Trailers for TFF #43 Films: Maudie and Norman / For Fun / And Speaking of La La Land

Hello on a Monday...



TRAILERS FOR TFF #43 FILMS

Within the last ten days or so, we got trailers for two films that made a splash at last year's Telluride Film Festival.  Some folks were talking animatedly about Sally Hawkins performance in Aisling Walsh's film.  The film is slated for release on June 16th.

MAUDIE

Here's the trailer from YouTube:

I have also linked coverage of the trailer from:

Indiewire

The Film Stage


NORMAN

Also making a recent appearance was a trailer for Joseph Cedar's Norman...which we saw at Telluride with the rather more lengthy title: Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer. Richard Gere stars.  Norman opens on April 14th.   Here's that trailer:

And coverage from:

FirstShowing.net


FOR FUN

And speaking of trailers, I couldn't resist linking readers to a couple of "trailers" that appeared within the last week just for fun.  The first comes from Late Night with Seth Meyers and is called "Oscar Bait".  As you might guess from the title, it lampoons a certain type of film...

Seth Meyers Oscar Bait

And, this mash up appeared last week as well.  It envisions Damian Chazelle's La La Land as if directed by David Lynch.  It's fantastic:

Davis Lynch's La La Land

AND SPEAKING OF LA LA LAND...

Winner of six Oscars including Best Direction, this video has been making the rounds and shows Chazelle doing the prep for that terrific opening number "Another Day of Sun":

La La Land Opening Number Rehearsals

Here are stories about that process from:

The Playlist

Flickreel

SAG Acting Awards Nominations are 40% Telluride / Oscar Changes the Lay of the Land / Norman Makes an Appearance

Good Thursday film fans...

SAG AWARDS NOMINATIONS ARE 40% TELLURIDE

The Screen Actors Guild announced their nominees for acting excellence for 2016 yesterday morning.  Actors from TFF #43 films were named in 10 of the 25 slots.  SAG nominates the traditional Actresses and Actors in Lead and Supporting roles in addition to their Ensemble nomination and stunt cast nominations.

Here's what went down vis-a-vis Telluride among those nominations yesterday.

Manchester by the Sea-4: Ensemble, Casey Affleck/Male Lead, Michelle Williams/Female Supporting, Lucas Hedges/Male Supporting.

Moonlight-3: Ensemble, Naomie Harris/Female Supporting, Mahershala Ali/Male Supporting

La La Land-2: Emma Stone/Female Lead, Ryan Gosling/Male Lead

Arrival: Amy Adams/Female Lead.

Complete nominations:

Ensemble: Captain Fantastic, Fences, Hidden Figures, Manchester, Moonlight

Female Lead: Amy Adams/Arrival, Emily Blunt/Girl on the Train, Natalie Portman/Jackie, Emma Stone/La La Land and Meryl Streep/Florence Foster Jenkins

Male Lead: Casey Affleck/Manchester, Ryan Gosling/La La, Andrew Garfield/Hacksaw Ridge, Viggo Mortensen/Captain Fantastic, Denzel Washington/Fences

Female Supporting: Viola Davis/Fences, Naomie Harris/Moonlight, Nicole Kidman/Lion, Octavia Spencer/Hidden Figures and Michelle Williams/Manchester

Male Supporting: Mahershala Ali/Moonlight, Jeff Bridges/Hell or High Water, Hugh Grant/Florence Foster Jenkins, Lucas Hedges/Manchester, Dev Patel/Lion

Thoughts:  It seems to me that Hidden Figures and Fences pick up some heat for a Best Picture nomination and that 20th Century Women and Loving are losing steam.  I think her nomination is terrific news for Amy Adams.  Meanwhile, Tom Hanks campaign for Sully looks like it's in trouble.


Category by category:

Ensemble: The inclusion of Captain Fantastic was a bit of a stunner.  La La Land's exclusion doesn't seem to me to be that problematic.  It's not an ensemble piece so I don't think even calling it a snub would be accurate but a number of the big time Oscar pros think that it IS a deal.  Their point being that its been over 20 years since a Best Picture winner emerged without a SAG ensemble nomination.

