National Board of Review / Gotham Awards Winners / A Cascade of Interviews

Hello to all on this final Thursday of November 2018...Lots of awards news over the past few days...the season got serious this week.


NATIONAL BOARD OF REVIEW REVEALS ITS WINNERS

It was a good day for films from Telluride...from 2017/TFF #44 as the National Board of Review named its best films for the year on Tuesday.

Paul Schrader's First Reformed was well honored as it was named  twice.  Schrader was awarded for Best Original Screenplay and the film was named to the NBR 10 Best Films of the Years list.

Also named to the 10 Best list from TFF #45 were Can You Ever Forgive Me? and Roma.

Cold War was named Best Foreign Language Film.  Shoplifters was named one of five additional Best Foreign Language Films of the year.

Kris Tapley tweeted that Roma's inclusion on the 10 Best list precluded it from being named Best Foreign Language Film.

On the 10 Best independent films list were David Lowery's The Old Man and the Gun.  Also listed from TFF #44 were Lean on Pete and The Rider.

Free Solo was named on the list of the five Best Documentaries.

Peter Farrelly's Green Book won the top award as Best Film of the Year.

Among non-Telluride films Green Book, A Star Is Born and If Beale Street Could Talk did very well with the NBR.

Both The Other Side of the Wind and its companion documentary They'll Love Me When I'm Dead were named as winners of the William K. Everson Film History Award.

The complete winners list and more is here from Indiewire.



GOTHAM AWARDS WINNERS

 

The Indie film-centric Gotham Awards were announced on Monday evening and it was a good night for Telluride...in 2017.  TFF #44 films did incredibly well highlighted by wins for Paul Schrader's First Reformed and the win for Chloe Zhao's The Rider as Best Feature.

First Reformed's Ethan Hawke won Best Actor and Schrader won for Best Screenplay.

The only accolade of the evening for a TFF #45 film was a Special Jury Award for the ensemble of women from The Favourite which had been previously announced.

Other TFF #45 that had nominations but were shut out were: The Favourite (Best Feature, Best Screenplay), Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Best Supporting Actor) and Roma (Breakthrough Actor).

Complete coverage is here from Indiewire and Gold Derby.

The next big shoe to drop in the awards parade is The New York Film Critics Circle which happens today.


 A CASCADE OF INTERVIEWS

Alfonso Cuaron

Multiple interviews linked here with folks that played with TFF #45:


Damien Chazelle/First Man, Alfonso Cuaron/Roma, Jason Reitman/The FrontRunner and Marielle Heller/Can You Ever Forgive Me? from The Hollywood Reporter

Yalitza Aparicio and Marina de Tavira/Roma from Awards Watch

Alfonso Cuaron/Roma from Indiewire

Josh Singer/First Man from Awards Daily

Pawel Pawlikowski/Cold War (from my Tomris Laffly) Film Journal

Yorgos Lanthimos/The Favourite from Indiewire

Hirokazu Kore-eda/Shoplifters from Vulture

Tom Cross (editor)/First Man from Deadline


That's today's MTFB.  I'll have more on Monday.


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Trailers for Foreign Film Contenders from TFF #45 / Chazelle Talks First Man and More / Indiewire's List of 32

Welcome back form the first weekend of October.  Fall arrived here in Oklahoma over the weekend with temps in the 90's Friday and in the 60's Saturday.  Hello Autumn!

TRAILERS FOR FOREIGN FILM CONTENDERS FROM TFF #45

Both Hirokazu Kore-eda's Palme d'Or Cannes prize winning Shoplifters and Pawel Pawlikowski's Cold War which won Best Director at Cannes figure to be serious contenders for Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nominations and could give Alfonso Cuaron's Roma a run for the money to win the award.  Both films had releases at the end of this past week of trailers to best their hype before their U.S. release.  Cold War is dated for a Dec. 21st release whereas Shoplifters is Nov. 23rd.  (By the way, it appears that Roma is likely to be released in some theaters on Dec. 14th prior to its streaming availability from Netflix , which produced the film per Indiewire).

Here is the trailer for Cold War from YouTube:

And also from YouTube, the trailer for Shoplifters:

I have linked stories of the trailers' releases.  For Cold War from Indiewire and for Shoplifters from The Playlist and Indiewire.

CHAZELLE TALKS FIRST MAN AND MORE

With the release of Damien Chazelle's First Man just days away (opening Oct. 12th, this Friday), it was not surprising to see Chazelle turn up at the end of last week as Kris Tapley's guest on Variety's Playback Podcast.

Chazelle talks, of course, about his upcoming film that tells the story of Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling) and the first moon landing.  He also talks about other topics including that famous Oscar moment from a year and a half ago.

Here's the link to the podcast.  Enjoy!

INDIEWIRE'S LIST OF 32

Eric Kohn, David Ehrlich and Kate Erbland at Indiewire have compiled a list of 32 independent films that they claim are the best 32 Indies of the year thus far.  

The list includes several films from TFF #44.  Why only one TFF #45 Indie's you ask?  Many have yet to be officially released.  I suspect the list will get larger and the crew at Indiewire says as much in the article.

Included on the list from TFF #44 are:

First Reformed

The Rider

Lean on Pete

Foxtrot 

A Fantastic Woman

The lone TFF #45 film so far is Free Solo which opened Sept. 28th.

Their top choice of all 32 films is Tamara Jenkins Private Life (First Reformed sits at #2).

The complete list from Indiewire is here.

That's your MTFB for this Monday.  I'll have more in my next regularly schedule post on Thursday.

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The First Ten Bets for TFF #45 / Awards Daily Critics' List / Burning Has a Home

Good Friday all!  Big post today!



THE FIRST TEN BETS FOR TFF #45

Here you have it.  My first official stab at guessing/predicting/projecting/hoping for films that will play at The SHOW in Telluride over Labor Day weekend.

The first set of predictions every June is fraught with uncertainty.  I look at a lot of factors:  Studios. distributors, TFF histories, especially with directors.  The buzz around films we know are coming in the fall and will almost assuredly play some if not all of the Telluride/Venice/Toronto triumvirate.  Oscar hopefuls, Cannes titles and a lot of the time, especially in early July...it's about intuition.

It all factors into my assessments.

Here's the history of success, or lack thereof, for each of the last seven years that I have been using the "Ten Bets" format:

2011: 8/10
2012: 5/10
2013: 6/10
2014: 7/10
2015: 4/10
2016: 3/10
2017: 7/10

As you can tell, last year was a bounce back after low years of 2015 and 2016.

Overall, I manage an average of  5.7 correct guesses with the initial Ten Bets of each season.

So...crossing fingers... here's the first Ten Bets for 2018 (in order of likelihood):

10) Beautiful Boy- I think Amazon Studios will land at Telluride with this, at least and maybe more.

9) The Front Runner- Jason Reitman was once a T-ride favorite.  My guess is that this film gets him back.

8) Burning- this was Cannes' unrewarded critical darling from a director who has played TFF before.   This was actually higher on my list until word broke yesterday that it had been grabbed for U.S. distribution by Well Go USA Entertainment.   See below.

7) Sunset- If its half as good as his first film (Son of Saul), Laszlo Nemes will return.

6) The Old Man and the Gun- This feels like Fox Searchlight's best play for Oscar season and thus its best chance at a Telluride berth...though they do have other possibles.

5) Cold War- Pawel Pawlikowski with a good shot to return to TFF.

4) Capernaum- Cannes Jury Prize winner and SPC's most likely shot for the schedule.

3) Peterloo- Mike Leigh's film about labour strife in Britain.

2) The Other Side of the Wind-Orson Welles "last film".  If this doesn't play Telluride I will be greatly surprised and, for that matter, upset.

1) If Beale Street Could Talk- It would a shock if Barry Jenkins' follow-up to his Oscar winning Moonlight does not make The SHOW's lineup.

Others on my "just under the Ten Bets" list: Boy Erased, The Sisters Brothers, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, The Eyes of Orson Welles, Dogman, On the Basis of Sex, Girl, Happy as Lazzaro, Shoplifters, He Dreams of Giants, First Man, Widows,  A Star Is Born, Cheney (Backseat), Roma, At Eternity's Gate, Everybody Knows.

What do YOU think?  What films do YOU think might play?  What films do YOU WANT to play?

Drop me a note at any one of the contact methods listed below.

Looking at this list before I punch the button to publish, I'm saying to myself...naw...these can't all happen...but what if they did???

So, there you have it.  Let's see now how many of these films actually make the lineup.



AWARDS DAILY'S CRITICS' LIST

Jordan Ruimy, writing and compiling for Awards Daily has posted a "Best Of" critics assessment for the first half of 2018.

TFF #45 films pop up on the list with some frequency.  Included on the list are:

#31-Loveless
#24-Foxtrot
#13-Lean on Pete
#6-The Rider
#1-First Reformed

Pretty impressive for the films that played last year but weren't released until this year.  The complete list from Awards Daily is here.


BURNING HAS A HOME

As I mentioned above,  Lee Chang-dong's Cannes critical fave Burning has a distributor.  Variety reports that Well Go USA Entertainment has acquired the film and plans a limited release on Oct. 26th in NYC with expansion after that.

The film was right at the top of the critics' polls after its screening at Cannes but had languished without a distributor until yesterday.

As you see above, I still have it listed among my first Ten Bets list, albeit lower than I was thinking earlier this week, despite the fact that Well Go USA has essentially no Telluride history to speak of.

The complete story is linked here from Variety


That's your Friday MTFB.  Come back for more on Monday.


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

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Not So Fast Don / Welles Doc to Play Cannes / Chloe Zhao Talks The Rider / Late Breaking: Ed Lachman Honored by Cannes

Welcome my friends, to Thursday and MTFB...

NOT SO FAST DON

There is yet another snag in the ongoing drama concerning Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.  The film had been announced last week as the closing night presentation for the Cannes Film Festival on May 19th but is now again in Limbo.

I had thought with last week's announcement that the last legal hurdle had been cleared or at least that accommodations had been reached that would allow the film to play in France.  That doesn't seem to be the case at this point as Screen Daily reported that one time producer Paulo Branco has sought a "writ" to prohibit the screening from a court in Paris.

It appears from the Melanie Goodfellow reporting that there will be a hearing about the matter on May 7th which could result with the film being barred from screening.

Gilliam's saga continues and it seems that we will have to wait for the court proceeding to find out if the film will, in fact, close Cannes.

WELLES DOC TO PLAY CANNES

Orson Welles may not be represented at Cannes with The Other Side of the Wind due to the feud between the fest and Netflix but that doesn't mean that you won't have the opportunity to get your Orson fix.  The fest has announced that the documentary The Eyes of Orson Welles will play in the Cannes Classics section.  The film is directed by Mark Cousins who historically has had quite a connection to Telluride, though not recently.

