Breaking: National Board of Review Announces

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

Corman and YouTube/Forte and Squibb and Nebraska/SPC Bosses Honored

Good Friday everyone.  The CEO and I are on the road today to Little Rock, AR. and then onto Birmingham AL. for the National Speech Tournament.  It should be a week of forensic fun!

CORMAN AND YOU TUBE

One of the great thrills of TFF #39 was the opportunity to meet and pass a few words with film making legend Roger Corman.  Corman may single-handedly be responsible, indirectly, for a huge chunk of the best American cinema of the last half century.

Always a visionary in terms of making films make money, Corman is delving into his considerable backlog of film to start a YouTube channel that will feature that material.  Need to see the original "Little Shop of Horrors"?  This could be your answer.

The full story is here from The Los Angeles Times:

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-roger-corman-youtube-channel-20130611,0,7726944.story

FORTE AND SQUIBB AND NEBRASKA

You probably should get used to this.  Will Forte and June Squibb in a post from HitFix/YouTube talking about Alexander Payne's "Nebraska".  Stuff like this is likely to be appearing on this blog a good deal over the next  10 weeks or so as "Nebraska" is almost certainly going to be on the SHOW's 40th playlist.  (it may actually be the #1 "Bet" when my first "ten Bets" list goes up in a couple of weeks).  Here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrLvenIMW4k&feature=youtube_gdata&utm_source


SPC BOSSES GET FETED

I reported on Tuesday that Sony Pictures Classics chiefs Tom Bernard and Michale Barker were to be the initial recipients of The Museum of the Moving Image's Envision Award for being "transformational leaders in film".  SPC is usually well represented at the Telluride Film Festival.

Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood filed this report of the evening' activities:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/momi-envision-award-tom-bernard-michael-barker#.UbjSBGxKhNQ.email

Follow/Like Michael's Telluride Film Blog on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Michaels-Telluride-Film-Blog-and-The-Film-Awards-Clearinghouse/107846269309712

Follow me on Twitter @Gort2

More tomorrow...

Baumbach & Gerwig Redux/Forte and Nebraska/Cannes and Telluride

Good Thursday to all...


BAUMBACH AND GERWIG REDUX

One of my favorite films from TFF #39 was the collaboration between Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach that flew into T-ride under the radar..."Frances Ha".  It was a delight.

This past week we discovered that the pair have teamed on another "under-the radar" project.  It's untitled for the moment.  If it has the same spirit as "Frances", the duo could have another shot at Telluride.

Check out the details from the two posts below from The Playlist and The New Yorker:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/details-revealed-about-noah-baumbachs-frances-ha-follow-up-with-greta-gerwig-also-has-animated-movie-in-development-20130423

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/04/29/130429fa_fact_parker


FORTE AND NEBRASKA

I have to tell you that from the minute I heard about it I have been both intrigued and skeptical about SNL alum Will Forte (he's MacGruber after) all being cast in Alexander Payne's father-son road picture "Nebraska".  The film is set for competition next month in Cannes.

Forte is starting to get some ink related to the release of "Run and Jump" and naturally his attachment to "Nebraska" has come up.

IndieWire posted this profile of the comedian who is reportedly playing drama in the Payne film (which is almost a dead certainty to be in Telluride).

http://www.indiewire.com/article/tribeca-will-forte-on-going-dramatic-for-run-jump-and-alexander-paynes-cannes-drama-nebraska

CANNES AND TELLURIDE

I spend a lot of time focused on the Cannes Festival because there is a close connection between it and Telluride.  A cursory look at the past few years shows that they commonly will share 6-9 films:

Cannes/Telluride films
2012: Rust and Bone, Amour, Paradise:Love, The Hunt, The Sapphires, Central Park Five
2011: Footnote, The Kid with a Bike, Le Have, We Need to Talk About Kevin, The Artist
2010: Of Gods and Men, Biutiful, Poetry, Another Year, The Princess of Montpensier, Tamara Drewe, Inside Job

So puzzling through the Cannes selections and the reaction to them when they unspool in France in three weeks can provide some clues about Telluride's possible lineup.

I have linked a rundown of the competiton films from IndieWire here and an interview with Cannes top dog Thierry Fremaux from Screen Daily:

http://www.indiewire.com/article/cannes-announcing-2013-official-competition-lineup#

http://www.screendaily.com/reports/one-on-one/thierry-fremaux-cannes-film-festival/5054061.article

Finally from Cannes, the jury was announced this week.  We already knew that Steven Spielberg was heading the competition jury.  Now we know he will be aided by the likes of Nicole Kidman and Christoph Waltz among others.  Check the story from The Playlist:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/nicole-kidman-lynne-ramsay-ang-lee-christopher-waltz-more-join-steven-spielbergs-cannes-jury-20130424

More on Monday...have a good weekend.