Oscar Update-New Categories: International Feature, Documentary, Cinematography, Film Editing / NYFCC and More / Kershaw Talks Truffles

    OSCAR UPDATE: NEW CATEGORIES!

After several weeks of posting and updating the topline Oscar categories (Picture, Director, Acting and Writing), here's my first stab at additional categories beyond those eight.  As always, TFF films are in Bold.

INTERNATIONAL FEATURE

1) Another Round

2) Quo Vadis Aida

3) Collective

4) I'm No Longer Here

5) The Night of Kings

6) The Two of Us

7) Dear Comrades

8) A Sun

9) My Little Sister

10) Charlatan

Other Possibles: Sun Children, This Is a Burial Not a Resurrection, Notturno

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Stacey Abrams from All In: The Fight for Democracy

1) Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution

2) Dick Johnson Is Dead

3) Collective

4) Boys State

5) Time

6) All In: The Fight for Democracy

7) Welcome to Chechnya

8) The Truffle Hunters

9) John Lewis: Good Trouble

10) The Dissident

Other Possibles: The Way I See It, MLK/FBI, Totally Under Control, The Social Dilemma

CINEMATOGRAPHY

1) Mank

2) Nomadland

3) News of the World

4) Tenet

5) Judas and the Black Messiah

6) Minari

7) Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

8) Da 5 Bloods

9) The Trial of the Chicago 7

10) First Cow

Other Possibles: One Night in Miami, Midnight Sky, I'm Thinking of Ending Things

FILM EDITING

1) The Trial of the Chicago 7

2) Nomadland

3) Mank

4) News of the World

5) Tenet

6) The Father

7) Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

8) One Night in Miami

9) Da 5 Bloods

10) Judas and the Black Messiah

Other Possibles: Minari, Sound of Metal

NYFCC AND MORE

The New York Film Critics Circle awarded their superlatives for film in 2020 last night.  The NYFCC announcement kicks off a week that will see a number of major film awards announcements including the American Film Institute, the National Board of Review and The Independent Spirit nominations among others.

From the NYFCC, TFF winners:

Best Picture: First Cow

Best Director: Chloe Zhao/Nomadland

KERSHAW TALKS TRUFFLES

The Truffle Hunters has come on like gangbusters as we have moved through the end of 2020 into the beginning of 2021 as a serious threat in the Oscar race for Best Documentary Feature.  The TFF #47 selection from Sony Pictures Classics sits in my first pass at predicting the nominees for that category just outside the possible nominees at #8 (in an incredibly competitive category).  Meanwhile Variety's Clayton Davis has the film at #3 and Scott Feinberg at The Hollywood Reporter has it at #5.

In light of all of that, Gold Derby featured an interview with co-director Gregory Kershaw this week.

You can take a look at that using this link.

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Oscar Update: Best Picture / New Looks at Ammonite / Fireball Trailer and Poster / The Way I See It

OSCAR UPDATE: BEST PICTURE

Here are my latest Oscar nomination predictions for Best Picture updated since I last posted this category on  Sept. 17th.  A film's past position is indicated to the right in parentheses.  TFF #47 films are indicated in Bold.

1) The Trial of the Chicago 7 (3)

2) Nomadland (1)

3) Mank (2)

4) News of the World (6)

5) The Father (11)

6) One Night in Miami (13)

7) Da 5 Bloods (5)

8) Judas and the Black Messiah (-)

9) Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (14)

10) Minari (15)

Others: On the Rocks, Ammonite, Tenet

NEW LOOKS AT AMMONITE

Francis Lee's Ammonite (a TFF #47 pick) has both a new trailer and a new poster as the film heads toward its announced release date of Nov. 13th.  Here, from YouTube, is the latest trailer:

And here's a look at the latest poster for the film as well:

FIREBALL TRAILER AND POSTER

Here's a first trailer for Werner Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer's Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds:

And a poster too:

THE WAY I SEE IT

With its screening this past weekend on MSNBC, there was a good deal of news that was put forth about the documentary The Way I See It which focuses on the career of photographer Pete Souza who photographed both the Reagan and Obama White Houses.

The documentary originally screened last month in theaters.

Check out the following articles:

The Hollywood Reporter

Time.com

Variety

 

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Oscar 2021 First Attempt-Best Original Screenplay / TFF #47 Running Totals / Variety's Davis Looks at Documentary Oscar Chances / Indiewire Talks with Nomadland's Chloe Zhao

 OSCAR 2021 FIRST ATTEMPT-BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

MTFB continues its first pass at predicting Oscar nominees for 2020-21 in various major categories.  Today we're looking at Best Original Screenplay with, as always, a focus on those performances that were a part of the list of 29 films that TFF released that would have been screened as a part of TFF #47.  Performers designated with *** are in films that may not be released prior to the Feb, 28, 2021 Oscar eligibility deadline.   TFF#47 performers are in Bold:

1) The Trial of the Chicago 7

2) Mank

3) Minari

4) Soul

5) Judas and the Black Messiah

6) Never Rarely Sometimes Always

7) Da 5 Bloods

8) Promising Young Woman

9) Ammonite

10) Palm Springs

TFF #47 RUNNING TOTALS

Nomadland: Best Picture, Director (Zhao), Actress (McDormand), Supporting Actor (Stratharin), Adapted Screenplay. Total of 5 in these categories.

