MTFB Oscar Update: Makeup-Hair, Costumes and More / SAG Awards and TFF #51 / Film Independent Spirit Awards and TFF #51 / Misericordia Trailer

 MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: MAKEUP/HAIR, COSTUMES AND MORE

We're in the stretch run now.  Oscar Night is down to less than week from today.  In today's post I update these categories: Makeup/Hair, Costumes, Sound and Visual Effects.  I last posted predictions for these categories on Feb. 10th.  TFF #51 films are in Bold.  Their previous predicted position is indicated to the right in parentheses.

BEST MAKEUP/HAIR

1) The Substance (1)

2) Wicked (2)

3) Emilia Perez (3)

4) Nosferatu (5)

5) A Different Man (4)

BEST SOUND DESIGN

1) Dune Part Two (3)

2) Wicked (2)

3) A Complete Unknown (1)

4) Emilia Perez (4)

5) The Wild Robot (5)

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

1) Wicked (1)

2) Nosferatu (3)

3) Conclave (2)

4) A Complete Unknown (4)

5) Gladiator II (5)

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

1) Dune Part Two (1)

2) Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2)

3) Wicked (3)

4) Better Man (4)

5) Alien: Romulus (5)

Comment: I have no TFF #51 films to win in any of these four categories.  The real battle among these four is Sound Design which appears to be a down to the wire race between Dune 2 and Wicked.  I also wouldn't be shocked if A Complete unknown sneaks on Oscar night.

Based on my latest predictions in the feature categories, here's what MTFB predicts will happen on Sunday night:

Five TFF #51 win nine Oscars

Anora: Best Picture, Direction and Original Screenplay.

Conclave: Adapted Screenplay and Editing.

Emilia Perez: Supporting Actress and Song.

A Real Pain: Supporting Actor.

No Other Land: Documentary.

The rest:

The Brutalist: Actor, Cinematography and Score.

The Substance: Actress, Makeup/Hair.

Wicked: Production Design and Costumes.

Dune Part Two: Sound and Visual Effects.

I'm Still Here: International Feature.

Animated: The Wild Robot.

MTFB is saying it'll be a "spread the wealth" night with no film winning more than three Oscars.  BUT...FINAL MTFB predictions are coming on Thursday.

SAG AWARDS AND TFF #51

It was a good night at the SAG Awards for TFF #51 films.  Telluride films won three of the six film categories.  Zoe Saldana won Supporting Actress for Emilia Perez while Kieran Culkin won Supporting Actor for A Real Pain and Conclave win the big prize being named Best Cast.

Other awards were won by Demi Moore (Best Actress/The Substance ) and Timothee Chalamet (Best Actor/A Complete Unknown).  The Fall Guy won  for Best Stunt Cast.

Moore and Chalamet's wins could portend Oscar wins next week and the Conclave win suggests that Anora's anointing is not a foregone conclusion.  The SAG Best Cast award has about a 50% record of going on to win the Oscar for Best Picture.

FILM INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARDS AND TFF #51

The Spirit Awards were announced on Saturday and five TFF films were winners of seven of the categories with Anora having a big night winning three awards.  Here are the TFF #51 results:

Anora: Best Feature, Direction and Lead Performance (Madison).

A Real Pain: Best Supporting Performance (Culkin) and Screenplay.

Nickel Boys: Best Cinematography.

No Other Land: Best Documentary.

The complete list of winners is linked here from Film Independent.

MISERICORDIA TRAILER

From YouTube:

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

X (Twitter) @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

Bluesky: @gort2.bsky.social

MTFB's Facebook Page

MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

If you would like to be added to the MTFB e-mail list send an email to mpgort@gmail.com

Oscar Update: Animated Feature, Cinematography, Editing, Score, Song /Gurus: The Second Batch / SAG Awards and TFF / BAFTA and Telluride

OSCAR UPDATE

In today's post I am updating nomination predictions in five categories.  The film's previous ranking is to the right in parentheses. TFF films are in Bold.

