MTFB Oscar Update: Screenplays and More / The MTFB Nomination Totals

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: SCREENPLAYS AND MORE

Here are updated nomination predictions for the Screenplay categories for the 97th Academy Awards.  These categories were last predicted on Nov. 28th.  A film's previous rank appears to the right in parentheses. In addition I have added first predictions for Best Costume Design, Makeup/Hair and Visual Effects.  TFF #51 films are in Bold.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1) Conclave

2) Emilia Perez

3) Sing Sing

4) Nickel Boys

5) Dune Part Two

Others: A Complete Unknown, The Room Next Door and Inside Out 2.

BEST  ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1) Anora

2) A Real Pain

3) The Brutalist

4) September 5

5) The Substance

Others: Hard Truths, The Seed of the Sacred Fig and Saturday Night.

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

1) Wicked

2) Dune Part Two

3) Gladiator II

4) Maria

5) Nosfaratu

Others: Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Blitz and A Complete Unknown.

BEST MAKEUP AND HAIR

1) Dune Part Two

2) The Substance

3) Wicked

4) Nosferatu

5) Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice

Others: A Different Man, Emilia Perez and A Complete Unknown.

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

1) Dune Part Two

2) Gladiator II

3) Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

4) Wicked

5) Twisters

Others: Mufasa: The Lion King, Furiosa: a Mad Max Saga and Better Man.

THE MTFB NOMINATION TOTALS

And so for the first time in this 2024-25 Oscar race, MTFB has predictions for all 20 feature film categories.  Here's what MTFB is currently predicting for TFF #51 films in as far as Oscar nominations are concerned:

EMILIA PEREZ (11) Best Picture, International Feature,  Direction, Actress (Gascon), Supporting Actress (Saldana), Adapted Screenplay, Editing, Score, Song (Mi Camino), Song (El Mal) and Sound.  The film could also end up with nominations for Selena Gomez for Supporting Actress, Cinematography and Production Design.

CONCLAVE (7): Best Picture, Direction, Actor (Fiennes), Supporting Actress (Rossellini), Adapted Screenplay, Editing and Score. Conclave could also possibly be nominated for Supporting Actor (Tucci), Cinematography and Production Design.

ANORA (6): Best Picture, Direction, Actress (Madison), Supporting Actor (Borisov), Original Screenplay and Editing.

A REAL PAIN (3): Best Picture, Supporting Actor (Culkin) and Original Screenplay.  A Real Pain could also score a Best Actor nomination for Jesse Eisenberg.

MARIA (3): Best Actress (Jolie), Cinematography and Costumes.

SEPTEMBER 5 (2); Best Picture and Original Screenplay.  The film could aso snag nominations for Supporting Actor (Magaro) and Editing.

Single Nominees:

NICKEL BOYS: Best Adapted Screenplay.  Three other possible nominations: Direction, Cinematography and Supporting Actress (Ellis-Taylor).

PIECE BY PIECE: Best Song (Piece by Piece).  Also a possible additional nomination for Animated Feature.

THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG: Best International Feature.  "Seed" also could get nominated for Original Screenplay.

THE OUTRUN: Best Actress (Ronan).

THE PIANO LESSON: Best Supporting Actress (Deadwyler).

MEMOIR OF A SNAIL: Best Animated Feature.

NO OTHER LAND: Best Documentary Feature.

Films that aren't currently predicted nominees but who could still get in:

WILL & HARPER: Best Documentary  Feature and Best Original Song (Harper and Will Go West).

SATURDAY NIGHT: Original Screenplay and Score.

THE APPRENTICE: Best Actor (Stan) and Best Supporting Actor (Strong).

BETTER MAN: Best Visual Effects.

In total, MTFB predicts 13 TFF #51 films earn 40 nominations including five for Best Picture.  In addition, 16 other possible nominations that could include an additional seven TFF #51 films. WOW!

I'll be updating Best Picture predictions on Monday.

