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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One Million!!!!! / MTFB Oscar Update: The Big Eight / BAFTA and TFF / Interviews and Profiles

ONE MILLION!!!!!

Over the just-ended weekend MTFB recorded its one-millionth view.  1,000,000.  That's insane for a little blog that is the "nicheiest" of niche blogs.  I'll likely have a little more to say about the milestone in Thursday's post. 

One Million...wow!

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 (3)

3) The Holdovers (2)

4) Killers of the Flower Moon (6)

5) Barbie (5)

6) Anatomy of a Fall (7)

7) American Fiction (4)

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 (5)

5) Justine Triet/Anatomy of a Fall (4)

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) Paul Giamatti/The Holdovers (1)

2) Cillian Murphy/Oppenheimer (2)

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) Danielle Brooks/The Color Purple 95)

4) America Ferrera/Barbie (4)

5) Jodie Foster/Nyad (3)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

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

2) Ryan Gosling/Barbie (2)

3) Mark Ruffalo/Poor Things (4)

4) Robert DeNiro/Killers of the Flower Moon (3)

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

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1) Oppenheimer (3)

2) Barbie (1)

3) American Fiction (2)

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)

COMMENTS:

With less than three weeks to go and final Oscar voting starting on Thursday, four of these categories feel all but locked: Picture (Oppy), Director (Nolan/Oppy), Supporting Acting (Randolph/The Holdovers and Downey, Jr./Oppy).

The lead acting categories are very tight.  Gladstone and Stone are neck and neck as far as I can tell.  Giamatti and Murphy are also close. Adapted Screenplay appears to be a three horse race between Oppenheimer/Barbie/American Fiction.  Original Screenplay is also close, though Anatomy of a Fall seems to have the edge at the moment.  It will be interesting to see if the BAFTA (see below), SAG, PGA, Independent Spirit and WGA nomination results have moved the needle for any of these eight categories when we come back to them in the MTFB post on Feb. 29th.

If I'm 100% accurate TFF films will win three of these categories on Oscar night: Actress, Actor and Original Screenplay.

BAFTA AND TFF

Oppenheimer had a great British evening on Sunday as the film led all others with seven BAFTA  wins including Best Pic, Direction and Actor.

But films that played TFF also did well in the Brits' estimation with 11 total wins on the night.

Yorgos Lanthimos' Poor Things was the #2 winner in total with five BAFTAs: Best Actress, Production Design, Costumes, Makeup/Hair and Visual Effects.

Jonathan Glazer's The Zone of Interest landed three BAFTAs: Best British Film, Best Film Not in the English Language and Sound.

And Alexander Payne's The Holdovers earned two BAFTAs for Best Supporting Actress and Best Casting.

Justine Triet's Anatomy of a Fall was the other TFF film with BAFTA success getting the award for Best Original Screenplay.

Both Barbie and Killers of the Flower Moon missed winning any awards from BAFTA.

Here's a complete list of BAFTA winners from Entertainment Weekly.

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Paul Giamatti for The Holdovers from Variety.

Da'Vine Joy Randolph for The Holdovers from Deadline.

Producer Mark Johnson for The Holdovers from Deadline.

Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Claire Foy and Andrew Haigh for All of Us Strangers from Pop Culture Confidential.

Directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin for Nyad from Awards Radar.

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MTFB Final Oscar Nomination Update / Notes on Oscar #96 /The Oscar Experts Final Predictions

MTFB FINAL OSCAR NOMINATION UPDATE

Welp. here there are my final Oscar nomination predictions before tomorrow morning's announcement..  General notes:  Oppenheimer is the favorite to win and win big on Oscar night.  The Holdovers and Saltburn seem to surging.  May December seems to have faded and The Color Purple and Origin never seemed to catch fire.

I'll have a special post up tomorrow after the nominations are announced with the full list and probably a comment or two.