Cousins has played TFF with films such as The Story of Film, What Is This Film Called Love and The Story of Children and Film which was his last Telluride visit in 2013.

Also of potential interest in the Cannes Classics selections is Magarethe Von Trotta's documentary Searching for Ingmar Bergman which I could see making the grade for TFF #45.

Coverage of the Cannes announcement of additional films is linked here:

Indiewire

Ioncinema

Awards Watch

CHLOE ZHAO TALKS THE RIDER

With the release a few days back of Chloe Zhao's The Rider came a flurry of P.R. materials including this interview with the writer/director with Gregory Ellwood at The Playlist.  

The film played very well at TFF last year ending up tied for the #2 spot on my collection of film ratings from film Pros.

You can find Ellwood's article and the recorded interview from The Playlist here.

LATE BREAKING: ED LACHMAN HONORED BY CANNES

Ed Lachman and Todd Haynes in Telluride last year (pic from Scott Foundas)

As I am getting ready to post this morning word is coming form France that TFF #44 tribute recipient Ed Lachman will be honored next month by the Cannes Film Fest for his contributions as a cinematographer.  Lachman will receive the Pierre Angenieux ExcelLens award.  The award began in 2013 and past winners include Vilmos Zsigmond and Roger Deakins.

Lachman was honored last September in Telluride for his career.  That tribute included screenings of Todd Haynes' Wonderstruck.

Lachman's credits also include Far From Heaven, Carol and The Virgin Suicides.

That's a wrap for this Thursday.  I'll have more on Monday.

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Cannes Speculation Begins in Earnest / New Trailer for The Rider / Tapley Muses on Telluride's Popularity

Welcome to the Jungle...on this Thursday...


CANNES SPECULATION BEGINS IN EARNEST

The 71st Cannes Film Festival is less than two months away (it runs May 8-19) and Screen Daily has posted what I believe to be the first large Cannes speculation piece that I have come across.

As many Telluride attendees know, the Cannes-Telluride crossover is usually quite significant from year to year.  It's not at all uncommon for 25% or more of the features that screen at Telluride to have played at Cannes previously.  So, a discerning assessment of what may make the Cannes lineup also serves as a window on some possible TFF selections.

Last year, for example, the first Cannes piece here went up on March 9th and included Wonderstruck, Downsizing and Loveless.The Mar. 13th post added Lean on Pete and The Insult.

In my look at the corresponding Screen Daily article from a year ago, I included Wonderstruck, Lean on Pete and Loveless.  That SD article also included The Insult and Foxtrot.

That said, here are the films that Screen Daily suggests for Cannes that could also be Telluride players in my estimation:

From North America: The Death and Life of John F. Donovan, Beautiful Boy, Boy Erased, At Eternity's Gate.

From UK/Ireland: Peterloo, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, The Eyes of Orson Welles.

From France: The Sisters Brothers, Non Fiction.

From Italy: Dogman.

From Central and Eastern Europe: Sunset and Cold War.

From Spain: Everybody Knows.

From Latin America: Roma.

From Asia: Ash Is Purest White, Long Day's Journey Into Night, Shadow.

The complete Screen Daily article is here.


NEW TRAILER FOR THE RIDER

A new trailer has been released from SPC for Chloe Zhao's The Rider.  Here it is from YouTube:

The Rider opens April 13th.  Here's Alex Billington's/FirstShowing.net article that accompanied the trailer's release.

TAPLEY MUSES ON TELLURIDE'S POPULARITY

If you haven't heard, 2018 passes for TFF #45 are sold out.  Every level...sold out. Depending who your read , that happened in 2-4 days.  Kristopher Tapley, co-editor at Variety and long time Telluride attendee tweeted his astonishment this week:

Here's Tapley's article from two years ago that he linked in the tweet.

That's all for this Thursday.  More to come on Monday.  Enjoy your weekend.

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

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Afta the BAFTA / Trailer for The Rider Lands

Good Presidents Day to all...

AFTA THE BAFTA

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts presented the Brit equivalent of the Oscar and Martin McDonagh's Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri was the big winner taking Best Picture, Best British Film, Best Actress (Frances McDormand), Best Supporting Actor (Sam Rockwell) and Best Original Screenplay.

Guillermo Del Toro won Best Director for The Shape of Water.  Shape also won Best Production Design and Best Original Score. 

Gary Oldman won as Best Actor for Darkest Hour.  That film also won Best Makeup and Hair.  Those two films were the TFF #44 haul for the BAFTAs for 2018 as Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird and Paul McGuigan's Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool both got shut out.


The BAFTAS are the last stop on the pre-Oscar road and as such, is the last chance for films to get a little boost.  It's also our last peek at something that could point to what will happen on Oscar night. 

Oscar voting opens tomorrow and closes on Feb. 27th.  The Oscar ceremony is set for Mar. 4th.

Last year TFF #43 films won eight BAFTAS.  La La Land won five including Best Picture, Manchester by the Sea won two and Arrival won one.

Linked coverage of the BAFTAs is here from:

Variety

The Hollywood Reporter 

Indiewire


The BAFTA results have Oscar predictors all over the map on Best Picture.  It seems like a Three Billboards vs. Shape of Water race but their are still voices whispering Get Out and Dunkirk. 

My Lady Bird theory looks weak now.  The notion that it could win on a preferential ballot was intriguing but you also have to figure that it needed one big guild win or a BAFTA mention or two for that theory to make the grade.

And, of course, if Shape of Water, Lady Bird or Darkest Hour don't win Best Picture, that would break the Telluride string of having every Best Picture play the fest since 2010.  At this point, I think it's about 2 to 1 that the string ends on March 4.

Finally, the acting awards all look locked up: McDormand, Oldman, Janney (who won the Supporting Actress BAFTA for I, Tonya) and Rockwell have swept the precursors and all look like your Oscar winners in a couple of weeks.  I'll have a new set of Oscar predictions on Thursday.


TRAILER FOR THE RIDER

Critical favorite from Cannes and then Telluride, Chloe Zhao's The Rider had a trailer release this week.  The film is nominated for four Independent Spirit Awards including Best Feature and is set for U.S. release on April 13th.

The Rider finished tied for #2 in the TFF #44 MTFB Professionals ratings and #6 in the Composite ratings.

Here's Alex Billington/FirstShowing.net's article that accompanied the release of the trailer from earlier this week.

That's today's MTFB.  More on Thursday...

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

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COMMENT TO THE BLOG

The FAC Updates Best Pic and Director Predix / Independent Spirit Awards Nominations Announced / Film Stars Has a Trailer / Looking at The Post and Phantom Thread / Let's Talk Richard Jenkins

Happy Thanksgiving!  Nov. 23, 2017...I'm thankful that there are actual readers of this space.  Thank you!


THE FAC UPDATES BEST PIC AND DIRECTOR PREDICTIONS

For the third time this Oscar season, The Film Awards Clearinghouse takes a stab at predicting the nominees for Best Picture and Best Direction.  This coming just after this week's first screening of Steven Spielberg's The Post and the announcement of nominees for The Independent Spirit Awards (see below).

My last look at these two categories was Oct. 30th.  As always, TFF #44 films are in Bold.

BEST PICTURE

Here's where the Best Picture race seemed to stand three and a half weeks ago:

1) Dunkirk
2) The Shape of Water
3) Darkest Hour
4) Three Billboards
5) Call Me By Your Name
6) The Post
7) Get Out
8) The Florida Project

Others: Lady Bird, Mudbound, I Tonya

And here we are as of today:


1) Dunkirk
2) The Shape of Water
3) Three Billboards
4) Get Out
5) Darkest Hour
6) Call Me By Your Name
7) The Post
8) Lady Bird

Others: The Florida Project, Mudbound, I Tonya

Comments: Get Out, Three Billboards, The Post and Lady Bird seem to have some wind at their backs.  Darkest Hour and The Florida Project feel like they're losing some steam.


BEST DIRECTION

Here's the chart from Oct. 30th:

1) Christopher Nolan/Dunkirk

2) Guillermo Del Toro/The Shape of Water

3) Joe Wright/Darkest Hour

4) Martin McDonagh/Three Billboards

5) Steven Spielberg/The Post

Other Possibilities: Luca Guadagnino/Call Me By Your Name, Jordan Peele/Get Out, Dee Rees/Mudbound

And today's update:

1) Christopher Nolan/Dunkirk
2) Guillermo Del Toro/The Shape of Water
3) Martin McDonagh/Three Billboards
4) Steven Spielberg/The Post
5) Jordan Peele/Get Out

Others: Joe Wright/Darkest Hour, Luca Guadagnino/Call Me By Your Name, Dee Rees/Mudbound

Comments: Nolan, Del Toro and McDonagh all seem solid.  After them, though, it's a mess.



INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARDS NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED

Telluride 2017 films accounted for 11 Independent Spirit nominations this week.  Both Lady Bird and The Rider nabbed four apiece.

Lady Bird: Best Feature, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Screenplay

The Rider: Best Feature, Best Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Editing

Faces Places: Best Documentary

A Fantastic Woman: Best International Film

Loveless: Best International Film

The complete nominations list is here.

Oscar analysis is here from Gold Derby and here from Indiewire.



FILM STARS HAS A TRAILER

Annette Bening stars as classic film icon Gloria Grahame in Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool which dropped a new trailer this last week.  The film also stars Jamie Bell.

Here's the trailer from YouTube:

LOOKING AT THE POST AND PHANTOM THREAD

They aren't TFF films but I am very interested in both Steven Spielberg's Pentagon Papers drama, The Post and the latest (and purportedly final) collaboration between Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Day Lewis-Phantom Thread.  Both films have new video out this week and so for those of you that share a curiosity about these two films I have posted the video here:

The first is a new television commercial for The Post (from YouTube):

And here's what is billed as Phantom Thread's Sneak Preview Announcement:

LET'S TALK RICHARD JENKINS FOR THE SHAPE OF WATER

Many of you know that I have been not so subtly banging the drum for a Best Actor nomination for Harry Dean Stanton's final performance in John Carroll Lynch's Lucky but I wanted to remind everyone that the "below-the-radar" performance from TFF #44 is for Richard Jenkins' killer supporting turn in Guillermo Del Toro's The Shape of Water.

I have been told that Michael Shannon as the villain of the piece has a better shot but I'm not so sure.  Jenkins has a previous nomination for Best Actor for 2009's The Visitor.

I do see Jenkins pop up here and there on some of the Oscar prediction websites, so I'm not alone in thinking that it's possible.

This week PrideSource.org features Jenkins in an interview as they discussed The Shape of Water and his career.  That interview is here.



That's your Thanksgiving Day MTFB.  Hope it's a great holiday for you.  I'll have more on Monday.

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

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COMMENT TO THE BLOG

The Professionals Telluride / It's Time for the Switch / Guillermo Wins Venice / Rate the FIlms of TFF #44

Good Monday to all...


