Toronto Announces/More Reluctant News/Master Fantastic?

Good Tuesday to Everyone!


TORONTO ANNOUNCES

Earlier today the Toronto International Film Festival began announcing their lineup for the fest which runs Sept. 6-16.  Normally Toronto and Telluride have a significant overlap usually in the neighborhood of 16-17 titles.  Of those 6-8 normally are in Toronto's Galas or Special Presentations and the rest can be found  in other portions of the TIFF program.

So with that, here's the list of what Toronto announced this morning via Rope of Silicon:

GALAS

• A Royal Affair (dir. Nikolai Arcel) – Denmark/Sweden/Czech Republic/Germany
• Argo (dir. Ben Affleck) – USA
• The Company You Keep (dir. Robert Redford) – USA
• Dangerous Liaisons (dir. Hur Jin-ho) – China
• English Vinglish (dir. Gauri Shinde) – India
• Free Angela and All Political Prisoners (dir. Shola Lynch) – USA/France
• Great Expectations (dir. Mike Newell) – United Kingdom
• Hyde Park on Hudson (dir. Roger Michell) – United Kingdom
• Inescapable (dir. Ruba Nadda) – Canada
• Jayne Mansfield's Car (dir. Billy Bob Thornton) – USA/Russia
• Looper (dir. Rian Johnson) – USA [Opening Film]
• Love, Marilyn (dir. Liz Garbus) – USA
• Midnight's Children (dir. Deepa Mehta) – Canada/ United Kingdom
• The Reluctant Fundamentalist (dir. Mira Nair) – USA
• Silver Linings Playbook (dir. David O. Russell) – USA
• Thermae Romae (dir. Hideki Takeuchi) – Japan
• Twice Born (dir. Sergio Castellitto) – Italy/Spain/Croatia

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS

• A Few Hours of Spring (dir. Stephane Brize) – France
• Anna Karenina (dir. Joe Wright) – United Kingdom
• At Any Price (dir. Ramin Bahrani) – United Kingdom/USA
• The Attack (dir. Ziad Doueiri) – France
• Byzantium (dir. Neil Jordan) – United Kingdom
• Capital (dir. Costa-Gavras) – France
• Caught in the Web (dir. Chen Kaige) – Japan/China
• Cloud Atlas (dir. Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski) – USA
• The Deep (dir. Baltasar Kormakur) – Iceland/Norway
• Dormant Beauty (dir. Marco Bellocchio) – Italy/France
• Dreams for Sale (dir. Nishikawa Miwa) – Japan
• End Of Watch (dir. David Ayer) – USA
• Everybody Has A Plan (dir. Ana Piterbarg) – Argentina
• Foxfire (dir. Laurent Cantet) – France/Canada
• Frances Ha (dir. Noah Baumbach) – USA
• Ginger and Rosa (dir. Sally Potter) – United Kingdom
• Hannah Arendt (dir. Margarethe von Trotta) – Germany
• The Hunt (dir. Thomas Vinterberg) – Denmark
• The Iceman (dir. Ariel Vromen) – USA
• Imogene (dir. Robert Pulcini, Shari Springer Berman) – USA
• The Impossible (dir. J.A. Bayona) – Spain/USA
• In the House (dir. Francois Ozon) – France
• Kon-Tiki (dir. Joachim Roenning and Espen Sandberg) – United Kingdom/Norway/Denmark
• The Last Supper (dir. Lu Chuan) – China
• A Late Quartet (dir. Yaron Zilberman) – USA
• A Liar's Autobiography – The Untrue Story of Monty Python's Graham Chapman
  Ben Timlett, Bill Jones, Jeff Simpson) – United Kingdom
• Lore (dir. Cate Shortland) – Australia/United Kingdom/Germany
• Mr. Pip (dir. Andrew Adamson) – New Zealand
• Much Ado About Nothing Joss Whedon) – USA
• No (dir. Pablo Larrain) – Chile/USA
• Outrage Beyond (dir. Takeshi Kitano) – Japan
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower (dir. Stephen Chbosky) – USA
• The Place Beyond the Pines (dir. Derek Cianfrance) – USA
• Quartet (dir. Dustin Hoffman) – United Kingdom
• Reality (dir. Matteo Garrone) – Italy/France
• Rust and Bone (dir. Jacques Audiard) – France/Belgium
• The Sapphires (dir. Wayne Blair) – Australia
• The Sessions (dir. Ben Lewin) – USA
• Tai Chi 0 (dir. Stephen Fung) – China
• Thanks for Sharing (dir. Stuart Blumberg) – USA
• The Time Being (dir. Nenad Cicin-Sain) – USA
• To The Wonder (dir. Terrence Malick) – USA
• Venus and Serena (dir. Maiken Baird) – USA
• Writers (dir. Josh Boone) – USA
• Zaytoun (dir. Eran Riklis) – United Kingdom/Israel