BEST PICTURE

1) Oppenheimer (1)

2) The Holdovers (5)

3) Barbie (2)

4) Killers of the Flower Moon (3)

5) Poor Things (4)

6) American Fiction (6)

7) Maestro (7)

8) Anatomy of a Fall (9)

8) Past Lives (8)

10) The Zone of Interest (10)

Alternates:  Saltburn, The Color Purple, All of Us Strangers.

BEST DIRECTION

1) Christopher Nolan/Oppenheimer (1)

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

3) Greta Gerwig /Barbie (4)

4) Alexander Payne/The Holdovers (-)

5) Yorgos Lanthimos/Poor Things (3)

Alternates: Jonathan Glazer/The Zone of Interest, Justine Triet/Anatomy of a Fall and Bradley Cooper/Maestro.

BEST ACTRESS

1) Emma Stone/Poor Things (2)

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

3) Carey Mulligan/Maestro (3)

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

5) Margot Robbie/Barbie (5)

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

BEST ACTOR

1) Paul Giamatti/The Holdovers (2)

2) Cillian Murphy/Oppenheimer (3)

3) Bradley Cooper/Maestro (1)

4) Jeffrey Wright/American Fiction (4)

5) Colman Domingo/Rustin (-)

Alternates: Leonardo DiCaprio/Killers of the Flower Moon, Andrew Scott/All of Us Strangers and Barry Keoghan/Saltburn.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

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

2) Emily Blunt/Oppenheimer (3)

3) Danielle Brooks/The Color Purple (2)

4) Jodie Foster/Nyad (4)

5) Penelope Cruz/Ferrari (-)

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

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

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

2) Ryan Gosling (1)

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

4) Willem Dafoe/Poor Things (-)

5) Mark Ruffalo/Poor Things (3)

Alternates: Dominic Sessa/The Holdovers, Sterling K. Brown/American Fiction and Charles Melton/May December.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1) The Holdovers (1)

2) Past Lives (2)

3) Anatomy of a Fall (3)

4) May December (4)

5) Maestro (5)

Alternates: Saltburn, Air and The Boy and the Heron. 

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1) Oppenheimer (1)

2) Barbie (4)

3) American Fiction (3)

4) Poor Things (2)

5) Killers of the Flower Moon (5)

Alternates: All of Us Strangers, The Zone of Interest, and Origin. 

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, 32 Sounds and Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy.

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

1) The Zone of Interest (1)

2) Society of the Snow (2)

3) The Taste of Things (3)

4) The Teachers' Lounge (4)

5) 20 Days in Mariupol (-)

Alternates: Fallen Leaves, Perfect Days and Totem.

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 (5)

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

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, El Conde and Barbie.

FILM EDITING

1) Oppenheimer (1)

2) Killers of the Flower Moon (3)

3) Poor Things (2)

4) Barbie (4)

5) The Holdovers (5)

Alternates: Anatomy of a Fall, Maestro and The Zone of Interest.

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, Can't Catch me Now/The Hunger Games and Superpower (I)/The Color Purple.

BEST SCORE

1) Oppenheimer (1)

2) Killers of the Flower Moon (2)

3) Poor Things (3)

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

5) The Zone of Interest (5)

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

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

1) Barbie (1)

2) Poor Things (2)

3) Oppenheimer (3)

4) Killers of the Flower Moon (4)

5) Maestro (5)

Alternates: Asteroid City, Napoleon and The Zone of Interest.

VISUAL EFFECTS

1) The Creator (1)

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

3) Poor Things (2)

4) Society of the Snow (5)

5) Godzilla Minus One (4)

Alternates: Spiderman Across the Spider-Verse, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning.

SOUND

1) Oppenheimer (1)

2) Maestro (2)

3) Ferrari (3)

4) The Zone of Interest (4)

5) Barbie (-)

Alternates: Killers of the Flower Moon, Napoleon and The Killer.

COSTUMES 

1) Barbie (1)

2) Poor Things (2)

3) Killers of the Flower Moon (3)

4) Oppenheimer (5)

5) Napoleon (-)

Alternates: Maestro, the Little Mermaid and Ferrari.