ANIMATED FEATURE

1) Soul (1)

2) Wolfwalkers (2)

3) Over the Moon (3)

4) Onward (4)

5) Earwig and the Witch (8)

6) A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (5)

7) The Croods: A New Age (9)

8) Trolls: World Tour (7)

9) The Willoughbys (6)

10) Demon Slayer (10)

Other Possibles: Lupin III

Hot: Earwig and the Witch, The Croods: A New Age

Not: The Willoughbys

CINEMATOGRAPHY

1) Nomadland (2)

2) Mank (1)

3) News of the World (3)

4) Tenet (4)

5) Judas and the Black Messiah (5)

6) Da 5 Bloods (8)

7) The Trial of the Chicago 7 (9)

8) Minari (6)

9) Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (7)

10) First Cow (10)

Other Possibles: One Night in Miami, Midnight Sky, I'm Thinking of Ending Things

Hot: Da 5 Bloods, The Trial of the Chicago 7

Not: Minari, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

FILM EDITING

1) The Trial of the Chicago 7 (1)

2) Nomadland (2)

3) Tenet (5)

4) News of theWorld (4)

5) Mank (3)

6) The Father (6)

7) Da 5 Bloods (9)

8) One Night in Miami (8)

9) Judas and the Black Messiah (10)

10) Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (7)

Other Possibles: Promising Young Woman, Minari, Sound of Metal

Hot: Da 5 Bloods

Not: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

ORIGINAL SCORE

1) Soul (1)

2) News of the World (2)

3) Midnight Sky (4)

4) Mank (3)

5) Tenet (6)

6) Minari (5)

7) The Trial of the Chicago 7 (7)

8) Da 5 Bloods (8)

9) Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (-)

10) The Little Things (9)

Other Possible: Hillbilly Elegy

Hot: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

Not: Mank

ORIGINAL SONG

1) One Night in Miami/Speak Now (1)

2) The Life Ahead/Seen (2)

3) Over the Moon/Rocket to the Moon (3)

4) The Prom/Wear Your Crown (4)

5) The Trial of the Chicago 7/Hear My Voice (5)

6) Eurovision/Husavik (6)

7) Borat Subsequent Moviefilm/ Wuhan Flu (7)

8) Judas and the Black Messiah/Fight for You (10)

9) Trolls: World Tour/Just Sing (8)

10) Mank/If Only You Could Save Me (9)

Other Possibles: Miss Americana/Only the Young, Onward/Carried Me with You, 40 Year Old Version/Poverty Porn

Hot/Not: A really stable category right now.

GURUS: THE SECOND BATCH

The second wave of collective predictions from The Movie City News' Gurus of Gold was up just before the weekend.  Categories include: Best Picture, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Documentary and International Feature.

Check out the latest from my fellow Gurus here.

SAG AWARDS AND TFF

The Screen Actors Guild nominees were announced and TFF films produced three nominees;  Anthony Hopkins was nominated for Best actor and Olivia Colman for Best Supporting Actress fpr TFF #47 announced film The Father.  Hopkins would have been one of 2020's Tribute recipients had the fest been able to go on.  Frances McDormand was nominated for Best Actress for Nomadland.

All three actors are currently predicted to be Oscar nominees in their respective categories by MTFB.

Here's a link to the complete list of SAG nominees from Variety.

BAFTA LONG LISTS AND TELLURIDE

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) released their long lists of potential nominees for film this past week.  This is the first listing of films that could eventually be nominated for BAFTA awards.

Among the films named to the list were six from the TFF #7 and one from TFF #46.  In a bit of a surprise the most named TFF #47 film was Francis Lee's Ammonite with nine mentions followed by both Nomadland and The Father with eight.

Ammonite's long list mentions were for: Best British Film, Best Actress (Kate Winlset), Supporting Actress (Saoirse Ronan), Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Costumes, Makeup and Hair, Score and Production Design.

Nomaldland is listed for Best Film, Direction (Chloe Zhao), Actress (Frances McDormand), Supporting Actor (David Stratharin), Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Films Editing and Sound.

The Father is listed for Best Film, Best British Film, Direction (Florian Zeller), Best Actor (Anthony Hopkins), Supporting Actress (Olivia Colman), Adapted Screenplay, Film Editing and Production Design.

Other TFF films making the long lists were:

The Truffle Hunters with two: Best Film in a Language Other than English and Best Documentary.

