And the Oscar Goes To.... / The Telluride Streak Continues / Better Than Last Year

Good Post-Oscar morning Film Nerds!


AND THE OSCAR GOES TO:

Here are your winners from the 90th Academy Awards as announced last night (***indicates a missed prediction):

Best Picture: The Shape of Water
Best Direction: Guillermo Del Toro/The Shape of Water
Best Actress: Frances McDormand/Three Billboards
Best Actor: Gary Oldman/Darkest Hour
Best Supporting Actress; Allison Janney/I, Tonya
Best Supporting Actor: Sam Rockwell/Three Billboards
Best Adapted Screenplay: James Ivory/Call Me By Your Name
Best Original Screenplay: Jordan Peele/Get Out
Best Foreign Language Film: A Fantastic Woman
Best Animated Feature: Coco
Best Documentary: Icarus
Best Film Editing: Dunkirk
Best Cinematography: Blade Runner 2049 (Deakins finally wins!)
Best Production Design: The Shape of Water
Best Original Score: The Shape of Water
Best Original Song: Remember Me/Coco
Best Makeup/Hair: Darkest Hour
Best Costumes: Phantom Thread
Best Sound Editing Dunkirk
Best Sound Mixing: Dunkirk
Best Visual Effects: Blade Runner 2049***
Best Documentary Short: Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the 405***
Best Live Action Short: The Silent Child***
Best Animated Short: Dear Basketball

The Shape of Water led the pack with four Oscars: Picture, Director, Original Score and Production Design

Dunkirk had three: Film Editing, Sound Editing and Sound Mixing

Darkest Hour had two: Actor and Makeup/Hair

Three Billboards had two: Actress and Supporting Actor

Coco had two: Animated Feature and Song

Blade Runner 2049 had two: Cinematography and Visual Effects

TFF #44 films took home seven Oscars for Best Picture, Director, Original Score, Actor, Foreign Language Film, Production Design, Makeup/Hair.


THE TELLURIDE STREAK CONTINUES

Beginning in 2008 with Slumdog Millionaire, nine of the last ten Best Picture winners have come through Telluride.  That run now includes a string of eight in a row.  The Shape of Water's win last night continues the streak:

2008: Slumdog Millionaire
2009: The Hurt Locker (not at TFF)
2010: The King's Speech
2011: The Artist
2012: Argo
2013: 12 Years a Slave
2014: Birdman
2015: Spotlight
2016: Moonlight
2017: The Shape of Water

That may finally mean that we can say that the best indicator/precursor for predicting what will win Best Picture now is a Telluride appearance.  It seems, after this crazy and unpredictable and suspenseful Oscar season that a TFF play is more reliable than almost any other precursor whether that's a guild award or some other awards program.

At least until it isn't.

Undoubtedly, the time will come when some film will win Best Picture that does NOT play Telluride.  That's inevitable and this year seemed like a prime year for that to be true but right this minute, this morning...if I were a film maker, producer, Oscar groomer, whatever...and I wanted my film to be a serious player for the big prize a year from now, I'd be busting my hump to get selected for TFF #45.

One other note:  Last night's win for Del Toro for Best Director and Best Picture was particularly sweet after the Del Toro experience we had, especially that my wife had at the fest last fall.  Again, for those who reached out and busted their buns to help make her meeting the new Oscar winner possible, thank you.  You know who you are and many of you swore me to keep your efforts quiet...so ...no names...but, again...thank you from the depths of my soul.

I'll have more on Thursday...with further thoughts as well as an analysis of TFF #44's impact on Oscar.


BETTER THAN LAST YEAR

Just a quick note that MTFB went 21 of 24 for Oscar predicting last night (after a late change in the Documentary category to Icarus).  As usual, the Shorts portion cratered the night.  I was 1 of 3 for the Shorts and 20 of 21 everywhere else.

And...look out...I'll talk Thursday about the Telluride film ratings we do here with the attendees, professionals and their composite.  It has become a ridiculously reliable bellwether for Oscar.

More on Thursday!

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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...

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Golden Globes Winners / Producers and Writers Guilds Nominate /NSFC Weighs In

Hello Friends...2018 marches on.


GOLDEN GLOBE WINNERS

Here are the winners from last night's Golden Globe awards with films from TFF #44 in Bold.

Best Picture-Drama- Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Best Picture-Musical or Comedy-Lady Bird
Best Direction-Guillermo Del Toro/The Shape of Water
Best Actress-Drama-Frances McDormand/Three Billboards
Best Actress-Musical or Comedy-Saoirse Ronan/Lady Bird
Best Actor-Drama-Gary Oldman/Darkest Hour
Best Actor-Musical or Comedy-James Franco/The Disaster Artist
Best Supporting Actress-Allison Janney/I, Tonya
Best Supporting Actor-Sam Rockwell/Three Billboards
Best Screenplay-Three Billboards
Best Animated Feature-Coco
Best Foreign Language Film: In the Fade
Best Original Score-The Shape of Water
Best Song-This Is Me/The Greatest Showman


Takeaways: The HFPA really liked Three Billboards as it led all films with four wins.  The Shape of Water and Lady Bird were the other two films that had multiple wins with two each.  TFF#44 films scored 5 wins on the night.

