I'm Back / New Bugonia Date Keeps TFF Possible / And Who Won't Be at TFF #52 / Views from Cannes

I'M BACK

After a week long art show and five days in NYC, MTFB is back...and tired.  Here's the latest after a week away.

NEW BUGONIA DATE KEEPS TFF POSSIBLE

Focus Features announced this past week that they were bumping the release dates for Yorgos Lanthimos' Bugoina up a bit.  Focus now says a limited release will happen on Oct. 24th and then the nationwide rollout will begin a week later.

Jordan Ruimy at World of Reel writes that a Venice premiere is likely and the question for us becomes does it follow the same path as did The Favourite and Poor Things both of which did the Venice/Telluride two step.  What could make a difference is that Both The Favourite and Poor Things came from (Fox) Searchlight and Bugonia is being distributed by Focus.  It could be said that Searchlight and Focus have had similar presences at Telluride over the years.  Compare the last five years for each:

(Fox) Searchlight:

2024: A Real Pain

2023: All of Us Strangers, Poor Things

2022: Empire of Light

2021: The French Dispatch

2020: No Fest but...would have screened Nomadland

2019: A Hidden Life

Focus Features:

2024: Conclave, Piece by Piece

2023: The Holdovers

2022: TAR, Armageddon Time

2021: Belfast, The Card Counter

2020: No Fest but... would have screened The Way I See It

2019: No film.

So Searchlight has screened six films and would have had a seventh had Covid not interrupted.  Meanwhile, Focus screened seven and would have had an eighth in 2020.

As an additional side note...Emma Stone.  At Telluride for La La Land in 2016, Battle of the Sexes in 2017 and Tributed in 2018 with The Favourite.  

So, you know, maybe.

AND WHO WON'T BE AT TFF #52

That would be Alexander Payne as he will President of the Golden Lion jury for this year's Venice Film Festival.

Payne has been a frequent visitor to Telluride even in years when he doesn't have a film to screen there. He's been a Guest Director (2009) and attended an additional eight years sometimes with a film sometimes not..  Payne last attended for the 50th Festival in 2023.

The Venice Fest runs from August 27th-Sept. 6th.  TFF #52 runs Aug. 29th- Sept. 1st so Payne's duties as Jury President will mean he can't be in Telluride.

VIEWS FROM CANNES

Images from some of the films playing at Cannes that also seem to have some TFF possibility have been showing up online.  Here are some of those:

TRAILER FOR YOUNG MOTHERS

PHOTO FROM THE HISTORY OF SOUND

PHOTO FROM THE MASTERMIND

More on Thursday...

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MTFB Oscar Update: Supporting Acting and Screenplays / Interviews and Profiles: Lanthimos

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: SUPPORITNG ACTING AND SCREENPLAYS

Today I'm continuing my first "educated" set of predictions for who/what will win on Oscar night, March 10th.  The focus for this post is initial projections for the Supporting Acting and Screenplay races.  As always TFF films are in Bold.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

1) Da'Vine Joy Randolph/The Holdovers

2) Emily Blunt/Oppenheimer

3) Jodie Foster/Nyad

4) America Ferrera/Barbie

5) Danielle Brooks/The Color Purple

Comment: Randolph is the prohibitive favorite.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Robert Downey, Jr./Oppenheimer

2) Ryan Gosling/Barbie

3) Robert DeNiro/Killers of the Flower Moon

4) Mark Ruffalo/Poor Things

5) Sterling K. Brown/American Fiction

Comment: I'm a bit surprised at how bid the Downey, Jr. sentiment seems to be.  I would have thought that this was a close race between he and Gosling but the early buzz is almost as strong for Downey, Jr. as Randolph has for Supporting Actress.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

1) Barbie

2) American Fiction

3) Oppenheimer

4) Poor Things

5) The Zone of Interest

Comment: A very tight race between the top three and, as a result, a category that could be determinative for a lot of Oscar pools.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

1) Anatomy of a Fall

2) The Holdovers

3) Past Lives

4) Maestro

5) May December

Comment: A two horse race between Anatomy and Holdovers that Anatomy seems to be leading at the moment.

Overall, from these four categories it looks likely that TFF films will pick up wins in two categories: Supporting Actress and Original Screenplay.

ITERVIEWS AND PROFILES:LANTHIMOS

Yorgos Lanthimos on Poor Things from The Hollywood Reporter.

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SAG and DGA Nominees and TFF / MTFB Oscar Update: Screenplays and More / Interviews and Profiles

SAG AND DGA NOMINEES AND TFF

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.

