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Big Fall Fest: Who’s Up Or Down For Oscar?

By PETE HAMMOND | Friday September 17, 2010 @ 1:56am PDTTags: 127 Hours, 37th Telluride Film Festival, Black Swan, Black Swan Venice Film Festival, Conviction, Movies, Oscar Buzz, Oscar Chances, Oscars, Sofia Coppola, Somewhere, The King's Speech, The Social Network, Toronto Oscar Buzz
Pete Hammond

The movies have been unveiled, the reviews are in, the bloggers have blogged, so what’s the verdict? Who’s in, who’s out, who’s hoping for a recount? With a surprisingly active Toronto Film Festival winding down to a halt, and Venice and Telluride becoming distant memories, let’s see where those movies that came in with Oscar ambition and hit one, two, or all three award contender-centric fests now stand at this key early juncture.

THE SOCIAL NETWORK (Sony) - Ironically, the one movie that perhaps generated the biggest buzz this week wasn’t at any of the Big Three. The Social Network stole the thunder from Toronto by beginning screenings for onliners in New York and Los Angeles before it opens the New York Film Festival on September 24th. Oscar Chance: It instantly became anointed a frontrunner for Best Picture.

BLACK SWAN (Fox Searchlight) – It took Venice by storm with one of the most enthusiastic opening night ovations in years. But at award time on the Lido it was virtually overlooked (except for a breakthrough honor for Mila Kunis). Top reviews and lots of awards talk followed at Telluride and Toronto, especially for Natalie Portman. Oscar Chance: Very much alive in key races including newfound frontrunner status for Portman in Best Actress. Big question is how will older voters react to film’s kinkier aspects?

SOMEWHERE (Focus Features) – Sofia Coppola’s quiet character study won the top prize in Venice despite mixed reviews and some cries that jury president and Coppola intimate Quentin Tarantino played favorites. (Tarantino vehemently dismissed the criticism.) The film sat out Telluride and Toronto by design and will likely be held back from screenings until closer to its late December release. Oscar Chance: Still a bit of a mystery but may be too soft to make a dent. Coppola though is well-liked by her fellow writers and directors and Stephen Dorff is said to be quite good in it.

127 HOURS (Fox Searchlight) – Danny Boyle’s first effort since sweeping the Oscars with Slumdog Millionaire two years ago was generally met with favorable reviews and good buzz in Telluride followed by at least one standing ovation in Toronto. Oscar Chance: Strongest bet in Best Actor for James Franco. A longer shot in Best Picture as “Farewell to Arm” scene may be too much for some at the Academy.

CONVICTION (Fox Searchlight) - Middling reviews and lack of strong buzz in Toronto make this true story a long shot. Oscar Chance: Hillary Swank has a shot in Best Actress but she’s down the list in an exceptionally tough field. Sam Rockwell has film’s best shot in Supporting Actor. Juliette Lewis is also possible but role may be too small.

THE KING’S SPEECH (Weinstein Co) - Strong outstanding period piece puts Harvey Weinstein back in the Oscar game big-time. Triumphed over all comers in Telluride with subsequent buzz seeing hundreds turned away in Toronto. Great reviews and a real crowd pleaser. Oscar Chance: A slam dunk for major nominations across the board and an instant frontrunner that should play right into Academy’s lap.

MADE IN DAGENHAM (Sony Pictures Classics) – Another British period piece that debuted in Toronto to good results and sweet reviews. Story about a group of female factory workers fighting for equal pay is very accessible entertainment. Oscar Chance: This may be Sony Classics’ best shot to get into Best Picture, very Academy friendly film with acting noms possible for star Sally Hawkins and supporters Miranda Richardson and Bob Hoskins.

ANOTHER YEAR (Sony Pictures Classics) – Mike Leigh’s best film since Secrets And Lies didn’t win anything in Cannes in May and seemed to get mixed to excellent reactions in North American premieres in Telluride and Toronto. Those who like it love it. Oscar Chance: Leigh films usually go over well with the Academy but surest thing is the acclaimed performance of Lesley Manville. She should go for supporting where she’d have a better chance than in the overcrowded lead actress category.

THE TOWN (Warner Bros) – Ben Affleck drew pretty good reviews as an actor and especially director out of Venice and Toronto. Depending on how it does at the box office starting this weekend, it could follow a similar trajectory as its producer Graham King’s Oscar winning The Departed. Or not. Oscar Chance: Pedigree is fine but may be too much in the violent action genre. Strong performances could crack one of the acting categories, with Jeremy Renner the most likely possibility in support.

HEREAFTER (Warner Bros) – Clint Eastwood ‘s latest got mixed reviews out of Toronto. READ MORE »

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After Venice/Telluride Premieres of ‘A Letter To Elia,’ Should Martin Scorsese Start Writing An Emmy Speech?

By PETE HAMMOND | Tuesday September 7, 2010 @ 7:13pm PDTTags: 37th Telluride Film Festival, Martin Scorsese, Martin Scorsese Documentary, PBS American Masters
Pete Hammond

After its World Premiere in Venice and North American Premiere at Telluride, the Martin Scorsese/Kent Jones documentary A Letter To Elia will debut on the PBS series American Masters on October 4. The hour-long documentary chronicles the life and career … Read More »

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TELLURIDE FEST CLOSES: Colin Firth Feted As ‘King’s Speech’ Draws Oscar Buzz

By PETE HAMMOND | Monday September 6, 2010 @ 12:43pm PDTTags: 37th Telluride Film Festival, Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, King George VI, The King's Speech, The Weinstein Co, Tom Hooper
Pete Hammond

Over the course of its four days, the Telluride Film Festival  has certainly become a key early player in setting at least part of  the table for Hollywood’s awards season. I have seen numerous Academy voting members wandering in and out of the state-of-the-art screening venues around town getting an early look at some films certain to be contenders — and some that clearly won’t. Academy Award winner Bruce Cohen (American Beauty), this year’s co-producer (with Don Mischer) of the Oscars, has even come here to check out potential movies he will likely be showcasing come February 27th and was lining up all day long soaking up the cinema. At last week’s Emmys he was frequently caught on camera in the booth during the show (which Mischer also produced) so I asked him what he learned from that experience. “Fast. Fast. Faster,” was his instant answer expressing the reality that you gotta keep the show moving like a speeding train. He’s infectiously enthusiastic about the task he’s been given this year and at Sunday night’s festival party was already talking up possibilities for musical numbers from films he’s seeing. “Of course we have to see what the actual nominees are going to be first,” he laughed. Minor detail.

One film  strongly Oscar-buzzed at that party, on the gondolas and just about everywhere you go in Telluride this weekend is The King’s Speech, The Weinstein Company’s historical drama about King George VI’s stuttering problems and his relationship with the Australian speech therapist who gave him strength and ultimately a lifelong friendship. It was unveiled to one of this fest’s rare standing ovations for the first time anywhere here this weekend. Colin Firth is George and Geoffrey Rush is the therapist in director Tom Hooper’s outstanding film that can count on major awards love after it opens this Thanksgiving holiday, at least if the praise Telluriders are giving it is any indication.

One person leaving Monday’s screening said, “It makes up for all the bleakness,” referring to the great number of dark films showing at this year’s fest. Both stars and Hooper were surrounded by well-wishers at last night’s packed party. Firth and Rush are sure-thing nominees and the film itself is a strong Best Picture prospect to say the least. Harvey’s back in the Oscar game with this one, no doubt.

Firth was the subject of packed major tributes here Sunday night and Monday morning. (At this fest, the honoree gets feted twice.) “That’s something I’m genuinely not ready for. I don’t know what that’s gonna be like,”  he said referring to the double dose of love when we sat down for a pre-first tribute interview. He says  his virgin  Telluride experience has been extremely gratifying in every way. “It feels more like a community than a festival, It’s not a market or a press-feeding frenzy. It’s so pure. This one seems to be just for the love of film. It doesn’t get better,”  he says. Firth notes he and Rush have been stopped everywhere, getting applauded in bars and restaurants or just crossing the street. Telluride is certainly providing the actor a nice ego boost, if nothing else, but he’s genuinely thrilled to see the reaction to his performance. Read More »

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‘Black Swan’ Dances Into Telluride While Sony Pictures Classics Duo Struts Stuff

