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
Here's a brief post from the road as I return from Film Heaven to the real world.
Final film tally: 10 (in no specific order)
The Old Man and the Gun
First Man
Destroyer
Boy Erased
The Favourite
The Front Runner
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Roma
Cold War
White Boy Rick
For me it's a fest that ends up in the middle of the pack as far as the 13 I have attended (2007 still sets the bar). Personal favorites from the weekend were First Man, Boy Erased, Can You Ever Forgive Me? and The Front Runner.
Highlights included talking with Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant about their marvelous performances in Can You Ever Forgive Me? Comforting Laura Dern after Boy Erased (yes, that really happened). Getting the chance to congratulate Jason Reitman and co-screen writer Jay Carson for their work on The Front Runner. Walking out of The Zog next to the luminous Nicole Kidman and meeting or re-acquainting with so many fine folks that seem to take the time to read the space.
Sincerely, I am stunned when I meet readers and they are so kind.
Got to see/hear Robert Redford, Sissy Spacek, Casey Affleck, Nicole Kidman, Joel Edgerton, Emma Stone, Hugh Jackman, Matthew McConaughey, Alfonso Cuaron, Jason Reitman, Karyn Kusama and Yann Demange talk about their films.
Also caught sight of Ralph Fiennes, Damien Chazelle, Kathleen Kennedy, Jay Carson, Matt Bai, David Grann, Jimmy Chin, Ken Burns and, of course, Werner Herzog
I say it every year...this doesn't happen anywhere else on the planet.
Telluride Film Festival...I love you!
THE PEOPLE'S TELLURIDE REMINDER- IT IS TIME!
For the seventh consecutive year MTFB is soliciting your input for The People's Telluride. All you have to do is report to me your assessment of each film on a 1-5 scale with 1 being "UGH!" and 5 being "GREAT".
Send those ratings to me in any of the following ways listed as contact info for me listed below.
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com
You may or may not have seen a post from Awards Circuit yesterday that linked to their YouTube account. If you did not, they rank the world's most important film festivals in as far as awards season is concerned.
No spoilers but...
Here's that video:
I'm out...almost literally...we hit the road to T-ride in about two hours... Hoping to see some of you tonight.
Next post will be Friday morning with a view toward what I'll be planning to see and do...
Then check back throughout the weekend for TBAs and reactions to the films that I see.
IT'S FINALLY HERE!
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com
WEDNESDAY MTFB SPECIAL: THE FINAL 25 BETS FOR TFF #45
Here we are the day before the actual reveal of the 2018 Telluride Film Fest lineup. Consequently, here is my final list of 25 films I expect will make the list when it's announced tomorrow morning:
1) The Favourite
2) The Old Man and the Gun***
3) Roma
4) First Man
5) Destroyer***
6) The Front Runner***
7) Boy Erased***
8) Can You Ever Forgive Me?***
9) Shoplifters
10) Cold War
11) The Other Side of the Wind
12) White Boy Rick***
13) Dogman
14) Peterloo
15) Non-Fiction
16) Meeting Gorbachev
17) Free Solo
18) Graves Without a Name
19) Birds of Passage
20) Girl
21) Watergate
22) Angels Are Made of Light
23) The White Crow***
24) They'll Love Me When I'm Dead
25) Ghost Fleet
***designates film's first screening should it play Telluride (and I'm still relatively confident there will be at least one more)
Other films still in play:
The Biggest Little Farm, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, On the Basis of Sex, He Dreams of Giants, Nothing Like a Dame, The Aspern Papers, The Great Buster.
I'LL HAVE THE LINEUP POSTED TOMORROW AS SOON AS POSSIBLE... EXPECTING IT BETWEEN 9:00 AND 10:00 EDT
A NEW FILM TO CONSIDER
Peter Bogdanovich photo via IMDb
MTFB reader Dr. Jack Gindi dropped me an email a couple of days ago mentioning a film that he felt I should think about as a TFF #45 possibility. That film: Peter Bogdanovich's The Great Buster. It's a documentary about the great film comedian Buster Keaton.
Admittedly, I knew nothing of the film but told Jack I'd give a look and after a little review I can report that he could be onto something.