THE PROFESSIONALS TELLURIDE

Here's is your 2017 installment of The Professionals view of the films that played the 44th Telluride Film Festival.  Ten industry journalists participated this year by rating each film they saw on a 0-5 scale.  They were:

Peter DeBruge/Variety
Scott Feinberg/The Hollywood Reporter
Stephen Galloway/The Hollywood Reporter
Mark Johnson/Awards Circuit
Eric Kohn/Indiewire
Tomris Laffly/Film Journal
Christopher Schiller/ScriptMag.com
Sasha Stone/Awards Daily
Anne Thompson/Indiewire
Anonymous


15 films earned enough votes to make this year's poll of The Professionals.  The top rated film:  Guillermo Del Toro's The Shape of Water with a 4.5 average.  Here's the complete list with their averaged rating:

1) The Shape of Water (4.5)
2) (Tie) Faces Places (4.25)
2) (Tie) Loveless (4.25)
2) (Tie) The Rider (4.25)
5) Lady Bird (4.20)
6) First Reformed (4.0)
7) Battle of the Sexes (3.95)
8) Darkest Hour (3.85)
9) Hostiles (3.79)
10) First They Killed My Father (3.78)
11) Loving Vincent (3.63)
12) Lean on Pete (3.50)
13) Wonderstruck (3.25)
14) Downsizing (3.10)
15) Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool (2.60)

Last year The Pros had Moonlight on top with a 4.87 average followed by La La Land at 4.58.
In 2015, the top film was Son of Saul at 4.44 with Anomalisa second with a 4.42.
In 2014, number one was Birdman at 4.72 and second was Foxcatcher at 4.63.
2013: 12 Years a Slave 4.70 and Blue is the Warmest Color 4.40
2012: Central Park Five 4.7 and Argo 4.5


I'll have The People's Telluride up on Thursday and the Composite Ratings of both Pros and Peeps next Monday.  Speaking of which...



IT'S TIME FOR THE SHIFT

Today marks the annual transition back to MTFBs "normal" publication schedule.  The blog will post twice a week, with rare exceptions, on Mondays and Thursdays.  Today also marks the turn toward this space becoming what I used to refer as The Film Awards Clearinghouse,  From now until Oscar night, I'll be focused most of the time on the awards prospects for the films that played as a part of the TFF #44 program.  You can always check here for the latest news about Oscar, Golden Globes, Critics awards as well as other precursors as we move through the awards season.


GUILLERMO WINS IN VENICE

The Venice Film Fest drew to a close this weekend and TFF #44 film The Shape of Water was named the best film in the competition section winning The Golden Lion.  Other TFF films got into the awards act as well in Italy with Foxtrot winning The Silver Lion.  Kamel El Basha won Best Actor for The Insult and Lean on Pete's Charlie Plummer was named best young actor.

Complete results of the awards at Venice are here from Alex Billington/FirstShowing.net.


That's a wrap for this Monday.  More to come on Thursday including The People's Telluride film ratings.  What did YOU think of the films that played?  YOU CAN STILL BE COUNTED BY RATING BEFORE 5:00PM TOMORROW.

 Send ratings in any of the following methids:


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

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COMMENT TO THE BLOG

Wormwood Trailer Lands / Foundas Finds a New Cotton Club / Sorrow About Sea Sorrow / Views from the Film Field: Awards Season / Views from the Film Field: The Women Directing / Venice and Telluride / Reminders

You're staring at Tuesday, August 29, 2017...TFF #44 cranks up in three days!


WORMWOOD TRAILER LANDS

Maybe the most mysterious likely inclusion in the TFF #44 lineup is Errol Morris' Wormwood.  We got more info about it yesterday including the notes that it will be six episodes and that Netflix will drop it on Dec. 15th.

Oh, and there is also a trailer via YouTube:

Included here is Wormwood coverage from:

The Hollywood Reporter

Entertainment Weekly

Deadline

FOUNDAS FINDS NEW COTTON CLUB

Scott Foundas, who has been a Telluride festival or three Tweeted out a big surprise and reveal late last night.

TFF#44 will program a restoration of Francis Ford Coppola's Cotton Club.  Here's the screen grab of two Foundas Tweets with the reveal:

And the second:

So if you have a yen for a restoration, looks like Telluride has your answer.  Also, you have to think that Coppola would likely be in town to present.  

SORROW ABOUT SEA SORROW

After reading the NYFF announcement stories in a number of different places, I concluded that Vanessa Redgrave's directing debut, the documentary Sea Sorrow, could be Telluride bound.  That was based on the lack of any premiere status designation in the stories.  Last night I discovered that the actual NYFF/Film Society of Lincoln Center website does, in fact, list it as a U.S. Premiere meaning that it will NOT be a player at TFF #44 after all.  

Here's your evidence:

So...no Sea Sorrow.  Apologies to all.

VIEWS OF THE FILM FIELD: AWARDS SEASON

The Playlist's awards guru Greg Ellwood has published a story that focuses on 13 films that he has highlighted as possible awards season dominators.  Among them he has included Alexander Payne's Downsizing, Guillermo Del Toro's The Shape of Water, Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird and Joe Wright's Darkest Hour.

Ellwood also sprinkles in some Telluride intimations ahead of Thursday's lineup reveal so you might to look for those.

The entire post is here.


VIEWS OF THE FILM FIELD: THE WOMEN DIRECTING

I came across a couple of stories that were focused on female directors that look to have films in the end of the year awards conversation and naturally I was interested in which of those films included by the authors could make a splash this weekend at Telluride.