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MTFB Oscar Update: Supporting Acting / TFF #51 Films Awarded / Behind the Scenes: Maria / TFF Films Qualify / Interviews and Profiles: Ronan, Lithgow, Rossellini and More

 MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: SUPPORTING ACTING

Here are updated nomination predictions for the Supporting Acting categories for the 97th Academy Awards.  These categories were last predicted on Nov. 11th.  An actor's previous rank appears to the right of their names in parentheses.  TFF #51 actors/films are in Bold.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1) Zoe Saldana/Emilia Perez (1)

2) Isabella Rossellini/Conclave (4)

3) Danielle Deadwyler/The Piano Lesson (2)

4) Ariana Grande/Wicked (-)

5) Felicity Jones/The Brutalist (5)

Others: Saoirse Ronan/Blitz, Selena Gomez/Emilia Perez and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor/Nickel Boys.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Kieran Culkin/A Real Pain (1)

2) Denzel Washington/Gladiator II (2)

3) Guy Pearce/The Brutalist (3)

4) Clarence Maclin/Sing Sing (4)

5) Stanley Tucci/Conclave (5)

Others: Yura Borisov/Anora, Jeremy Strong/The Apprentice and John Magaro/September 5.

TFF #51 FILMS AWARDED

The Palm Springs International Film Fest names Kieran Culkin winner of its Breakthrough Performance Award.

BEHIND THE SCENES: MARIA

From Netflix via YouTube here's a behind the scenes video for the film Maria starring Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas.

TFF FILMS QUALIFY

Official lists of films that have qualified for Academy Award consideration for Best Animated Feature, Best International Feature and Best Documentary Feature were released by The Academy this week.  Here are the qualifiers that screened at TFF by category:

Animated Feature:

Memoir of a Snail

Piece by Piece

International Feature:

Emilia Perez/France

Santosh/United Kingdom

The Seed of the Sacred Fig/Germany

Documentary Feature:

Blink

Carville: Winning Is Everything, Stupid

Casa Bonita, Mi Amor

Food Inc. 2*

Hollywoodgate*

Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger

Martha

No Other Land

Piece by Piece

Separated

Will and Harper

Zurawski v. Texas

The complete lists can be accessed here via Awards Watch.

*Screened in TFF #50.

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Saoirse Ronan for The Outrun from Awards Watch.

Saoirse Ronan for The Outrun from Awards Radar.

Isabella Rossellini for Conclave from IndieWire.

John Lithgow for Conclave from Awards Watch.

Leonie Benesch for September 5 from Gold Derby.

Director Tim Fehlbaum for September 5 from The Hollywood Reporter.

Mark Eydershteayn for Anora from Gold Derby.

Yura Borisov for Anora from Next Best Picture.

Jesse Eisenberg for A Real Pain from IndieWire.

Gabriel LaBelle for Saturday Night from Awards Watch.

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MTFB Oscar Update: Lead Acting / New Trailer for The Piano Lesson / Zurawski v. Texas Has International Sales Rep / TFF #51 Films Winning Awards / Interviews and Profiles for Saturday Night, Conclave and Piece by Piece

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: LEAD ACTING

I'm updating the Lead Acting categories today.  These categories were last updated on Nov. 6th.  An actor's previous position is indicated in (parentheses).  TFF #51 films are in Bold. 

BEST ACTRESS

1) Mikey Madison/Anora (1)

2) Angelina Jolie/Maria (2)

3) Karla Sofia Gascon/Emilia Perez (3)

4) Nicole Kidman/Babygirl (4)

5) Saoirse Ronan/The Outrun (5)

Others: Marianne Jean-Baptiste/Hard Truths, Demi Moore/The Substance and Tilda Swinton/The Room Next Door.

BEST ACTOR

1) Ralph Fiennes/Conclave (2)

2) Adrien Brody/The Brutalist (1)

3) Colman Domingo/Sing Sing (3)

4) Timothee Chalamet/A Complete Unknown (4)

5) Daniel Craig/Queer (5)

Others: Paul Mescal/Gladiator II, Sebastian Stan/The Apprentice and Jesse Eisenberg/A Real Pain.

NEW TRAILER FOR THE PIANO LESSON

Netflix released a new trailer for Malcom Washington's The Piano Lesson on Tuesday.  Here it is via YouTube: 

The Piano Lesson is already in limited release.

ZURAWSKI V. TEXAS HAS INETRNATIONAL SALES REP (BUT WHY NO DOMESTIC DISTRIBUTION???)

Scree Daily reported this week that Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault's powerful documentary Zurawski v. Texas has had its international sales rights acquired by Together Films.  That comes as the multi-award winning film still lacks domestic distribution.  And I want to know why.

The film has won awards from the following film fests: Hamptons, Heartland (Indianapolis), Mill Valley, Montclair, Philadelphia, Sant Fe and others and has had a number of special screening both live and virtually.

Here is an interview from Together Films for the Academy Conversations series via YouTube:

Here's the story on the acquisition from Screen Daily.

TFF #51 FILMS WINNING AWARDS

Angelina Jolie will be presented the Desert Palm achievement  Award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival.  Here's the story of that award from Next Best Picture.

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Gabrielle LaBelle for Saturday Night from Next Best Picture.

Isabella Rossellini for Conclave from Awards Watch.

Edward Berger for Conclave from The Contending.

Morgan Neveille for Piece by Piece from Next Best Picture.

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MTFB Oscar Update: Supporting Acting / TFF Films and the Best of the 2020's / Awards for TFF Films / Interviews and Profiles: Washington and Arnold

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: SUPPORTING ACTING

Here are updated nomination predictions for the Supporting Acting categories for the 97th Academy Awards.  These categories were last predicted on Oct. 28th.  An actor's previous rank appears to the right of their names in parentheses.  TFF #51 actors/films are in Bold.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1) Zoe Saldana/Emilia Perez (1)

2) Danielle Deadwyler/The Piano Lesson (2)

3) Saoirse Ronan/Blitz (4)

4) Isabella Rossellini/Conclave (3)

5) Felicity Jones/The Brutalist (5)

Others: Selena Gomez/Emilia Perez, Ariana Grande/Wicked and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor/Nickel Boys.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Keiran Culkin/A Real Pain (1)

2) Denzel Washington/Gladiator II (2)

3) Guy Pearce/The Brutalist (3)

4) Clarence Maclin/Sing Sing (4)

5) Stanley Tucci/Conclave (5)

Others: John Magaro/September 5, Jeremy Strong/The Apprentice and Yura Borisov/Anora.

TFF FILMS AND THE BEST OF THE HALF DECADE

Jordan Ruimy/World of Reel invited me and more than one hundred other "critics" to name a  list of the Best films of the first half of the 2020's.  The results were posted Saturday.  Among the top twenty were eight that played at one of the decade's TFFs.  They were: TAR, The Zone of Interest, Anatomy of a Fall, The Power of the Dog, Poor Things, Anora, Aftersun and All of Us Strangers. 

Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer topped the list.  My List for the poll was: Nomadland, Oppenheimer, Poor Things, The Power of the Dog and The Zone of Interest.

The complete list from World of Reel is linked here.

AWARDS FOR TFF FILMS

Mikey Madison to recieve Breakthrough Performance Award from Palm Springs Fest.

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Director Malcolm Washington and writer Virgil Williams on The Piano Lesson from TIFF.net.

Andrea Arnold for Bird from Mubi.com.

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MTFB Oscar Update: Supporting Actors / Trailers: September 5, No Other Land and Santosh / Interviews and Profiles: Fiennes, Rossellini. Lithgow and More

 MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: SUPPORTING ACTORS

Here are updated nomination predictions for the Supporting Acting categories for the 97th Academy Awards.  These categories were last predicted on Oct. 14.  An actor's previous rank appears to the right of their names in parentheses.  TFF #51 actors/films are in Bold.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1) Zoe Saldana/Emilia Perez (1)

2) Danielle Deadwyler/The Piano Lesson (2)

3) Isabella Rossellini/Conclave (4)

4) Saoirse Ronan/Blitz (5)

5) Felicity Jones/The Brutalist (3)

Others: Ariana Grande/Wicked, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor/Nickel Boys and Selena Gomez/Emilia Perez.

SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Kieran Culkin/A Real Pain (1)

2) Denzel Washington/Gladiator II (3)

3) Guy Pearce/The Brutalist (2)

4) Charles Maclin/Sing Sing (56)

5) Stanley Tucci/Conclave (4)

Others:  Jeremy Strong/The Apprentice, John Magaro/September 5 and Peter Saarsgard/September 5.

TRAILERS

SEPTEMBER 5

NO OTHER LAND

SANTOSH

  

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Ralph Fiennes for Conclave from IndieWire.

Ralph Fiennes for Conclave from The Playlist.

Isabella Rossellini for Conclave from IndieWire.

John Lithgow for Conclave from The Playlist.

Author Robert Harris for Conclave from Time.

Jacques Audiard for Emilia Perez from The Hollywood Reporter (interviewer: Guillermo Del Toro).

Karla Sofia Gascon for Emilia Perez from Awards Watch.

Jason Reitman for Saturday Night from Awards Watch.

Mikey Madison and Sean Baker for Anora from Entertainment Weekly.

Adam Eliot for Memoir of a Snail from AnimationScoop.com

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MTFB Oscar Update-Screenplays / Zuwarski v. Texas Has a Plan / New Posters: Conclave, The Piano Lesson, All We Imagine as Light / Interviews and Profiles

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE-SCREENPLAYS

Here are updated nomination predictions for the Screenplay categories for the 97th Academy Awards.  These categories were last predicted on Sept. 30th.  An film's previous rank appears to the right of their names in parentheses.  TFF #51 actors/films are in Bold.

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1) Conclave (1)

2) Emilia Perez (-)

3) Sing Sing (2)

4) Nickel Boys (4)

5) Dune Part Two (3)

Others: The Room Next Door, The Piano Lesson and Hit Man.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1) Anora (1)

2) The Brutalist (3)

3) A Real Pain (4)

4) September 5 (-)

5) Saturday Night (2)

Others: The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Hard Truths and Blitz.

I'll be updating the Best Picture nomination predictions on Monday.

ZUWARSKI V. TEXAS HAS A PLAN

Many of you know that I'm high on the documentary Zurawski v. Texas.  I think it was the best thing I saw at TFF #51...and that's saying something as I was a big fan of Emilia Perez, Saturday Night, Conclave and September 5.  Sadly I missed out on seeing Anora. 

Consequently, I have been low key pushing it forward as awards season has become fully alive. I honestly think it should be a serious player for the Best Doc Oscar at a minimum and if I had an Oscar ballot, at this point it would be atop my Best Picture ballot.

The film was the top rated movie on this year's MTFB People's Telluride.  It didn't make the Pros Poll or The Composite because not enough of the Pros saw it Labor Day weekend.  The limited Pros rating was a 4.25 which would have put it at #2 and combined with its Peoples rank (had there been a sufficient number of Pro ballots that kept the 4.25 average) would have put it atop of the Composite Poll.

It's that good.  But...

So, I have been understandably a bit nervous as no distributor has picked up the film since it's stunning debut at T-ride.  So nervous that I reached out to some of the journos I know to ask them if they were hearing anything about distribution or a release date.  By and large the responses were along of the lines of "no idea".  I did get an encouraging note from one prominent journalist that there was a plan in place for the movie to qualify for Oscar consideration.  Then yesterday afternoon came the word from Deadline.com:

"EXCLUSIVE: Zurawski v Texas, the urgent documentary about women who sued Texas after the state’s strict anti-abortion laws almost cost them their lives, will reach theaters before the presidential election.

Deadline can report the film directed by Maisie Crow and Abbie Perrault, and executive produced by a team including Jennifer Lawrence, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Chelsea Clinton, will launch in New York, Los Angeles and cities across Texas beginning October 25."

Deadline continued:

"The theatrical run will qualify the film for Oscar consideration as Best Documentary Feature."

In addition to the announced screenings in New York, Los Angeles and in Texas the film will screen at the upcoming AFI Fest.  I'd encouraging anyone who didn't catch in Telluride to grab a chance to screen it.

The complete Deadline story is linked here.

TRAILER FOR BIRD

NEW POSTERS

CONCLAVE

THE PIANO LESSON

ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT

INETRVIEWS AND PROFILES

Saturday Night Behind the Scenes.

Mikey Madison for Anora from BFI.org.

Sean Baker for Anora from Awards Radar.

The Cast and Sean Baker for Anora from Next Best Picture.

Morgan Neville for Piece by Piece from Den of Geek.

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The Composite Telluride / September 5 Goes to Paramount / Official Trailer for Will and Harper

 THE COMPOSITE TELLURIDE

Here's my annual final step of computation that has become an MTFB tradition.  It's The Composite Telluride ratings in which I add the average from The People and The Professionals to provide one more glimpse of how The SHOW's films were perceived.   

To begin, here's the history of The Composite Telluride with the film's combined rating at the right followed by its position on each of the two lists in brackets.

1) Anora 8.97 [3-1]

2) Emilia Perez 8.38 [5-3]

3) September 5 8.28 [7-2]

4) Conclave 8.17 [4-5]

5) Saturday Night 7.88 [9-4]

6) Maria 7.11 [11-9]

7) Nickel Boys 7.03 [16-6]

8) Piece by Piece 7.00 [14-7]

9) The Friend 6.76 [12-10]

10) The Piano Lesson 6.75 [15-8]

11) The End 5.17 [18-11]

Anora replaces The Power of the Dog on the All Time Top Ten Composite Ratings list.  That looks like this now:

1) (TIE) 12 Years a Slave (9.25) 2013 (Won Best Picture)

1) (TIE) Argo (9.25) 2012 (Won Best Picture)

3) Roma (9.20) 2018 (Won Best Foreign Language Film)

4) Moonlight (9.19) 2016 (Won Best Picture)

5) Birdman (9.18) 2014 (Won Best Picture)

6) Parasite (9.11) 2019 (Won Best Picture)

7) Stories We Tell (9.10) 2012

8) Poor Things (9.04) 2023

9) (TIE) Tim's Vermeer (8.97) 2013

9) (TIE) Anora (8.97) 2024

SEPTEMBER 5 GOES TO PARAMOUNT

Scott Feinberg of The Hollywood Reporter reports that September 5 will be distributed by Paramount.  The film will have a [platformed release beginning Nov. 27th and then expanding into other theaters in December.

Feinberg writes in his article:

"Interest among distributors reached a crescendo after the film premiered at — and blew the roof off of — the recent Venice and Telluride film festivals, generating comparisons to past best picture Oscar winners Argo and Spotlight." 

September 5 landed with a solid 4.20 rating in MTFB's People's Poll and a 4.08 from the Professionals ending up as a surprise #2 from them.  As you can see above the film had a composite rating of 8.28 that put it at #3 on the composite chart ahead of such possible Oscar contenders such as Conclave, Saturday Night, Nickel Boys and The Piano Lesson.

Here's the story from The Hollywood Reporter.

OFFICIAL TRAILER FOR WILL AND HARPER

From YouTube:

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MTFB EXTRA: FINAL BETS FOR TFF #51 / Emila Perez Trailer / Tidbits: Potential Guests, Tributes?, Guest Director???, Another Sundance Title? / The People's Telluride

FINAL BETS FOR TFF #51

Well, here we are.  24ish hours from Telluride's big reveal for the 2024 SHOW.  I'm driving somewhere in New Mexico as you read this.  Here is your final list of "Bets" to make the SHOW:

1) Anora/Baker

2) Conclave/Berger

3) Emilia Perez/Audiard

4) The End/Oppenheimer

5) All We Imagine as Light/Kapadia

6) The Piano Lesson/Washington

7) Nickel Boys/Ross

8) Saturday Night/Reitman

9) Maria/Larrian

10) The Outrun/Fingscheidt

11) Bird/Arnold

12) Disclaimer/Cuaron

13) Separated/Morris

14) Better Man/Gracey

15) Piece by Piece/Neville

16) September 5/Fehlbaum

17) The Seed of the Sacred Fig/Rasoulof

18) The Friend/Siegel and McGeehee

19) Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight/Davitz

20) The Apprentice/Abassi

21) No Other Land/Adra, Ballal, Abraham and Szor

22) Leonardo DaVinci/Burns, Burns and McMahon

23) Memoir of a Snail/Elliot

24) Apocalypse in the Tropics/Costa

25) Misrecordia/Guiraudie

Other possibilities:

Santosh/Suri

Chain Reactions/Philippe

Homegrown/Premo

A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things/Cousins

A Real Pain/Jesse Eisenberg

One on One: John and Yoko/ Macdonald and Rice-Edwards

Napoleon (new restoration)/Gance

Parthenope/Sorrentino

Hand of Dante/Schnabel

The Actor/Johnson

Last year I was 24/25 on the final bets.