Largely because it's Bogdanovich, who, as the good doctor pointed out, will probably be in Telluride this week with the crew that's expected to land with the Orson Welles' final film The Other Side of the Wind. Additionally, Bogdanovich has remained a member of the fests Board of Advisers. Also, the film is being handles by the Cohen Media Group which has had a good history with T-ride (last year they had The Insult and Faces Places at TFF #44).
So, all things considered...The Great Buster sounds like something we should seriously consider making The SHOW this weekend.
SURVEYING THE LANDSCAPE
A lot of folks who specialize in Oscar prediction are posting/publishing their takes prior to the beginning of the Fall Fest Trifecta of Telluride/Venice/Toronto.
I've included a link to a few. A couple of them actually reference yours truly:
The 71st Cannes Film Festival is less than two months away (it runs May 8-19) and Screen Daily has posted what I believe to be the first large Cannes speculation piece that I have come across.
As many Telluride attendees know, the Cannes-Telluride crossover is usually quite significant from year to year. It's not at all uncommon for 25% or more of the features that screen at Telluride to have played at Cannes previously. So, a discerning assessment of what may make the Cannes lineup also serves as a window on some possible TFF selections.
Last year, for example, the first Cannes piece here went up on March 9th and included Wonderstruck, Downsizing and Loveless.The Mar. 13th post added Lean on Pete and The Insult.
In my look at the corresponding Screen Daily article from a year ago, I included Wonderstruck, Lean on Pete and Loveless. That SD article also included The Insult and Foxtrot.
That said, here are the films that Screen Daily suggests for Cannes that could also be Telluride players in my estimation:
From North America: The Death and Life of John F. Donovan, Beautiful Boy, Boy Erased, At Eternity's Gate.
From UK/Ireland: Peterloo, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, The Eyes of Orson Welles.
From France: The Sisters Brothers, Non Fiction.
From Italy: Dogman.
From Central and Eastern Europe: Sunset and Cold War.
From Spain: Everybody Knows.
From Latin America: Roma.
From Asia: Ash Is Purest White, Long Day's Journey Into Night, Shadow.
If you haven't heard, 2018 passes for TFF #45 are sold out. Every level...sold out. Depending who your read , that happened in 2-4 days. Kristopher Tapley, co-editor at Variety and long time Telluride attendee tweeted his astonishment this week:
Good Thursday film friends and a big shout out to any and all of you Sundancers as that film fest launches today. What will be this year's Get Out, Mudbound or Call Me By Your Name?
THE FAC PREDICTS FOREIGN, ANIMATED, DOC AND SHORTS
There are just a few days left before the live reveal of all 24 categories of nominations for the Oscars for this year. That is set to happen early on Tuesday morning, Jan. 23rd. In my last post I updated a bunch of major categories and included predictions on a number of feature "under the line" categories. Today, I complete the circle with predictions for the remaining six categories not covered on Monday.
As always, TFF #44 films are in Bold.
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
1) Foxtrot 2) Loveless 3) A Fantastic Woman
4) The Square
5) In the Fade
Others: The Insult, The Wound and Felicite.
Comment: This could be the most Telluride-centric category of the bunch. If The Insult could supplant The Square or In the Fade, TFF #44 films would be 4 of the 5 nominees. Realistically, the only other category that might approach that is Best Supporting Actress and that assumes that Octavia Spencer (The Shape of Water-possible) Hong Chau (Downsizing-possible) or Kristen Scott Thomas (Darkest Hour-unlikely) join all but certain nominees Allison Janney (I, Tonya) and Laurie Metcalf (Lady Bird).
