Telluride and Oscar Part Five: Best Supporting Actress / The Woman Not in Window This Year / The Jesus Rolls Into 2020 / More on Milos Stehlik

It's Thursday, July 11, 2020...we should know the lineup for TFF #46 seven weeks from today!



TELLURIDE AND OSCAR PART FIVE: BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

I'm continuing my eight part series about the relationship between the Telluride Film Festival in the last 14 years (beginning with 2005-the year before I first attended the fest) and The Oscars.  Today's subject is Best Supporting Actress.

Here are the women nominated for that honor from films that played The SHOW.  Winners are indicated with ***.


2005: Michelle Williams/Brokeback Mountain, Catherine Keener/Capote
2006: Rinko Kikuchi/Babel, Adriana Barazza/Babel
2007: Cate Blanchett/I'm Not There
2008: Taraji P. Henson/The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
2009: Anna Kendrick/Up in the Air, Vera Farmiga/Up in the Air
2010: Helena Bonham Carter/The King's Speech
2011: Berenice Bejo/The Artist, Janet McTeer/Albert Nobbs
2012: No nominees
2013: Lupita N'yongo/12 Years a Slave***, June Squibb/Nebraska

Emma Stone-Oscar nominee for Birdman

2014: Emma Stone/Birdman, Laura Dern/Wild, Keira Knightley/The Imitation Game
2015: Rachel McAdams/Spotlight, Rooney Mara/Carol, Kate Winslet/Steve Jobs
2016: Naomie Harris/Moonlight, Michelle Williams/Manchester by the Sea
2017: Laurie Metcalf/Lady Bird, Octavia Spencer/The Shape of Water
2018: Emma Stone/The Favourite, Rachel Weisz/The Favourite, Marina de Tavira/Roma

Notes: An astounding 26 nominations in this category in the past 14 years but remarkably only a single win for Lupita N'yongo for 12 Years a Slave.

Both Michelle Williams and Emma Stone have been nominated twice in the category for TFF film performances.  Additionally, Stone was nominated and won Best Actress for La La Land.  TFF films account for all three of Stone nominations.

Williams has two other nominations for Best Actress for Blue Valentine and My Week with Marilyn.

Laura Dern's two Oscar nominations have both come via TFF films.  One in this category in 2014 for Wild.  The other was for Best Actress in 1991 for her performance in Rambling Rose.

TFF has seen three years in which three women were nominated 2014, 2015 and 2018.

To the best of my ability, I believe Ann Sothern was the first woman nominated for Supporting Actress for a T-ride film for 1987's The Whales of August.

Next Tuesday: Part Six: Supporting Actors.



THE WOMAN NOT IN THE WINDOW THIS YEAR

Amy Adams working on the film The Woman in the Window (via The Daily Mail)

Reports appeared yesterday that the Disney folks have moved Joe Wright's The Woman in the Window off its original Oct. 4th date.

That, as you might surmise, moves the film off the TFF #46 watch list.

The Hollywood Reporter's Rebecca Keegan noted Tuesday that the film has been pulled from the schedule for re-shoots after test screenings revealed that audiences were confused.  THR reports that the re-shoots re set to occur next month after star Amy Adams finishes her work on the Ron Howard project Hillbilly Elegy (already on my radar for TFF #47).

The film also features Oscars winner Gary Oldman and Julianne Moore.

Disney acquired the film earlier this year as apart of its takeover of 20th Century Fox and its off-shoots including Fox 2000 which was the home for The Woman in the Window.

Here's the complete story from The Hollywood Reporter.


THE JESUS ROLLS INTO 2020

John Turturro's semi-sequel to The Big Lebowski-which had been titled Going Places but has been re-christened now as The Jesus Rolls- has an announced release target.  Multiple sources put the film into an early 2020 release window.  No specific date has been announced, however.

Screen Media has acquired the film for distribution.

I had been watching for the news of distribution acquisition and dating and admittedly had it on my TFF radar largely because of the connection of the film to The Coen Brothers' Big Lebowski.

I'm of a mind that the 2020 date probably means that the film is probably out as a TFF consideration.

For fuller details check below for reports from:

Variety

Indiewire 

Deadline


MORE ON MILOS STEHLIK (AND A LITTLE ABOUT BEN BARENHOLTZ)

Continued memorials for Milos Stehlik, 1997 TFF Silver Medallion winner and member of the TFF Board of Governors (among many, many other titles and accolades).  Stehlik passed away last Saturday.

Reel Chicago

WBEZ.org

The Criterion Collection (by David Hudson)  It should be noted that this piece from The Criterion Collection website is for both Stehlik as well as Ben Barenholtz.  Barenholtz was a producer, distributor and programmer of note and I am told was instrumental in the early careers of David Lynch, The Coen Brothers and Darren Aronofsky.  He was an early and frequent attendee at Telluride.