What's it mean for Oscar?  Three Billboards is maybe a more serious player than I thought.  Otherwise, despite the fact that Oscar voting is going on right now, I'm not sure the results from last night will make a lot of difference.

PRODUCERS AND WRITERS GUILDS NOMINATE

Both the PGA (Producers Guild of America) and the WGA (Writers Guild of America) announced the nominees for their end of the year awards this week adding fuel to some Oscar fires and potentially signaling weakness for others.

The PGA announced 11 films as finalists for their award.  That's the first time that has happened as a tie in voting created an 11th position for the nominations.  PGA finalists are:

The Big Sick
Call Me By Your Name
Dunkirk
Get Out
I, Tonya
Lady Bird
Molly's Game
The Post
The Shape of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Wonder Woman

The announcement was good news for The Big Sick, I Tonya, Molly's Game and Wonder Woman.  Not so much for Darkest Hour or Phantom Thread.

This link is to the official announcement from the PGA.

Here is analysis from Deadline and Indiewire.

Also this week the WGA announced its finalists for Best Original and Adapted Screenplay. 

The nominees for Best Original Screenplay are:

The Big Sick
Get Out
I, Tonya
Lady Bird
The Shape of Water

Adapted Screenplay nominees are:

Call Me By Your Name
The Disaster Artist
Logan
Molly's Game
Mudbound

It's worth remembering that some surefire Oscar contenders like Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri were not eligible for consideration under WGA rules.

WGA analysis is here from Indiewire, Entertainment Weekly and Awards Circuit.


NATIONAL SOCIETY OF FILM CRITICS WEIGHS IN

The last big critics group to announce their choices for the Best of 2017 did so on Saturday.  The National Society of Film Critics (NFSC) named Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird the Best Film of the year in an incredible close vote as it topped Jordan Peele's Get Out by a single ballot.

Lady Bird claimed four wins in all as Gerwig was singled out as Best Director and the writer of the Best Screenplay as well and Laurie Metcalf was named Best Supporting Actress.

Other TFF #44 films also were honored:
Sally Hawkins was named Best Actress for The Shape of Water (and Maudie-TFF #43)
Graduation was named Best Foreign Film and Faces Places was named Best Non-Fiction Film.

TFF #44 films only missed on three awards from the group.

Additionally, Saoirse Ronan was runner-up for Best Actress for Lady Bird.  Michael Sthulbarg was a runner-up for Best Supporting Actor in part for The Shape of Water.  Faces Places was a runner-up for Best Foreign Language Film.

Variety has this report of the NSFC honors including runners-up in each category.


That's your MTFB for this Monday.  Check back for more on Thursday.


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Lady Bird Flies to A24 / Trailers from The Shape of Water and The Snowman / Three Billboards Inside Toronto?

Good Thursday to all...



LADY BIRD FLIES TO A24

Gerwig and Ronan from Indiewire

I loved Greta Gerwig in Frances Ha in 2012 when it played the fest and have been tracking her move into directing with interest.  Her first attempt is Lady Bird which I have had as a slight possibility until yesterday when its chances increased with the announcement that distributor A24 had acquired the film and plans a fall release.

That creates the impression that A24 wants it to be a part of the awards season consensus which leads one to think that Lady Bird might be a serious consideration for T-ride.

The film satsr Osccar nominee Saorise Ronan.

Bring it on, I say.  Here are stories about the acquisition from:

Indiewire

Deadline

The Playlist


TRAILERS FROM THE SHAPE OF WATER AND THE SNOWMAN

Fox Searchlight has four films that could conceivably make the lineup for TFF #44: Battle of the Sexes, Goodbye Christopher Robin, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (see story below) and Guillermo Del Toro's The Shape of Water.  The buzz has been that Battle of the Sexes has the best shot at playing Telluride but FS may be high on "Shape's" Oscar chances and if so, that make make it a real TFF possibility.

"Shape" stars Doug Jones, Michael Shannon, Michael Stuhlbarg and Telluride favorite Sally Hawkins.   FS dropped the first trailer for "Shape" yesterday.  Here it is from YouTube:

The Shape of Water opens on Dec. 8th.

Coverage:  Variety, Indiewire, Entertainment Weekly, The Film Stage, SlashFilm.

And then there's the first trailer for Tomas Alfredson's The Snowman starring Michael Fassbender as detective Harry Hole.  It looks, sounds and feels a lot like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo which isn't a bad thing.  Here's its trailer from YouTube:

And coverage here from Variety, Entertainment Weekly, FirstShowing and The Wrap.

THREE BILLBOARDS INSIDE TORONTO?

Jeff Wells shared what I find dispiriting news yesterday in a post on Hollywood Elsewhere and that is his belief that Martin McDoangh's Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri is more likely to premiere at Toronto than play Telluride.

Wells doesn't make an absolute claim to that end but he clearly believes that's the most likely scenario.

Here's the link to the complete post: Hollywood Elsewhere
 
If true, it bums me it as Three Billboards is/was very high on my Telluride wish list for 2017.  That trailer is impressive and Frances McDormand may already be the Best Actress Oscar leader.

Who knows?  Maybe it plays both places.


That's your news for TFF #44 for today.  More tomorrow including a last Ten Bets before Toronto's first wave announcement and also Venice's announcement on July 27.


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We Have a Poster / Hollywood Elsewhere Makes Some Telluride Guesses / Spielberg at TFF #44? /

Good Thursday friendo...can you tell I was watching No Country for Old Men late last night?


WE HAVE A POSTER


After teasing you with glimpses of what we thought was the official poster hanging in the Nugget Theater in Telluride we have the confirmation now as the Telluride Film Festival officially announced this year's poster artist as well as releasing the poster to the public for viewing and for sale.  Here's the visual:

This year's poster artist is Lance Rutter who, according to the TFF press release is a graphic designer and also teaches design at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago.  He is also a Vice President of Silicon Valley based start up Design for Quantifind.  He also is on the national board of the American Institute for Graphic Arts.

TFF #44 poster artist Lance Rutter (via quantifind.com)

Rutter is quoted in the release saying, "I don't think it's possible to overstate how thrilled I was to be asked to create a poster for the 44th edition of the Telluride Film Festival."  He went on to say, "I believe there is something uniquely magical that happens there every year."

Festival Executive Director Julie Huntsinger said, "Lance's design for this year's poster is simply stunning."

Rutter joins an impressive list of artists who have designed the fests posters in past years that includes: Julian Schnabel, Chuck Jones, Gary Larson, Laurie Anderson, William Wegman and Dave Eggers among others.

The new poster is on on sale online here.

HOLLYWOOD ELSEWHERE MAKES SOME TELLURIDE GUESSES

You can tell that TFF #44 is getting closer as well as the entire fall film fest gauntlet as the press covering the film industry increase their focus on what films will be featured at which festivals.

Tuesday saw Jeffrey Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere post his first serious take on what he thinks will and won't and could play at The SHOW.

Wells has some interesting thoughts about TFF.

He says that he thinks that Todd Haynes Wonderstruck, Sean Baker's The Florida Project and Sebastain Lelio's A Fantastic Woman are all "locks" for TFF #44.  All three films have been on my first two Ten Bets lists these past two weeks.

Other films that Wells says would be a "good fit" or "make sense" are:

Denis Villenueve's Blade Runner 2049 (more about that later on in this post).
Aaron Sorkin's Molly's Game
Martin McDonagh's Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri
Ritesh Batra's Our Souls at Night
Geroge Clooney's Suburbicon
John Curran's Chappaquiddick

Couple of notes here:  I keep forgetting about both Batra's and Curran's films which I shouldn't as both film makers have had films at Telluride in the past.  Batra with The Lunchbox in 2013.  Our Souls at Night also has the distinction of re-paring of Jane Fonda and Robert Redford (Barefoot in the Park, The Electric Horseman). It would be a tremendous event to have those two in Telluride for a Jane Fonda tribute. As best as I can determine Fonda has never been to Telluride with a film. Redford, of course, was a tribute recipient in 2013 with All Is Lost.  Netflix is the distributor of the film.

John Curran was also at Telluride in 2013 with Tracks.

As to Blade Runner 2049...I keep hearing buzz that Warners is going to forgo any Fest play in an effort to keep the film's secrets and twists under wraps until its release on Oct. 6th.  That makes a bunch of sense to me and despite the fact that I think I've made a pretty good case for why it could be a Telluride pick...right now, it feels like it's still not likely.

Other Well's notes on some TFF possibilities on a film by film basis:

Downsizing...HE says "nope".
The Current War "probably not"
Wonder "maybe"
mother! Wells says "Bring it on" which I'm not sure if he means that he thinks it will be at T-ride or that he wants it to be or both.
Mary Magdalene "no clue"
Three Billboards "likely"
Stronger "maybe"
Suburbicon "maybe"
The Shape of Water "doesn't seem like a Telluride-type" (though I hear some buzz that Fox Searchlight might really want it to play at TFF)
Blade Runner 2049 "likely" (see above)
Molly's Game "maybe"

Again, the entire "Telluride Spitball" post is here.