So what to make of this?  First, let's identify what "Ten Bets" (or near/have been "Ten Bets") that are on Toronto's list:

"Midnight's Children"
"Hyde Park on Hudson"
"Rust and Bone"
"No"

Other films that I have been noodling as Telluride possibles that showed up this morning on Toronto's list:

"Argo"
"The Silver Linings Playbook"
"Quartet"
"The Impossible"
"The Hunt"
"The Sapphires"

And then there are the films on the Toronto list that probably AREN'T going to be Telluride bound...but maybe, sort of could be OR I wish they would be:

"Cloud Atlas"
"The Place Beyond the Pines"
"Great Expectations"
"Much Ado About Nothing"
"To the Wonder"
"Anna Karenina"
"The Reluctant Fundamentalist"
"The Company You Keep"
"Reality"
"The Sessions"


And, as I mentioned above, this announced list isn't the complete Toronto lineup.  They'll be adding as we go along.

Notable MIA's: "Amour", "Killing Them Softly", "Lincoln", "Django Unchained" and, of course, "The Master".



Here are a few links to various Toronto analysis pieces:

HitFix:
http://www.hitfix.com/awards-campaign/toronto-film-festival-selects-argo-anna-karenina-cloud-atlas-and-the-place-beyond-the-pines-for-2012


Ioncinema:
http://www.ioncinema.com/news/2012-tiff-to-open-with-looper-malick-cianfrance-bahrani-to-double-dip-in-venice-and-toronto?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Rope of Silicon:
http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/2012-toronto-international-film-festival-lineup/


Awards Daily:
http://www.awardsdaily.com/blog/2012/07/24/tiff-lineup/



MORE RELUCTANT NEWS

Venice should announce their lineup later this week and have announced that Mire Nair's "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" will open their fest.  Included below are a few pieces that shed some light on that film:


The Hollywood Reporter:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/venice-film-festival-mira-nair-reluctant-fundamentalist-352828

The Playlist:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/venice-film-festival-mira-nair-reluctant-fundamentalist-352828



MASTER FANTASTIC?

Speculation via The Playlist that "the Master" will be in Austin, Texas for Fantastic Fest in late September...the "evidence" sounds pretty good:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/venice-film-festival-mira-nair-reluctant-fundamentalist-352828

I'll still hold onto the reed that it's 3 weeks after Telluride so we could still see it in Colorado.

More later...

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Things We Know (maybe?)/Toronto First Pass

Howdy, Sports Fans...

THINGS WE KNOW (maybe?)

Toronto's International Film Festival announced a large portion of their lineup yesterday.  Not all of it.  There are likely still more films to be named to the TIFF play list over the next few weeks.  But the Canadians did name 10 Galas and 40+ Special Presentations and that churned up the waters the last 24 hours.

In that churning we found confirmation (via Ioncinema) that we can pretty confidently say that we know three films that WILL BE IN THE SHOW.

Ioncinema reports that "The Artist" written and directed by Michael Hazanavicius and starring Cannes Best Actor winner Jean Dujardin will play in Telluride (as I have been predicting since it bowed in Cannes in May).

Also reported for Telluride: Tilda Swinton's Oscar-buzzy performance in "We Need to Talk About Kevin" from Brit Lynne Ramsey (director and co-writer) and ...I'm very excited about this...Ioncinema insists that Nicolas Winding Refn's "Drive" ( Hossein Amini scripted)  starring Ryan Gosling, Cary Mulligan (Carey, come back to Telluride!) and possible Oscar nominee Albert Brooks will roll into Telluride as well.

