Looking Ahead / Attention Email Followers / Odds and Ends: The Gaze, Berlin Fest, Flower Moon Photo

LOOKING AHEAD

I'm just a week and a day from closing out my academic year at the real job and only a couple of weeks away from an announcement from the Cannes folks about what films will play their July dated fest for 2021...which usually gives us some Telluride clues.  So... I'm starting to think about serious examination of what we know about which films are coming from what distributors and who has a serious track record in as far as playing TFF is concerned.

To that end, I did a quick canvas of distributors and films from the last five years of Tellurides (that included the announced list from last summer for what would have been TFF #47).  Over those fests both Netflix and SPC have been represented by 16 selections for a 5.2 film per year average.  This included that occasional film that was actually picked up after the fest was complete.  

Several outlets have had seven films across the five years: Searchlight (including Oscar Best Picture winners: The Shape of Water and Nomadland), A24, Neon and Amazon Studios.

The rest of list of distributors which have had multiple selections over the last five years are:

Kino Lorber-6

Cohen Media Group-5

HBO-4

Focus Features-3

IFC-3

Magnolia-3

Several outlets have shown up twice including: Warner Bros. Paramount, Roadside Attractions and Sundance.

So over the next few weeks, I'll start to look at what films these outlets have in the pipeline and assess the chances of those films making the Telluride lineup.  

ATTENTION EMAIL FOLLOWERS

For those of you who get your twice weekly dose of MTFB through email subscription: The automatic email service provider associated with Blogspot is discontinuing that service in July.  If you'd like to continue to receive MTFB as an email subscription when that happens drop me a line with the email address you'd prefer to use and I'll try to put together a mailing list to continue your ability to get the blog delivered to you.

ODDS AND ENDS

***THE GAZE

TFF favorite Barry Jenkins' The Underground Railroad arrives tomorrow on Amazon Prime.  This week Jenkins released a companion short film called The Gaze along with an essay about gthe experience of making the 10 part series.  You can access the Vimeo video of  The Gaze and the essay here from The Film Stage.

***BERLIN FEST

The Berlin International Film Festival will stage an in-person open-air Summer Special iteration of this year's festival on June 9-20 using 16 venues throughout the city.  The lineup for the Summer version of the fest will be announced May 20th.  Details are here from The Hollywood Reporter.

***FLOWER MOON PHOTO

We got a peek online this week of Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone from the set of Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon currently filming here in Oklahoma:

Here's a look via Fandango:

I currently am not aware of the film having a projected release date.  TFF #49?

That's all for this Thursday.

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The Fifth Telluride Film Festival-1978 / If I Had To / The Underground Railroad: More Details / And a Re-cap

Good Friday TFF followers...

THE FIFTH TELLURIDE FILM FESTIVAL

We're winding down the review of past Telluride Film Festivals (a process over a year in the making).  Today we look at TFF #5 that took place Sept. 1-4, 1978.


TRIBUTES: Hal Roach, Sterling Hayden, The Czech New Wave: Jaromil Jires, Pavel Juracek, Jan Nemec and Ivan Passer.

SHOWS:

Always for Pleasure
American Friend
Camouflage
Case for a Rookie Hangman
China 9, Liberty 37
Cooley High
The Devil's Reporter
Diamonds of the Night
Doctoring
El Capitan
Hellgate
Intimate Lighting
Johnny Guitar
The Killing
Koko, The Talking Gorilla
Martyrs of Love
The Messiah
Miss Mend
My Love to the Swallows
North Avenue Irregulars
Of Mice and Men
On the Yard
Perils of the Yukon
Pinocchio
Roger Corman-Hollywood's Wild Angel
Siringo
The Star
Topper Takes a Trip
Valerie
Way Out West
The Wicker Man
Windjammer

GUESTS:

Carroll Ballard
Robert DeNiro
Milos Forman
Monte Hellman
Harvey Keitel
Robbie Robertson
Isabella Rossellini
Barbet Schroeder
Martin Scorsese
Joan Micklin Silver
Wim Wenders



IF I HAD TO

I'm still about three weeks away from the summer's first "Ten Bets" listing.  For those who may be new to the blog, the "Ten Bets" will become my weekly "official" guess as to what films are likely to make the TFF #45 lineup.  Those "Bets" will then continue right up until the actual lineup is announced on Aug. 30th.

That said, for hoots, I thought I'd slap together a list of ten or so films that feel like the best shots to make the TFF #45 program with three months to go.  Last year when I did this I hit six titles right.  Last year's "If I Had To" list (which I posted on June 5th) included these that I got right:

Wonderstruck
Downsizing
Loveless
A Fantastic Woman
Faces Places
Battle of the Sexes

What I missed on: The Florida Project, You Were Never Really Here, BPM and The Current War.

