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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BAFTA Nominations Announced / MTFB Oscar Update: Costumes. Makeup/Hair and Shorts / Visiting the Vault / Interviews and Profiles

BAFTA NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED

 TFF films earned a combined total of 49 nominations from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) this morning.  Leading the way for TFF was Poor Things with 11.  Here's the breakdown of all TFF film nominations:

Poor Things (11): Best Film, Outstanding British Film, Actress, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Costumes, Makeup/Hair, Score, Production Design and Visual Effects.

The Zone of Interest (9): Outstanding British Film, Best Film Not in the English Language, Direction, Supporting Actress,  Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Production Design and Sound.

Anatomy of a Fall (7): Best Film, Best Film Not in the English Language, Direction, Actress, Original Screenplay, Editing and Casting.

The Holdovers (7): Best Film, Direction, Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay and Casting.

All of Us Strangers (6): Outstanding British Film, Best Direction, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Casting.

Saltburn (5): Outstanding British Film, Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Score.

Rustin (1): Best Actor.

American Symphony (1): Best Documentary.

Beyond Utopia (1): Best Documentary.

Bobi Wine: The People's President (1): Best Debut

Oppenhiemer led all films with 14 nominations.

Here's the link to the complete list of nominees from BAFTA.

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

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

COSTUMES 

1) Barbie (1)

2) Poor Things (2)

3) Killers of the Flower Moon (4)

4) Maestro (5)

5) Oppenheimer (-)

Alternates: Napoleon, The Color Purple and Wonka.

MAKEUP AND HAIR

1) Maestro (1)

2) Poor Things (2)

3) Oppenheimer (3)

4) Golda (-)

5) Killers of the Flower Moon (4)

Alternates: Society of the Snow, Napoleon and Ferrari.

ANIMATED SHORT

1) Once Upon a Studio (2)

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

3) Wild Summon (-)

4) Letter to a Pig (-)

5) I'm Hip (3)

Alternates: Koerkerter, Pete, Eeva.

LIVE ACTION SHORT

1) The Wonderful Life of Henry Sugar (1)

2) The Anne Frank Gift Shop (-)

3) Knight of Fortune (5)

4) Strange Way of Life (2)

5) The After (4)

Alternates: Invisible Border, Good Boy and The One Note Man.

DOCUMENTARY SHORT

1) The Last Repair Shop (1)

2) The ABCs of Book Banning (3)

3) Deciding Vote (5)

4) Last Song from Kabul (2)

5) The Barber of Little Rock (4)

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

As of this morning's post I am predicting TFF films with a total of 35 nominations with another 15 "alternates".  Here's the TFF breakdown:

Poor Things (12 noms and one alternate) : Best Picture, Direction, Actress, Supporting Actor (Ruffalo), Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Score, Production Design, Visual Effects, Costumes and Makeup/Hair.  The alternate is a second Supporting Actor nomination for Willem Dafoe.

The Zone of Interest (Six noms and one alternate): Best Picture, Direction, International Film, Cinematography, Score and Sound.  The alternates is Huller for Adapted Screenplay.

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

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

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

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

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

Saltburn is an alternate in four categories: Best Actor, Supporting Actress, Original Screenplay and Cinematography.

All of Us Strangers is an alternate in two categories: Best Actor and Adapted Screenplay.

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

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

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

In terms of other predictions not TFF films I have Oppenheimer leading the pack with 13 nominations.  

Other non-TFF films with double nomination totals predicted:  Killers of the Flower Moon with 12 and Barbie with 11.  Maestro is now predicted for nine nominations.

Final MTFB Oscar nomination predictions are coming on Monday!

VISITING THE VAULT

Close readers of MTFB know that I keep a file labeled "Future Telluride" on my laptop.  As I see films announced that sound like they might have a TFF in their future, I put the article in that folder as a method of keeping track of those films.  

Each year I re-visit and cull the films that either did make it to TFF or were released having not made it to Southwest Colorado.  I think it's kind of fun to take stock of what was in there that made it to the most recent TFF and when they first went into the folder.