Barenholtz died on June 27th at the age of 83.  His New York Times obituary is linked here.



Thanks for reading.  More tomorrow including a new Ten Bets.

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The Distributors 2019: Fox Searchlight / Return of The Jesus? / Ad Astra T.V. Spot

Good Thursday everybody!

THE DISTRIBUTORS 2019: FOX SEARCHLIGHT

Yesterday we began our look at film distributors as a way of setting the table for the expectations of films that could end up selected for a spot in the TFF #46 lineup this year by looking at Sony Pictures Classics.  As I mentioned yesterday, over the last decade and a half, SPC has had the most consistent relationship with TFF but the distribution group that may have had the most successful run at TFF over that time span has been Fox Searchlight.

The specialty film arm of 20th Century Fox has had an incredible run over the past several years:

2018: The Favourite, Can You Ever Forgive Ne?, The Old Man and the Gun (3)
2017: The Shape of Water (Best Picture Oscar), Battle of the Sexes (2)
2016: No Show
2015: He Named Me Malala (1)
2014: Birdman (Best Picture), Wild (2)
2013: 12 Years a Slave (Best Picture) (1)
2012: No Show
2011: Shame, The Descendants (2)
2010: Never Let Me Go, 127 Hours, Black Swan (3)
2009: No Show
2008: Slumdog Millionaire (Best Picture) (1)
2007: Juno, The Savages (2)
2006: The Last King of Scotland, The Namesake (2)
2005: Bee Season (1)
2004: Kinsey (1)

That's right.  Four Best Picture winners from Fox Searchlight since 2008's win for Slumdog Millionaire; the others being 12 Years a Slave (2013), Birdman (2015) and The Shape of Water (2017).

Over the year's included above Fox Searchlight films that played T-ride have earned a total of 80 Oscar nominations.  I addition to the above listed Best Picture winners, Fox Searchlight has also screened five other films that were nominated for Best Picture at Telluride: The Favourite, The Descendants, 127 Hours, Black Swan and Juno.

Last year, here's how I assessed the Searchlight slates chances of playing TFF:

The Old Man and the Gun 50%
The Favourite 45%
Wendy 30%
Can You Ever Forgive Me?  25%

Ultimately, Benh Zeitlin's Wendy was not released.

Finally, as you can see from above, FS doesn't always play TFF.  2009, 2012 and 2016 were all years in which FS did not have a film screen at The SHOW.  Over the 15 years covered here, FS has screened 21 films for an average of 1.4 films per year.

All of that acts as your background to contemplate the possibilities for Fox Searchlight films that might make an appearance over Labor Day weekend.  These are the seven films that I'm aware of from them that could be in the conversation for a TFF berth:

Malick's A Hidden Life
Cooper's Antlers
Zhao's Nomadland
Hawley's Lucy in the Sky
Zeitlin's Wendy (again)
Faxon and Rash's Downhill
Waititi's Jojo Rabbot

Any and all of them are possible for TFF, although none seem to be a dead certainty at this point.  Malick's probably the most "prestige" film among the group but its Cannes reception was modest...decent critical response but no love from the Cannes Palme jury.  Additionally, the fact that a Malick-directed film has never played T-ride.

On the other hand, Bill Pohlad is listed as one of several Executive Producers for the film and Pohlad has a history with TFF.  He was a producer or executive producer on 12 Years a Slave, Wild, Into the Wild, Fur and Brokeback Mountain all of which played Telluride so that adds some weight to the notion that A Hidden Life might be included in the 2019 edition of The SHOW.

Pohlad has a strong history with Malick as well.  In addition to his credit on A Hidden Life, Pohlad is also listed among the producers or acknowledged with thanks for The Tree of Life, Voyage of Time, Knight of Cups and To the Wonder.

Scott Cooper has certainly had a good Telluride resume over his brief career with both Black Mass and Hostiles making appearances.  That kind of frequency of invitation would normally make me think that his latest film is very likely to make the grade.  But since neither of those films made many waves financially, critically or in the awards season I wonder if Antlers gets the invite.

Honestly, the best shot might be Chloe Zhao's Nomadland starring two time Oscar winner Frances McDormand.  Zhao's last film, The Rider, played TFF in 2017 and received terrific critical response.  The film follows the life of a woman who is struggling to make it through America's Great Recession.  To me, it sets up as the kind of film that Telluride programmers would be very, very fond of.

Downhill is the remake of Reuben Ostlund's Force Majuere.

Personally, I'd love to see either Lucy in the Sky and/or Jojo Rabbit make it to Telluride.

Lucy in the Sky features Natalie Portman as a female astronaut who has emotional issues upon her return to earth.  Jojo Rabbit seems wild with writer, director, actor Taika Waititi creating an "anti-hate satire" with Waititi playing Adolf Hitler.  Sam Rockwell and Scarlett Johansson also star.

