The PGA, SAG and The Critic's Choice/Nebraska, Tim's Vermeer and All is Lost Music

Good morning on this Monday...


THE PGA, SAG AND CRITIC'S CHOICE

Since Oscar nomination morning last Thursday, three groups have weighed in on their choices for the Best in film.



***PRODUCERS GUILD AWARD

Well, it just keeps getting weirder and weirder.  The Producers Guild named "12 Years a Slave" AND "Gravity" Best Films late last night in an unprecedented tie.  A topsy-turvy race for the Oscar is now even topsier and turvier.  Many pundits thought that The PGA would point us toward the Best Picture winner...and maybe it has...sort of.  A lot of the those same pundits thought "American Hustle" was going to continue its winning streak last night and that didn't happen.  So, the takeaway here seems to be the most wide open Best Picture race in a long, long time.

For some analysis, take a look at this post filed last nigh from Kristopher Tapley of HitFix/InContention:

http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/gravity-and-12-years-a-slave-tie-at-2014-pga-awards-breaking-bad-and-modern-family-win-tv-prizes
 
And Pete Hammond of Deadline.com

http://www.deadline.com/2014/01/producers-guilds-stunner-of-a-split-decision-how-does-it-alter-the-oscar-race/

And Scott Feinberg of The Hollywood Reporter:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/pga-awards-12-years-gravity-672440

***SCREEN ACTORS GUILD AWARDS

20th ANNUAL SCREEN ACTORS GUILD AWARDS® RECIPIENTS

THEATRICAL MOTION PICTURES 

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role

MATTHEW McCONAUGHEY / Ron Woodroof – “DALLAS BUYERS CLUB” (Focus Features)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role

CATE BLANCHETT / Jasmine – “BLUE JASMINE” (Sony Pictures Classics)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role

JARED LETO / Rayon – “DALLAS BUYERS CLUB” (Focus Features)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role

LUPITA NYONG’O / Patsey – “12 YEARS A SLAVE” (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture

AMERICAN HUSTLE (Columbia Pictures)

AMY ADAMS / Sydney Prosser

CHRISTIAN BALE / Irving Rosenfeld

LOUIS C.K. / Stoddard Thorsen

BRADLEY COOPER / Richie DiMaso

PAUL HERMAN / Alfonse Simone

JACK HUSTON / Pete Musane

JENNIFER LAWRENCE / Rosalyn Rosenfeld

ALESSANDRO NIVOLA / Federal Prosecutor

MICHAEL PEÑA / Sheik (Agent Hernandez)

JEREMY RENNER / Mayor Carmine Polito

ELISABETH RÖHM / Dolly Polito

SHEA WHIGHAM / Carl Elway

***CRITIC'S CHOICE WINNERS:

WINNERS OF THE 19th ANNUAL CRITICS’ CHOICE MOVIE AWARDS

Best Picture – “12 Years a Slave”

Best Actor – Matthew McConaughey, “Dallas Buyers Club”

Best Actress – Cate Blanchett, “Blue Jasmine”

Best Supporting Actor – Jared Leto, “Dallas Buyers Club”

Best Supporting Actress – Lupita Nyong’o, “12 Years a Slave”

Best Young Actor/Actress – Adele Exarchopoulos, “Blue Is The Warmest Color”

Best Acting Ensemble – “American Hustle”

Best Director – Alfonso Cuarón, “Gravity”

Best Original Screenplay – Spike Jonze, “Her”

Best Adapted Screenplay – John Ridley, “12 Years a Slave”

Best Cinematography – Emmanuel Lubezki, “Gravity”

Best Art Direction – Catherine Martin (Production Designer), Beverley Dunn (Set Decorator), “The Great Gatsby”

Best Editing – Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger, “Gravity”

Best Costume Design – Catherine Martin, “The Great Gatsby”

Best Hair & Makeup – “American Hustle”

Best Visual Effects – “Gravity”

Best Animated Feature – “Frozen”

Best Action Movie – “Lone Survivor”

Best Actor in an Action Movie – Mark Wahlberg, “Lone Survivor”

Best Actress in an Action Movie – Sandra Bullock, “Gravity”

Best Comedy – “American Hustle”

Best Actor in a Comedy – Leonardo DiCaprio, “Wolf of Wall Street”

Best Actress in a Comedy – Amy Adams, “American Hustle”

Best Sci-Fi/Horror Movie – “Gravity”

Best Foreign Language Film – “Blue Is the Warmest Color”

Best Documentary Feature – “20 Feet From Stardom”

Best Song – “Let It Go” Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, “Frozen”

Best Score – Steven Price, “Gravity”

A number of the Oscar pundits believe the PGA win points the way.