Both Tomris Laffly writing for Film School Rejects and Kate Erbland at Indiewire examine the group of films from directors such as Angelina Jolie, Chloe Zhao and others that seem, at least as we stand on the precipice of the fall film festival season, could make the most awards noise.

Both writers include these films in their musings that I am thinking will be announced as part of the TFF #44 lineup on Thursday: First They Killed My Father, The Rider, Visages/Villages (Faces/Places) and Lady Bird.

Laffly also includes Battle of the Sexes which is co-directed by Valerie Faris.

Take a look at the complete articles.  The Laffly/FSR article is here and the Erbland/Indiewire article is here.


VENICE AND TELLURIDE

Nick Vivarelli writing for Indiewire last week examined the dynamic between the three fall film fests that are set to launch over the next ten days with a particular focus on Venice and an ancillary focus on Telluride.

Vivarelli interviews Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera who talks considerably about the current state of the two fests and Toronto as well.

Vivarelli confirms that this year may have the largest crossover between the two fests that anyone can remember.  Venice reportedly wanted both Last Flag Flying which will open the New York Fest in a few weeks and Hostiles which we believe will first screen at Telluride this weekend.

Read the entire Vivarelli piece here.



DON'T FORGET...THE FINAL LIST OF TELLURIDE PREDICTIONS WILL BE UP TOMORROW MORNING IN A SPECIAL EDITION OF MTFB.

ALSO, WE MAY GET ONE MORE ANNOUNCEMENT FROM TORONTO TODAY...STAY TUNED...



JOIN MTFB AND RATE THOSE FILMS

Don't forget, my friends, I want your ratings of the films you see next weekend.  Use a 0-5 scale with 0 being "putrid" and 5 being "best film since..."


Have a great weekend and get rested up for next week.  More on Monday!

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

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Wednesday Special: Toronto Breakdown / Late Breaking: Wonder Wheel at NYFF...But...

Welcome to a special Wednesday post of MTFB all about yesterday's announcement of films for the Toronto International Film Festival...

TORONTO BREAKDOWN

TIFF announced 47 titles yesterday 14 Galas and 33 Special Presentations.

As I have written before, parsing TIFF announcements is about a film's premiere status.  A quick reminder:

World Premiere and North American premiere means no Telluride unless someone has it wrong or is employing secrecy.  The last film I can recall breaking this taboo was Escobar: Paradise Lost in 2014 which TIFF had listed as a World Premiere but was a sneak preview at TFF.

Canadian Premiere usually means a Telluride play unless a film has already played somewhere else in the U.S. i.e. Sundance.

International Premiere means that a film has already and only played in its country of origin prior to a play at Toronto.

So, using those guidelines, I believe that we now know that the following films will play at TFF #44:

Battle of the Sexes
Darkest Hour
Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool
Downsizing
A Fantastic Woman
First They Killed My Father
Hostiles
Lady Bird
The Rider
The Shape of Water

It would appear that Battle of the Sexes, Lady Bird and Hostiles will all screen for the very first time at Telluride.

Films that will NOT be at Telluride:

Breathe
Mary Shelley
The Mountain Between Us
Stronger
Untouchables (the now untitled Bryan Cranston/Kevin Hart film)
BPM
Mudbone
Call Me By Your Name
The Current War
Disobedience
The Guardians
I, Tonya
The Square
Submergence
Suburbicon
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri
Victoria and Abdul

My personal take:  Very excited about Battle of the Sexes, Hostiles, Lady Bird, The Rider, Darkest Hour and The Shape of Water.

Most disappointed about: Suburbicon. Three Billboards, The Current War, BPM and mother!

Other notes:

1) Pretty clearly no Sundance/Telluride crossover unlike last year's Manchester by the Sea.  The two most likely players-Mudbone and Call Me By Your Name (as well as Novitiate) won't play T-ride.

2) For the fourth straight year the Cannes Palme d'Or winner will not be appearing at Telluride.  Ruben Ostlund's The Square will miss TFF #44.  The last Palme winner at TFF was Blue is the Warmest Color in 2013.

3) Couple of other films we're pretty sure will play Telluride that weren't mentioned yesterday: Wonderstruck and Loving Vincent.

4) Of the ten films that we are thinking were announced for TIFF that are likely to play TFF #44 three were on the latest Ten Bets list: Downsizing, The Battle of the Sexes and A Fantastic Woman. Also on the list of "other possibles": The Shape of Water and The Rider.

5) Of those ten films, four were on the original Ten Bets list at the end of June: A Fantastic Woman, The Battle of the Sexes, The Rider and Downsizing.

6) The only film nuked from last week's Ten Bets list by the TIFF news was The Current War and from the original Ten Bets list: BPM.


So, what excited you?  Disappointments?  Shoot me a comment or tweet at me on Twitter @Gort2.

Many, many films were not announced at all leaving them still in play for a Telluride slot (remember that I'm completely discounting Phantom Thread, The Papers and Blade Runner 2049).  Among them are:

Wonderstruck (which we think is at TFF because of its status announced when NYFF picked it)
Loving Vincent
Happy End
The Florida Project
Marshall
Wonder
Mary Magdalene
Death of Stalin
Loveless
Final Portrait
The Silent Man (which has a new title... Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House)
Visages/Villages
Spoor
Molly's Game
The Meyerowitz Stories
The Snowman
Lean on Pete
Redoubtable
L'amant Double
You Were Never Really Here
The Other Side of Hope
Our Souls at Night
Chappaquiddick
and...Woody Allen's Wonder Wheel...see below...