FILM EDITING

1) Oppenheimer (1)

2) Poor Things (3)

3) Killers of the Flower Moon (2)

4) Barbie (4)

5) The Holdovers (-)

Alternates: Maestro, Anatomy of a Fall and Air.

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES

Jodie Foster and Annette Bening for Nyad from Netflix via YouTube.

Annette Bening for Nyad from Awards Watch.

Behind the Scenes for The Zone of Interest from The Hollywood Reporter.

Behind the Scenes for All of Us Strangers from FirstShowing.net.

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MTFB Oscar Update: Supporting Acting / Gotham Awards and TFF / Interviews and Profiles: Giamatti, Mescal, Randolph, Keoghan and More

MTFB OSCAR UPDATE: SUPPORTING ACTING

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 Nov. 16th.  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) Danielle Brooks/The Color Purple (4)

4) Jodie Foster/Nyad (3)

5) Julianne Moore/May December (5)

Alternates: Penelope Cruz/Ferrai, Taraji P. Henson/The Color Purple,  and America Ferrera/Barbie

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

1) Ryan Gosling/Barbie (2)

2) Robert Downey, Jr./Oppenheimer (1)

3) Mark Ruffalo/Poor Things (4)

4) Robert DeNiro/Killers of the Flower Moon (3)

5) Charles Melton/May December (-)

Alternates: Willem DaFoe/Poor Things, Dominic Sessa/The Holdovers, Sterling K. Brown/American Fiction.

I'll have Screenplays predictions up on Monday as well as updated totals for TFF films in the eight big categories.

GOTHAM AWARDS AND TFF

The Gotham Awards were announced last Monday evening.  Of TFF films the only film to take home a win was Justine Triet's Anatomy of a Fall which snagged two awards: one for best International Feature and the other  Screenplay.

Celine Song's Past Lives was named Best Feature Film of 2023.

TFF films had been nominated for a total of 13 awards with Andrew Haigh's All of Us Strangers up for four which was made it the most nominated film of the bunch.

The complete list of winners is linked here from Variety.

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES: GIAMATTI, MESCAL, RANDOLPH, KEOGHAN AND MORE

   

THE HOLDOVERS

Paul Giamatti for The Holdovers from Awards Radar.

 Da'Vine Joy Randolph for The Holdovers from Awards Radar.

Dominic Sessa for The Holdovers from Awards Radar.

POOR THINGS

Yorgos Lanthimos for Poor Things from Indiewire.

Producers Ed Guiney and Andrew Lowe for Poor Things from Gold Derby.

ALL OF US STRANGERS

Paul Mescal for All of Us Strangers from Gold Derby.

SALTBURN

Emerald Fennell and Barry Keoghan for Saltburn from Next Best Picture.

ORLANDO, MY POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY

Director Paul B. Preciado for Orlando: My, Political Biography from Indiewire.

Paul B. Preciado for Orlando, My Political Biography from Film Comment.

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MTFB Oscar Update: Best Picture and Direction / The Bikeriders Riding to a New Home / Trailers and Clips: The Teachers' Lounge, Poor Things and Saltburn / Interviews and Profiles: Giamatti, Dafoe, Domingo, Mescal and More

 OSCAR UPDATE: BEST PICTURE AND DIRECTION

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

U.S. TRAILER FOR THE TEACHERS' LOUNGE

NEW U.K. TRAILER FOR POOR THINGS

CLIP FROM SALTBURN VIA INDIEWIRE

https://twitter.com/IndieWire/status/1726993876555284600

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES: GIAMATTI, DAFOE, DOMINGO AND MORE

POOR THINGS

Writer/Director Yorgos Lanthimos for Poor Things from Entertainment Weekly.

Willem Dafoe for Poor Things from Gold Derby.

RUSTIN

Colman Domingo and screenwriter Julian Breece for Rustin from Next Best Picture.

THE HOLDOVERS

Paul Giamatti for The Holdovers from The Playlist.

Actress Da'Vine Joy Randolph for The Holdovers fromVulture.

Actor Dominic Sessa for The Holdovers from Gold Derby.

Producer Mark Johnson for The Holdovers from Awards Daily.

Cinematographer Eigil Bryld for The Holdovers from Awards Radar.

ALL OF US STRANGERS

Paul Mescal for All of Us Strangers from Awards Watch.

Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal from Entertainment Weekly.

Writer/Director Andrew Haigh for All of Us Strangers from The Playlist.

