Monday, May 9, 2016

The Playlist Looks at 25 Cannes Films / The Pre-Cannes Peep Show Continues

Welcome back from the weekend and Welcome to Monday...


THE PLAYLIST'S LOOK AT 25 CANNES FILMS



The Playlist (at their new web address www.theplaylist.net) put up a lengthy piece this weekend examining 25 films playing Cannes in various segments of the festival.  They are:

American Honey
The BFG
Cafe Society
Dog Eat Dog
Elle
Graduation (was Family Photos)
The Handmaiden
It's Only the End of the World
Julieta
The Last Face
Loving
Money Monster
The Neon Demon
Neruda
The Nice Guys
Paterson
Personal Shopper
Risk
The Salesman
Sieranevada
Slack Bay
Staying Vertical
Toni Erdmann
Two Lovers and a Bear
The Unknown Girl

On The Playlist's Honorable Mention list are:

I, Daniel Blake
Blood Father
Hell or High Water
Sweet Dreams
Endless Poetry
After the Storm
From the Land of the Moon
Ma Rosa
Gimme Danger
The Wailing
Aquarius


What does The Playlist's list mean for Telluride?

Start with the films that you don't/can't consider: Cafe Society, The BFG, The Nice Guys and Money Monster.

One group of films is that which come from film makers that have had a significant presence at Telluride in the past:

The Dardennes (The Unknown Girl) at least three Telluride appearances: The Child (05)...at which they were recipients of a Tribute,  The Kid with a Bike (11), Two Days, One Night (14).

Asghar Farhadi (The Salesman)...two T-ride appearances: A Separation (11) and The Past (13).



Pedro Almodovar (Julieta) has screened multiple films at Telluride: Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and a tribute in 1988, Talk to Her in 2002, Bad Education in 2004, Volver in 2006.

Paul Schrader (Dog Eat Dog) has been a frequent attendee/presenter at Telluirde: He was a guest in 1980, 1988, 1990, 1997 with Affliction, 2000, was tributed in 2002, 2003 and screened and Adam Resurrected in 2008.

Olivier Assayas (Personal Shopper) who has played T-ride with Irma Vep in 1996 and Carlos in 2010.


Then there are the Telluride single players:

Sean Penn (The Last Face) who played T-ride in 2007 with Into the Wild

Andrea Arnold (American Honey) Telluride in 2009 with Fish Tank (and has guested before as well)



David Mackenzie (Hell or High Water) his Starred Up was at Telluride in 2013)

Xavier Dolan (It's Only the End of the World) TFF #41 with Mommy in 2014

Pablo Larrain (Neruda) No at Telluride in 2012

Cristian Mungiu (Graduation/Family Photos) who was at TFF #34 in 2007 with 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days


That's a bunch (10) of directors from the Playlist 25 (plus Honorable Mentions) that have played Cannes/Telluride before.

If recency indicates anything that would point the finger at The Dardennes, Farhadi, Dolan and Mackenzie have the best shot at coming back.  I'm feeling bullish about Farhadi and The Dardennes Brothers.

Check the complete Playlist article here:

http://theplaylist.net/25-anticipated-films-2016-cannes-film-festival-20160505/



THE PRE-CANNES PEEP SHOW CONTINUES


As we count down the days to the opening of Cannes #69...we continue to get views/stills. teasers/trailers for films playing in France and, as a result, looks at films that could end up in southwest Colorado over Labor Day weekend.

I have collected more of those for your pleasure here.