SPIELBERG AT TFF #44?

No. No. No.  Not with The Papers which has almost zero chance to be ready by Labor Day.  I think that it'll be lucky to hit its limited release date of Dec. 22nd.

No, instead, I think we might have a chance to see the HBO doc about Spielberg that was all over the media the last couple of days.


HBO Docs has had a substantial presence at Telluride recently:

2012: Love, Marilyn
2014: The 50 Year Argument, Tales of the Grim Sleeper
2015: Heart of a Dog
2016: Bright Lights

So a spot for a doc about Steven Spielberg seems like a real possibility.  The film will air on HBO on Oct. 7th.

Coverage is here from SlashFilm and here from Indiewire.

A screening in Telluride would also coincide with the Sept. 1 re-release of Close Encounters of the Third Kind to celebrate its 40th anniversary.


There's your MTFB post for Thursday, July 13, 2017.  More to come tomorrow including the latest update TFF #44's Ten Bets.


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The Distributors: Cohen Media Group / Circuit Breaker Fall Film Guesses #2 / Telluride History: TFF #23

THE DISTRIBUTORS: COHEN MEDIA GROUP

One of the recent hard chargers at Telluride in terms of distribution firms that have made a splash is the Cohen Media Group.

CMG's history at Telluride:

2012-The Attack
2014-Magician
2015-Hitchcock/Truffaut, Marguerite, Rams
2016-Journey Through French Cinema

And CMG has a number of possible players for the 2017 edition of the Telluride Film Festival:

Francois Ozon's L'amant Double
Michel Hazanavicius' Redoubtable
Christian Carion's Mon Garcon
and even Pappi Corsicato's Julian Schnabel: A Private Portrait.

Of the four, the chances for L'amant Double and Redoubtable are virtually indistinguishable.  Both played Cannes with modset-to-good reviews.  Redoubtable's metascore-67, L'amant Double's 64.  Both directors have made a splash at previuos Tellurides.  Hazanavicius being more notable with Oscar Best Picture winner The Artist in 2011.  Ozon was at Telluride last year with Frantz.

I'm givng Redoubtable a slight edge with a 50% chance to SHOW.  L'Amant Double goes in at 45%.

As to Carion's Mon Garcon, I include it here as CMG is calling it a 2017 release and Carion's 2009 TFF film, Farewell, is enough to make me think it should be considered.  Give it a 30% chance.

FInally, despite the fact that Cosicato's Julian Schnabel documentary has played in the U.S. at Tribeca, it might end up at Telluride anyway.  The inclusion of Tribeca films in the T-ride lineup isn't frequent  but has happened more than once: Peggy Guggenheim in 2015, Keep On Keepin' On in 2014 and My Dior in 2013.

Schnabel's poster for TFF #29

Additionally, Schnabel has had a TFF history as poster artist in 2002 and presenting his fantastic The Diving Bell and the Butterfly in 2007.  So I wouldn't rule this film out even though it played Tribeca.




CIRCUIT BREAKER FALL FILM GUESSES #2

A week ago (June 19) I posted the link to Awards Circuit's Circuit Breaker podcast because they included a rundown of some guesses about where films might be headed to film festivals.

This week;s podcast includes another segment about the same topic.  The nearly half hour segment includes mentions of a couple of dozen films and those that are mentioned as having some possibility for Telluride (by at least one of the participants) are:

The Darkest Hour
Suburbicon
Downsizing
Battle of the Sexes
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
The Snowman
Stronger

The complete podcast can be heard here.  The discussion of fall film fest plays begins approximately at the 47:20 mark.


TELLURIDE HISTORY: TFF #23

Here's another installment of my on-going and fairly sporadic review of the history of the Telluride Film Festival.  Today a look at #23 which occurred  from Aug.30-Sept. 2, 1996.

Guest Director: B. Ruby Rich

Tributes: Shirley MacLaine, Mike Leigh, Alain Cavalier

SHOWS:

Actress
Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life
Beautiful Thing
Ben Johnson: Third Cowboy on the Right

Breaking the Waves
Cardiogram
Carmen's Pure Love
The Cloud Capped Star
Daisies
Drifting Clouds
Fly Away Home
Forgotten Silver
Gabbeh

Irma Vep
Kolya
La Recontre
Le Ciel est a Vous
Le Samuorai
Le Trou
Lillian's Story
Message to Love
Microcosmos
Riot
Secrets and Lies
Self Made Hero

Sling Blade
Swingers
Therese
Twelfth Night
Two Eyes, Twelve Hands
The Unknown

Guests:

Olivier Assasyas
Jacques Audiard
Carroll Ballard
Harry Carey, Jr.
Maggie Cheung
Jon Favreau
Don Hertzfeldt
Werner Herzog
Mike Leigh
Doug Liman
Leonard Maltin
Shirley MacLaine
Trevor Nunn
John Ritter
Stellan Skarsgaard
Billy Bob Thornton
Warwick Thornton
Vince Vaughn
Emily Watson


Of particular note were the short films from Warwick Thornton (Payback, now called From Sand to Celluloid: Payback) and Julie Delpy (Blah Blah Blah) both making their directing debuts and Don Hertzfeldt with his second short (Genre).