NEBRASKA, TIM'S VERMEER AND ALL IS LOST MUSIC

Here are a few stories that were making news the last week about TFF #40 films:

Will Forte (Nebraska) recently spoke at the Variety Breakthrough of the Year Wards.  Here's the link to that video:

http://variety.com/video/video-will-forte-talks-nebraska-at-varietys-breakthrough-of-the-year-awards/

The Carpetbagger from The New York Times recently talked to Teller about his "Tim's Vermeer":

http://carpetbagger.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/01/10/teller-on-penns-idea-tims-hypothesis-and-vermeers-painting/

The Playlist talks to Golden Globe score winner Alex Ebert about his music for "All is Lost" and other items:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/alexander-ebert-talks-scoring-all-is-lost-getting-robert-redford-to-surrender-almost-making-a-musical-with-heath-ledger-20131212

2014: The Oscars and TFF #40/Looking to TFF #41/Trailers from TFF #40/Conversations: Dern and Mulligan/Sound and Silence at Telluride

Good 2014 to Everyone...

I hope all the readers/followers and peeps that just stumbled onto this space had a safe and joyous start to their New Year.  The CEO and I saw in 2014 by watching the last few episodes of "Breaking Bad". Good stuff.  Hale Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul.


2014: THE OSCARS AND TFF #40

As we wait for the next two weeks for Oscar nomination morning (Jan. 16), I'll be posting Oscar prediction updates in each of the posts between now and then.  Today...looking at a different metric.  Just to see what it would tell me, I've put together the results of "Best Film" announcements from: The National Board of Review, The American Film Institute, The New York Film Critics Circle, The Los Angeles Film Critics, The HFPA's Golden Globes and The Screen Actors Guild.

Working with the choices from these six organizations and setting a standard that possible nominees had to be named by at least 2 of them, here's what they reveal as the "probable" Oscar nominees on Jan. 16.

Best Picture:  Four films were named four times and would, therefore seem the most likely nominees: "12 Years a Slave", "Gravity", "American Hustle" and "Her".

Three films have three mentions: "Nebraska", "Inside Llewyn Davis" and "The Wolf of Wall Street"

Three films are mentioned twice: "Captain Phillips", "Fruitvale Station" and "Saving Mr. Banks".

How accurate is this method?  I have no real idea as I've never tried it before.  I can tell you that in 2012 the same method would have suggested that the Best Picture nominees would be: "Argo", "Django Unchained", "The Life of Pi", "Lincoln", "Zero Dark Thirty", "Les Miserables", "Moonrise Kingdom", Silver Linings Playbook", "Beats of the Southern Wild" and "The Exotic Marigold Hotel" (seriously).

As you remember, the actual nominees included "Amour" and excluded "Moonrise" and "Marigold".  So this metric would have predicted 8 of the 9 Best Picture nominees last year.

Monday, I'll post an update for the Big Eight categories using my usual methods.

Finally, Kris Tapley at HitFix/InContention reminds us that the Producers Guild announces their nominees today.

LOOKING TO TFF #41

It's never too early to begin thinking about what might be on the bill of fare for the next Telluride Film Festival.  Even though we're still eight months away, we can begin to parse various pieces of information and start speculating.

For example, HitFix posted their "25 Most Anticipated Movies of 2014".  Form their list we can glean some films that have the potential to make the grade at TFF #41.  Obviously, there are some films that aren't likely, Christopher Nolan's "Interstellar" for example...although, after seeing "Gravity" at T-ride last year, maybe I shouldn't close that door.  You can find the HitFix complete list here:

http://www.hitfix.com/motion-captured/25-most-anticipated-movies-of-2014-interstellar-x-men-mockingjay

From their list, films that could conceivably be on Telluride's radar include:

#24 "Foxcatcher"...yea, yea...I know.  I had this on the TFF #40 list for most of last year and then the decision came down to move the film to 2014.  The chances of it being held for an awards friendly release date are probably pretty good (it doesn't have an announced release date to the best of my knowledge) and as I have pointed out before, Bennett Miller had a decent run after "Capote" showed at the SHOW in 2005 and to top it off, its U.S. distributor is Sony Pictures Classics so call it a "maybe".

