Obsessing about the Telluride Film Festival and the film awards season since 2008!
"The best blog out there for predicting what will be going to Telluride."-Matt Neglia, Next Best Picture
"The Nostradamus of Telluride"
-Tim Appelo, Movies for Grownups
"But it's our job." - Anne Thompson, Indiewire
Sorry that I'm late this morning. It was a long weekend.
MTFB continues its up date of Oscar predictions with the Supporting Acting Categories. These predictions will include the actors current ranking as well as its position from two weeks back. TFF #52 films are in Bold.
SUPPRORTING ACTRESS
1) Teyana Taylor/One Battle After Another (1)
2) Ariana Grande/Wicked: For Good (2)
3) Elle Fanning/Sentimental Value (4)
4) Amy Madigan/Weapons (3)
5) Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas/Sentimental Value (5)
Others: Regina Hall/One Battle After Another, Gwyneth Paltrow/Marty Supreme and Hailee Steinfeld/Sinners.
Comment: This category is very stable at the moment.
SUPPORTING ACTOR
1) Stellan Skarsgard/Sentimental Value (1)
2) Sean Penn/One Battle After Another (2)
3) Paul Mescal/Hamnet (3)
4) Adam Sandler/Jay Kelly (4)
5) Benicio del Toro/One Battle After Another (5)
Others: Jacob Elordi/Frankenstein, DelRoy Lindo/Sinners and Jeremy Strong/Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere.
Comment: Also a very stable category with the exception of Jacob Elordi jumping into the #6 spot.
HAMNET WINS ANOTHER AUDIENCE AWARD
Chloe Zhao's Hamnet won the Toronto Film Festival Audience Award in September and last week added that same accolade from the BFI London Film Festival. Additionally the film tied with Rental Family for the Audience Award the Middleburg Film Fest.
Last week Gold Derby reported that Hamnet had slipped by One Battle After Another to become (by the slimmest of margins) their predicted favorite to win Best Picture. As of this morning that was still holding true.
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Today I am concluding my first wave of Oscar predictions for this year with the focus on the Screenplay categories. All contenders from TFF #52 films are listed in Bold.
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
1) Sinners
2) Sentimental Value
3) Marty Supreme
4) Jay Kelly
5) It Was Just an Accident
Others: A House of Dynamite, The Secret Agent and Weapons.
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
1) One Battle After Another
2) Hamnet
3) Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
4) Bugonia
5) Train Dreams
Others: No Other Choice, Frankenstein and Song Sung Blue.
Currently, if all of MTFB's current predictions came true in the Big Eight categories, 10 TFF #52 films would receive 21 nominations with another 12 nominations possible. Here's that breakdown by film:
Sentimental Value (6): Best Picture, Direction, Actress (Reinsve), Supporting Actress (Fanning), Supporting Actress (Lilleaas), Original Screenplay.
Hamnet (5): Best Picture, Direction, Actress (Buckley), Supporting Actor (Mescal) and Adapted Screenplay.
Jay Kelley (3): Best Picture, Supporting Actor (Sandler) and Original Screenplay. Three other possibilities: Direction, Actor (Clooney), Supporting Actor (Crudup).
It Was Just an Accident (3): Best Picture, Direction, Original Screenplay.
The Secret Agent (2): Best Picture, Best Actor (Moura). Two other possibilities: Best Picture and Original Screenplay.
Bugonia (1): Adapted Screenplay. Two other possibilities: Best Picture and Actor (Plemons)
Springsteen: Deliver me from Nowhere (1): Best Actor (White). Two other possibilities: Best Picture and Supporting Actor (Strong).
Other films with Oscar possibilities:
If I Had Legs I'd Kick You: Best Actress (Byrne).
Blue Moon: Best Actor (Hawke).
Frankenstein: Adapted Screenplay.
I'll start the first round of updating predictions with next Monday's post.
TFF #52 HAS 24 GOTHAM AWARDS NOMINATIONS
Here's how Gotham Awards nominations went for TFF #52 films. The big surprise was that If I Had Legs I'd Kick You had the biggest footprint among all 13 TFF #52 films to get a nomination. TFF #52 films had a combines 24 nominations:
If I Had Legs I'd Kick You (4): Best Feature, Direction, Outstanding Lead Performance (Byrne), Original Screenplay.