Andrew Haigh for All of Us Strangers from Awards Watch.

SALTBURN

Barry Keoghan and Emerald Fennell for Saltburn from TheRinger.com

Writer/Director Emerald Fennell for Saltburn from Entertainment Weekly.

Emerald Fennell from SlashFilm.

NYAD

Annette Bening and Jodie Foster for Nyad from Awards Radar.

THE ZONE OF INTEREST AND ANATOMY OF A FALL

Sander Huller for both films from Awards Watch.

FALLEN LEAVES

Actors Alma Poysti and Jussi Vantanen for Fallen Leaves from Next Best Picture.

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Oscar Update: Best Picture and Direction / European Film Awards Nominations and TFF / Interviews and Profiles

OSCAR UPDATE: BEST PICTURE AND DIRECTION

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 Oct. 16th.  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 (4)

4) Poor Things (3)

5) American Fiction (8)

6) The Holdovers (5)

7) Maestro (6)

8) Past Lives (7)

9) Anatomy of a Fall (-)

10) The Zone of Interest (9)

Alternates: The Color Purple, Air, Saltburn, All of Us Strangers

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,  Bradley Cooper/Maestro and Justine Triet/Anatomy of a Fall. 

EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS NOMINATIONS AND TFF

The European Film Academy announced its nominations for film excellence on Tuesday and a number of TFF films were in the mix:.  Here's the listing of EFA nominations earned by TFF films:

The Zone of Interest (5): Best European Film, Best Direction, Best Actress (Huller), Best Actor (Freidel), Best Screenplay.

Fallen Leaves (5): Best European Film, Best Direction, Best Actress (Poysti), Best Actor (Vatanen), Best Screenplay.

Anatomy of a Fall (4): Best European Film, Best Direction, Best Actress (Huller), Best Screenplay.

The Teachers' Lounge (2): Best Actress (Benesch), Best Screenplay.

La Chimera (1): Best Actor (O'Connor).

The Promised Land (1): Best Actor (Mikkelsen).

Here's the complete listing of all nominees from Ioncinema.

The EFA's winners will be announced on Dec. 9th.

INTERVIEWS AND PROFILES: 

Alexander Payne on The Holdovers from apnews.com.

Composer Mark Orton on The Holdovers from Screen Rant.

 

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Apologies / Entertainment Weekly Surveys the Oscar Landscape / Lanthimos on Poor Things / U.S. Trailer for The Taste of Things

APOLOGIES

Usually I have the up on its regular Thursday.  Missed it yesterday as I am on the road.  Here it is...

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY SURVEYS THE FALL FILM LANDSCAPE

EW reviews the fall lineup of films with an eye toward Oscar and popular success.  TFF #50 films that get mentioned:

Strange Way of  Life/Almodovar

Anatomy of a Fall/Triet

Nyad/Chin and Vasarhelyi

Fingernails/Nikou

Rustin/Wolfe

Saltburn/Fennell

LANTHIMOS ON POOR THINGS

The New York Film Fest posted the live post-screening interview with Poor Things director Yorgos Lanthimos and a number of members of the creative team from the film.

The film was a huge success at TFF #50 topping the People's and Pro polls run by this blog.

Here's the link to the post-screening interview.

U.S. TRAILER FOR THE TATSE OF THINGS

From IFC on Wednesday, a new U.S. trailer for Tran Anh Hung's The Taste of Things.  The film was #3 on The Professionals' Poll posted here on Sept. 11th.

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Cannes Opening Imminent - Top Possibilities / WOR and the Best of the '60's -Part Two / Looks At: Poor Things and Cobweb

CANNES OPENING IMMINENT-TOP POSSIBILITIES

Set photo from Jonathan Glazer's The Zone of Interest

The 76th Cannes Film Festival is just hours away from its opening and MTFB continues to monitor the pre-fest buzz for films that could make the trans-Atlantic crossing from France to southwestern Colorado on Labor Day weekend.

As frequent readers know, traditionally many films make the Cannes/Telluride Two-Step each year.  On average (based on the last 12 years) there are 7-8 films that make that double-play.  Last year nine films made the trip including Aftersun, Armageddon Time, Broker, Close, Holy Spider and The Pupils.

As we near the start of this year's fest on The Croisette, Indiewire has published their list of "Most Anticipated" titles.  Looking at that, here's another stab from that list at what might SHOW up at T-ride:

La Chimera/Rohrwacher

Fallen Leaves/Kaurismaki

Killer of the Flower Moon/Scorsese

May/December/Haynes

Monster/Kore-eda

Strange Way of Life/Almodovar

The Zone of Interest/Glazer

The complete Indiewire story and list are linked here.