Both "The Artist" and "Kevin" have been on my "Ten Bets" list this summer.  "The Artist" has been consistently in the top five...

Validation?  Vindication?  Some other word that starts with a V?

Initially I had discounted "Drive's" chances of playing at Telluride despite glowing reviews out of Cannes, the knock on it was that it was too much a genre piece.  But after seeing the trailer last week, I began to think it had a real shot at The SHOW.  Then I tumbled across a Kris Tapley reference to a screening and a note that it had played at the LA Film Fest and my expectations crumbled.

Now, I'm jacked up all over again.

Also, an all but certain death blow to any chances that Lars Von Trier's "Melancholia" would make the TFF #38 list.  A tweet earlier today that it would screen in LA and a friendly message from Film Blather's Eugene Novikov telling me that "Melancholia" was screening in L.A. this afternoon to qualify for Oscar consideration means that our earlier thought that it would not among the films in the San Juans this Labor Day was the correct assessment.

So..."The Artist," "Drive" and "We Need to Talk About Kevin" IN...Melancholia OUT.

TORONTO: A FIRST LOOK

TIFF announced it's first wave of films today.  I have a lot of links below.  You can gorge yourself on Torornto lists and analysis.  I'll have some as well over the next three days or so.

Here is the lineup as announced today (via Rope of Silicon)...10 Galas and 40+ Special Presentations:

Opening Film:
From the Sky Down [dir. Davis Guggenheim]

Galas:

Albert Nobbs

Albert Nobbs [dir. Rodrigo Garcia]
Butter [dir. Jim Field Smith]
A Dangerous Method [dir. David Cronenberg]
A Happy Event [dir. Remi Bezancon]
The Ides of March [dir. George Clooney]
The Lady [dir. Luc Besson]
Moneyball [dir. Bennett Miller]
Peace, Love and Misunderstanding [dir. Bruce Beresford]
Take this Waltz [dir. Sarah Polley]
W.E. [dir. Madonna]


Special Presentations:

11 Flowers [dir. Wang Xiaoshuai]
50/50 [dir. Jonathan Levine]
360 [dir. Fernando Meirelles]
The Artist [dir. Michel Hazanavicius]
Americano [dir. Mathieu Demy]
Anonymous [dir. Roland Emmerich]
A Better Life [dir. Cedric Khan]
Burning Man [dir. Jonathan Teplitzky]
Chicken with Plums [dir. Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Paronnaud]
Coriolanus [dir. Ralph Fiennes]
Countdown [dir. Huh Jong-ho]
Dark Horse [dir. Todd Solondz]
The Deep Blue Sea [dir. Terence Davies]
The Descendants [dir. Alexander Payne]
Drive [dir. Nicolas Winding Refn]
Elles [dir. Malgoska Szumowska]
The Eye of the Storm [dir. Fred Schepisi]
Friends With Kids [dir. Jennifer Westfeldt]
Habemus Papam [dir. Nanni Moretti]
Headhunters [dir. Morten Tyldum]
Hick [dir. Derick Martini]
The Hunter [dir. Daniel Nettheim]
Jeff, Who Lives at Home [dir. Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass]
Killer Joe [dir. William Friedkin]
Like Crazy [dir. Drake Doremus]
Machine Gun Preacher [dir. Marc Forster]
Martha Marcy May Marlene [dir. Sean Durkin]
Melancholia [dir. Lars von Trier]
The Oranges [dir. Julian Farino]
Pearl Jam Twenty [dir. Cameron Crowe]
Rampart [dir. Oren Moverman]
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen [dir. Lasse Hallstrom]
Shame [dir. Steve McQueen]
A Simple Life [dir. Ann Hui]
The Skin I Live In [dir. Pedro Almodovar]
Take Shelter [dir. Jeff Nichols]
Ten Year [dir. Jamie Linden]
Trishna [dir. Michael Winterbottom]
Twixt [dir. Francis Ford Coppola]
Tyrannosaur [dir. Paddy Considine]
We Need to Talk About Kevin [dir. Lynne Ramsay]
Where Do We Go Now? [dir. Nadine Labaki]
Woman in the Fifth [dir. Pawel Pawlikowski]

With the leaks of the probable films expected at Venice (Venice's official announcement comes Thursday) we can say some things with an element of certainty.

