MANY ANNOUNCEMENTS-STILL QUESTIONS
In the last 48 hours we have had information forthcoming from The New York Film Festival, Fantastic Fest and Toronto's Canadian Film lineup. They all have things to tell us.
New York's main slate announcement on Tuesday added or confirmed (probably) six films for TFF #44. Those added: Agnes Varda's Visages/Villages, Aki Kaurismaki's The Other Side of Hope and Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Before We Vanish. Confirmed: Wonderstruck, Lady Bird and The Rider.
Films that I have thought might be Telluride choices that WILL NOT: The Florida Project (and that really saddens me-both because I am very interested in seeing the film and also because I was strongly thinking that it would play The SHOW), Spoor, Ismael's Ghosts and The Meyerowitz Stories.
The New York lineup info is here.
From Fantastic Fest's first wave announcement we discovered that Yorgos Thanimos' The Killing of a Scared Deer would have its U.S. Premiere there. That took it off the list of possible Telluride Films. Also, though their inclusion doesn't affect anything we already knew for TFF, both Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri and The Square will also be making their U.S. Premiere in Austin. It doesn't appear that any of the announced films for Fantastic Fest will double up with T-ride though further added titles are expected.
The Fantastic Fest announcement is here.
The Toronto International Film Festival announced their Canadian films for 2017 that are slotted in across their various programs. Only a couple of things to be gleaned from that.
First, some thought, including me, that we might see Xavier Dolan's The Death and Life of John F. Donovan named by TIFF yesterday and it is was not. That doesn't mean that it won't show up somewhere in TIFF's remaining two announcements but it seems odd that they wouldn't tout it as a big Canadian entry.
Otherwise, the second thing is that none of the announced Canadian titles are Telluride bound. All are World Premieres. I should also mention that that didn't remove any film off my list of films still floating out there that could make the Telluride list.
Here's Indiewire's coverage of yesterday's TIFF Canadian film announcement.
As of this morning here are the films that I am still tracking as possible TFF #44 titles that haven't been eliminated (in no particular order):
Happy End
Marshall
Wonder
Mary Magdalene
Loveless
Final Portrait
The Silent Man
Molly's Game
The Snowman
Lean on Pete
Redoubtable
L'amant Double
You Were Never Really Here
Our Souls at Night
Chappaquiddick
The Death and Life of John F. Donovan
WONDER HAS A NEW TRAILER
So many "wonder" films this year: Wonderstruck, Wonder Wheel, Wonder Woman, Professor Marston and The Wonder Women. One big name "wonder" film still hasn't landed in a film fest lineup and that's Steven Chbosky's Wonder starring Julia Roberts, Owen Wilson and Jacob Tremblay. The film is coming from Lionsgate which had a great run last year (which included a stop at TFF #43) with La La Land.
The film could end up at Telluride. It's listed at IMDb as being complete.
Lionsgate released a second trailer for the film yesterday. Here that is from YouTube:
The film opens Nov. 17th.
FILM STARS UNCERTAINTY CONTINUES
It's been two weeks since Toronto's first wave of announced films that included Paul McGuigan's Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool starring Annette Bening. TIFF labeled it as a Canadian Premiere from the get go. That has meant that I have been including it as a Telluride film this past few days despite the fact that some reporting has claimed it would be "premiering" at Toronto.
Additionally, I have been careful to remind readers that the film's star, Annette Bening, is presiding over the Venice Film Fest's Golden Lion competition jury which surely means that she cannot attend T-ride in person.
Then late Tuesday, I ran across this story in the Hollywood Reporter's International edition that flat says the film is World Premiering at TIFF:
So, again, I checked the TIFF website and it still shows the film as a Canadian Premiere:
So, though I have been maintaining that FSDDIL would be in Telluride, I have to report that the THR Int'l blurb makes me nervous and less certain. Film Stars will likely be somewhere on tomorrow's extended Ten Bets list but it will certainly move further down.
Ritesh Baktra's Our Souls at Night starring Jane Fonda and Robert Redford was announced a few days back as a Venice selection in a non-competition slot. Both of those actors will be honored by the fest.
I have thought that it might be possible that if Venice scheduled the film's screening in the right time frame that it might still be a Telluride possibility. Now we may have a clue about that.
Film distrib Netflix dropped a teaser yesterday:
Among the coverage of the teaser's appearance was one article from Entertainment Weekly that says the film will bow in Italy on Sept. 1.
If true, does that time line work? Probably. Seeing as Venice is eight hours ahead of Telluride, a Sunday-Monday set of screenings seems like it could happen.
As I have mentioned before, there are factors that suggest that it could happen. Batra has been to Telluride before. Redford was a 2014 tribute recipient. Netflix has had a solid relationship with the fest over the past couple of years.
Jeff Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere has suggested the possibility in a post yesterday:
The complete HE post is here.
That's your Thursday post. More to come tomorrow including Ten (but it'll be more) Bets #7.
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