So, if you made me surrender ten titles today (in alpha order):

Beautiful Boy
Burning
Capernaum
Cold War
If Beale Street Could Talk
The Old Man and the Gun
The Other Side of the Wind
Peterloo
Roma
Sunset

Just outside: Boy Erased, Dogman, The Front Runner, Girl, On the Basis of Sex and The Sisters Brothers.

THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD: MORE DETAILS

Two weeks after the close of TFF #43 and the triumphant and ultimately award winning success of Barry Jenkins' Moonlight, we got word that Jenkins was set up to adapt Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize winner The Underground Railroad.

We got more details this week about that project which looks to be the next thing Jenkins will be working on after the completion of If Beale Street Could Talk.

Indiewire's Steve Green reports that Jenkins will direct the full run of what will be an 11 part limited series for Amazon.

Here's the link to the complete story from Indiewire.

P.S.  Mr. Jenkins...will be glad to audition for any role at all...

AND A RE-CAP

Still from The Old Man and a Gun 

(and hoping I am sitting in a theater with Redford and Spacek on Labor Day)

It sure felt like a wave of Oscar-y and fall fest films made some noise this week with trailers for The Old Man and the Gun, A Star Is Born, Widows, White Boy Rick, Serenity, Kidding, stills from First Man.

There's some buzz that a First Man trailer might drop today or in days timed with Ryan Gosling's appearance tonight on Jimmy Kimmel's NBA Game Night prime time show.

And I have made my application for media accreditation again for this year's festival...fingers crossed.


That's a wrap for this Friday and this first week of June.  I'll have more on Monday.


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

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Future Telluride?: Barry Jenkins' Next Project Announced / The Square Drops a Trailer / Whither Toronto?

As promised yesterday, today's post is a bit late in the posting but here it is...


FUTURE TELLURIDE?: BARRY JENKINS' NEXT PROJECT ANNOUNCED

It's no secret that a lot of Telluride regulars feel a little proprietary with regard to Barry Jenkins meteoric success last year.  Jenkins, as most if not all readers of this space know, kind of "grew up" as a film maker at T-ride over the past 15 years and that process culminated last year with the fest selecting and screening Moonlight which then went on to collect three Oscars last February including the memorable win for Best Picture in the Oscar snafu for the ages.

Naturally, I think, those of us who love the fest and obsess over it are more than a little interested in what direction Jenkins goes next.

It had been announced that he was set to work on an adaptation of Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winning The Underground Railroad but that all changed yesterday with announcement that Jenkins is set to begin filming an adaptation of James Baldwin's If Beale Street Could Talk.

Multiple sources were reporting yesterday that filming on the project is set to begin in October.  The film will be the first of his deal that he signed in May with Megan Ellison's Annapurna Pictures. Brad Pitt's Plan B will also be producing as was true for Moonlight.

Variety was the first to report the story yesterday.


Other outlets reported the story as the day progressed including:

The Hollywood Reporter

Shadow and Act

and Indiewire.

I think it's a fair bet to suggest that we need to keep an eye on this film's development with a notion that it could be on the SHOW list for TFF #45.


THE SQUARE DROPS A TRAILER

Ruben Ostlund's Cannes Palme d'Or winner The Square has a trailer.  The tease was released yesterday in preparation for the film's Swedish release next month.  It's scheduled release in the U.S. is Oct. 27th.

The Square is being domestically distributed by Magnolia Pictures.

Its success at Cannes suggests that we should consider it as a real possibility for TFF #44.

Here's the trailer from YouTube:

The Square, should it play TFF #44 would be the first Plame winner to make the Telluride lineup since 2013's Blue is the Warmest Color.

WITHER TORONTO?

I've spent a lot of time over the years writing about the Toronto International Film Festival because of its inter-relationship with Telluride.  To say that the dynamic between the two fests (and Venice as well) has evolved since I started the blog back inn  2008 would be an understatement.

Now, as we approach another dance of fest acquisition, announcement and analysis comes this meditation from Deadline's Michael Cieply.  Cieply suggests that this year's TIFF iteration may be a crucial determiner as to what TIFF looks like going forward.  Of particular note is TIFF's decision this year to reduce the number of films playing there by about 20%.

Will that become the standard for TIFF going forward or will other changes be coming in the near future? 

And ultimately, what do the answers to the questions mean for our San Juan SHOW paradise as we move into the future?  

