CHACKING GTHE DISTRIBUTORS: SONY PICTURES CLASSICS
I think it's fair to say that no distributor has had a longer term relationship with the Telluride Film Festival than Sony Pictures Classics. SPC's presence at TFF has been a staple for many years. His a reminder of the films from SPC that have played the fest over the last ten years:
2013: The Invisible Woman, Jodorowsky's Dune, The Lunchbox, The Past, Tim's Vermeer.
2014: Foxcatcher, Leviathan, Merchants of Doubt, Mr. Turner, Red Army, Salt of the Earth and Wild Tales.
2015: Son of Saul
2016: The Eagle Huntress, Toni Erdmann, Maudie, Norman: The Moderate Rise...
2017: Fantastic Woman, Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool, Foxtrot, Loveless, The Rider.
2018: The White Crow
2019: Pain and Glory, The Climb, Lyrebird
2020 (if it had happened): The Duke, The Father, The Truffle Hunters
2021: Julia, The Duke
2022: One Fine Morning, Living, The Return of Tanya Tucker, Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams, Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, a Journey, a Song.
2023: The Teachers' Lounge, They Shot the Piano Player, Daddio, Strange Way of Life
This year SPC could bring Pedro Almodovar's The Room Next Door, Walter Salles I'm Still Here and an outside possibility is Sylvain Chomet's animated The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol (though IMDb Pro has it listed as still filming).
The Room Next Door is Almodovar's first English language feature film. Last year his Strange Way of Life was at TFF #50 and the director has had a long history with Telluride.
Walter Salles' I'm Still Here also has a TFF history (Central Station 1998, The Motorcycle Diaries 2004) but it has been a long time since he last had a film in the San Juans.
Chances:
The Room Next Door 50%
I'm Still Here 35%
Marcel Pagnol 10%
EMILIA PEREZ TRAILER
We have a foreign language trailer for Jacques Audiard's Cannes prize winner Emilia Perez. Here it is from YouTube:
MEGALOPOLIS STILL COSTING COPPOLA
We noted last week that Lionsgate had picked up Francis Ford Coppola's passion project. Since then The Hollywood Reporter reported last week that the $120 million deal did not include any money for marketing. THR's Aaron Couch and Kim Masters wrote:
"Lionsgate, it appears, will not be paying for marketing. Instead, Coppola is expected to provide the spend himself. Lionsgate intends to put the feature on more than 1,500 screens, which sources in the distribution
TEN BETS FOR TFF #51
I've been doing the "Ten Bets" format as a way of predicting Telluride lineups for since 2011.
Here's last year's first Ten Bets with the films that actually played TFF #50 in Bold.
1) The Holdovers/Payne
2) May December/Haynes
3) Nyad/Chin and Vasarhelyi
4) Monster/Kore-eda
5) (All of Us)Strangers/Haigh
6) El Conde/Larrain
7) Poor Things/Lanthimos
8) Anatomy of a Fall/Triet
9) The American Buffalo/Burns
10) The End/Oppenheimer
So 6 of 10.
In previous years the correct ratios were:
2011: 8/10
2012: 5/10
2013: 6/10
2014: 7/10
2015: 4/10
2016: 3/10
2017: 7/10
2018: 5/10
2019: 4/10
2020: No fest
2021: 8/10
That puts the average of correct picks on this first whirl at 5.7.
That being said, I feel less confidence about this year's first Ten Bets than maybe any other year. Sooo... with great trepidation...here are 2024's first Ten Bets for TFF:
1) Anora/Sean Baker
2) The Seed of the Scared Fig/Mohammad Rasoulof
3) Emilia Perez/Jacques Audiard
4) The Room Next Door/Pedro Almodovar
5) Bird/Andrea Arnold
6) Maria/Pablo Larrain
7) Oh, Canada/Paul Schrader
8) The End/Joshua Oppenheimer
9) Queer/Luca Guadagnino
10) Conclave/Edward Berger
Other possibilities:
We Live in Time/Crowley
I'm Still Here/Salles
Parthenope/Sorrentino
In the Hand of Dante/Schnabel
Hard Truths/Leigh
The Piano Lesson/Washington
Untitled Noah Baumbach
Nickel Boys/Ross
Blitz/McQueen
Megalopolis/Coppola
Now we'll see how this all plays out.
COPPOLA AND MEGALOPOLIS GET A DISTRIBUTOR
"This film is magnificent, full of humanity (...) It broke our hearts with all of us," said the president of the jury, American filmmaker Greta Gerwig on May 25 before presenting the ultimate prize to Sean Baker.
"Anora" is the 8th film in the career of the American filmmaker.
Sean Baker, the last truly independent "indie" director of the United States, director of "Tangerine," "The Florida Project" and "Red Rocket," an empathetic explorer of American society, a compassionate observer of marginalized people, won the coveted Palme d'Or that he dedicated to all sex workers.
This victory is dedicated to "all sex workers in the past, present and future" Sean Baker commented!
A festival where nudity, even up frontal can be found everywhere. In "The Substance", a body horror film signed by Coralie Fargeat, was awarded on 25.05 the best screenplay, and Demi Moore, one of the main actresses, would have deserved the trophy for best artistic performance.
That dedication of Sean Baker may amaze, but it can be interpreted as a kind of branding of this 77th edition of the festival, because most films explore sexuality. On the surface,it's really about fighting against stigmatisation, but it's about dignity.
Be it transgender as in Jacques Audiard's film "Emilia Perez" with an impressive performance by the four actresses Karla Sofía Gascón, Zoe Saldana, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz, awarded in the ensemble with the award for best female performance. 4 award-winning actresses is with a novum for Cannes, another even more important fact is that for the first time in the history of the festival a transgender woman is awarded with this prestigious trophy: the Spanish actress Karla Sofía Gascón!
Be it exploratory as in the film "Kinds of kindness" composed of three stories, independent of each other, in the first of them with the exchange of sex partners. American actor Jesse Plemons was awarded with the trophy for best male performance in this absurd comedy directed by Yorgos Lanthimos.
But comimg back of this year Palm d'Or winner, Sean Baker's new film titled "Anora," named after the film's protagonist artistic name is a feminist comedy that presents not only the lifestyle of Brooklyn where the action takes place, but also the diverse communities that populate this multiethnic neighborhood.
"Anora" is a film that encompasses two cultures, the Russian and the American, I read somewhere. Infact, the film actually explores three cultures. Armenian is joined, Armenian is spoken, and Armenian traditions are even shown in a scene that takes place in an Armenian church. Two of the gangsters are Armenians, their mission is to remove Ani, and annul her marriage to Vanya.
No wonder the Armenian side is included in the film, the idea of placing the action within the Russian/Armenian community in Brooklyn started with actor Karren Karagulian already in 2009. In the film, Karren plays Torros, one of the Russian oligarch's men. Karagulian and Baker are friends, they collaborated on "Starlet" in 2012, "Tangerine" in 2015 and "Red rocket" in 2021! Baker developed the idea, wrote the script.
At the awards ceremony, Sean thanked his friend Karren. The other Armenian actor is Vache Tovmassyan, he plays another mobster named Garnick. Both are quite ha
George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola reflected on their lifelong bond as the “Megalopolis” director presented the “Star Wars” visionary with Cannes Film Festival’s honorary Palme d’Or on Saturday night. Before Lucas received the award, he was greeted in the theater by a several-minute standing ovation, during which he gave the crowd a thumbs-up and […]
MEGALOPOLIS TEASER
As Francis Ford Coppola nears premiering his latest and self-financed epic at Cannes, he released a teaser trailer on Tuesday. It looks impressive. Here it is from YouTube:
RASOULOF ESCAPES FROM IRAN
We've been following the latest travails of Iranian film maker Mohammad Rasoulof for the past few weeks. Rasoulof has a number of films screen at Telluride (Manuscripts Don't Burn, A Man of Integrity) and has another film set to bow at Cannes on May 24th that could well be a TFF #51 possibility.
We reported recently that Rasoulof had been sentenced to an eight year prison term as well as other punishments as the Iranian regime seeks to silence him and stifle the release of his films.
Now comes word from multiple sources that Rasoulof has managed to get out of Iran and is in hiding somewhere in Europe.
Rasoulof did release a statement regarding the escape:
"I arrived in Europe a few days ago after a long and complicated journey.
About a month ago, my lawyers informed me that my eight-year prison sentence was confirmed in the court of appeal and would be implemented on short notice. Knowing that the news of my new film would be revealed very soon, I knew that without a doubt, a new sentence would be added to these eight years. I didn’t have much time to make a decision. I had to choose between prison and leaving Iran. With a heavy heart, I chose exile. The Islamic Republic confiscated my passport in September 2017. Therefore, I had to leave Iran secretly."
At this point it is not known whether Rasoulof will attempt to make a live appearance for the premiere of his Cannes competition film The Seed of the Sacred Fig.
NEW BIKERIDERS TRAILER FOR THE U.K.
Late last week Universal and Focus Features released a third trailer for Jeff Nichols The Bikeriders for consumption in the U.K. Here it is from YouTube:
The Bikeriders opens in the U.S. on June 21st.
CRITICS FROM CANNES
Winner of two Palme d’Ors, Francis Ford Coppola‘s makes a huge return to Cannes with a film that will not go unnoticed in Megalopolis.
Is Francis Ford Coppola’s controversial magnum opus “Megalopolis” any good? The two hour and 20 minute dystopian drama certainly divided the audience at the Cannes Film Festival on Thursday night with its collision course of shocking scenes: a doctored sex tape featuring Adam Driver, Shia LaBeouf dressing in drag and playing a Trumpian figure and […]
ROGER CORMAN 1926-2024
Film pioneer and legend Roger Corman died on Saturday. Among other things, Corman was a Telluride tribute recipient in 2012. That afforded me the opportunity to meet him and express my appreciation for what he had done for the universe of film. It was a brief exchange and he graciously accepted my gratitude.
I'm sure most of the readers of this space are abundantly aware of Corman's legacy in film. The film Stage listed the following as film folk to whom Corman "helped to launch:
Martin Scorsese
Francis Ford Coppola
Jack Nicholson
Robert De Niro
James Cameron
Jonathan Demme
Peter Bogdanovich
John Sayles
Dennis Hopper
Joe Dante
Ron Howard
Bruce Dern
Sylvester Stallone
William Shatner
Here's my photo of meeting Corman in 2012 just outside the Galaxy:
The eulogies and remembrances have been all over social media. They have strongly reminded us of the legacy that Corman leaves behind. You could make the argument that ne was as responsible as anyone for the greatness of the films of the 1970s.
A titan.
Here are Corman obituaries from:
LAST WORD ON CANNES BEFORE IT LAUNCHES
Both The Playlist and The Film Stage have posted lists of Cannes films they regard as most anticipated and so as we head into the two week fest which traditionally crosses over around an average of eight films to TFF each year.
And so, with one more eye toward that here are the films that each source listed that, to me, feel like possibilities for The SHOW.
From both lists (including "Honorable Mentions":
Bird (Arnold)
Emilia Perez (Audiard)
Oh, Canada (Schrader)
The Apprentice (Abassi)
Megalopolis (Coppola)
Parthenope (Sorrentino)
Rumours (Maddin and Johnsons)
Additionally from The Playlist:
Meeting with Pol Pot (Panh)
The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Rasoulof)
The Most Precious of Cargoes (Hazanavicius)
Additionally from The Film Stage:
Napoleon (Gance)
Here are the complete posts from:
“Our new film ‘Megalopolis’ is the best work I’ve ever had the privilege to preside over,” reads a quote attributed to iconic director Francis Ford Coppola attached to the official trailer for his new epic film. The picture, which will premiere in competition on Thursday at the Cannes Film Festival, has been a project many […]