All In: The Fight for Democracy: Best Documentary

MLK/FBI: Best Documentary

And from TFF #46- The Assistant with three mentions: Best Direction (Kitty Green), Best Actress (Julia Garner) and Original Screenplay

The complete long lists are linked here from BAFTA's website.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

TWITTER @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

MTFB's Facebook Page

MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

Oscar Update: Picture and Acting / Awards News This Week / Cannes Moves

 OSCAR UPDATE: PICTURE AND ACTING

Six weeks away from the announcement of nominees for the 93rd Academy Awards means that I need to begin consolidating categories for more efficient and more frequently updating of all of the 23 categories (remember Sound Editing and Mixing has been combined into a single category for this year's awards).  Also, keep an eye open over at Movie City News' Gurus of Gold for further updates from the community of us that are this year's Gurus.  A new post should be coming from that quarter soon.

From me today are updates for Best Picture and all the acting categories.  The charts show my current expectation in order of the likelihood of nomination.  The number in parentheses to the right is the position that predicted candidate had here the last time I posted (Best Picture, Actress and Actor were on Jan. 18 and the Supporting Acting categories was on Jan. 21)  As always, predicted nominees from TFF are in Bold

BEST PICTURE 

1) Nomadland (1)

2) The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2)

3) Minari (5)

4) Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (6)

5) Da 5 Bloods (-)

6) Mank (3)

7) One Night in Miami (4)

8) Judas and the Black Messiah (9)

9) News of the World (8)

10) Promising Young Woman (10)

Other Possibles:  Sound of Metal, Soul, First Cow, The Father

Hot: Da 5 Bloods, Minari, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

Not: Mank, One Night in Miami, The Father

BEST ACTRESS

1) Frances McDormand/Nomadland (1)

2) Viola Davis/Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (3)

3) Carey Mulligan/Promising Young Woman (4)

4) Vanessa Kirby/Pieces of a Woman (2)

5) Zendaya/Malcom and Marie (-)

6) Andra Day/The United States vs. Billie Holiday (5)

7) Sophia Loren/The Life Ahead (10)

8) Sidney Flanigan/Never Sometimes Rarely Always (7)

9) Amy Adams/Hillbilly Elegy (-)

10) Nichole Behaire/Miss Juneteenth (-)

Other Possibles: Meryl Streep/The Prom, Kate Winslet/Ammonite

Hot: Zendaya/Malcolm and Marie, Sophia Loren/The Life Ahead, Amy Adams/Hillbilly Elegy, Nichole Behaire/Miss Juneteenth

Not: Michelle Pfeiffer/French Exit, Vanessa Kirby/Pieces of a Woman

BEST ACTOR

1) Chadwick Boseman/Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (1)

2) Delroy Lindo/Da 5 Bloods (4)

3) Riz Ahmed/Sound of Metal (3)

4) Anthony Hopkins/The Father (2)

5) Gary Oldman/Mank (6)

6) Steven Yeun/Minari (5)

7) Ben Affleck/The Way Back (9)

8) Kingsley Ben-Adir/One Night in Miami (8)

9) Tom Hanks/News of the World (7)

10) John David Washington/Malcolm and Marie (-)

Other Possibles: LaKeith Stanfield/Judas and the Black Messiah, Mads Mikkelsen/Another Round

Hot:Delroy Lindo/Da 5 Bloods, Ben Affleck/The Way Back, John David Washington/Malcolm and Marie

Not: Anthony Hopkins/The Father, Tom Hanks/News of the World, LaKeith Stanfield/Judas and the Black Messiah

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1) Amanda Seyfried/Mank (1)

2) Olivia Colman/The Father (3)

3) Youn Yuh-jung/Minari (2)

4) Ellen Burstyn/Pieces of a Woman (5)

5) Maria Bakalova/Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (4)

6) Glenn Close/Hillbilly Elegy (6)

7) Dominique Fishback/Judas and the Black Messiah (-)

8) Jodie Foster/The Mauritainian (7)

9) Saoirse Ronan/Ammonite (9)

10) Helena Zengel/News of the World (8)