As always, I'll be keeping track of the critical reaction from Cannes as that can sometimes point to the viability of films moving forward. Here are the dates that some of the films of interest will be having their initial public screening:

In Palme competition:

Monster 5/17

The Zone of Interest 5/19

May/December 5/20

Perfect Days 5/25

La Chimera 5/26

The Old Oak 5/26

Others not in Palme Competition:

Occupied City 5/17

Strange Way of Life 5/17

Anselm 5/17

The New Boy 5/19

Killers of the Flower Moon 5/20

Cobweb 5/25

Closing night ceremonies will take place on May 27th.

WOR AND THE BEST OF THE 60'S -PART TWO

Last Thursday I wrote about participating in World of Reel's poll of the greatest films of the 1960's.  Since that post WOR head man Jordan Ruimy has published the individual ballots of all 130+ people who participated.  That let me see how my list of ten great films of the 60's stacked up with everyone else.

 Here's my list of ten and where they landed within the top 40 that Ruimy posted last week:

2001: A Space Odyssey (1)

The Apartment (9)

Cool Hand Luke

Dr. Strangelove (3)

The Graduate (5)

The Hustler 

Lawrence of Arabia (4)

Midnight Cowboy (17)

To Kill a Mockingbird

They Shoot Horses Don't They

As to the films that I listed that did not make the Top 40, here's the number of ballots they had with this note, it took 7 ballots to make the Top 40.:

Cool Hand Luke-5

The Hustler-5

To Kill a Mockingbird- 6

They Shoot Horses Don't They-3

The complete list of individual ballots is here.

LOOKS AT: POOR THINGS, COBWEB AND  ANSLEM

POOR THINGS TEASER

I will admit that I am fascinated by what this Yorgos Lanthimos film might be.  Additionally, I'm a big fan of Emma Stone  The IMDb description:

"The incredible tale and fantastical evolution of Bella Baxter (Stone), a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Dafoe)."

Here's the teaser from YouTube that was released by Searchlight on May 11th:

Here's The Hollywood Reporter on the film.

COBWEB

I have Director Kin Jee-woon's Cobweb as an outside shot to make the lineup for TFF #50.  It play's in an Out-of-Competition slot.

The IMDb Desription:

"an experimental and genre-defying drama shot entirely on sound stages in support of a film-within-a-film narrative."

Here's the trailer with subtitles from YouTube:

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My Last Oscar Predix for 2018 / Looking at Feinberg's Forecast / Directors' Takes

Welcome to the last day of 2018 and Happy New Year!

MY LAST OSCAR PREDIX FOR 2018

I'm closing out 2018 with a look at up-to-the-minute Oscar Predictions for the four most major categories: Picture, Direction, Actress and Actor.

Actual voting begins in a week and the nomination announcement is just three weeks away (Jan. 22).

My last publication in this space for these categories was back on Dec. 10th.

Each film's past position is listed in parentheses and TFF #45 films are Bold.

BEST PICTURE

1) A Star Is Born (1)
2) Roma (2)
3) BlacKkKlansman (6)
4) Green Book (3)
5) Black Panther (5)
6) The Favourite (4)
7) Vice (8)
8) If Beale Street Could Talk (7)
9) Bohemian Rhapsody (-)
10) First Man (-)

Other possibles: First Reformed, Mary Poppins Returns, Can You Ever Forgive Me?

BEST DIRECTION

1) Alfonso Cuaron/Roma (1)
2) Bradley Cooper/A Star Is Born (2)
3) Spike Lee/BlacKkKlansman (3)
4) Yorgos Lanthimos/The Favourite (5)
5) Peter Farrelly/Green Book (-)

Other possibles: Ryan Coogler/Black Panther, Adam McKay/Vice, Barry Jenkins/If Beale Street Could Talk, Damien Chazelle/First Man

BEST ACTRESS

1) Lady Gaga/A Star Is Born (2)
2) Glenn Close/The Wife (1)
3) Olivia Colman/The Favourite (3)
4) Melissa McCarthy/Can You Ever Forgive Me? (4)
5) Emily Blunt/Mary Poppins Returns (5)

Other possibles: Yalitza Aparicio/Roma, Nicole Kidman/Destroyer, Toni Collette/Hereditary