Read Cieply's article here.

That's your Tuesday MTFB post.  More to come on Thursday.

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The Composite Telluride / Where the Oscar Race Seems to Be / Toronto Comes to a Close / The Moonlight Crew Has a New Project

Good Monday World...


THE COMPOSITE TELLURIDE

For the fourth year in a row, I've combined the ratings from both groups that I survey after the Telluride Film Festival comes to a conclusion.  I don't know that combining the ratings from both The People and The Professionals really provides any further insight into how films were perceived over the Labor Day weekend but it seems interesting to me as one more tool to use to parse what happened over that three and a half days.

So here it is, the 2016 TFF #43 Composite Ratings.  The ratings are a simple addition of the ratings from the two groups.  The position for each film is also listed with its People's rating position first followed by its Professionals rating position.  14 films earned enough responses from both groups to qualify for The Composite Ratings.

1) Moonlight (9.19) 1-1
2) La La Land (8.91) 2-2
3) Manchester by the Sea (8.13) 5-4
4) Arrival (8.01) 6-7
5) Maudie (7.89) 3-9
6) Sully (7.68) 10-6
7) Toni Erdmann (7.65) 9-8
8) Things to Come (7.25) 19-3
9) Una (6.85) 15-10
10) California Typewriter (6.78)13-11
10) Into the Inferno (6.78) 21-5
12) Wakefield (6.26) 12-14
13) Bleed for This (6.12) 14-13
14) Norman (5.97) 16-15

The People's list included seven films that didn't have enough of The Pros rating them to qualify for The Composite: The Eagle Huntress, Bright Lights, Frantz, Lost in Paris, Chasing Trane, Through the Wall and Graduation.  The Pros only had one film that missed enough votes from The People to get into the Composite and that was Pablo Larrain's Neruda.

The biggest disconnects between the groups were Maudie which The People loved but for which The Pros were less enamored.  Werner Herzog's Into the Inferno was the other film with a disparate reaction but of the opposite nature as The Pros embraced whereas The People were not as enraptured. Una and Sully where also slightly divisive.

In 2013 the top five composite films were:

1) 12 Years a Slave (9.25)
2) Tim's Vermeer (8.97)
3) Gravity (8.75)
4) Nebraska (8.38)
5) All is Lost (8.26)

In 2014 the top five were:

1) Birdman (9.18)
2) Foxcatcher (8.83)
3) The Imitation Game (8.79)
4) Wild Tales (8.43)
5) '71 (8.15)

In 2015 the top five were:

1) Spotlight (8.86)
2) Son of Saul (8.74)
3) Beasts of No Nation (8.62)
4) Steve Jobs (8.17)
5) Carol (8.13)

With this year's ratings, I have put together the All Time (well, for the last four years) Top Ten Composite Rated Films from TFF:

1) 12 Years a Slave (9.25) 2013
2) Moonlight (9.19) 2016
3) Birdman (9.18) 2014
4) Tim's Vermeer (8.97) 2013
5) La La Land (8.91) 2016
6) Spotlight (8.86) 2015
7) Foxcatcher (8.83) 2014
8) The Imitation Game (8.79) 2014
9) Gravity (8.75) 2013
10) Son of Saul (8.74) 2015

Moonlight and La La Land bump Beasts of No Nation and Wild Tales from The Composite All Time Top Ten.


WHERE THE OSCAR RACE SEEMS TO BE

With the Toronto International Film Fest closing last night, the triumvirate of September fests (Telluride, Venice, Toronto) that unofficially start The Oscar Season are in the books and the serious Oscar pundits, experts and handicappers have begun the process of assessing the landscape.  We all know that there are more films still to come that could/will factor into the race (Ang Lee's Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk and Martin Scorsese's Silence jump to mind immediately.  Robert Zemeckis' Allied and Warren Beatty's Rules Don't Apply also).

So MTFB begins to turn the page and emphasize The Film Awards Clearinghouse (FAC) portion of this space's too long name.  The FAC will appear for the first time for the 2016 season on Thursday with my look at four major categories: Picture, Director, Actress and Actor.

Meanwhile, let's see where the experts are saying the race is and how TFF #43 films fit into that as we move past Telluride, Venice and Toronto into the fall...

Latest from The Gold Derby:

Best Picture: La La Land (1), Manchester by the Sea (2), Moonlight (6) and Arrival (9) are the Telluride films in the top ten.  Also listed: Sully at #11, Bleed for This at #31 and Toni Erdmann at #42.

