You Never Know / The Known Unknowns / New Teaser for Don't Look Up

 YOU NEVER KNOW

There was another one of those social media claims about a film going to Telluride this week.  That kind of thing happens every now and then.  

A few weeks back there was a buzz that House of Gucci's IMDb page listed a number of fall film fests as places that the film would play including Telluride, Venice, Toronto and New York.  How'd that pan out?  The IMDb page was changed very quickly to show no film fest dates only its expected Nov. 24th release date.  And, of course, we know from the Venice announcement that the film won't be ready to screen there which also crossed it off the Telluride list.

This week the story came from a Tweet on Twitter that claimed that Mike Mills' C'mon, C'mon starring Joaquin Phoenix would play Telluride.  The Tweet didn't stay up long but it was long enough to cause a stir in the Twitterverse.

So does C'mon C'mon make the TFF #48 list?  

World of Reel's Jordan Ruimy has it on his Telluride list from his July 21st post.

THE KNOWN UNKNOWNS

Being the Ricardos/Sorkin (Amazon-No date)

Cyrano/Wright (MGM/United Artists-12/25)

Don't Look Up/McKay (Netflix-No date)

Eternals/Zhao (Disney-11/5)

A Journal for Jordan/Washington (Sony-12/22)

King Richard/Green (Warners-11/9)

The Last Duel/Scott (Disney/20th Century-10/15)

Soggy Bottom (Untitled PTA Project)/Anderson (MGM-11-26)

tick, tick...BOOM/Miranda (Netflix-Undated)

West Side Story/Spielberg (Disney/20th Century-12-10)

Some of these are likely not to play any fest whatsoever or, if they do, might point to New York or The AFI film fests:

Being the Ricardos, Don't Look Up, Eternals (though if any Disney/Marvel joint would ever play Telluride this is probably the one due to its director: Chloe Zhao), A Journal for Jordan, Soggy Bottom, West Side Story.

There has been quite a bit of speculation that Sorkin's Being the Ricardos might move to 2022 but Jason Osiason (Fantastic Film Fans) tweeted over the weekend that:

So, maybe Lucy and Desi still show up at some fest before the end of the year.

Of the remaining four: Cyrano, King Richard, The Last Duel and tick, tick...BOOM, I could still see the possibility that they could all still be part of a Telluride, Toronto or New York lineup.

NEW TEASER FOR DON'T LOOK UP

Don't Look Up is among the lengthy list of Netflix films that could end upon Telluride's list when it's announced in early September.  I have my doubts because we've nit seen an Adam McKay (Vice, The Big Short) title at the fest previously.  However, there have been others who have suggested that it could end up in Telluride...so, as the first section heading says above...you never know.

Netflix dropped a new teaser for the film over the weekend.  Here it is from YouYube:

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Venice Lineup Revealed / Official Teaser for Almodovars's Madres Paralelas / Charlatan Trailer Released

Late to the starting line today...

VENICE LINEUP REVEALED

The Venice Film Festival announced its 2021 lineup this morning.  Here's the list via Indiewire:

Opening Night

“Parallel Mothers,” Pedro Almodóvar (in competition)

Competition/Venezia 78

“Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon,” Ana Lily Amirpour

“Un Autre Monde,” Stephanie Brize

“The Power of the Dog,” Jane Campion

“America Latina,” Damiano D’Innocenzo and Fabio D’Innocenzo

“L’Evenement,” Audrey Diwan

“Official Competition,” Gaston Duprat and Mariana Cohn

“Il Buco,” Michelangelo Frammartino

“Sundown,” Michel Franco

“Illusions Perdues,” Xavier Giannoli

“The Lost Daughter,” Maggie Gyllenhaal

“Spencer,” Pablo Larrain

“Freaks Out,” Gabrielle Mainetti

“Qui Rido Io,” Mario Martone

“On the Job: The Missing 8,” Erik Matti

“Leave No Traces,” Jan P. Matuszynski

“Captain Volkonogov Escaped,” Natasha Merkulova and Aleksey Chupov

“The Card Counter,” Paul Schrader

“The Hand of God,” Paolo Sorrentino

“Reflection,” Valentyn Vasyanovych

“La Caja,” Lorenzo Vigas

Out of Competition (Fiction)