After this year's sorting, I found that I had 11 films that screened in TFF #50 that had been in the folder.  Here they are and the date I first saved them for future reference:

The Zone of Interest-July 11, 2018

Occupied City-Jan. 9, 2019

Tuesday-May 19, 2021

Poor Things-May 21, 2021

Nyad- Jan. 20, 2022

The Royal Hotel-April 30, 2022

The Promised Land- May 25, 2022

Fallen Leaves- June 10, 2022

All of Us Strangers- June 30, 2022

Strange Way of Life-July 2, 2022

The Bikeriders-August 5, 2022

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Emerald Fennell and Rosamund Pike for Saltburn from Awards Daily.

Behind the Scenes of The Holdovers from The Hollywood Reporter.

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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: First Predix for Visual FX, Sound, Makeup/Hair and Costumes / Satellite Awards Nominations Announced / London Film Critics' Circle and TFF / Interviews and Profiles

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE; FIRST PREDICTIONS FOR VISUAL FX, SOUND, MAKEUP/HAIR AND COSTUMES

Today's edition of MTFB's Oscar Update features my first attempt at predicting the nominees in the last four feature categories.  As always TFF films are Bold.

VISUAL EFFECTS

1) The Creator

2) Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

3) Poor Things

4) Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse

5) Godzilla Minus One

Alternates: Society of the Snow, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.

SOUND

1) Oppenheimer

2) Maestro

3) Ferrari

4) The Color Purple

5) Killers of the Flower Moon

Alternates: The Zone of Interest, The Killer and Barbie.

COSTUMES

1) Barbie

2) Poor Things

3) The Color Purple

4) Killers of the Flower Moon

5) Maestro

Alternates: Oppenheimer, Wonka and Napoleon.

MAKEUP AND HAIR

1) Maestro

2) Poor Things

3) Barbie

4) Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

5) The Color Purple

Alternates: Nyad, Oppenheimer and Killers of the Flower Moon. 

And with the addition of predictions for these four categories, here are total predicted nominations for the feature categories:

Poor Things leads with12 nominations: Best Picture, Direction, Actress (Stone), Supporting Actor (Ruffalo), Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Score, Production Design, Visual Effects, Costumes, Makeup/Hair.  An additional nomination could come for Supporting Actor foe Willem Dafoe.

I have Oppenheimer with 11 nominations: Best Picture, Direction, Actor (Murphy), Supporting Actress (Blunt), Supporting Actor (Downey Jr.), Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Score, Production Design, Sound.  Additional nominations are possible in Makeup/Hair and Costumes.

Killers of the Flower Moon also with 11 nominations: Best Picture, Direction, Actress (Gladstone), Supporting Actor (DeNiro), Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Score, Production Design, Sound and Costumes.  Additional nominations are possible for Actor (DiCaprio) and Makeup/Hair.

Maestro with 11 nominations: Best Picture, Direction, Actress (Mulligan), Actor (Cooper), Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Production Design, Sound, Costumes and Makeup/Hair.

Barbie with 10 nominations: Best Picture, Direction, Supporting Actor (Gosling), Original Screenplay, Production Design, Editing, Costumes, Makeup/Hair and two for Best Song.  Barbie also has possible shots for Best Actress (Robbie), Supporting Actress (Ferrera), Sound and a third Song.

That's five films with double digit nominations.  Has that ever happened before?

Other TFF films I am currently predicting get nominations:

The Holdovers with 4: Best Picture, Actor (Giamatti, Supporting Actress (Randolph) and Original Screenplay.  It could also slide into nominations for Direction, Supporting Actor (Sessa) and Editing.

The Zone  of Interest with 4: Best Picture, International Film, Cinematography and Score.  Zone could also score nominations for Direction, Adapted Screenplay and Sound. 