It's Only the End of the World (clips):



https://thefilmstage.com/news/watch-first-clips-from-xavier-dolans-cannes-bound-its-only-the-end-of-the-world/


Personal Shopper (stills):

http://www.indiewire.com/article/kristen-stewart-cafe-society-personal-shopper-new-images-20160503


Multiple posters including: American Honey, Slack Bay, Julieta:



https://mubi.com/notebook/posts/movie-poster-of-the-week-the-posters-of-the-2016-cannes-competition/

Stills and poster for Hell or High Water:

http://www.indiewire.com/article/hell-or-high-water-first-look-chris-pine-jeff-bridges-cannes-2016


Stills from Neruda, Dog Eat Dog, Endless Poetry and more:



http://www.indiewire.com/article/cannes-film-festival-2016-preview-directors-fortnight-risk-sweet-dreams-neruda-dog-eat-dog




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Thursday, May 5, 2016

Bleed for This Enters the Conversation / Counting Down to Cannes / Cannes Schedule

Hello All on the first Thursday in May...

BLEED FOR THIS ENTERS THE CONVERSATION 


Still from Ben Younger's Bleed for This via The Awards Watch


A couple of outlets reported this week that Ben Younger's Bleed for This starring Miles Teller (Whiplash, The Spectacular Now) will be released in limited fashion on Nov. 4 and go wide on Nov. 23.  

I take notice of this as it lands the somewhat under-the-radar film smack in the middle of the awards season.  Add that to the fact that its distributor is Open Road, which managed a Telluride screening last year for a little picture called Spotlight (Oscars for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay plus another four nominations) and you begin to think that we ought to consider Bleed for This as a possible TFF #43 entry.

One other piece of info to add to the circumstantial pile is that the film is Executive Produced, in part, by Martin Scorsese who has been represented at Telluride recently in that capacity with a number of films, albeit documentaries- The 50 Year Argument, A Letter to Elia, George Harrison-Living in the Material World.

Of late, it had appeared, again circumstantially, that all of Open Roads awards chips seemed to be with Oliver Stone's Snowden but this week's announcement implies that they may have another card up their sleeve.

Here is coverage of the release from Variety, Screen Daily and The Awards Circuit:






COUNTING DOWN TO CANNES



The 69th Cannes Film Festival is set to open one week from today.  As I have often reminded MTFB readers, there is usually a substantial crossover between Cannes and the Telluride lineup.  Over the past decade the average has been 7.2 films that share the Cannes/Telluride lineage.

General notes to consider in addition to the 7.2 average are that the majority of the films that crossover each year tend to come from the Palme d'Or competition slate, though they can come from almost any section of the Cannes lineup.  

The Palme d'Or winner isn't an automatic Telluride inclusion.  Last year's Dheepan from Telluride semi-regular Jacques Audiard did not make the trip to the San Juans.  The 2014 winner, Nuri Bilge Ceylan's Winter Sleep also was a no go for Telluride in 2014.  However, the Palme winners for both 2012 and 2013 - Amour and Blue is the Warmest Color-did come to T-ride.  So, one might surmise that we might be due another Palme winner this year.

Another factor to keep in mind is the critical response.  Strong positive critical reaction is often an indicator that Telluride may be in the future of a Cannes film.

So stay tuned to what happens in France between now and the Cannes closing in May 22.  Almost assuredly, several of the films that make waves there will be making their way to southwest Colorado in September.

Both Indiewire and Ioncinema posted Cannes previews this week.  Here they are:




CANNES SCHEDULE



Hot off the press, here is the pdf of he schedule in Cannes:




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Monday, May 2, 2016

Pre-Cannes PR Lets Us Look at Telluride Possibilities / Will There Be Moonlight in Telluride?

Welcome to Monday...

PRE-CANNES P.R. LET'S US LOOK AT TELLURIDE POSSIBILITIES

Many of the films that are set to play at the 69th Cannes Film Fest, set to start in under two weeks-May 11, are rolling out various levels of publicity prior to their screenings in France.  The last MTFB post highlighted a perfect example of this with the release of a teaser/trailer and poster for Oliver Stone's Snowden.

Several other Cannes choices that have some chance of making the Atlantic crossing in September to Telluride have also begun sharing stories, stills, clips and more as they seek to entice prior to their bow on the Croisette.

Consequently, I've snagged some of those and am passing them along to you today...