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
1) Coco
2) The Breadwinner 3) Loving Vincent
4) Lego Batman
5) The Boss Baby
Others: Despicable Me 3, Cars 3, Ferdinand
BEST DOCUMENTARY
1) Jane 2) Faces Places
3) Strong Island
4) Icarus
5) Last Men in Aleppo
Others: City of Ghosts, Abacus: Small Enough to Jail, Long Strange Trip
LIVE ACTION SHORT
1) Dekalb Elementary
2) Facing Mecca
3) Watu Wote
4) Witnesses
5) Lost Face
Others: My Nephew Emmett, The Silent Child, The Eleven O'Clock
ANIMATED SHORT
1) Dear Basketball
2) Lou
3) Cradle
4) In a Heartbeat
5) Negative Space
Others: Revolting Rhymes, Life Smartphone, Fox and the Whale
DOCUMENTARY SHORT
1) Eddie and Edith 2) Heroin(e)
3) Kayayo-The Living Shopping Baskets
4) Alone-The New York Times
5) 116 Cameras
Others: Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the 405, Ten Meter Tower, Traffic Stop
Added to the predicted total from last Monday's post, if The FAC is 100% accurate (and it won't be), TFF #44 films will collectively earn 30 Oscar nominations on Tuesday. The average for TFF #44 over the past several years is 27.
Last year, though was an all timer for TFF as TFF #43 films racked up a total of 42 nominations.
THE FILM STAGE LOOKS FORWARD TO 2018
The Film Stage published their list of 100 "Most Anticipated" films for 2018 last week and a number of titles that I believe have Telluride potential made their list.
For example:
#99-First Man
#95- Backseat (the Adam McKay Dick Cheney film starring Christian Bale)
#94- The Widow
#93- The Little Stranger
#79- Kursk
#77- At Eternity's Gate (does Julian Schnabel return to Telluride?)
#71-Mid-90's
#67- Where Is Anne Frank?
#61- The Death and Life of John F. Donovan
#52- Private Life
#50-Boy Erased
#48- Cold War
#46- The Sisters Brothers (does Audiard return to Telluride?)
#34- Sunset
#30- The Man Who Killed Don Quixote
#28- Peterloo
#27- The Women of Marwen
#26- Roma
#16- E-Book
#11- Everybody Knows (does Farhadi return to Telluride?)
#8- Widows (Steve McQueen...)
#4- Maya
#2- If Beale Street Could Talk
For months now, we have been anticipating the arrival of the restoration of Orson Welles unfinished final film The Other Side of the Wind. We knew that the work to put it together had been continuing.
The anticipation may finally have a payoff. The Film Stage reports that a version of the film was screened this week. The Film Stage tweeted that information last night (derived from a WellesNet.com tweet:
This increases the chances that we could see the film in eight months in the San Juans. Fingers crossed.
The Broadcast Film Critics Association announced their nominations for end of the year superlatives in both film and television on Tuesday and TFF #44 film The Shape of Water lead all films with 14 nominations. Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird was among a group of films with the second highest total of nominations with eight.
Here's the rundown of all 33 nominations received by films that played at Telluride in 2017:
The Shape of Water (14): Best Picture, Actress-Sally Hawkins, Supporting Actress-Octavia Spencer, Best Supporting Actor (Richard Jenkins), Direction, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Production Design, Film Editing, Costume Design, Makeup, Visual Effects, Score and Best SciFi/Horror Film.
Lady Bird (8): Best Picture, Actress-Saoirse Ronan, Supporting Actress-Laurie Metcalf, Ensemble, Direction, Actress in a Comedy-Ronan and Best Comedy Film
Darkest Hour (4): Best Picture, Actor-Gary Oldman, Makeup and Score
Battle of the Sexes (2) Best Actress in a Comedy(Emma Stone), Best Actor in a Comedy (Steve Carell)
Downsizing (1): Best Supporting Actress (Hong Chau)
Wonderstruck (1): Best Young Actor/Actress (Millicent Simmonds)
Loving Vincent (1): Best Animated Feature
A Fantastic Woman (1): Best Foreign Language Film
First They Killed My Father (1): Best Foreign Language Film
Other films that snagged eight nominations were: Call Me By Your Name, Dunkirk and The Post. Blade Runner 2049 had seven nominations.
The announcements were something of a bounce back for The Shape of Water which had not gotten much love in earlier key announcements from the National Board of Review or the New York or Los Angeles film critics organizations.
I was also personally thrilled to see Richard Jenkins name among the Supporting Actor nominees for The Shape of Water as I have been stumping for his inclusion since the lights came up after the film screened in Telluride back over Labor Day weekend.
Sad, though, that my other awards choice, Harry Dean Stanton in the non-Telluride film Lucky, didn't land a nod for Best Actor.
The next big awards splash happens later today with the announcement of accolades from The American Film Institute. Then, next Tuesday, Golden Globe nominations will be revealed.