LATE BREAKING: WONDER WHEEL AT NYFF...BUT...

Woody Allen's Wonder Wheel was announced as the closing film for the New York Film Fest yesterday.  BUT...I can't find any story that covers that that mentions the film's premiere status. Seems to me that if it was a world premiere they'd be saying that.

Perhaps tomorrow's Venice announcement will clear that up.  Or subsequent Toronto announcements. Or a clarification from NYFF.

Or maybe...

Coverage from:

Deadline

The Hollywood Reporter

Gothmaist

More tomorrow...stay tuned.

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

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The First Ten Bets for TFF #44 / The Distributors: Warners and Paramount / Breathe Will Open BFI- Fest

Welcome my friends...to the machine...for Friday, June 30, 2017.


THE FIRST TEN BETS FOR TFF #44

Well, it's arrived.  Since 2011, I have been formally taking a stab at what films will be at The SHOW with what I call "Ten Bets".  For what will be the seventh year running, those begin appearing the last week of June and will run on a weekly, updated basis until the day before the lineup is actually announced-probably Aug. 31.

As to its success...well, this first one you need to take with a gigantic grain of sodium chloride. The success rate of the first Ten Bets each year is less than impressive.


2011: 8/10
2012: 5/10
2013: 6/10
2014: 7/10
2015: 4/10
2016: 3/10

The average over these past six years 5.5 but as you can see, the last two years have been particularly challenging.  Last year's first list only correctly named Moonlight, Toni Erdmann and Fire at Sea.

Okay then, enough disclaiming...here's your first "Ten Bets" for 2017:

1) Loveless
2) A Fantastic Woman
3) Wonderstruck
4) Visages/Villages

5) The Florida Project
6) Downsizing
7) You Were Never Really Here
8) 120 BPM
9) The Rider

10) Battle of the Sexes

The Next Bets, in no particular order of likelihood:  Happy End, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, The Current War, Loving Vincent, Lean on Pete, Redoubtable, Spoor.



THE DISTRIBUTORS: WARNERS AND PARAMOUNT

Of the "major" film studios the two that have had the biggest footprint at Telluride over the past few years are Warners and Paramount.

Warners has particularly become a consistent presence in the past five years:

2012: Argo
2013; Gravity, Prisoners
2104:
2015: Black Mass
2016: Sully

Certainly Argo and Gravity worked out well for them both in terms of financial success and Oscar success.  Less so for Black Mass and Sully.  Still, you'd have to think that there's a least a decent shpt that Warners returns in 2017 with one film,  So what's in the Warners cupboard that has Telluride potential?

The big question, and maybe the only question regarding Warners this fall and Telluride is:  Do they bring and does Telluride want Denis Villenueve's Blade Runner 2049?

I've been grappling with that question for most of the spring and into the summer.  The case for it is that it is from Warners and it is directed by Denis Villenueve and he and Telluride have a long and pleasant history:

1998-August 32nd on Earth
2009-Incendies
2013-Prisoners
2016-Arrival

And as I have said a number of times, the inclusion in recent years of Gravity and Arrival make a pretty good empirical evidence for a film like Blade Runner 2049 to make the TFF lineup.

Finally, I suspect that BR 2049 is going to make a big splash when it opens Oct. 6th.  Too many people have wanted anxiously for so long for the sequel to the 1982 original and I believe Villenueve is going to make the material sing.

But...

I still am not completely sold on the idea.  Had anyone been suggesting this style of film for Telluride prior to 2013 I almost certainly would have said "no way" with Villenueve attached or not.  And Villenueve's track record does show a pattern of gaps between Telluride appearances.  So BR 2049 is no cinch for a T-ride play.

Chances: 30%

And at this point, if BR 2049 does NOT play, I doubt Warners has a film at the fest in 2017.

Paramount Pictures has a spotty Telluride resume:

Arrival played in 2016
Anomalisa in 2015
Labor Day 2013
Up in the Air 2009

Paramount has, in my estimation, three films that they could be interested in bringing to Telluride:

Alexander Payne's Downsizing
George Clooney's Suburbicon
Darren Aronfsky's mother!

All three film makers have been at Telluride within the last few years.  Payne has become a regular and as you can see from the Ten Bets above, I expect him back again this year with Downsizing.

Clooney was in Telluride in 2011 with Payne's The Descendants.  Clooney was a tribute recipient that year but hasn't returned.

Aronofsky sneaked Black Swan at the fest in 2010.

Chances:

Downsizing 75%
Suburbicon 30%
mother! 25%


BREATHE WILL OPEN BFI-LONDON FEST

We saw the first signs of Andy Serkis' directing debut yesterday with the trailer for Breathe and the announcement from the BFI-London Film Fest that it would open there on Oct. 4th as an European Premiere meaning that it will world premiere somewhere previously not on the European continent. That almost certainly means a play at Telluride, Toronto and/or New York.

My bet, at the moment is Toronto.

The film is being distributed by Bleeker Street Media which partnered with Netflix in 2015 to release Beasts of No Nation.

Here's the trailer for Breathe from YouTube:

And that's a wrap for Friday.  Enjoy your weekend.


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

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The Distributors: Sony Pictures Classics / Trailer for Goodbye Christopher Robin

Welcome to Friday everyone...leaving La La Land today to head back to Casa Patterson...