By PETE HAMMOND | Sunday September 5, 2010 @ 7:11pm PDTTags: 127 Hours, 127 Hours Telluride, 37th Telluride Film Festival, Ballet Thriller, Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky, Darren Aronofsky Black Swan, Fox Searchlight, Natalie Portman, Natalie Portman Black Swan, Never Let Me Go, Never Let Me Go Telluride, Telluride Film Festival Black Swan
Pete Hammond

TELLURIDE: After its sizzling debut in Venice earlier in the week, Fox Searchlight’s Black Swan continued steamrolling through this early awards season with its “unofficial” North American premiere Sunday afternoon  billed by the Telluride Film Festival as a “sneak preview.” At the start of the psychological terror film set in a contemporary ballet company, a festival rep told the audience they were the lucky ones as hundreds still lined up outside were turned away (fortunately there are at least two other screenings coming up). But you could feel the anticipation with curious film fans storming the 600 + seat Palm Theatre, Telluride’s largest venue.

Director Darren Aronofsky, making his first-ever visit to the fest, began his introduction by saying he had spent the earlier part of his day walking up to the waterfall “but it was a terrible hike”. He mentioned he and star Natalie Portman (not here) had talked about doing this project for almost a decade. So was the wait worth it? This crowd seemed to think so although, unlike Venice, it didn’t get a standing ovation (they may have been too stunned to stand). Buzz afterward was strong for Aronofsky’s  macabre vision of an artistically possessed ballerina pushing herself beyond the limits, and particularly for Portman’s dazzling tour de force that makes her an instant leading contender in every Best Actress race. During final credits, one shaken woman was overheard saying she was going outside to “smoke about 5 cigarettes”.

At the post-Q&A  Aronofsky, joined by his composer Clint Mansell and producer Scott Franklin, said he and Portman first met at the now defunct Times Square Howard Johnson’s to discuss the project about 9 years ago, but it took this long to finally come to fruition. He noted his original idea was to spin off Dostoevsky’s The Double and then after seeing a production of Swan Lake knew he had the beginnings of something grand (guignol). As noted during the Q&A, the movie oozes sexuality with one “fantasy” lesbian encounter between Portman and co-star Mila Kunis really steaming up this rocky mountain arena.  This is a hard R, folks. As with The Wrestler, there will be lots of Oscar talk  and probably some speculation that it might all be a bit too much for some of the older Academy members, but I have a hunch this will play just fine on Wilshire Blvd. It’s bravura film making, melodramatic and riveting entertainment with great handheld camerawork from Matthew Libatique and an award-caliber cast including Portman, Kunis,  an intense Vincent Cassel as the ballet company’s taskmaster director and Barbara Hershey as her domineering mother.

With two other titles–Never Let Me Go and 127 Hours–in addition to Black Swan, Fox Searchlight hosted a late night party Saturday and has a strong presence here. But they but can’t hold a candle to Sony Pictures Classics, which has 5 movies showing (adding yet another 4 for their trek next week to Toronto). Last night, SPC co-Presidents Michael Barker and Tom Bernard threw their annual La Marmotte dinner to celebrate the quintet that includes Mike Leigh’s Another Year, the likely French Oscar entry Of  Gods And Men (Grand Prize winner at this year’s Cannes), Charles Ferguson’s devastating financial meltdown doc Inside Job, Stephen Frear’s very well-received English comedy Tamara Drewe, and Sylvain Chomet’s beautifully animated The Illusionist, based on an un-produced screenplay by the late, great Jacques Tati. I saw the latter earlier today and predict it’s certain to put Chomet, previously nominated for The Triplets Of Bellville, right in the heart of this year’s animated race no matter if 3 or 5 nominees qualify. In fact with this Telluride group alone ,the company could easily find itself in the unique position of having a nominee in each of Oscar’s key film categories:  Picture, Documentary, Foreign Language Film and Animated Feature. Barker and Bernard are very high on their slate and told me they think they have particularly good Best Picture shots: Another Year, opening at the end of December; Made In Dagenham (Nov 19 but premiering first in Toronto), a stirring true story about the fight waged for equal pay by a group of English female factory workers in the early 70’s, with acting contenders Sally Hawkins, Miranda Richardson and Bob Hoskins; and even Get Low (currently on over 500 screens) where they have high hopes for Robert Duvall, Bill Murray and Sissy Spacek. They  will be strongly campaigning several other actors including Another Year’s standout star Lesley Manville, who attended last night’s dinner. SPC could be repped as well in the Golden Globe comedy or musical race with Tamara Drewe. While other studio owned specialty divisions continue to be in meltdown mode, this one somehow seems to keep thriving, largely thanks to smart awards-time strategizing. This year appears to be no different. Read More »