That's your Thursday from MTFB.

Come back tomorrow for 2017's first Ten Bets.

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A Familiar TFFer Will Lead Us / The Distributors: A24 / Adding to Tuesday's Fox Searchlight Analysis

Good Thursday Film Fans!


A FAMILIAR TFFer WILL LEAD US

If you're as glued to Twitter as I usually am and you pay attention to Telluride Film news via that media, then you almost certainly already know that Telluride #44 has a Guest Director.

The word came via press release email yesterday that director Joshua Oppenheimer will Guest Direct for the 2017 edition of TFF.

Ironically, I mentioned Oppenheimer's first appearance at Telluride in last Tuesday's post as a part of my TFF history retrospective.  Tuesday's review was for the 24th TFF in 1997.  Oppenheimer presented The Entire Story of the Louisiana Purchase that year.

Most recently he has presented both The Look of Silence (2014) and The Act of Killing (2012) at the fest.

Here's the full text of the press release from TFF:

BERKELEY, CA – Telluride Film Festival, presented by National Film Preserve LTD., is proud to announce its 2017 Guest Director, Joshua Oppenheimer. The award-winning documentarian is set to select a series of films to present at the 44th Telluride Film Festival running over Labor Day Weekend, September 1-4, 2017.

Festival organizers annually select one of the world’s great film enthusiasts to join them in the creation of the Festival’s program lineup. The Guest Director serves as a key collaborator in the Festival’s programming decisions, bringing new ideas and overlooked films to Telluride. In keeping with Telluride Film Festival tradition, Oppenheimer’s film selections, along with the rest of the Telluride lineup, will be kept secret until Opening Day.

“The Guest Director program is one of the most essential and wonderful parts of our festival,” said Telluride Film Festival executive director Julie Huntsinger. “Joshua has been a part of the SHOW with several of the incredible films he has made in the past, and now as our Guest Director. His rare combination of intelligence and down-to-earth understanding of humanity will make for a remarkable presentation of films our audience will not want to miss. Further gilding the lily, FilmStruck has joined us as the sponsor of this selection. We are beyond fortunate with this terrific combination of cinematic genius.”

Filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer was born in the US in 1974 and studied filmmaking at Harvard University. Oppenheimer is best known for The Act of Killing (Telluride 2012) and The Look of Silence (Telluride 2014). The Act of Killing (2014 Academy Award Nominee for Best Documentary) was named Film of the Year in 2013 by the Guardian and the Sight and Sound Film Poll. It won 72 international awards, including a BAFTA, a European Film Award and an Asia-Pacific Screen Award. The Look of Silence (2016 Academy Award Nominee for Best Documentary) premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize and the FIPRESCI award, and went on to receive another 70 prizes, including an Independent Spirit Award, the IDA Award for Best Documentary Feature, a Gotham Award, and three Cinema Eye Honors. His early shorts have recently been re-released online and on DVD, including The Entire History of the Louisiana Purchase, which premiered at Telluride in 1997. Joshua Oppenheimer was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 2014. Oppenheimer is a partner at Final Cut for Real in Copenhagen, and Artistic Director of the Centre for Documentary and Experimental Film at the University of Westminster in London.

“You stumble from a cinema into Telluride’s thin air, touched in ways you never imagined possible,” commented Oppenheimer. “You turn to a total stranger to share a thought unthinkable only two hours before. What happened? In the mirror of a great film, you confronted truths from which you normally avert your eyes. You recognised yourself in those delicate, mysterious moments that defy words yet make us human. Telluride's movies are empathy machines, inviting us to find ourselves in people we’d never otherwise know. Julie Huntsinger and Tom Luddy’s annual selection is driven by such curiosity and humanity that you cannot leave Telluride without feeling the responsibility and pain and love that comes with compassion. We emerge connected, reminded that self-absorption ultimately leaves us isolated and fearful. There is no greater privilege than joining Tom and Julie as this year’s guest director, sharing with Telluride’s audience the films that give me the greatest courage, and teach me to practice the widest empathy.”

Past Guest Directors include Volker Schlöndorff , Rachel Kushner, Guy Maddin, Caetano Veloso, Michael Ondaatje, Alexander Payne, Salman Rushdie, Peter Bogdanovich, B. Ruby Rich, Phillip Lopate, Errol Morris, Bertrand Tavernier, John Boorman, John Simon, Buck Henry, Laurie Anderson, Stephen Sondheim, G. Cabrera Infante, Peter Sellars, Don DeLillo, J.P. Gorin, Edith Kramer and Slavoj Žižek.