MAKEUP AND HAIR

1) Maestro (1)

2) Poor Things (2)

3) Oppenheimer (3)

4) Golda (4)

5) Killers of the Flower Moon (5)

Alternates: Society of the Snow, Napoleon and Ferrari.

ANIMATED SHORT

1) Once Upon a Studio (1)

2) Letter to a Pig (4)

3) War Is Over Inspired by the Music of John and Yoko (2)

4) Ninety-Five Senses (-)

5) Humo (-)

Alternates: Koerkerter, Pete, Eeva.

LIVE ACTION SHORT

1) The Wonderful Life of Henry Sugar (1)

2) The Anne Frank Gift Shop (2)

3) The After (5)

4) Strange Way of Life (4)

5) Red, White and Blue (-)

Alternates: Knight of Fortune, Yellow and Good Boy.

DOCUMENTARY SHORT

1) The Last Repair Shop (1)

2) The ABCs of Book Banning (2)

3) Deciding Vote (3)

4) Last Song from Kabul (4)

5) The Barber of Little Rock (5)

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

NOTES ON OSCAR #96

If  I'm 100% accurate, these are the nominations on Tuesday for TFF films:

Poor Things (13- tied with Oppenheimer for the most nominations): Best Picture, Direction, Actress, Supporting Actor x 2, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Score, Production Design, Costumes, Makeup/Hair and Visual Effects.

The Holdovers (6): Best Picture, Direction, Actor, Supporting Actress, Original Screenplay and Editing.  Also, a possible shot at Supporting Actor.  If this lands Payne, and Sessa and the Editing nomination...lookout Oppy.

The Zone of Interest (5): Best Picture, International Feature, Cinematography, Score and Sound.  Plus it could be a factor in five other categories: Direction, Supporting Actress, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography and Production Design.  Imagine a world in which Zone has nominations tomorrow morning.

Anatomy of a Fall (3): Best Picture, Actress and Original Screenplay.  Plus possible shots at Direction and Editing.

Rustin (2): Best Actor and Original Song.

American Symphony (2): Best Doc Feature and Original Song.

Single nominations for:

Nyad: Best Supporting Actress and a possible Best Actress nom.

Beyond Utopia: Doc Feature.

The Taste of Things: Best International Feature.

The Teachers' Lounge: Best International Feature

TFF films that I'm not predicting with any nominations but could pop up:

Saltburn has a shot in five categories: Best Picture, Actor, Supporting Actress, Original Screenplay and Cinematography.

All of Us Strangers maybe in three places: Best Picture, Actor and Adapted Screenplay.

Single "maybes" include:

Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy-Doc Feature

Fallen Leaves: International Feature

Perfect Days: International Feature

Totem: International Feature

El Conde: Cinematography

Strange Way of Life: Live Action Short

The Last Repair Shop: Doc Short

Last Sing from Kabul: Doc Short

So I'm predicting 38 nominations with another 22 possibly in play.

Non-TFF films that'll have big nomination totals tomorrow:

Oppenheimer (13): Best Picture, Direction, Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Score, Production Design, Sound, Costumes and Makeup/Hair.

Barbie (11): Best Picture, Direction, Actress, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Editing, Original Song x 2, Production Design, Sound and Costumes.  Barbie could get to 13 with possible nominations for Supporting actress and Cinematography.

Killers of the Flower Moon (11): Best Picture, Direction, Actress, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Score, Production Design, Costumes and Makeup/Hair.  If Leo sneaks into Best Actor, KOTFM could get a 12th nomination.

Maestro (8): Best Picture, Actress, Actor, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Production Design, Sound and Makeup.  Maestro has a chance to get to double digit nominations if it could also land Direction, Editing and Costumes.

As a side note, my track record for nomination predictions over the last five years has averaged a 76.5% success rate.

2023: 93 0f 120-77.5%

2022: 87 of 120-72.5%

2021: 87 of 118-73.7%

2020: 100 of 124-80.6%

2019: 95 of 122-77.9%

Total 462 of 604-76.5%

Additionally, in about 25% of the categories where I miss one nomination, my first alternate gets in.