THE DISTRIBUTORS: SONY PICTURES CLASSICS

As I wrote yesterday, I'm beginning the annual summer assessment of film distribution companies as a way to try to read the Telluride tea leaves.

I tend to begin this each summer with Sony Pictures Classics because, certainly in my time as an attendee, no other distributor has had as strong and continuous presence at TFF than SPC.  As I reminded everyone yesterday, here is the legacy of SPC over the past several years:

2016: The Eagle Huntress, Maudie, Norman, Toni Erdmann (4)
2015: Son of Saul (1)
2014: Foxcatcher, Leviathan, Red Army, Mr. Turner, Wild Tales, Salt of the Earth and Merchants of Doubt (7)
2013: The Invisible Woman, The Lunchbox, The Past, Tim's Vermeer and Jodorowsky's Dune (5)
2012: The Gatekeepers, At Any Price, Rust and Bone, No, Wadjda, Amour (6)
2011: A Dangerous Method, In Darkness, Footnote, A Separation (4)
2010: Incendies, Of Gods and Men, Tamara Drewe, Another Year, The Illusionist, Inside Job (6)
2009: The Last Station, The White Ribbon, Coco Before Chanel, A Prophet, An Education (5)
2008: Waltz with Bashir, I've Loved You So Long, O'Horten (3)
2007: Brick Lane, When Did You Last See Your Father, Persepolis, The Band's Visit, The Counterfeiters, Steep! (6)
2006: Jindabyne, The Lives of Others, Volver, The Italian (4)
2005: Breakfast on Pluto, Capote, Cache, The Child (4)
2004: Being Julia, House of Flying Daggers, Bad Education, Merchant of Venice, Up and Down, Yes (6)
2003: The Fog of War, My Life Without Me, The Triplets of Belleville, Young Adam (4)


SPC averages 4-5 films per year at the fest. Looking at the films that are listed as under the SPC umbrella at IMDb...here's a thought or two about those SPC films:

Initially, I'm not gong to assess films from SPC that played Sundance but are not yet in release (ex: Call Me By Your Name, Novitiate) due to Telluride's "first North American showing" policy but I will have a note about that below.  That leaves eight films to evaluate.

In order of TFF likelihood (at least for right now):

1) Loveless/Zvyagnistev.  The factors:  Played Cannes were it won awards and was well reviewed (88 Metascore).  Zvyagnistev played T-ride in '14 with Leviathan.  Chances: 80%.

2) A Fantastic Woman/Lelio.  The factors: Played Berlin where it won awards and was really well reviewed (96 Metascore).  Lelio played T-ride in '13 with Gloria.  Chances: 75%.

3) The Rider/Zhao.  The factors: An SPC purchase at Cannes after a very good play in the Director's Fortnight (86 Metascore).  Despite a young director and a cast of unprofessional actors, this is a film that I just have a gut instinct about in as far as TFF is concerned.  Chances: 60%.

4) Happy End/Haneke.  The factors:  Despite some critical disgruntlement, the film has a respectable Metascore (78) and Haneke's history is very strong with TFF (Amour, The White Ribbon , Cache). Chances: 55%.

After those four, the SPC slate seems a bit murkier as far as predicting films with a possible Telluride fest play.

5) Final Portrait/Tucci.  The factors: The biopic about artist Alberto Giacometti stars Geoffrey Rush (who was in T-ride in '10 with The King's Speech).  Stanley Tucci wrote and directed the film which played Berlin.  That plus a good Metascore (76) give it the #5 spot.  Chances: 40%.

6) The Silent Man/Landesman.  The factors: Liam Neeson stars as Mark Felt, the Deep Throat of Watergate fame.  It hasn't played festivals to this point.  If TFF is looking to program a film that "feels" reflective of the current environment in Washington; this could be a way to do that.  Chances: 25%

7) The Leisure Seeker/Virzi.  The factors: Like Silent Man, The Leisure Seeker has not played at a fest as yet.  It stars Helen Mirren (The Last Station '09) and Donald Sutherland.  Chances: 20%

Note about The Silent Man and The Leisure Seeker.  Though neither has played a festival, neither did SPC films Norman nor Maudie last year...so don't count either film out.

8) Based on a True Story/Polanski.  The factors:  The film was not reviewed well following its Cannes play (Metascore 43) and Polanski's inability to accompany the film to the U.S.  makes it the least likely of the eight SPC films listed here.  Chances: 5%.

One final note:  Although I doubt that Telluride plays another Sundance film this year, it's not impossible.  Last year both Manchester by the Sea and The Eagle Huntress played Sundance first and there was a lot of buzz that Birth of a Nation might make the same journey until the film got mired in director Nate Parker's controversy.  Sooo...2% chances for Call Me By Your Name and Novitiate.


Monday's look will be The Weinstein Company.


TRAILER FOR GOODBYE CHRISTOPHER ROBIN

If you didn't see it yesterday, Fox Searchlight dropped a trailer for Simon Curtis' Goodbye Christopher Robin starring Domnhall Gleeson as Winnie the Pooh creator A.A. Milne.  Margot Robbie co-stars as his wife.

Here's the trailer from YouTube:

The scenes look lovely and obviously, Fox Searchlight, which has dated the film for an Oct. 13th release, thinks it has an awards player on its hands.

Could it play Telluride?  I'll be assessing its chances as I look at the FS slate next week.

Here's additional coverage of the releases of the trailer from:

Indiewire

The Playlist

The Film Stage

FirstShowing


Come back on Monday...


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

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