Other Possibles: Olivia Cooke/Sound of Metal, Candace Bergen/Let Them Talk

Hot: Dominique Fishback/Judas and the Black Messiah

Not: Helena Zengel/News of the World

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Daniel Kaluuya/Judas and the Black Messiah (1)

2) Sacha Baron Cohen/The Trial of the Chicago 7 (3)

3) Leslie Odom, Jr./One Night in Miami (2)

4) Chadwick Boseman/Da 5 Bloods (4)

5) Paul Raci/Sound of Metal (5)

6) Bill Murray/On the Rocks (6)

7) David Stratharin/Nomadland (9)

8) Mark Rylance/The Trial of the Chicago 7 (8)

9) Glynn Turman/Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (-)

10) Stanley Tucci/Supernova (7)

Other Possibles: Eddie Redmayne/The Trial of the Chicago 7, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II/The Trial of the Chicago 7

Hot: Glynn Turman/Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, David Stratharin/Nomadland

Not: Stanley Tucci/Supernova

AWARDS NEWS THIS WEEK

Nominations coming this week from the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild are the two biggest Awards Season harbingers that will occur this week.  The Globes will announce their nominees on Wednesday morning, Feb. 3rd.  SAG nominations will pop on Thursday, Feb. 4th.

Other awards news this week...BAFTA announces their longlists for nomination possibilities on Thursday.

The IPA's Satellite Awards nominations are to be announced today.

CANNES MOVES...

We found out this week that the Cannes Film Festival will move from its traditional May dates to July this year as again, Covid-19 continues to wreak havoc on the world's film fests.  The Playlist reports that the new dates are July 6-17.

Of primary concern to TFF adherents are whether and to what extent there might be an effect on films that could play at Telluride.  It's no secret that the two fests often share a number of titles in a normal year. 

One has to wonder if that normal overlap changes this year because of the later Cannes?  Will the French fest now have a later date for announcing their lineup?  Almost assuredly.  It also means that TFF programmers that usually get to see the Cannes wares in May will have a shorter window to work with in terms of programming.

From a prognosticators viewpoint, it means that we'll have a longer period of greater uncertainty.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.

And wither Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch?  The film is all but certain to play whatever version of Cannes that exists in July and the current scuttlebutt is that it will be a September release.  Does the Cannes delay make it more or less likely that Anderson finally makes an appearance with a film at Telluride?

All good questions.  I'll try as best I can to answer some of them over the next few weeks.

Here's The Playlist's coverage of the Cannes announcement.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

TWITTER @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

MTFB's Facebook Page

MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

Catching Up / Indiewire's 25 Most Anticipated /PGA Awards 1917 / SAG Award Winners Announced Last Night / ACE Award Surprise-Parasite

CATCHING UP

In the blur that has been the last couple of weeks of Oscar nomination announcement buildup and then the subsequent parsing...some notes and stories that I would have normally included in this space got left behind...so...time to catch up:

Mark Cousins article about the death of the late great Buck Henry is here from Indiewire.

Kris Tapley talks with The Two Popes Oscar nominated scribe Anthony McCarten on The Call Sheet Podcast.

Indiewire reports HBO and Bong Joon-ho are developing Parasite as a project for the premium channel.

The Film Stage on Pedro Almodovar's Pain and Glory.

Damien Chazelle's new Netflix joint will be featured at the Berlin Film Festival.



INDIEWIRE'S 25 MOST ANTICIPATED

Indiewire writers Eric Kohn, David Ehrlich and Kate Erbland published their collective list of 25 films that they have high hopes for on Jan. 11th.  I took a look at their list to continue to try to get an early bead on what might be in the TFF #47 conversation as we move toward spring, Cannes and ultimately the summer season when Telluride Film Fest energy grows and grows.

Consequently, here are the films from their list that seem TFF-y or that are just on my own personal wish list (presented alphabetical as is done in the original post):

Ana de Armas who will star in Blonde (photo via Indiewire)

BLONDE- Andrew Dominik's thinly veiled examination of a Marilyn Monroe-like character played by the currently red hot Ana De Armas (Knives Out).  From Netflix.  Release date: TBD.