Anatomy of a Fall with 2 nominations: Best Actress (Huller) and Original Screenplay.  Anatomy could also sneak into a Best Picture nomination Perhaps displacing The Color Purple which I currently am predicting for five nominations including Best Picture.

Nyad with 2 nominations: Best Actress (Bening) and Supporting Actress (Foster).  Maybe a shot at Makeup/Hair.

Rustin with 2 nominations: Best Actor (Domingo) and Song.

All of Us Strangers with one nominations: Best Actor (Scott).  Also possible for Adapted Screenplay.

American Symphony with one nomination: Best Documentary and a possibility at Song.

Beyond Utopia with one nomination for Best Documentary.

I am currently predicting that four of the five nominees for Best International film will be films that screened at TFF: The previously mentioned The Zone of Interest would be accompanied by The Taste of Things, The Teachers' Lounge and Perfect Days.

Among TFF films that I am not currently predicted get nominations there are films that might still earn some including"

Saltburn:  Possible nominations for Supporting Actress (Pike), Original Screenplay and Cinematography.

El Conde could get a Cinematography nomination.

Anselm could get a nomination for Best Documentary.

Fallen Leaves could be nominated for Best International Feature.

Total TFF nominations predicted by MTFB as of today: 31 with another 16 possible.

SATELLITE AWARDS NOMINEES ANNOUNCED

The International Press Academy (IPA) announced its nominees for film excellence on Monday.  11 TFF films earned at least one nomination.  Here's the breakdown of those:

Poor Things (8): Best Picture (Comedy or Musical), Direction, Actress (Comedy or Musical), Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Score, Editing and Costumes.

The Holdovers (7): Best Picture (Comedy or Musical), Direction, Actress (Comedy or Musical), Supporting Actress,  Supporting Actor, Original Screenplay, Editing.

Anatomy of a Fall (3): Best International Film, Actress (Drama), Original Screenplay.

Saltburn (3): Best Actor (Comedy or Drama), Supporting Actress, Cinematography.

The Zone of Interest (3): Best International Film, Direction, Adapted Screenplay.

All of Us Strangers (2): Best Actor (Drama) and Adapted Screenplay.

American Symphony (2): Best Documentary and Song.

Fallen Leaves (2): Best International Film and Actress (Comedy or Musical).

Rustin (2): Best Actor (Drama) and Song.

The Taste of Things (1): Best Supporting Actress.

The Teachers' Lounge (1): Best International Film.

In all TFF films earned 34 nominations.  The IPA will announce the Satellite winners on Jan. 27th.

Here's the complete list from the IPA website.

LONDON FILM CRITICS' CIRCLE AND TFF

The London Film Critics' Circle announced their nominees for film excellence on Wednesday.  The winners will be announced on Feb. 4th.

Andrew Haigh's All of Us Strangers led all films with nine nominations.

Here's the rundown of TFF films with nominations:

All of us Strangers (9): Film of the Year, British/Irish Film of the Year, Actor of the Year, Supporting Actress of the Year, Supporting Actor of the Year, Screenwriter of the Year, British/Irish Performer of the Year (both Andrew Scott and Pail Mescal) and Casting.

Poor Things (6): Film of the Year, British/Irish Film of the Year, Director of the Year, Actress of the Year, Supporting Actor of the Year, Casting.

The Zone Interest (6): Film of the Year, Foreign language Film of the Year, British/Irish Film of the Year, Director of the Year, Supporting Actress of the Year and Music/Sound.

The Holdovers (4): Film of the Year, Actor of the Year, Supporting Actress of the Year, Breakthrough Performer of the Year.

Anatomy of a Fall (4): Film of the Year, Foreign Language Film of the Year, Actress of the Year and Screenwriter of the Year.

Saltburn (3): Supporting Actress of the Year, British/Irish Performer of the Year and Casting.

Fallen Leaves (1): Foreign Language Film of the Year.

Beyond Utopia (1): Documentary of the Year.

Eight TFF films were named for a total of 34 nominations.

Here's the complete list of all nominees from the LFCC website.