“Il Bambino Nascosto,” Roberto Ando (closing film of the festival)

“Les Choses Humaines,” Yvan Attal

“Ariaferma,” Leonardo di Costanzo

“Halloween Kills,” David Gordon Green

“La Scoula Cattolica,” Stefano Mordini

“Old Hnery,” Potsy Ponciroli

“The Last Duel,” Ridley Scott

“Dune,” Denis Villeneuve

“Last Night in Soho,” Edgar Wright

“Scenes From a Marriage” (Episodes 1-5), Hagai Levi

Out of Competition (Non Fiction)

“Life of Crime 1984-2020,” Jon Alpert

“Tranchees,” Loup Bureau

“Viaggio Nel Crepuscolo,” Augusto Contento

“Republic of Silence,” Diana el Jeiroudi

“Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song,” Daniel Geller and Dayna Goldfine

“Deandre#Deandre Storia Di Un Impiegato,” Roberta Lena

“Django and Django,” Luca Rea

“Ezio Bosso. Le Cose Che Restano,” Giorgio Verdelli

Out of Competition (Special Screenings)

“Le 7 Giornate di Bergamo,” Simona Ventura

“Il Cinema Al Tempo del Covid,” Andrea Segre

Out of Competition (Short Films)

“Plastic Semiotic,” Radu Jude

“The Night,” Tsai Ming-Liang

“Sad Film,” Vasili (Pseudonym)

Horizons/Orizzonti

“Les Promesses,” Thomas Kruithof

“Atlantide,” Yuri Ancarani

“Miracle,” Bogdan George Apetri

“Pilgrims,” Laurynas Bareisa

“Il Paradiso Del Pavone,” Laura Bispuri

“The Falls,” Chung Mong-Hong

“El Hoyo en la Cerca,” Joaquin Del Paso

“Amira,” Mohamed Diab

“A Plein Temps,” Eric Gravel

“107 Mothers,” Peter Kerekes

“Vera Dreams of the Sea,” Kaltrina Krasniqi

“White Building,” Kavich Neang

“Anatomy of Time,” Jakrawal Nilthamrong

“El Otro Tom,” Rodrigo Pla and Laura Santullo

“El Gran Movimiento,” Kiro Russo

“Once Upon a Time in Calcutta,” Aditya Vikram Sengupta

“Rhino,” Oleg Sentsov

“True Things,” Harry Wootliff

“Inu-Oh,” Yuasa Masaaki

Horizons/Orizzonti Extra

“Land of Dreams,” Sherin Neshat and Shoja Azari

“Costa Brava,” Mounia Akl

“Mama, I’m Home,” Vladimir Bitokov

“Ma Nuit,” Antoinette Boulat

“La Ragazza Ha Volato,” Wilma Labate

“7 Prisoners,” Alexandre Moratto

“The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic,” Teemu Nikki

“La Macchina Delle Immagini di Alfredo C.,” Roland Sejko

Your best possible Telluride players from this include:

Madres Paralelas/Almodovar

The Power of the Dog/Campion

The Card Counter/Schrader

Spencer/Larrain

The Hand of God/Sorrentino

Dune/Villeneuve

The Last Duel/Scott

The next nugget of info from Venice that will aid us will be when they release the screening schedule.  We already know that Almodovar's Madres Paralelas opens the fest on Sept. 1 and believe that Dune will screen Sept. 3rd.  For a film to make the trans-Atlantic jump from Venice to T-ride, realistically the last date it could play Venice and make it to Telluride is that Sept. 3rd date.  Maybe Sept. 4th. but that'd be a real stretch.

Here's the link to the complete Indiewire post re: Venice.

OFFICAL TRAILER FOR ALMODOVAR'S MADRES PARALELAS 

With the announcement this morning of the lineup for the Venice Fest also came the release of a teaser trailer for that Fest's opening night film: Pedro Almodovar's Madres Paraleas.  I think it snads a good chance to play at TFF #48.