It was Just an Accident (3): Best International Feature, Direction, Original Screenplay.
Hamnet (2): Best Feature, Outstanding Lead Performance (Buckley).
Today I am continuing my first wave of Oscar predictions for this year with the focus on the Supporting Acting categories. All contenders from TFF #52 films are listed in Bold.
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
1) Teyana Taylor/One Battle After Another
2) Ariana Grande/Wicked: For Good
3) Amy Madigan/Weapons
4) Elle Fanning/Sentimental Value
5) Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas/Sentimental Value
Others: Regina Hall/One Battle After Another, Gwyneth Paltrow/Marty Supreme and Jennifer Lopez/Kiss of the Spider Woman.
SUPPORTING ACTOR
1) Stellan Skarsgard/Sentimental Value
2) Sean Penn/One Battle After Another
3) Paul Mescal/Hamnet
4) Adam Sandler/Jay Kelly
5) Benicio del Toro/One Battle After Another
Others: Delroy Lindo/Sinners, Billy Crudup/Jay Kelly and Jeremy Strong/Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere.
NEW POSTER FOR PILLION
Fresh from A24, here's a new poster for Henry Lighton's Pillion:
SECOND SET OF OSCAR PREDICTIONS FOR 2025-26: LEAD ACTING
Today I am continuing my first wave of Oscar predictions for this year with the focus on the Lead Acting categories. All contenders from TFF #52 films are listed in Bold.
BEST ACTRESS
1) Jesse Buckley/Hamnet
2) Rene Reinsve/Sentimental Value
3) Cynthia Erico/Wicked: For Good
4) Emma Stone/Bugonia
5) Chase Infiniti/OBAA
Other possibles: Amanda Seyfried/The Testament of Ann Lee, Kate Hudson/Song Sung Blue, Rose Byrne/If I Had Legs I'd Kick You.
BEST ACTOR
1) Leonardo Di Caprio/OBAA
2) Timothee Chalamet/Marty Supreme
3) Walter Moura/The Secret Agent
4) Jeremy Allen White/Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere
5) Michael B. Jordan/Sinners
Other possibles: George Clooney/Jay Kelly, Ethan Hawke/Blue Moon, Jesse Plemons/Bugonia.
MTFB'S FIRST OSCAR NOMINATION PREDICTIONS FOR 2025-26
Well, we're finally here. Seven weeks after the conclusion of TFF #52 it's time to start making some predix myself for the coming Oscar Season. Today we'll roll out Best Picture and Best Direction. We'll follow up with the Lead Acting categories on Thursday and then next week we'll the Supporting Acting categories and then the Screenplay categories. We'll keep the focus on these eight "above the Line" categories for a bit before expending to eventually include all categories prior to Oscar nomination morning on January 22, 2026.
TFF #52 films are Bold. Here we go...
BEST PICTURE
1) One Battle After Another
2) Hamnet
3) Sinners
4) Sentimental Value
5) Marty Supreme
6) Jay Kelly
7) A House of Dynamite
8) It Was Just an Accident
9) Wicked: For Good
10) The Secret Agent
Other Possibles: Bugonia, Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere and Avatar: Fire and Ice.
Should these prove out to be the top ten it would mean half the nominated field for Best Picture played at TFF 52 which would be new record for TFF films to be BP nominated.
FINAL LOOK AT OSCAR EXPERTS BEST PICTURE PREDICTIONS: SCREEN RANT
Here's a last look at what Oscar Experts are predicting for Best Picture, These come from Screen Rant and were updated last Friday (TFF films are in Bold):
1) Hamnet
2) One Battle After Another
3) Sinners
4) Sentimental Value
5) Marty Supreme
6) A House of Dynamite
7) Wicked: For Good
8) The Secret Agent
9) Avatar: Fire and Ask
10) Jay Kelly
So Screen Rant has four TFF #52 films in the final ten for Best Picture which would tie for the record number of Telluride films nominated for BP in a single.
Stay tuned for my first jump into the prediction pool on Monday with my takes on Best Picture and Direction.
