Ten Bets (Plus) #9 for TFF #52 / New York Spotlight Clues, Confusions and Confirmations / Marty Supreme Drama / First Photo of Hamnet

TEN BETS (PLUS) #9 FOR TFF #52

New info earlier this week from announcements coming from the New York Film Fest and the Toronto International Film Festival inform this week's Ten Bets.  New York's Spotlight section announcements seem to confirm that La Grazia and Pillion are headed to Telluride.  

What will NOT be playing Telluride as it will World Premiere at New York id the return of Daniel Day-Lewis to film acting in Anemone.

Confusion was created when New York also listed Blue Moon and A Private Life as "New York" premieres as opposed to a "U.S." premiere designation.  Much like Landmarks (Nuestra Tierra) last week, that designation puts those film at odds with their "North American" premiere designations from TIFF.  Both designations can't be true.  Consequently I'll be putting both A Private Life as well as Blue Moon back on the list.

Toronto announced half a dozen new films and dropped their schedule on Tuesday.  The six films didn't reveal any Telluride possibilities but did confirm that No Other Choice and The Wizard of the Kremlin are not T-ride players. 

By way of recap, here's last week's Ten Bets (Plus):

1) Hamnet/Zhao

2) It Was Just an Accident/Panahi

3) Sentimental Value/Trier

4) The 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

Other possibilities: Resurrection, Nuestra Tierra, The Young Mother's Home, The Drama, Pillion, Die My Love, Anemone, At the Sea, A Magnificent Life, Mother Mary, Pressure, The American Revolution, Ghost Elephants, Bucking Fastard, La Grazia, Megadoc, Train Dreams.

And this week's goes like this:

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.

NEW YORK SPOTLIGHT CLUES AND CONFUSIONS 

Last Tuesday the New York Film Festival revealed their Spotlight section films and those reveals and their premiere designations provide us Telluride watchers with some clues.

First, the bad news... the Daniel Day-Lewis coming-out-of-acting-retirement film Anemone was announced as a NYFF World premiere...meaning no Telluride.

Some good news... from their designations as New York premieres it looks like Pillion and La Grazia are almost certainly Telluride bound.  La Grazia is opening Venice so has time to get to Telluride.

Some confusion:  Blue Moon and A Private Life were also listed as New York premieres which is a curious designation as those two films were announced by Toronto as Nort American premieres.  Both things cannot be true.  If the Toronto designation is correct then no Telluride for either film.  If the New York designation is trye that would signify a Telluride play as NYFF would almost assuredly have designated them as U.S. premieres if they were not playing Telluride.  That's illustrated by the U.S. premiere designation for Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk.  It'll be interesting to see how this plays out.  For now, I'm back to cautious optimism about both films for Labor Day.

Some confirmations... Nouvelle Vague announced as a NY preem confirms for Telluride.

A couple of other notes...documentaries about Martin Scorsese and Anne Meara and Jerry Stiller are labelled World premieres so no Telluride for either.  I thought the Scorsese doc was a real possibility.

Here is the complete announcement from the New York Fest.

MARTY SUPREME DRAMA

Early in the week there was quite a bit of scuttlebutt that Josh Safdie's Marty Supreme might be showing up at a "fall fest" after all.  There was a good deal of speculation about what fest that might be.  With Toronto and New York purportedly done announcing films the likely culprits would be Telluride, New York or AFI.

Now, I was really hoping that might mean a landing at TFF #52 but replying to a query on X I expressed that it was my belief that the odds were 3-1 in New York's favor.  That estimate seems to have been born out.  According to World of Reel on Wednesday, if it is to happen it will be at NYFF.

FIRST PHOTO FROM HAMNET

We're 99% sure Chloe Zhao's Hamnet will bow at TFF #52.  Tuesday we got our first official image from the film that stars Paul Mescal and Jesse Buckley.  Here that is:

The IMDb description for Hamnet:

The story of Agnes - the wife of William Shakespeare - as she struggles to come to terms with the loss of her only son, Hamnet. A human and heart-stopping story as the backdrop to the creation of Shakespeare's most famous play, Hamlet.

Hamnet is set for a limited opening on Nov. 27th.