And as to the Zeitlin...still may not be ready and, honestly, I wasn't all that enamored of his Beasts of the Southern Wild.

My estimate of chances:

Nomadland 50%
Lucy in the Sky 40%
A Hidden life 40%
Antlers 35%
Jojo Rabbit 35%
Wendy 25%
Downhill 20%

I'm guessing Fox Searchlight lands two films at Telluride this year.

RETURN OF THE JESUS?

John Turturro as Jesus Quintana in The Big Lebowski (via Indiewire)

John Turturro has made a lot of films playing a lot of characters.  He's done that several times for the Coen Brothers and perhaps none more memorably than Jesus Quintana, the "pederast" in The Big Lebowski.

Turturro has long wanted to return to that character and, in fact, has in a film he developed, wrote, directed (with the blessing of but no participation from the Coens) and will star in.  The film is titled Going Places.

Turturro was recently interviewed by The Independent in England mostly owing to his role in Sebastian Lelio English language remake of his own film-Gloria.  However, in the course of that interview, Turturro spends some time talking about Jesus and Going Places.

Indiewire's Zack Sharf picked up there and expanded on the Going Places story in a piece posted on Monday which includes the assertion that Going Places still has no announced release plans "but at this point a fall film festival debut seems likely."

So, despite the lack of a release date and no announced distributor, I'm putting the film on my TFF #46 watch list...and my wish list as well.

The original Independent interview is linked here.

The Indiewire story is linked here.


AD ASTRA T.V. SPOT


Last week we had the debut of the first trailer for James Gray's Ad Astra starring Brad Pitt and Tommy Lee Jones.

This week we have an edited down version of it that has appeared as a television commercial.  Here that is from YouTube:

Ad Astra is one of the most highly anticipated titles this fall and is set to open on Sept. 20th.


Thursday is in the books.  More from MTFB tomorrow including my "If I Had To" segment.


EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com

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Distribution: The Weinstein Company/Fassbender Takes on The Dude/First International Trailer for "The Club"

It's Wednesday people...getting marginally closer to Labor Day weekend.


We continue our look at film distributors with Telluride track records...



DISTRIBUTION: FREQUENT DISTRIBS AT TELLURIDE: THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY

Tracking the Weinsteins as distributors at Telluride for the past decade shows us that they've been a part of The SHOW for a good long while.  Here's their Telluride slate as Miramax or The Weinstein Company or Radius-TWC since 2006:


2006: Venus
2007: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, My Enemy's Enemy, I'm Not There
2008: Happy-Go-Lucky
2009: The Road
2010: The King's Speech
2011: The Artist, Butter
2012: The Sapphires  (also was represented during the Marion Cotillard tribute by James Gray and 5 min. of The Immigrant)
2013: The Unknown Known, Salinger, Tracks
2014: The Imitation Game", "Escobar: Paradise Lost"

15 films in nine years.  That's an average of 1.7 films per year with at least one film every year of the nine.  Also, they had a great back-to-back Telluride run in 2010 and 2011 with ultimate Oscar Best Picture winners "The King's Speech" and "The Artist" playing in Telluride.  Last year's "The Imitation Game" was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won for Graham Moore's adapted screenplay.

So, what might we see from TWC in eight weeks time?

They have Todd Haynes "Carol" which wowed at Cannes as well as Justin Kurzel's "Macbeth" which also played in competition at Cannes and received excellent notices for stars Marion Cotillard and Michael Fassbender.  Additionally, Quentin Tarantino's "The Hateful Eight", "John Wells' "Adam Jones".

Radius-TWC doesn't currently list any project on IMDb that would be Telluride ready.

So where does that leave us?

I think "Carol" is a pretty solid guess for Telluride.  "Macbeth" is also a real possibility.  Everything is else is less so.  "Hateful" is not likely to be ready.  "Adam Jones" doesn't seem, to me anyway, to have the gravitas for T-ride.

Chances with current "Ten Bets" status listed in parenthesis where applicable:

"Carol" 75% (#3)
"Macbeth" 55%
"The Hateful Eight" 25%
"Adam Jones" 25%

Tomorrow a look at Sundance Selects/IFC FIlms.


FASSBENDER TAKES ON THE DUDE

For a while now, Telluride favorite Jason Reitman has staged live reads of various films.  He's mostly done it in L.A. but has occasionally ventured to other places.  In the past few days we have learned that he will stage a live read of the Coen Brothers' "The Big Lebowski" in Montreal for a comedy festival there on July 24th.

And we know now who will be reading "the Dude", none other than Oscar nominee Michael Fassbender.  Patton Oswalt has also been announced as Walter Sobchak, the John Goodman role with other roles/actors to be announced.