THE OSCAR EXPERTS FINAL PREDICTIONS

Here are links to several Final Predictions from Oscar Experts:

Clayton Davis/Variety

Scott Feinberg/The Hollywood Reporter

Sasha Stone/Awards Daily

Erik Anderson Awards Watch

Matt Neglia/Next Best Picture

Anne Thompson/Indiewire

Joey Magidson/Awards Radar

Mark Johnson/Good as Gold

Gregory Ellwood/The Playlist

Kyle Buchanan/The New York Times

Glenn Whipp/The Los Angeles Times

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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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MTFB Oscar Update: Song, Score, Animated Feature, Production Design, Visual Effects and Sound / A Couple of Lists / Interviews and Profiles: Sandra Huller

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE

Here's the latest MTFB Oscar Update.  As we move to less than a month before nomination announcements I am consolidating categories for each post. Today I'm updating the Original Song, Original Score, Animated Feature, Production Design, Visual Effects and Sound 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 SONG

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

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

3) Road to Freedom/Rustin (4)

4) The Fire Inside/Flamin' Hot (5)

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

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) Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse (3)

4) Poor Things (5)

5) The Zone of Interest (4)

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

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) Wish (5)

Alternates: Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem and Robot Dreams.

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

1) Barbie (2)

2) Poor Things (1)

3) Killers of the Flower Moon (4)

4) Oppenheimer (3)

5) Maestro (5)

Alternates: Asteroid City, The Color Purple and Napoleon

VISUAL EFFECTS

1) The Creator (1)

2) Godzilla Minus One (5)

3) Poor Things (4)

4) Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse (5)

5) Society of the Snow (-)

Alternates: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One.

SOUND

1) Oppenheimer (1)

2) Maestro (2)

3) The Zone of Interest (-)

4) Ferrari (3)

5) Killers of the Flower Moon (5)

Alternates: Barbie, Napoleon and The Killer.

UK FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION AND TFF

The UK Film Critics Association revealed its nominees for film excellence last week.  Six TFF films landed among the nominees but none in the Best Film category.

Here's the rundown of TFF nominees:

Saltburn (3): Best Direction, Actor and Supporting Actress.

The Holdovers (2): Best Actor and Supporting Actress

Anatomy of a Fall (2): Best Actress and Screenplay.

Poor Things (2): Best Actress and Supporting Actor.

The Zone of Interest (1): Best Direction

All of Us Strangers (1): Best Actor.

The complete list of all nominees can be found here via Next Best Picture.

A COUPLE OF LISTS

Indiewire published its 50 Most Anticipated Films list this week and World of Reel has begun its running list of films rumored to play Cannes.  Both lists can be instructive vis-a-vis some possible TFF selections.

What's interesting is that there is a lot of overlap between the two lists.  So here's my quick parsing of them beginning with films that appear on both that I feel have some chance of being screened over Labor Day weekend:

From both lists:

Anora (dir: Sean Baker)

Bird (dir: Andrea Arnold

Blitz (dir: Steve McQueen)

The End (dir: Joshua Oppenheimer)

Hard Truths (dir: Mike Leigh)

Kinds of Kindness (dir: Yorgos Lanthimos)

Maria (dir: Pablo Larrain)

Megalopolis (dir: Francis Ford Coppola)

Oh, Canada (dir: Paul Schrader)

Polaris (dir: Lynne Ramsay)

Queer (dir: Luca Guadagnino)

Others from the Indiewire 50 Most  Anticipated list:

The Actor (dir: Duke Johnson)

Holland, Michigan (dir: Mimi Cave)

Others from World of Reel's Cannes list:

The Way of the Wind (dir: Terrence Malick)

Emilia Perez (dir: Jacques Audiard)

Partenhope (dir: Paolo Sorrentino)

In the Hands of Dante (dir: Julian Schnabel)

The Apprentice (dir: Ali Abassi)

The Indiewire 50 Most Anticipated list is linked here.

The World of Reel Cannes list is linked here.

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Sandra Huller for The Zone of Interest and Anatomy of a Fall from Variety.