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Ten (Plus) Bets #9 / Cryptic Message from Kris Tapley / Fantastic Fest Announces / There Goes Maestro / The People's Telluride Returns

 TEN (PLUS) BETS #9

We're in the home stretch now with mere days left before TFF #50 takes off.  I'll have the 10th installment of 2023's Ten Bets a week from today and the FINAL BETS for this year will be published on Monday, August 28th.  And, of course, I'll post the announced list of films and other information on Wednesday August 30th.

Here's reminder of where we were with last week's Ten (Plus) Bets:

1) The Holdovers

2) Nyad

3) The Zone of Interest

4) Anatomy of a Fall

5) Saltburn

6) Poor Things

7) The Royal Hotel

8) Rustin

9) Wildcat

10) Fingernails

11) All of Us Strangers (previously titled Strangers)

12) The Bikeriders

13) Fallen Leaves

14) Perfect Days

15) The Settlers

Other possibilities: El Conde, The Pigeon Tunnel, Without Blood, The Promised Land, The End, The American Buffalo, The Teachers' Lounge, The Pot-au-Feu, Freud's Last Session, About Dry Grasses, Janet Planet, Orlando, My Political Biography, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt.

And here is the latest Ten (Plus) Bets:

1) The Holdovers

2) Nyad

3) The Zone of Interest

4) Anatomy of a Fall

5) Saltburn

6) Poor Things

7) The Royal Hotel

8) Rustin

9) Wildcat

10) Fingernails

11) All of Us Strangers 

12) The Bikeriders

13) Fallen Leaves

14) Perfect Days

15) El Conde

16) Janet Planet

17) The Promised Land

18) Orlando, My Political Biography

19) The Pigeon Tunnel

20) Without Blood

Other possibilities: Daddio, They Shot the Piano Player, The Settlers, The End, The American Buffalo, The Pot-au-Feu, Freud's Last Session, About Dry Grasses, La Chimera, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, Tuesday and All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt.

CRYPTIC MESSAGE FROM KRIS TAPLEY

Yesterday Kris Tapley posted on X (used to Twitter? Still is Twitter?):

Now, what does that mean?

Could it portend Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon landing at Telluride?

Will Rustin's World Premiere at Telluride draw out the founders of the production company behind the film?  That's Higher Ground Productions which was founded by a couple named Obama.

Or is it something else entirely?

Tapley has been around the biz for awhile and a Telluride attendee for a good long time as well.  He clearly knows something is in the wind.  That doesn't necessarily mean that Telluride would be included in whatever he's teasing but there's a chance.

FANTASTIC FEST ANNOUNCES

Fantastic Fest, the primarily genre film festival based in Austin Texas announced its lineup on Tuesday.  The news from FF each year usually doesn't provide a ton of Telluride intelligence but almost always provides a little and this year's announcement met that tradition.

First, Yorgos Lanthimos' Poor Things was not announced and, unless there is some late surprise addition, that all but assures that the film will play at TFF #50.

Additionally, Michel Gondry's The Book of Solutions which I had semi-considered as a possible choice for Telluride will not be.  FF announced it as a North American premiere taking it off the table for TFF.

To look for films from Fantastic Fest's list you want to pay attention to films that are listed as "Texas" premieres.  I found 16 of those on Tuesday and ran them down.  It appears that Gareth Edwards the Creator might be a T-ride possibility as it is listed as a Texas premiere and has not screened anywhere up to this point.

The film from 20th Century Studios/New Regency/Disney is described at IMDb as:

"...a post-apocalyptic thriller involving a future impacted by a war between humans and AI."

Meanwhile, another film that meets the Texas premiere and hasn't played anywhere else in the U.S. is Wonsuk Lee's Killing romance.  It's FF profile describes it:

"A fallen actress falls in love with a man, but when he turns out to be a monster, her next-door überfan helps her escape the only way they know how — by trying to kill him".

Honestly, I have a little difficulty believing that either of these films are necessarily Telluride bound but the premiere status and available data suggest otherwise.

Here's the link to the Fantastic Fest lineup.

THERE GOES MAESTRO

The New York Film Festival announced yesterday that Bradley Cooper's Maestro will be a North American premiere as its Spotlight Gala.  That removes it, at last, off the Telluride possibles list.  I was still holding out a slight hope that it might show up at Telluride since it was scheduled to bow in Venice on Saturday, Sept. 2nd.  I know that would cut it close but also thought since Cooper has said that he will not go to Venice for that premiere that perhaps it might still be at TFF #50.

But noop.

THE PEOPLE'S TELLURIDE RETURNS

For the 11th non-consecutive 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.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

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