The only other two on the HitFix list that seem to have some Telluride "feel" are Angelina Jolie's "Unbroken" at #16 and Jon Stewart's (of The Daily Show) "Rosewater" at #8 and neither one would seem to be particularly strong candidate for Telluride inclusion based on the filmmakers, studios and distributors known to be involved at this time.

A COUPLE OF TRAILERS FROM TFF #40

One of the more popular, if not THE most popular film that screened at Telluride last Labor Day was Penn and teller's documentary "Tim's Vermeer".  It's in the conversation for a Best Feature Doc Oscar nomination and it's safe to say that Telluride audiences loved it.  It topped my "People's Telluride" film ratings with a 4.67 average rank on the five point scale, beating "12 Years a Slave" and "Gravity".

The Playlist linked to the trailer for the film in this story this week:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/watch-trailer-for-acclaimed-oscar-contending-documentary-tims-vermeer-20131230

Meanwhile, one of the most divisive and least well received films of the fest also put up a trailer this week.  Jonathan Glazer's "Under the Skin" was dead last (of the 21 films that got enough ratings to warrant inclusion on the list) on The People's Telluride ratings with a 2.0.  I actually admired the film.  I think it succeeded in creating the world that Glazer wanted us to experience.

Thompson on Hollywood reported that the film will be released April 4 and also linked to its trailer here:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/under-the-skin-jonathan-glazer-release-date-a24


CONVERSATIONS

Two of my favorite films from TFF #40 continue to get a lot of ink as the awards season goes on and that includes continuing interviews with the stars of "Nebraska" and "Inside Llewyn Davis".

Bruce Dern's awards offensive included an interview with Walter Scott of Parade that you can find here:

http://www.parade.com/243081/walterscott/bruce-derns-take-on-hollywood-today-you-cant-be-bigger-than-life/

And Carey Mulligan talked to Steve Pond of The Wrap about "Llewyn" (and includes a brief mention of TFF #41 possible film "Far From the Madding Crowd"):

http://www.thewrap.com/carey-mulligan-coen-brothers-inside-llewyn-davis-nasty-girl-swear-words


SOUND AND SILENCE AT TELLURIDE

Deadline put up a story this week about their take on the use of silence in films this past year and the impact that could have on the Sound Editing Oscar field.  The three films they focused on: "Gravity", "All is Lost" and "12 Years a Slave"...Telluride much?

Here's the link to that story:

http://www.deadline.com/2013/12/oscars-sound-editing-gravity-12-years-a-slave-all-is-lost/


More on Monday and Happy New Year one more time.

Peter Knegt's Take/L.A. Critics/New York Online/Boston Society/

Good Monday Everyone!

I'm continuing to look at how the Oscar nominations may shake out for TFF #40 films through the individual predictions of some of the Oscar experts that I use to calibrate The Film Awards Clearinghouse standings. Today I am looking at the predictions of IndieWire's Peter Knegt.  Here's where he is:

12 Years a Slave: Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Film Editing, Production Design, Costume, Score, Makeup/Hair.  Total-12

Gravity: Best Picture, Director, Actress, Cinematography, Film Editing, Score, Visual Effects, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing.  Total-9

Nebraska: Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actress, Original Screenplay.  Total-5

Inside Llewyn Davis: Best Picture, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Production Design, Costume. Total-5

All is Lost: Best Actor, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing.  Total-3.

Single nominations for:

Gloria: Best Foreign Film
The Past: Best Foreign Film
Tim's Vermeer: Best Doc
The Wind Rises": Best Animated Feature
Prisoners: Cinematography

TOTAL TFF #40 nominations: 39

Also 4 nominations for TFF #39 Films:

The Hunt and Wadjda for Best Foreign Film
The Act of Killing and Stories We Tell for Best Documentary


LOS ANGELES FILM CRITICS:

Yesterday the L.A. film critics met up to vote on their choices for the best of 2013.  There was an occasional surprise here and there including three ties.  Here are the results from L.A. (Telluride films in bold):



Best Picture (tie) Gravity and Her
Best Actress (tie) Cate Blanchett/Blue Jasmine and Adele Exarchopolous/Blue is the Warmest Color
Best Screenplay: Before Midnight (Runner Up; Her)
Best Actor: Bruce Dern/Nebraska (Runner Up; Chiwetel Ejiofor/12 Years a Slave)
Best Director: Alfonso Cuaron/Gravity (Runner Up: Spike Jonze/Her)
Best Foreign Language Film: Blue is the Warmest Color (Runner Up: The Great Beauty)
Best Documentary: Stories We Tell (Runner Up: The Act of Killing)
Best Score: Inside Llewyn Davis (Runner Up: Her)
Best Animated Feature: Ernest and Celestine (Runner Up: The Wind Rises)
Best Supporting Actor: (tie): James Franco/Spring Breakers and Jared Leto/Dallas Buyers Club
Cinematography: Gravity (Runner Up: Inside Llewyn Davis)
Best Ediitng: Gravity (Runner Up: Upstream Color)
Supporting Actress: Lupita Nyong'o/12 Years a Slave (Runner Up: June Sqibb/Nebraska)
Best Production Design : Her (Runner Up: Inside Llewyn Davis)
 
Telluride #40 films named in 9 of 14 categories.  TFF #39 film also named Best Doc.  TFF #40 films also runners-up in 5 categories.


NEW YORK ONLINE AND BOSTON

Additionally, New York's Online Critics and Boston's Society of Film Critics organization also announced their winners yesterday.  As usual, Telluride films are bolded for your reading enjoyment.

From The Boston Society of Film Critics:

Best Picture:
12 Years a Slave

Best Foreign Language Film:
Wadjda

Best Director:
Steve McQueen for 12 Years a Slave

Best Actor:
Chiwetel Ejiofior for 12 Years a Slave

Best Actress: 
Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine

Best Supporting Actor: 
James Gandolfini for Enough Said

Best Supporting Actress:
June Squibb for Nebraska

Best Ensemble Cast:
Nebraska

Best Screenplay:
Nicole Holofcener for Enough Said

Best Documentary: 
The Act of Killing

Best New Filmmaker:
Ryan Coogler for Fruitvale Station

Best Animated Film:
The Wind Rises

Best Cinematography: 
Gravity (Emmanuel Lubezki)

Best Editing:
Rush (Daniel P. Hanley, Mike Hill)

Best Use of Music in a Film:
Inside Llewyn Davis

TFF #40 films with 8 of the BSFC 15 awards with TFF #39 acounting for 2 others.

The winners of the 2013 New York Film Critics Online Awards are:

Best Picture:
12 Years a Slave

Best Foreign Language Film:
Blue is the Warmest Color

Best Documentary:
The Act of Killing

Best Animated Feature:
The Wind Rises

Best Actor:
Chiwetel Ejiofor for 12 Years a Slave

Best Actress:
Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine

Best Director:
Alfonso Cuaron for Gravity

Best Debut Director:
Ryan Coogler for Fruitvale Station

Best Supporting Actor:
Jared Leto for Dallas Buyers Club

Best Supporting Actress:
Lupita Nyong'o for 12 Years a Slave

Best Ensemble:
American Hustle

Best Breakthrough Performance:
Adele Exarchopoulos for Blue is The Warmest Color

Best Cinematography:
Emmanuel Lubezki for Gravity

Best Use of Music:
Inside Llewyn Davis

 The NYFCO awards TFF #40 films 9 of their 14 with TFF #39 picking up an additional award.

Of these three groups, probably the biggest noise comes from the L.A. critics signaling a very good day fro "Gravity".  Spike Jonze's "Her" also was well represented in L.A.'s announcement. "12 Years a Slave" had an "okay" day with a win for Nyong'o but much stronger showings in the NYFCO and BSFC balloting.

Totals from all three critics groups taken together:

TFF #40 Films:

Gravity-8
12 Years-7
Blue is the Warmest-4
Nebraska-3
Inside Llewyn Davis-3
The Wind Rises-2


TFF #39 Recognized films: Act of Killing-2, Stories We Tell-1, Wadjda-1

No love for Wolf of Wall Street, Capt. Phillips or Saving Mr. Banks and only one mention  for American Hustle.

COENS AND LLEWYN

Movies.com talks to the Coen Brothers about "Inside Llewyn Davis":

http://www.movies.com/movie-news/coen-brothers-interview-inside-llewyn-davis/14306


TIM TALKS

Thompson on Hollywood posted this discussion of process with the subject of Penn and Teller's "Tim's Vermeer":

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/exclusive-video-inventor-tim-jenison-discusses-how-he-cracked-a-350-year-old-mystery-in-oscar-shortlisted-doc-tims-vermeer



More on Thursday including Golden Globe nominations.

NBR and New York Critics...What's It Mean?/Llewyn's About to Be Inside...Theaters/Doc Shortlist/Bob Talks Lost/More on 12 Years

NBR AND THE NEW YORK CRITICS...WHAT'S IT MEAN?

