Checking Distributors: NEON / The End and Venice (and Telluride?)

 CHECKING DISTRIBUTORS: NEON

Distributor NEON is a relative newcomer to the TFF scene but their presence over the last few years has been very noticeable.  Here's the NEON lineup from past TFFs:

2023: Anatomy of a Fall (Oscar winner for Best Original Screenplay and nominated for four others including Best Picture), La Chimera, Perfect Days (Oscar nominated for Best International Feature), The Royal Hotel.

2022: Broker, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Oscar nominated for Best Documentary)

2021: Petite Maman, Spencer (Oscar nominated for Best Actress-Kristen Stewart) , Flee (Oscar nominated for Best Animated Film, Best International Film and Best Documentary), Three Minutes-A Lengthening

2020: Ammonite*** if the fest had happened

2019: Parasite (nominated for six Academy Awards and won four including Best Picture and Director). Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Amazing Grace

2018: Border (Oscar nominated for Best Makeup and Hair), The Biggest Little Farm

2017: None

2016: The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman's Portrait Photography

For 2024 NEON has four films that might fit the bill for T-ride:

Sean Baker's Palme d'Or winning Anora, Mohammad Rasoulof's The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Joshua Oppenheimer's The End (see below) and Duke Johnson's The Actor.  In each case the director has had work at Telluride previously  In the case of both Rasoulof and Oppenheimer, they've had films at Telluride more than once.

Chances for these four films at TFF #51:

Anora 50%

The Seed of the Sacred Fig 50%

The End 45%

The Actor 25%

THE END AND VENICE (AND TELLURIDE?)

Jordan Ruimy at World of Reel wrote on Saturday that he was hearing that Joshua Oppenheimer's The End will not play at Venice but that Telluride was still a real possibility.

Here's what Ruimy says at the start of his report:

"Hearing shaky things about this one. It might have the same fate as Audrey Diwan’s “Emmanuelle” and not show up at either Cannes or Venice … However, Telluride is a real possibility for a world premiere. Just what I’m hearing."

You can read the entire piece at the link above.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

X (TWITTER): @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

BLUE SKY: https://bsky.app/profile/gort2.bsky.social

MTFB's Facebook Page

MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

More Cannes Thoughts / The Cannes-Oscar Scoreboard

MORE CANNES THOUGHTS 

With a week left until the announcement of the lineup for the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, I've added a look at analysis from Deadline as to what may be in and out.

Those films that Deadline mentions that feel like a Telluride possibility include:

Parthenope- Dir: Paolo Sorrentino

Bird- Dir: Andrea Arnold

Conclave- Dir: Edward Berger

Touch- Dir: Baltasar Kormakur

Deadline also mentions Frances ford Coppola's Megalopolis is still possible but uncertain due to Coppola's aiming for an IMAX release.

The piece also includes a listing of a number of films that have had Cannes speculation that likely will not be in France in May including:

Pablo Larrain's Maria

Sean Baker's Anora

Paul Schrader's Oh, Canada

Mike Leigh's Hard Truths

Luca Guadagnino's Queer

Joshua Oppenheimer's The End

Ali Abbasi' The Apprentice

Jacques Audiard's Emilia Perez

And one other surprising Telluride related nugget:  Deadline suggests that Jeff Nichol's The Bikeriders which played at TFF #50 might actually get a slot at Cannes.  Author Andreas Wiseman writes:

"Another movie in the wildcard section of this discussion is Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeriders, which is being discussed by insiders for a potential slot somewhere in the lineup. On paper, this seems an unlikely choice given that it launched at North American festivals and at London last year but Nichols has history with Cannes and the starry movie isn’t released until June. The door isn’t shut on this one."

That would be a wild reversal of the often occurring Cannes to Telluride pipeline.

The complete Deadline post is here.

