NBR Happens Tomorrow / Oscar Predictions Update: Acting Categories / Film Makers Featured

NBR HAPPENS TOMORROW

The national Board of Review drops its list of best films of 2019 tomorrow.  Last year its choice for Best Film, Green Book, went on to Oscar glory winning the Best Picture Oscar.

Expect the organization to announce winners of a number of individual awards in addition to Best Film such as Best Direction, Leading and Supporting performances, adapted and original screenplays and others.  In addition expect a 10 Best list, a Ten Best Independent Films list, a Five Best Documentaries list and a Five Best Foreign Film list.

TFF #46 films that could make their way onto the NBR's various lists include:

The Aeronauts
Beanpole
The Climb
Diego Maradona
Ford v Ferrari
A Hidden Life
Judy
The Kingmaker
Marriage Story
Pain and Glory
Parasite
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
The Report
The Two Popes
Uncut Gems
Varda by Agnes
Waves

I'll have all the NBR/TFF breakdown on Thursday edition of MTFB.


OSCAR PREDICTIONS UPDATE: ACTING

Here's my latest batch of Oscar updates for the acting category nominations.  I last posted acting predictions on Nov. 21.  TFF #46 performances are Bold.

BEST ACTRESS

1) Renee Zellweger/Judy (1)
2) Charlize Theron/Bombshell (2)
3) Scarlett Johansson/Marriage Story (3)
4) Saoirse Ronan/Little Women (4)
5) Cynthia Erivo/Harriet (5)
6) Awkwafina/The Farewell (-)

Other possibles: Lupita Nyong'o/Us, Alfre Woodard/Clemency

BEST ACTOR

1) Joaquin Phoenix/Joker (2)
2) Adam Driver/Marriage Story (1)
3) Jonathan Pryce/The Two Popes (3)
4) Leonardo DiCaprio/Once Upon a Time...(4)
5) Robert DeNiro/The Irishman (-)
6) Antonio Banderas/Pain and Glory (5)

Other possibles: George MacKay/1917, Christian Bale/Ford v Ferrari, Eddie Murphy/Dolemite Is My Name, Taron Egerton/Rocketman, Paul Walter Hauser/Richard Jewell

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1) Laura Dern/Marriage Story (1)
2) Jennifer Lopez/Hustlers (2)
3) Margot Robbie/Bombshell (3)
4) Zhao Shuzhen/The Farewell (6)
5) Kathy Bates/Richard Jewell (-)
6) Scarlett Johansson/Jojo Rabbit (5)

Other possibles: Florence Pugh/Little Women, DaVine Joy Randolph/Dolemite Is My Name, Annette Bening/The Report, Maggie Smith/Downton Abbey

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Brad Pitt/Once Upon a Time... (1)
2) Al Pacino/The Irishman (2)
3) Joe Pesci/The Irishman (5)
4) Tom Hanks/A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (3)
5) Anthony Hopkins/The Two Popes (4)
6) Sam Rockwell/Richard Jewell (-)

Other possibles: Willem Dafoe/The Lighthouse, Wesley Snipes/Dolemite Is My Name, Alan Alda/Marriage Story, Shia LaBeouf/Honey Boy, Jamie Foxx/Just Mercy

Notes: The buzz surrounding Clint Eastwood's Richard Jewell (releasing Dec. 13) is lifting Kathy Bates, Sam Rockwell and Paul Walter Hauser into the acting conversations.   It will be interesting to see if that sustains over the next couple of weeks.

The same is true for young and virtually unknown George MacKay for his work in 1917.  The Sam Mendes film has huge buzz after some early screenings and has skyrocketed up a number of the charts from the Oscar experts for Best Picture.  Currently Awards Circuit has it at #1.   Awards Daily has it at #1 and Awards Watch has it at #4.


FILM MAKERS FEATURED

Annie Howard talks to The Two Popes Screen writer Anthony McCarten for The Hollywood Reporter here.

Anne Thompson of Indiewire talks to Adam Sandler and The Safdie Brothers about Uncut Gems here.

Joey Moser of Awards Daily talks with composer David Wingo about the music of Motherless Brooklyn.



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

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Oscar Predicitons: Updates and First Predix:Costumes, Makeup, Song / Gurus of Gold Return / Oscar History and TFF Continues

OSCAR PREDICTIONS: SOME UPDATES AND FIRST PREDICTIONS

I'm updating the acting categories and providing first guesses in the Costume, Makeup/Hair and Original Song categories.

Acting categories were last updated on Nov. 14th.

As always, TFF #46 films are indicated in Bold.  The film or performers previous position in these predictions are indicated in parentheses.