Here's the teaser from YouTube:

CHARLATAN TRIALER RELEASED

Agnieszka Holland's Charlatan was a choice for last year's cancelled TFF #47.  The film officially released in the U.S, over this past weekend.

Here's the trailer for it from YouTube:

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Welp...Not Again / Ten Bets #5 for TFF #48 / Looks at Potentials Including New Dune Trailer / Venice Is Coming / Good News/Bad News

 WELP...NOT AGAIN.

TFF has denied my application to be an accredited journalist again this year.  Here's the wording of  the denial email:

"We unfortunately unable to offer you media accreditation for the 2021 Telluride Film Festival".

It's been exactly the same language for three years running.  They last accredited me in 2018.

Here's a question- anyone else reading this been denied or know of someone who has been denied?

Never a reason.  Just "unfortunately unable".  And believe me, I've asked for a rationale.  

I've been fairly sure that it really comes down to a couple of posts that specifically upset TFF leadership.  So, I've tried to be more sensitive to how what I write might be viewed by TFF leadership.  Tried very hard after a couple of things that the fest let me know that they were not fond of.  Over the last year or so, I have sat on a couple of stories that I felt that the fest would rather not be out of the bag until they were ready.  Just a two-three weeks back, I became aware of a situation wherein a film's IMDb listings had it playing at Telluride.  Rather than report that, I sent a heads up email to the festival.  Those efforts seem to have cut zero ice.

 And then there's the general acrimony about what the central organizing principle of this space has been for 13 years.  

But, you know, lots of other outlets speculate about possible Telluride selections.  Of recent vintage I would point to Pete Hammond's June 18th Deadline post concerning TFF's annual L.A,. party.  In that piece Hammond mentions no less than half a dozen films by name and hints at another four from Netflix.  Yet, I have little doubt that Mr. Hammond and Deadline will receive accreditation and I wonder if Telluride emailed him a note of approbation like they've emailed me in the past.

Same with Jeff Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere yesterday (citing the Jordan Ruimy/World of Reel piece you'll see below, in which he rattles off more than a dozen titles of potential T-ride titles.

"But, Mike, maybe it's just because MTFB has such a small readership?"  I hear you asking.  And sure, I'll be the first to admit that the blog's numbers aren't big but I would argue that among that number, it lands with some impact.  I won't get into followers and industry folks who have reached out over the years to remark to me how valuable a resource this thing has been and is, but it's substantial.  And, again, I can imagine someone saying..."well, sure, anyone can claim that what they do has influence-show me the proof."  And I'll say...won't name names...but you know who you are.  

Also, if it's about smallish numbers...why where my numbers big enough for the eight years I was accredited? 

And then there's the point that maybe there are limited spots for journalists.  Could be, but they accredited a brand new Oscar outlet in 2019 which had had absolutely no previous experience at the fest.

TEN BETS #5 FOR TFF #48

Well, this is weird.  Normally. the first Ten bets after  Toronto's first announcement of titles causes a massive re-organization of the Ten Bets in the following post.  This year...not so much.  Last week's ten Bets and other possibilities were:

1) Something from Mark Cousins***

2) Muhammad Ali/Burns. Burns and McMahon

3) The Card Counter/Schrader

4) The Power of the Dog/Campion

5) Madres Paralelas (Parallel Mothers)/Almodovar

6) The Velvet Underground/Haynes

7) Nightmare Alley/Del Toro

8) A Hero/Farhadi

9) Julia/Cohen and West

10) Spencer/Larrain

Other Possibles: Dune, Where Is Anne Frank?, Paris 13th District and The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Blonde, Cow, House of Gucci, The Last Duel, Mothering Sunday and Bergman Island.