Christain Mungiu's Graduation poster, trailer and teasers and news that the film has U.S. distribution via Sundance Selects (which doesn't hurt and probably boosts its T-ride chances) via The Film Stage:



The official trailer from YouTube:




Here's the link to The Film Stage post which has more:

https://thefilmstage.com/trailer/first-trailer-for-cristian-mungius-cannes-bound-drama-graduation/



The Film Stage also posted a multi-film article with stills and posters from a number of Cannes films including Xavier Dolan's It's Only the End of the World and Bruno Dumont's Slack Bay among several (Elle, The Red Turtle, Sieranevada, Make Beautiful Dreams and The Handmaiden).


Poster for Dolan's It's Only the End of the World from The Film Stage

Check all of this here:





WILL THERE BE MOONLIGHT IN TELLURIDE?


Barry Jenkins leading the Q and A after 12 Years a Slave at Telluride in 2012. (Getty Images)



Friend of MTFB, and recently Kino Lorber intern invitee (congrats!) Jason Osaison  (JASON (metalmeatwad) @MichaelNot Cera on Twitter) shared that he felt very strongly that Barry Jenkins Moonlight would make the lineup for TFF #43.

Now remember, Jason won The Gold Derby's Oscar prediction contest this year...he does his research.

Jason points out that Jenkins has been a part of the TFF staff for more than a decade and has often curated the Calling Card, Student Prints and Great Expectations as well as serving as the Ringmaster at The Zog since it opened.  Jenkins has also been a frequent contributor to the TFF program.

Additionally, Moonlight's distributor is A24, which also doesn't hurt its chances.  

A24 at Telluride recently: Room (Oscar winner Brie Larson and additional Oscar nominations  for Best Picture, screenplay and direction), Under the Skin and Ginger and Rosa.

Additionally, among the film's producers are Brad Pitt and his Plan B Entertainment, which also doesn't hurt the film's TFF chances.

Plan B at Telluride: 12 Years a Slave.  I also think Plan B's The Lost City of Z and War Machine might be TFF possibilities this year.

Osiason's points are well taken...Moonlight moves right up the list of possible/probable Telluride films for 2016.

Thanks Jason!

Here's Moonlight's  IMDb page:




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Thursday, April 28, 2016

Snowden Revealed (the Trailer and a Poster Anyway) / More view of The Salesman

It's Thursday!  Hope you've had a good week.

SNOWDEN REVEALED (THE TRAILER AND A POSTER ANYWAY)

Producers of Oliver Stone's delayed Snowden dropped a trailer this week.  Here it is via YouTube:




The case for Snowden to make the Telluride playlist for this Labor Day is not bad.  Stone has been in Telluride previously, albeit a good long time ago- 19 years with U-Turn.  The films distributor is Open Road which hit it big time last year in Telluride with Best Picture Oscar winner Spotlight.  That also bodes well.

Production Company Vendian Entertainment had Black Mass at Telluride last year as well.

The film's release has been delayed until Sept. 16th...putting it in the Telluride window.  I actually think a Venice, Telluride, Toronto play is a possibility.

In addition to the trailer, we also got the first look at a poster for the film from The Film Stage too:



Here's a ton of coverage of the film that accompanied it"s trailer release this week:


http://variety.com/2016/film/news/snowden-trailer-joseph-gordon-levitt-oliver-stone-1201761843/

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/snowden-trailer-oliver-stone-movie-888114

http://www.ew.com/article/2016/04/27/snowden-trailer-oliver-stone-movie

http://www.indiewire.com/article/snowden-trailer-joseph-gordon-levitt-oliver-stone-20160427

https://thefilmstage.com/trailer/joseph-gordon-levitt-fights-for-freedom-in-first-trailer-for-oliver-stones-snowden/

http://www.businessinsider.com/snowden-trailer-2016-4

http://www.slashfilm.com/snowden-trailer/



MORE VIEWS OF THE SALESMAN


We got some additional stills from Asghar Farhadi's recently Cannes competition film The Salesman this week from The Film Stage.

The Salesman seems like a likely addition for Telluride's list too as Farhadi's previous Cannes chosen efforts, A Separation and The Past also made appearances at Telluride.

Here are the views we've seen thus far:







The article from The Film Stage that accompanies the new images does suggest that the long held theory that the film might be based, in some way, on Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman seems not to be the case.  Here's the link to the story:


The Salesman currently has no U.S. distribution.




More to come on Monday.  Have a great weekend.

Contact me at:

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mpgort@gmail.com OR

via Twitter @Gort2 OR to






Monday, April 25, 2016

Variety's Tapley Talks Telluride and Makes a Few Guesses / Farhadi Joins Cannes Competition Lineup

Good Monday Everyone.  Thanks for taking the time to take a look at Michael's Telluride Film Blog



VARIETY'S TAPLEY TALKS TELLURIDE AND MAKES A FEW GUESSES



Variety's awards co-editor Kristopher Tapley posted an intriguing piece late last week that talked about the rapidity with which The 43rd sedition of TFF sold out of passes.  Tapley analyzes some of what he sees as reasons for the quick sell out.

He also takes a some time to take a very, very preliminary look at some titles that he thinks might make the lineup over Labor Day weekend.  Some surprises included:



Ang Lee's Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk
Asghar Farhadi's The Salesman
Garth Davis' Lion
Gavin O'Connor's The Accountant
Andrea Arnold's American Honey
The Dardennes' The Unknown Girl 
Nate Parker's Birth of a Nation

That last, of course was a Sundance hit but has already fairly warmly rumored to be a Telluride possibility.  Both Tapley and The Hollywood Reporter's Scott Feinberg have now mentioned the possibility.

Check Tapley's entire article here:

As we expected, the Cannes Fest added seven new films to various programs for next months 69th iteration.  Among the was Asghar Farhadi's The Salesman which was added to the Palme d'Or competition lineup.  The addition bodes well, I think, for Farhadi to make a third appearance at Telluride after successful runs there with A Separation and The Past.

I have linked three stories about the additions which also include the new film from David Mackenzie, He'll or High Water which has been added to the Un Certain Regard section.  Mackenzie's Starred Up played Telluride to wide acclaim in 2013 and this UCR selection could foreshadow a return for him this year.

The stories:


http://www.thewrap.com/cannes-film-festival-adds-7-new-films/


That's it for this Monday...more to come on Thursday.


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Thursday, April 21, 2016

Parsing Cannes' Director's Fortnight / Calling All Film Makers / Awards Daily Talks Telluride

Good Thursday everyone.  Cannes starts in three weeks...

PARSING CANNES ' DIRECTOR'S FORTNIGHT



The last major segment of films for the 69th Cannes Film Fest was announced earlier this week as the fest announced films selected for its Director's Fortnight program.  The films that seemed to have the most initial Telluride potential (based on past T-ride selections) would seem to be:

Paul Schrader's Dog Eat Dog
Pablo Larrain's Neruda and
Alejandro Jodorowsky's Endless Poetry 

I have linked coverage of the Director's Fortnight announcement from Indiewire here:


Meanwhile, I missed this last week.  Director Eran Korilin, who appeared at Telluride in 2007 with The Band's Visit has new film in the Un Certain Regard section, which, because of the reception Band's Visit received nine years ago, must be considered a serious SHOW prospect.  The film is titled Beyond the Mountains and the Hills.


CALLING ALL FILM MAKERS




The word went out earlier this week...The Telluride Film Festival has opened its film submission period.  Here's the text of the announcement:

BERKELEY, CA – Telluride Film Festival (September 2-5, 2016), presented by National Film Preserve, Ltd. announces its Call for Entries in all categories including student, short and feature length films.
 Submission period begins April 15, 2016. Film Entry Form is available on the TFF website: www.telluridefilmfestival.org.
 Shorts and student film submissions must be received no later than 5:00 PM, July 1, 2016. Feature film submissions must be received no later than 5:00 PM, July 15, 2016. All submissions must have been completed after July 15, 2015 and no works in progress will be accepted. Feature-length films (60 minutes or longer) will only be considered if they are to have their first North American screening at Telluride Film Festival. Final program determinations will be made by August 1, 2016. No early or late entries will be accepted.
 Professional and amateur filmmakers working in all aesthetic disciplines and genres including narrative, documentary, animation and experimental are welcome.
 Each year Telluride Film Festival plays host to an average of 25 feature films and 25 shorts and student films. Films selected to screen at Telluride Film Festival will be shown out-of-competition. TFF is not a competitive festival.
 For more information visit www.telluridefilmfestival.org


So...hey...If you've got a film ready...here's your invitation.



AWARDS DAILY TALKS TELLURIDE (AND SOME OTHER FILM FESTS)



Awards Daily's Sasha Stone posted a detailed piece yesterday focusing on four film fests and their Oscar footprint: Telluride, Cannes, Venice and Toronto.  It's interesting and says a number of the same things that I write in this space from time to time.  Take a look:

http://linkis.com/www.awardsdaily.com/p9pZU



That's a wrap for Thursday.  More to come on Monday...have a great weekend.


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Monday, April 18, 2016

A Weekend of Telluride Speculation / Continuing to Look at Cannes

Good Monday to All...

A WEEKEND OF TELLURIDE SPECULATION

Over the weekend I was in the midst of a good deal of Telluride speculation.  Fueled by mentions on Twitter and a couple of posts from various sources some very interesting and unlikely film titles made up the basis for the weekend's T-ride musings.

A Scott Feinberg/Hollywood Reporter piece about Cannes films and their Oscar potential included a Telluride reference late in the article that Sundance critical darlings Birth of a Nation and Manchester are "rumored" to be playing at Telluride.

If true, that would violate Telluride's "North American premiere" rule, although the fest has occasionally allowed that to happen in rare cases before.

I'm dubious but Feinberg has better ears on the ground than I ever will.  Check his post here:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/oscars-are-any-contenders-cannes-883959



Birth of a Nation teaser via YouTube



The other news of note focused on an interview with Cannes Artistic Director Theirry Fremaux with Screen Daily.  Fremaux talked about films that didn't make the Cannes lineup including a reference to Oliver Stone's Snowden.  Fremaux suggests that Snowden distributor Open Road is opting for a "different strategy" despite the fact that Fremaux says that Cannes would have liked to have the film.

Snowden's current release date is Sept. 16.

All of which suggests, at least to me, that we need to take the possibility of a Snowden screening at Telluride seriously.


The Fremaux interview is here:

http://www.screendaily.com/news/cannes-thierry-fremaux-interview/5102645.article


CONTINUING TO LOOK AT CANNES


Jeff Nichol's Loving


I have included here a couple of "Cannes breakdown" articles that seek to provide analysis about the films selected for the 69th edition of that festival:

http://www.screendaily.com/festivals/cannes/cannes-2016-the-critics-take/5102617.article

http://variety.com/2016/film/festivals/cannes-official-selection-numbers-1201753696/



That's it for this Monday...more on Thursday...


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Thursday, April 14, 2016

69th Cannes Film Festival Announces Its Lineup / Maybe No Warren

Good Thursday Everyone and MTFB is back.

After an unplanned layoff, I'm back in the saddle to post this Thursday and glad to be back.

69TH CANNES FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES ITS LINEUP:



Here is the lineup announced from Thierry Fremaux in Cannes from early this morning (via Awards Daily):


Opening Night Film
Cafe Society – directed by Woody Allen
Competition
Toni Erdmann – directed by Maren Ade
Julieta – directed by Pedro Almodovar
American Honey – directed by Andrea Arnold
The Unknown Girl – directed by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
Personal Shopper – directed by Olivier Assayas
It’s Only The End Of The World – directed by Xavier Dolan
Ma Loute – directed by Bruno Dumont
Paterson – directed by Jim Jarmusch
Rester Vertical – directed by Alain Guiraudie
Aquarius – directed by Kleber Mendonca Filho
Mal de Pierres – directed by Nicole Garcia
I, Daniel Blake – directed by Ken Loach
Ma’Rosa – directed by Brilliante Mendoza
Loving– directed by Jeff Nichols
Bacalaureat – directed by Cristian Mungiu
Agassi – directed by Park Chan-Wook
The Last Face – directed by Sean Penn
Sieranevada – directed by Cristi Puiu
Elle – directed by Paul Verhoeven
The Neon Demon – directed by Nicolas Winding Refn
Un Certain Regard
Varoonegi – directed by Behnam Behzadi
Apprentice – directed by Boo Junfeng
Voir Du Pays – directed by Delphine Coulin and Muriel Coulin
La Danseuse – directed by Stephanie Di Giusto
Clash – directed by Mohamed Diab
La Tortue Rouge – directed by Michael Dubok de Wit
Fuchi Bi Tatsu – directed by Fukada Koji
Omar Shakhsiya – directed by Maha Haj
Me’Ever Laharim Vehagvaot – directed by Eran Kolirin
After The Storm – directed by Kore-Eda Hirokazu
Hymyileva Mies – directed by Juho Kuosmanen
La Large Noche de Francisco Sanctis – directed by Francisco Marquez & Andrea Testa
Caini – directed by Bogdan Mirica
Pericle Il Nero – directed by Stefano Mordini
The Transfiguration – directed by Michael O’Shea
Captain Fantastic – directed by Matt Ross
Uchenik – directed by Kirill Serebrennikov
Outside Competition
The BFG – directed by Steven Spielberg
Money Monster – directed by Jodie Foster
The Nice Guys – directed by Shane Black
Gok Sung – directed by Na Hong-Jin
Special Screenings
Gimme Danger – directed by Jim Jarmusch
The Train to Busan – directed by Yeon Sang-Ho
A Chad Tragedy – directed by Mahamat-Saleh Aroun
The Death of Louis XIV – directed by Albert Serra
L’Ultima Spiaggia – directed by Thanos Anastopolous and Davide Del Degan
Exile – directed by Panh Rithy
Le Cancre – directed by Paul Vecchiali





Some random thoughts regarding the announced films Telluride...remember that Cannes and TFF commonly share seven-ish films by average and that usually the majority of the films come from the competition slate.

Competition films that would seem to have the most likely chance of making the Telluride lineup are:

Arnold's American Honey
The Dardennes' The Unknown Girl
Assasyas" Personal Shopper 
Dolan's It's Only the End of the World
Nichols' Loving
Mungiu's Bacalaureat (Family Photos)
Penn's The Last Face


As of today none of the titles from Un Certain Regard or the Out of Competition or Special Screening selections jump out as big possibilities.  That could change when Cannes kicks off on May 11th.  We could also see  some titles show up in the Directors Fortnight that could intrigue T-ride programmers.




MAYBE NO WARREN



There was a good deal of speculation this week regarding the Warren Beatty Howard Hughes project. Reports that it was done.   Reports that it was NOT bound for Cannes but could be looking at the fall fests (intriguing!!!) and finally, word purportedly from Beatty himself that seems to cast doubt on ANY fest screening.  The last coming from ShowBiz411 quoting Beatty's response to a "fall festival" question with the response "Why would I want to do that?"

Sooo...it seems Beatty is either playing a bluff or...the film won't play any fest (most likely).  Perhaps Beatty might not regard New York or AFI a "fall fest; which might allow either of those fests to screen the film.

But taken at face value, it doesn't sound like the highly anticipated film will be at Telluride or anywhere else for that matter.

Here's the coverage from ShowBiz411:



 That's all for Thursday...come back for more on Monday...


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