DUNE- From director Denis Villenueve.  Villenueve tackles the Frank Herbert sci-fi classic and will certainly have a different approach than we can find in David Lynch's 1984 version.  Villenueve's fairly consistent presence at Telluride makes this a possibility ...or maybe more a wish on my behalf.  From Warner Bros.Release-Dec. 18th.

THE FRENCH DISPATCH- Wes Anderson is back.  A film reportedly about journalism and journalists with Anderson's usual array of regular stars (Willem Dafoe, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Saoirse Ronan) and a batch of new talent (Timothee Chalamet, Elizabeth Moss).  I expect that some version of the film will bow at Cannes, which as TFF followers know, doesn't preclude at Telluride play.  From Searchlight.  Release: TBD.

I'M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS- Directed by Charlie Kaufman.  Could Kaufman return to Telluride after screening Anomalisa there in 2015?  Could be.  Jesse Plemons and Jesse Buckley star.  From Netflix.  Release: TBD.

MANK- Director David Fincher's first feature film gig since 2014's Gone Girl finds him directing a script written by his father about the genesis of the film classic Citizen Kane.  Gary Oldman stars as Herman Mankiewicz, the screen writer of the film many regard still as the greatest film ever made.  At this point, it's the film I most ardently hope makes it to Southwest Colorado over Labor Day weekend.  From Netflix.  Release TBD.

Chloe Zhao (photo via Indiewire)

NOMADLAND- Chloe Zhao's follow up to The Rider.  I had this on my 2019 watch lists and that, obviously didn't happen.  Now I'm expecting a Cannes debut and a possible awards friendly release date.  Frances McDormand stars.  From Searchlight.  Release TBD.

ON THE ROCKS- Sofia Coppola re-teams with her Lost in Translation star Bill Murray.  Rashida Jones is cast as well in this father/daughter film.  Coppola screened Lost in Translation at TFF in 2003.  Could this mark a return for her?  From Apple.  Release TBD.

Check out the rest of the Indiewire 25 here.


PGA AWARDS 1917

The Producers Guild of America announced their winners for films and television for 2019 on Saturday night. 

Sam Mendes 1917 took the film top prize which might mean that the World War I set film that is shot to appear to be essentially one take is your front runner for the Best Picture Oscar.  Indiewire reports that the PGA winner is a 72% successful indicator of the eventual BP Oscar winner.

1917 beat out three TFF films that were also in the running: Parasite, Marriage Story and Ford v Ferrari.

Toy Story 4 was named the PGA winner for Animated Feature while the producers named Apollo 11 the Best Documentary of the year.

The complete PGA story is linked here.


SAG AWARD WINNERS ANNOUNCED LAST NIGHT

Telluride 2019 had a good night at the SAG Awards last night with TFF #46 film actors scooping up two prizes and a TFF film also won Best Ensemble.  Here's the rundown of winners for film:

Best Supporting Actress: Laura Dern/Marriage Story
Best Supporting Actor: Brad Pitt/Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood
Best ACtress: Renee Zellweger/Judy
Best Actor: Joaquin Phoenix/Joker
Best Ensemble: Parasite

The Parasite win was something of a surprise and positions it along with PGA winner 1917 as the two most likely front runners at this point for the Best Picture Oscar.  Though, I wouldn't rule out Once Upon a Time...just yet.

Now we wait to see what the DGA and WGA do.



ACE AWARD SURPRISE-PARASITE

The American Cinema Editors group surprised the film world on Friday awarding Bong Joon-ho's Parasite as the best edited film drama of the year.  Parasite beat Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood, Ford v Ferrari, Marriage Story and Joker.

Jojo Rabbit won the Eddy for Film-Comedy.  Toy Story 4 won for Animated Feature and Apollo 11 won for editing for a Feature Documentary.

The complete list of nominees and winners is linked here from Awards Watch.



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

Screen Daily's Festival Temptations (Continued) / SAG Awards Handed Out Last Night / Ralph Fiennes' The White Crow Has a Trailer / Interviews / Michel LeGrand 1932-2019

Good Monday everyone.  Welcome back from your weekend...