***Mark Cousins projects that could play:

The Story of Looking

The Storms of Jeremy Thomas

The Story of Film: The Next Generation

With the addition of information from Toronto our fifth edition of "Ten Bets" looks like this:

1) The Electrical Life of Louis Wain/Sharpe

2) Petite Maman/Sciamma

3) The Card Counter/Schrader

4) Something from Mark Cousins***

5) The Power of the Dog/Campion

6) The Velvet Underground/Haynes

7) Madres Paralelas (Parallel Mothers)/Almodovar

8) Julia/Cohen and West

9) A Hero/Farhadi

10) Spencer/Larrain

Other Possibles: Dune, The French Dispatch, Nightmare Alley, Where Is Anne Frank?, Blonde, Cow, House of Gucci, The Last Duel, Mothering Sunday, Encounter, The Velvet Underground, Muhammad Ali, The Hand of God, Don't Look Up, tick, tick..BOOM, Antlers, Being the Ricardos, Titaine, Pig, C'mon C'mon, The Humans, The Tragedy of Macbeth, Red Rocket, Last Exit: Space, Flee, King Richard.

***Mark Cousins projects that could play:

The Story of Looking

The Storms of Jeremy Thomas

The Story of Film: The Next Generation

Paris 13th District, Bergman Island and The Eyes of Tammy Faye all drop from the "Other Possibles" list as their premiere designation for Toronto indicates that they will not have played Telluride but nary a one of the Ten Bets from last week completely disappears this week and that's remarkably unusual.

Also of interest (to me anyway) is that the only film from this year's initial Ten Bets that looks to be out so far is Mia Hansen-Love's Bergman Island.

LOOKS AT POTENTIALS INCLUDING NEW DUNE TRAILER

Continuing to pass along sporadic looks at films that could make the TFF #48 lineup.

***LATE BREAKING: NEW DUNE TRAILER

***TRAILER AND POSTER FOR RIDLEY SCOTT'S THE LAST DUEL

THE CARD COUNTGER POSTER

TRAILER FOR FLEE

VENICE IS COMING

The Venice film Festival is set to announce the bulk of their lineup next week and the reality is that announcement really doesn't rule anything in or out for Telluride.  The real info from Venice will be when they announce their schedule because that will tell you more about what's possible in an overlap between T-ride and Venice.  We won't see the schedule until August, though.

We know that Almodover's Madres Paralelas is opening Venice on Sept. 1 and that Denis Villenueve's Dune is set for Sept. 3.  Both of those are early enough in the Venetian sked to make a cross Atlantic jaunt and be at Telluride.  Films have made that kind of schedule work in the past.

GOOD NEWS/BAD NEWS

Jordan Ruimy at World of Reel, just yesterday posted a "likely for Telluride" list and also some titles that he thinks will NOT play.  Among other notes, he's very confident that Del Toro's Nightmare Alley and Dominik's Blonde will not be on the Telluride list.  That bums me out as they were two of most hoped for Telluride titles.

The good news is that, in his estimation, Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch is back in Telluride play as well as a number of other films...many of which (seven to be exact) are on the Ten Bets list above.

Ruimy's entire post is linked here.

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Incoming from Toronto / Cannes Awards Winners / The Last Duel for TFF #48? / Late Breaking: Pedro Opens Venice

 INCOMING FROM TORONTO

It's all been speculation, slips of the tongue and cryptic references about Telluride up to this point.  That changes tomorrow with the Toronto International Film Festival's announcement of Galas and Special Presentations.  It TIFF follows what has become the custom, each film announced will include a mention of that film's premiere status and if you know what each of those designations mean you can get a very good idea of some of the films that will or will not play at Telluride.

For TIFF's announcement tomorrow the designations you need to know are:

World Premiere which means the first public screening anywhere on the planet (test screenings don't count).

International Premiere which means the first screening of a film outside the film's nation of origin.  This designation signals that the World Premiere has occurred in that nation of origin.  This designation is bit "squishy" for a number of reasons.  For example, films with multiple producers/financers from different nations make this designation difficult to nail down sometimes.

North American Premiere which means the first public screening on the continent.  You' likely see it tomorrow on films that have already screened at Cannes.  That means no U.S. play will have occurred.

Canadian Premiere which means the first public screening in Canada. 

