Obsessing about the Telluride Film Festival and the film awards season since 2008!
"The best blog out there for predicting what will be going to Telluride."-Matt Neglia, Next Best Picture
"The Nostradamus of Telluride"
-Tim Appelo, Movies for Grownups
The Screen Actors Guild and the Directors Guild of America announced their nominees for excellence in film in 2023 yesterday. Four TFF films received nominations from SAG for acting excellence totaling seven nominations:
The Holdovers: Paul Giamatti-Lead Actor, Da'Vine Joy Randolph-Supporting Actress.
Poor Things: Emma Stone-Lead Actress and Willem Dafoe-Supporting Actor
Nyad: Annette Bening-Lead Actress and Jodie Foster-Supporting Actress
Rustin: Colman Domingo-Lead Actor
I was surprised that Mark Ruffalo was not nominated for Poor Things and that PT also missed for Best Ensemble.
Meanwhile, the Directors' Guild also announced their five nominees yesterday and two TFFers made the list of five names. Alexander Payne for The Holdovers and Yorgos Lanthimos for Poor Things were each nominated. They were joined Martin Scorsese (Killers of the Flower Moon), Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer) and Greta Gerwig (Barbie).
The Sag Awards will be presented on Feb. 24th and the DGA will announce their winners on Feb. 10th.
The Producers Guils announces their nominees tomorrow.
MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: SCREENPLAYS AND MORE
Today I'm updating the Screenplay, International Feature, Documentary Feature, Cinematography and Editing categories. As usual TFF #50 films are in Bold. A film's previous position on the MTFB Oscar chart is listed in parentheses.
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
1) The Holdovers (1)
2) Past Lives (3)
3) Anatomy of a Fall (4)
4) May December (5)
5) Maestro (-)
Alternates: Air, Saltburn, The Iron Claw.
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
1) Oppenheimer (1)
2) Poor Things (3)
3) American Fiction (2)
4) Barbie (-)
5) Killers of the Flower Moon (4)
Alternates: All of Us Strangers, The Zone of Interest, and Are You There God, It's Me Margaret.
BEST DOCUMENTARY
1) American Symphony (1)
2) 20 Days in Mariupol (2)
3) Beyond Utopia (3)
4) Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie (4)
5) Four Daughters (5)
Alternates: The Eternal Memory, Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project and Stamped from the Beginning.
BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE
1) The Zone of Interest (1)
2) Society of the Snow (3)
3) The Taste of Things (2)
4) The Teachers' Lounge (4)
5) Fallen Leaves (5)
Alternates: Perfect Days, 20 Days in Mariupol and Totem.
CINEMATOGRAPHY
1) Oppenheimer (1)
2) Killers of the Flower Moon (2)
3) Poor Things (3)
4) Maestro (4)
5) The Zone of Interest (5)
Alternates: Saltburn, Barbie and The Color Purple.
Here's MTFB's Oscar Update. Today I'm updating the Best Picture and Direction categories. The last prediction for these two categories were posted on Nov. 9th. As usual TFF #50 films are in Bold. A film's previous position on the MTFB Oscar chart is listed in parentheses.
BEST PICTURE
1) Oppenheimer (1)
2) Killers of the Flower Moon (2)
3) Barbie (3)
4) Poor Things (4)
5) The Holdovers (6)
6) American Fiction (5)
7) Maestro (7)
8) The Color Purple (-)
9) Past Lives (8)
10) The Zone of Interest (10)
Alternates: Anatomy of a Fall, Air, May December
BEST DIRECTION
1) Christopher Nolan/Oppenheimer (1)
2) Martin Scorsese/Killer of the Flower Moon (2)
3) Greta Gerwig/Barbie (3)
4) Yorgos Lanthimos/Poor Things (4)
5) Jonathan Glazer/The Zone of Interest (5)
Alternates: Alexander Payne/The Holdovers, Cord Jefferson/American Fiction and Bradley Cooper/Maestro.
THE BIKERIDERS RIDING TO A NEW HOME
Variety and other outlets reported that New Regency and Disney/20th Century were looking for a partner to distribute Jeff Nichols' The Bikeriders. The film was originally set for a Dec. 1st release but was removed from the release calendar in the midst of the Actors' and Writers' strikes.
We have word from yesterday afternoon that Focus Features has snagged North American distribution rights and plans to release the film in 2024. The Hollywood Reporter, among other outlets, reported the deal.
The film stars Austin Butler, Tom Hardy and Jodie Comer.