SCREEN DAILY'S FESTIVAL TEMPTATIONS (CONTINUED)

In my last post I began looking at Screen Daily's series about films "to tempt festival directors".  That post focused on their take on Irish and UK films that might be chosen for film festivals from Cannes all the way to Venice, Toronto and of course Telluride as well as others.

Today we look at their lists for both the U.S., Canada and Latin America and then European selections.

Among the films from U.S., Canada and Latin America that seem like TFF #46 possibilities are:

Coming Home Again dir: Wayne Wang
The Irishman dir: Martin Scorsese (probably more a wish than a possibility)
The Last Thing He Wanted dir: Dee Rees
Little Women dir: Greta Gerwig
Ema dir: Pablo Larrain


The complete post for U.S., Canada and Latin America is linked here.


Here's are films from the Screen Daily European list of tempting titles that seem Telluride friendly:

Ahmed dir: The Dardennes Brothers
Bergman Island dir: Mia Hansen-Love
The County dir: Grimur Hakonarson
Pinocchio dir: Matteo Garrone

The complete article for Europe is linked here.


SAG AWARDS HANDED OUT LAST NIGHT

Winners from last night's Screen Actors Guild from last night:

Best Cast: Black Panther
Actress: Glenn Close/The Wife
Actor: Rami Malek/Bohemian Rhapsody
Supporting Actress: Emily Blunt/A Quiet Place
Supporting Actor: Mahershala Ali/Green Book
Stunt Cast: Black Panther

Five performances from TFF #45 films were nominated but none came away with a trophy: Colman, Stone and Weisz for The Favourite and McCarthy and Grant for Can You Ever Forgive Me?


RALPH FIENNES' THE WHITE CROW HAS A TRAILER

Here's a trailer for director Ralph Fiennes under seen TFF #45 entrant The White Crow which tells the story of ballet dancer supreme Rudolf Nuryev:

Trailer posted via YouTube.

I have also linked an accompanying story from Deadline.com here.

The White Crow currently has no U.S. release announced. Sony Pictures Classics has the film for U.S. distribution.

INTERVIEWS

Linked here is an Entertainment Weekly interview with Oscar nominee Melissa McCarthy (who was lovely when I talked to her in Telluride) for her role in Marielle Heller's Can You Ever Forgive Me?  The interview was conducted by Joey Nolfi.

Here's that link.

Additionally, here's a link to Kris Tapley's Variety/Playback podcast with writer/director Jason Reitman (The Front Runner) who is making a lot of news in the last week as it was announced that Reitman will direct the next iteration of the Ghostbusters franchise.

Here's the link to that podcast.

 MICHEL LEGRAND 1932-2019

I felt I needed to write a quick note on the passing of musician/composer Michel Legrand.  Legrand was a Tribute recipient in 2007.  He won three Oscars for his musical additions to Yentl, The Thomas Crown Affair and The Summer of 42.  He was nominated an additional six times.

One of the most electrifying musical moments I ever saw on television was a duet with Legrand and Ray Charles on some talk show probably in the 70's sometime.  It was breathtaking to watch the two master from very different backgrounds and approaches play off one another.  Thrilling.

Legrand was 86.

Here is his obituary from The Guardian.

That's the MTFB for Monday, Jan. 28, 2019.  I'll have more on Thursday... (expecting a link to a new Gurus of Gold that will turn to predicting this year's Oscar winners)

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

SAG Nominees / Critics' Choice Nominees / Newest Gurus Assesses Golden Globe Chances / Variety's Directors on Directors / Mr. Tapley's Two Cents

It's a Thursday and here's your latest installment of MTFB.

SAG NOMINEES

SAG/AFTRA announced their nominees for acting superlatives for 2018 yesterday.  TFF #45 films were represented as follows:

Best Actress: Olivia Colman/The Favourite, Melissa McCarthy/Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Supporting Male: Richard E. Grant/Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Supporting Female: Emma Stone/The Favourite, Rachel Weisz/The Favourite.

Despite three individual acting nominations, The Favourite did not crack the Best Cast nominee list.  Also, somewhat surprising was the absence of Ethan Hawke for TFF #44's First Reformed.

Indiewire has the complete rundown of all the nominees linked here.