BEST ACTRESS

1) Renee Zellweger/Judy (1)
2) Charlize Theron/Bombshell (2)
3) Scarlett Johansson/Marriage Story (3)
4) Saoirse Ronan/Little Women (4)
5) Cynthia Erivo/Harriet (5)
6) Lupita Nyong'o/Us

Other possibles: Awkwafina/The Farewell, Alfre Woodard/Clemency


BEST ACTOR

1) Adam Driver/Marriage Story (1)
2) Joaquin Phoenix/Joker (2)
3) Jonathan Pryce/The Two Popes (3)
4) Leonardo DiCaprio/Once Upon a Time... (4)
5) Antonio Banderas/Pain and Glory (5)
6) Eddie Murphy/Dolemite Is My Name (-)

Other possibles: Robert DeNiro/The Irishman, Taron Egerton/Rocketman, Adam Sandler/Uncut Gems

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1) Laura Dern/Marriage Story (1)
2) Jennifer Lopez/Hustlers (2)
3) Margot Robbie/Bombshell (3)
4) Florence Pugh/Little Women (4)
5) Scarlett Johansson/Jojo Rabbit (5)
6) Zhao Shuzhen/The Farewell (-)

Other possibles: Maggie Smith/Downton Abbey, Annette Bening/The Report, DaVine Joy Randolph/My Name Is Dolemite


BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Brad Pitt/Once Upon a Time... (1)
2) Al Pacino/The Irishman (2)
3) Tom Hanks/A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (5)
4) Anthony Hopkins/The Two Popes (3)
5) Joe Pesci/The Irishman (4)
6) Alan Alda/Marriage Story (-)

Other possibles: Willem Dafoe/The Lighthouse, Wesley Snipes/Dolemite Is My Name, Tracy Letts/Ford v Ferrari


And now for the first time predictions for Costumes, Makeup/Hair and Original Song:

COSTUMES

1) Once Upon a Time...
2) Dolemite Is My Name
3) Little Women
4) Rocketman
5) Downton Abbey
6) Jojo Rabbit

Other possibles: Harriet, The Irishman, Judy


MAKEUP/HAIR

1) Bombshell
2) Once Upon a Time...
3) Rocketman
4) Joker
5) Judy
6) The Two Popes

Other possibles: The Irishman, Dolemite Is My Name, Downton Abbey


ORIGINAL SONG

1) Into the Unknown/Frozen II
2) Stand Up/Harriet
3) Beautiful Ghosts/Cats
4) I'm Gonna Love Me Again/Rocketman
5) Spirit/The Lion King
6) Speechless/Aladdin

Other possibles: I Can't Let You Throw Yourself Away/Toy Story 4, I'm Standing with You/Breakthrough



AND THE GURUS RETURN (AND I GET TO BE ONE AGAIN)

Movie City News' Gurus of Gold, a collective of Oscar "experts" who have agreed to have our predictions accumulated and added together for a consensus set of predictions, has returned for this Oscar season.

MCN's Ray Pride has added us all together and the focus for this first wave of predictions is on Best Picture and the acting races.

The links are as follows:

Gurus on Best Picture

Gurus on the acting races

Give them a gander.

I am honored to be included with Sasha Stone/Awards Daily, Mark Johnson/Awards Circuit, Tomris Laffly/RogerEbert.com, Dave Karger/TCM, IMDb, Peter Howell/The Toronto Star and a bunch of others.


OSCAR HISTORY AND TFF CONTINUES

The project continues today with a look back at the same three categories that I provided my first predictions for above: Costumes, Makeup/Hair and Original Song:

BEST COSTUMES

1985- The Journey of Natty Gann
1990- Cyrano de Bergerac-WINNER
1993- The Piano
1994- Bullets Over Broadway
2000- Crouching Dragon Hidden Tiger, Quills
2003- Girl with a Pearl Earring
2005- Walk the Line
2008- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (scenes screened)
2009- Bright Star, Before Coco Chanel
2010- The King's Speech
2011- The Artist
2013- 12 Years a Slave, Invisible Woman
2015- Carol
2016- La La Land
2017- The Shape of Water, Darkest Hour
2018- The Favourite


Overall 20 nominations and one win.


BEST MAKEUP/HAIR

1990- Cyrano de Bergerac
1994- Ed Wood-WINNER
2000- Shadow of the Vampire
2002- Frida-WINNER
2008- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button-WINNER (scenes screened)
2010- The Way Back
2011- Albert Nobbs
2014- Foxcatcher
2017- Darkest Hour-WINNER
2018- Border

Overall 10 nominations and four wins.


BEST ORIGINAL SONG

2000- Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
2002- Frida
2003- The Triplets of Belleville
2008- Slumdog Millionaire (x2)- WINNER
2010- 127 Hours
2016- La La Land (x2)-WINNER

Overall eight nominations and two wins.


That's Thursday.