The choices of the New York Film Critics Circle that were announced on Tuesday... (TFF #40 Films in Bold)

Best Picture: American Hustle
Best Director: Steve McQueen/12 Years a Slave
Best Actress: Cate Blanchett/Blue Jasmine
Best Actor: Robert Redford/All is Lost
Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Lawrence/American Hustle
Best Screenplay: American Hustle
Best Cinematography: Inside Llewyn Davis
Best Foreign Film: Blue is the Warmest Color
Best First Film: Fruitvale Station
Best Animated Feature: The Wind Rises
Best Non-Fiction: Stories We Tell***

***TFF #39 film


And the announced winners from the National Board of Review from yesterday:



What's it all mean?

I have said since before TFF #40 started that I expected "12 Years a Slave" to win Best Picture.  I'm also on record as having said (since its first trailer dropped) that David O. Russell's "American Hustle" might have the best chance of beating "12 Years".  In light of the last week or so, I still feel the same way...though a lot of people are on the "Gravity" and/or "Wolf of Wall Street" wagon as well.

My take on the NYFCC wins is that they do give "American Hustle" an immediate boost but that the reported closeness of the vote for Best Picture and the Steve McQueen win for Best Director means that "12 Years a Slave" is still in very good shape.  I think that "Gravity" is the film that may have been nicked up by its exclusion altogether from the NYFCC announcement.

Redford's NYFCC win gives him a shot of adrenaline in the Best Actor race, which many think is the most competitive of all the major categories.

Now, on to the parsing of yesterday's NBR announcement...Here's that list again:

NBR NAMES SPIKE JONZE'S "HER" BEST PICTURE OF 2013

Telluride Film in Bold...

Best Film:  HER
Best Director: Spike Jonze, HER
Best Actor: Bruce Dern, NEBRASKA
Best Actress: Emma Thompson, SAVING MR. BANKS
Best Supporting Actor: Will Forte, NEBRASKA
Best Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer, FRUITVALE STATION
Best Original Screenplay: Joel and Ethan Coen, Inside LLEWYN Davis
Best Adapted Screenplay: Terence Winter, THE Wolf of Wall Street
Best Animated Feature: The Wind Rises
Breakthrough Performance: Michael B. Jordan, Fruitvale Station
Breakthrough Performance: Adele Exarchopoulos, BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOR
Best Directorial Debut: Ryan Coogler, Fruitvale Station
Best Foreign Language Film:  THE PAST
Best Documentary: Stories We Tell
William K. Everson Film History Award: George Stevens, Jr.
Best Ensemble:  PRISONERS
Spotlight Award: Career Collaboration of Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio
NBR Freedom of Expression Award: Wadjda
Creative Innovation in Filmmaking Award: Gravity

Top Films
(in alphabetical order)
12 YEARS A SLAVE
Fruitvale Station
Gravity
Inside Llewyn Davis
Lone Survivor
Nebraska
Prisoners
Saving Mr. Banks
The Secret Life of Walter MITTY
THE Wolf of Wall Street

Top 5 Foreign Language Films
(In Alphabetical Order)
Beyond the Hills
Gloria
The Grandmaster
A Hijacking
The Hunt

Top 5 Documentaries
(In Alphabetical Order)
20 Feet from Stardom
The Act of Killing
After Tiller
Casting By
The Square

Top 10 Independent Films
(In Alphabetical Order)
Ain’t Them Bodies Saints
Dallas Buyers Club
In a World…
Mother of George
Much Ado About Nothing
Mud
The Place Beyond the Pines
Short Term 12
Sightseers
The Spectacular Now

Huge boost for "Her" and now it probably moves up on a number of Oscarologists charts as a potential Bet Picture nominee.  "Nebraska" gets a boost too.  Certainly for Dern's nominations chances but the inclusion of Forte as Supporting winner may help him become a part of the conversation and likely helps the film overall in the Best Picture race.

Also, a likely boost for "Prisoners", which has been largely forgotten in the last month, as well as "Fruitvale Station".  I don't think that these results mean that "Her" moves up to the top of the board...I still think "12 Years" probably is the frontrunner.  It is worth  noting that "American Hustle", which the NYFCC thought was triple worthy of notice on Tuesday, wasn't mentioned at all by the NBR yesterday.

LLEWYN DAVIS ABOUT TO BE INSIDE...THEATERS

The Coen Brothers fantastic "Inside Llewyn Davis" is set to open in limited fashion this weekend and, as you might expect, there is an intensification of P.R. accompanying that.  I've linked a few things that seemed interesting...btw...buy the album, it's terrific!

