2023: Janet Planet, Occupied City, Tuesday, The Zone of Interest.

2024: No films.

2025: If I had Legs I'd Kick You, Pillion.

As you can see, A24 has had 10 films at TFF over these last fests with 2024 being the anomaly with no A24 films.

I'm tracking three films from A24 that show the most promise for a TFF berth:

The Debut, Club Kid, Primetime and Ancient History.

I honestly could see all four making the TFF #53 lineup.

Their chances:

The Debut 75%

Club Kid 65%

Primetime 50%

Ancient History 40% (added as a possible title on 8/3)

THE ARTIFICIAL SWITCHEROO

Artificial Director Luca Guadagnino

It wasn't more than about an hour after I pinched the button and published last Monday's MTFB, which included the latest "Ten Bets" that Neon messed with me.

I had re-instated Luca Guadagnino's Artificial to the Ten Bets.  An hour later news broke that:

 "Luca Guadagnino‘s much-talked about Artificial is expected to forgo a traditional fall festival rollout, we understand."

That reporting came from Deadline.com

Now, the story backed off the wholistic claim of  "traditional festival rollout" later in the article stating:

"We understand there has been interest from multiple A-list festivals, and while things can change, we hear the film isn’t likely to go down the standard festival route. That doesn’t mean it won’t pop up at a festival in some form (we bet it will), but it won’t have the traditional launch with the bells and whistles of a red carpet, press conference, junkets, etc."

Soooo, does that mean a TFF berth is still in play?  Maybe.

The complete Deadline article is linked here.

https://deadline.com/2026/07/artificial-not-getting-traditional-fall-festival-rollout-1236978281/

SPC ADDS BUNKER

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired Florian Zellers' Bunker for North American distribution according to multiple sources.  The film stars Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz.

Deadline reports that, "An Oscar campaign is being lined up with a qualifying run end of year before release in early 2027."

The IMDb description:

"Follows a married couple of 17 years. The husband is an architect who accepts a controversial project to build a survivalist bunker for a tech billionaire. This decision leads his wife to question their marriage."

Zeller's The Father reportedly would have played Telluride had Covid not nuked the fest in 2020.

The complete Deadline post is linked here.

https://deadline.com/2026/07/javier-bardem-penelope-cruz-bunker-sells-sony-classics-1236978273/

So, in retrospect, I profiled SPC's possible TFF chances on July 6th.  Bunker now gets added to he list of SPC possibilities for Telluride with an equal chance as Almodovar's Bitter Christmas to make the list.

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Ad Astra Flies Back Into Consideration / Frankie: SPC Has It and Some Images

The first weekend of May 2019 is in the books.  Hope you had a good one!

AD ASTRA FLIES BACK INTO CONSIDERATION

I've had James Gray's Ad Astra on the radar for quite some time.  The film combines high concept and prestige plus a notable cast (Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, Ruth Negga) to have created quite a  stir.  Also creating a stir has been its shifting release dates.  At one point it was set for a Jan. 2019 release and its latest official release date has been May 24th.  That date will also reportedly go by the wayside according to a number of sources over the past few days and I mention that here because the scuttlebutt now is that Disney/Fox has settled on a fall release for the film which may well include the fall festivals.  

"Fall Festivals" usually refers to Venice, Toronto, New York and, of course, Telluride.  Gregory Ellwood writing at The Playlist reported that "it's likely that Fox will aim for a Venice debut" which would make a good deal of sense...and perhaps the film would follow what has become a not uncommon move of transferring directly from Venice to Telluride.  The Shape of Water, Gravity, Birdman and La La Land have all been recent travelers of that path.

The Ellwood article is linked here.

I, for one, am pleased that this film is back in the conversation and will be looking over the summer for other clues about its ultimate fate regarding where it play and if that could include TFF #46.