Best Director: Damien Chazelle/La La Land (1), Kenneth Lonergan/Manchester (2), Barry Jenkins/Moonlight (6), Denis Villenueve/Arrival (7), Clint Eastwood/Sully (11), Ben Younger/Bleed for This (16) and Maren Ade/Toni Erdmann (37).

Best Actress: Emma Stone/La La Land (1), Amy Adams/Arrival (6), Sandra Huller/Toni Erdmann (27)

Best Actor: Casey Affleck/Manchester (1), Ryan Gosling (4), Tom Hanks (7), Miles Teller/Bleed for This (17) and Peter Simonischeck/Toni Erdmann (28).

Supporting Actress: Michelle Williams/Manchester (1), Naomie Harris/Moonlight (2), Laura Linney/Sully (21) and  Gretchen Mol/Manchester (26).

Supporting Actor: Mahershala Ali/Moonlight (1), Lucas Hedges/Manchester (2), Kyle Chandler/Manchester (7), Aaron Eckhardt/Bleed for This (10). Aaron Eckhardt/Sully (21), Jeremy Renner/Arrival (22), Forest Whitaker/Arrival (22), and John Legend/La La Land (33).

Here's the link for the latest complete odds from Gold Derby.


Additionally, let's look at the current predictions from Oscar experts; Sasha Stone of Awards Daily and Scott Feinberg form The Hollywood Reporter.

Here's Stone's current assessment:

Best Picture: La La Land (1), Manchester (3), Moonlight (6), Sully (7), Arrival (10).

Best Director: Chazelle/La La (1), Jenkins/Moonlight (5), Lonergan/Manchester (6), Villenueve/Arrival (8).

Best Actress: Emma Stone/La La (1), Amy Adams/Arrival (4), Rooney Mara/Una (10)

Best Actor: Casey Affleck/Manchester (1), Tom Hanks/Sully (5), Ryan Gosling/La La (8), Miles Teller/Bleed for This (10)

Best Supporting Actress: Naomie Harris/Moonlight (1), Michelle Williams/Manchester (2) , Janelle Monae/Moonlight (10)

Best Supporting Actor: Aaron Eckhardt/Bleed for This (2), Lucas Hedges/Manchester (5),
Mahershala Ali/Moonlight (6).

Best Original Screenplay: La La Land (1),  Manchester by the Sea (2)

Best Adapted Screenplay: Moonlight (1), Arrival (5), Sully (8)

If Stone were 100% right, Telluride films would win seven of the eight major categories.  That would be crazy.

Here's Stone's complete set of current predictions.

And from Scott Feinberg/The Hollywood Reporter:

Best Picture: La La Land (1), Moonlight (5), Manchester by the Sea (8)

Best Director: Chazelle/La La (1), Jenkins/Moonlight (4), Lonergan/Manchester (12), Eastwood/Sully (14)

Best Actress: Stone/La La (1)

Best Actor: Gosling/La La (2), Hanks/Sully (4), C. Affleck/Manchester (5), Teller/Bleed for This (10)

Best Supporting Actress:  Harris/Moonlight (1), Williams/Manchester (4)

Original Screenplay: La La (1), Moonlight (2)...should be in the Adapted category as it is based on a play but Feinberg says in the comments section that the designation apparently comes from the film's producers... Manchester (3)

Adapted Screenplay: Sully (10)

Here's Feinberg's current complete rundown.




TORONTO COMES TO A CLOSE

It didn't come as a surprise to me as Damien Chazelle's La La Land won The People's Choice/Audience Award at the Toronto International Film Festival yesterday.  If you read my post from Sept. 9th, you know that I wrote that I "wouldn't be surprised" were this to happen.

Here's coverage of the TIFF awards:

Indiewire

The Hollywood Reporter

Variety

Entertainment Weekly

Awards Daily

The Wrap

Also, Owen Glieberman and Peter DeBrudge at Variety named their Ten Best films of Toronto and they included films that played previously at TFF #43.  They were: Arrival, La La Land, Moonlight and Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer.

The complete Variety list is here.


THE MOONLIGHT CREW HAS A NEW PROJECT

In an absolute expression of "striking while the iron is hot" various outlets reported over the weekend that the group behind Barry Jenkins' Moonlight has acquired the rights to develop Colson Whitehead's recently released novel The Underground Railroad as a limited series.

No news was included concerning a time frame or an outlet for the series so we'll be looking forward to hearing about those items in the future.

Here's coverage of the announcement from:

Deadline.com

Indiewire

That's going to do it for this Monday.  Thursday's MTFB/FAC will have the first FAC of the season for four major Oscar categories: Picture, Director, Actress and Actor.  Until then,

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