From The Playlist, Charlie Schmidlin talks to actress Carey Mulligan about "Llewyn" and other matters:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/carey-mulligan-talks-ferocity-in-her-inside-llewyn-davis-character-nicholas-winding-refns-i-walk-with-the-dead-more-20131203


Casey Cipriani talks to The Coens about the music of the film for IndieWire here;

http://www.indiewire.com/article/can-inside-llewyn-davis-become-the-next-o-brother-where-art-thou-soundtrack

And as a side note, the AP via The Playlist reports that the Coens may be penning a film set in ancient Rome...really:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/the-coen-brothers-say-theyre-writing-a-sandal-movie-set-in-ancient-rome-20131203

DOCS AND THE LAST TWO TELLURIDES

The Academy's short list for the documentary feature Oscar was released this week and includes 2 TFF #39 films and a single possibility from TFF #40.  The Los Angeles Times reports that TFF #39 docs Sarah Polley's  "Stories We Tell" and Joshua Oppenheimer's  "The Act of Killing" made the cut as did Teller's "Tim's Vermeer" which was the highest rated film on The People's Telluride poll I conducted after the conclusion of this year's film.

Here's the link to the complete L.A. Times article which includes the complete list of short-listed documentaries:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/goldstandard/la-et-mn-oscar-documentary-short-list-20131203,0,40560.story#axzz2mYhmgxUg


BOB TALKS LOST

Anne Thompson talks to NYFCC Best Actor winner Robert Redford about his role in J.C. Chandor's "All Is Lost":

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/goldstandard/la-et-mn-oscar-documentary-short-list-20131203,0,40560.story#axzz2mYhmgxUg


MORE ABOUT THE SLAVE FOR 12 YEARS

The L.A. Times also posted this featurette video about the real life Solomon Northup.  Check it here:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/moviesnow/la-et-mn-12-years-a-slave-legacy-video-featurette-solomon-northup-20131202,0,3863922.story#axzz2mYhmgxUg


More on Monday...have a great weekend!

Telluride #40 and Oscar #86/Independent Spirt and Telluride/No Longer Coming Attraction/Tim's Producer/Oscar Talks Llewyn

Good Thanksgiving Thursday to Everyone...I'm thankful for all of you that occasionally read this space.  Reporting today from the Rio Grande Art and Craft Show in Albuquerque, NM.  The CEO and I are here until Sunday slinging art for The People!

TELLURIDE #40 AND OSCAR #86

With today's post I'm going to start to try to take a look at a more comprehensive view of how this year's Telluride Festival will affect the Oscar nominations.  To do this, I'll be focusing on the comprehensive predictions from some of the Oscarologists that I frequently study beginning today with the InContention potion of the HitFix website.  InContention is edited by Kristopher Tapley.

What I've done is collected the predictions from InContention for every film that played at Telluride this year (and actually 4 from TFF #39).  Here's what Kris and the InContention crew are currently predicting:

11 nominations (and the most for) Steve McQueen's "12 Years a Slave": Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Film Editing, Original Score, Production Design and Costume.

10 nominations for Alfonso Cuaron's "Gravity": Best Picture, Director, Actress, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Film Editing, Original Score, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing and Visual Effects.

6 nominations for The Coen Brothers "Inside Llewyn Davis": Best Picture, Director(s), Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Production Design and Sound Mixing.

5 nominations for Alexander Payne's "Nebraska": Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actress, Original Screenplay.

3 nominations for "All is :Lost": Best Actor, Sound Mixing and Sound Editing.

And single nominations for "The Invisible Woman": Costume, "Tim's Vermeer": Documentary, "The Wind Rises": Animated Feature and "Gloria": Foreign Language Film.

That's a total of 39 nominations!  Additionally, four TFF #39 films are included in InContention predictions.  This doesn't include the possibility of some other nominations in the "Shorts" categories.

"The Hunt" and "Wadjda" for Foreign Language Film and "Stories We Tell" and "The Act of Killing" for Documentary.

I'll take a look at Awards Daily's predictions in the next post.

INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AND TELLURIDE

The Independent Spirit Award nominations were announced on Tuesday and Telluride's 40th edition was overwhelmingly represented (TFF #39 was repped too).  In all, TFF #40 films were nominated 22 times.  Steve McQueen's "12 Years a Slave" led the onslaught with seven nominations: Best Feature, Director, Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Screenplay and Cinematography.