Best Actress looks like the category where the most weirdness occurred.  As of last Monday's FAC post only 2 of the 5 "probable" Best Actress Oscar nominees made the SAG list yesterday: Stone and Portman.  Adams was listed at #6 and Streep #7 last week and Emily Blunt was nowhere to be found. Not included on the SAG list but on the latest FAC are Ruth Negga/Loving (#4), Anette Bening/20th Century Women (#3) and Emily Blunt/Girl-Train who had dropped out of The FAC top ten.

Best Actor: Kind of a bit of a surprise that Mortensen is a SAG nominee.  He edges out Joel Edgerton who I had as the #5 guy in the latest FAC.

Best Supporting Actress: #6 on the FAC Octavia Spencer is in for #5 Greta Gerwig.

Best Supporting Actor: #6 Lucas Hedges is in for the FAC's #5 Liam Neeson.

The SAG is the first of the guilds to weigh in with other major guilds still to come: Producers, Directors and Writers.

I'll be interested to see if Wednesday's announcement moves the needle for some Oscarologists in the next few days.

The next big precursors isn't until the Writers Guild nominations on Jan. 4.  The editors Guild announces their nominations the day before.

Here's the complete list of nominees for film and television from SAG-AFTRA.

Additionally, here's analysis from Sasha Stone at Awards Daily.


OSCAR CHANGES THE LAY OF THE LAND

In the space of the three days since MTFB/FAC's last post, a couple of Oscar racers got some big changes as a result of determinations made concerning eligibility.

AMPAS has determined that both Moonlight and Loving, which have been thought to be competing in the Original Screenplay category will. in fact by relegated to the Adapted category.  That probably makes Moonlight the favorite for that trophy on Oscar night.

Coverage of the switch of categories is here from:

The Los Angeles Times

Indiewire

Entertainment Weekly


Meanwhile, as seems to happen every year, there were some surprise decisions about Original Scores and there eligibility including the decision that Arrival's score is not eligible for Oscar consideration nor is the score from Manchester by the Sea.

Here's reportage from Variety , Indiewire and Entertainment Weekly.


NORMAN MAKES AN APPEARANCE

I saw three films at TFF #43 that have really flying under the radar since Labor Day:  Una (still without U.S. distribution), Wakefield and Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer.

Now, the Richard Gere starrer (Norman) looks like its peeking its head out as we saw the arrival yesterday of a teaser trailer for the film.

You'll find the teaser as well as coverage of the release for the film from Sony Pictures Classics in these dispatches from The Playlist as well as this story from my friend Alex Billington at FirstShowing.net



That'll be a wrap for this second full week of December.  Next Monday's post will include an update of the Supporting Acting categories.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

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COMMENT to the blog.

Beginning to Read the Oscar Tea Leaves / Barry Jenkins Talks Moonlight with A.O. Scott / A Photo Gallery / Rate Those Films!!!

Hello and welcome to Thursday... Quick note about yesterday's post...I thought I had included Chris Schiller in my list of film friends and discovered I didn't.  I have corrected that but wanted to make sure to shout out Mr. Schiller who has been a really good friend to me and this space over the years.

BEGINNING TO READ OSCAR'S TEA LEAVES AS TELLURIDE ENDS AND TORONTO BEGINS

This is just the beginning of our long conversation that will end at the Academy Awards next February.  Oscar analysts are beginning to get a real feel about how the season may lay out and close followers of this space know that in the next couple of weeks it really changes from MTFB to The Film Awards Clearinghouse.  We'll track the Oscar race all the way through the season with special attention on the films that played as a part of TFF#43.

To that end I have linked the first post-Telluride analysis from Awards Daily's Sasha Stone, Awards Circuit's Mark Johnson and Indiewire's Anne Thompson.

TFF #43 films that get serious focus are:

La La Land, Manchester by the Sea, Moonlight, Arrival, Sully.  Frankly, I'm beating the drum for Aaron Eckhardt to get a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Ben Younger's Bleed for This.  He's terrific.