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Jamie Bell for All of Us Strangers from Awards Watch.

Jon Batiste for American Symphony from Nest Best Picture Podcast.

Alma Poysti for Fallen Leaves from Awards Watch.

Cinematographer Linus Sandgren for Saltburn from Awards Radar.

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MTFB Update: Screenplays Plus Animated Feature and Production Design / New York Film Critics Online and TFF / Interviews and Profiles: Stone, Bening, Scott and More

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: SCREENPLAYS PLUS ANIMATED FEATURE AND PRODUCTION DESIGN

Here's your Oscar Update for today's post.  This is a check on predicted nominees for the Screenplay categories.  They were last posted here on Dec. 4th.  Previous positions on the MTFB Oscar Update Chart are listed to the right in parentheses.  I have also included my first predictions for Best Animated Feature and Production Design.  As always TFF films are Bold.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1) The Holdovers (1)

2) Barbie (2)

3) Past Lives (3)

4) Anatomy of a Fall (5)

5) Maestro (4)

Alternates: May December, Air, Saltburn.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1) Oppenheimer (1)

2) American Fiction (3)

3) Poor Things (2)

3) American Fiction (3)

4) Killers of the Flower Moon (4)

5) All of Us Strangers (5)

Alternates: The Zone of Interest, Are You There God, It's Me Margaret and The Color Purple. 

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

1) Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse

2) The Boy and the Heron

3) Elemental

4) Nimona

5) Wish

Alternates: Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem and Super Mario Bros. Movie.

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

1) Poor Things

2) Barbie

3) Oppenheimer

4) Killers of the Flower Moon

5) Maestro

Alternates: Asteroid City, The Color Purple and Napoleon

NEW YORK FILM CRTICS ONLINE AND TFF

The NYFCO announced their choices for the best film work of 2023 on Friday.  TFF was fairly well represented with three films making their Top Ten of the Year list: Anatomy of a Fall, The Holdovers and Poor Things.  Those three films also earned some individual mention.

Anatomy of a Fall was named thrice for Best International Film, Best Actress for Sandra Huller and Best Screenplay.  The Holdover's Da'Vine Joy Randolph was named Best Supporting Actress while Poor Things' Mark Ruffalo earned honors as Best Supporting Actor.

Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer was named in four categories, the most of any film> Direction, Actor, Ensemble and Cinematography but not Best Picture which NYFCO awarded to Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon.

The complete rundown of the NYFCO awards can be found here.

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos for Poor Things from Awards Radar.

Annette Bening on Nyad from Deadline.com.

Juliette Binoche for The Taste of Things from Next Best Picture.

Da'Vine Joy Randolph for The Holdovers from The Playlist.

Andrew Scott for All of Us Strangers from Indiewire.

Christian Friedel for The Zone of Interest from Indiewire.

Lenny Kravitz for Rustin from Awards Daily.

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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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MTFB Oscar Update: Screenplays / The Playlist's 100 Most Anticipated for 2024 / TFF #50 and The New York Film Critics Circle / The Wrap's Big Look at International Features / Interviews and Profiles: Payne, Friedel and More

 MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: SCREENPLAYS

Here's your Oscar Update for today's post.  This is a check on predicted nominees for the Screenplay categories.  They were last posted here on Nov. 20th.  Previous positions on the MTFB Oscar Update Chart are listed to the right in parentheses.  As always TFF films are Bold.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1) The Holdovers (1)

2) Barbie (2)

3) Past Lives (3)

4) Anatomy of a Fall (5)

5) Maestro (4)

Alternates: May December, Air, Saltburn.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1) Oppenheimer (1)

2) Poor Things (2)

3) American Fiction (3)

4) Killers of the Flower Moon (4)

5) All of Us Strangers (5)

Alternates: The Zone of Interest, Barbie, The Color Purple and The Taste of Things. 

Coming Thursday, I'll update Best Picture and Direction.

If my current predictions for the Big Eight categories are 100% correct here's where TFF films stand for Oscar nominations.

