MTFB First Oscar Nomination Predictions: Picture and Direction / TFF #53 and the Mill Valley Fest Awards / Critics Choice Documentary Nominees / Trailer for A Long Winter

MTFB FIRST OSCAR PREDICTIONS: PICTURE AND DIRECTION

MTFB starts out its Oscar nomnation predicitions for the 2027 awards with our initial predix for Best Picture and Best Direction.  

BEST PICTURE

1) The Odyessy

2) Wild Horse Nine

3) La Bola Negra

4) Project Hail Mary

5) The Invite

6) Dune: Part Three

7) The Debut

8) Fjord

9) I Play Rocky

10) You Can See Everything

Others: Club Kid, All of a Sudden, Elsinore.

DIRECTION

1) Christopher Nolan/The Odyessy

2) Martin McDonagh/Wild Horse Nine

3) Javier Ambrossi, Javier Calvo/La Bola Negra

4) Olivia Wilde/The Invite

5) Denis Villemeuve/Dune: Part Three

Others: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller/Project Hail Mary, Ryusuke Hamaguchi/All of a Sudden, Christian Mungiu/Fjord.

I'll have the first MTFB predictions for Lead Acting up for Thursday's post.

TFF #53 FILMS AND THE MILL VALLEY FEST AWARDS

TFF #53 films were wellrepresented at the end of the Mill Valley Film Festival with Tenzing and Elsinore taking top honors among awards voted on by MVFF audiences.  Here's the rundown:

Overall Audience Award: Tenzing

Audience Award: Narrative Feature: Elsinore

Acting Awards went to Andrew Scott for Elsinore and Lea Seydoux for Gentle Monster.

Mind the Gap Award for Direction: Marie Kreutzer/Gentle Monster.

You can see the entire list of MVFF winners via Awards Watch linked here.

https://awardswatch.com/tenzing-elsinore-win-49th-mill-valley-film-festival-audience-awards/

CRITICS CHOICE DOCUMENTARY AWARDS NOMINEES INCLUDE LOTS OF TFF #53 FILMS

The Critics Chioce Awards announced nominees for the best of 2026.  Several TFF #53 made the cut as well as three docs from TFF #52.  Here are the Telluride docs earning nominations:

You Can See Everything (5): Best Documentary Feature, Direction, Cinematography, Editing and Score.

Once Upon a Time in Harlem (5): Best Documentary Feature, Best Forst Documentary Feature, Best Historical Doc, Best Archival Doc.

Everest: The Other Side (4): Best Documentary Feature, Best Sports Doc, Cinematography and Editing.

Rehearsals for a Revolution (3): Best Documentary Feature,  Best Archival Doc, Best Narration.

Making Marie Antoinette (1): Best Archival Doc.

Avedon (1): best Bioraphical Doc.

And fro TFF #52:

Man on the Run (2): Best Music Doc, Best Archival Doc.

Everywhere Man (1): Best Music Doc.

Ask E, Jean (1) Best Political Doc.

Ava Dubernay's 14th, which did not play at Telluride, led all nominees with six.

The complete list of nominees is here from The Critics Choice Association

https://www.criticschoice.com/nominations-unveiled-for-the-11th-annual-critics-choice-documentary-awards/

TRAILER FOR ANDREW HAIGH'S A LONG WINTER

From YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpIwPydkWac&t=6s

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Deadline for Rating Films / Trailers and Teasers: Ink, Fatherland and Tenzing / Visitations: Huntsinger and Boyle

DEADLINE FOR RATING FILMS

We're down to it.  The final deadline to rate the films you saw at the 53rd Telluride Film Festival is tomorrow at 5:00pm PDT. 

As a reminder:  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.

TRAILERS AND TEASERS

Via YouTube:

INK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eokBqEFiVHs

FATHERLAND

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52zHLYf25M0

TENZING

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNjFIz5qlUM

VISITATIONS

Gold Derby with Julie Huntisinger on the Super Secret TBA

https://www.goldderby.com/film/2026/telluride-film-festival-julie-huntsinger-post-mortem-interview/

Indiewire with Danny Boyle on Ink

https://www.indiewire.com/features/interviews/danny-boyle-interview-ink-1235215117/

More on Thursday...including the results of The Professionals Telluride Film Poll for TFF #53.

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Counting Down / The People's Telluride #14 / Indiewire Points to Possible Double Oscar Nominees / This and That

COUNTING DOWN

As I post this on Monday morning ( August 24th) the reality of TFF #53 is now down to 10 days.  As with most years, the anticipation is what dominates now.  Most of the detective work is complete.  Oh, sure, they'll be some continued scuttlebutt to pass a long but in the last two weeks before the fest, additional information is hard to come by.  So now, it's about the wait.

The Patterson's will be pulling on Wednesday morning next week.  Some years ago we began to give ourselves a two day window to drive.  Breaking the journey into a two day affair gives us a bit of time to acclimate before the fest cranks up on Friday.  

It's a special year in 2026 as my grandson will be joining us.  He says he's very excited.  

So...the wait... 

THE PEOPLE'S TELLURIDE-14TH EDITION

For the 14th 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.

INDIEWIRE TALKS POSSIBLE DOUBLE OSCAR NOMINEES FOR THIS YEAR

Anne Thompson at Indiewire had a piece up on which actors might have a shot at getting more than one acting Oscar nomination for this year.  The article includes some folks who might be in Telluride next week.  

Here's the rundown from her list of possibilities who probably have films at TFF #53 (listed in the order that Thompson addresses them in the post):

Sandra Huller:  MTFB thinks Huller will have two films at Telluride: Fatherland and Rose.  She also has her roles in Project Hail Mary and Digger that could merit some Oscar conversation.

Penelope Cruz: We think Cruz's La Bola Negra will be at TFF #53.  Cruz also has roles in The Invite and Bunker.

Willem Dafoe: His Tenzing is probable for Telluride.  He also is in Werewolf and Late Fame. 

Other outside shots mentioned by Thompson include Anne Hathaway who could still potentially be at Telluride with Verity and Robert Pattinson if Primetime makes a late run from Venice to T-ride.

The complete rundown is linked here.

https://www.indiewire.com/awards/predictions/oscars-2027-double-nominees-sandra-huller-robert-pattinson-brad-pitt-1235211354/

THIS AND THAT...

***Netflix has made it official that Saturn Returns will not be a 2026 release.  That all but closes the door on any Telluride appearance.

***Tenzing will have a limited theatrical release on Oct. 9th.

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