For more information about Telluride Film Festival, visit www.telluridefilmfestival.org.

THE DISTRIBUTORS: A24

One of the newest distribution companies to the Telluride experience is A24 and though they are new to TFF, relatively speaking, and though they haven't screened a large number of films at the fest, their presence has made a lot of noise, especially the last two years.

Here's the entire A24 footprint which only begins its T-ride time in 2012:

2016: Moonlight
2015: Room
2014:  _____
2013: Under the Skin
2012: Ginger and Rosa

Brie Larson earned a Best Actress Oscar for 2015's Room and the film was also nominated for Best Picture, Director and Adapted Screenplay.

Then there's last year's Moonlight which picked up three Oscars for Best Picture, Supporting Actor and Adapted Screenplay.  It was also nominated for five others including Direction and Supporting Actress.

That's a very impressive run in an incredibly short time.

My take is that A24 likes getting their product into Telluride and Telluride likes having it there.  As you can see, however, the outfit hasn't ever placed more than a single film in a year in their limited time there and, as you can see above, in 2014 A24 wasn't in T-ride at all.

But could this be the year that the firm lands more than a single title?

Here's the rundown of current A24 films that seem to have a shot at Labor Day:

A Prayer Before Dawn/Sauvaire:  Played at Cannes as a part of the Midnight Screening program where it got a respectable 6.28 average critical rating according to Reini Urban's compilation of Cannes critics.  Chances of it playing seem slight to me.  Chances: 15%.

How to Talk to Girls at Parties/Mitchell.  Another Cannes presentation shown out of competition that had middling critical reception- 5.61 on the Urban compilation.  It could pop at Telluride but I have doubts.  Chance: 15%.

The Killing of a Scared Deer/Lanthimos:  The third A24 film that played Cannes- in the main competition category where it won Best Screenplay.  This coming on the heels of writer/director Yorgos Lanthimos' Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay last year for The Lobster.  Although the Urban combo score was 5.96, its Metacritic score was a solid 84.  I could actually see this making a play at T-ride.  Chances: 50%.

Cannes clip of The Florida Project via YouTube

The Florida Project/Baker:  Regular readers of MTFB know that I am high on this film's chances to play Telluride in light of its performance at Cannes.  It was the third most widely praised film critically at Cannes in any section with an 8.05 combo rating from Urban and a 91 Metacritic score. Sean Baker grabbed a lot of buzz in 2015 for his Tangerine and I expect A24 is going to be working hard to get Willem Dafoe some awards season attention for Best Supporting Actor.  All of that and my intuition makes me think The Florida Project might be heading to Colorado.  Chances: 65%.

Woodshock/Mulleavys:  The one film on the list that A24 didn't play at Cannes.  Kirsten Dunst stars in what looks pretty trippy.  At least that's the way the trailer looks:

I think it looks interesting but I also think it's how A24 looks at approaching Telluride now.  Chances 20%.

And if you were wondering about the Safdie's Good Time with Robert Pattinson; it's set to open in August.

So, it seems to me that your two best A24 best are The Florida Project and The Killing of a Sacred Deer.

ADDING TO TUESDAY'S FOX SEARCHLIGHT ANALYSIS

I was perusing  Nancy Tartiglione's post at Deadline earlier today for nuggets that might have popped up in 20th Century Fox's presentation at CineEurope in Barcelona.  A sentence or two caught my eye as FS Exec VP Rebecca Kearey is quoted as suggesting serious festival plays for Martin McDonagh's Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and Guillermo Del Toro's The Shape of Water.  

Here's the direct quote from the post:

Those were joined by Fox Searchlight titles Battle Of The Sexes, Goodbye Christopher Robin , Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape Of Water. Of the latter two, Searchlight EVP of International Marketing & Distribution Rebecca Kearey said they would be playing at many of the fall festivals.


After seeing that, I'm inclined to bump both films' chances of a Telluride play up 5 points from Tuesday's analysis.  So Ebbing goes from 40% to 45% and Shape of Water from from 35% to 40%. I'm leaving Battle of the Sexes at 55% and Goodbye Christopher Robin at 45% for now.

Meanwhile, Pete Hammond from Deadline dropped his belief that Battke of the Sexes has, what he calls a 99% chance to play Telluride.  He also suggested in a story yesterday his belief that Alexander Payne will have Downsizing at TFF #44.  Check out Hammond's story here.


LAST NOTE FOR THURSDAY...