BEST ACTOR

1) Bradley Cooper/A Star Is Born (2)
2) Christian Bale/Vice (1)
3) Rami Malek/Bohemian Rhapsody (5)
4) Viggo Mortensen/Green Book (3)
5) Ethan Hawke/First Reformed (4)

Other possibles: John David Washington/BlacKkKlansman, Willem Dafoe/At Eternity's Gate, Ryan Gosling/First Man


LOOKING AT FEINBERG'S FORECAST

Scott Feinberg, who is the awards genius at The Hollywood Reporter recently posted his end-of-the-year take on the Oscar season for all 24 Oscar categories.  Here's how Scott assesses the Oscar fates of TFF #45 films assuming 10 Best Picture nominees:

First Man (8): Best Picture, Cinematography, Film Editing, Original Score, Production Design, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Visual Effects.

Roma (7): Best Picture, Direction, Actress (Aparicio), Original Screenplay, Foreign Language Film, Cinematography, Production Design

The Favourite (7): Best Picture, Actress (Colman), Supporting Actress (Stone and Weisz), Original Screenplay, Costumes, Production Design

Can You Ever Forgive Me? (3): Actress (McCarthy), Supporting Actor (Grant), Adapted Screenplay

Cold War (2): Foreign Language Film, Cinematography

Single nominations for:
Boy Erased- Supporting Actress (Kidman)
Shoplifters-Foreign Language Film
Free Solo-Documentary Feature
Border-Makeup/Hair
Caroline-Live Action Short
Fauve-Live Action Short

That's a total of 33 predicted nominations for TFF #45.

The complete set of Feinberg's Forecast at The Hollywood Reporter is linked here.


DIRECTORS' TAKES

Continuing my recent trend of linking interviews and profiles of artists from TFF #45 films that are being spotlighted this awards season...

Cold War's Pawel Pawlikowski from Indiewire

Destroyer's Karyn Kusama from Deadline



That's your last MTFB for 2018.  More to come in 2019.

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COMMENT TO THE BLOG

Oscar Predictions Update: Picture and Director / New Boy Erased Trailer Arrives / Netflix Sets Roma Release / More from Jason Reitman on The Front Runner

Good Thursday film fans...


OSCAR PREDICTIONS UPDATE: BEST PICTURE AND DIRECTOR

Time to update MTFB's Oscar predictions in the Best Picture and Direction categories.  Green Book is on the move!

BEST PICTURE

Here's the latest Best Picture predictions updating the previous round that I posted back on Oct. 15th.  Each film's previous position is listed in parentheses and TFF #45 films are Bold


1) A Star Is Born (1)
2) Roma (2)
3) Green Book (5)
4) The Favourite (3)
5) BlacKkKlansman (6)
6) First Man (3)
7) If Beale Street Could Talk (7)
8) Black Panther (8).
9) Can You Ever Forgive Me? (12)
10) Vice (10)

Others: Vice, Widows, Boy Erased

Green Book continues to pick up momentum while First Man continues to fall to earth.  Look out for Vice as well.  I think that it could make a real splash as we get closer to its screening.

BEST DIRECTION

1) Alfonso Cuaron/Roma (1)
2) Bradley Cooper/A Star Is Born (2)
3) Spike Lee/BlacKkKlansman (4)
4) Damien Chazelle/First Man (3)
5) Yorgos Lanthimos/The Favourite (5)

Others: Peter Farrelly/Green Book, Barry Jenkins/If Beale Street Could Talk, Ryan Coogler/Black Panther, Marielle Heller/Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Adam McKay/Vice

The category has remained essentially static these last two weeks.  For my money the top three spots feel like locks with a real battle royale for the #4 and #5 spots.

I'll update the lead acting races on Monday.


NEW BOY ERASED TRAILER ARRIVES


Focus Features has released a new trailer for Joel Edgerton's gay conversion therapy drama Boy Erased starring Lucas Hedges, Nicole Kidman and Russell Crowe.  The film is set to open tomorrow.

Here's the new trailer from YouTube:

NETFLIX SETS ROMA RELEASE

Indiewire's Anne Thompson reported last night that Netflix has arrived at its release strategy for Roma and other films for this year's Oscar season.  The streaming behemoth will release Roma theatrically in a limited fashion (NY and LA) on Nov. 21st.  It will be platformed with additional theaters added on Dec. 7th and Dec. 14th which is also the date that it will available for streaming.

Other films included in Thompson's story include the Coen Brothers' The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and Suzanne Bier's Bird Box.

The complete story from Indiewire is linked here.


