Ten (Plus) Bets #9 for TFF #51 / NYFF Spotlight Announcement / Some Other Possible Guests / New Poster for Saturday Night / The People's Telluride-12th Edition

 TEN (PLUS) BETS #9 FOR TFF #51

Well, with what purports to be the last set of announced films for Toronto on Tuesday and the release of the Venice screening schedule on Monday, we have some shifting occurring in this week's Ten (Plus) Bets for TFF #51.

Here was last week's Ten (Plus) Bets:

1) Anora/Baker

2) Conclave/Berger

3) Emilia Perez/Audiard

4) The End/Oppenheimer

5) All We Imagine as Light/Kapadia

6) The Piano Lesson/Washington

7) Nickel Boys/Ross

8) Misrecordia/Guiraudie

9) Better Man/Gracey

10) Piece by Piece/Neville

And a Bonus Ten Bets:

11) Dahomey/Diop

12) Grand Tour/Gomes

13) No Other Land/Adra, Ballal, Abraham and Szor

14) The Seed of the Sacred Fig/Rasoulof

15) The Friend/Siegel and McGeehee

16) Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight/Davitz

17) The Apprentice/Abassi

18) A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things/Cousins

19) Maria/Larrain

20) Saturday Night/Reitman

Other possibilities:

Separated/Morris

Oh, Canada/Schrader

Flow/Zibalodis

Santosh/Suri

Megalopolis/Coppola

Allegorie Citadine/ Rohrwacher and JR

The Actor/Johnson

Parthenope/Sorrentino

Hand of Dante/Schnabel

Napoleon (new restoration)/Gance

Leonardo DaVinci/Burns

Memoir of a Snail/Elliot

One on One: John and Yoko/ Macdonald and Rice-Edwards

The Outrun/Fingscheidt and/or Blitz/McQueen

This week's Ten (Plus) Bets:

1) Anora/Baker

2) Conclave/Berger

3) Emilia Perez/Audiard

4) The End/Oppenheimer

5) All We Imagine as Light/Kapadia

6) The Piano Lesson/Washington

7) Nickel Boys/Ross

8) Saturday Night/Reitman

9) Misrecordia/Guiraudie

10) Piece by Piece/Neville

And a Bonus Ten Bets:

11) Separated/Morris

12) Better Man/Gracey

13) No Other Land/Adra, Ballal, Abraham and Szor

14) The Seed of the Sacred Fig/Rasoulof

15) The Friend/Siegel and McGeehee

16) Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight/Davitz

17) Maria/Larrain

18) Bird/Arnold

19) Disclaimer/Cuaron

20) Santosh/Suri

Other possibilities:

The Outrun/Fingsheidt

One on One: John and Yoko/ Macdonald and Rice-Edwards

Apocalypse in the Tropics/Costa

A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things/Cousins

The Apprentice/Abassi

Chain Reactions/Philippe

Memoir of a Snail/Elliot

Homegrown/Premo

Napoleon (new restoration)/Gance

Leonardo DaVinci/Burns, Burns, McMahon

The Actor/Johnson

Parthenope/Sorrentino

Hand of Dante/Schnabel

NYFF SPOTLIGHT ANNOUNCMENT

The New York Film Festival announced the rest of the films playing in its Spotlight section yesterday and that offered up minimal clues regarding the TFF #51 lineup.  It does appear the one more Venice selection will also play Telluride as NYFF labeled the documentary Apocalypse in the Tropics (dir: Petra Costa) without a premiere status.  The film is slated to screen in Venice on Sept. 29th which would give it time to make it to T-ride.  The IMDb description says the film...

"Focuses on how the evangelical movement paved the way for the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro and poses the threat of a national theocracy."

Sound familiar?

Otherwise three other films we thought were playing TFF #51 seem to be confirmed by their lack of premiere status: Maria, Emilia Perez and The Friend.

Here's the announcement from NYFF.

SOME OTHER POSSIBLE GUESTS

Back on Aug. 5th I wrote a bit about what folks might turn up at TFF#51 as guests based on some of the films that looked like they could or would play as a part of the fest.