Let's update our chart of the all of the BP predictions we have gathered so far. To this point with input from Gold Derby (GD), The Hollywood Reporter (THR), Variety (V), Awards Watch (AW), Awards Radar (AR), Next Best Picture (NBP), The Contending (TC) and Screen Rant (SC), here's where TFF #52 films stand for BP predictions:
Hamnet (8): GD, THR, V, AW, AR, NBP, TC, SR
Sentimental Value (8): GD, THR, V, AW, AR, NBP, TC, SR
I'm beginning to close down my round-up of some of the Oscar prediction websites and their view of which films will be best picture nominated with a focus on what TFF #52 films are in play. Today we look at Mark Johnson of The Contending. Mark is also featured as an Oscar Expert for Gold Derby. Here's how he is handicapping the nominations for BP. (TFF #52 films are in Bold):
1) One Battle After Another
2) Hamnet
3) Sinners
4) Sentimental Value
5) Wicked: For Good
6) It Was Just an Accident
7) Marty Supreme
8) House of Dynamite
9) Jay Kelly
10) Bugonia
So Mark has five TFF films getting nominated which would be an all time record for number of TFF films nominated for BP in one year.
BEST PICTURE SCORECARD
Let's update our chart of the all of the BP predictions we have gathered so far. To this point with input from Gold Derby (GD), The Hollywood Reporter (THR), Variety (V), Awards Watch (AW), Awards Radar (AR), Next Best Picture (NBP) and The Contending (TC), here's where TFF #52 films stand for BP predictions:
Hamnet (7): GD, THR, V, AW, AR, NBP, TC
Sentimental Value (7): GD, THR, V, AW, AR, NBP, TC
Jay Kelly (6): GD, THR, AW, AR, NBP, TC
Bugonia (5): GD, THR, V, AR, TC
It Was Just Accident (5): GD, THR, AW, NBP, TC
The Secret Agent (2): THR, V, NBP
Frankenstein (2): V, AW
Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (2): AW, AR
NYFF INTERVIEWS FOR TFF FILMS
Via YouTube:
JAFAR PANAHI FOR IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT (Interviewed by Martin Scorsese)
JEREMY ALLEN WHITE AND SCOTT COOPER FOR SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE
As the New York Film Festival passes its halfway point, we continue our series of check-ins of a variety of Oscar prognosticators on the Best Picture race with Joey Magidson of Awards Radar . Magidson just updated his predictions last Wednesday. Here's what he currently will be Best Picture nominated (TFF #52 films are Bold):
1) One Battle After Another
2) Hamnet
3) Sentimental Value
4) A House of Dynamite
5) Sinners
6) Jay Kelly
7) Bugonia
8) Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere
9) Wicked: For Good
10) Avatar: Fire and Ash
So Magidson is currently predicting five TFF #52 films to pick up BP nominations which would be the most TFF BP noms in a single year.
Other TFF #52 films that are within striking distance per Magidson:
11) It Was Just an Accident
18) Frankenstein
19) Blue Moon
BEST PICTURE SCOREBOARD
To this point with input from Gold Derby (GD), The Hollywood Reporter (THR), Variety (V), Awards Watch (AW) and Awards Radar (AR) here's where TFF #52 films stand for BP predictions.
We continue today with our rundown of Oscar gurus and their early line Best Picture nominee predictions as we move through the New York Film Festival which will end the wave of the four major fall film fests: Venice, Telluride, Toronto and NYFF.
Today's view comes from Erik Anderson who runs Awards Watch. Here are his current predictions for Best Picture. TFF #52 films are Bold.
1) One Battle After Another
2) Hamnet
3) Sinners
4) Sentimental Value
5) Jay Kelly
6) Marty Supreme
7) Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere
8) It Was Just an Accident
9) Frankenstein
10) Wicked: For Good
Other TFF #52 in the 11-20 spots:
13) The Secret agent
15) Bugonia
This set of predictions would put six TFF #52 titles in the list of ten nominees which would be a TFF record.
To this point with input from Gold Derby (GD), The Hollywood Reporter (THR), Variety (V) and Awards Watch (AW) here's where TFF #52 films stand for BP predictions.
