Another Early Oscar Look / Will Abel Screen at Abel? / Speaking of Cannes...

ANOTHER EARLY OSCAR LOOK

Joey Magidson of Awards Radar has posted his first set of picks for the 2025 Oscars and as has been my way, I've looked through them for possible TFF #51 titles.  Magidson has divided them into two parts.  Part One went up last Friday focusing on "Above the Line" categories.  Part Two will be posted later this week.

Here's what I'm seeing from Part One beginning with films Magidson thinks are Best Picture contenders:

Blitz-Steve McQueen

Conclave-Edward Berger

Maria-Pablo Larrain

The Nickel Boys-Ross

SNL 1975-Reitman

Queer-Gaudagnino

Bird-Arnold

The End-Oppenheimer

The Apprentice-Abbasi

The Piano Lesson-Washington

From the other "Above the Line" Categories:

Megalopolis-Coppola

The Actor-Johnson

We Live in Time-Crowley

Here's the link to Magidson's post.

WILL ABEL SCREEN AT ABEL?

News this week that a newly restores print of Abel Gance's monumental silent film Napoleon will lead off the Cannes Classics section on May 14th.

From Cannes' press release:

"A legend known to cinephiles the world over, a major work of the silent era, one of the most monumental restorations in the history of filmmaking will be unveiled on May 14 as a world premiere: Napoléon by Abel Gance (1st period), in a version resulting from a colossal, passionate effort by the Cinémathèque française, with the support of the CNC."

Naturally that makes one think that the restoration could be a natural choice for TFF.  I can see this screening at Elk Park which is re-christened the Abel Gance Open Air Cinema each year for the festival.

The entire press release is here.

AND SPEAKING OF CANNES...

Here's the official poster for the 77th Edition of the Cannes Film Festival:

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Vanity Fair's Too Early Oscar Picks and TFF / Cannes Speculation and TFF / The Best Docs of the 21st Century and TFF

VANITY FAIR'S TOO EARLY OSCAR PICKS AND TFF

I'm continuing my current project of scouring early Oscar prognostications for possible titles that might pop up at the 51st Telluride Film Festival.  Today's source is Joe Reid of Vanity Fair. These predicted films seem to me to have the best chance at TFF (listed in the order they are presented in the article):

Megalopolis- Dir: Frances Ford Coppola

Hard Truths- Dir: Mike Leigh

Blitz- Dir: Steve McQueen

Bird- Dir: Andrea Arnold

The End- Dir: Joshua Oppenheimer

Conclave- Dir: Edward Berger

The Actor- Dir: Duke Johnson

The Piano Lesson- Dir: Malcolm Washington

Maria- Dir: Pablo Larrain

The Nickel Boys- Dir: RaMell Ross

Queer; Dir: Luca Guadagnino

Long Day's Journey Into Night- Dir: Jonathan Kent

The Apprentice- Dir: Ali Abbasi

SNL 1975- Dir: Jason Reitman

The complete list of Vanity Fair predictions is linked here.

CANNES SPECULATION AND TFF

In addition to Oscar speculation as a way to sense some of the films that could be on their way to Telluride, the films that are selected for inclusion at the Cannes Film Festival merit investigation.

Each year there are a number of films that end up playing at Cannes in May and again as a North American premiere at TFF.  Last year I logged 10 films that played both fests including Anatomy of a Fall, The Zone of Interest and The Teachers' Lounge.  The average is around eight per year.

So, to begin that part of the process, I took a look at Screen Daily's annual Cannes speculation  article that was posted a week ago.  Screen Daily divides its list geographically.  That said, here are what feel like films that could possibly make the Cannes/Telluride connection:

Anora- Dir: Sean Baker

Maria- Dir: Pablo Larrain

Megalopolis- Dir: Frances Ford Coppola

Bird- Dir: Andrea Arnold

The End- Dir: Joshua Oppenheimer

Emilia Perez-Jacques Audiard

Dear Paris- Dir: Marjane Satrapi

The complete Screen Daily article is linked here.

THE BEST DOCS OF THE 21ST CENTURY AND TFF

Indiewire posted a list of what they have determined to be the 52 best documentaries of the 21st century.  Not surprisingly a good number of the films that made the list also made an appearance at the Telluride Film Festival.

Here's the list of docs from the top 52 that screened at TFF.  These are listed in reverse order by where Indiewire ranked them.  The year the doc appeared at Telluride is indicated to the title's right in parentheses:

43) The Central Park Five (2012)\

31) Procession (2021)

29) Fire at Sea (2016)

17) Waltz with Bashir (2008)

13) Bowling for Columbine (2002)

10) The Look of Silence (2015)

9) Stories We Tell (2013)

6) Faces Places (2017)

5) All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022)

4) Flee (2021)

1) The Act of Killing (2013)

The complete list of 52 including description and analysis is linked here.

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Next Best Picture's Early Oscar Line and TFF / Daddio Has a Date / Interviews and Profiles

 NEXT BEST PICTURE'S EARLY OSCAR LINE AND TFF

I'm continuing my current project of scouring early Oscar prognostications for possible titles that might pop up at the 51st Telluride Film Festival.  Today's source is Daniel Howat from Next Best Picture.  For this source I looked at Best Picture Predictions first and then for other possibilities from the acting, directing and screenplay categories.

So here are the films from those predictions that seem to me to be the most Telluride-ific.

The Actor-Dir: Duke Johnson

Blitz-Dir: Steve McQueen

Conclave-Dir: Edward Berger

Long Day's Journey Into Night"- Dir: Jonathan Kent

Maria- Dir: Pablo Larrain

The Piano Lesson- Dir: Malcolm Washington

Queer- Dir: Luca Guadagnino

Juror #2- Dir: Clint Eastwood

Mother Mary- Dir: David Lowery

Anora- Dir: Sean Baker

The Apprentice- Dir: Ali Abbasi

Bird- Dir: Andrea Arnold

The Collaboration- Dir: Kwame Kwei-Armah

Emilia Perez- Dir: Jacques Audiard

Megalopolis- Dir: Francis Ford Coppola

The Nickel Boys- Dir: RaMell Ross

Polaris- Dir: Lynne Ramsay

The complete early predictions from NBP are linked here.

DADDIO HAS A DATE

Dakota Johnson at the post-screening Q+A for Daddio at Telluride

Indiewire reports that Sony Pictures Classics has dated the release for Christ Hall's Daddio. The film will hit theaters on June 28th.  Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn star.

The IMDb description:

"A woman taking a cab ride from JFK engages in a conversation with the taxi driver about the important relationships in their lives."

I caught Daddio at telluride and was quite taken with it.

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Director and writer Christy hall and Produce Ro Donnelly for Daddio from Indieiwire.

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Variety's Early Oscar Predictions and TFF / MTFB's Unofficial TFF Oscar History Updated / Trailers: Wildcat and Food Inc. 2 / Interviews and Profiles

VARIETY'S EARLY OSCAR PREDICITONS AND TFF

I'm continuing my current project of scouring early Oscar prognostications for possible titles that might pop up at the 51st Telluride Film Festival.  Today's source is Clayton Davis from Variety.  For this source I looked at Best Picture Predictions first and then for other possibilities from the acting, directing and screenplay categories.

So here are the films from those predictions that seem to me to be the most Telluride-ific.

From Clayton's 10 Best Picture predictions:

Andrea Arnold's Bird

Steve McQueen's Blitz

Edward Berger's Conclave

Joshua Oppenheimer's The End

Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis

RaMell Ross' The Nickel Boys

Malcolm Washington's The Piano Lesson

From Clayton's alternates for Best Picture:

Ali Abbasi's The Apprentice

Mike Leigh's Hard Truths

Pablo Larrain's Maria

Paolo Sorrentino's Parenthope

Luca Gaudagnino's Queer

Jason Reitman's SNL 1975

And from the other categories:

Paul Schrader's Oh Canada

Duke Johnson's The Actor

Jonathan Kent's Long Day's Journey Into Night

Linked here are Clayton's complete set of early Oscar predictions for Variety.

MTFB'S UNOFFICIAL TFF OSCAR HISTORY UPDATED

As promised, the Unofficial TFF Oscar History Page has been updated to reflect the results of the recently concluded Oscar season.  Highlighted updates are that TFF films collectively went over 600 total nominations (607 to be exact).  TFF films have won 127 Oscars.  

I have included a new nugget with this update and that is a list of TFF films that earned four or more Oscar wins.

See all the newly included info from this year's Oscars plus the new section by using the link above on the masthead.

TRAILERS

FOR ETHAN HAWKE'S WILDCAT

AND FOR ROBERT KENNER AND MELISSA ROBLEDO'S FOOD INC. 2

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Costume Designer Holly Waddington for Poor Things from A.Frame.

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