The Critic's Choice Awards will be handed out on Jan. 11th at 8:00om EST on The CW network.
TFF #45 ANYONE?
The Playlist has dropped the annual 100 Most Anticipated Films list. That was posted on Tuesday.
I have made it a habit over the last several years to use that list as a starting point for serious TFF speculation for the upcoming year. Sure, we're nine months away from Labor Day weekend 2018 and a lot can change between now and then but, hey, "why not take a shot?" says I.
Last year when the list came out I named 20 films that might make the TFF #44 program. Of those 20, nine made The SHOW: A Fantastic Woman, Battle of the Sexes, Lady Bird, The Other Side of Hope, Lean on Pete, Downsizing, Loveless, The Shape of Water and Wonderstruck. An additional film that I didn't name also made The SHOW: Darkest Hour.
In 2016, from the 100 films that The Playlist mentioned, seven made the TFF lineup: Neruda, Una, Things to Come, Moonlight, Manchester by the Sea, La La Land and Arrival (which was titled The Story of Your Life at the time). The only film among them that I named: Neruda.
In 2015 the list included: Carol, Beasts of No Nation, Black Mass, Suffragette and Spotlight which I included on my Telluride-possibles as well as Room, 45 Years and Steve Jobs which I did not list.
In 2014 the list included: The Lunchbox, Mommy, Tracks and Wild that I didn't name for TFF but did include three films that I did pick: Birdman, Foxcatcher and Mr. Turner.
So the averages suggest that the list below will contain 4-5 films that will actually make the TFF #45 lineup (unless I replicate the success I had for this year) and the eight films total that are on the complete list of 100 films will make the T-ride program.
So...here are 20 films that appear on The Playlist's 100 Most Anticipated Films of 2018 that I think have the best shot at making it to the San Juans next Labor Day.
Initially, begin with five films that the post itself suggests could play Telluride:
#83-Mid-90's-Jonah Hill directs a coming of age comedy. Key reason it plays: Distribution from A24.
#72-The Front Runner-The true story of the downfall of Presidential aspirant Gary Hart played by Hugh Jackman and directed Jason Reitman. After running two hits through Telluride: Juno and Up in the Air, Reitman did not have Young Adult there and then did have the critical and commercial misfire Labor Day, Reitman is due for a return to his original form and consequently a return to T-ride.
#38-Untitled Noah Baumbach Project, Baumbach had Margot at the Wedding at The SHOW in 2007 and the fantastic Frances Ha in 2012 (which may have helped lay the groundwork for Greta Gerwig's solo directing debut, Lady Bird) but hasn't been back since. This might be the project that marks his return.
#25-First Man-The story of astronaut Neil Armstrong from director Damien Chazelle starring Ryan Gosling (two collaborators on last year's La La Land). The high profile expected for this film plus the undeniable success of La La Land suggests that Chazelle would probably be up for a return to TFF. The picture is from Universal, however, which hasn't exactly been a familiar player at the fest over the years.
#1- If Beale Street Could Talk-The Playlist's #1 most anticipated film is Barry Jenkins' followup to his Oscar winning and Telluride debuting Moonlight. Just like The Playlist, I fully expect the film to bow at TFF #45. The film is distributed by Annapurna which is getting into the portion of the business after having been a production firm until now.
In addition to these five films I have zeroed in on another 15 that could make an appearance at Telluride:
#76-Kursk
#75-Private Life
#71-Cold War
#52-E-Book
#40-Fahrenheit 451
#31-Peterloo
#22-The Other Side f the Wind
#21-The Death and Life of John F. Donovan
#19-Sunset
#17-The Man Who Killed Don Quixote
#13-Maya
#12-Everybody Knows
#11-The Sisters Brothers
#8-Widows
#3- Roma
Let's see how many of these we actually do see when the TFF #45 schedule is unveiled on Aug. 30th.
DEADLINE TALKS TO LADY BIRD
As a part of their "Contender Series" videos, Deadline recently sat down with Greta Gerwig, Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf (all recognized with nominations from the BFCA this week) to talk about Lady Bird. Here it is from YouTube:
That's it for today. Come back for more on Monday.
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com
