THE PROFESSIONALS TELLURIDE
After last year's stunning win of the MTFB Professionals ratings by Dean Fleischer-Camp's Marcel the Shell with Shoes On I had to wonder if another "upset" of that kind might happen again. That result a year ago made quite a splash with outlets such as Variety, Indiewire, Awards Daily and Awards Watch taking notice.
A couple of notes by way of explanation. The Pros were asked to rate the films they saw on a scale of 1-5 with 1 being not-so-very-good and 5 being "fantastic". Additionally, a film had to be rated by more than half of this year's panel of pros to make the list.
I am, as always, indebted to all of the industry professionals who took time from their crazy busy schedules to provide me their feedback. I can't adequately express my appreciation. And this year's panel of pros (in alphabetical order) are:
Erik Anderson/Awards Watch
J. Don Birnam-Jorge T/SplashReport.com
Clayton Davis/Variety
David Ehrlich/Indiewire
Scott Feinberg/The Hollywood Reporter
Marshall Flores/Awards Daily
Dave Karger/TCM
Tomris Laffly/Roger Ebert.com and others
Joey Magidson/Awards Radar
Scott Menzel/We Live Entertainment
Clarence Moye/Awards Daily
Matt Neglia/Next Best Picture
Christopher Schiller/ScriptMag.com
Sasha Stone/Awards Daily
Anonymous
NOTE: THE POLL HAS BEEN CORRECTED AS OF 11:45 AM EDT TO REFLECT A TABULATION ERROR. The correction added .09 to the average od Sebastian DeLillo's The Wonder moving it from 7th to 5th in an incredibly tight poll. My apologies.
We missed having ratings from Anne Thompson/Indiewire and Mark Johnson/Good as Gold-Awards Daily as both were unable to attend TFF #49. My hope is to have them both back into the fold for TFF #50.
Here's the rundown of the Professionals ratings for each year since I started polling the Pros in 2012.
2021:
1) Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (4.44)
2) The Power of the Dog (4.32)
3) Belfast (4.30)
4) Spencer (4.27)
5) Red Rocket (4.22)
6) The Rescue (3.93)
7) King Richard (3.92)
8) Bergman Island (3.79)
9) C'mon C'mon (3.65)
10) The Lost Daughter (3.48)
11) Cyrano (3.46)
12) The French Dispatch (3.05)
13) Encounter (2.71)
2019:
1) Parasite (4.75)
2) The Two Popes (4.42)
3) Marriage Story (4.40)
4) Waves (4.29)
5) A Hidden Life (4.20)
6) Portrait of a Lady on Fire (4.17)
7) Ford v. Ferrari (4.11)
8) The Report (3.87)
9) Pain and Glory (3.83)
10) Uncut Gems (3.78)
11) Motherless Brooklyn (3.58)
12) The Climb (3.50)
13) Judy (3.13)
14) The Aeronauts (3.08)
15) The Assistant (2.75)
2018:
1) Roma (4.73)
2) First Man (4.17)
3) Cold War (4.14-tie)
3) Free Solo (4.14-tie)
5) Can You Ever Forgive Me ? (4.11)
6) The Favourite (3.90)
7) Watergate (3.60)
8) Border (3.50)
9) Destroyer (3.25)
10) Boy Erased (3.20)
11) The Old Man and the Gun (3.17)
12) White Boy Rick (3.06)
13) The Front Runner (3.05)
2017:
1) The Shape of Water (4.5)
2) (Tie) Faces Places (4.25)
2) (Tie) Loveless (4.25)
2) (Tie) The Rider (4.25)
5) Lady Bird (4.20)
6) First Reformed (4.0)
7) Battle of the Sexes (3.95)
8) Darkest Hour (3.85)
9) Hostiles (3.79)
10) First They Killed My Father (3.78)
11) Loving Vincent (3.63)
12) Lean on Pete (3.50)
13) Wonderstruck (3.25)
14) Downsizing (3.10)
15) Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool (2.60)
2016:
1) Moonlight (4.82)
2) La La Land (4.58)
3) Things to Come (4.20)
4) Manchester by the Sea (3.95)
5) Into the Inferno (3.92)
6) Sully (3.89)
7) Arrival (3.88)
8) Toni Erdmann (3.85)
