MTFB Oscar Update: Supporting Acting / TFF #51 Films Awarded / Behind the Scenes: Maria / TFF Films Qualify / Interviews and Profiles: Ronan, Lithgow, Rossellini and More

 MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: SUPPORTING ACTING

Here are updated nomination predictions for the Supporting Acting categories for the 97th Academy Awards.  These categories were last predicted on Nov. 11th.  An actor's previous rank appears to the right of their names in parentheses.  TFF #51 actors/films are in Bold.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1) Zoe Saldana/Emilia Perez (1)

2) Isabella Rossellini/Conclave (4)

3) Danielle Deadwyler/The Piano Lesson (2)

4) Ariana Grande/Wicked (-)

5) Felicity Jones/The Brutalist (5)

Others: Saoirse Ronan/Blitz, Selena Gomez/Emilia Perez and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor/Nickel Boys.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Kieran Culkin/A Real Pain (1)

2) Denzel Washington/Gladiator II (2)

3) Guy Pearce/The Brutalist (3)

4) Clarence Maclin/Sing Sing (4)

5) Stanley Tucci/Conclave (5)

Others: Yura Borisov/Anora, Jeremy Strong/The Apprentice and John Magaro/September 5.

TFF #51 FILMS AWARDED

The Palm Springs International Film Fest names Kieran Culkin winner of its Breakthrough Performance Award.

BEHIND THE SCENES: MARIA

From Netflix via YouTube here's a behind the scenes video for the film Maria starring Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas.

TFF FILMS QUALIFY

Official lists of films that have qualified for Academy Award consideration for Best Animated Feature, Best International Feature and Best Documentary Feature were released by The Academy this week.  Here are the qualifiers that screened at TFF by category:

Animated Feature:

Memoir of a Snail

Piece by Piece

International Feature:

Emilia Perez/France

Santosh/United Kingdom

The Seed of the Sacred Fig/Germany

Documentary Feature:

Blink

Carville: Winning Is Everything, Stupid

Casa Bonita, Mi Amor

Food Inc. 2*

Hollywoodgate*

Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger

Martha

No Other Land

Piece by Piece

Separated

Will and Harper

Zurawski v. Texas

The complete lists can be accessed here via Awards Watch.

*Screened in TFF #50.

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Saoirse Ronan for The Outrun from Awards Watch.

Saoirse Ronan for The Outrun from Awards Radar.

Isabella Rossellini for Conclave from IndieWire.

John Lithgow for Conclave from Awards Watch.

Leonie Benesch for September 5 from Gold Derby.

Director Tim Fehlbaum for September 5 from The Hollywood Reporter.

Mark Eydershteayn for Anora from Gold Derby.

Yura Borisov for Anora from Next Best Picture.

Jesse Eisenberg for A Real Pain from IndieWire.

Gabriel LaBelle for Saturday Night from Awards Watch.

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MTFB Oscar Update: Supporting Acting / TFF Films and the Best of the 2020's / Awards for TFF Films / Interviews and Profiles: Washington and Arnold

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: SUPPORTING ACTING

Here are updated nomination predictions for the Supporting Acting categories for the 97th Academy Awards.  These categories were last predicted on Oct. 28th.  An actor's previous rank appears to the right of their names in parentheses.  TFF #51 actors/films are in Bold.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1) Zoe Saldana/Emilia Perez (1)

2) Danielle Deadwyler/The Piano Lesson (2)

3) Saoirse Ronan/Blitz (4)

4) Isabella Rossellini/Conclave (3)

5) Felicity Jones/The Brutalist (5)

Others: Selena Gomez/Emilia Perez, Ariana Grande/Wicked and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor/Nickel Boys.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Keiran Culkin/A Real Pain (1)

2) Denzel Washington/Gladiator II (2)

3) Guy Pearce/The Brutalist (3)

4) Clarence Maclin/Sing Sing (4)

5) Stanley Tucci/Conclave (5)

Others: John Magaro/September 5, Jeremy Strong/The Apprentice and Yura Borisov/Anora.

TFF FILMS AND THE BEST OF THE HALF DECADE

Jordan Ruimy/World of Reel invited me and more than one hundred other "critics" to name a  list of the Best films of the first half of the 2020's.  The results were posted Saturday.  Among the top twenty were eight that played at one of the decade's TFFs.  They were: TAR, The Zone of Interest, Anatomy of a Fall, The Power of the Dog, Poor Things, Anora, Aftersun and All of Us Strangers. 

Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer topped the list.  My List for the poll was: Nomadland, Oppenheimer, Poor Things, The Power of the Dog and The Zone of Interest.

The complete list from World of Reel is linked here.

AWARDS FOR TFF FILMS

Mikey Madison to recieve Breakthrough Performance Award from Palm Springs Fest.

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Director Malcolm Washington and writer Virgil Williams on The Piano Lesson from TIFF.net.

Andrea Arnold for Bird from Mubi.com.