TRAILERS AND CLIPS: THE TEACHERS' LOUNGE, POOR THINGS AND SALTBURN
Here's your Oscar Update for today's post. This is a check on predicted nominees for the Supporting Acting categories. They were last posted here on Oct. 30th. Previous positions on the MTFB Oscar Update is listed to the right in parentheses. As always TFF films are Bold.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
1) Da'Vine Joy Randoplh/The Holdovers (1)
2) Emily Blunt/Oppenheimer (2)
3) Jodie Foster/Nyad (3)
4) Danielle Brooks/The Color Purple (4)
5) Julianne Moore/May December (5)
Alternates: Taraji P. Henson/The Color Purple, Penelope Cruz/Ferrari and America Ferrera/Barbie
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
1) Robert Downey, Jr./Oppenheimer (1)
2) Ryan Gosling/Barbie (2)
3) Robert DeNiro/Killers of the Flower Moon (3)
4) Mark Ruffalo/Poor Things (4)
5) Willem Dafoe/Poor Things (5)
Alternates: Charles Melton/May December, Dominic Sessa/The Holdovers, Sterling K. Brown/American Fiction.
I'll have updated Screenplay predictions in Monday's post.
DOC NYC ANNOUNCES SHORT LISTS
DOC NYC has announced three lists of documentaries for inclusion in its fest. The choices are often seen as being predictive of eventual Oscar nominations. The fest concludes today. These are the TFF films included on the various lists:
From Janus Films we saw the release this week of the official U.S. trailer for Totem, Mexico's selection for consideration for the International Film Oscar. Here it is from YouTube:
Here's MTFB's first Oscar Update for the Supporting Acting categories since the original set of predictions On Sept. 25th. As usual TFF #50 films are in Bold. A film's previous position on the MTFB Oscar chart is listed in parentheses.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
1) Da'Vine Joy Randoplh/The Holdovers (1)
2) Emily Blunt/Oppenheimer (2)
3) Jodie Foster/Nyad (3)
4) Danielle Brooks/The Color Purple (5)
5) Julianne Moore/May December (4)
Alternates: America Ferrera/Barbie, Rosamund Pike/Saltburn, Viola Davis/Air and Taraji P. Henson/The Color Purple
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
1) Robert Downey, Jr./Oppenheimer (1)
2) Ryan Gosling/Barbie (3)
3) Robert DeNiro/Killers of the Flower Moon (4)
4) Mark Ruffalo/Poor Things (2)
5) Willem Dafoe/Poor Things (5)
Alternates: Charles Melton/May December, Dominic Sessa/The Holdovers, Sterling K. Brown/American Fiction.
I'll update the screenplay categories next week.
TRAILERS: WERNER HERZOG-RADICAL DREAMER
From Shout Studios we have the U.S. trailer for TFF #49 entrant Werner Herzog-Radical Dreamer. The documentary is set for release on Dec. 5th. Here's the trailer from YouTube:
INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES: PAYNE, HAIGH AND MORE
Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi on the set of Free Solo
Looks these last few days at two films that I have avoided including as TFF #46 possibilities are Ang Lee's Gemini Man and Robert Eggers The Lighthouse.
However, we got the first trailer for Gemini Man this week (from YouTube):
And Ang Lee has, though not for awhile, had a presence at Telluride and the film is set for release on Oct. 11th. Paramount has it under its wing and has occasionally landed at TFF (the last time in 2017 with Downsizing and An Inconvenient Sequel).
Also, we got the first still from Robert Eggers The Lighthouse. It's from A24 which has been involved at Telluride quite a bit over the last five years or so. Here's the still via Indiewire:
The Lighthouse was announced as one of the competition films in the Cannes sidebar section Director's Fortnight. Sometimes films from DF make their way to T-ride.
Word is buzzing that Oscar winner Leonardo DiCaprio may sign on to an emerging Guillermo Del Toro project currently titled Nightmare Alley. The film would be a remake of a 1947 film starring Tyrone Power.
Del Toro's play at TFF 44 with The Shape of Water and its win for Best Picture means we'd be wise to keep an eye on its development.
Sony Pictures Classics reminded us yesterday that the Ralph Fiennes directed film about the life of Rudolf Nuryev, which played TFF #45, opens in New York and Los Angeles this weekend. The reminder came in the form of an email with a great poster for the film.
Here's a look at the poster:
The White Crow will expand to other parts of the country in the coming weeks.
That's your MTFB for this Thursday. Thanks for playing. More will be on its way to you on Monday!
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com