An International Premiere or Canadian Premiere status points to a possible Telluride play but isn't a lock.  For example, if TIFF programs a Sundance Film that would be classified as an International Premiere.  If that Sundance film also played Cannes, then TIFF would label it a Canadian Premiere.  So these two designations don't automatically mean a Telluride play.

If a film is designated a World or North American Premiere...that means no Telluride.

We've already had an example of how this works this season with the New York Film Fest's announcement that Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch will have its U.S. Premiere there.  Since TFF precedes NYFF we can conclude two things: the film won't play Telluride because if it had, New York couldn't designate it as a U.S. Premiere.  We also know that it will have played Toronto because if it hadn't, New York would bill it as a North American Premiere.

Couple of other notes: there will be errors.  Sometimes that's on the part of TIFF inaccurately designating a film's status.  Sometimes it's because of the "squishy" nature of the International Premiere status and sometimes I just miss something I should have caught.

The other note is that there will be joy and disappointment.  Joy at the inclusion of films that I'll be thrilled to be chosen for Telluride and disappointment that films I am hoping for will likely not be making it to the San Juans.

There will also be that first moment that affirms or denies the efficacy of this summer's Ten Bets.

Here's the latest Ten Bets that I posted last Thursday...we'll start to see if any of this lands tomorrow:

1) Something from Mark Cousins***

2) Muhammad Ali/Burns. Burns and McMahon

3) The Card Counter/Schrader

4) The Power of the Dog/Campion

5) Madres Paralelas (Parallel Mothers)/Almodovar

6) The Velvet Underground/Haynes

7) Nightmare Alley/Del Toro

8) A Hero/Farhadi

9) Julia/Cohen and West

10) Spencer/Larrain

Other Possibles: Dune, Where Is Anne Frank?, Paris 13th District and The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Blonde, Cow, House of Gucci, The Last Duel, Mothering Sunday and Bergman Island.

***Mark Cousins projects that could play:

The Story of Looking

The Storms of Jeremy Thomas

The Story of Film: The Next Generation

My biggest hopes for Telluride at this point are: Nightmare Alley, Dune and Blonde.

I'll likely have a SPECIAL EDITION tomorrow with a rundown of what the TIFF announcement tells us.

CANNES AWARDS WINNERS

Julia Ducournau's Titane won the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or from a Spike Lee led jury on Saturday.  The film's IMDB description:

"Following a series of unexplained crimes, a father is reunited with the son who has been missing for 10 years. Titane : A metal highly resistant to heat and corrosion, with high tensile strength alloys."

The film's Palme win likely increases its chance to play at Telluride but it's not a lock.  In the years since I've been doing this the Palme to Telluride connection only happens about half the time.  Titane's distributor is NEON which probably tips the scales a bit toward TFF #48 inclusion.

Other notable awards included a the Grand Prix to Asghar Farhadi's A Hero (tied with Compartment #6).  Leos Carax was named Best Director for Annette.

The complete list of Cannes' winners is here from Variety.

THE LAST DUEL FOR TFF #48?

Chris Evangelista posted an article about what is known about Ridley Scott's The Last Duel for SlashFilm last Wednesday.  It included casting info (Adam Driver, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Jodie Comer), release dates (Oct. 15th) descriptions of the film and the book upon which it's based.  Damon, Affleck and Nicole Holofcener co-wrote the screenplay.

Of note was these two sentences early on in the post:

"For now, though, you can bank on this one being a strict theatrical release. You can also probably expect it to play some fall festivals, like TIFF or Telluride (that’s just a guess on my part, but I think it’s a good guess)."

An extra note here to remind readers that Affleck's Argo debuted at Telluride in 2012 and that worked out well for him.  Holofcener was in Telluride in 2018 with Can You Ever Forgive Me? (3 Oscar nominations).

Could The Last Duel make an appearance at TFF #48?  Evangelista thinks it's a possibility.

Here's the entire SlashFilm article.

LATE BREAKING: PEDRO OPENS VENICE

Just in as I go to post this morning is news that Pedro Alomodovar's Madres Paralelas will open the Venice Film Festival.  That keeps it in good position as a possible inclusion for Telluride.  Details here from The Playlist.

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