Ammonite: Best Picture, Actress (Winslet), Supporting Actress (Ronan).  Maybe: Director (F. Lee) Best Original Screenplay.  Total: 2.

The Father: Actor (Hopkins), Supporting Actress (Colman)., Adapted Screenplay Maybe: Best Picture, Director (Zeller).  Total: 3

VARIETY'S DAVIS LOOKS AT DOCUMENTARY OSCAR CHANCES

Newly minted Variety Oscarologist Clayton Davis is a busy man as he has Oscar nomination predictions up at the venerable website/publication for 19 categories at this early stage of the now elongated Oscar season. 

The most recent category addition to his Oscar analysis is for Best Documentary Feature.  Among his Top 20 are a number of titles that were on the TFF #47 "Would Have Played" list.  They are:

1) All In:The Fight for Democracy

8) MLK/FBI

9) The Truffle Hunters

12) The Way I See It

Take a look at Davis' complete list of possible Oscar candidates linked here.

INDIEWIRE TALKS WITH NOMADLAND'S CHLOE ZHAO

Recently, Indiewire chief critic Eric Kohn talked to director/writer Chloe Zhao whose Nomadland has made big waves over the last month.  The film won both the Golden Lion at Venice and the People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Zhao talks about the process that she used in collaboration with star Frances McDormand in order to make one of the most critically lauded films of 2020.

Here's that interview/article from Indiewire.

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Oscar 2020 First Attempt-Best Actor / Looks at The Way I See It and The Truffle Hunters /The Bee Gees Go to HBO

OSCAR 2020 FIRST ATTEMPT-BEST ACTOR

MTFB continues its first pass at predicting Oscar nominees for 2020-21 in various major categories.  Today we're looking at Best Actor with, as always, a focus on those performances that were a part of the list of 29 films that TFF released that would have been screened as a part of TFF #47.  Performers designated with *** are in films that may not be released prior to the Feb, 28, 2021 Oscar eligibility deadline.   TFF#47 performers are in Bold:

1) Anthony Hopkins/The Father

2) Gary Oldman/Mank

3) Tom Hanks/News of the World***

4) Delroy Lindo/Da 5 Bloods

5) Bill Murray/On the Rocks

6) Daniel Kaluuya/Judas and the Black Messiah***

7) Joaquin Phoenix/C'mon C'mon***

8) Ben Affleck/The Way Back

9) Matt Damon/Stillwater***

10) Michael Fassbender/Next Goal Wins***

LOOKS AT THE WAY I SEE IT AND THE TRUFFLE HUNTERS

This week we got new footage from two TFF #47 documentaries.  Initially, we were treated to the a first clip from Dawn Porter's The Way I See It which focuses on Pete Souza who spent time as the Chief Official White House photographer for Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama.

Here's that clip from YouTube:

If you have trouble viewing this video, here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evHHCHocAqQ

Also, ahead of its play at the Zurich film festival, we have a new clip from Greg Kersahe and Michael Dweck's The Truffle Hunters.  Also from YouTube:

As with the above clip, if you have trouble viewing here's the link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rS1AWDp7ftE

THE BEE GEES GO TO HBO

We got word this week that Frank Marshall's documentary focusing on The Brothers Gibb has been acquired by HBO.  The Bees Gees: How Do You Mend a Broken Heart was announced as an official TFF #47 selection back at the end of July and now mxdwn.com reports that HBO Documentary Films now has plans to screen the doc on this fall on HBO Max and their flagship platform.

The mxdwn.com article form Sept. 26th is linked here.

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Lists and Lists / Seeing The Way I See It

LISTS AND LISTS

I've done all the comparisons and have what I believe to be an accurate list of where the announced TFF #47 films would have or will be playing as far as other film fests are concerned.  This, of course, does not include films (save for Nomadland) that have yet to be announced for the New York Film Fest.  I'm expecting we'll have that information this week.  It will also be interesting to see what's announced for and if films are announced for the BFI/London Film Fest as well as the American Film Institute Film Fest.

Here's the rundown of all of the TFF #47 films that have other film fest connections at this point:

Ammonite:TIFF, Cannes

Charlatan: Berlin

Concrete Cowboy: TIFF

The Duke: Venice

The Father: TIFF, Sundance

Fireball: TIFF

Ibrahim: Cannes

Mainstream: Venice

Mandibules: Venice

MLK/FBI: TIFF

Never Gonna Snow Again: Venice

Nomadland: TIFF, Venice, NYFF (centerpiece)

Notturno: TIFF, Venice

There Is No Evil: Berlin

The Truffle Hunters: Cannes, Sundance

So 15 of the 29 TFF #47 feature titles have been chosen by other major film fests.

SEEING THE WAY I SEE IT

After the reveal that Dawn Porter's The Way I See it, a documentary about former White House photographer Pete Souza, Focus Features has released a trailer as well as a poster (as you can see above).  The IMDb description for the film is as follows:

"Former Chief Official White House Photographer Pete Souza's journey as a person with top secret clearance and total access to the President."

Frequent Telluride Film Fest guest/visitor Laura Dern is among the producers of the film.

Here's the newly released trailer via YouTube:

Focus is saying that the film will be released in theaters in September.

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