Hamnet (4): GD, THR, V, AW
Sentimental Value (4): GD, THR, V, AW
Jay Kelly (3): GD, THR, AW
Bugonia (3): GD, THR, V
It Was Just Accident (3): GD, THR, AW
The Secret Agent (2): THR, V
Frankenstein (2): V, AW
Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (1): AW
CLIP: BORN TO RUN FROM SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE
From 20th Century Studios and YouTube, a clip of Born to Run:
VISITATIONS
BEHIND THE SCENES OF SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE
From YouTube:
PAUL MESCAL FOR THE HISTORY OF SOUND FROM INDIEWIRE:
We cap off the run of posts that highlight the way people rated the films at Telluride today with what I call The Composite Telluride in which I add up a film's ratings from both The People and the Pros. This year 11 films had enough responses from both groups to make this list. There are three films that made one list but didn't make The Composite because they failed to get enough people to see them from one group or the other. Those were Nouvelle Vague which didn't make the People's list and If I Had Legs I'd Kick you as well as A Private Life which weren't seen by enough Pros.
So, here's the Composite. Each title is listed with it's composite rating (on a scale of 10) and its positions on the Pro list then the Peoples list.
1) Hamnet 9.19 [1-1]
2) Sentimental Value 8.79 [2-3]
3) It Was Just an Accident 8.58 [3-4]
4) Bugonia 7.85 [9-2]
5) Jay Kelly 7.79 [4-8]
6) The History of Sound 7.67 [5-7]
7) [TIE] Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere 7.30 [8-6]
7) [TIE] Tuner 7.30 [10-5]
9) Blue Moon 7.12 [7-10]
10) Frankenstein 6.64 [12-9]
11) Ballad of a Small Player 6.11 [11-13]
After these additions the All Time Composite Top Ten looks like this:
1) (TIE) 12 Years a Slave (9.25) 2013 (Won Best Picture)
1) (TIE) Argo (9.25) 2012 (Won Best Picture)
3) Roma (9.20) 2018 (Won Best Foreign Language Film)
4) (TIE) Moonlight (9.19) 2016 (Won Best Picture)
4) (TIE) Hamnet (9.19) 2025 (???)
6) Birdman (9.18) 2014 (Won Best Picture)
7) Parasite (9.11) 2019 (Won Best Picture)
8) Stories We Tell (9.10) 2012
9) Poor Things (9.04) 2023 (Nominated Best Picture)
10) (TIE) Tim's Vermeer (8.97) 2013
10) (TIE) Anora (8.97) 2024 (Won Best Picture)
So Chloe Zhao's Hamnet lands tied with Moonlight for the fourth best Composite score of all time.
An expanded list of The Composite and updated All Time ratings for all three categories (Pros, Peeps and Composite) can be found on the "Film Ratings from Past Fests" page. The tab for that is above.
One last thing. The top 10 films that were most viewed as a percentage of the total number of people who rated films for The People's Telluride.
Here's my compilation of film ratings from TFF attendees for TFF #52. Respondents were asked to rate each film they saw on a 1-5 scale with 1 being not-so-good and 5 being "way good". Over 60 attendees responded to the poll. The traditional requirement for inclusion is that a film had to have been seen by a third of the respondents. 13 films met that criteria. Here they are in order of their average rating:
1) Hamnet 4.55
2) Bugonia 4.37
3) Sentimental Value 4.30
4) It Was Just an Accident 4.23
5) Tuner 4.16
6) Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere 3.80
7) The History of Sound 3.79
8) Jay Kelly 3.78
9) Frankenstein 3.77
10) Blue Moon 3.43
11) If I Had Legs I'd Kick You 3.42
12) A Private Life 3.35
13) Ballad of a Small Player 3.22
So, essentially universal agreement between the Peeps and the Pros regarding Hamnet, Sentimental Value and It Was Just an Accident. Pretty big differences between the two groups on Bugonia, Tuner and Frankenstein.
The Composite Telluride is coming on Monday as well as updates to all three categories all time top ten films.
RIP ROBERT REDFORD 1936-2025
Robert Redford died on Tuesday. He was 89. He was also a giant having amassed a bevy of great performances in great films, as well proving himself a fantastic director and producer. And, of course, he was the founder of the Sundance Institute and the Sundance Film Festival.
He was an Oscar winner for directing Ordinary People. He was also nominated five other times:
Producer for Ordinary People, Direction and Producer for Quiz Show and Best Actor for The Sting.
A partial list of notable films in which he acted:
Barefoot in the Park (1967)
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
Jeremiah Johnson (1972)
The Candidate (1972)
The Way We Were (1973)
The Sting (1973)
Three Days of the Condor (1975)
All the President's Men (1976)
The Electric Horseman (1979)
The Natural (1984)
Out of Africa (1975)
A River Runs Through It (Narrator) (1982)
The Horse Whisperer (1998)
All Is Lost (2013)
There were many more.
Direction:
Ordinary People (1980)
The Milagro Beanfield War (1988)
A River Runs Through It (1992)
Quiz Show (1994)
The Horse Whisperer (1998)
And others.
I was fortunate enough to catch his Q+As in 2013 for All Is Lost for which Redford received the Telluride Silver Medallion and then again in 2018 for The Old Man and the Gun.
Robert Redford at his TFF Tribute in 2013.
Like I suspect many of you, I have spent the last couple of days re-watching some of his films: All the President's Men, A River Runs Through It, The Great Waldo Pepper. I've got more to do.
It's really difficult to adequately describe how much of a effect he had in the film world. As I wrote above; he was a giant. The film industry would have been a a vastly different place without his career. We also owe him an immense amount gratitude for his environmental activism.
As always in cases like this, we are lucky to have his body of work to remind us of his greatness.
NEW TRAILER FOR SPRINGSTEEN
We have a new trailer released for Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere. Here it is from YouTube:
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They're back. It's time to reveal the results of MTFB's annual poll of film industry professionals who agreed to rate the films on a 1-5 scale and allow me then to collate and average those scores. The pros are a mix of critics, awards experts and other industry insiders. To make the list this year a film had to be rated by at least half of the Pros. That threshold allowed a dozen films to make the list.
Here are the Pros for TFF #52:
Erik Anderson/Awards Watch
J. Don Birnam-Jorge T/SplashReport.com
Josh Bis/Seattle Film Critics Society and TheSunBreak.com
Christina Jeurling Birro/Pop Culture Confidential
Clayton Davis/Variety
Scott Feinberg/The Hollywood Reporter
Mark Johnson/The Awards Alchemist
Dave Karger/Turner Classic Movies
Scott Kernan/Awards Daily
Tomris Laffly/Film Critic and Journalist
Joey Magidson/Awards Radar
Ryan McQuade/Awards Watch
Will Mavity/Next Best Picture
Clarence Moye/The Contending
Matt Neglia/Next Best Picture
Christopher Schiller/ScriptMag.com
Chris Willman/Variety
Anonymous
And here are your Professionals average ratings:
1) Hamnet 4.64
2) Sentimental Value 4.49
3) It Was Just an Accident 4.35
4) Jay Kelly 4.01
5) The History of Sound 3.88
6) Nouvelle Vague 3.76
7) Blue Moon 3.69
8) Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere 3.50
9) Bugonia 3.48
10) Tuner 3.14
11) Ballad of a Small Player 2.89
12) Frankenstein 2.87
Just missing out on making the list because they were one pro shy of the threshold were The Secret Agent, La Grazia and A Private Life.
Historically, Hamnet's 4.64 will put it in the Professionals all time top ten at #7 and because there is a tie for the 10th spot, no film drops out of this top ten.
New all time PROs Top Ten Films
1) Moonlight (4.87) (16) (Won Best Picture)
2) Parasite (4.75) (19) (Won Best Picture)
3) Roma (4.73) (18) (Nominated Best Picture)
4) Birdman (4.72) (14) (Won Best Picture)
5) 12 Years a Slave (4.70-tie) (13) (Won Best Picture)
6) Central Park Five (4.70-tie) (12)
7) Hamnet (4.64) (25)
8) Foxcatcher (4.63) (14)
9) La La Land (4.58) (16) (Nominated Best Picture)
10) Poor Things (4.53) (23) (Nominated Best Picture)
10) Anora (4.53) (24) (Won Best Picture)
TELLURIDE WINS TORONTO
The Toronto International Film festival's People's Choice Award for 2025 was won by Chloe Zhao's Hamnet. Guillermo Del Toro's Frankenstein was second and Rian Johnson's Wake Up Dead Man took third.
As you can see above, Hamnet scored well with the Professionals at Telluride and we'll reveal The People's Telluride results on Thursday.
This is the final call for film ratings from The People. You folks who watched films at TFF #52. The deadline to rate is 5:00pm PDT this evening. Email them to me at mpgot@gmail.com.
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com
X (Twitter) @TheMTFB OR @Gort2
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MTFB's Facebook Page
MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays
If you would like to be added to the MTFB e-mail list send an email to mpgort@gmail.com
It is time. If you haven't already sent in your ratings for TFF #51 films that you saw, now's the time. A reminder about the process. Email me a list of the films you saw and rate each on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 means it was very bad, 5 means you thought it was terrific. Decimals are fine.
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.
MTFB AND THE BETS
MTFB went 23/25 on the "Final Bets" missing on the inclusion of The Young Mothers' Home and Resurrection. Also, I had only one "possible" that made the lineup and that was Megadoc.
"Bets" I was proud about making predictions for:
*Blue Moon and A Private Life and predicting them despite contradictory premiere designations.
*Urchin which I snuck in at the last minute.
As I have alluded to, this year seemed to be the toughest to crack in a long, long time.
Statistically, this year was my least successful since I started doing the expanded "Final Bets" back in 2016.
2024: 25 0f 25
2023: 24 of 25
2022: 24 of 25
2021: 24 of 25
2020: No fest
2019: 24 of 25
2018: 25 of 25
2017: 24 of 25
2016: 20 of 20
Additionally, the first stab at "Bets" back in June was fairly successful going 7 of 10. The films that screened that appeared on my very first "Bets" are in Bold below:
1) It Was Just an Accident/Panahi
2) Blue Moon/Linklater
3) Bugonia/Lanthimos
4) The Love That Remains/Palmason
5) Sentimental Value/Trier
6) The Young Mothers' Home/Dardennes
7) The Secret Agent/Filho
8) Hamnet/Zhao
9) Deliver Me from Nowhere/S. Cooper
10) The Ballad of a Small Player/Berger
Here's the track record of initial bets going back to 2011:
We really are getting down to it. Eight more days and the 52nd Telluride Film Festival opens. So here's the penultimate set of "Bets" for what may play at TFF #52. First, a recap of last week's "Bets":
1) Hamnet/Zhao
2) It Was Just an Accident/Panahi
3) Sentimental Value/Trier
4) Ballad of a Small Player/Berger
5) The Secret Agent/Filho
6) Nouvelle Vague/Linklater
7) Tuner/Roher
8) Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere
9) The History of Sound/Hermanus
10) Jay Kelly/Baumbach
11) Bugonia/Lanthimos
12) The Mastermind/Reichardt
13) Cover-Up/Poitras
14) Ghost Elephants/Herzog
15) Hamlet/Karia
16) Pillion
17) La Grazia
18) Resurrection
19) Nuestra Tierra
20) Blue Moon
Other possibilities: A Private Life, The Young Mother's Home, The Drama, Die My Love, At the Sea, A Magnificent Life, Mother Mary, Pressure, The American Revolution, Bucking Fastard, Megadoc, Train Dreams.
This week' Ten Bets (Plus):
1) Hamnet/Zhao
2) It Was Just an Accident/Panahi
3) Sentimental Value/Trier
4) Ballad of a Small Player/Berger
5) The Secret Agent/Filho
6) Nouvelle Vague/Linklater
7) Bugonia/Lanthimos
8) Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere
9) The History of Sound/Hermanus
10) Jay Kelly/Baumbach
11) Tuner/Roher
12) The Mastermind/Reichardt
13) Cover-Up/Poitras
14) Ghost Elephants/Herzog
15) Hamlet/Karia
16) Pillion/Lighton
17) La Grazia/Sorrentino
18) Resurrection/Bi Gan
19) Blue Moon/Linklater
20) A Private Life/Zlotowski
Other possibilities: Secret Documentary with Oscar Isaac, Barrio Triste, The Young Mother's Home, The Drama, Die My Love, At the Sea, A Magnificent Life, Mother Mary, Pressure, The American Revolution, Bucking Fastard, Megadoc, Train Dreams.
The Final Bets will be published next Wednesday in a Special Post!!!