Here are the respective pieces from:

Awards Daily

Awards Circuit

Indiewire



BARRY JENKINS TALKS MOONLIGHT WITH A.O. SCOTT

Moonlight writer/director Barry Jenkins sat down with The New York Times A.O. Scott recently and talked about his film, his life and his long history with the Telluride Film Festival.  The NYT posted the interview yesterday.  Check out the Barry Jenkins interview here.


A PHOTO GALLERY

My wife is the pictorial chronicler of our Telluride Film Fest adventures and I thought it might be cool to show some of the pics she got during last week's fest.  So here they are:

SULLY...HANKS AND EASTWOOD

ARRIVAL/AMY ADAMS

MANCHESTER/CASEY AFFLECK

LA LA LAND/EMMA STONE AND DAMIEN CHAZELLE

WAKEFIELD/BRYAN CRANSTON

NORMAN/RICHARD GERE

BRIGHT LIGHTS/CARRIE FISHER

RATE THOSE FILMS!!!

I had a really nice start yesterday with film ratings coming in from regular Janes and Joes that attended this year's TFF.  Keep them coming!  I'm keeping the polls open through this weekend at least but it won't be indefinite so send them in!  Use a 1 to 5 scale with 1 being abysmal and 5 being masterful.

and send them to me:

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT to the Blog itself.

Latest Toronto News and Telluride / Arrival's Second Wave Arrives / Miss Sloane Emerges / The People, The Pros and The Follow

It's a Wednesday in August.  The month is half over and we're staring down the barrel of slightly two more weeks until TFF #43...and it may have just gotten awesomer! (Is that a word?  Should be).

LATEST TORONTO NEWS AND TELLURIDE

The organizers of the Toronto International Film Festival reveled more of their selections yesterday and is my custom, I began parsing the information and premiere statuses for Telluride clues.

Here's what I think we can say...

First, and most attention grabbing, it appears that Wakefield from writer/director Robin Swicord (The Jane Austen Book Club, co-writer of The Promise...which I will mention in a bit) and starring Bryan Cranston will probably be playing Telluride.  That stems from its classification as an International premiere in Toronto.  An International Premiere means the first play outside of its nation of origin (which is the USA) so unless there is some other screening of the film someplace I can't track down, the most likely scenario is that it's coming to southwestern Colorado.

Now, there's no guarantee that Cranston make the trip to T-ride.  We've been disappointed before when we thought an actor was going to make the trip and then didn't (Benedict Cumberbatch/Imitation Game...I'm looking at you).  And to be sure, Cranston is a busy man as he is cast in the currently filming Power Rangers film.  Still, I'm hopeful that he could be in town.  Would be cool.

Wakefield's IMDb plot description says: "A man's nervous breakdown causes him to leave his wife and live in his attic for several months".  IMDb also does not list a current distributor for the film.

Other big news for additions to our T-ride spec list is that it looks like Joseph Cedar's Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer will make an appearance at Telluride.  The film was previously titled The Oppenheimer Strategies.  The film has been on the MTFB radar since as early as last March because of Cedar's previous Telluride presence with his 2011 film Footnote. Norman was listed by TIFF as an International Premiere as well...see above for why I think this means a T-ride play.

Other things we learned, Wim Wenders The Beautiful Days of Aranjuez appears to be headed directly from Venice to Toronto as it was listed as a North American Premiere.  Terrence Malick's The Voyage of Time appears to be doing the same.

The Promise, which we have been keeping an eye on of late is also not T-ride bound as it was announced as a World Premiere.

No other International or Canadian Premieres seem to be likely for Telluride.

One piece of weirdness.  Pedro Almodovar's Julieta, was NOT listed last week by the New York Film Festival with ANY premiere designation which lead me to conclude it was probably Telluride-bound (or else it would probably be called a "U.S. Premiere by NYFF) was listed yesterday by TIFF as a North American premiere.  So, it's now more likely that Julieta is going to play somewhere else in the U.S. after Toronto and before New York, thereby meaning no Telluride play.

If Toronto follows their traditional pattern, they'll have one more set of films added to the lineup next week.

TIFF coverage from yesterday is here:

http://www.indiewire.com/2016/08/tiff-2016-i-daniel-blake-personal-shopper-julieta-the-unknown-girl-1201717188/

https://thefilmstage.com/news/tiff-2016-adds-voyage-of-time-certain-women-julieta-the-promise-and-more/

http://theplaylist.net/tiff-2016-adds-promise-christian-bale-voyage-time-20160816/

https://www.thewrap.com/toronto-film-festival-adds-james-franco-pedro-almodovar-ken-loach-movies/

ARRIVAL'S SECOND WAVE ARRIVES

We saw a great teaser and a few images last week from Denis Villenueve's Arrival and it definitely has our interest piqued.  In all honesty, it's now the film I'm most excited about seeing if it plays Telluride as we presume from its announced status as a Canadian Premiere for Toronto.

Yesterday, the folks behind the hype parade for the film smacked us with two trailers and posters as well.

I'll be honest, I'm not watching the trailer(s).  I loved the teaser last week, but that's all I want to know now.  I'm going to try to keep the blinders on until I see it at The Zog (I assume).

Nevertheless, here's the trailer via YouTube:

And, the international trailer, also from YouTube:

And, to further whet your appetite...posters:

There are several more...

Check these stories for more news about Arrival, it's trailers and images:

http://www.awardsdaily.com/2016/08/16/trailer-watch-arrival/

http://www.indiewire.com/2016/08/arrival-trailer-amy-adams-denis-villeneuve-jeremy-renner-oscars-1201716795/

https://thefilmstage.com/trailer/aliens-appear-in-full-length-trailer-for-denis-villeneuves-arrival/

http://www.awardscircuit.com/2016/08/16/watch-new-trailer-posters-arrival-starring-amy-adams-jeremy-renner/

http://theplaylist.net/amy-adams-talks-aliens-new-full-length-trailer-denis-villeneuves-arrival-20160816/

http://www.thewrap.com/arrival-trailer-amy-adams-must-stop-all-out-war-in-first-full-video/


MISS SLOANE EMERGES

It's looking increasingly unlikely that John Madden's Miss Sloane starring Jessica Chastain will be playing Telluride.  The film has always been a very outside chance with an announced release date of Dec. 9th...which is pretty deep in the season and no inclusion in either NYFF or Toronto (at least at this point) it seems to be improbable.

It's not impossible, however.  So, I'm still trailing it mostly because I'd like for it to be at T-ride.  We had a new image of the film published online yesterday.

Here's some of the online coverage from yesterday:

http://www.ew.com/article/2016/08/16/miss-sloane-jessica-chastain-gun-lobby-thriller

https://thefilmstage.com/news/first-look-at-jessica-chastain-in-gun-control-drama-miss-sloane/

http://theplaylist.net/first-look-jessica-chastain-oscar-contender-miss-sloane-20160816/



THE PEOPLE, THE PROS AND THE FOLLOW

Here's today's reminder to join your fellow Telluride Film Fest attendees and rate the films you see for MTFB.  I'm asking you to rate each film you catch on a 1 to 5 scale with 1 being awful and 5 being great.  Send those ratings via email (see below), comment to this blog, Twitter (see below).  I'll compile them and let you know The People's consensus.

I'l  also be doing The Professionals Telluride.  I've asked a number of industry pros to rate the films as well and I'll be reporting their consensus as well.

Agreeing this year to participate are :

Alex Billington/FirstShowing
David Ehrlich/Indiewire
Greg Ellwood/AwardsCampaign.com
Scott Feinberg/The Hollywood Reporter
Eric Kohn/Indiewire
Mark Johnson/AwardsCircuit.com
Tomris Laffly/Film Journal
Kenny Miles/TheMovieBlog.com
Christopher Schiller/ScriptMag.com
Sasha Stone/Awards Daily
Kristopher Tapley/Variety-InContention
Anne Thompson/Indiewire

There could be a couple of others.

And a reminder that you can now more easily follow Michael's Telluride Film  Blog and the Film Awards Clearinghouse.  I've set up a "FOLLOW" button on the blog page in the upper right hand corner.  Just click on it for an easy way to get every post as we preview, view and then review TFF #43.  Then you can follow the prospects of Telluride's films as they wend their way through awards season.  Just click that "FOLLOW" button!

