BAFTA Nominees and Telluride / More Precursors Today / This Year's Oscar Poster / DGA Doc Noms Include Morris, Burns and Novick

It's Thursday.  It's January.  It's 2018.


BAFTA NOMINEES AND TELLURIDE

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts announced their nominees for excellence in 2017 earlier this week and TFF #44 films snagged 31 of them.  Big TFF #44 players were The Shape of Water with 12, which topped all films and Darkest Hour with nine.  The robust presence of Darkest Hour combined with Gary Oldman's Golden Globe win for Best Actor-Drama has given the Joe Wright film a boost at the opportune moment right in the middle of Oscar voting.

TFF #44 films and their nominations for BAFTA awards were:

The Shape of Water (12): Best Film, Direction, Original Screenplay, Sally Hawkins/Actress, Octavia Spencer/Supporting Actress, Original Music, Cinematography, Editing, Production Design, Sound, Visual Effects and Costumes.

Darkest Hour (9): Best Film, Best British Film, Gary Oldman/Actor, Kristen Scott Thomas/Supporting Actress. Original Music, Cinematography, Production Design, Makeup/Hair, Costumes.

Lady Bird (3): Original Screenplay, Saoirse Ronan/Actress, Laurie Metcalf/Supporting Actress.

Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool (3): Adapted Screenplay, Annette Bening/Actress, Jamie Bell/Actor

First They Killed My Father (1): Best Film not in the English Language

Loveless (1): Best Film not in the English Language

An Inconvenient Sequel (1):Documentary

Loving Vincent (1): Animated Film

The complete list of nominees is here from the official BAFTA website.


MORE PRECURSORS TODAY

We have a precursor double whammy today with the announcement of the five directors nominated for excellence by the Directors Guild of America (DGA).  I'm guessing: Del Toro, Nolan, Gerwig, McDonagh and Spielberg.  Peele is also a real possibility.

Meanwhile, The Critic's Choice Awards are announced tonight.  We'll find out which films and individuals the Broadcast Film Critics of America have determined are the best for 2017.  The Critics Choice Awards broadcast will be at 8:00pm ET on The CW Network.

Oscar voting comes to a conclusion tomorrow and the nominees will be revealed early in the morning on Jan. 23rd.


THIS YEAR'S OSCAR POSTER

The poster for the 90th Academy Awards has been unleashed and features host Jimmy Kimmel and a reminder of the conclusion of last year's awards:

DGA DOCUMENTARY NOMINATIONS INCLUDE MORRIS, BURNS AND NOVICK

Although the Directors Guild names their nominees for feature films today, they have already named their five nominees for direction of feature length documentaries.  Among the nominees were two films that played at Telluride last Labor Day.

Errol Morris was nominated for Wormwood and Ken Burns and Lynn Novick were nominated for The Vietnam War.  Other directors were nominated for Icarus, City of Ghosts and Abacus: Small Enough to Jail.

Anne Thompson of Indiewire has the complete rundown here.



That's your Thursday.  I'll have more on Monday.

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

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More Thoughts About Venice and Toronto / Telluride Time Tunnel: TFF #21 / Indiewire Looks to the Fall / Ken Burns on His Vietnam Doc

Welcome back from the weekend.  Here's today's MTFB.


MORE THOUGHTS ABOUT VENICE AND TORONTO

As we move through the next few weeks we'll continue to be able to gather information from the Venice and Toronto (as well as New York and London) fests that will allow us to make educated claims about the TFF #44 lineup.

In the coming days Venice will announce their actual schedule which becomes a great source of information.  The schedule combined with things we already know can point to other films that may cross the Atlantic.

Things we think we know about Venice:

7-8 films will play both places.
Wormwood is the only non-World Premiere among films announced for Venice.
TIFF announcements make us believe that we'll see Venice films: Downsizing, The Shape of Water.
Reporting from Deadline and Ioncinema have added the likelihood that we'll see Human Flow and Ex Libris: The New York Public Library.

That's five from Venice...so if the if all of these assumptions are correct, then the films scheduled early for Venice need to be scrutinized closely as we try to determine the other 2-3 films that might make the trip.

Toronto will continue to make announcements for the next four weeks.  Each time their information will likely eliminate or confirm films for Telluride.  Those announcements have traditionally come on Tuesday so look for that tomorrow.

The New York full lineup announcement should include a premiere status for each film and that will further allow us to cross films off or add films to the TFF #44 list.

As it is, we think we have relative certainty now on 13-14 films for Labor Day.


TELLURIDE TIME TUNNEL: TFF #21

My review of past TFF's has been on the back burner for about three weeks as the focus on information on Toronto and Venice film fests has dominated my thinking and subsequently the blog but we return today with a look at the 21st Telluride Film Festival which ran Sept. 2-5, 1994.

Guest Director: John Simon

Tributes: Harriet Andersson, Judy Davis, Ken Burns

SHOWS:

Arizona Dream
Aventurea
Bab El-Oued City
Black Daisies for the Bride
Bullets Over Broadway
Casque D'Or
Crows
Dedee D'anvers
Dust of Life
The Easy Life
Ed Wood
Eternity
Family
Glen or Glenda
Ladybird, Ladybird
Lonesome
Memories and Dreams
Monika
Montand
Muriel's Wedding
Music for the Movies
The New Age
Once Were warriors
One Fine Day
Plan 9 From Outer Space
Room at the Top
Silences of the Palace
Strawberry and Chocolate
Swimming with Sharks (aka The Buddy Factor)
They Shoot Horses Don't They
The Transformation of the World Into Music
The Unforgettable Summer
Vanya on 42nd Street
We, The Children of the 20th Century
The Wooden Man's Bride

Guests:

Harriet Andersson
Ken Burns
Judy Davis
Faye Dunaway
Andre Gregory
Werner Herzog
Chuck Jones
Louis Malle
Errol Morris
Sydney Pollock
Wallace Shawn
Kevin Spacey
Frank Whaley
Treat Williams
Michael Winterbottom


I also note that a future Dr. Who, Peter Capaldi seems to have had his directing debut, the short Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life play in the fest.


INDIEWIRE LOOKS TO THE FALL

Indiewire's Anne Thompson and Eric Kohn are back with their latest podcast and they discuss the films headed into fall festivals and theaters.  You can get an earful here.



KEN BURNS ON HIS VIETNAM DOC

I continue to believe that we'll have a chance to see at least parts of Ken Burns' latest documentary effort that focuses on the U.S. involvement in The Vietnam War.  The documentary is set to begin airing on PBS on Sept. 17th.

Burns recently sat down with The San Francisco Chronicle to talk about the project.  That interview is here.

There's your Monday...

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

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