Today I'm adding a few more possibilities:

Better Man: Robbie Williams

Disclaimer: Alfonso Cuaron, Cate Blanchett, Sasha Baron Cohen, Kevin Kline

The Outrun: Saoirse Ronan

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight; Embeth Davitz

NEW POSTER FOR SATURDAY NIGHT

We have the release on Tuesday of a second poster for Jason Reitman's Saturday Night.  Here it is:

I'm pretty sure this is playing at TFF but I did see some references to a "world" premiere occurring in Toronto from some film media outlets on Tuesday.  TIFF continues to list it as a Canadian Premiere which is reassuring regarding its Telluride status.

THE PEOPLE'S TELLURIDE-12TH EDITION

For the 12th year MTFB is soliciting your input for The People's Telluride.  All you have to do is watch films during the fest and then, when it's all over, report to me your assessment of each film on a 1-5 scale with 1 being "UGH!" and 5 being "GREAT".

Report your ratings to: mpgort@gmail.com 

The deadline for this year to turn in your ratings will be Sept. 15th.

I'll compile all of your responses and post those a few days after the festival.

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Venice Schedule Revealed / Saturday Night Poster and Trailer / Will Cuaron Return to Telluride? / Grand Tour Like Oh Canada? / Will Rasoulof Make It to Telluride?

VENICE SCHDULE REVEALED

The Venice Film Festival revealed its official screening schedule this morning.  That's of note to Telluride watchers as films scheduled early in that fest could potentially be able to cross the Atlantic and get to the Rockies in time for screenings at TFF.  Films scheduled after the first three days of Venice are essentially off the table.

Scheduled early enough to come to Telluride and that seem likely are:

Separated/Morris (8/29)

Disclaimer/Cuaron (8/29)

Maria/Larrain (8/29)

One to One: John and Yoko/Macdoanld and Rice-Edwards (8/30)

Babygirl/Reijn (8/30)

Notable films that look like they're scheduled too late to make T-ride:

The Order/Kurzel

The Brutalist/Corbet

The Room Next Door/Almodovar

Queer/Guadagnino

Joker: Foile A Deux

The complete Venice schedule is linked here.

SATURDAY NIGHT LOOKS TO PLAY TELLURIDE

Matt Belloni writing in his "What I'm Hearing" newsletter for Puck.com dropped this on Friday:

"...today’s trailer for Jason Reitman’s SNL origin story, Saturday Night, got me unexpectedly excited for fall festival movies. It’s playing Telluride, which I don’t attend, and TIFF..."

There's no sourcing on the statement but it seems pretty definitive.  I'm looking for it to be confirmed as soon as Toronto announces its last set of titles this week.

Reitman's catalogue is replete with films that played T-ride starting with Juno in 2007.  Also at Telluride: Up in the Air (2009), Labor Day (2013) and The Front Runner (2018).  

Here's the poster and trailer:

WILL CUARON RETURN TO TELLURIDE?

Last Friday Toronto announced its Primetime Section devoted to television series that they will feature as a part of TIFF 2024.  Among those listed was Alfonso Cuaron's mini-series for Apple+ titled Disclaimer.  Why we note it here is that the show is listed as a Canadian premiere.  That raised some eyebrows.  Could that mean a play of some of the series at TFF #51?

It's possible.  TFF has programmed television/series in the past famously including Twin Peaks in 1989, Red Riding in 2009 and recently (TFF #49) Russia 1985-1999.  So it's not unprecedented that Telluride might be programming it.  Also, Cuaron having screened both Gravity and Roma at past TFFs doesn't hurt its chances.

Here's the description from IMDb:

"Blanchett plays Catherine Ravenscroft, a successful and respected television documentary journalist whose work has been built on revealing the concealed transgressions of long-respected institutions. When an intriguing novel written by a widower, played by Kline, appears on her bedside table, she is horrified to realize she is a key character in a story that she had hoped was long buried in the past. A story that reveals her darkest secret. A secret she thought was hers alone."

Disclaimer is set to debut on Apple TV+ on Oct. 11th.  Here's the teaser from YouTube:

GRAND TOUR LIKE OH, CANADA?