CRITICS' CHOICE NOMINEES

TFF #45 favorite Yorgos Lanthimos' The Favourite led all films in Monday's announcement of nominees for the Critics Choice Awards from the Broadcast Film Critics Association with 14 nominations.  Ryan Coogler's Black Panther was the second most nominated film with a dozen.  Damien Chazelle's First Man was next with 10 nominations.  Alfonso Cuaron's Roma had eight.

Best Picture nominations went to Black Panther, BlacKkKlansman, The Favourite, First Man, Green Book, If Beale Street Could Talk, Mary Poppins Returns, Roma, A Star Is Born and Vice.

Here's how the nominations broke down for TFF #45 films:

The Favourite (14): Picture, Direction, Actress (Colman), Supporting Actress (Stone and Weisz), Ensemble, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Production Design, Costumes, Film Editing, Hair/Makeup, Comedy Film and Comedy Actress,

First Man (10): Picture, Direction, Actor (Gosling), Supporting Actress (Foy), Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Production Design, Film Editing, Score and Visual Effects.

Roma (8): Picture, Direction, Actress (Aparicio), Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Production Design, Film Editing, Foreign Language Film

Can You Ever Forgive Me? (3): Actress (McCarthy), Supporting Actor (Grant), Adapted Screenplay

Boy Erased (1): Supporting Actress (Kidman)

Cold War (1): Foreign Language Film

Shoplifters (1): Foreign Language Film

Additionally, First Reformed from TFF #44 had two nominations: Best Actor (Hawke) and Original Screenplay.

The complete list of all nominees with some commentary from Anne Thompson is linked here from Indiewire.

The Critics Choice Awards will be handed out on Jan. 13, 2019.


NEWEST GURUS O' GOLD ASSESSES GOLDEN GLOBES CHANCES

Those of us comprising this season's Gurus of Gold were asked this past week to take a stab at predicting winners for the Golden Globes in three categories now that we know the nominees.  We were tasked with evaluating Best Motion Picture Drama, Musical or Comedy and Director.

My ballot was topped by A Star Is Born (Drama), The Favourite (Musical or Comedy) and I named Alfonso Cuaron as the likely Best Directing winner.

As you might expect, not all the individual Gurus agreed with my assessment.

Check out the latest Gurus o' Gold linked here.


VARIETY'S DIRECTORS ON DIRECTORS

Variety posted a very cool article on Wednesday with lauded directors writing a few words about 17 of this year's films thought to be contenders during this awards season.  Among those 17 films are six that screened as apart of TFF #45.  They are:

Guillermo Del Toro on Alfonso Cuaron's Roma
Ron Howard on The Front Runner
Haiffa al-Mansour on Marielle Heller's Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Christopher Nolan on Damien Chazelle's First Man
Alexander Payne on Pawel Pawlikowski's Cold War
Josh Safdie on Yorgos Lanthimos' The Favourite

The complete article is linked here.


MR. TAPLEY'S TWO CENTS

Logo via Variety

And finally on this Thursday...Variety's awards expert Kristopher Tapley has weighed in with his first run at predicting Oscar nominees.  Tapley gives his best insight to the 21 feature categories with TFF #45 films pegged for 32 nominations (which would be a little above the Telluride average for the past decade or so).  He also has a TFF #44 film in play for a couple of nominations.

Here's the breakdown with total predicted nominations in parentheses:

Roma (8): Best Picture, Direction, Foreign Language Film, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Production Design, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing.

The Favourite (7): Best Picture, Actress (Colman), Supporting Actress (Stone and Weisz), Original Screenplay, Costumes, Production Design.

First Man (7): Best Picture, Cinematography, Film Editing, Score, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Visual Effects.

Cold War (3): Best Direction, Foreign Language Film, Cinematography.

Can You Ever Forgive Me? (3): Best Actress (McCarthy), Supporting Actor (Grant), Adapted Screenplay

Border (2): Foreign Language Film, Makeup/Hair

Shoplifters (1): Foreign Language Film

Free Solo (1): Documentary Feature

AND...from TFF #44: First Reformed (2): Best Actor (Hawke), Original Screenplay.

Tapley's complete set of predictions are linked here.



More on Monday!

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

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)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT to the blog.