THE SUMMER SKED IS IN EFFECT
Beginning with today's post MTFB is on its summer posting schedule. Through TFF's Labor Day weekend. I'll be posting four times a week on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. You can also expect occasional bonus posts when circumstances warrant.
For those of you that have followed this space for any length of time, you know that this switch to more posts each week means that it's time to get serious about what might play this year for the 46th edition of the Telluride Film Festival.
So, with that thought in mind...
UPCOMING THIS WEEK
I'll start peeking at the distribution companies that are frequent players at TFF to see what each has loaded up for later this year. I'll include an historical look at what each of those companies has done at TFF over the past several years as well as handicapping the chances for their films to make the TFF #46 program.
Look for assessments for:
Sony Pictures Classics
Fox Searchlight
Netflix
Amazon Studios
Focus Features
Neon
Warner Bros.
Sony/Columbia
20th Century Fox/Disney
Lionsgate/Roadside Attractions
Cohen Media Group
Sundance Selects/IFC Films
Annapurna
Kino Lorber
The "Ten Bets" list will kick off my official season of guessing the Telluride lineup on June 28th but for those of you who just can't wait, I'll be putting up my "If I Had To..." list of guesses this coming Friday.
I started doing this "early bird" version of my "Ten Bets" list a couple of years ago. In 2017 I had six films listed that made The SHOW. In 2018 I got five right. Oddly, that's right in the ballpark of the average number of correct titles on each year's first "Ten Bets".
So... there's an outline of some of the things you can plan on seeing hear over the next few days and weeks.
INTERNATIONAL FILMS AND TELLURIDE
I certainly have a lot of "to-do" over the past several years regarding Telluride and the Oscar Best Picture race. However, one area that I could have and maybe should have spent a little more tin=me doting over are the films that play TFF that go on to be serious contenders for what has, up until this year, been the Best Foreign Language Film category. Now the Academy has changed the category name to Best International Film.
You'd have to be fairly oblivious not to have realized that TFF has hosted a serious number of Foreign Film Oscar contenders and winners over the years but I got curious since this year's Cannes about just how deep the Telluride and Foreign Film Oscar connection truly was.
Much like the Best Picture Oscar connection, TFF had some limited connection to the Foreign Oscar during the first few years of the 21st century and then that connection expanded dramatically beginning in 2008.
Here's a rundown of all the Foreign Language nominees and winners that have played TFF since 2000. You'll see what I mean. (Oscar winners in the category are designated with an ***):
2000- Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon***
2001- Amelie
2002- The Man Without a Past
2003- The Barbarian Invasions***
2004- No nominees
2005- Paradise Now
2006- The Lives of Others***
2007- The Counterfeiters***
2008- Revanche, Waltz with Bashir
2009- A Prophet, White Ribbon
2010- Biutiful, Incendies
2011- A Separation***, Footnote, In Darkness
2012- Amour***, No, A Royal Affair
2013- The Hunt, The Missing Picture
2014- Ida***, Leviathan, Wild Tales
2015- Son of Saul***
2016- Toni Erdmann
2017- A Fantastic Woman***, The Insult, Loveless
2018- Roma***, Cold War, Shoplifters
That's nine winners over the last 19 years as well as a total of 32 nominated films and you'll note that the bulk of those wins and nominations have occurred since 2008. Since then TFF has hosted five Oscar winners and 25 nominees.
So, not to put too fine a point on it, but if you're someone with a vested interest in getting a film into the serious International Film Oscar convo, Telluride is a good place to get into.
Related to all of this is a piece that Awards Circuits' Clayton Davis published on Wednesday last week that recapped the International films that have bowed at Sundance, Berlin and Cannes that he thinks have the best Oscar shots at the moment.
Among the films he lists that I feel are looking the strongest for Telluride right now are: Parasite, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Synonyms, By the Grace of God, Synonyms, Bacarau, The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao, Pain and Glory, Young Ahmed and Atlantics.
Clayton's entire article is linked here.
That's your Monday MTFB. More tomorrow...
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com
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