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

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Oscar Predictions Expand / So Much Content...Interviews and Profiles: The Report, Waves, Ford v Ferrari, Marriage Story, Diego Maradona, Uncut Gems, Tell Me Who I Am, Parasite and Pain and Glory / Oscar History and TFF: Documentary and Animated Feature

OSCAR PREDICTIONS EXPAND

With Oscar nominations announced in just two months (Jan. 13th), I'm expanding nomination predictions beginning with today's post.

I have the categories broken into groups so that over the course of each couple of weeks, I'll be updating each of the 21 feature categories.  I'll add the three Shorts categories as we approach nomination morning in January.

Today I'll be updating all four of the acting categories as well as making first attempts for nomination predictions for Documentary, Animated Feature and Film Editing.

Acting categories were last updated on Nov. 11th for Best Actress and Actor.  Supporting Actress and Actor were last updated on Oct. 21 and 24 respectively.

As always, TFF #46 films are indicated in Bold.  The film or performers previous position in these predictions are indicated in parentheses.



BEST ACTRESS

1) Renee Zellweger/Judy (1)
2) Charlize Theron/Bombshell (2)
3) Scarlett Johansson/Marriage Story (3)
4) Saoirse Ronan/Little Woman (4)
5) Cynthia Ervio/Harriet (5)

Other possibles: Awkwafina/The Farewell, Lupita Nyong'o/Us, Alfre Woodard/Clemency

BEST ACTOR

1) Adam Driver/Marriage Story (1)
2) Joaquin Phoenix/Joker (2)
3) Jonathan Pryce/The Two Popes (3)
4) Leonardo DiCaprio/Once Upon a Time in...Hollywood (4)
5) Antonio Banderas/Pain and Glory (-)

Other possibles: Eddie Murphy/Dolemite Is My Name, Robert DeNiro/The Irishman, Taron Egerton/Rocketman, Adam Sandler/Uncut Gems

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1) Laura Dern/Marriage Story (1)
2) Jennifer Lopez/Hustlers (2)
3) Margot Robbie/Bombshell (4)
4) Florence Pugh/Little Women (-)
5) Scarlett Johansson/Jojo Rabbit (-)

Other possibles: Zhao Shuzhen/The Farewell, Maggie Smith/Downton Abbey, Annette Bening/The Report, Thomasin McKenzie/Jojo Rabbit

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Brad Pitt/Once Upon a Time in...Hollywood (1)
2) Al Pacino/The Irishman (2)
3) Anthony Hopkins/The Two Popes (4)
4) Joe Pesci/The Irishman (5)
5) Tom Hanks/A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (4)

Other possibles: Willem Dafoe/The Lighthouse, Alan Alda/Marriage Story, Wesley Snipes/Dolemite Is My Name, Shia Labeouf/Honey Boy

And now for first predictions in three categories:

BEST DOCUMENTARY

1) American Factory
2) Apollo 11
3) One Child Nation
4) Sea of Shadows
5) The Cave

Other possibles: Knock Down the House, Honeyland, The Kingmaker, The Biggest Little Farm(*TFF #45)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

1) Toy Story 4
2) Frozen II
3) The Missing Link
4) I Lost My Body
5) How to Train Your Dragon/Hidden World

Other possibles: Klaus, Abominable, Funan

FILM EDITING

1) The Irishman
2) Ford v Ferrari
3) Once Upon a Time in ... Hollywood
4) 1917
5) Parasite

Other possibles: Marriage Story, Jojo Rabbit, The Two Popes

MTFB's next post will include updates for Best Picture, Director, and Screenplays and first time predictions for Cinematography, Original Score and Production Design.


SO MUCH CONTENT...INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

A blizzard of interviews and profiles have appeared over the last few days regarding films that played at TFF #46.  I've tried to capture many of them to connect them for you.  Here's the retrospective:


The Report's writer/director Scott Z. Burns talks to Brian Welk for The Wrap

The Reports' Annette Bening talks to Jessica Zack for The San Francisco Chronicle's Datebook

Waves' writer director Trey Edward Shults talks to Jacqueline Coley for Rotten Tomatoes

Waves' cast members talk to Mackenzie Nichols for Variety

Motherless Brooklyn director and screen writer Edward Norton talks to Anne Thompson for Indiewire

Ford v Ferrari director James Mangold talks to Anthony D'Alessandro for Deadline

Mangold also talks to John Horn for The Frame

Mangold talks to Anne Thompson of Indiewire

Marriage Story's Alan Alda talks to Eric Kohn for Indiewire

Marriage Story's Laura Dern talks to Erin Nyren for Variety

Diego Maradona director Asif Kapadia talks to Annie Howard for The Hollywood Reporter

Uncut Gems' Adam Sandler talks to Latesha Harris for Variety

Twins Alex and Marcus Lewis, the focus of the doc Tell Me Who I Am,  talk to Matthew Carey for Deadline

Parasite's writer/director Bong Joon-ho talks to Patrick Bzeski for The Hollywood Reporter

Parasite actors Park So-dam and Choi Woo-shik talk to Demi Kampakis for The Film Stage

Pain and Glory actor Antonio Banderas talks to Latesha Harris for Variety




OSCAR HISTORY AND TFF: DOCUMENTARY AND ANIMATED FEATURE

The project continues documenting the history of Oscar nominees and the Telluride Film Festival with a look at Documentary Feature and Animated Feature nominees from the fest through the years.