Previous years of "Bets" track record:

2023: 24 of 25

2022: 24 of 25

2021: 24 of 25

2020: No fest

2019: 24 of 25

2018: 25 of 25

2017: 24 of 25

2016: 20 of 20

That's 165 0f 170 for a correct percentage of  97.05%

Come back tomorrow to see how I did.

 EMILIA PEREZ TEASER/TRAILER (with english subtitles)

TIDBITS

A REMINDER OF POTENTIAL GUESTS

Anora: Sean Baker, Mikey Madison

Conclave: Edward Berger, Ralph Fiennes, John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci, Isabella Rossellini

Emilia Perez: Jacques Audiard, Zoe Saldana, Selena Gomez, Karla Sofia Gascon, Adriana Paz

The End: Joshua Oppenheimer, Tilda Swinton, Michael Shannon, George MacKay

The Piano Lesson: Malcolm Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, Danielle Dedwyler, John David Washington, Denzel Washington

Nickel Boys: RaMell Ross, Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Aunjunue Ellis-Taylor

Piece by Piece: Morgan Neville, Pharrell Williams

The Apprentice: Ali Abassi, Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong

The Friend: Scott McGeehee, David Siegel, Carla Gugino, Naomi Watts, Bill Murray

Maria: Pablo Larrain, Angelina Jolie

Saturday Night: Jason Reitman, Gabriel LaBelle, Cooper Hoffman, Nicolas Braun, Jon Batiste

Bird: Andrea Arnold, Barry Keoghan, Frank Rogowski

Better Man: Robbie Williams

Disclaimer: Alfonso Cuaron, Cate Blanchett, Sasha Baron Cohen, Kevin Kline

The Outrun: Saoirse Ronan

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight; Embeth Davitz

A Real Pain: Jesse Eisenberg, Kieran Culkin

TRIBUTES?

Here are what feel like your possibilities:

1) Saorise Ronan

2) Thelma Schoonover

3) Jason Reitman

4) Jacques Audiard

5) Samuel L. Jackson

6) Ralph Fiennes

7) Angelina Jolie

8) Denzel Washington

9) Michael Shannon

10) Naomi Watts

Alternatives: John Lithgow, Isabella Rossellini, Stanley Tucci

GUEST DIRECTOR???

I don't know what to tell you.  

Multiple directors like last year?  I don't feel that.  That's an approach that the Fest took in anniversary years #40 and #50.

No Guest Director?  Maybe.  The Guest Director position hasn't always existed.  Its inception was 1988.  I just don't think that's likely.

A BIG NAME?  Maybe.  Spielberg?  Scorsese? Nolan?  If you wanted to make a big splash, holding that name for your official announcement would sure be a way to achieve that.  Cautiously, that's where I'm going to place my money.

ANOTHER SUNDANCE TITLE?

I'm not saying it's in for TFF #51 but I've been seeing/hearing low level background noise about a possible play for Jesse Eisenberg's A Real Pain.  I already think that The Outrun which played at Sundance is likely to screen at T-ride this weekend.  So, is a second "big" Sundance film possible?

THE PEOPLE'S TELLURIDE-12TH EDITION

For the 12th 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.

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Ten (Plus) Bets #10 for TFF #51 / Looks at The Piano Lesson / Buzzworthy / The People's Telluride /

TEN (PLUS) BETS #10 FOR TFF #51

Here's the penultimate set of "bets" regarding what films will be announced for the Telluride Film Festival a week from today. 

Let me start today's list with a couple of notes.  First, there's a reasonably good chance that 2-3 films won't be included in the program you pickup at Brigadoon.  Over the last few years the festival has held back a few titles from the published program but then has added them as "sneaks".  Last year, for example, TFF #50 had three "sneaks", The Taste of Things, They Shot the Piano Player and Totem.  I had Piano Player at #22 on the final bets and The Taste of Things at #23.

Second note: I will post a "special" edition of MTFB next Wednesday, August 28th from the road as I'll be already headed to Telluride.  It will be the final list of titles that I'm saying will play TFF #51 done 24 hours before the fests big reveal on Thursday.  Of course, the regular Thursday post next week will be the official lineup announcement.