I was reading this story from The Hollywood Reporter yesterday about David Lynch attending the Lucca Film Festival in Tuscany and the fact that he'll be doing some presentations of Twin Peaks;The Return (through seven episodes now on Showtime) and I was reminded that Lynch revealed the first two episodes at Cannes prior to their Showtime presentations.

It also reminded me that I have a theory that master of weirdness might make a return this year to Telluride.  Hear me out...or, I guess, read me out.

Lynch used to be a fairly serious Telluride regular.  As best I can tell Lynch was in Telluride in 1986 with Blue Velvet and Eraserhead.  Screened some of Twin Peaks in 1989 (though only Mark Frost and Michael Ontkean are listed as attending with the show).  Industrial Symphony in 1990, again with no Lynch listed as attending. Lynch received a Telluride Tribute in 1999 complete with screenings of The Straight Story.  In 2001, TFF reportedly "snuck" Mulholland Drive.  I think the last time a Lynch film played the festival was as an executive producer on Werner Herzog's My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done in 2009 as a sneak preview.

That's a pretty impressive run of Telluride screenings.

Sooo... how about screening the last two episodes of Twin Peaks: The Return at TFF #44?

They're both set to screen on Showtime on Sunday, Sept. 3rd.  Maybe we should kick off the weekend Friday with those two episodes back to back.

It's a thought.


That's a wrap for Thursday.  More tomorrow.

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The Distributors: Fox Searchlight / The Telluride History Book: TFF #24 / Travernier's Trailer

THE DISTRIBUTORS: FOX SEARCHLIGHT

Today's look at past T-ride distribution outfits is Fox Searchlight.  I've tracked their presence there since 2004.  You'll note that FS missed having any film at TFF in 2009, 2012 and 2016.


2015: He Named Me Malala
2014: Birman, Wild
2013: 12 Years a Slave
2011: Shame, The Descendants
2010: Never Let Me Go, 127 Hours, Black Swan
2008: Slumdog Millionaire
2007: Juno, The Savages
2006: The Last King of Scotland, The Namesake
2005: Bee Season
2004: Kinsey

The math here tells us that Fox Searchlight averages 1.2 films per year at Telluride.

This year, they appear to have as many as four films with at least some potential to lay the festival:

Battle of the Sexes, Goodbye Christopher Robin, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and The Shape of Water.

Battle of the Sexes is directed by the team of  Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (the team behind Little Miss Sunshine) and stars Emma Stone and Steve Carell.  The film is produced, in part, by Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours, Steve Jobs).  The Boyle connection might be enough to give this film the best chance of the four to make the Telluride lineup.  Chances: 55%.  Here's the trailer from YouTube:

Goodbye Christopher Robin is directed by Simon Curtis and stars Domhnall Gleeson and Margot Robbie.  Beyond those basics, the trailer makes it seem very similar to Finding Neverland which played Telluride in 2004 and went on to one Oscar win and an additional six nominations.  Chances: 45%.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is written and directed by Martin McDonagh of In Bruges fame.  It looks (again based on its trailer) as if it is a serious awards vehicle for Francis McDormand. Chances: 40%.

Here's the link to the Red Band trailer for Three Billboards...and it earns its Red Band...


The Shape of Water is co-written and directed by Guillermo Del Toro and stars Doug Jones and Sally Hawkins.  Del Toro could return to Telluride for the first time since playing his The Devil's Backbone there in  2001 making him the only director in this group who has had a film previously make the lineup.  Chances: 35%.



THE TELLURIDE FILM FEST HISTORY BOOK: TFF #24

Here's another installment of my reach back in time to document the history of the Telluride Film Festival.  Today, the 24th TFF.  TFF #24 ran from Aug. 29-Sept. 1, 1997

Guest Director: Peter von Bagh

Tributes: Neil Jordan, Horton Foote, Alexander Sukurov

Special Medallion: Milos Stehlik

SHOWS:

Affliction
Alone
The Butcher's Boy
Can Memory Be Dissolved in Evian Water
Capitaine Conan
Caught
Classe Tout Risk
Eve's Bayou
Fast, Cheap and Put of Control
The Girl and the Hyacinths
Gummo
Lea
Letter from and Unknown Woman
Little Dieter Needs to Fly
Love and Death on Long Island
Ma Vie En Rose
Madame De
Men with Guns
Mother and Son
The Narrow Margin
Perfect Circle
Rothchild's Violin
Simoom
Steamboat Bill Jr.
The Sweet Hereafter
Taste of Cherry
Two Girls and a Guy
U-Turn
Unmade Beds
The White Reindeer
Who the Hell Is Juliette?