MORE FROM JASON REITMAN ON THE FRONT RUNNER

Jason Reitman and Hugh Jackman at the Telluride Film Festival Q+A for The Front Runner

Jason Reitman sat down to talk to Awards Circuit's Joey Magidson recently about his upcoming The Front Runner.  Reitman directed and co-wrote the film starring Hugh Jackman as former Sen. Gary Hart.

Jackman's performance and the screenplay have received some attention in regards to possible Oscar consideration.

Here's the interview.


That's today's version of MTFB.  More to come on Monday.


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First Signs of Beale Street / The Usual Suspects -Part One 2018 / The Favourite Teaser Appears

Welcome to Tuesday, July 10, 2018...


THE FIRST SIGNS OF BEALE STREET

Stefan James, Kiki Layne, Regina King and Barry Jenkins at Essence Fest

One of the most hotly anticipated titles of the fall has to be Oscar winner Barry Jenkins' If Beale Street Could Talk.  The film is the writer/director's follow up to the thrice Oscar winning Moonlight.  It's an adaptation of the James Baldwin novel of the same name.

That alone would be enough to pique the interest of Telluriders but adding fuel to the fire has been the relative quiet surrounding the film.

There is a good deal of speculation that it will play Venice and I have had it at the number one spot on this summer's first Ten Bets lists for TFF #45.  We also know that its one of the films that Annapuna Pictures is distributing this fall...as Megan Ellison's production company adds distribution to its list of services.  Other films in their lineup include: Backseat, The Sisters Brothers and Destroyer.

All that to get to the story that Jenkins and some of the actors in the film: Regina King, Stephan James and Kiki Layne, were featured in a Q+A about the film at New Orleans' Essence Fest this past weekend.

Here's the 14 minute interview from YouTube:

I found the interview via a story from Awards Watch and that story is linked here.

More coverage is here from BlackFilm.com and also from Hollywood Elsewhere.

If Beale Street Could Talk is not yet scheduled for release in the United States.

THE USUAL SUSPECTS-PART ONE 2018

If Beale Street Could Talk director and TFF Usual Suspect Barry Jenkins

There are a number of people that have, over the years have become frequent players at Telluride.They're folks that may not always be there and even if they are there, they don't always have a project that screens at the fest but often times you can predict some of the choices for the fest based on The Usual Suspects and what they do have to offer.

For example...Barry Jenkins...who has been a part of the fest in a variety of ways for a decade and a half.  That's why his If Beale Street Could Talk is at the top of the Ten Bets list.

Steve McQueen-His Hunger, Shame and Oscar winner 12 Years a Slave all screened at Telluride which leads one to think that Widows is a good bet.  I've been holding back on putting it in the Ten Bets because the film's description seems less Telluride-y than McQueen's previous efforts.  Still, it wouldn't surprise if it were to screen at T-ride.

Jacques Audiard-Audiard has been represented thrice at TFF 1996- A Self Made Hero, 2009-A Prophet and 2012-Rust and Bone.  However his Palme D'or winning Dheepan wasn't at The SHOW in 2015.  His The Sisters Brothers could get him back to the San Juans.

Alejandro Inarritu is a great example of a "usual suspect" who attends even when he doesn't have a project.  That happened last year when he was in town to support his amigo Guillermo Del Toro's The Shape of Water.  I suspect that could happen again this year for Alfonso Cuaron's Roma.  Cuaron, himself would become a "usual suspect" this year if Roma plays.  I think that could happen.

Jason Reitman- At one point Reitman was a sure TFF bet as he ran off a series of SHOW entrants: Juno (07), Up in the Air (09) and Labor Day (13) but Young Adult and Men, Women and Children which might have played The SHOW did not.  Reitman could return this year with The Frontrunner.  There's a decent chance that could happen.

I'll look at more of  "The Usual Suspects on Thursday.

THE FAVOURITE TEASER APPEARS

Yorgos Lanthimos has made a big splash on the art house circuit over the past few years with The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer including an Oscar nomination for writing The Lobster.

This year he has directed the historically based The Favourite set during the reign of Queen Anne in Britain in the 1700's.  Olivia Colman, Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone star and the film is reportedly more "accessible" than either Lobster or Scared Deer.  As it is from Fox Searchlight, this might be the year that a Lanthimos film makes the TFF lineup.

All of that reminder material is to get to the fact that the film had a teaser/trailer release on Monday.  Here it is from YouTube:

The Favourite is scheduled for release on Nov. 23rd.

That's your Tuesday MTFB.  More to come on Thursday.


EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

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