With that said, here's a refresher of last week's "Bets":

1) Anora/Baker

2) Conclave/Berger

3) Emilia Perez/Audiard

4) The End/Oppenheimer

5) All We Imagine as Light/Kapadia

6) The Piano Lesson/Washington

7) Nickel Boys/Ross

8) Saturday Night/Reitman

9) Misrecordia/Guiraudie

10) Piece by Piece/Neville

And a Bonus Ten Bets:

11) Separated/Morris

12) Better Man/Gracey

13) No Other Land/Adra, Ballal, Abraham and Szor

14) The Seed of the Sacred Fig/Rasoulof

15) The Friend/Siegel and McGeehee

16) Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight/Davitz

17) Maria/Larrain

18) Bird/Arnold

19) Disclaimer/Cuaron

20) Santosh/Suri

Other possibilities:

The Outrun/Fingsheidt

One on One: John and Yoko/ Macdonald and Rice-Edwards

Apocalypse in the Tropics/Costa

A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things/Cousins

The Apprentice/Abassi

Chain Reactions/Philippe

Memoir of a Snail/Elliot

Homegrown/Premo

Napoleon (new restoration)/Gance

Leonardo DaVinci/Burns, Burns, McMahon

The Actor/Johnson

Parthenope/Sorrentino

Hand of Dante/Schnabel

And here's this week's:

1) Anora/Baker

2) Conclave/Berger

3) Emilia Perez/Audiard

4) The End/Oppenheimer

5) All We Imagine as Light/Kapadia

6) The Piano Lesson/Washington

7) Nickel Boys/Ross

8) Saturday Night/Reitman

9) Maria/Larrian

10) The Outrun/Fingscheidt

And a Bonus Ten Bets:

11) Bird/Arnold

12) Disclaimer/Cuaron

13) Separated/Morris

14) Better Man/Gracey

15) Piece by Piece/Neville

16) No Other Land/Adra, Ballal, Abraham and Szor

17) The Seed of the Sacred Fig/Rasoulof

18) The Friend/Siegel and McGeehee

19) Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight/Davitz

20) The Apprentice/Abassi

Other possibilities:

Santosh/Suri

Apocalypse in the Tropics/Costa

Misrecordia/Guiraudie

Chain Reactions/Philippe

Memoir of a Snail/Elliot

Homegrown/Premo

September 5/Fehlbaum

A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things/Cousins

One on One: John and Yoko/ Macdonald and Rice-Edwards

Napoleon (new restoration)/Gance

Leonardo DaVinci/Burns, Burns, McMahon

The Actor/Johnson

Parthenope/Sorrentino

Hand of Dante/Schnabel

LOOKS AT THE PIANO LESSON

We're expecting Malcolm Washington's The Piano Lesson to screen at TFF next week.  We're hoping that Samuel L. Jackson is along and we'd be really thrilled if producer Denzel Washington happened to show up as well.  Actually...put Denzel on the possible guest list as well as potential tribute recipient.

Anyway, Netflix dropped a poster and a trailer for the film earlier this week.  The poster is above.  Here's the trailer from YouTube:

Meanwhile, Vanity Fair dropped some first look photos of the film on Monday.  Here's a tease:

And here's the link to the entire article.

BUZZWORTHY

Hearing from good sources that Ali Abassi's The Apprentice, Nora Fingscheidt's The Outrun and Tim Fehlbaum's September 5 will appear at Telluride.

THE PEOPLE'S TELLURIDE-12TH EDITION

For the 12th 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.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

X (Twitter) @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

Bluesky: @gort2.bsky.social

MTFB's Facebook Page

MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

If you would like to be added to the MTFB e-mail list send an email to mpgort@gmail.com

Ten (Plus) Bets #9 for TFF #51 / NYFF Spotlight Announcement / Some Other Possible Guests / New Poster for Saturday Night / The People's Telluride-12th Edition

 TEN (PLUS) BETS #9 FOR TFF #51

Well, with what purports to be the last set of announced films for Toronto on Tuesday and the release of the Venice screening schedule on Monday, we have some shifting occurring in this week's Ten (Plus) Bets for TFF #51.

Here was last week's Ten (Plus) Bets:

1) Anora/Baker

2) Conclave/Berger

3) Emilia Perez/Audiard

4) The End/Oppenheimer

5) All We Imagine as Light/Kapadia

6) The Piano Lesson/Washington

7) Nickel Boys/Ross

8) Misrecordia/Guiraudie

9) Better Man/Gracey

10) Piece by Piece/Neville

And a Bonus Ten Bets:

11) Dahomey/Diop

12) Grand Tour/Gomes

13) No Other Land/Adra, Ballal, Abraham and Szor

14) The Seed of the Sacred Fig/Rasoulof

15) The Friend/Siegel and McGeehee

16) Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight/Davitz

17) The Apprentice/Abassi

18) A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things/Cousins

19) Maria/Larrain

20) Saturday Night/Reitman

Other possibilities:

Separated/Morris

Oh, Canada/Schrader

Flow/Zibalodis

Santosh/Suri

Megalopolis/Coppola

Allegorie Citadine/ Rohrwacher and JR

The Actor/Johnson

Parthenope/Sorrentino

Hand of Dante/Schnabel

Napoleon (new restoration)/Gance

Leonardo DaVinci/Burns

Memoir of a Snail/Elliot

One on One: John and Yoko/ Macdonald and Rice-Edwards

The Outrun/Fingscheidt and/or Blitz/McQueen

This week's Ten (Plus) Bets:

1) Anora/Baker

2) Conclave/Berger

3) Emilia Perez/Audiard

4) The End/Oppenheimer

5) All We Imagine as Light/Kapadia

6) The Piano Lesson/Washington

7) Nickel Boys/Ross

8) Saturday Night/Reitman

9) Misrecordia/Guiraudie

10) Piece by Piece/Neville

And a Bonus Ten Bets:

11) Separated/Morris

12) Better Man/Gracey

13) No Other Land/Adra, Ballal, Abraham and Szor

14) The Seed of the Sacred Fig/Rasoulof

15) The Friend/Siegel and McGeehee

16) Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight/Davitz

17) Maria/Larrain

18) Bird/Arnold

19) Disclaimer/Cuaron

20) Santosh/Suri

Other possibilities:

The Outrun/Fingsheidt

One on One: John and Yoko/ Macdonald and Rice-Edwards

Apocalypse in the Tropics/Costa

A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things/Cousins

The Apprentice/Abassi

Chain Reactions/Philippe

Memoir of a Snail/Elliot

Homegrown/Premo

Napoleon (new restoration)/Gance

Leonardo DaVinci/Burns, Burns, McMahon

The Actor/Johnson

Parthenope/Sorrentino

Hand of Dante/Schnabel

NYFF SPOTLIGHT ANNOUNCMENT

The New York Film Festival announced the rest of the films playing in its Spotlight section yesterday and that offered up minimal clues regarding the TFF #51 lineup.  It does appear the one more Venice selection will also play Telluride as NYFF labeled the documentary Apocalypse in the Tropics (dir: Petra Costa) without a premiere status.  The film is slated to screen in Venice on Sept. 29th which would give it time to make it to T-ride.  The IMDb description says the film...

"Focuses on how the evangelical movement paved the way for the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro and poses the threat of a national theocracy."

Sound familiar?

Otherwise three other films we thought were playing TFF #51 seem to be confirmed by their lack of premiere status: Maria, Emilia Perez and The Friend.

Here's the announcement from NYFF.

SOME OTHER POSSIBLE GUESTS

Back on Aug. 5th I wrote a bit about what folks might turn up at TFF#51 as guests based on some of the films that looked like they could or would play as a part of the fest.

Today I'm adding a few more possibilities:

Better Man: Robbie Williams

Disclaimer: Alfonso Cuaron, Cate Blanchett, Sasha Baron Cohen, Kevin Kline

The Outrun: Saoirse Ronan

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight; Embeth Davitz

NEW POSTER FOR SATURDAY NIGHT

We have the release on Tuesday of a second poster for Jason Reitman's Saturday Night.  Here it is:

I'm pretty sure this is playing at TFF but I did see some references to a "world" premiere occurring in Toronto from some film media outlets on Tuesday.  TIFF continues to list it as a Canadian Premiere which is reassuring regarding its Telluride status.

THE PEOPLE'S TELLURIDE-12TH EDITION

For the 12th 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.

EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

X (Twitter) @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

Bluesky: @gort2.bsky.social

MTFB's Facebook Page

MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

If you would like to be added to the MTFB e-mail list send an email to mpgort@gmail.com