BEST DOCUMENTARY

1981- Eight Minutes to Midnight
1983- Seeing Red
1984- The Times of Harvey Milk-WINNER
1989- Super Chief: The Life and Legacy of Earl Warren
1991- Wild by Law
1996- Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life
2002- Bowling for Columbine-WINNER
2003- The Fog of War-WINNER
2007- Encounters at the End of the World
2010- Inside Job-WINNER
2011- Pina
2012- The Gatekeepers
2013- The Missing Picture, The Act of Killing
2014- Salt of the Earth
2015- The Look of Silence, Winter on Fire
2016- Fires at Sea
2017- Faces Places
2018- Free Solo-WINNER

Overall 20 nominations and five wins.



BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

2002- Spirited Away-WINNER
2003- The Triplets of Belleville
2007- Persepolis
2010- Chico and Rita, The Illusionist
2013- The Wind Rises
2015- Anomalisa
2017- Loving Vincent

Overall eight nominations and one win.


That's Thursday.

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

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Oscar History and TFF: Best Actor / Oscar Predictions Update: Best Actress / RIP Robert Forster / Trailer for Tell Me Who I Am

OSCAR HISTORY AND TFF: BEST ACTOR

I'm continuing the  breakdown of the history between TFF and The Academy Awards as related to each of the feature categories.  Today is the Best Actor nominees from films that have screened at the festival since its inception in 1974:


1989- Daniel Day Lewis/My Left Foot-WINNER
1990- Jeremy Irons/Reversal of Fortune-WINNER, Gerard Depardieu/Cyrano DeBergerac
1992-Stephen Rea/The Crying Game
1996-Billy Bob Thornton/Sling Blade
1997- Nick Nolte/Affliction
1999- Richard Farnsworth/The Straight Story
2000- Geoffrey Rush/Quills, Sean Penn/Sweet and Lowdown
2003- Bill Murray/Lost in Translation
2005- Philip Seymour Hoffman/Capote-WINNER, Heath Ledger/Brokeback Mountain, Joaquin Phoenix/Walk the Line
2006- Forrest Whitaker/The Last King of Scotland-WINNER, Peter O'Toole/Venus
2007- Daniel Day Lewis/There Will Be Blood-WINNER (scenes screened)
2008- Brad Pitt/The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (scenes screened)
2009- George Clooney/Up in the Air
2010-Colin Firth/The King's Speech-WINNER, James Franco/127 Hours, Javier Bardem/Biutiful
2011- Jean Dujardin/The Artist-WINNER, George Clooney/The Descendants
2013- Bruce Dern/Nebraska, Chiwetel Ejiofor/12 Years a Slave
2014- Michael Keaton/Birdman, Benedict Cumberbatch/The Imitation Game, Steve Carell/Foxcatcher
2015- Michael Fassbender/Steve Jobs
2016-Casey Affleck-Manchester by the Sea-WINNER, Ryan Gosling/La La Land
2017- Gary Oldman/Darkest Hour-WINNER


Overall 32 Best Actor nominations with eight winners...Daniel Day Lewis twice.


OSCAR PREDICTIONS UPDATE: BEST ACTRESS

Here are my current predictions for the Best Actress.  This updates the last Best Actress set of predictions posted on Sept. 19th.  The actresses last prediction position is listed in parentheses.  TFF #46 films are in Bold.

1) Renee Zellweger/Judy (1)
2) Scarlett Johansson/Marriage Story (2)
3) Cynthia Ervio/Harriet (3)
4)  Awkwafina/The Farewell (4)
5) Lupita N'yongo/Us (-)

Other possibles: Saorise Ronan/Little Women, Alfre Woodard/Clemency, Felicity Jones/The Aeronauts, Charlize Theron/Bombshell


RIP ROBERT FORSTER

Just a brief note on the death of actor Robert Forster.  Like a lot of people who love film, I thought Forster was a solid performer every time I saw him.  I know a lot of folks talk about Pam Grier's star turn in Jackie Brown but I always thought Forster in his comeback role in the film (thanks to Tarantino's choice to cast him) was, perhaps, the more impressive.

Forster, to the best of my ability to discern, appeared in two films that screened at TFFs.  Alexander Payne's The Descendants (2011) and David Lynch's 2001 masterpiece Mulholland Drive.

Like a lot of you, I had just watched El Camino and found out hours later that Forster was gone.  Seemed like an odd coincidence and...btw...he's great in it.
Forster was 78.

TRAILER FOR TELL ME WHO I AM

Netflix released a trailer in the middle of the last week for the TFF #46 documentary Tell Me Who I Am from director Ed Perkins.  The doc focuses on the story of identical twins one of which has survived a terrible motorcycle accident and awakes from a coma with no memory.

Here's the trailer from YouTube:

Tell Me Who I Am will appear on Netflix on Friday.

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MTFB's First Oscar Stab for 2019 / TFF Oscar History Part Five-2000-2004 / All in One Place / Most Viewed of TFF #46 / Metacritic After T-ride, Venice and TIFF

MTFB'S FIRST OSCAR STAB FOR 2019

It's that time of year.  The festival has concluded, the Pros, People and their Composite ratings have been gathered calculated and reported.  The next TFF is 11 1/2 months away and Oscar season is upon us.

As many of you know, I've been asked to Guru the Oscars again this year for Movie City News' Gurus of Gold so expect to see links and references to that website as we head to Oscar night, Feb. 9, 2020.

So we turn the focus of this space from puzzling out and speculating about the Telluride lineup to puzzling out and speculating how that lineup figures into the race for Oscar glory.  

I'm opening this year's Oscar guessing game with my first prediction for nominations for Best Picture, Best Actress and Best Actor.  Films from TFF #46 are Bold.

BEST PICTURE

1) The Irishman

2) Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

3) Marriage Story

4) Ford v. Ferrari

5) Parasite

6) 1917

7) JoJo Rabbit

8) The Farewell

9) The Two Popes

10) A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Others: Little Women, Just Mercy, Joker, Waves, Judy, Ad Astra

BEST ACTRESS

1) Renee Zellweger/Judy

2) Scarlett Johansson/Marriage Story

3) Cynthia Ervio/Harriet

4) Awkwafina/The Farewell

5) Alfre Woodard/Clemency

Others: Saoirse Ronan/Little Women, Lupita N'yongo/Us, Helen Mirren/The Good Liar

BEST ACTOR

1) Adam Driver/Marriage Story

2) Leonardo DiCaprio/Once Upon a Time...

3) Jonathan Pryce/The Two Popes

4) Joaquin Phoenix/Joker

5) Antonio Banderas/Pain and Glory

Others; Michael B. Jordan/Just Mercy, Robert DeNiro/The Irishman, Ian McKellan/The Good Liar

Next week I'll take a crack at the Supporting Acting categories and Best Director.

TFF OSCAR HISTORY PART FIVE-2000-2004

Here's the continuation of my project to chart every Oscar nominee in the 21 feature categories that played at the Telluride Film Festival since the first TFF in 1974.

So today we move to 2000-2004.  The number of nominations and wins are indicated in parentheses for each year.

2000 (17/4)

Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon- Foreign Language-WON, Original Score-WON, Cinematography-WON, Art/Set Direction-WON, Picture, Director-Ang Lee, Adapted Screenplay, Film Editing, Costumes, Song

Quills- Actor-Geoffrey Rush, Costumes, Art/Set Direction

Sweet and Lowdown- Actor-Sean Penn, Supporting Actress-Samantha Morton

Shadow of the Vampire- Supporting Actor-Willem Dafoe, Makeup


2001 (7/1)

Amelie- Foreign Language, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Art/Set Direction, Sound

Mulholland Drive- Director- David Lynch

No Man's Land- Foreign Language- WON


2002 (13/4)

Frida- Score-WON, Makeup-WON, Actress- Salma Hayek, Song

City of God- Director-Fernando Meirelles, Adapted Screenplay, Film Editing, Cinematography

Talk to Her- Original Screenplay-WON, Director- Pedro Almodovar

Spirited Away- Animated -WON

Bowling for Columbine- Documentary- WON

The Man Without a Past- Foreign Language


2003 (12/3)

The Barbarian Invasions- Foreign Language-WON, Original Screenplay

The Fog of War-Documentary-WON

Lost in Translation- Original Screenplay-WON, Picture, Director-Sophia Coppola, Actor-Bill Murray
Girl with a Pearl Earring- Costume, Cinematography, Art/Set Direction

The Triplets of Belleville- Animated, Song


2004 (3)

Being Julia- Actress-Annette Bening

The House of Flying Daggers- Cinematography

Kinsey- Supporting Actress-Laura Linney


ALL IN ONE PLACE

As a coda to this year's ratings averages from The People, The Professionals and The Composite...I have gathered them all here in one re-post as well as the current All Time Top Ten for each categorization as well:

THE PROFESSIONALS:

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)

TOP TEN SINCE 2012:

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)

THE PEOPLE:

1) The Two Popes (4.51)
2) Parasite (4.36)
3) Ford v. Ferrari (4.35)
4) Marriage Story (4.14)
5) Pain and Glory (3.81-Tie)
5) A Hidden Life (3.81-Tie)
7) Judy (3.80)
8) The Aeronauts (3.67)
9) The Report (3.66)
10) Motherless Brooklyn (3.64)
11) Lyrebird (3.62)
12) Waves (3.61)
13) Inside Bill's Brain (3.39)
14) Uncut Gems (3.22)
15) The Climb (3.07)
16) First Cow (3.02)

TOP TEN SINCE 2012

1) Stories We Tell (4.80) (12)
2) Argo (4.75) (12)-Won Best Picture
3) The Imitation Game (4.73) (14) Nominated Best Picture
4) The Attack (4.70) (12)
5) Tim's Vermeer (4.67) (13)
6) 12 Years a Slave (4.55) (13) Won Best Picture
7) The Two Popes (4.51) (19)
8) Roma (4.47) (15) TIE Nominated Best Picture
8) Room (4.47) (18) TIE Nominated Best Picture
10) Birdman (4.46) (14) Won Best Picture


THE COMPOSITE

1) Parasite (9.11) [2/1]
2) The Two Popes (8.93) [1/2]
3) Marriage Story (8.54) [4/3]
4) Ford v. Ferrari (8.46) [3/7]
5) A Hidden Life (8.01) [5/5]
6) Waves (7.90) [12/4]
7) Pain and Glory (7.63) [5/9]
8) The Report (7.53) [9/8]
9) Motherless Brooklyn (7.22) [10/11]
10) Uncut Gems (7.00) [14/10]
11) Judy (6.93) [7/13]
12) The Aeronauts (6.75) [8/14]
13) The Climb (6.57) [15/12]


TOP TEN SINCE 2012

1) 12 Years a Slave (9.25) 2013 Tie (Won Best Picture)
1) Argo (9.25) 2012 Tie (Won Best Picture)
3) Roma (9.20) 2018 (Won Best Foreign Language Film)
4) Moonlight (9.19) 2016 (Won Best Picture)
5) Birdman (9.18) 2014 (Won Best Picture)
6) Parasite (9.11) 2019
7) Stories We Tell (9.10) 2012
8) Tim's Vermeer (8.97) 2013
9) The Two Popes (8.93) 2019
10) La La Land (8.91) 2016 (Won Best Director)


MOST VIEWED OF TFF #46

Another metric of buzz and popularity that I just started looking at last year is the number of respondents to my Peoples poll that went to each film.  By that measure, Noah Baumbach's Marriage Story won the day.  Here are the top ten for this year expressed for each film as a percentage of the total number of respondents.

1) Marriage Story 71.43%
2) Motherless Brooklyn 58.57%
3) Uncut Gems 57.14%
4) Ford v. Ferrari 55.71%
5) Parasite 52.86%
6) Judy 50.00%
6) Waves 50.00%
8) The Report 48.57%
9) Lyrebird 47.14%
10) The Two Popes 44.29 %



METACRITIC AFTER TELLURIDE, VENICE AND TORONTO

Metacritic, the aggregate critic website, posted yesterday the composite critical ratings for several of the films that played at one of the triumvirate of film festivals just concluded.  I took the opportunity to cull those aggregate ratings for films that played at Telluride and here's what they reported:

1) Marriage Story 95 (actually, the top aggregate score for any film on the list from any of the three fests)
2) Uncut Gems 88
3) The Two Popes 83
4) Waves 81
5) The Kingmaker 77
6) First Cow 76
7) The Aeronauts 73
8) Ford v. Ferrari 71
9) Judy and The Assistant 65
11) Motherless Brooklyn 62


My guess as to the absence of films such as Parasite, The Report, Pain and Glory and others is that they were likely excluded having screened earlier at either Cannes or Sundance.

The complete article from Metacritic is linked here.


That's the MTFB for this Thursday.  More here on Monday.  Have a great weekend!

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

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Toronto's Canadian Titles / Queen and Slim Trailer / New York's Centerpiece Is Baumbach

How's your August so far...

TORONTO'S CANADIAN TITLES

The Toronto International Film Festival made its second announcement of films for that fest and as is their custom, they named the full slate of Canadian based films that will be included across the many programming sections they include.  In all another 26 films were added to the list of Galas and Special Presentations that were announced last week

Usually the "Canadian Week" announcements have little bearing on illuminating the Telluride lineup is and yesterday's list of 2019 films for TIFF lived up to that history.  From my analysis not a single one of the 26 films named yesterday will play at Telluride.

As a matter of fact, the only film listed with the often telltale "Canadian Premiere" designation was the previously announced American Woman and, as we said last week, it earns its "Canadian Premiere" designation as a result of having screened at the Tribeca Film Fest back in April.

There was one interesting note, however.  Kind of one of those "dog that doesn't bark" things.  Not announced was Xavier Dolan's Cannes film Matthias and Maxime.  IMDb says the film has Canada as its nation of origin and news reports indicate that yesterday's TIFF announcement was the complete list of Canadian films that have been chosen.