Past experience indicates that in addition to "The Artist," "Drive" and "Kevin"we can expect 5-8 of the above Toronto films to also play Telluride and maybe 2 Venice titles as well (and those can overlap...as I expect will happen with Todd Solondz's "Dark Horse")

Dark Horse

I still think Alexander Payne's "The Descendants" is a virtual certainty for Telluride. However, I have been equally certain that Jason Reitman's "Young Adult" would follow the same path he trekked with "Juno" and "Up in the Air" including its spot at # 4 on this week's Ten Bets list.  Late last night I got Pete Hammond's post at Deadline Hollywood about Toronto and the whole fall fest scene and he FLAT SAYS NO "YOUNG ADULT" at Telluride.  Quoting from his story now:

"I would have bet this film (which Paramount just dated for Dec. 9) would show up in Toronto, but I have confirmed it definitely won't be riding the fest circuit -- a first for Reitman. Don't look for it in Telluride either despite being Reitman's "good luck" festival where future Best Picture nominees Juno and Up In The Air had wildly successful unofficial premieres."

Pete's going to know more than I do.  But I have to say, it makes me sad.  I was really looking forward to seeing "YA" at T-ride and passing words with Mr. Reitman and Ms. Cody.  I did in 2007 with both (Reitman introduced me to Cody) and again with Reitman in 2009.  I also got in a really good question about the music used for the credit sequence during the Q & A which made the room laugh including Alexander Payne and former AMPAS Pres. Sid Ganis...but, alas, it would seem, not this year.

The body of Hammond's post is here (and it's pretty informative):
http://www.deadline.com/2011/07/hammond-oscar-contenders-jockey-for-prime-film-fest-exposure-or-not/



Toronto Galas also playing at Venice:
A Dangerous Method, W.E. and The Ides of March

Toronto Special Presentations also playing Venice:
Dark Horse, Chicken with Plums, Killer Joe, and Shame  and maybe Coriolanus (that's unclear and may have to wait for the official announcement on Thursday).

And then there are the films that weren't on either Toronto's list today or the sneaked Venice lists of the past two days:
Cameron Crowe's "We Bought a Zoo"
Paolo Sorrentino's "This Must Be the Place"
Jason Reitman's "Young Adult"
Phyllida Lloyd's "The Iron Lady"
Simon Curtis' "My Week with Marilyn"
John Hillcoat's "The Wettest County"
John Madden's "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel"
Gus Van Sant's "Restless"
and Bruce Robinson's "The Rum Diary"

What about these films?  Telluride-bound?  NY Film Fest?  TBA later for Venice or Toronto?  Not ready?  All of these are possible answers.

And word from a couple of sources today the "On the Road" and "The Grandmasters" would not be ready for the fall festival threesome of Telluride/Toronto/Venice.

Also missing from either Venice or Toronto...the Big 5: "Hugo," "War Horse," "J. Edgar," "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close."

Links to Toronto stories and analysis:

Rope of Silicon:
http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/article/2011-toronto-international-film-festival-unveils-spectacular-selection-galas-special-presentations

The Playlist:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/archives/moneyball_360_butter_ides_of_march_a_dangerous_method_lead_tiff_11_line-up/

The Hollywood Reporter:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/toronto-film-festival-lineup-george-215274

Awards Daily:
http://www.awardsdaily.com/2011/07/george-clooney-madonna-sarah-polley-toronto-announces/

Movie City News:
http://moviecitynews.com/2011/07/toronto-international-film-festival-announces-stellar-line-up-of-galas-and-special-presentations/

Thompson on Hollywood:
http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/2011/07/26/toronto_2011

Hollywood Elsewhere:
http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/2011/07/toronto_2011_ga.php

Hit Fix:
http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/awards-campaign/posts/moneyball-albert-nobbs-the-descendants-among-toronto-film-festival-2011-debuts



 More Toronto/Venice impact analysis coming tomorrow!