Michael's Telluride Film Blog : TFF #52

Thursday, March 13, 2025

Coming Attractions: What Could Play TFF #52? / Trailer for One to One: John & Yoko / Spinal Tap???

COMING ATTRACTIONS: WHAT COULD PLAY TFF #52?

In today's post I continue to take a look at early Oscar predictions as a way of searching for possible TFF titles for this year. Today we're looking at Daniel Howat's take from Next Best Picture. From the ten films NBP has as predicted as Best Picture nominees, these might be the ones with the most Telluride potential:

After the Hunt/Amazon-MGM/Luca Guadagnino

Bugonia/Focus/Yorgos Lanthimos

The Ballad of a Small Player/Edward Berger

Deliver Me from Nowhere/Scott Cooper

Die, My Love/No Distributor/Lynne Ramsay

Marty Supreme/A24/Josh Safdie

And among the other films NBP assesses for Oscar potential:

Anemone/Focus/Ronan Day-Lewis

The Bride/Warners/Maggie Gyllenhaal

Frankenstein/Netflix/Guillermo Del Toro

Hamnet/Focus/Chloe Zhao

Hedda/Amazon-MGM/Nia DiCosta

The History of Sound/Mubi/Oliver Hermanus

Jay Kelly/Netflix/Noah Baumbach

The complete list from Next Best Picture is linked here.

TRAILER FOR ONE TO ONE: JOHN & YOKO

From directors Kevin Macdonald and Sam Rice-Edwards here is the recently released trailer for TFF #51 documentary One to One: John & Yoko.

The IMBd description:

Set in 1972 New York, this documentary explores John and Yoko's world amid a turbulent era. Centered on the One to One charity concert for special needs children, it features unseen archives, home movies, and restored footage.

The film is set to open in the U.S. on April 18th.

SPINAL TAP???

Many readers know, I'm sure, that a sequel to the classic This Is Spinal Tap has been in the works for some time. Now word comes that the film has been picked by Bleecker Street for distribution and a release date has been set. Look for the film in theaters on Sept. 12th.

The combination of the distributor, which has had its share of films play over the years at T-ride, and the weekend date immediately following the close of TFF #52 allows for a possible TFF screening.

Do I have a lot of confidence in this possibility? Right now...No. But it's logistically possible and really an intriguing thought.

Here's the story from Indiewire.

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Thursday, March 6, 2025

Oscar #97 in the Rear View / Forging Ahead

OSCAR #97 IN THE REAR VIEW

Sunday night's Oscar ceremony brought few, if any, real upsets. I personally was 16 of 23 for a 69.6% success rate which is among the lowest rates of success since I started posting Oscar predictions on this site.

Still, in the case of the seven misses, my "Possible Upset" picked up the statuette in five of the seven categories: Actress, Documentary, Animated Feature, Editing and Documentary Short. Leaving out the Shorts categories, I was a much more respectable 16 of 20 for 80% among the Feature categories.

I felt some better the next morning when Gold Derby posted the records of their experts.. Had I been among them (there are 38 of them) I would have tied for eighth overall. Among those with which I tied were Indiewire's Anne Thompson and The Contending's Mark Johnson. Some experts over which I had a better score were: The Hollywood Reporter's Scott Feinberg (65.2%), Deadline's Pete Hammond (65.2%), ABC's Peter Travers (56.5%) and Variety's Clayton Davis (56.5%).

So, as I said after the nominations dropped in January...where do I apply to be a Gold Derby expert?

Again. TFF films nabbed 10 Oscars. That's the best since the 2016 edition of TFF when fest films earned 12 Oscars (the year of Moonlight and La La Land). This year's collection is either tied for second or third most depending if you count the 2008 year wherein Slumdog Millionaire won eight and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button which won three. Button only screened a few minutes as a part of the tribute to David Fincher. So 2008 might be eight or eleven if you count Button.

TFF's 2013 edition had 10 Oscars. That was the 12 Years a Slave (3) and Gravity (7) year.

Here's another thing that I found revealing. Since I started the polling of Telluride attendees both with the People and the Professionals TFF has had nine films win Best Picture:

Argo

12 Years a Slave

Birdman

Spotlight

Moonlight

The Shape of Water

Parasite

Nomadland***

Anora

Eight of the nine finished at #1 on the Composite Telluride ratings where I add the ratings from the People and the Professionals together. The only exception was Nomadland which, of course, couldn't be polled as the fest didn't happen due to Covid. I still count it as TFF film Best Picture Oscar winner as the fest went out of its way to premiere the film in Los Angeles as a Drive-In experience.

Seems to me that hitting that #1 Composite spot is kind of telling.

Other films since I started polling that had the #1 Composite rating but did not win Best Picture:

2018- Roma

2021-The Power of the Dog

2022-TAR

2023-Poor Things

Anora became the 12th TFF film to win Best Picture.

Of the 12, six World Premiered at Telluride:

Slumdog Millionaire

The King's Speech

Argo

12 Years a Slave

Moonlight

Nomadland (see above)

Three screened at Venice before Telluride:

Birdman

Spotlight

The Shape of Water

Three screened at Cannes before telluride:

The Artist

Parasite

Anora

Of the five other films that have won Best Picture since Slumdog in 2008, no other festival World Premiered the subsequent Best Picture more than once:

2009: The Hurt Locker (Venice, so it totals five)

2018: Green Book (Toronto)

2021: CODA (Sundance)

2022: Everything, Everywhere, All at Once (South by Southwest)

2023: Oppenheimer (No Festival appearance)

FORGING AHEAD

So Oscar is done for another season and MTFB turns to the sleuthing of films for the TFF #52 lineup. Regular readers have already seen some analysis here based on "Most Anticipated" lists from a couple of outlets since the turn of the year.

Now our attention will turn to two primary areas that can give clues...early Oscar predictions and Cannes speculation. I'll start parsing that with Monday's post.

For those who might remember last year's debacle concerning purchasing tickets...no problem this year. We've got them and lodging locked down. Bring on TFF #52!