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
"But it's our job." - Anne Thompson, Indiewire
Magnolia's record at TFFs is spotty but they could be playing this year.
Magnolia's TFF past:
2006-Severance
2007- Terror's Advocate, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, Redacted
2012-The Hunt, A Royal Affair
2015-Viva
Magnolia played the Cannes Palme d'Or competition with Arnuad Desplechin's Ismael's Ghost and Ruben Ostlund's Palme winning The Square.
Ismael's Ghosts had a mixed response at Cannes but its undeniable star power (Cotillard, Gainsbourg and Almaric) may mean we can't rule it out. Mark it with a 25% chance.
Ostlund's Palme winner has a much better shot due to its win and good critical response. Added to the factoring is that a Palme winner hasn't played Telluride since 2013's Blue is the Warmest Color. Perhaps the fest is due for another Palme winner. Chances- 50%.
BENING NAMED VENICE JURY PRESIDENT
The Venice Film Festival announced yesterday that actress Annette Bening will serve as the president of their competition jury. Details are here from The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline.
That means you can also discount any chance that she would be in Telluride with either The Seagull or Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool. That's not to say that either film won't play TFF just that if they do, Bening won't make the trip to the San Juans with the film which, for my money, probably means that neither film makes the trip .
TFF HISTORY CONTINUED: TFF #22
The continued backward march through TFF fest history continues today with a review of the 22nd SHOW, Sept. 1-4, 1995
Guest Director: Phillip Lopate
Tributes: John Schlesinger, Zhang Yimou, The Surrealists
Special Medallion: Andrew Sarris
SHOWS:
The Arsonists
Augustin
Careful
Carrington
China; The Wild East
Cold Comfort Farm
Desolation Angels
Floating Clouds
Fresh Bait
From the Journals of Jean Seberg
The Hard Way
History is Made at Night
Institute Benjamenta
The Journey of August King
The Man with the Movie Camera
Man's Castle
On the Beat
Persuasion
Pie in the Sky
The River
The Saragosa Manuscript
Shanghai Triad
Survivors of the Holocaust
Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead
The Tit and the Moon
To Die For
Total Eclipse
Visions of Heaven and Hell
The Wanderers
Warrior Lanling
The Water Carrier
Welfare
The White Balloon
Guests:
Ken Burns
Josh Charles
Danny Elfman
Thierry Fremaux
Christopher Hampton
Anne Heche
Werner Herzog
Angneiska Holland
James Ivory
Chuck Jones
Philip Kaufman
Christine Lahti
Guy Maddin
Roger Michell
Thandie Newton
Mark Rappaport
Peter Reigert
Gus Van Sant
Sam Waterston
Treat Williams
Frederick Wiseman
That's a wrap for Thursday. An updated Ten Bets list is on its way to you tomorrow.
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com
To say that there has been only a slight relationship over the past few years between Focus Features and the Telluride Film Festival would be accurate. Since 2006 Focus has been repped at Telluride all of three times:
2006- Catch a Fire
2012- Hyde Park on Hudson
2015- Suffragette
In all three cases the directors involved had appeared with a film at TFF before. Phil Noyce who directed Catch a Fire had Rabbit Proof Fence there in 2002. Roger Michell who was the director of Hyde Park on Hudson had Venus in 2006 and Persuasion in 1995 and Suffragette was directed by Sarah Gavron who had been represented at Telluride in 2007 with Brick Lane, Losing Touch in 2000 and This Little Life in 2003. So, if you're looking to see if Focus might be back with a film in 2017, that could be a factor to look at and Focus has some films that might be on anyone's wish list.
Starting with the latest from Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Day Lewis, who suggests that he will retire from acting after this film. The film is currently called Phantom Thread and is scheduled for release on Dec. 25th.
PTA and DDL were in Telluride in 2007 for a tribute to Day Lewis but I fully expect that the film won't be finished in time for Labor Day. Chances: 0%.
Darkest Hour with what is said to be a star turn and Oscar play for Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill. Darkest Hour is directed by Jow Wright of Atonement fame. Wright has no T-ride connection that I can track down so despite a Nov. 22nd release date...Chances: 10%.
Victoria and Abdul starring Judi Dench as the British monarch and directed by Stephen Frears probably has the best shot as Frears has been at Telluride in the past with a tribute to him in 1987 that included Sammy and Rosie Get Laid as well as Walter and June and in 2010 with Tamara Drewe. Victoria and Abdul opens on Sept. 22nd. Chances: 35%.
FIRST PORTRAIT (TRAILER) FOR FIRST PORTRAIT
Outside contender for Telluride inclusion, Stanley Tucci's Final Portrait dropped a trailer yesterday. Here it is from YouTube:
Final Portrait stars Geoffrey Rush and Armie Hammer. It played Berlin back in February and is in Sony Pictures Classics stable. It currently has no U.S. release date.
I have been writing this last couple of weeks about distribution companies, their recent films that have appeared at the Telluride Film Festival and trying to assess what that means as a predictive tool for the lineup this year. Up until today, I have focused on traditional distributors but today, it's time to look at non-traditional players Amazon and Netflix.
Both companies have been represented at TFF in recent years. The two companies have evolved different approaches to the delivery of the films that they have produced. Amazon has, perhaps made the biggest splash in terms of feature films especially last year with the noise Manchester by the Sea made. Netflix made news this spring as the Cannes Festival announced a policy of requiring films that played there will have to have a French theatrical release to be considered for inclusion. That was a decision that was pretty clearly aimed at Netflix.
Netflix also made some news recently with a new hire that suggests that they may make a bigger push at awards season recognition. Anne Thompson at Indiewire reported a couple of weeks ago that the streaming powerhouse had added Julie Fontaine to their crew. Fontaine has an Oscar track record including last year's La La Land. That complete story is here.
All of that is a preamble to get to the point that we probably need to look at the lineups for both as a means of trying to fully predict the TFF lineups of the immediate future. So...
AMAZON STUDIOS
As mentioned, Amazon had Sundance hot Manchester by the Sea make the Telluride lineup in that rare instance where a feature film played both fests. Manchester ultimately won twos Oscars: Casey Affleck as Best Actor and Kenneth Lonergan for Best Original Screenplay was nominated for an additional four including Best Picture and Direction.
You have to believe that they return to T-ride this year and if you saw last Friday's first Ten Bets for TFF #44 in this space, you know that I have two Amazon Studios pictures on that first list: Todd Haynes' Wonderstruck (at #3) and Lynne Ramsay's You Were Never Really Here (at #7).
Other films that might seem to have the pedigree to make the TFF #44 playlist won't. Richard Linklater's Last Flag Flying was recently named the opening film for the New York Film Fest as a world premiere thus moving it out of T-ride consideration and Steven Soderbergh's Logan Lucky will open in August.
The only real question is whether we might see Woody Allen's Wonder Wheel which is the only other Amazon film that fits within the potential TFF parameters. The scheduling of Allen's film with a Dec. 1 release date, Allen's first non-summer release date in a number of years, made me perk up and take notice. Additionally, I have recently mentioned that Allen films have played Telluride in the past (Bullets Over Broadway and Sweet and Lowdown). Consequently, you have to at least consider the chance that Wonder Wheel could play Telluride...
But not for very long. My expectation is that Wonder Wheel plays New York and maybe AFI.
So...
Chances:
Wonderstruck-75%
You Were Never Really Here-55%
Wonder Wheel- 10%
NETFLIX
Netflix jumped into the Telluride mix in 2015 with Beasts of No Nation and Winter on Fire. Despite the disappointment that Beasts didn't make some noise at the Oscars (though Idris Elba did get a Supporting Actor Golden Globe nomination), Netflix returned to Telluride last year with The Ivory Game, Into the Inferno and The White Helmets which git Netflix and Oscar win for Best Documentary Short.
All that said, it appears that the best and maybe only bet for a Netflix play at Telluride this year is Noah Baumbach's The Meyerowitz Stories which did play Cannes and was generally well received. As I write this, Netflix has not scheduled a date for it to stream but has also nit indicated any plays for a theatrical release.
Adding to the difficulty in assessing its chances is Baumbach's history at Telluride having played Margot at the Wedding and Francis Ha there but also not having played Mistress America or While We're Young.
My best guess at this time is that the film probably doesn't play T-ride but I'm also not going to completely rule it out. Chances: 20%.
The other film that could make a play is Mudbound. The film's debut at Sundance probably moots its T-ride chances despite the success for Manchester by the Sea last year playing Sundance and then Telluride. Still, the door might be open. The film was very well received and is thought to be an Oscar contender. Additionally, star Carey Mulligan seems to have a love affair with T-ride...so...maybe?
Chances: Also 20%.
OSCAR EXPERTS AT 2017'S HALFWAY MARK
As June has turned into July we've crossed the the halfway point of 2017 and some Oscar prognosticators took the time to review the lay of the land Oscar-wise as we hit the backstretch of the year.
If you take a look at both articles, you'll find a number of titles (especially in the indie post) that have been mentioned here over the past few months as possible TFF #44 titles. Specifically, Tapley suggests that Alexander Payne's Downsizing is a probable TFF play.
Similarly if you take a look at Greg Ellwood's Oscar predictions update for 2017 at the half at The Playlist you'll see that three films from lats Friday's MTFB Ten Bets are on his list of "Likely Contenders" for Best Picture : Downsizing, The Florida Project and You Were Never Really Here. Also on the "Likely" list is Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and The Current War which I have listed just below my Ten Bets. Additionally, Ellwood includes in his "Potential Nominees" Wonderstruck, Lean on Pete and Battle of the Sexes which also appear either on or just below last week's Ten Bets.
Meanwhile, Clayton Davis of Awards Circuit has also updated his Oscar charts as of yesterday. His "Predicted Nominees" for Best Picture include: Downsizing and Battle of the Sexes. His "Next In Line" films include: Three Billboards, Wonderstruck and The Current War.
Other films he mentions that are also somewhere on or near last week's Ten Bets are Lean on Pete and You Were Never Really There.
That's all for today. More tomorrow.
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com
Welcome my friends...to the machine...for Friday, June 30, 2017.
THE FIRST TEN BETS FOR TFF #44
Well, it's arrived. Since 2011, I have been formally taking a stab at what films will be at The SHOW with what I call "Ten Bets". For what will be the seventh year running, those begin appearing the last week of June and will run on a weekly, updated basis until the day before the lineup is actually announced-probably Aug. 31.
As to its success...well, this first one you need to take with a gigantic grain of sodium chloride. The success rate of the first Ten Bets each year is less than impressive.
The average over these past six years 5.5 but as you can see, the last two years have been particularly challenging. Last year's first list only correctly named Moonlight, Toni Erdmann and Fire at Sea.
Okay then, enough disclaiming...here's your first "Ten Bets" for 2017:
1) Loveless
2) A Fantastic Woman
3) Wonderstruck
4) Visages/Villages
5) The Florida Project
6) Downsizing
7) You Were Never Really Here
8) 120 BPM
9) The Rider
10) Battle of the Sexes
The Next Bets, in no particular order of likelihood: Happy End, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, The Current War, Loving Vincent, Lean on Pete, Redoubtable, Spoor.
THE DISTRIBUTORS: WARNERS AND PARAMOUNT
Of the "major" film studios the two that have had the biggest footprint at Telluride over the past few years are Warners and Paramount.
Warners has particularly become a consistent presence in the past five years:
2012: Argo
2013; Gravity, Prisoners
2104:
2015: Black Mass
2016: Sully
Certainly Argo and Gravity worked out well for them both in terms of financial success and Oscar success. Less so for Black Mass and Sully. Still, you'd have to think that there's a least a decent shpt that Warners returns in 2017 with one film, So what's in the Warners cupboard that has Telluride potential?
The big question, and maybe the only question regarding Warners this fall and Telluride is: Do they bring and does Telluride want Denis Villenueve's Blade Runner 2049?
I've been grappling with that question for most of the spring and into the summer. The case for it is that it is from Warners and it is directed by Denis Villenueve and he and Telluride have a long and pleasant history:
1998-August 32nd on Earth
2009-Incendies
2013-Prisoners
2016-Arrival
And as I have said a number of times, the inclusion in recent years of Gravity and Arrival make a pretty good empirical evidence for a film like Blade Runner 2049 to make the TFF lineup.
Finally, I suspect that BR 2049 is going to make a big splash when it opens Oct. 6th. Too many people have wanted anxiously for so long for the sequel to the 1982 original and I believe Villenueve is going to make the material sing.
But...
I still am not completely sold on the idea. Had anyone been suggesting this style of film for Telluride prior to 2013 I almost certainly would have said "no way" with Villenueve attached or not. And Villenueve's track record does show a pattern of gaps between Telluride appearances. So BR 2049 is no cinch for a T-ride play.
Chances: 30%
And at this point, if BR 2049 does NOT play, I doubt Warners has a film at the fest in 2017.
Paramount Pictures has a spotty Telluride resume:
Arrival played in 2016
Anomalisa in 2015
Labor Day 2013
Up in the Air 2009
Paramount has, in my estimation, three films that they could be interested in bringing to Telluride:
Alexander Payne's Downsizing
George Clooney's Suburbicon
Darren Aronfsky's mother!
All three film makers have been at Telluride within the last few years. Payne has become a regular and as you can see from the Ten Bets above, I expect him back again this year with Downsizing.
Clooney was in Telluride in 2011 with Payne's The Descendants. Clooney was a tribute recipient that year but hasn't returned.
Aronofsky sneaked Black Swan at the fest in 2010.
Chances:
Downsizing 75%
Suburbicon 30%
mother! 25%
BREATHE WILL OPEN BFI-LONDON FEST
We saw the first signs of Andy Serkis' directing debut yesterday with the trailer for Breathe and the announcement from the BFI-London Film Fest that it would open there on Oct. 4th as an European Premiere meaning that it will world premiere somewhere previously not on the European continent. That almost certainly means a play at Telluride, Toronto and/or New York.
My bet, at the moment is Toronto.
The film is being distributed by Bleeker Street Media which partnered with Netflix in 2015 to release Beasts of No Nation.
Here's the trailer for Breathe from YouTube:
And that's a wrap for Friday. Enjoy your weekend.
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com
One of the recent hard chargers at Telluride in terms of distribution firms that have made a splash is the Cohen Media Group.
CMG's history at Telluride:
2012-The Attack
2014-Magician
2015-Hitchcock/Truffaut, Marguerite, Rams
2016-Journey Through French Cinema
And CMG has a number of possible players for the 2017 edition of the Telluride Film Festival:
Francois Ozon's L'amant Double
Michel Hazanavicius' Redoubtable
Christian Carion's Mon Garcon
and even Pappi Corsicato's Julian Schnabel: A Private Portrait.
Of the four, the chances for L'amant Double and Redoubtable are virtually indistinguishable. Both played Cannes with modset-to-good reviews. Redoubtable's metascore-67, L'amant Double's 64. Both directors have made a splash at previuos Tellurides. Hazanavicius being more notable with Oscar Best Picture winner The Artist in 2011. Ozon was at Telluride last year with Frantz.
I'm givng Redoubtable a slight edge with a 50% chance to SHOW. L'Amant Double goes in at 45%.
As to Carion's Mon Garcon, I include it here as CMG is calling it a 2017 release and Carion's 2009 TFF film, Farewell, is enough to make me think it should be considered. Give it a 30% chance.
FInally, despite the fact that Cosicato's Julian Schnabel documentary has played in the U.S. at Tribeca, it might end up at Telluride anyway. The inclusion of Tribeca films in the T-ride lineup isn't frequent but has happened more than once: Peggy Guggenheim in 2015, Keep On Keepin' On in 2014 and My Dior in 2013.
Schnabel's poster for TFF #29
Additionally, Schnabel has had a TFF history as poster artist in 2002 and presenting his fantastic The Diving Bell and the Butterfly in 2007. So I wouldn't rule this film out even though it played Tribeca.
CIRCUIT BREAKER FALL FILM GUESSES #2
A week ago (June 19) I posted the link to Awards Circuit's Circuit Breaker podcast because they included a rundown of some guesses about where films might be headed to film festivals.
This week;s podcast includes another segment about the same topic. The nearly half hour segment includes mentions of a couple of dozen films and those that are mentioned as having some possibility for Telluride (by at least one of the participants) are:
The Darkest Hour
Suburbicon
Downsizing
Battle of the Sexes
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
The Snowman
Stronger
Here's another installment of my on-going and fairly sporadic review of the history of the Telluride Film Festival. Today a look at #23 which occurred from Aug.30-Sept. 2, 1996.
Guest Director: B. Ruby Rich
Tributes: Shirley MacLaine, Mike Leigh, Alain Cavalier
SHOWS:
Actress
Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life
Beautiful Thing
Ben Johnson: Third Cowboy on the Right
Breaking the Waves
Cardiogram
Carmen's Pure Love
The Cloud Capped Star
Daisies
Drifting Clouds
Fly Away Home
Forgotten Silver
Gabbeh
Irma Vep
Kolya
La Recontre
Le Ciel est a Vous
Le Samuorai
Le Trou
Lillian's Story
Message to Love
Microcosmos
Riot
Secrets and Lies
Self Made Hero
Sling Blade
Swingers
Therese
Twelfth Night
Two Eyes, Twelve Hands
The Unknown
Guests:
Olivier Assasyas
Jacques Audiard
Carroll Ballard
Harry Carey, Jr.
Maggie Cheung
Jon Favreau
Don Hertzfeldt
Werner Herzog
Mike Leigh
Doug Liman
Leonard Maltin
Shirley MacLaine
Trevor Nunn
John Ritter
Stellan Skarsgaard
Billy Bob Thornton
Warwick Thornton
Vince Vaughn
Emily Watson
Of particular note were the short films from Warwick Thornton (Payback, now called From Sand to Celluloid: Payback) and Julie Delpy (Blah Blah Blah) both making their directing debuts and Don Hertzfeldt with his second short (Genre).
That's your Thursday from MTFB.
Come back tomorrow for 2017's first Ten Bets.
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com
Just a quick piece of business here. Recently I posted a story that upset members of the Telluride Film Festival management. I was informed of this privately via email and responded accordingly. In hindsight, the choice to have published the story was unwise.
As a part of my response I privately apologized to members of the Telluride staff. Now, after allowing some time to pass, I also wanted to apologize publicly and in this space to underscore the sincerity of my remorse.
Now, on to today's regularly scheduled post.
THE DISTRIBUTORS: OPEN ROAD FILMS
Open Road Films has had a short but notable presence in Telluride in just the last few years. The company first began business in 2011. In 2014 they brought their first film to Telluride by landing Jon Stewart's directing debut Rosewater. They followed that in 2015 with Tom McCarthy's Spotlight which won the Best Picture Oscar along with another for original screenplay for McCarthy and Josh Singer. The film also had four other nominations.
In 2016 Open Road was represented at Telluride by Ben Younger's Bleed for This.
So, three straight years with a film each year at TFF makes you think there is a very good chance that an Open Road film will make the TFF #44 lineup.
Reviewing their catalogue, it seems that four films could fit into a Labor Day schedule:
Marshall, Home Again, LAbyrinth and Finding Steve McQueen.
Of these, Marshall seems to be the most likely choice. I had the film's first trailer posted here last week. It's scheduled for release on Oct. 13th, right in the thick of prime release territory if you have an eye on awards season. It's focus on a case from the early career of eventual Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall seems like material that could be a contender. Give it a 50% chance to play T-ride.
The other three possibilities have a variety of issues that argue against their inclusion in The SHOW.
Home Again stars Reese Witherspoon (directed by Hallie Meyers-Shyre) but its Sept. 8th releases date, though a few days after Telluride's completion, suggests it's unlikely. It is worth noting, however, that Sully actually followed that exact path last year opening on Sept. 9, 2016. Chances: 20%.
LAbyrinth directed by Brad Furman and starring Johnny Depp and Forest Whitaker in a long gestating project about the investigation into the deaths of Tupac Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G. The film is listed by IMDb as being in post-production since February but it doesn't have a release date beyond the generic 2017. Chances: 15%.
Finding Steve McQueen: Directed by Mark Stephen Johnson is listed as being in post-production since last October and feels like a light weight genre piece. Chances: 15%.
IMAGES TEASE
I ran across a couple of images over the past few days from two projects that may pique the interest of Telluride watchers.
I commented not long ago that Amazon Studios decision to date Woody Allen's latest film, Wonder Wheel, for Dec.1st might mean that we need to take it seriously as a possible Telluride choice.
Last week, our first image of Kate Winslet in that film emerged via Twitter. Here she is:
In the same vein, we got a glimpse this week of Jessica Chastain on a poster for Xavier Dolan's The Death and Life of John F. Donovan:
Donovan is expected in 2018.
That's your post for Tuesday.
There's your MTFB for Monday, June 26, 2017. More tomorrow...
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com
Welcome back from your weekend. Mine was spent in the land of Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul...
THE DISTRIBUTORS: SUNDANCE SELECTS AND IFC FILMS
Among the more ubiquitous set of distribution firms at Telluride over the past several years has been the combination of Sundance Selects and IFC Films.
Over the run of more than a dozen years, the two partnered firms have racked up an impressive number of films that have screened at Telluride:
2003: Touching the Void, Intermission
2004: Nobody Knows
2005: Three Times
2006: Deep Water, Indigenes, Day Night Day Night
2007: Secret Sunshine, 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days, Jar City
2008: Hunger, Gomorrah, Flame and Citron, Everlasting Moments, The Good, the Bad and the Weird
2009: Fish Tank, Red Riding Trilogy, Life During Wartime, Vincere
2010: The Princess of Montpensier, Carlos, Tabloid
2011: Into the Abyss, Pina, The Forgiveness of Blood, The Kid with a Bike, Goodbye First Love
2012: Frances Ha, The Central Park Five, Everyday
2013: Blue is the Warmest Color
2014: Two Days, One Night, Seymour: An Introduction
2015: 45 Years
2016: Things to Come, Graduation, Wakefield
This year, between the two companies there appear to be four films that might be in play:
Perhaps the most likely is Jonas Capignano's A Ciambra. The film played Cannes in the Director's Fortnight section and was, in part, executive produced by Martin Scorsese who has frequently been represented at T-ride in recent years as an executive producer. Chances: 45%.
Also in play is Claire Denis' Bright Sunshine In which also played Cannes' Director's Fortnight. Denis, to the best of my knowledge has never played in the San Juans. That could change this year. Chances: 40%.
The Death of Stalin from Veep and Into the Loop creator Armando Iannucci. I'd love this as an addition to the TFF #44 lineup because of Iannucci and the potential for this crazy good cast (Steve Buscemi, Olga Kurylenko, Andrea Riseborough, Jeffrey Tambor, Michael Palin) to do something hilarious and magical.
Chances 35%.
Viceroy's House. Played Berlin which usually has a couple of films make the TFF lineup.
Chances: 25%.
BATTLE OF THE SEXES NEW TRAILER
Fresh off of last week's speculation by Deadline's Pete Hammond that he was in the neighborhood of 99% convinced that the Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris film, Battle of the Sexes would play at The SHOW over Labor Day weekend came the news that a new trailer for the film had been released.
That's the second trailer for the film. Here it is via YouTube:
After Hammond's assessment and my own take last week as I began to look at what we can expect from various distributors, in the case of Battle of the Sexes that's Fox Searchlight, it's possible that the film may show up at the end of this week on 2017's first "Ten Bets" for TFF #44. There's your tease for Friday's post.
Links to posts from Friday with coverage of the trailer's release. From First Showing From SlashFilm TRAILER FOR STRONGER ALSO RAISES T-RIDE SPECULATION
Just like the above story, David Gordon Green's Stronger dropped a trailer on Friday. Paul Sheehan, writing at Gold Derby, suggested that the film would likely play fall film fests with Telluride mentioned alongside Venice and Toronto.
Here's the trailer from YouTube:
I had Green's Our Brand is Crisis as a possible fest selection back in 2015.
Lionsgate, Roadside Attractions and Saban Films are an affiliated group of companies that have had an interesting and steadily successful run at Telluride over the past few years. Their list of films that have played have featured the following films:
2010: Biutiful
2011: Albert Nobbs
2012: Stories We Tell
2013: All is Lost, Gloria
2014: '71, The Homesman, Mommy
2015:
2016: La La Land
Lionsgate has Stephen Chbosky's Wonder starring Julia Roberts and David Gordon Green's Stronger with Jake Gyllenhaal which could both be looking at fall film fest slots.
Wonder is based on the novel by R.J. Placio and also features young actor Jacob Tremblay who charmed Telluride in Room in 2015. Stronger is the true life tale of one of the survivors of the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013.
At the moment neither Roadside Attractions or Saban appear to independently have a film that would seem to be a Telluride possible.
Chances:
Wonder 35%
Stronger 30%.
NEW LOOKS AT BLADE RUNNER 2049
We got new glimpses yesterday of Denis Villenueve's Blade Runner 2049. The film still seems like a stretch to me for TFF #44 but not a complete impossibility.
I haven't gotten to a review of distributor Open Road Films yet (and I will eventually) but they made news this week with the release of a trailer for the biopic Marshall. The film follows a crucial event in the life of a young Thurgood Marshall. Chadwick Boseman stars as the young lawyer who would one day sit as a member of the Supreme Court.
Here's the trailer from YouTube:
The film is directed by Reginald Hudlin and is set to open on Oct. 13th.
I have linked stories related to the release of the trailer below:
If you're as glued to Twitter as I usually am and you pay attention to Telluride Film news via that media, then you almost certainly already know that Telluride #44 has a Guest Director.
The word came via press release email yesterday that director Joshua Oppenheimer will Guest Direct for the 2017 edition of TFF.
Ironically, I mentioned Oppenheimer's first appearance at Telluride in last Tuesday's post as a part of my TFF history retrospective. Tuesday's review was for the 24th TFF in 1997. Oppenheimer presented The Entire Story of the Louisiana Purchase that year.
Most recently he has presented both The Look of Silence (2014) and The Act of Killing (2012) at the fest.
Here's the full text of the press release from TFF:
BERKELEY, CA – Telluride Film Festival, presented by National Film Preserve
LTD., is proud to announce its 2017 Guest Director, Joshua Oppenheimer.The award-winning documentarian is set to select a series of films
to present at the 44th Telluride Film Festival running over Labor Day Weekend,September 1-4, 2017.
Festival organizers annually select one of
the world’s great film enthusiasts to join them in the creation of the
Festival’s program lineup. The Guest Director serves as a key collaborator in
the Festival’s programming decisions, bringing new ideas and overlooked films
to Telluride. In keeping with Telluride Film Festival tradition, Oppenheimer’s
film selections, along with the rest of the Telluride lineup, will be kept
secret until Opening Day.
“The Guest Director program is
one of the most essential and wonderful parts of our festival,” said
Telluride Film Festival executive director Julie
Huntsinger. “Joshua has been a part of the SHOW with several of the
incredible films he has made in the past, and now as our Guest Director. His
rare combination of intelligence and down-to-earth understanding of humanity
will make for a remarkable presentation of films our audience will not want to
miss. Further gilding the lily, FilmStruck has joined us as the sponsor of this
selection. We are beyond fortunate with this terrific combination of cinematic
genius.”
Filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer was born in
the US in 1974 and studied filmmaking at Harvard University. Oppenheimer is
best known for The Act of Killing (Telluride 2012) and The Look of Silence
(Telluride 2014). The Act of Killing (2014 Academy Award Nominee for Best
Documentary) was named Film of the Year in 2013 by the Guardian and the Sight
and Sound Film Poll. It won 72 international awards, including a BAFTA, a
European Film Award and an Asia-Pacific Screen Award. The Look of Silence (2016
Academy Award Nominee for Best Documentary) premiered at the Venice Film
Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize and the FIPRESCI award, and
went on to receive another 70 prizes, including an Independent Spirit Award,
the IDA Award for Best Documentary Feature, a Gotham Award, and three Cinema
Eye Honors. His early shorts have recently been re-released online and on DVD,
including The Entire History of the Louisiana Purchase, which premiered at
Telluride in 1997. Joshua Oppenheimer was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in
2014. Oppenheimer is a partner at Final Cut for Real in Copenhagen, and
Artistic Director of the Centre for Documentary and Experimental Film at the
University of Westminster in London.
“You stumble from a cinema into Telluride’s
thin air, touched in ways you never imagined possible,” commented Oppenheimer.
“You turn to a total stranger to share a thought unthinkable only two hours
before. What happened? In the mirror of a great film, you confronted
truths from which you normally avert your eyes. You recognised
yourself in those delicate, mysterious moments that defy words yet
make us human. Telluride's movies are empathy machines, inviting
us to find ourselves in people we’d never otherwise know. Julie
Huntsinger and Tom Luddy’s annual selection is driven by such
curiosity and humanity that you cannot leave Telluride without
feeling the responsibility and pain and love that comes
with compassion. We emerge connected, reminded that self-absorption
ultimately leaves us isolated and fearful. There is no greater privilege
than joining Tom and Julie as this year’s guest director,
sharing with Telluride’s audience the films that give me the greatest
courage, and teach me to practice the widest empathy.”
Past Guest Directors include Volker
Schlöndorff , Rachel Kushner, Guy Maddin, Caetano Veloso, Michael Ondaatje,
Alexander Payne, Salman Rushdie, Peter Bogdanovich, B. Ruby Rich, Phillip
Lopate, Errol Morris, Bertrand Tavernier, John Boorman, John Simon, Buck Henry,
Laurie Anderson, Stephen Sondheim,G.
Cabrera Infante,Peter Sellars,
Don DeLillo, J.P. Gorin, Edith Kramer and SlavojŽižek.
One of the newest distribution companies to the Telluride experience is A24 and though they are new to TFF, relatively speaking, and though they haven't screened a large number of films at the fest, their presence has made a lot of noise, especially the last two years. Here's the entire A24 footprint which only begins its T-ride time in 2012:
2016: Moonlight
2015: Room
2014: _____
2013: Under the Skin
2012: Ginger and Rosa
Brie Larson earned a Best Actress Oscar for 2015's Room and the film was also nominated for Best Picture, Director and Adapted Screenplay.
Then there's last year's Moonlight which picked up three Oscars for Best Picture, Supporting Actor and Adapted Screenplay. It was also nominated for five others including Direction and Supporting Actress.
That's a very impressive run in an incredibly short time.
My take is that A24 likes getting their product into Telluride and Telluride likes having it there. As you can see, however, the outfit hasn't ever placed more than a single film in a year in their limited time there and, as you can see above, in 2014 A24 wasn't in T-ride at all.
But could this be the year that the firm lands more than a single title?
Here's the rundown of current A24 films that seem to have a shot at Labor Day:
A Prayer Before Dawn/Sauvaire: Played at Cannes as a part of the Midnight Screening program where it got a respectable 6.28 average critical rating according to Reini Urban's compilation of Cannes critics. Chances of it playing seem slight to me. Chances: 15%.
How to Talk to Girls at Parties/Mitchell. Another Cannes presentation shown out of competition that had middling critical reception- 5.61 on the Urban compilation. It could pop at Telluride but I have doubts. Chance: 15%.
The Killing of a Scared Deer/Lanthimos: The third A24 film that played Cannes- in the main competition category where it won Best Screenplay. This coming on the heels of writer/director Yorgos Lanthimos' Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay last year for The Lobster. Although the Urban combo score was 5.96, its Metacritic score was a solid 84. I could actually see this making a play at T-ride. Chances: 50%.
Cannes clip of The Florida Project via YouTube
The Florida Project/Baker: Regular readers of MTFB know that I am high on this film's chances to play Telluride in light of its performance at Cannes. It was the third most widely praised film critically at Cannes in any section with an 8.05 combo rating from Urban and a 91 Metacritic score. Sean Baker grabbed a lot of buzz in 2015 for his Tangerine and I expect A24 is going to be working hard to get Willem Dafoe some awards season attention for Best Supporting Actor. All of that and my intuition makes me think The Florida Project might be heading to Colorado. Chances: 65%.
Woodshock/Mulleavys: The one film on the list that A24 didn't play at Cannes. Kirsten Dunst stars in what looks pretty trippy. At least that's the way the trailer looks:
I think it looks interesting but I also think it's how A24 looks at approaching Telluride now. Chances 20%.
And if you were wondering about the Safdie's Good Time with Robert Pattinson; it's set to open in August.
So, it seems to me that your two best A24 best are The Florida Project and The Killing of a Sacred Deer.
ADDING TO TUESDAY'S FOX SEARCHLIGHT ANALYSIS
I was perusing Nancy Tartiglione's post at Deadline earlier today for nuggets that might have popped up in 20th Century Fox's presentation at CineEurope in Barcelona. A sentence or two caught my eye as FS Exec VP Rebecca Kearey is quoted as suggesting serious festival plays for Martin McDonagh's Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and Guillermo Del Toro's The Shape of Water. Here's the direct quote from the post: Those were joined by Fox Searchlight titles Battle Of The Sexes, Goodbye Christopher Robin , Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape Of Water. Of the latter two, Searchlight EVP of International Marketing & Distribution Rebecca Kearey said they would be playing at many of the fall festivals.
After seeing that, I'm inclined to bump both films' chances of a Telluride play up 5 points from Tuesday's analysis. So Ebbing goes from 40% to 45% and Shape of Water from from 35% to 40%. I'm leaving Battle of the Sexes at 55% and Goodbye Christopher Robin at 45% for now.
Meanwhile, Pete Hammond from Deadline dropped his belief that Battke of the Sexes has, what he calls a 99% chance to play Telluride. He also suggested in a story yesterday his belief that Alexander Payne will have Downsizing at TFF #44. Check out Hammond's story here.
LAST NOTE FOR THURSDAY...
I was reading this story from The Hollywood Reporter yesterday about David Lynch attending the Lucca Film Festival in Tuscany and the fact that he'll be doing some presentations of Twin Peaks;The Return (through seven episodes now on Showtime) and I was reminded that Lynch revealed the first two episodes at Cannes prior to their Showtime presentations.
It also reminded me that I have a theory that master of weirdness might make a return this year to Telluride. Hear me out...or, I guess, read me out.
Lynch used to be a fairly serious Telluride regular. As best I can tell Lynch was in Telluride in 1986 with Blue Velvet and Eraserhead. Screened some of Twin Peaks in 1989 (though only Mark Frost and Michael Ontkean are listed as attending with the show). Industrial Symphony in 1990, again with no Lynch listed as attending. Lynch received a Telluride Tribute in 1999 complete with screenings of The Straight Story. In 2001, TFF reportedly "snuck" Mulholland Drive. I think the last time a Lynch film played the festival was as an executive producer on Werner Herzog's My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done in 2009 as a sneak preview.
That's a pretty impressive run of Telluride screenings.
Sooo... how about screening the last two episodes of Twin Peaks: The Return at TFF #44?
They're both set to screen on Showtime on Sunday, Sept. 3rd. Maybe we should kick off the weekend Friday with those two episodes back to back.
It's a thought.
That's a wrap for Thursday. More tomorrow.
EMAIL: mpgort@gmail.com OR michael_speech@hotmail.com