Poor Things is predicted for five nominations and one other possibility: Best Picture, Direction, Actress (Stone), Supporting Actor (Ruffalo) and Adapted Screenplay.  The other chance is Willem Dafoe for a second Best Supporting Actor nomination.

The Holdovers is predicted for four nominations with another two possible: Best Picture, Actor (Giamatti), Supporting Actress (Randolph) and Original Screenplay.  Also possible: Direction and Supporting Actor (Sessa).

Anatomy of a Fall is predicted for two nominations with another possibility: Best Picture and Original Screenplay.  Also possible: Actress (Huller).

The Zone of Interest is predicted for two nominations and another possibility: Best Picture and Direction with an Adapted Screenplay nomination possible.

Nyad is predicted for two nominations: Best Actress (Bening) and Supporting Actress (Foster).

All of Us Strangers is predicted for one nomination with another possible: A nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay and the the other chance is Best Actor (Scott).

Rustin is predicted for one nomination for Best Actor (Domingo).

Saltburn isn't predicted for any nominations ...yet,  but could crack Original Screenplay.

Total nominations  and other possibilities for these eight TFF film in the Big Eight Oscar Categories: 18 nominations and another five possibilities.

THE PLAYLIST'S 100 MOST ANTICIPATED FOR 2024

The Playlist has posted its annual preview of films though to be possible/probable releases in 2024.  As usual, I've perused the list for possible players at TFF #51.  Last year I culled 20 possible films from their 2023 list, six of which actually screened at TFF #50: Rustin, The Royal Hotel, All of Us Strangers, El Conde, The Zone of Interest and Poor Things.  

There were two films on the list for 2023 that did not make it to my guesses but that did make it to Telluride: Saltburn and The Bikeriders.

There were also a number of films from their list last year that did not get a 2023 release.  Seven of those are repeated on this year's speculative list and I have indicated them with an asterisk.

Here's a rundown of titles from this year's list that I think have a shot at playing TFF #51:

98) Alto Nights

79) Echo Valley

66) Shirley*

56) Materialists

37) The End*

26) Anora

23) The Actor*

18) The Way of the Wind*

14) Love Lies Bleeding*

13) Kind of Kindness

12) Queer

10) Bird

9) Blitz*

8) Megaopolis*

7) Maria

6) Mickey 7

2) Polaris

Here's the link to the complete list.

TFF #50 AND THE NEW YORK CRITICS

The New York Film Critics Circle announced their film superlatives for 2023 over the weekend.  TFF #50 picked up nods for Best Supporting Actress for DaVine Joy Randolph's performance in Alexander Payne's The Holdovers.  Meanwhile Justine Triet's Anatomy of a Fall was named Best International film.

Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon was named the Best Film of the Year by the organization while Christopher Nolan was named Outstanding Director for Oppenheimer. 

Other acting winners were Lily Gladstone-Best Actress for Killers of the Flower Moon, Franz Rogowski-Best actor for Passages and Charles Melton for Best Supporting Actor for May December.

Here's the complete set of winners.

THE WRAP'S BIG LOOK AT INTERNATIONAL FEATURES

The Wrap has put out a lengthy flipboard project focused on a number of international films of note including several films that will likely be a part of the conversation for the Best International Feature Oscar.  Many of those were films that screened at TFF #50.

In its pages you can find features on: Anatomy of a Fall, La Chimera, El Conde, The taste of Things, The Zone of Interest, The Promised Land, Fallen Leaves, Perfect Days, Totem, Godland (fromTFF #49) and The Monk and the Gun,

Check out the entire compilation here.

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES: PAYNE, FRIEDEL AND MORE

Director Alexander Payne for The Holdovers from Gold Derby.

Director Tran Anh Hung for The Taste of Things from The Los Angeles Times.

Directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin for Nyad from Deadline.com.

Actor Christian Friedel for The Zone of Interest from The Los Angeles Times.

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