Wormwood Trailer Lands / Foundas Finds a New Cotton Club / Sorrow About Sea Sorrow / Views from the Film Field: Awards Season / Views from the Film Field: The Women Directing / Venice and Telluride / Reminders

You're staring at Tuesday, August 29, 2017...TFF #44 cranks up in three days!


WORMWOOD TRAILER LANDS

Maybe the most mysterious likely inclusion in the TFF #44 lineup is Errol Morris' Wormwood.  We got more info about it yesterday including the notes that it will be six episodes and that Netflix will drop it on Dec. 15th.

Oh, and there is also a trailer via YouTube:

Included here is Wormwood coverage from:

The Hollywood Reporter

Entertainment Weekly

Deadline

FOUNDAS FINDS NEW COTTON CLUB

Scott Foundas, who has been a Telluride festival or three Tweeted out a big surprise and reveal late last night.

TFF#44 will program a restoration of Francis Ford Coppola's Cotton Club.  Here's the screen grab of two Foundas Tweets with the reveal:

And the second:

So if you have a yen for a restoration, looks like Telluride has your answer.  Also, you have to think that Coppola would likely be in town to present.  

SORROW ABOUT SEA SORROW

After reading the NYFF announcement stories in a number of different places, I concluded that Vanessa Redgrave's directing debut, the documentary Sea Sorrow, could be Telluride bound.  That was based on the lack of any premiere status designation in the stories.  Last night I discovered that the actual NYFF/Film Society of Lincoln Center website does, in fact, list it as a U.S. Premiere meaning that it will NOT be a player at TFF #44 after all.  

Here's your evidence:

So...no Sea Sorrow.  Apologies to all.

VIEWS OF THE FILM FIELD: AWARDS SEASON

The Playlist's awards guru Greg Ellwood has published a story that focuses on 13 films that he has highlighted as possible awards season dominators.  Among them he has included Alexander Payne's Downsizing, Guillermo Del Toro's The Shape of Water, Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird and Joe Wright's Darkest Hour.

Ellwood also sprinkles in some Telluride intimations ahead of Thursday's lineup reveal so you might to look for those.

The entire post is here.


VIEWS OF THE FILM FIELD: THE WOMEN DIRECTING

I came across a couple of stories that were focused on female directors that look to have films in the end of the year awards conversation and naturally I was interested in which of those films included by the authors could make a splash this weekend at Telluride.

Both Tomris Laffly writing for Film School Rejects and Kate Erbland at Indiewire examine the group of films from directors such as Angelina Jolie, Chloe Zhao and others that seem, at least as we stand on the precipice of the fall film festival season, could make the most awards noise.

Both writers include these films in their musings that I am thinking will be announced as part of the TFF #44 lineup on Thursday: First They Killed My Father, The Rider, Visages/Villages (Faces/Places) and Lady Bird.

Laffly also includes Battle of the Sexes which is co-directed by Valerie Faris.

Take a look at the complete articles.  The Laffly/FSR article is here and the Erbland/Indiewire article is here.


VENICE AND TELLURIDE

Nick Vivarelli writing for Indiewire last week examined the dynamic between the three fall film fests that are set to launch over the next ten days with a particular focus on Venice and an ancillary focus on Telluride.

Vivarelli interviews Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera who talks considerably about the current state of the two fests and Toronto as well.

Vivarelli confirms that this year may have the largest crossover between the two fests that anyone can remember.  Venice reportedly wanted both Last Flag Flying which will open the New York Fest in a few weeks and Hostiles which we believe will first screen at Telluride this weekend.

Read the entire Vivarelli piece here.



DON'T FORGET...THE FINAL LIST OF TELLURIDE PREDICTIONS WILL BE UP TOMORROW MORNING IN A SPECIAL EDITION OF MTFB.

ALSO, WE MAY GET ONE MORE ANNOUNCEMENT FROM TORONTO TODAY...STAY TUNED...



JOIN MTFB AND RATE THOSE FILMS

Don't forget, my friends, I want your ratings of the films you see next weekend.  Use a 0-5 scale with 0 being "putrid" and 5 being "best film since..."


Have a great weekend and get rested up for next week.  More on Monday!

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

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT TO THE BLOG

Dear Guillermo... / Tribute Clues / WeiWei Interview / Screen Talk Talks Fall Fests / Reminder to Rate Your Films

Welcome back from the weekend.  It's Monday, August 28, 2017.  The 44th Telluride Film Festival begins in four days.


DEAR GUILLERMO...

This section of MTFB is going to be a little different than what you readers commonly see here but...

First, most everyone reading here knows that I have been very sure these past few weeks that Guillermo Del Toro's The Shape of Water will be announced on Thursday as a part of the TFF #44 lineup.  I am very excited about the film but you know who's insane about it?

My wife.

Let me tell you why because it goes beyond the excitement about seeing GDT's new film in the incredible setting that is Telluride.

Some of you know that both my wife and I teach high school in a rural town (pop. 12,500)  in the Oklahoma Panhandle.  She's the art teacher here and damned good at what she does.  Especially in light of our current student body.

Please understand, that's not a slam about our kids but our situation is really unique.

In 1992 a massive pork processing facility opened in our community and to fill their workforce they have scoured the planet to find workers willing to re-locate.  That has meant a reliance on immigrants, refugees and others.

In the last 20 or so years our demographics have shifted from a majority Anglo population to one in which minority students are the majority.  Mostly kids from about every country south of the southern border of the U.S. but we're not exclusively Latin.  We have have significant student populations from Burma, S. Korea, Thailand, Eritrea, Sudan, Somalia and more.

Our school administration tells us we have somewhere between 25-30 languages spoken in our high school (enrollment is a shade under 900 kids grades 9-12).  Imagine that in a Podunk Oklahoma town.

Many of you also know that Del Toro had a harrowing childhood and turned to art as a kid to deal with that.  My wife sure does.  Del Toro's story and artwork have become an integral part of the curriculum in her classwork because...you know..it resonates with these kids...immigrant kids. They can relate to Del Toro's story because, for many of them, it's a lot like their stories.  Del Toro's body of film work plays a part too.  All these kids know Hellboy.

And, of course, because it's art, the language barrier is a much smaller problem in my wife's classroom than about anywhere else in the building.  For some of her students, it's the safest and most comfortable place they find themselves every day and that's not an exaggeration.  Some of her refugee kids spell out the terrors that they have lived through from refugee camps to predatory traffickers to hiding from death squads and civil war.

Needless to say, Guillermo has a more than special place in her heart.

So...I've never done this before in the nine years I've been writing this thing...but

If anyone knows anyone in the Del Toro camp (and I'm assuming here that he will make the trip with the film from Venice to Telluride), I'm asking for a favor.  You know what I'm going to say here...

A meeting between Kris and Guillermo would be...um...nice.  Well, she'd likely lose her mind at least a little bit.  She's already got a big honking copy of Guillermo's Cabinet of Curiosities and will be hauling it this weekend on the off chance that she might be able to get an autograph.  I'd like to make it a little less "chancy".

If anyone has some insight about making this happen, please contact me using any of the methods listed at the bottom of this post.

And Senor Del Toro, if YOU are reading this, hear my plea and reach out to me.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled blog post.


TRIBUTES CLUES

Many of you know that in the days before the beginning of the festival that, usually a couple of films are screened in Elks Park and that they almost always hint at who the tribute recipients will be.

A Telluride local and friend of the blog, who I am keeping anonymous, emailed me the an ad that has run locally in T-ride for the films that have been scheduled:

The choice of these two films seems to confirm earlier speculation that tributes are set for Christian Bale and cinematographer Ed Lachman.  As to the third tribute, I think I have that nailed down as well but am going to keep that under wraps for the time being.

WEIWEI INTERVIEW

Artist, dissident and film maker Ai Weiwei is certainly set for screening his documentary Human Flow at Venice this week and then is very likely to bring it Telluride this weekend.  He was the subject of a substantial interview with Variety this past week in which he speaks about the film.

Nick Vivarelli writes.  Here's the interview.

SCREEN TALK TALKS FALL FESTS

This week's podcast of Screen Talk with Indiewire's Anne Thompson and Eric Kohn spends a good deal of time focused on some of the upcoming launch of the fall film fests and Oscar season.  Although neither of them can name films that will be at Telluride, they do make mention of the fest and make no bones about Downsizing being there.  Among other films that they mention that I'm feeling will lay are: Lady Bird, Darkest Hour and The Shape of Water.

The Screen Talk podcast is here.


REMINDER TO RATE YOUR FILMS THIS WEEK

Don't forget, my friends, I want your ratings of the films you see next weekend.  Use a 0-5 scale with 0 being "putrid" and 5 being "best film since..."

I will publish The People's Telluride film ratings a week to ten days after the festival concludes.  Join in!

That's all for now.  More tomorrow and on Wednesday I'll post a special edition of MTFB with the final "Bets" for TFF #44.

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

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT TO THE BLOG

Ten (20+) Bets #9 / How Loving Vincent Came To Be / Wormwood Revelations / It's Almost Rating Time

We're back to a Friday...August 25, 2017.  Six days to The SHOW!!!

TEN (20+) BETS #9

Here are the next to last wagers from Michael's Telluride Film Blog about what films will play at the 44th Telluride Film Festival next week.  Begin with a re-cap of last week's "Ten" Bets:

1) Downsizing
2) Wonderstruck
3) The Shape of Water
4) Battle of the Sexes
5) Darkest Hour
6) Loving Vincent
7) Hostiles
8) Lady Bird
9) A Fantastic Woman
10) The Rider
11) Visages/Villages
12) First They Killed My Father
13) Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool
14) The Other Side of Hope
15) Wormwood
16) Before We Vanish

17) Lean on Pete

18) First Reformed

19) Loveless

20) Foxtrot

21) The Insult


Now, this week's in order of likelihood:

1) The Shape of Water
2) Downsizing
3) Wonderstruck
4) Battle of the Sexes
5) Hostiles
6) Darkest Hour
7) Lady Bord
8) A Fantastic Woman
9) Visages/Villages
10) The Rider
11) Loving Vincent
12) Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool
13) The Other Side of Hope
14) First They Killed My Father
15) First Reformed
16) Loveless
17) Foxtrot
18) Lean on Pete
19) Wormwood
20) Before We Vanish
21) The Insult
22) Filmworker
23) Sea Sorrow
24) The Venerable W
25) Arthur Miller: Writer

Still could make The SHOW: You Were Never Really Here, L'Amant Double, Cold War, Marshall, Final Portrait, Our Souls at Night.

HOW LOVING VINCENT CAME TO BE

One of the more intriguing titles that we think is likely to play in Telluride next week is the hand painted full length feature film about the life of Vincent Van Gogh entitled Loving Vincent.  If you've seen the trailer you know that the film looks to be visually stunning.  Here is that trailer from YouTube:

If you're curious about how the film was made Indiewire has the story.

It's definitely on my list for consideration to see next week.


WORMWOOD REVELATIONS


I've actually had people ask me if Wormwood really exists which isn't a crazy question.  To say it's been flying under the radar would be an understatement.

If you check out Errol Morris' IMDb entry doesn't list it anywhere on his resume.  But you know it's real because Venice is screening it.

After some digging I can tell you that it's a Netflix series starring Peter Sarsgaard.  IT is said to focus on a true life murder mystery that occurred in the 1950's and is expected to combine archival footage with re-enactments.  Here's the placeholder on the Netflix site:

And interviews with Morris over the last year where he has mentioned the project but certainly hasn't been terribly forthcoming.  Here are three of those:

Collider

Season Zero

Flavorwire

Honestly, after I took a look at these, my interest is piqued.



IT'S ALMOST RATING TIME

Don't forget, my friends, I want your ratings of the films you see next weekend.  Use a 0-5 scale with 0 being "putrid" and 5 being "best film since..."


Have a great weekend and get rested up for next week.  More on Monday!

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

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT TO THE BLOG

New York Tells / First Look at Hostiles / Marshall Oddity / Beating the Drum: Rate Those Films!

It's Thursday, August 24, 2017...Seven days until The SHOW!!!

NEW YORK TELLS

I was more than a little surprised a couple of weeks back when Toronto announced the bulk of its documentary films and I couldn't find a single doc that was going to share the two festivals.  Unheard of and weird, to be honest.  However...

The New York Film Fest named its documentary selections late yesterday and if I'm reading the tea leaves correctly, that's the fest that will crossover with T-ride this year with some choice titles.

Judging by NYFF's premiere status designations with a focus on docs that were announced with no status and cross checking with IMDb, it would seem that the following films could be playing in Colorado next week:

Arthur Miller: Writer directed by the famed playwright's daughter Rebecca Miller (does this portend accompaniment by her husband-Daniel Day Lewis?  Probably not as he is-we believe-still filming Paul Thomas Anderson's untitled/maybe titled Phantom Thread-film).

Filmworker directed by Tony Zierra.  The film focuses on Leon Vitali who became an acolyte of Stanley Kubrick.  This played Cannes and reports about it totally caught my attention when it did.  I mentioned it as a Telluride possibility in my May 8th post.  Very intriguing.

And perhaps the one that gets me the most excited is Vanessa Redgrave's directorial debut Sea Sorrow which played Cannes as well and features Ralph Fiennes and Emma Thompson in an exploration of the refugee crisis with an historical perspective.  I have been hoping for a Vanessa Redgrave appearance at The SHOW for years and maybe that happens in 2017.  Sea Sorrow was briefly mentioned in this space as a film of interest back on April 13th.

A Vanessa Redgrave tribute?

And finally Barbet Schroeder's The Venerable W looks like it could be headed to Telluride.  The doc explores the evil behind ethnic cleansing in Burma.  Schroeder, who has an extensive history with Telluride may be making a return. The Venerable W was first mentioned here at MTFB as a T-ride possibility on Mar. 20th.

Now, a quick disclaimer...the provenance of documentaries is often a bit more difficult to accurately pin down as compared to feature films.  That said...these four films all seem like a good fit for TFF #44.

I have linked coverage of the NYFF documentary announcement here from Indiewire and here from Deadline.



FIRST LOOK AT HOSTILES

If you follow me on Twitter (@Gort2) then you may have caught my Tweet Tuesday that includes the first still photo from the Scott Cooper film Hostiles which, of course, I'm sure is going to be in The SHOW lineup when  it's announced a week from today.

I believe I had the honor to be one of the first outlets in the country to publish the pic as I was included in the P.R. email that provided access to the photo.

If you missed it Tuesday here it is:

You have your Christian Bale looking pensive.

The film is said to center on the story of an American Army Captain in the late 1800's who accompanies a dying Native American Chief through dangerous territory.

It is definitely on my list to see next week.

MARSHALL ODDITY

Again, if you're reading this space closely now as we get down to mere days before film Nirvana presents itself in southwest Colorado, you know that I have a list of films that I still think might play the fest that we don't have good intell about.  There are seven films still on that list and of them, five are still moderately seriously in play.  Two are incredibly long shots at this point: Wonder and The Snowman.  Five, I think, still have a fighting chance: You Were Never Really Here, L'Amant Double, Final Portrait, Our Souls at Night and Reginald Hudlin's Marshall.

Well...yesterday, the Urbanworld Film Festival (based in NYC) became the first fest (to my knowledge) to announce a screening of Marshall.  UFF runs Sept. 20-24th.  So, as you might expect, I opened the story expecting to see that the film would be World Premiering there.

To my surprise...NOPE.  UFF lists Marshall as a "U.S. Premiere".  I don't know how to interpret this.

That designation would make sense if the film had been announced for Toronto or Venice but it has not.  As best as I can find, Marshall will not have played anywhere when UFF screens it (I believe it may be their closing film on Sept. 24).

But here's the thing, if it were to play T-ride then its UFF appearance would not be a U.S. premiere.

To add confusion, UFF does list other films as World, East Coast or even New York Premieres.

So...does this take Marshall off the TFF #44 table or is the U.S. Premiere designation meant to convey that its World/North American premiere will have happened...meaning Telluride and an odd designation from UFF?

I don't know the answer here but I do know that I would not be surprised if it were to be included at T-ride despite to scheduled play in Toronto, Venice or NYFF.

Check the story from Variety.

BEATING THE DRUM

Don't forget, my friends, I want your ratings of the films you see next weekend.  Use a 0-5 scale with 0 being "putrid" and 5 being "best film since..."

Submit your ratings for The People's Telluride via any of the contact methods listed below.

That's Thursday.  A NEW TEN (20+) BETS will be here tomorrow.


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

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT TO THE BLOG

Who's Coming to the Party? / The List Gets Smaller / Toronto's Final Word Today / Inadvertent Confirmation / A New Consideration

Howdy everybody...hope you survived your Monday.  Today is Tuesday, August 22, 2017...Nine days until The SHOW.


WHO'S COMING TO THE PARTY?

I think it's always fun to think about the stars that we could rub elbows with during each Labor Day weekend.  Ultimately, I always seem to kind of choke when I actually come face to face with the talented, beautiful and famous.  I'm talking awkward here.

Nevertheless, over the years I have been lucky enough to be meet and speak briefly with some people who have been kind enough to respond.

So, each year, I can't help but imagine who could be in Telluride based on the films that I think will make the journey.  So to that end I'll start by re-posting last Friday's 21 Bets...

1) Downsizing
2) Wonderstruck
3) The Shape of Water
4) Battle of the Sexes
5) Darkest Hour
6) Loving Vincent
7) Hostiles
8) Lady Bird
9) A Fantastic Woman
10) The Rider
11) Visages/Villages
12) First They Killed My Father
13) Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool
14) The Other Side of Hope
15) Wormwood
16) Before We Vanish

17) Lean on Pete

18) First Reformed

19) Loveless

20) Foxtrot

21) The Insult

Here are some of the biggest names from some of these 21 films that might be seen on Colorado Ave. over Labor Day weekend:

Downsizing: Matt Damon, Kristen Wiig, Laura Dern, Christoph Waltz, Jason Sudekis, Neil Patrick Harris

Wonderstruck: Julianne Moore

The Shape of Water: Sally Hawkins, Doug Jones, Michael Shannon, Michael Sthulbarg, Octavia Spencer, Richard Jenkins

Battle of the Sexes: Emma Stone, Steve Carell, Elisabeth Shue, Bill Pullman, Alan Cumming, Andrea Riseborough

Darkest Hour: Gary Oldman, Kristen Scott Thomas, Ben Mendelsohn

Hostiles: Christian Bale, Rosamund Pike, Wes Studi, Ben Foster, Timothee Chalamet, Bill Camp

Lady Bird: Saoirse Ronan, Timothee Chalamet, Laurie Metcalf

Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool:  Normally you'd think star Annette Bening...but Jury Duty in Venice (maybe a satellite linkup?), Jamie Bell, Vanessa Redgrave, Julie Waters

Lean on Pete: Charlie Plummer, Steve Buscemi, Steve Zahn, Chloe Sevigny, Travis Fimmel

First Reformed: Ethan Hawke, Amanda Seyfried

Wormwood: Peter Sarsgaard

If I were guessing, and it seems I am, I'd say the following at least feel like the best bets for a celeb sighting: Laura Dern, Sally Hawkins, Doug Jones, Steve Carell, Emma Stone, Gary Oldman, Christian Bale, Wes Studi, Saoirse Ronan, Jamie Bell, Ethan Hawke, Peter Sarsgaard.

Directors that I'm excited to maybe run into: Alexander Payne, Guillermo Del Toro, Joe Wright, Greta Gerwig, Scott Cooper, Todd Haynes, and somebody named Angelina Jolie.



THE LIST GETS SMALLER

We reported yesterday that The Death of John F. Donovan was moving to 2018 and then yesterday afternoon came the word that The Weinstein Company has moved Garth Davis' Mary Magdalene starring Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix will be moving to March 2018.  In part, the reports claim, because it will not be ready for its previously scheduled release date.

TWC's The Current War will apparently be moved up from December to November.  Two ramifications here:  First, Mary Magdalene moves off my "still possible for Telluride" list and second, that means it's very probable that The Weinsteins won't have any Telluride player for the second year in a row and that is very unusual.

Here's coverage of the TWC announcement From:

Indiewire

Screen International

The Playlist


After removing Mary Magdalene from our still in play list, here's what we have:

Final Portrait
L'amant Double
Marshall
Our Souls at Night
The Snowman
Wonder
You Were never Really Here


TORONTO'S FINAL WORD TODAY

The Toronto International Film Fest announced the final films for its 2017 lineup later today.  Over the past few years it has been my experience that this final announcement usually rules a couple of things out and only rarely allows us to add another film to our list.

Nevertheless, it will probably still be instructive to some extent especially since we are getting so close to the SHOW dates.

Come back here later today for an update that reflects whatever we learn.

UPDATE:  As best as I can discern this morning's TIFF announcement of their Discovery section contains no films that will also play at Telluride.  Consequently nothing was eliminated or added.


INADVERTENT CONFIRMATION

Friend of the blog Tomris Laffly, who freelances for a number of film outlets and will serve as one of the Telluride Pros that will rate films at this year's fest, tweeted yesterday afternoon the curious IMDb entry for The Shape of Water which appears to confirm its inclusion for T-ride:

I'll be lining up for this as it might be most anticipated for the fest this year.

A NEW CONSIDERATION

Variety reported yesterday that Amazon had picked up the distribution for Cold War (Zimma Wojna) from director Pawel Palikowski.  Palikowski was in Telluride back in 2013 with Ida which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film that year.


The timing of that news makes me think that we might see that title pop up in today's TIFF announcement and also for Telluride.

I'll be looking for that later today.


That's a wrap for this Tuesday...until we get news from Toronto...so look for an update later today.


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

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT TO THE BLOG

Another One Bites the Dust / Crazy Ideas Re-visited / A Trailer for Human Flow

Welcome back from your weekend.  It's Monday, August 21, 2017...ten days to TFF #44...

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST

I started seeing some social media mention on Friday that Xavier Dolan's The Death and Life of John F. Donovan was probably not going to be ready for exhibition.  Indiewrie confirmed that in a post on Friday afternoon.

The film's french distributor is sourced in the article specifically saying that the film won't be ready for Toronto which necessarily also means that it wouldn't be ready for the earlier occurring TFF #44. John F. Donovan has been on my dwindling list of films that could still pop up at Telluride but that changes now.

One other note about Toronto; they do have one more round of films to be announced Tuesday.  Last week one of the major film outlet had suggested that TIFF was finished naming films but a friendly reader messaged me with the news that TIFF wasn't quite done which made more sense to me as I had gotten used to TIFF making their announcements in five installments.  So, look for a final wave of films and parsing coming tomorrow.

Consequently, my list of films which might still make The SHOW is now:

Final Portrait
L'amant Double
Marshall
Mary Magdalene
Our Souls at Night
The Snowman
Wonder
You Were never Really Here

CRAZY IDEAS RE-VISITED

Four things that are really far-fetched but...you never know...

Alejandro Inarritu's VR installation Carne y Arena.  It's played at Cannes and the L.A. County Museum.  

Denis Villenueve surprises by showing up with, at a minimum, scenes from Blade Runner 2049. Maybe the whole film.

William Friedkin is feted and shows The Devil and Father Amorth plus the recently restored Sorcerer and perhaps even The Exorcist.

David Lynch drops the final two episodes of Twin Peaks:The Return in Telluride prior to them airing on Sunday night, Sept. 3rd on Showtime.

Final word: make all these crazy ideas happen...

A TRAILER FOR AI WEI WEI'S HUMAN FLOW

One of the documentaries we expect to see in Telluride in a few days is Ai Wei Wei's Human Flow. The film is known to bow in Venice and we then think it'll make the trip to southwest Colorado.  Wei Wei focuses on the global refugee crisis after having filmed in nearly two dozen countries according to Indiewire which reported over the weekend that the doc has a trailer.

And here it is from YouTube:

That's Monday.  More tomorrow...

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

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT TO THE BLOG

Ten (21) Bets #8 / New Posters: Human Flow and Film Stars / Maybe There Is Another Film from Venice?

It's Friday, August 18, 2017...13 days until The SHOW...

TEN (21) BETS #8

Here's your weekly update about expectations for films at TFF #44.

Last Week's Ten (actually 16) Bets were:

1) Downsizing
2) Wonderstruck
3) The Shape of Water
4) Battle of the Sexes
5) Darkest Hour
6) Loving Vincent
7) Hostiles
8) Lady Bird
9) A Fantastic Woman
10) The Rider
11) Visages/Villages
12) First They Killed My Father
13) Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool
14) The Other Side of Hope
15) Wormwood
16) Before We Vanish

This week's 21 Bets are:

1) Downsizing
2) Wonderstruck
3) The Shape of Water
4) Battle of the Sexes
5) Darkest Hour
6) Loving Vincent
7) Hostiles
8) Lady Bird
9) A Fantastic Woman
10) The Rider
11) Visages/Villages
12) First They Killed My Father
13) Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool
14) The Other Side of Hope
15) Wormwood
16) Before We Vanish

17) Lean on Pete

18) First Reformed

19) Loveless

20) Foxtrot

21) The Insult

Based on past festivals there might be somewhere between five and ten further films/programs that we haven't figured out as yet.  The best chances to be added, I think, are You Were Never Really Here, L'amant Double and some of Ken Burns' Vietnam documentary.

NEW POSTERS: HUMAN FLOW AND FILM STARS

We had our first glimpses of posters from both Paul McGuigan's Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool as well as Ai Weiwei's Human Flow appear yesterday.  Weiwei also tweeted that a Human Flow trailer should be expected today.  Here are the posters:

Human Flow:

Film Stars:

MAYBE THERE IS ANOTHER FILM FROM VENICE?


Thanks go out to eagle-eyed Kamil Ahsan who communicated with me yesterday to ask about the chances of Woodshock playing at Telluride.  I had all but dismissed it as Venice has scheduled it to play on Sept. 4th.  Additionally,  Variety, Entertainment Weekly and The Hollywood Reporter have all reported that Errol Morris' Wormwood is the only non-World Premiere at Venice.

But Kamil pointed me to this tweet from the official Woodshock film account that clearly says that the film will be a European Premiere at Venice.

This could mean that the film from the Muleavey sisters will drop early in the Telluride schedule and then move to Venice.  

So something has to give here.  It'll be interesting to see what happens but for those looking forward to catching Woodshock at TFF #44 there seems to be a glimmer of hope.

That's the MTFB for this Friday, Aug. 18th.  Have a great weekend!


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

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT TO THE BLOG

More Musings on Toronto's Latest / Telluride's 20th Festival / Battle Goes to Britain

It's Thursday, August 17th...14 days until The SHOW!


MORE MUSINGS ON TORONTO'S LATEST

Tuesday, the Toronto International Film Festival announced what Indiewire said was their final set of films for their 2017 edition and as a result we got more indications about films that are likely to play at Telluride over Labor Day weekend.

Based on their categorization as Canadian Premieres it seems that we can probably add five films to the TFF #44 list:

First Reformed from Paul Schrader
Foxtrot from Samuel Maoz
The Insult from Ziad Doueiri
Lean on Pete from Andrew Haigh
Loveless from Andrey Zvyagintsev

The new info also seems to confirm that The Other Side of Hope and Visages/Villages will play Telluride.

Some films that I have been tracking fell by the wayside if their premiere status is accurate including:

Chappaquiddick
Happy End
Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House
Molly's Game
Redoubtable

I was particularly dismayed that Aaron Sorkin's Molly's Game  won't be at T-ride and still, despite its modest response at Cannes, I was surprised that Michael Haneke's Happy End will not be at TFF #44.

Our "possible" film list has gotten much smaller now:

The Death and Life of John F. Donovan
Final Portrait
L'amant Double
Marshall
Mary Magdalene
Our Souls at Night
The Snowman
Wonder
You Were never Really Here


Form this list perhaps one or two films might still show up on Telluride's program and for my money the two that are most likely are You Were Never Really Here and L'amant Double.

Finally, I'm feeling a little better as we get down to this last two weeks before the fest.  after a couple of years where my initial guesse haven't been terribly prescient, it looks like I was better this year. My success level with that first Ten Bets in the past few years has been:

2011: 8/10
2012: 5/10
2013: 6/10
2014: 7/10
2015: 4/10
2016: 3/10

Yes.  3 of 10 last year.  My average over that time span was naming 5.5 films correctly that would eventually make the TFF lineup.

This year is better.  Here's this year's first Ten Bets from back on June 30th with what appear to be correct guesses are marked with ***:

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***

7 of 10 with two misses: The Florida Project and 120 BPM

You Were Never Really There is still up in the air.  I'm of a mind that it will play TFF #44.

Additionally, I had Lean on Pete and Loving Vincent in the list of other possibles.  So maybe I'm getting back to a bit more wisdom.

TELLURIDE'S 20TH FESTIVAL

Here's another installment in my ongoing section of revisiting the history of the Telluride Film Festival.  Today, as we continue to go back in time, we have a look at TFF #20 which ran Sept. 3-6, 1993.

Guest Director: John Boorman

Tributes: Ken Loach, Jennifer Jason Leigh and John Alton

SHOWS:

Abraham's Valley
The Ark
Blue (Jarman)
Blue (Kieslowski)
Bonne Chance
Border Incident
The Boys of St. Vincent
Chasing Butterflies
Clean, Shaven
Double Bind
Faraway, So Close
Farewell My Concubine
Fear and Desire
Flight of the Innocent
Gardiens de Phare
The Great Adventure
The Joy Luck Club
Kind of Blue
L627
The Last Stop
Love and Human Remains
Make Way For Tomorrow
Naked
The Piano
Point Blank
Raining Stones
Raw Deal
The Social Contract
Starting Place
Stella Polaris
Suture
Sylvester
T-Men
Time Has No Name
Upstage
The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl

Guests:

Joan Chen
Henry Czerny
Darryl Hannah
Leo McGarey
Michael Stipe
Amy Tan
Bertrand Tavernier
David Thewlis
Wayne Wang
Wim Wenders

Among the Filmmakers of Tomorrow participants was Darryl Hannah with her short The Last Supper.



BATTLE GOES TO BRITAIN

The BFI/London Film Fest has announced that the American Express Gala this year will be the European Premiere of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris' Battle of the Sexes starring Emma Stone and Steve Carrel.  I am fully expecting that Battle of the Sexes will be screening at TFF #44 in a couple of weeks.

The film follows the true story of the famed 1973 tennis match between Billie Jean King (Stone) and Bobby Riggs (Carrel).  The film also stars Andrea Riseborough, Elisabeth Shue, Alan Cumming and Sarah Silverman.

Here's the latest trailer for the film from YouTube:

Battle of the Sexes is distributed by Fox Searchlight and will be released domestically on Sept. 22nd.

Linked here is coverage from:

Deadline

Variety

The Hollywood Reporter

That's your MTFB for Thursday.  More tomorrow including TWENTY BETS for TFF #44.

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

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT TO THE BLOG

LATE BREAKING: Toronto Titles Today Offer New Telluride Clues

LATE BREAKING: TORONTO TITLES TODAY OFFER NEW TELLURIDE CLUES


Toronto's purported final announcement of titles today sheds light on films that we think are now newly added to our list of T-ride screenings or confirms others that we thought were going or reveals titles that we thought might play that will not.

TIFF announced further Galas, Special Presentations, Masters and Contemporary World Cinema titles earlier today.

Here's what we think we've learned based on the premiere status of the films named:

New films that appear headed to Telluride:

Foxtrot
Lean on Pete
The Insult
First Reformed
Loveless

Films that appear to be further confirmed for Telluride:

The Other Side of Hope
Visages/Villages

Films that WILL NOT BE PLAYING TELLURIDE:

Chappaquiddick
Molly's Game (disppointed about this)
Mark Felt-The Man Who Brought Down the White House
Redoubtable
Happy End

And films confirmed out that we already thought were out:

The Leisure Seeker
The Florida Project


More to come on Thursday...

Indiewire's Hot 25 Fall Films / Molly's Game Teaser and Trailer? / A Look at Lady Bird / The New Guy and Telluride / Late Breaking: Lean on Pete

Hello on this Tuesday, Aug. 15th...16 days until TFF #44...

INDIEWIRE'S HOT 25 FALL FILMS

Indiewire put up a new post yesterday outlining 25 Indie films it is interested in that are scheduled for release between now and the end of the year.  As you might expect, a number of titles that we're already thinking will play Telluride are on the list and there are also additional titles that could still make the TFF #44 lineup.

The films included that I think are already set for The SHOW are:

Battle of the Sexes
Wonderstruck
Lady Bird
The Shape of Water

and other films that could still make the lineup:

Marshall
Molly's Game
Mary Magdalene
Happy End

The complete Indiewire list can be found here.


MOLLY'S GAME TEASER AND TRAILER?


We got a glimpse of Aaron Sorkin's directorial debut yesterday with the release of a teaser for Molly's Game starring Jessica Chastain.  The film is also expected to drop a full trailer today (per Chastain on Twitter).

Here's the teaser from YouTube:

I'm still crossing my fingers that this somehow makes the TFF program.

Molly's Game is being distributed by STX Entertainment and is set for release on Nov. 22.

I kind of think it may well be announced as a part of Toronto's program this week.  Often the release of teasers. trailers and images is a pre-cursor for that.

Here's coverage of the teaser release from The Playlist .

A LOOK AT LADY BIRD

A couple of images were released from Greta Gerwig's directing debut yesterday.  Lady Bird stars Saoirse Ronan and is set for release from A24 on Nov. 10th.

Here from Indiewire and The Film Stage are those two images:

Lady Bord currently sits at the #8 spot on my latest iteration of the Ten Bets for Telluride list.

WILL THE NEW GUY MAKE THE TREK TO TELLURIDE?

John Bailey is the newly elected president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. AMPAS and Telluride have had a very tight relationship for a good long while.  I have always found it a hoot to see the AMPAS prez in T-ride over the Labor Day weekend having lay my eyes on booth Sid Ganis and Cheyl Boone Issacs over the years.  So I am wondering if Mr. Bailey, a cinematographer by trade (A Walk in the Woods, The Way Way Back, The Kid Stays in the Picture), joins us in a couple of weeks.  

Hope so!

 LATE BREAKING: LEAN ON PETE

Late last night the buzz was that A24 is bumping Andrew Haigh's Lean on Pete to a 2018 release date which makes a Telluride screening less likely.  Stay Tuned.

More later...

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

TWITTER @Gort2 (and follow me there as well)

FACEBOOK Message me on FB MTFB's Facebook Page

COMMENT TO THE BLOG