THE CANNES-OSCAR SCOREBOARD

Beginning with my March 14th post I have been scouring early Oscar predictions and Cannes spec pieces for clues about films which could be potential selections for TFF #51.  I'll have a couple of more Cannes looks on Monday next week prior to the actual announcement from France.  right now, though, these are the films that have shown up on the lists most frequently and how many times they've been mentioned:

Magalopolis (7)

Bird (6)

Conclave (6)

Maria (6)

Parthenope (5)

The End (5)

The Apprentice (5)

Blitz (5)

The Piano Lesson (5)

Queer (5)

Emilia Perez (4)

The Actor (4)

The Nickel Boys (4)

Long Day's Journey Into Night (4)

Anora (3)

Hard Truths (3)

SNL 1975 (2)

Oh, Canada (2)

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

X (TWITTER): @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

BLUE SKY: https://bsky.app/profile/gort2.bsky.social

MTFB's Facebook Page

MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

Checking the Distributors: NEON / Saltburn and TFF? / First Ten Bets in One Week

 CHECKING THE DISTRIBUTORS: NEON

Part Four today of MTFB's rundown of the most frequent distribution companies that have screened films at TFF over the past seven years.  Today's outfit is NEON.

NEON has had one fewer film actually play Telluride than  last Monday's company-A24.  That means that NEON is also very close to averaging two films per festival since 2015.

Here's what we have seen from NEON at TFF in that time frame:

2022: Broker, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Oscar nominated for Best Documentary)

2021: Petite Maman, Spencer (Oscar nominated for Best Actress-Kristen Stewart) , Flee (Oscar nominated for Best Animated Film, Best International Film and Best Documentary), Three Minutes-A Lengthening

2020: Ammonite*** if the fest had happened

2019: Parasite (nominated for six Academy Awards and won four including Best Picture and Director). Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Amazing Grace

2018: Border (Oscar nominated for Best Makeup and Hair), The Biggest Little Farm

2017: None

2016: The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman's Portrait Photography

As we look to NEON's possible participation in TFF #50 we discover that they have a lot of films that could be in play.  Foremost is probably Cannes Palme d'Or winner Anatomy of a Fall.  The Palme winner hasn't played in Telluride since 2019's Parasite (also distributed by NEON) but that absence may actually work to increase the odds for a spot at Telluride this year.

That said, the most likely two films from the NEON stable to make the TFF #50 list in my estimation are Alice Rohrwacher's La Chimera and Kitty Green's The Royal Hotel.  Each of these films start with a 50/50 chance of making the TFF lineup.

Other NEON films that are possibles and where I'd place their chances of  selection for TFF are:

The End/Oppenheimer 30%

The Actor/Johnson 20%

Longlegs/Perkins 20%

And I'd also say that if Raoul Peck's George Orwell (co-produced by Alex Gibney) documentary is ready that it too is a possibility at 20%.  Its currently listed as "filming".

SALTBURN AND TFF

I thought for a good long while that Emerald Fennell's Saltburn might be a real player for a TFF bid.  The writer/director is coming off an Oscar win for Best Original Screenplay for Promising Young Woman (2020) with this much anticipated film.

Well, Jordan Ruimy on Monday reported that Telluride appears to me making a push for the film.  Ruimy wrote:

"Now I’m hearing that TIFF, Telluride and Venice are fighting it out for the world premiere of Fennell’s film. Who will win the “Saltburn” stakes? My money is on Venice. It probably will world premiere on the Lido."

And, of course, a Venice World Premiere doesn't necessarily preclude a following screening at Telluride.

The entire Ruimy article is linked here.

IMDb Pro lists Saltburn's distribution status for the U.S. with Amazon but only labeling it as the distributor for video.

FIRST TEN BETS IN ONE WEEK

One week from today MTFB will put up the first Ten Bets for TFF #50.  Past attempts at the first Ten Bets have shown that and average of five of the ten will actually show up and play at TFF.  Then as the summer continues I will adjust the Ten Bets each week on Thursday to reflect the growing body of evidence pointing to which films we'll be offered over Labor Day weekend.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

TWITTER @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

MTFB's Facebook Page

MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays