Thursday, March 26, 2026
Variety's Early Oscar Picture / News from Cannes / Insight for Bucking Fastard
Monday, July 29, 2024
Venice Schedule Leak / Davis Details Telluride
Thursday, March 23, 2023
Variety's Early Oscar #96 Outlook / Some Hints and Allegations
Monday, September 26, 2022
First MTFB Oscar Take for 2022-23 / Variety's Clayton Davis Says... / Bardo- Has a Trailer and is 22 Minutes Shorter
Monday, September 13, 2021
The Professionals' Telluride / Beginning to Think About the Oscars / A New Page for MTFB / Awards from Venice /
THE PROFESSIONALS' TELLURIDE
BEGINNING TO THINK ABOUT THE OSCARS
Monday, January 4, 2021
Oscar Update: Best Supporting Actor / Variety's Biggest Movies / Deadline's Most Influential Films of the 21st Century / NBP's Best Bets for International Feature
OSCAR UPDATE: BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Here are my latest Oscar nomination predictions for Best Supporting Actor updated since I last posted this category on Dec. 3rd. A performer's past position is indicated to the right in parentheses. TFF #47 performers are indicated in Bold.
Monday, October 12, 2020
Oscar 2021 First Attempt-Best Original Screenplay / TFF #47 Running Totals / Variety's Davis Looks at Documentary Oscar Chances / Indiewire Talks with Nomadland's Chloe Zhao
OSCAR 2021 FIRST ATTEMPT-BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
MTFB continues its first pass at predicting Oscar nominees for 2020-21 in various major categories. Today we're looking at Best Original Screenplay with, as always, a focus on those performances that were a part of the list of 29 films that TFF released that would have been screened as a part of TFF #47. Performers designated with *** are in films that may not be released prior to the Feb, 28, 2021 Oscar eligibility deadline. TFF#47 performers are in Bold:
Wednesday, July 15, 2020
SPECIAL WEDNESDAY POST: BREAKING NEWS-THE SHOW WON'T GO ON
We got the news yesterday afternoon that the 47th Telluride Film Festival has been cancelled. Both press and passholders received the official word via email. It landed in my inbox at 1:17 EDT/4:17 PDT. At my house we had both with the press release and the passholders letter.
The press release reads as follows:
TELLURIDE, CO – Telluride Film Festival, presented by the National Film Preserve, released today a letter officially cancelling the 47th edition of the Telluride Film Festival, originally scheduled for September 3-7, 2020.
“After months of intense due diligence around physically holding an event, we’ve come to the heartbreaking but unanimous conclusion to cancel this year’s Labor Day celebration of film in Telluride,” the statement says. “But with a seemingly unending number of new cases of Covid-19 and the national chaos around it, even the best strategy is threatened by this out of control environment.”
The Festival plans to release its lineup in the near future in order to highlight what it says is “the best in film this year,” and hopes its audience will have the opportunity to see the films at other major fall festivals including NYFF, TIFF and Venice.
That was followed by the full statement which went to passholders:
After months of intense due diligence around physically holding an event, we’ve come to the heartbreaking but unanimous conclusion to cancel this year’s Labor Day celebration of film in Telluride.
While there will be those who might say they’re not surprised by it, that this was inevitable, we beg to differ. It didn’t have to be this way. Until the past week or so, we had a very good plan to put on the SHOW safely. But with a seemingly unending number of new cases of Covid-19 and the national chaos around it, even the best strategy is threatened by this out of control environment. No matter how much many of us wear our masks and observe social distancing protocols, the pandemic has worsened rather than improved and the health and safety of you - our passholders, filmmakers, the people of Telluride and its surrounding areas - cannot be compromised.
As you may know, we have been working cooperatively with our fellow fall film festival partners to champion global cinema and its artists. We hope that many of you will seek out and discover the titles we’ve selected for this year’s program at the New York Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, or Venice Film Festival, or when they’re made available on a wider basis. We will announce soon what we have carefully programmed in the hopes that you will experience as we did, the best in film this year. There are some incredible, powerful, and beautiful gems and we’re excited to extol their virtues when the time is right. Follow these titles, support them. We intend to champion them outside of the festival as best we can.
For those who have supported us and believe in what we are trying to do, our gratitude is enormous. Thank you. We will need you in the coming months in many ways. Let’s light candles now to conjure a better 2021 and Labor Day weekend in Telluride, together, under the stars in the mountains doing what many of us love the most. The way we prefer to experience cinema will return. Let’s make it so.
We wish you good health, peace and may we collectively move forward to a better world.
We understand that film festivals and their long-term health are not top of mind today. A safe vaccine, vital medical interventions for those sick and properly enforced health regulations are. However, we do ask that you take this moment to consider a world where gathering around a shared love of culture is no longer possible and what that means for the psychological condition of the world. If the prospect prompts a sense of despair, please advocate and champion the return of our gatherings that provide vital nourishment and oxygen to humanity's soul.
Additionally, passholders received another email last night outlining options for what they might chose to do regarding the status of their passes from TFF Chief of Staff Kirsten Laursen:
Dear Passholder,
You may already have seen the news that we are cancelling the 47th Telluride Film Festival with very heavy hearts. Please see attached statement.
Because the National Film Preserve works year-round to keep the cinematic arts alive (i.e. we operate the now temporarily closed Nugget, with a year round lease obligation) and is dedicated to keeping a light on whether a Festival takes place or not, we are deeply grateful to our sponsors and passholders who recognize this effort by turning their 2020 payment into a tax-deductible donation - either full or partial. Many have already opted to do this and it is a great relief as we chart our course for the very uncertain coming months.
Your generosity supports the work we do twelve months a year to support film and filmmakers - even and especially during this uncertain time.
We hope you will consider making a tax-deductible donation, either full or partial in any amount to our 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and we will provide a tax letter for your records.
If rolling over passes and sponsorship to 2021 is best for you, we will of course accommodate.
If you decide to request a refund, we refund the total amount paid less a 4% fee to cover expenses associated with your credit card transaction.
I am available to talk through any of this if easier - on my cell below, or I'm happy to give you a call at your convenience.
A gift to the National Film Preserve/Telluride Film Festival is deeply meaningful as we work together to get through this crisis. We look forward to being together around the silver screen again! Thank you so much for your dedication to the SHOW.
Thank you.
Finally, Peter DeBruge at Variety posted an interview with TFF Co- Director Julie Huntsinger last night titled: "Telluride Fest Director on Why They Ultimately Pulled the Plug".
A couple of highlights from that interview include:
“Every single tribute [honoree] was attending, and they were good ones! I had two filmmakers tell me that if they had to walk to Telluride, they would,” says Huntsinger, who hopes to make the lineup public later this month in order to support the films they would have invited."
Two things here: 1) We'll likely get to know what films had been chosen at some point in the not terribly distant future and 2) The Tributes were lined up and ready to go.
DeBruge mentions Ammonite and The French Dispatch in the article and I don't know if he's being coy and telling us those two films will be on the list or if The French Dispatch sounds like a cool title to speculatively include (we're already pretty sure Ammonite is on the list).
The complete article is linked here and has a lot more that you'll find interesting.
I'll be back with the regular Thursday edition of MTFB with musings and such. Today I have to bag my lodging and deal with rolling over my passes...like a lot of you.
Thursday, December 13, 2018
SAG Nominees / Critics' Choice Nominees / Newest Gurus Assesses Golden Globe Chances / Variety's Directors on Directors / Mr. Tapley's Two Cents
SAG NOMINEES
SAG/AFTRA announced their nominees for acting superlatives for 2018 yesterday. TFF #45 films were represented as follows:
Best Actress: Olivia Colman/The Favourite, Melissa McCarthy/Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Supporting Male: Richard E. Grant/Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Supporting Female: Emma Stone/The Favourite, Rachel Weisz/The Favourite.
Despite three individual acting nominations, The Favourite did not crack the Best Cast nominee list. Also, somewhat surprising was the absence of Ethan Hawke for TFF #44's First Reformed.
Indiewire has the complete rundown of all the nominees linked here.
CRITICS' CHOICE NOMINEES
TFF #45 favorite Yorgos Lanthimos' The Favourite led all films in Monday's announcement of nominees for the Critics Choice Awards from the Broadcast Film Critics Association with 14 nominations. Ryan Coogler's Black Panther was the second most nominated film with a dozen. Damien Chazelle's First Man was next with 10 nominations. Alfonso Cuaron's Roma had eight.
Best Picture nominations went to Black Panther, BlacKkKlansman, The Favourite, First Man, Green Book, If Beale Street Could Talk, Mary Poppins Returns, Roma, A Star Is Born and Vice.
Here's how the nominations broke down for TFF #45 films:
The Favourite (14): Picture, Direction, Actress (Colman), Supporting Actress (Stone and Weisz), Ensemble, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Production Design, Costumes, Film Editing, Hair/Makeup, Comedy Film and Comedy Actress,
First Man (10): Picture, Direction, Actor (Gosling), Supporting Actress (Foy), Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Production Design, Film Editing, Score and Visual Effects.
Roma (8): Picture, Direction, Actress (Aparicio), Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Production Design, Film Editing, Foreign Language Film
Can You Ever Forgive Me? (3): Actress (McCarthy), Supporting Actor (Grant), Adapted Screenplay
Boy Erased (1): Supporting Actress (Kidman)
Cold War (1): Foreign Language Film
Shoplifters (1): Foreign Language Film
Additionally, First Reformed from TFF #44 had two nominations: Best Actor (Hawke) and Original Screenplay.
The complete list of all nominees with some commentary from Anne Thompson is linked here from Indiewire.
The Critics Choice Awards will be handed out on Jan. 13, 2019.
NEWEST GURUS O' GOLD ASSESSES GOLDEN GLOBES CHANCES
Those of us comprising this season's Gurus of Gold were asked this past week to take a stab at predicting winners for the Golden Globes in three categories now that we know the nominees. We were tasked with evaluating Best Motion Picture Drama, Musical or Comedy and Director.
My ballot was topped by A Star Is Born (Drama), The Favourite (Musical or Comedy) and I named Alfonso Cuaron as the likely Best Directing winner.
As you might expect, not all the individual Gurus agreed with my assessment.
Check out the latest Gurus o' Gold linked here.
VARIETY'S DIRECTORS ON DIRECTORS
Guillermo Del Toro on Alfonso Cuaron's Roma
Ron Howard on The Front Runner
Haiffa al-Mansour on Marielle Heller's Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Christopher Nolan on Damien Chazelle's First Man
Alexander Payne on Pawel Pawlikowski's Cold War
Josh Safdie on Yorgos Lanthimos' The Favourite
The complete article is linked here.
MR. TAPLEY'S TWO CENTS
And finally on this Thursday...Variety's awards expert Kristopher Tapley has weighed in with his first run at predicting Oscar nominees. Tapley gives his best insight to the 21 feature categories with TFF #45 films pegged for 32 nominations (which would be a little above the Telluride average for the past decade or so). He also has a TFF #44 film in play for a couple of nominations.
Here's the breakdown with total predicted nominations in parentheses:
Roma (8): Best Picture, Direction, Foreign Language Film, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Production Design, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing.
The Favourite (7): Best Picture, Actress (Colman), Supporting Actress (Stone and Weisz), Original Screenplay, Costumes, Production Design.
First Man (7): Best Picture, Cinematography, Film Editing, Score, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Visual Effects.
Cold War (3): Best Direction, Foreign Language Film, Cinematography.
Can You Ever Forgive Me? (3): Best Actress (McCarthy), Supporting Actor (Grant), Adapted Screenplay
Border (2): Foreign Language Film, Makeup/Hair
Shoplifters (1): Foreign Language Film
Free Solo (1): Documentary Feature
AND...from TFF #44: First Reformed (2): Best Actor (Hawke), Original Screenplay.
Tapley's complete set of predictions are linked here.
More on Monday!
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com
Monday, September 10, 2018
Telluride Dominates Venice / The First Gurus / The Front Runner Makes History / Podcasts: ScreenTalk, Variety, Awards Daily / Vote People!
TELLURIDE DOMINATES VENICE
Films that played TFF #45 were well represented among the films that won major prizes at this weekend's conclusion of the Venice Film Festival with Alfonso Cuaron's Roma winning the biggest of the prizes as it was named winner of the Golden Lion.
The Favourite also scored winning the Grand Jury prize (largely regarded as the runner-up prize to the Golden Lion) as well as Best Actress for Olivia Colman's performance as Queen Anne.
Additionally, the Dareen Aronofsky produced Virtual Reality presentation: Spheres was named Best VR. Spheres played at TFF #45 last week.
Complete winners from Venice are here from Variety and also from Indiewire.
THE FIRST GURUS
With the Toronto International Film Festival in full swing and both Telluride and Venice in the books for 2018, The Gurus of Gold have cast their first ballots attempting to discern this year's top candidates fro Best Picture.
Among the top ten vote-getters from "festival films" are Telluride '18 films: First Man, Boy Erased, Roma, The Front Runner and The Favourite. Also mentioned are The Old Man and the Gun and Can You Ever Forgive Me?
The complete first wave of the Gurus is linked here.
THE FRONT RUNNER MAKES HISTORY
Jason Reitman's The Front Runner starring Hugh Jackman as former Senator (and Presidential candidate) Gary Hart will make history as it will be the first major motion picture to released on national election day, Nov. 6.
The story from SlashFilm can be found here.
PODCASTS: SCREEN TALK ASSESSES POST-TELLURIDE
Indiewire's Anne Thompson and Eric Kohn are in Toronto but talking largely about what went down last week in Telluride with particular focus on Roma, The Favourite and First Man in the latest installment of ScrenTalk.
Here is the link to the podcast.
PODCASTS: VARIETY'S PODCAST FEATURES NICOLE KIDMAN
Kris Tapley's latest podcast was recorded at Telluride with Nicole Kidman who talks about both films that she had playing at TFF #45: Destroyer and Boy Erased. Kidman is getting some buzzy talk about possible Oscar nominations for both roles. Lead for Destroyer and Supporting for Boy Erased.
Here's the link to Tapley's Kidman Convo.
PODCASTS: AWARDS DAILY'S TELLURIDE WRAP-UP
And finally, here's the link to Sasha Stone's (Awards Daily) wrap-up from the Telluride Film Fest. The podcast features Mark Johnson of Awards Circuit, Jeff Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere and some other guy that may have accidentally stumbled into the same films they were seeing (yea, it's me).
Here's the link.
VOTE PEOPLE
We're coming down to the wire friends. If you want your reactions to films at TFF #45 to count, the deadline is Wednesday at 5:00pm EDT. Send the 1-5 ratings to me at any of the contact methods below:
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com
