Also, we learned via The Playlist (story below) that Fassbender was up for and auditioned for the title role in the Coen's 2013 Telluride-selected "Inside Llewyn Davis".  That would have been interesting, though, as bog a fan as I am of Fassbender's work, and I am a huge fan, I can't imagine the role in any other hands but those of Oscar Isaac.


http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/michael-fassbender-will-play-the-dude-in-jason-reitmans-live-read-of-the-big-lebowski-20150707

FIRST INTERNATIONAL TRAILER FOR "THE CLUB"

Pablo Larrain's "The Club" won the Silver Bear at Berlin in February and that combined with Larrain's play at Telluride in 2012 with "No" (he was also a producer for 2013's "Gloria") makes me think we should consider it as a potential lineup choice for TFF #42.

Additionally, U.S. distribution is in the hands of Music Box Films which has a small but notable Telluride resume including Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film "Ida" and "Fifi Howls from Happiness" in 2013 and "The Story of Film" in 2011.

"The Club" deals with secrets in the Catholic Church in South America.

The Playlist covered the release of the film's international trailer yesterday and the story and the trailer are here:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/watch-first-international-trailer-for-pablo-larrains-berlin-film-festival-award-winning-the-club-20150707


That's all for today...more on Thursday...

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Jason Reitman News/Moneyball/Oscar Calculations and BIG LEBOWSKI:THE MUSICAL

Jason Reitman's next project: "Labor Day."  Will we see it Labor Day 2012?

Always looking ahead is where we start today...

JASON REITMAN'S NEXT PROJECT AFTER "YOUNG ADULT"

I'm obviously including Jason Reitman's "Young Adult" on the 2011 Tellruride Film Festival "probable" list.  After all, he's had such great success with "Juno" (4 Oscar noms including Picture and Director, Diablo Cody wins Original Screenplay, makes a bazillion dollars) and "Up in the Air" (6 Oscar Noms including Picture, Actor, Original Screenplay and Director) at TFF that I'd be goofy not to think it'll play this fall (though I'm not as sure of that as you might think).  Now, The Playlist is reporting this morning that Reitman's next project is set.  Entitled "Labor Day," The Playlist says that Josh Brolin and Kate Winslet are attached to star in the adaptation of the book by Joyce Maynard.  The link for The Playlist story is here:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/kate_winslet_josh_brolin_join_jason_reitmans_labor_day/
And, as I'm sure you've guessed...put it on our Telluride 2012 speculation list.

MORE MONEYBALL SCUTTLEBUTT
Bennett Miller's "Moneyball" has been on my radar as a Telluride film possibility for some time and with the peak at it via Entertainment Tonight that has happened this week, interest elsewhere has been heightened.  Jeffrey Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere is the latest to comment.  His take is here:
http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2011/06/brad_and_jonah.php?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_term=Daily/Hourly+Hollywood+Meditation&utm_content=Opinion,+wisdom,+tin+foil,+attitude


OSCAR CLEARINGHOUSE...THE INCREDIBLY EARLY EDITION
Over this past week, I've tumbled across a couple of Oscar Best Picture predictions since we're about half way through the year.  I've started the process of compilation and put it together, because I'm a little crazy?  Herewith your early, early line on the Best Picture race with information drawn from Incontention.com, Scott Feinberg, Film Misery and The Envelope at the LA Times (and roughly using each sources top 20 or so and what I think are Telluride possibles in CAPS AND BOLD):

ON ALL FOUR LISTS: 9 films..."THE DESCENDANTS," "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," "Hugo Cabret," "THE IDES OF MARCH," "THE IRON LADY," "J. Edgar," "The Tree of Life," "War Horse," "YOUNG ADULT."

ON THREE OF THE LISTS: "CARNAGE," "MONEYBALL," "THE ARTIST," "EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE."

ON TWO OF THE LISTS: "Super 8," "We Bought a Zoo," Contagion," "Like Crazy," "TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY," " THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL."

ONE VOTE WONDERS: "50/50," "Harry Potter/Deathly Hallows #2," "CORIOLANUS," "DRIVE," "The Help," "Martha Marcy May Marlene," "Midnight in Paris," "One Day," "Take Shelter," and "THE WETTEST COUNTY IN THE WORLD."

And with yesterday's announcement from the Academy peeps, who knows how many Best Picture nominations we will ultimately see (somewhere between 5 and 1o under the new rules).

TODAY'S BROADWAY MUSICAL BASED ON A COEN BROTHERS FILM..."THE BIG LEBOWSKI: THE MUSICAL"
Hit songs will include: "Gutterball of Love," "Not on the Rug, Man," "I'm the Dude, Duder, Duderino," "You Want a Toe, I Can Get You a Toe," "Not on the Shabbos," and "Nihilists on Parade!"