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MTFB Oscar Update: Supporting Acting, Original Score and Song / Critics' Choice Nominees Announced / Indiewire's Poll of Critics Select the 50 Best Films of 2023 / The Playlist's Top 21 Films From 2023 and TFF /A Conversation with The Holdovers / Three TFF Docs PGA Nominated / Interviews and Profiles

 MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: SUPPORTING ACTING, ORIGINAL SCORE AND SONG

Here's your Oscar Update for today's post.  This is a check on predicted nominees for the Supporting Acting categories.  They were last posted here on Nov. 30th.  Previous positions on the MTFB Oscar Update is listed to the right in parentheses.  Additionally, I have included my first predicitons in the categories of Best Original Song and Best Score.  As always TFF films are Bold.

 BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

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

2) Danielle Brooks/The Color Purple (3)

3) Emily Blunt/Oppenheimer (2)

4) Julianne Moore/May December (5)

5) Jodie Foster/Nyad (4)

Alternates:Taraji P. Henson/The Color Purple, Rosamund Pike/Saltburn and America Ferrera/Barbie

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

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

2) Ryan Gosling/Barbie (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.

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

1) What Was I Made For/Barbie

2) I'm Just Ken/Barbie

3) This Wish/Wish

4) Road to Freedom/Rustin

5) The Fire Inside/Flamin' Hot

Alternates: It Never Went Away/American Symphony, Dance the Night Away/Barbie and For the First Time/The Little Mermaid.

BEST SCORE

1) Oppenheimer

2) Killers of the Flower Moon

3) Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse

4) The Zone of Interest

5) Poor Things

Alternates: Society of  the Snow, Elemental and Asteroid City.

CRITICS' CHOICE NOMINEES ANNOUNCED

The Critics' Choice Awards nominees for film were announced yesterday.  Poor Things was the leader among TFF films with 13 nominations tying Oppenheimer for the second most nominations.  Barbie was the leader overall with a staggering 18 nominations.  The Holdovers showed very strong with eight nominations.  In all TFF films earned 34 nominations for 10 films.

Here's The TFF breakdown:

Poor Things (13): Best Picture, Best Comedy Film, Direction, Actress (Stone), Supporting Actor (Ruffalo), Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Production Design, Costumes, Makeup/Hair, Score and Visual Effects.

The Holdovers (8): Best Picture, Best Comedy, Direction, Actor (Giamatti), Supporting Actress (Randolph), Young Actor (Sessa), Ensemble, Original Screenplay.

Anatomy of a Fall (3): Best Foreign Language Film, Actress (Huller), Young Actor (Graner).

Saltburn (3): Best Picture, Cinematography, Production Design.

Rustin (2): Best Actor (Domingo), Song.

Nyad (1): Best Supporting Actress (Foster).

All of Us Strangers (1): Best Adapted Screenplay.

Perfect Days (1): Best Foreign Language Film.

The Taste of Things (1): Best Foreign Language Film.

The Zone of Interest (1): Best Foreign Language Film.

Here's the complete rundown of nominees from Variety.

INDIEWIRE'S POLL OF CRITICS SELECT THE 50 BEST FILMS OF 2023

On Wednesday Indiewire posted their poll of 158 critics and their choices for the 50 Best Films of 2023.  11 TFF films landed on the list.  They were:

47) La Chimera

45) Saltburn

25) Godland

24) The Taste of Things

22) Perfect Days

13) All of Us Strangers

11) Fallen Leaves

9) The Holdovers

7) Anatomy of a Fall

6) The Zone of Interest

3) Poor Things

Oppenheimer was at #2 and the topper was Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon.

The complete list is here.

THE PLAYLIST'S TOP 21 FILMS FOR 2023 AND TFF

Meanwhile, The Playlist posted their top 21 films for the year on Tuesday.  Sven TFF films made that list:

17) The Taste of Things

13) The Holdovers

11) Perfect Days

9) All of Us Strangers

5) Anatomy of a fall

2) Poor Things

1) The Zone of Interest

Honorable Mentions included: El Conde and The Royal Hotel.

The complete list is here.

A CONVERSATION WITH THE HOLDOVERS

MTFB acquaintance Tomris Lafflly lead a post-screening conversation in New York on Monday night for The Holdovers.  In attendance for the Q+A were Alexander Payne, Paul Giamatti, Da'Vine Joy Randolph and Dominic Sessa.  Here's that via YouTube and Next Best Picture:

THREE TFF DOCS PGA NOMINATED

Three documentaries from TFF #50 and TFF #49 made the list of non-fiction films nominated by the Producers Guild of America as the outstanding doc for 2023.

Matthew Heineman's American Symphony and Madeleine Gavin's Beyond Utopia from TFF #50 were among the six docs announced by the PGA on Tuesday.  Also nominated from TFF #49 was Anton Corbijn's Squaring the Circle: The Story of Hipgnosis.  

The PGA documentary winner will be announced on Feb. 25th.

The complete press release from the PGA is linked here.

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Musician Lenny Kravitz on Rustin from The Hollywood Reporter.

Screenwriter Julian Breece on Rustin from The Hollywood Reporter.

Jon Batiste for American Symphony from Gold Derby.

Willem Dafoe on Poor Things from the Talk Easy Podcast.

Sandra Huller for The Zone of Interest and Anatomy of a Fall from The Los Angeles Times.

Sandra Huller and Christian Friedel for The Zone of Interest from Awards Radar.

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Golden Globe Nominations / MTFB Oscar Update: Lead Acting Plus Cinematography and Editing / HCA Astra Nominations / Sight and Sound's 50 Best Films of 2023 / Trailer for The Monk and the Gun / New Clip from Poor Things / Interview and Profiles: Stone, Bening, Binoche and More

GOLDEN GLOBE NOMINATIONS

Barbie leads the pack in total Golden Globe nominations this morning with nine.

Here's the TFF breakdown:

Poor Things (7): Best Picture-Musical/Comedy, Direction, Actress-Musical/Comedy/Stone, Supporting Actor/Dafoe, Supporting Actor/Ruffalo, Screenplay, Score.

Anatomy of a Fall (4): best Picture-Drama, Best Non-English Language Film, Actress-Drama/Huller, Screenplay.

The Holdovers (3): Best Picture-Musical/Comedy, Actor Musical/Comedy/Giamatti, Supporting Actress/Randolph.

The Zone of Interest (3): Best Picture-Drama, Best Non-English Language Film, Score.

Fallen Leaves (2): Best Non-English Language Film, Actress-Drama/Poysti.

Rustin (2): Best Actor-Drama/Domingo, Song.

Nyad (2): Best Actress-Drama/Bening, Supporting Actress/Foster.

Saltburn (2): Best Actor-Drama/Keoghan, Supporting Actress/Pike.

All of Us Strangers (1): Best Actor-Drama/Scott.

Nine TFF films earn a total of 26 nominations.

The complete list of all Golden Globe nominees can be found here.

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: LEAD ACTING PLUS CINEMATOGRAPHY AND EDITING

Here's your Oscar Update for today's post.  This is a check on predicted nominees for the Lead Acting categories.  They were last posted here on Nov. 27th.  Previous positions on the MTFB Oscar Update is listed to the right in parentheses.  Additionally, here are my first predictions for the categories of Cinematography and Film Editing.  As always TFF films are Bold.

BEST ACTRESS

1) Lily Gladstone/Killers of the Flower Moon (2)

2) Emma Stone/Poor Things (1)

3) Carey Mulligan/Maestro (3)

4) Sandra Huller/Anatomy of a Fall (5)

5) Annette Bening/Nyad (4)

Alternates: Margot Robbie/Barbie, Fantasia Barrino/The Color Purple, Natalie Portman/May December.

BEST ACTOR

1) Bradley Cooper/Maestro (1)

2) Cillian Murphy/Oppenheimer (2)

3) Paul Giamatti/The Holdovers (3)

4) Colman Domingo/Rustin (4)

5) Jeffrey Wright/American Fiction (5)

Alternates: Leonardo DiCaprio/Killers of the Flower Moon, Andrew Scott/All of Us Strangers and Zac Efron/The Iron Claw.