It's another one of those.  Grand Tour was announced by New York without a premiere status leading me and others to believe that it would be a TFF selection.  But then, Toronto announced it as a North  American Premiere which indicates no Telluride play.  Paul Schrader's Oh, Canada is also in that same situation and I'm inclined, at least at this point, to think that both play TIFF and neither plays Telluride.

Of course, I could be wrong.

WILL RASOULOF MAKE IT TO TELLURIDE?

We're pretty sure that Mohammad Rasoulof's The Seed of the Sacred Fig will be playing at TFF #51.  What we don't know is if its writer/director will be present for the screenings.  Variety reporting on Saturday that the Iranian filmmaker who successfully fled Iran isn't sure that he'll be able to travel outside of Europe.

In the interview (linked here) Rasoulof tells Variety reporter Nick Vivarelli:

"I plan to travel to the United States for film screenings. However, since I still don’t have a passport and have to travel with the documents provided with the help of the city of Hamburg, I wonder if I’ll be able to travel outside of Europe."

I'm no expert at international travel protocols but this sounds like a serious impediment.  Nevertheless, I'll be crossing my fingers that he'll be able to find a way to make it .

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Hints and Allegations / Who Could Be at TFF #51? / Looks at Possible Double Plays

HINTS AND ALLEGATIONS

I had a couple of readers send me information about possible confirmations/inclusions about films and/or attendees this past week.  

Back on July 23rd I posted an MTFB special about announcements from Toronto, Venice and New York.  One of the films I especially noted was Andrea Arnold's Bird as it was labeled as a North American Premiere on the TIFF official website but had been posted here on X as a Canadian Premiere.  However, MTFB reader Bobby Harris contacted me to reveal that TIFF's entry for Bird on the website has been changed to Canadian:

So, for me, that's going to mean that I'm putting Bird back on the Ten Bets/Possible list when it gets updated on Thursday.

Additionally, I had another reader reach out to convey intell about three possible attendees for TFF.  I'm going to be a little cagey here as to who/where the info came from as well as explicitly naming names-at least for now.  I will say that a couple of the names would confirm that Anora and Emilia Perez will play Telluride.  The third person's presence would indicate one or possibly two films neither of which are currently among the "Bets" or "Possibles".

WHO COULD BE AT TFF#51?

For fun, let's assume I'm right about almost everything playing at TFF #51; what star wattage could we see in town, on panels, doing Q&A's?

Anora: Sean Baker, Mikey Madison

Conclave: Edward Berger, Ralph Fiennes, John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci, Isabella Rossellini

Emilia Perez: Jacques Audiard, Zoe Saldana, Selena Gomez, Karla Sofia Gascon, Adriana Paz

The End: Joshua Oppenheimer, Tilda Swinton, Michael Shannon, George MacKay

The Piano Lesson: Malcolm Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, Danielle Dedwyler, John David Washington, Denzel Washington

Nickel Boys: RaMell Ross, Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Aunjunue Ellis-Taylor

Piece by Piece: Morgan Neville, Pharrell Williams

The Apprentice: Ali Abassi, Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong

The Friend: Scott McGeehee, David Siegel, Carla Gugino, Naomi Watts, Bill Murray

Maria: Pablo Larrain, Angelina Jolie

Saturday Night: Jason Reitman, Gabriel LaBelle, Cooper Hoffman, Nicolas Braun, Jon Batiste

Megalopolis: Francis Ford Coppola, Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Aubrey Plaza. Dustin Hoffman

Parthenope: Paolo Sorrentino, Gary Oldman

Hand of Dante: Julian Schnabel, Oscar Isaac, Al Pacino, Martin Scorsese

The Actor: Duke Johnson, Andre Holland

Harvest: Athina Rachel Tsangari, Caleb Landry Jones, Henry Melling

Bird: Andrea Arnold, Barry Keoghan, Frank Rogowski

LOOKS AT POSSIBLE DOUBLE PLAYS

Inspired by a "first look" post from World of Reel, here are some promo shots of films that will possibly screen at Telluride as well as Toronto or Venice: No guarantees that all of these make it to T-ride.

All We Imagine as Light:

Allegorie Citadine:

Bird:

Conclave:

Emilia Perez:

The End:

Maria:

Misrecordia:

The Piano Lesson:

Piece by Piece:

Separated:

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