That's it for Wednesday...more to come tomorrow.

Contact MTFB at:

mpgort@gmail.com

OR on Twitter @Gort2

OR check out Michael's Telluride Film Blog on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/Michaels-Telluride-Film-Blog-and-The-Film-Awards-Clearinghouse-107846269309712/

Or leave a comment.

Arrival First Looks / Frantz Shows Up / Oppenheimer Becomes Norman...Gere in T-ride / Moonlight All But Confirmed

Hello on a Tuesday...



ARRIVAL FIRST LOOKS

Amy Adams in Arrival via USA Today

We're pretty sure that Denis Villenueve's Arrival will arrive in Telluride after its Sept. 2 bow in Venice.  Yesterday we began to see more images from the film that stars Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner.  I'm hoping that an Amy Adams tribute is a part of the festivities in the second half of the weekend.

The rumor mill suggests that we may see a trailer for the film today...Stay tuned.

The film's plot centers on humanities first contact with alien life and the attempts to communicate with those entities.  Renner has been reported as saying it's a cross between Spielberg and Kubrick.  I've also seen comparisons to Malick.  Heady stuff indeed.

Here's the latest coverage of the film that accompanied the new views:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2016/08/08/sneak-peek-exclusive-arrival-amy-adams-jeremy-renner/88308602/

http://www.awardsdaily.com/2016/08/08/first-look-at-arrival-and-a-hint-about-tone-and-scope/

https://thefilmstage.com/news/first-look-at-amy-adams-and-jeremy-renner-in-denis-villeneuves-sci-fi-drama-arrival/

http://theplaylist.net/first-look-amy-adams-jeremy-renner-denis-villeneuves-arrival-20160808/

http://www.awardscircuit.com/2016/08/08/check-first-look-denis-villeneuves-arrival-amy-adams-jeremy-renner/

http://www.slashfilm.com/arrival-first-look/


FRANTZ SHOWS UP

We are fully expecting to see Francois Ozon's Frantz in Telluride after its screening in Venice.  The film looks intriguing.  Beautifully shot in black and white, we were treated to a subtitled trailer for the film yesterday.

Frantz trailer from YouTube\

Take a look at these stories that were posted with the trailer yesterday:

https://thefilmstage.com/trailer/first-trailer-for-francois-ozons-post-wwi-romantic-drama-frantz/

http://theplaylist.net/first-trailer-francois-ozons-wwi-film-frantz-screening-venice-tiff-20160808/

OPPENHEIMER BECOMES NORMAN...GERE IN T-RIDE?

Richard Gere via Getty Images

One of the films that has been at the periphery of my Telluride speculation has been Joseph Cedar's (Footnote, TFF 2011) The Oppenheimer Strategies.  The film jumped into the news yesterday with the announcement of its acquisition by Sony Picture Classics.

That news might indicate an increased chance at it playing TFF #43.  However, the film is currently dated for March 2017 which might suggest otherwise.  The film stars Richard Gere and, if yesterday's reports are accurate, has been retitled as Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer...the character Gere plays.

I'll be keeping an eye open the next couple of weeks for other hints that Norman might make the trip to the San Juans.

Here's coverage:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/sony-pictures-classics-nabs-richard-918051

http://variety.com/2016/film/news/richard-gere-norman-sony-classics-1201832789/


MOONLIGHT ALL BUT CONFIRMED

Moonlight director Barry Jenkins via Deadline.com

Weeks ago Jason Osiason led me down the oath of suspecting that Barry Jenkins Moonlight would be playing Telluride.  Jason made a persuasive  case and a s result, Moonlight jas been ensconced as a fixture in the Ten Bets updates throughout the summer.

Jeffrey Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere reported last night reporetd on the film and all but confirmed its slot for TFF #43.

Feeling pretty good about its Ten Bets inclusion and very appreciative to Mr. Osiason for sharing his expertise.

Here's the story from HE:

http://www.hollywood-elsewhere.com/2016/08/serious-moonlight/

Contact MTFB at:

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