CINEMATOGRAPHY

1) Oppenheimer

2) Killers of the Flower Moon

3) Poor Things

4) Maestro

5) The Zone of Interest

Alternates: Saltburn, The Color Purple, El Conde.

FILM EDITING

1) Oppenheimer

2) Killers of the Flower Moon

3) Poor Things

4) Barbie

5) Maestro

Alternates: American Fiction, The Holdovers, Ferrari

HCA ASTRA NOMINATIONS AND TFF

The newly re-named Hollywood Creative Alliance (it was the Hollywood Critics Association)  announced nominees for its Astra Awards last Thursday.  A whopping 16 TFF #50 films earned at least one nomination.   All told TFF films landed 50 nominations.

Alexander Payne's The Holdovers and Yorgos Lanthimos' Poor Things each grabbed nine nominations to serve as the TFF films with most nominations.  Here's the breakdown:

The Holdovers (9): Best Picture, Direction, Actor, supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay, Ensemble, Editing, Casting.

Poor Things (9): Best Actress, Direction, Adapted Screenplay, Score, Cinematography, Production Design, Hair/Makeup, Costumes and Visual Effects.

Saltburn (6): Best Actor, Direction, Original Screenplay, Score, Cinematography and Production Design.

Anatomy of a Fall (5): Best International Film, International Actress, International Filmmaker, Original Screenplay and Editing.

The Zone of Interest (3): Best International Film, International Actor, International Filmmaker.

The Taste of Things (3): Best International Film, International Actress, International Filmmaker.

Perfect Days (3): Best International Film, International Actor, International Filmmaker.

Fallen Leaves (2): Best International Film, International Actress.

The Teachers' Lounge (2): Best International Film, International Actress.

Cassandro (2): Best International Actor, International Actress.

Rustin (1): Best Actor

Promised Land (1): Best International Actor.

American Symphony (1): Best Documentary.

Beyond Utopia (1): Best Documentary

The Last Repair Shop (1): Best Short

Strange Way of Life (1): Best Short

The HCA Astra Nominations were lead  by Barbie with 15 nominations.  Here's the link to their official press release.

SIGHT AND SOUND'S 2023 LIST AND TFF

Sight and Sound published its listing of the 50 Best Films of 2023 on Friday.  TFF films were a big part of the list:

38) The Holdovers

34) The Taste of Things

20) La Chimera

17) Totem

15) Fallen Leaves

12) All of Us Strangers

8) Anatomy of a Fall

4) Poor Things

2) The Zone of Interest

Two TFF #49 titles also made the list at #34 One Fine Morning and at #13 TAR.

Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon topped the list.

The complete article is here.

TRAILER FOR THE MONK AND THE GUN

From RoadsideFlix, here is a brand new trailer for the documentary The Monk and The Gun via YouTube:

NEW CLIP FROM POOR THINGS

The dance sequence from the film was is now in limited release and will expand soon.  From YouTube:

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES:

POOR THINGS

Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo and Willem Dafoe on Yorgos Lanthimos from The Hollywood Reporter.

Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe and Yorgos Lanthimos from Next Best Picture.

Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos from The Playlist.

Willem Dafoe from Awards Daily.

Willem Dafoe from Awards Watch.

Yorgos Lanthimos from Indiewire.

THE HOLDOVERS

Paul Giamatti from Awards Daily.

Da'Vine Joy Randolph from Awards Daily.

THE ZONE OF INTEREST

Jonathan Glazer from The Guardian.

ALL OF US STRANGERS

Andrew Scott from The Hollywood Reporter.

SALTBURN

Emerald Fennell from Awards Radar.

NYAD

Annette Bening and Jodie Foster from Next Best Picture.

THE TASTE OF THINGS

Juliette Binoche from Awards Daily.

Juliette Binoche from Indiewire.

CASSANDRO

Gael Garcia Bernal from Variety.

THE PIGEON TUNNEL

Errol Morris from Indiewire.

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