So, maybe this lack of sign from TIFF is actually a hint that the Dolan film plays in Colorado.  Dolan has been in T-ride before with Mommy in 2014.  Worth a thought.

Here's the complete list of films added for Toronto from Indiewire.

QUEEN AND SLIM TRAILER

We got a trailer yesterday for Melina Matsoukas' Queen and Slim.  The film is out Nov. 27th from Universal.  I'd classify it as an outside-outside shot for TFF.

Here's the trailer via YouTube:

Here's coverage of the trailer drop and the film from The Film Stage and Trailer Track.

NEW YORK'S CENTERPIECE IS BAUMBACH

The New York Film Fest announced that Noah Baumbach's Marriage Story will be its centerpiece film this year and have labeled it a New York premiere which adds fuel to the flame of its Telluride appearance after it plays at Venice.

As a matter of fact, Marriage Story is, at this point, the only film that will likely play Telluride, Venice, Toronto and New York.  Very impressive.

Marriage Story is said to be semi-autobiographical and stars Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson, Laura Dern and Alan Alda among others.

I have linked coverage of its New York selection here from the festival itself as well as:

Indiewire

The Playlist

The Wrap

And speaking of the wrap...that's today's.

CURRENT TEN BETS...

10) The Truth
9) Ford v. Ferrari
8) The Two Popes
7) Pain and Glory
6) Uncut Gems
5) Judy
4) Motherless Brooklyn
3) Marriage Story
2) Portrait of a Lady on Fire
1) Parasite

More tomorrow...including an updated and most likely expanded Ten Bets.


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

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Day Three from Telluride/Sunday's TBAs and Sneaks

Telluride Day Three…

I opened the day with a fantastic tribute to the Coen Brothers and their collaboration with T-Bone Burnett.  As a “pre-show” we were treated to a mini-concert from “The Americans”.  Their banjo/guitar, stand-up bass performance set the tone perfectly for the program to follow. 

The tribute featured the four films that the threesome have worked on together: “The Big Lebowski”, “The Ladykillers”, “O Brother Where Art Thou?” and the upcoming “Inside Llewyn Davis”.  Scott Foundas of Variety led the Q&A that followed the clip presentation.  As you might expect with three geniuses, the discussion was lively, thought-provoking and often funny.  My favorite couple of moments:  the Coens revealed they’re working on a script about an Opera singer and they want to make a film that has an overture and an intermission.  Additionally, Joel described their movie making genesis and what they do now the same way, “We’re just f*#@ing around”.  Loved it.

I followed the Coens with Jonathan Glazer’s “Under the Skin”.  It’s an interesting film and technically proficient.  You have to give Glazer his due for attempting a film in which we see our world through alien eyes and especially ears.  The sound work is remarkable.  Choices for “dialogue” which often is unintelligible and the music for the soundtrack are universally great choices. 

Scarlett Johansson plays the alien “under the skin” of a human disguise.  Johansson is serviceable in very challenging role.  She has to be temptress that lures humans into her alien lair and still convey the sense of unease with her surroundings and the “alienness” of our species.  She largely succeeds.

Pacing is the issue for me with this film and even that makes sense in the context of what Glazer does.

I concluded the afternoon with the world premiere of Ralph Fiennes sophomore directorial effort, “The Invisible Woman”.  It’s based on the true story of Charles Dickens virtually unknown mistress.  Fiennes cast himself as Dickens and Felicity Jones as the “invisible” woman.  Fiennes is good but, again, pacing is an issue.  It’s just slow.

I finished the evening with Buck Henry presenting Mike Hodges’ 1972 film “The Terminal Man” based on a Michael Crichton novel.  Admittedly I was there to see and listen to Buck.  I’ve been saying for years that I was going to make sure we crossed paths at this festival and this year gave me the opportunity.  I couldn’t pass it up.

Buzzy titles through three days: “12 Years a Slave”, “Gravity”, “Prisoners”, “Tim’s Vermeer” and “Burning Bush”.

 SUNDAY TBA'S AND SNEAKS

Sneak 

• The Wind Rises     CJC/Sun 9p

Reflecting his deep fascination with aviation, the legendary animator Hayao Miyazaki's beautifully animated exploration of the early life of aeronautical engineer Jiro Horikoshi. Miyazaki keeps the fanciful elements to a relative minimum, while featuring imaginative, exquisite dream sequences and a stunning recreation of the devastating Kantō earthquake of 1923. This fictionalized biopic—with a liberal dose of Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain as subtext—dramatically details the pacifistic (and overtly romantic) tendencies behind the chief designer of the A6M Zero, one of the most effective warplanes in history. –Jonathan Marlow (Japan, 2013, 126m) Introduced by Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall



• 9  Nebraska   Palm/Sun 11:15a


• Sneak Prisoners    Galaxy/Sun 1p

• 38   Don DeLillo: Zapruder Film plus panel with Mark Danner and Errol Morris  SOH/Sun 1p

• Sneak   12 Years a Slave  Palm/Sun 2:15p

• 33 Gloria  Le Pierre/Sun 4p

• 15 Tim’s Vermeer  Nugget/Sun 4:45p

• 25 The Lunchbox   CJC/Sun 6:30p

• 35 Before the Winter Chill SOH/Sun 6:45p

• 23 Slow Food Story  Nugget/Sun 7:15p

• 6  Inside Llewyn Davis  Palm/Sun 8:45p

• 16  The Past  Masons/Sun 9:15p

• E   Jodorowsky’s Dune  Backlot/Sun 9:15p

• 28  Palo Alto  SOH/Sun 9:30p

• 36  Ida  Le Pierre/Sun 9:30p

• 22  Under the Skin Nugget/Sun 9:45p

More tomorrow...

Two Thirds to Nirvana/Final Ten Bets/Rumblings/Invitations

Good Wednesday everyone...


TWO THIRDS TO NIRVANA

I write this post from Salida, CO.  I'm roughly 2/3 of the way from my house to Telluride, Colorado.  I'll cover the remaining distance today and should be reporting the announcement of the lineup from Telluride itself.  That is expected around noon Telluride time; which would beat 2:00 pm Eastern.

There are already some rumblings about things that I've been expecting, but also some surprises in terms of films we weren't expecting and films we've been confident about not being announced later today.  Hold on...it's going to be exciting.


FINAL TEN (+) BETS

Last Friday's "Ten (+) Bets" were:

1) Nebraska
2) Labor Day
3) Inside Llewyn Davis
4) All is Lost
5) The Unknown Known
6) The Past
7) The Invisible Woman
8) Gravity
9) 12 Years a Slave
10) Blue is the Warmest Color
11) The Immigrant
12) Palo Alto
13) The Story of Children and Film
14) Daughter of the Dawn
15) Prisoners

For the Final "Ten (+) Bets":

1) Nebraska
2) Labor Day
3) Inside Llewyn Davis
4) All is Lost
5) The Unknown Known
6) The Past
7) The Invisible Woman
8) Gravity
9) 12 Years a Slave
10) Blue is the Warmest Color
11) Palo Alto
12) The Immigrant
13) The Lunchbox
14) Prisoners
15) Gloria


Other films that are just below the "Ten (+) Bets":

"Enough Said", "How I Live Now", "Le Weekend", "Burning Bush",  "The Armstrong Lie", "Jodorowsky's Dune", "Tim's Vermeer", "Life Itself", "Aguirre: The Wrath of God", "Child's Pose", "You Are Here", "Only Lovers Left Alive", "The Story of Children and Film", "For No Good Reason" and "Philomena".

RUMBLINGS

I've been hearing some rumors coming out of Telluride that one of the films that could show up which hasn't been on the MTFB radar so much is Jonathan Glazer's "Under the Skin" starring Scarlett Johansson.  I mentioned it back in July as a very unlikely possibility but if sources are to be believed...and they're good sources...then we might have this film to look forward to as well.

According to IMDb Johansson plays an alien who has taken human form and is journeying through Scotland.
Odd and intriguing I would say.

INVITATIONS

1) "THE GUIDE"-Come and visit, talk a little film, have a beverage and a nosh at The 3rd "Guide to the Ride".  It's an opportunity for us all to get together before the serious business of watching film until our heads spin.  "The Guide" will be hosted by Mitzi and Larry Mallard at The River Club in Telluride (550 Depot) at 5:00 pm on Thursday, Aug. 29.

Seriously, come and join us...it'll be fun.

2) RATE THE FILMS- For the second year MTFB is calling on you readers to share your impressions of the films you chose to watch during Labor Day weekend.  I call it "The People's Telluride".  Rate what you see on a 0-5 scale and send those ratings to me.  Email, DM, Facebook...whatever.  I'll collect and collate and report to everyone the week after the Festival concludes.  Also don't forget to check out "The Critic's Telluride".  Some very kind and generous people have agreed to rate the films they see as well:

Alex Billington/First Showing

Scott Feinberg/The Hollywood Reporter

Scott Foundas/Variety

Eric Kohn/IndieWire

Eugene Novikov/Film Blather

Sasha Stone/Awards Daily

Kristopher Tapley/HitFix/InContention

I have feelers out and would like to snag a couple of more of the "pros".  We'll see.

3) Bebop over to Screencraft.org (www.screencraft.org) during the fest.  I'll be posting there as well.  A daily summary of what is going on, impressions of the films I see and the buzz about the weekend.

Check back here later today for the complete list of films after they're released plus a selected rundown of summaries.

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