MYSTERY DOC TO PLAY TELLURIDE
I've certainly been bemoaning the fact that Guillermo Del Toro's Frankenstein isn't indicated for Telluride. Toronto has it listed as a North American premiere. But it seems that at least one of members of that cast will make the trek from its Venetian World premiere to Telluride and that is none other than Dr. Frankenstein himself, Oscar Isaac.
How do we know this? Variety had a huge, splashy piece on Frankenstein up yesterday with . The piece includes interview responses from Del Toro, Isaac and Jacob Elordi who plays the monster. Included in the story is this nugget:
"After the Venice gala, Isaac will fly to Telluride to screen a secret documentary that involves him. Then he travels back to Venice for the debut of “In the Hand of Dante,” a mob drama directed by Julian Schnabel."
A secret documentary? Yes, it is. I can't find a peep about it and I spent some time digging.
So, as you'll see above in the Ten Bets section, I've added that to the list of "Possibilities" and I'm very interested to find out what the story is here.
In my last post I had a section describing some disconnects between premiere designations between Toronto and New York. Some of that has been explained.
A friendly reader pointed me toward the Camden International Film Festival which runs the weekend after Telluride so that also means before New York (Sept. 26-Oct. 13) and its lineup explains what seems to be the contradiction between the two film fest's designation. Three films in question will be playing Camden: Nuestra Tierra (Landmarks), With Hasan in Gaza and Evidence. Camden lists Nuestra Tierra and With Hasan in Gaza as U.S. premieres and Evidence as a North American premiere. That clears up what looked like a disconnect between the Toronto and New York designations and means none of those films are likely playing at Telluride.
Meanwhile Sirat, another film with a TIFF/NYFF contradiction has been announced by Fantastic Fest (Sept. 18-25) as a U.S. premiere so the same logic applies and it looks like Sirat is definitively off the TFF#52 list.
That leaves Blue Moon, A Private Life and Barrio Triste as still unexplained TIFF/NYFF contradictory designations. Of the three it feels to me like Blue Moon is the most likely to play Telluride then A Private Life and lastly, Barrio Triste.
WHO COULD BE AT TFF #52?
Hamnet: Chloe Zhao, Paul Mescal, Jesse Buckley, Emily Watson, Joe Alwyn
Sentimental Value: Joachim Trier, Stellan Skarsgard, Rene Reinsve, Elle Fanning
The Ballad of a Small Player: Edward Berger, Colin Farrell, Tilda Swinton
Nouvelle Vague: Richard Linklater, Zoe Deutch
Tuner: Daniel Roher, Dustin Hoffman
Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere: Scott Cooper, Jeremy Allen White, Paul Walter Hauser, Jeremy Strong, Stephen Graham (and in a perfect world, the Boss himself)
The History of Sound: Oliver Hermanus, Paul Mescal, Josh O'Connor, Chis Cooper
Jay Kelly: Noah Baumbach, George Clooney, Adam Sandler, Laura Dern, Greta Gerwig
Bugonia: Yorgos Lanthimos, Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons
The Mastermind: Kelly Reichardt, John Magaro, Josh O'Connor, Bill Camp, Hope Davis, Gaby Hoffman
Hamlet: Riz Ahmed, Joe Alwyn, Timothy Spall
Pillion: Henry Lighton, Alexander Skarsgard, Henry Melling
Blue Moon: Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke, Andrew Scott, Margaret Qualley, Bobby Canavalle
Secret Documentary: Oscar Isaac
Others from among the "Possibles" list:
Jodie Foster
Jennifer Lawrence
Robert Pattinson
Zendaya
Amy Adams
Anne Hathaway
Kate Mara
Rooney Mara
Orlando Bloom
Joel Edgerton
Felicity Jones
AWARDS WATCH PODCAST IS ALL T-RIDE THIS WEEK
Awards Watch gathered about half a dozen folks who will all be attending TFF for their podcast this week so the focus is all about predicting films and potential Tribute recipients. It's interesting. They've got a title or two that I don't currently have and a slew of guesses about Silver Medallions. Take a listen if you're so inclined:
For the 13th 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 by Sept. 15th.
I'll compile all of your responses and post those a few days after the festival.
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com
X (Twitter) @TheMTFB OR @Gort2
Bluesky: @gort2.bsky.social
MTFB's Facebook Page
MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays
If you would like to be added to the MTFB e-mail list send an email to mpgort@gmail.com
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