9) Maudie (3.60)
10) Una (3.44)
11) California Typewriter (3.25)
12) Neruda (3.00)
13) Bleed for This (2.71)
14) Wakefield (2.67)
15) Norman (2.67)
2015:
1) Son of Saul (4.44)
2) Anomalisa (4.42)
3) Spotlight (4.41)
4) Steve Jobs (4.31)
5) Beasts of No Nation (4.27)
6) Carol (4.11)
7) 45 Years (4.06)
8) Taxi (4.00)
9) Black Mass (3.85)
10) Time to Choose (3.57)
11) Room (3.50)
12) Suffragette (3.49)
13) He Named Me Malala (2.83)
2014:
1) Birdman (4.72)
2) Foxcatcher (4.63)
3) ’71 (4.25)
4) Wild Tales (4.20)
5) Leviathan (4.17)
6) Mr. Turner (4.10)
7) The Imitation Game (4.06)
8) Mommy (3.92)
9) Two Days, One Night (3.90)
10) The Homesman (3.80)
11) Red Army (3.67)
12) Madame Bovary (3.30)
13) Wild (3.21)
14) Rosewater (3.06)
2013:
1) 12 Years a Slave (4.7)
2) Blue is the Warmest Color (4.4)
3) Gravity (4.35)
4) Tim's Vermeer (4.3)
5) Nebraska (4.3)
6) All is Lost (4.2)
7) Inside Llewyn Davis (4.1)
8) Starred Up (4.0)
9) The Past (3.9)
10) Labor Day (3.6)
11) Bethlehem (3.6)
12) Prisoners (3.5)
13) The Lunchbox (3.5)
14) Salinger (3.3)
15) The Unknown Known (3.3)
16) Palo Alto (3.2)
17) Tracks (3.2)
18) Under the Skin (3.1)
18) (tie) The Wind Rises (3.1)
20) The Invisible Woman (3.0)
2012:
1) Central Park Five-4.7
2) Argo-4.5
3) Stories We Tell- 4.3
4) The Sapphires 4.25
5) (Tie) Frances Ha and The Attack- 4.2
7) Rust and Bone- 4.0
8) The Iceman- 3.8
9) At Any Price- 3.7
10) (Tie) Amour and Baraka- 3.5
12) No- 3.4
14) (Tie) Hyde Park on Hudson and The Gatekeepers 3.0
15) Everyday- 2.8
AND NOW...The Professionals Ratings from TFF #49 (this year only 11 films were seen by enough Professionals to make the list)
1) TAR 3.93
2) Women Talking 3.87
3) Armageddon Time 3.73
4) Empire of Light 3.70
5) The Wonder 3.66
6) One Fine Morning 3.64
7) Aftersun 3.63
8) Bones and All 3.48
9) Lady Chatterley's Lover 3.46
10) Living 3.05
11) Bardo 2.39
Both TAR and Women Talking were the most watched films as all 15 Pros made it to a screening of those films. Empire of Light was seen by 14 Pros.
Tough times continued for Alejandro Inarittu's Bardo. After a less than enthusiastic response from critics in Venice and then Telluride, the Pros for MTFB tended to agree with that general assessment.
After this year's poll, The Professionals' All Time Top Ten (through 2022) remained unchanged from last year:
1) Moonlight (4.87) (16)
2) Parasite (4.75) (19)
3) Roma (4.73) (18)
4) Birdman (4.72) (14)
5) 12 Years a Slave (4.70-tie) (13)
6) Central Park Five (4.70-tie) (12)
7) Foxcatcher (4.63) (14)
8) La La Land (4.58) (16)
9) Argo (4.50-tie) (12)
9) The Shape of Water (4.50-tie) (17)
10) Son of Saul (4.44) (15)
10) Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (4.44) (21)
THE PEOPLE'S TELLURIDE
Here's a final reminder to readers of MTFB to get their ratings to me ASAP. I'm extending the deadline for The People until Sunday evening (9/18) at 5:00 pm (PDT).
Same standard as always. Please use a 1 to 5 scale to rate the films you saw at Telluride with 1 being terrible and 5 being wonderful.
Email ratings to mogrot@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com
The People's Telluride will be posted next Monday morning.
SAM MENDES ON EMPIRE OF LIGHT
Deadline has posted an interview with the director and writer of Empire of Light (#4 on the above Pros poll of Telluride for this year).
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com
TWITTER @TheMTFB OR @Gort2
MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays