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Danny Boyle Comes Back To Telluride Film Festival As Oscar Hopefuls Start Screening

By PETE HAMMOND | Saturday September 4, 2010 @ 5:26pm PDTTags: 127 Hours, 127 Hours Telluride, 37th Telluride Film Festival, Aron Ralston, Black Swan, Danny Boyle, Danny Boyle 127 Hours, Fox Searchlight 127 Hours, James Franco, Never Let Me Go, Never Let Me Go Telluride, Precious Life, Precious Life HBO, Telluride Film Festival Black Swan, The King's Speech
Pete Hammond

TELLURIDE: Danny Boyle says there are still a couple of things to “figure out” before a final print can be struck. But the Oscar-winning director returned today to the Galaxy Theatre at the Telluride Film Festival with the “unofficial” world premiere of 127 Hours – his first film since Slumdog Millionaire took home 8 Oscars just 1 1/2 years ago. It’s a good luck spot for Boyle as he had just finished Slumdog three days before its Telluride premiere, which became the launching pad for what would become an awards season blowout for the popular movie.

It was déjà vu this afternoon for me and others who were there that Saturday two Tellurides ago in the exact same venue. Today, the house was packed for both the 127 Hours screening and the Q&A that followed featuring Boyle, his producer Christian Colson, star James Franco, and the real life inspiration for the film, Aron Ralston, whose memoir Between A Rock And A Hard Place was the basis for Boyle’s and Simon Beaufoy’s adaptation. It’s about the harrowing true story of a young canyoneer who gets trapped in a deep narrow cave for 127 hours before extracting himself from a crushing boulder by cutting off his right arm with a small knife. And it has been expertly brought to the screen by the director who finds a way to put “urgency” in every frame despite the fact that the entire film is basically one man vs. the elements. It’s a tour-de-force for Franco, virtually never off screen in the same way Spencer Tracy triumphed in the similarly spare The Old Man And The Sea (1958). Franco’s performance could put him in contention for a best actor Oscar nod just as Tracy’s did over 50 years ago. It should be noted that Franco’s “farewell to arm” scene is graphic and not for the squeamish.

Using fast cutting, flashbacks and two cinematographers, Boyle makes this thing cook even though he ironically admitted afterwards that he’s really an “urban” filmmaker, hates the countryside, and thinks most “wilderness films are boring”. That initially made the outdoorsman Ralston wonder why Boyle wanted to film the story in the first place. Seeing it nearly finished for the first time today, Ralston says he was in tears through the second half, right from the moment the “sunlight” poked through.

For distributor Fox Searchlight, which plans a November release, 127 Hours is just one of three awards season players they have brought to Telluride. Friday night, Never Let Me Go stars Carey Mulligan and Andrew Garfield, director Mark Romanek, screenwriter Alex Garland and the novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, all turned up to introduce the first-ever public unveiling of this highly unusual sci-fi film dealing with themes of love and death. It’s distinguished by superb work from its promising young cast, led by Mulligan and Garfield, who all drew special praise from its very pleased author Ishiguro who described the film version of his best seller as a tremendous showcase for new British acting talent who are “inventing a style all their own”. Romanek (One Hour Photo) told the nearly sold-out crowd he had two dreams: to make this book into a film, and to come to Telluride. On Sunday, Searchlight’s Black Swan (December 1) and troupe blow into town direct from their Venice triumph for the unofficial North American premiere, billed here as a “sneak preview”.

Earlier Saturday, at the Chuck Jones theatre, a packed house caught the first screening here of The Weinstein Company’s Best Picture contender and Thanksgiving release, The King’s Speech. Afterwards the crowd greeted director Tom Hooper and stars Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush with a standing ovation. This stylishly entertaining, brilliantly acted period piece about the stuttering problems of England’s King George VI (father of the current Queen Elizabeth) and his relationship with a speech therapist is, to put it simply, catnip for Academy voters. No doubt Harvey’s already got one of the ten Best Picture slots locked up for this. Firth will be the recipient of a special tribute to his career Sunday night. Read More »

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Weir’s ‘The Way Back’ Has Telluride World Premiere: But Will Oscar Campaign Follow?

By PETE HAMMOND | Friday September 3, 2010 @ 6:09pm PDTTags: 37th Telluride Film Festival, Newmarket The Way Back, Oscars, Peter Weir, Peter Weir The Way Back, The Way Back, The Way Back Oscar, The Way Back Telluride, The Way Back US Rights
Pete Hammond

TELLURIDE: Peter Weir’s The Way Back is about an epic journey of survival, an appropriate metaphor for the film’s own treacherous journey through the current wobbly state of the movie industry which just didn’t seem to know what to do with this stunning adventure, the kind of movie Hollywood used to make all the time. Finally yesterday, as many were arriving for the Telluride Film Festival, Newmarket announced it will handle  the film for U.S. release just after the first of the year. It coincided with Telluride’s career tribute to Weir today and the World Premiere (the only fall festival slot for the film) tonight. My interview with Weir is below.

Produced under the Exclusive Films label (which owns Newmarket) and co-produced by National Geographic Entertainment and Imagenation Abu Dhabi, Weir’s The Way Back is currently planned for a fairly wide break on over 600 screens on January 21, according to Newmarket’s VP of acquisitions John Crye. It’s a particularly aggressive rollout for the indie company whose past distribution successes have included such award magnets as Memento, Monster, Whale Rider, and Mel Gibson’s controversial blockbuster The Passion Of The Christ. With this kind of DNA, it would seem natural that part of the master plan would also include a late December Oscar qualifying run. But both Crye and a PR rep for the film would only say that is a distinct possibility even though they acknowledge the film deserves one.

Perhaps Newmarket is waiting for reaction and reviews out of Telluride. But, c’mon, it’s unheard of to open a prestigious film like this from a 6-time Oscar nominee (4 in the directing category) with a cast including Ed Harris (here in Telluride for the premiere), Colin Farrell, Jim Sturgess, and Saoirse Ronan (Atonement, The Lovely Bones) in the middle of January without trying to get some of Oscar’s fairy dust sprinkled on it. At the very least, the breathtaking and challenging cinematography of longtime Weir collaborator Russell Boyd, already an Oscar winner for Weir’s most recent film, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (nominated for 10 Academy Awards in 2003) would seem a slam dunk. But the film has many other attributes as well, including those actors and Weir’s impeccable direction. Which is why Telluride Fest directors Gary Meyer and Tom Luddy said the film was an obvious choice the minute they saw it.

When I talked to Peter Weir earlier today in advance of his career tribute and the World Premiere tonight, he thought an Oscar run Read More »

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TELLURIDE FILM FESTIVAL KICKING OFF: First Stop Of Hollywood Awards Season

By PETE HAMMOND | Thursday September 2, 2010 @ 6:13pm PDTTags: 37th Telluride Film Festival, Andrew Garfield, Black Swan, Carey Mulligan, Danny Boyle 127 Hours, Darren Aronofsky, Natalie Portman, Never Let Me Go Telluride, Peter Weir The Way Back, Telluride Film Festival Black Swan, Telluride Film Festival Program
Pete Hammond

TELLURIDE: The Emmys may have just ended but that isn’t stopping the Hollywood film awards machine from kicking into gear already. First on Wednesday at the Venice Film Festival with a rapturous reception for opener Black Swan which received a resounding standing ovation for director Darren Aronofsky and stars Natalie Portman and Vincent Cassel. And then tomorrow at the 37th annual Telluride Film Festival, which is the first U.S. stop on the long freight train to the Oscars.

The Telluride fest officially begins Friday morning and runs through Labor Day in this remote and rustic Colorado town. This must-stop for cineastes known for its friendly, relaxed vibe and its esoteric mix of indie, foreign, and classics has also in recent years become an early, important cog in the awards industry engine. It’s where such Best Picture winners and nominees like Slumdog Millionaire, Juno and Up In The Air have launched their campaigns even before they hit the much bigger and more publicized Toronto Film Festival (beginning September 9th this year). Telluride’s lineup is always kept a secret until the last minute and was finally revealed today. In addition to such little known entries as Oka! Amerikee, and Pygmies In Paris, there will be a slew of Oscar hopefuls rolling into town jazzing things up. The festival is able to get these films because they don’t advertise them in advance and is happy to let Toronto claim North American or even World Premieres even though technically it’s all happening here this weekend.

Fox Searchlight officially has Never Let Me Go with Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley, and Andrew Garfield on the schedule. But it will be “sneaking” the aforementioned Black Swan with Aronofsky and Portman making the trek from Venice pre-Toronto, and Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours which will see the director coming back for a good-luck visit to the place that started his march to Oscar glory two years ago with Slumdog. Also here, The Weinstein Company’s period drama, The King’s Speech starring Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush and directed by Tom Hooper (The Damned United), and the genuine “World Premiere” (it’s not even on the Toronto slate) of Peter Weir’s The Way Back, an epic adventure produced by National Geographic that even with this veteran director and a cast that includes Ed Harris and Colin Farrell is still angling for a good distribution deal. [Later Thursday, they announced that they secured a distributor, Newmarket, and plan to release in January.] Last year the Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer film, The Last Station came quietly into Telluride, landed a deal with Sony Pictures Classics and won a couple of major acting Oscar nominations just a few months later. Maybe Telluride will prove just as lucky for Weir, whose last movie was 2003’s Oscar-nominated Master And Commander. Weir is one of three veterans getting tributes here in addition to Firth and Italy’s legendary Claudia Cardinale.

Among Cannes premieres showing up in America for the first time here are  Mike Leigh’s Another Year, Stephen Frear’s British comedy Tamara Drewe, the acclaimed financial meltdown documentary Inside Job, and Sylvain Chomet’s animated gem, The Illusionist, all from Sony Pictures Classics which has a big presence as usual. That also includes Cannes Grand Prize winner Of Gods And Men, the stirring drama almost certain to be France’s official entry for the Best Foreign Language film Oscar this year. Other Cannes titles making the journey are France’s Princess Of Montpensier, Korea’s Poetry, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s stirring Biutiful that won Best Actor for Javier Bardem in Cannes and has been picked up domestically by Roadside Attractions, and IFC’s Carlos, the 3-part biopic of terrorist Carlos The Jackal that premieres stateside in October. Cannes Fest director Thierry Fremaux is here, too, justifiably proud that so many of his cinematic discoveries were chosen.

Coming in together on the one and only festival charter today was a spirited group including Fremaux, Firth, Rush, Hooper, Weir, Harris, Mulligan (who was here last year with An Education), Inarritu, and many others including a gaggle of producers, directors, agents, studio execs, media types (yes, including me) and publicists. Former Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences President Sid Ganis was on board (the Academy is a loyal sponsor) as was last year’s guest “curator”  Alexander Payne (Sideways) who told me he was coming back this time as a fan just to “see movies”. I told Firth I had just gotten an early look at his (terrific) King’s Speech last night in a Beverly Hills screening room, and he said it must have been hot off the presses as Hooper just finished it two days ago. He hasn’t even seen the finished product yet. Waiting at the Montrose airport for his suitcase to be unloaded, Geoffrey Rush spotted Ed Harris and told him he had a script the actor should look at. Read More »

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Telluride Sets Fest Film Program

By MIKE FLEMING | Thursday September 2, 2010 @ 11:02am PDTTags: 37th Telluride Film Festival, Biutiful, Inside Job, Never Let Me Go, Telluride Film Festival Program

While Toronto International Film Festival, Sundance, Venice and Cannes sets film schedules well in advance, Telluride always springs its fest lineup at the last moment. Here it is:

37th TELLURIDE FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES 2010 FESTIVAL LINEUP

Telluride, CO – Telluride Film Festival (September 3-6, 2010), presented by the National Film Preserve

… Read More »

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