FRANKIE: SPC HAS IT AND SOME IMAGES

Ahead of its premiere at Cannes in the next week or two came news late last week that Ira Sachs' Frankie starring former TFF Tribute recipient Isabelle Huppert has been acquired by Sony Pictures Classics.  SPC's claim moves Frankie right into consideration for possible TFF #46 inclusion.  SPC has historically had a very solid relationship with TFF.  As a matter of fact, it has been the strongest distributor relationship with TFF over the near decade and a half I have been attending.

Last year was a bit of an aberration as SPC only had Ralph Fiennes' The White Crow in the TFF lineup.  In the 2017, more characteristically, SPC had five films on the TFF #45 program: Fantastic Woman, Loveless, The Rider, Foxtrot and Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool.  Over my time at TFF, SPC has averaged 4.4 films per year.

Penelope Cruz in Pedro Almodovar's Pain and Glory

I honestly expect SPC to be back at TFF with more than one film in 2019.  Perhaps Pedro Almodovar returns with a TFF film for the first time since 2006's Volver with his Cannes entry Pain and Glory?  Could we see the documentary about John  Prine (John Prine; Hello In There)?  Or the Clive Owen, Tim Roth starrer The Song of Names?

And who knows what SPC might acquire in the next couple of months as a result of Cannes?

Both The Film Stage and Deadline have stories about the SPC acquisition of Frankie as well as numerous images released prior to its Cannes' bow.  You can find The Film Stage story here and the Deadline story here.

Done for Monday.  More on Thursday.

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COMMENT TO THE BLOG

A Visit from The Queen of Spain? / United Kingdom-Another Possible Scenario

Good Thursday Film Peeps...


A VISIT FROM THE QUEEN OF SPAIN?

Penelope Cruz in The Queen of Spain (still via IndieWire)

Universal/Spain released a teaser for Fernando Trueba's The Queen of Spain (La Reina de Espana) yesterday which got me to thinking that perhaps we should be thinking about that film as an addition to this year's Telluride lineup.

It might make some sense.

Trueba was a co-director of 2010's Chico and Rita, which played Telluride and, of course, the film's star Penelope Cruz was feted by T-ride in 2006 as one of its tribute recipients (along with a play of Volver which earned her a Best Actress nomination)

We also know that the film is dated for a Spanish release date of Nov. 25th which means that it might/could/probably would be ready for a screening at Telluride.

Check the teaser in either of these stories from The Playlist or IndieWire:

http://theplaylist.net/watch-first-teaser-trailer-penelope-cruz-fernando-truebas-queen-spain-20160622/

http://www.indiewire.com/2016/06/penelope-cruz-the-queen-of-spain-teaser-trailer-1201691884/


UNITED KINGDOM-ANOTHER POSSIBLE SCENARIO

After posting on Tuesday the story about A United Kingdom (dir: Amma Assante) being chosen as the Opening film for the BFI London Film Fest I did a bit more checking.  The story that I linked from The Hollywood Reporter said that the film's presence there will be its "European" premiere which I took as an indication that it would almost have to play Telluride/Toronto or both.

I wanted to see the "European" premiere label from some other sources (and it appears in many places) but as I was doing that research a couple of things struck me.

First,  the BFI/LFF will open Oct. 5.  That tidbit smacked me in the face yesterday as I did some further research to find that...

Second, the New York Film Festival opens on Sept. 30.

Soooo...that means that A United Kingdom's "Euro" premiere status isn't as solid a clue as I first thought.  It's NOT ruled out for Telluride by any means but it COULD play Toronto and then the NYFF the first week of that fest and open BFI/LFF and meet the "European" premiere description. Or it could do all three North American fests.T-ride, TIFF and NYFF and then play BFI.

I'll need to gather more data.

PS-A United Kingdom won't be on tomorrow's Ten Bets list.


That'll wrap it up for this Thursday.  Come back tomorrow for the first Ten Bets for Telluride list for 2016.

Contact MTFB at:

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