Guests:

Russell Banks
Powers Boothe
James Coburn
Vondie Curtis-Hall
Robert Downey, Jr.
Atom Egoyan
Richard Fleischer
Horton Foote
Werner Herzog
Mary Beth Hurt
Neil Jordan
Abbas Kiarostami
Gary Larson
Kasi Lemmons
Jennifer Lopez
Errol Morris
Joshua Oppenheimer
John Sayles
Paul Schrader
Alexander Sukurov
Oliver Stone
Bertrand Travernier
Billy Bob Thornton
James Toback
Haskell Wexler

Notes; Harmony Korine (Spring Breakers) shows his first feature at Telluride-Gummo and Joshua Oppenheimer makes his first Telluride appearance (The Act of Killing, The Look of Silence) with The Entire Story of the Louisiana Purchase.


TRAVERNIER'S FRENCH FILM EXTRAVAGANZA GETS A TRAILER

You may have caught Bertrand Tavernier's Journey Through French Cinema at TFF #43 last fall.  The film just played the Seattle Film Fest and is set to open in the U.K. in September, you can re-visit it to a degree as The Film Stage revealed the release of a trailer this past weekend.

Here's the trailer from YouTube:

And here's the link to the story from The Film Stage.

That's a wrap for this Tuesday.  More to come on Thursday.

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

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The Distributors: The Weinstein Company / Annecy Audiences Loved Loving Vincent / Awards Circuit Takes a Stab

Welcome back from the weekend.  Hope all fathers had a nice day yesterday.


THE DISTRIBUTORS: THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY

After having at least one film play at Telluride each year that I have been attending (since 2006) last year was the first in which there was no film on the playlist from The Weinstein Company.  One might have thought (and I did for awhile) that The Founder or Lion might have played but that did not happen.

Here's the recent history of TWC (and before that, Miramax) from 2006 to the present:

2015: Carol
2014: The Imitation Game, Escobar: Paradise Lost, Keep On Keepin'On
2013: The Unknown, Salinger, Tracks
2012: The Sapphires
2011: The Artist, Butter
2010: The King's Speech
2009: The Road
2008: Happy-Go-Lucky
2007: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, My Enemy's Enemy, I'm Not There
2006: Venus, Indigenes

So the question becomes, "Will TWC return to TFF and if so, with what films?"

As I write this on Monday morning, TWC really seems to have on;y two films that are dated appropriately and with enough buzz to be serious Telluride (and for that matter, Venice, Toronto, New York, London) consideration.

The Current War and Mary Magdalene.  Let's breakdown each in terms of its TFF possibility.

The Current War stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Michael Shannon as Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse respectively and focuses on the battle between them to determine which form of electricity, Alternating Current or Direct Current, would dominate American electrical delivery.

The film is directed by Alonso Gomez-Rejon who has worked in the past for Alejandro Inarritu, Martin Scorsese and Ben Affleck.  Gomez-Rejon was a second unit director for Argo and for Babel.

I have heard via a back channel some scuttlebutt from a screening of the film that was less than stellar but, this far out, I don't think that necessarily removes The Current War from the TFF discussion.

Mary Magdalene stars Rooney Mara as Mary and Joaquin Phoenix as Jesus in a film that tells the story of the female follower of Christ.  Garth Davis (Lion) directs.  Additionally, one of the film's producers is Iain Canning who also produced The King's Speech, Shame and Hunger; all of which played Telluride.

My feeling is that it's more likely than not that TWC returns to Telluride in 2017 with one film (as you might note, the average for TWC is 1.6 films per year).  

My guesstimate at the moment is that The Current War has a slightly better chance than Mary Magdalene but that advantage is minuscule.

Chances: The Current War 51%, Mary Magdalene 49%.

Tomorrow, a look at Fox Searchlight.

ANNECY AUDIENCES LOVED LOVING VINCENT

The Annecy International Animated Film Festival concluded at the end of this past week with awards going primarily to Japanese film makers but the audience award went to Loving Vincent which I highlighted here last week.

The film likely gets a boost from the win both for Oscar consideration as well as for a Telluride play.

Check here for Variety's complete report about the awards at the conclusion of the festival.

AWARDS CIRCUIT TAKES A STAB

Clayton Davis' Circuitbreaker podcast from Awards Circuit was up this past weekend with a number of topics covered in the 1:20 long program.  The last 20 minutes or so beginning at the 55:35 mark starts as a discussion about the selection of Richard Linklater's Last Flag Flying as the opening night film for the New York Film Festival.  That leads to a far ranging discussion about where Davis and his crew think a lot of films will land at fall festivals including Telluride.  Those four titles are electrifying,

The four films that are named as Telluride plays (in order that they're mentioned in the podcast) are:

Woody Allen's Wonder Wheel

Alexander Payne's Downsizing

Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049

Martin McDonagh's Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

The inclusion of Downsizing isn't a surprise but Wonder Wheel, Three Billboards and Blade Runner 2049 would all be surprises.

The complete Circuitbreaker podcast can be found here.

That's a wrap for this Monday.

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

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