Alexander Payne's "Nebraska" was a close second with six nominations: Feature, Director, Actor, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, First Screenplay.

Other Telluride 40 films that were nominated on Tuesday included "All is Lost": Feature, Actor, Director, Cinematography.  Also "Inside Llewyn Davis": Feature, Actor and Cinematography.

Also TFF #40 nominated films were "Blue is the Warmest Color" and "Gloria" for Best International Film.

TFF #39 films landing Spirit nominations included Noah Baumbach's "Frances Ha" for Best Feature and Editing.  "The Hunt" was nominated for Best International Feature.  "The Act of Killing" was nominated for Best Documentary.  "Wadjda" was nominated for Best First Feature.

I'm personally pleased at the triumph of both "12 Years" and "Nebraska".  I'm also pleased that Oscar Isaac got some love as Best Male Lead for "Inside Llewyn Davis".  I'm also glad that "All is Lost" was nominated for more than Redford's incredible performance and that "Frances Ha" got some mention...though I would have liked to see it in the Best Actress and Screenplay categories as well.


NO LONGER COMING ATTRACTION

For months now I have been passing along the troubled story of "Jane Got a Gun".  Initially I had it on my radar as a potential Telluride film for TFF #41 because The Weinstein Company was involved and it was originally being directed by Lynne Ramsay who has directed films that have played TFF before.  Then, as the film began to have increasing difficulties with the director and then casting, I just got a little obsessive.

Now, it looks like you can wipe it off the possible Telluride list as the announcement came this week that "Jane" was going to open prior to the Telluride Festival.  The Dissolve, among others, reported that it has been set for an Aug. 29, 2014 release date (which, if I have it right, is the opening day for TFF #41) so it seems you can strike "Jane Got a Gun" from your TFF #41 watch list.

Here's the link to the post from The Dissolve:

http://thedissolve.com/news/989-the-troubled-jane-got-a-gun-set-for-release-next-a/


TIM'S PRODUCER

Telluride favorite and likely Best Documentary Oscar nominee "Tim's Vermeer" producer Farley Ziegler recently talked to IndieWire about the process of tuning months worth of filming into an 80 minute film:

http://www.indiewire.com/article/watch-how-tims-vermeer-filmmakers-determined-a-runtime-with-2400-hours-of-footage


OSCAR TALKS LLEWYN

Oscar Isaac who plays Llewyn in the Coen Brothers' "Inside Llewyn Davis" sat down with Deadline's Pete Hammond to talk about the film and the music from it:

deadline.com/2013/11/oscar-isaac-inside-llewyn-davis-joel-ethan-coen-oscars/

Also, The Playlist posted the "Please Mr. Kennedy" performance from the film this morning.  I think it's the funniest moment in a film that has, as you'd expect from the Coens, a lot of subversive humor.  Also, it will likely remind some of you of a certain age of Larry Verne's #1 novelty hit "Please Mr. Custer".  I have no doubt that that is no accident. Here's the clip from YouTube:

http://youtu.be/h9dBOi4nTm8




That's all until Monday.  Have a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend and  start to Hanukkah!

The FAC #3 Part Two/Interviews: The Coens, Penn and Teller/The Past Trailer/Gravity's Companion

Good Thursday Everyone...

Here's the second part of the latest Film Awards Clearinghouse focusing on Supporting Acting and Screenplays.

I use the publicly posted predictions of these Oscar experts:

Sasha Stone/Awards Daily

Kris Tapley/HitFix-InContention

Anne Thompson/Thompson on Hollywood

Peter Knegt/IndieWire

Alex Carlson/Film Misery

Nathaniel Rogers/Film Experience

Scott Feinberg/The Hollywood Reporter

Clayton Davis/Awards Circuit

Brad Brevet/Rope of Silicon

The position on the last FAC is in parenthesis.  Telluride #40 films are Bold.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Michael Fassbender/12 Years (2)

2) Jared Leto/Dallas Buyers Club (1)

3) Tom Hanks/Saving Mr. Banks (3)

4) Barkhad Abdi/Capt. Phillips (5)

5) Daniel Bruhl/Rush (4)

6) James Gandolfini/Enough Said (6)

7) Bradley Cooper/American Hustle (7)

8) Jonah Hill/Wolf of Wall Street (NR)

9) John Goodman/Inside Llewyn Davis (10)

10) Jeremy Renner/American Hustle (8)

Drop Out: Matthew McConnaughey

Hot: Jonah Hill

Not: Renner

Comment:

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1) Lupita Nyong’o/12 Years (2)

2) Oprah Winfrey/The Butler (1)

3) June Squibb/Nebraska (3)

4) Julia Roberts/August: Osage County (4)

5) Jennifer Lawrence/American Hustle (5)

6) Margo Martindale/August: Osage County (8)

7) Octavia Spencer/Fruitvale Station (6)

8) Sally Hawkins/Blue Jasmine (7)

9) Carey Mulligan/Inside Llewyn Davis (9)

10) Sarah Paulson/12 Years (NR)

Drop Out: Amy Adams

Hot: Martindale

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1) 12 Years a Slave (1)

2) Captain Phillips (2)

3) Before Midnight (3)

4) August; Osage County (4)

5) Philomena (5)

6) The Wolf of Wall Street (6)

7) Blue is the Warmest Color (8)

8) Labor Day (7)

9) Short Term 12 (9)

10) The Book Thief (10)

No drop outs.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1) Blue Jasmine (3)

2) Inside Llewyn Davis (1)

3) Nebraska (2)

4) American Hustle (4)

5) Her (5)

6) Saving Mr. Banks (7)

7) Gravity (6)

8) Fruitvale Station (9)

9) The Butler (8)

10) Enough Said (NR)

Drop Out: Dallas Buyers Club

Hot: Blue Jasmine

Eight Telluride #40 films have a presence in this edition of the FAC led by "12 Years a Slave".

"12 Years": Six "Noms": Picture, Direction, Actor, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress and Adapted Screenplay.  Also a new "possible": Sarah Paulson for Best Supporting Actress.

"Nebraska": Four "Noms": Picture, Actor, Supporting Actress and Original Screenplay. "Possible" for Direction.

"Inside Llewyn Davis": Three "Noms": Picture, Direction and Adapted Screenplay.  "Possibles" for Actor, Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress.

"Gravity": Three "Noms": Picture, Direction and Actress and one "Possible" for Original Screenplay.

"All is Lost": Two "Noms": Picture and Actor.  One "Possible" for Direction.

"Blue is the Warmest Color" has two "Possibles": Actress and Original Screenplay.

"Labor Day" has two "Possibles": Actress and Adapted Screenplay.

"The Past" has one "Possible" for Actress.

Total for Telluride films in the Big Eight Categories: 18 "Nominations" and 12 "Possibles".  Three weeks ago those numbers were: 18 "Noms" and 10 "Possibles".

Among non-Telluride films, Paul Grengrass' "Captain Phillips" has five "Noms" and  David O. Russell's "American Hustle" has four "Noms" and four more "Possibles".  "august: Osage County" and "Saving Mr. Banks" also appear strong as they each would have three "Noms" and two other "Possibles".

The film with the most "Possibles" and no expected nominations is Ryan Coogler's "Fruitvale Station" with four "Possibles".

Next Monday, I'll take a look at how The FAC stacks up to The Gold Derby website and also "The Gurus of Gold" from Movie City News.

INTERVIEWS:

Kris Tapley of HitFix/InContention talks to Joel and Ethan Coen about "Inside Llewyn Davis"...The soundtrack is playing in stereo in my office as I type this.

http://www.hitfix.com/in-contention/joel-and-ethan-coen-discuss-inside-llewyn-davis-long-time-collaborations-and-the-allure-of-new-york

Meanwhile, Beth Hanna of Thompson on Hollywood talks "Tim's Vermeer" with Teller...

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/teller-speaks-talking-wondrously-mind-boggling-art-doc-tims-vermeer


THE PAST TRAILER

Asghar Farhadi's "The Past" now has a U.S. trailer.  Rope of Silicon posted that here:

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/past-official-u-s-movie-trailer-berenice-bejo/

GRAVITY'S COMPANION

Alfonso Cuaron's son, Jonas, co-wrote the film with his father and also directed a short film that played at Telluride as well.  It is a companion piece to "Gravity".  If you haven't seen the film, you may want to wait until you catch it before taking a look at the short which you'll find in any of the following posts:

CriticWire:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/criticwire/gravitys-companion-short-aningaaq-finally-hits-the-web

The Playlist:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/watch-jonas-cuarons-7-minute-gravity-spin-off-short-aningaaq-in-full-20131120

The Hollywood Reporter:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/gravity-spinoff-watch-side-sandra-657919

Rope of Silicon:

http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/watch-jonas-cuarons-gravity-companion-piece-short-film-aningaaq/


More on Monday...