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MTFB Oscar Update-Supporting / New Things: Trailer for Martha, Poster for Emilia Perez / Interviews and Profiles: Mikey Madison, Jason Reitman, Ali Abassi

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE-SUPPORTING

Here are updated nomination predictions for the Supporting Acting categories for the 97th Academy Awards.  These categories were last predicted on Sept. 30th.  An actor's previous rank appears to the right of their names in parentheses.  TFF #51 actors/films are in Bold.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1) Zoe Saldana/Emilia Perez (1)

2) Danielle Deadwyler/The Piano Lesson (2)

3) Felicity Jones/The Brutalist (-)

4) Isabella Rossellini/Conclave (3)

5) Saoirse Ronan/Blitz (4)

Others: Selena Gomez/Emilia Perez, Aunjanue Ellis-Tayor/Nickel Boys, Lady Gaga/Joker: Folie a Deux.

SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Kieran Culkin/A Real Pain (1)

2) Guy Pearce/The Brutalist (5)

3) Denzel Washington/Gladiator II (2)

4) Stanley Tucci/Conclave (4)

5) Clarence Maclin/Sing Sing (3)

Others: John Magaro/September 5, Jeremy Strong/The Apprentice, Samuel L. Jackson/The Piano Lesson.

NEW THINGS

TRAILER FOR MARTHA (the Martha Stewart doc)

POSTER FOR EMILIA PEREZ

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Behind the Scenes of Saturday Night from Time.com.

Jason Reitman and and Gil Kenan for Saturday Night from SlashFilm.

Mikey Madison for Anora from The Playlist.

Mikey Madison and Sean Baker for Anora from The Hollywood Reporter.

Ali Abassi for The Apprentice from IndieWire.

Ali Abassi for The Apprentice from The Hollywood Reporter.

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Conclave Has a Trailer / Ioncinema on Venice / Hard Truths Delayed / Nickel Boys to Open New York Fest

CONCLAVE HAS A TRAILER

Edward Berger's Conclave currently sits at #2 on the MTFB Ten Bets for TFF #51.  There's a lot of buzz that the film will premiere early in the Venice lineup and then hop the Atlantic to screen in Telluride.  The film stars Ralph Fiennes, John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci and Isabella Rossellini.  It's set to release in the U.S. on Oct. 6th.

Here's the description from IMDb:

"Cardinal Lawrence is tasked with leading one of the world's most secretive and ancient events, selecting a new Pope, where he finds himself at the center of a conspiracy that could shake the very foundation of The Church."

And here's the trailer from YouTube:

 Lots of fun here thinking about which talent might make the trip.  Fiennes seems fairly likely but it would be cool if Lithgow, Tucci and/or Rossellini also made it to town.  Also, it feels like any of the four could be potential tribute recipients, though, again, Fiennes seems the most likely to me.

Erik Anderson of Awards Watch currently has the film predicted as a Best Picture nominee.  He also has Berger as a Directing nominee, Fiennes for Best Actor, Lithgow for Supporting Actor and Rossellini for Supporting Actress.  

IONCINEMA ON VENICE

Ioncinema put up its extensive set of speculated titles for Venice (which is reportedly announcing its lineup tomorrow).  From their list, here are what seem the most likely titles to play Venice then Telluride.

I'm Still Here/Salles

Chocobar/Martel

In the Hand of Dante/Schnabel

Maria/Larrain

Nickel Boys/Ross

Queer/Guadagnino

The Brutalist/Corbet

The Last Shopgirl/G. Coppola

The Return/Pasolini

The Room Next Door/Almodovar

Interesting that there is no mention here of Conclave.  This makes me think that the film may World Premiere at TFF #51.  On the other hand, the release of the trailer a week before the Venetian announcement could portend a World Premiere in Italy.

We'll find out more tomorrow.

HARD TRUTHS DELAYED

World of Reel reports that Bleecker Street has moved Mike Leigh's Hard Truths off of its original release date in October to Jan. 10th 2025.  The move comes after news that the Venice Film Festival  has not chosen to screen the film.

These factors don't definitively tell us anything about TFF #51 but I have to say it doesn't sound like the film is likely to make an appearance at The SHOW.

Leigh's films have been frequently been included in past Telluride lineups beginning with High Hopes in 1988 and subsequently: Naked (1993), Secrets & Lies (1996), Happy-Go-Lucky (2008), Another Year (2008), Mr. Turner (2014) and Peterloo (2018).

NICKEL BOYS TO OPEN NEW YORK FEST

Just minutes ago the New York Film Festival announced that RaMell Ross's Nickel Boys will be their opening night film.  I have had Nickel Boys as a Ten Bets often in the last month and I'm not sure that this announcement changes that.  The media release does not mention the film's release status.  If I were running the P.R. I would have its World Premiere status in the announcement if that were the case.  The absence of a designation of status suggests to me that it will have screened elsewhere before Sept. 27th.

Additionally, The favourite opened NYFF after playing at Telluride, so there is precedent.

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