Festival Circuit 2018

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FrauBlucher
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Re: Festival Circuit 2018

#276 Post by FrauBlucher » Mon Sep 03, 2018 4:52 pm


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DarkImbecile
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Re: Festival Circuit 2018

#277 Post by DarkImbecile » Fri Sep 07, 2018 4:12 pm

All right, now that I've recovered from five straight days of sleep deprivation and am back in the real world, here's a quick overview of my experience at the 45th Telluride Film Festival; I'll be fleshing out my reactions to each of the 16 films I saw in their appropriate threads, but here are the quick headlines in order of preference:

Top Tier Films:
Roma (Cuaron) - A
The Favourite (Lanthimos) - A
First Man (Chazelle) - A
Cold War (Pawlikowski) - A-
Birds of Passage (Guerra, Gallego) - A-

Very Good to Recommendable
The Great Buster (Bogdanovich) - B+
Watergate, Or How We Learned to Stop an Out of Control President (Ferguson) - B+
Border (Abassi) - B
The Old Man and the Gun (Lowery) - B
Graves Without a Name (Rithy) - B
The White Crow (Fiennes) - B-
The Front Runner (Reitman) - B-

Mixed to Disappointing
Destroyer (Kusama) - C+
Meeting Gorbachev (Herzog) - C+
Peterloo (Leigh) - C-

Poor
Trial By Fire (Zwick) - D

Besides the cold, rainy weather making some of the time spent standing in lines less than enjoyable, this was a very good festival toplined by two truly stellar releases that I hope draw a lot of attention over the coming months. I was able to catch a fair number of worthwhile moderated Q&As and introductions by filmmakers, including Redford, Spacek, Affleck, and Lowery for The Old Man and the Gun, the Colombian co-directors of Birds of Passage, and extended interviews with Tributees Alfonso Cuaron, Emma Stone, and Rithy Panh for their respective films. I was also able to briefly speak to David Grann (the journalist whose work was the basis for both Old Man and Trial By Fire), Jason Reitman, and A.O. Scott, while also having a couple of longer conversations with Mark Danner, a festival regular who introduced Watergate and held a Q&A with Herzog after his film, and whose work on foreign policy and human rights I've been reading for two decades now.

Major regrets that I was unable to fit in the schedule (or, in one case, was repeatedly stymied by the festival's refusal to put a Palme D'Or-winning film in a theater with more than ~230 seats): Hirokazu Koreeda's Shoplifters, Aleksei German's Dovlatov, Lukas Dhont's Girl, Olivier Assayas' Non Fiction, The Other Side of the Wind, and a screening of Mohammad Rasoulof's 2009 film The White Meadows.

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dda1996a
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Re: Festival Circuit 2018

#278 Post by dda1996a » Fri Sep 07, 2018 4:59 pm

Can anyone here attest to the quality of German's Dovlatov?
#EDIT Never mind, can't catch it. Hoping to have two days of festival marathons, watching
Vagabond (Varda)
Birds of Passage
Cold War
And another day of:
First Man
Lazzaro
Under the Silver Lake

Sad I will have to miss Burning. Also the Loro version playing here is the 150 cut, what's the word on that?

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Omensetter
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Re: Festival Circuit 2018

#279 Post by Omensetter » Fri Sep 07, 2018 7:15 pm

László Nemes's Sunset surprisingly won the FIPRESCI award at Venice. ROMA is still a shoe-in for the year-end FIPRESCI.

In terms of reception, Sunset, Our Time, and At Eternity's Gate seem solidly on the mixed side.

English language critics are agog over Brady Corbet's Vox Lux. A24 or NEON need to pick this one up immediately.

Predictions for the awards:

Golden Lion --- Yorgos Lanthimos, The Favorite
Grand Jury --- Carlos Reygadas, Our Time
Director --- Damien Chazelle, First Man
Actress --- Natalie Portman, Vox Lux
Actor --- Willem Dafoe, At Eternity's Gate
Screenplay --- Jennifer Kent, The Nightingale
Special Jury --- Roberto Minervi, What You Gonna Do When the World's on Fire?
----
It's slightly insane to me that after this year's Cannes and Venice, there is now a mini-festival of world premieres going on right now in Toronto with Claire Denis, Barry Jenkins, Steve McQueen, and Mia Hansen-Løve.

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DarkImbecile
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Re: Festival Circuit 2018

#280 Post by DarkImbecile » Fri Sep 07, 2018 7:17 pm

Omensetter wrote:
Fri Sep 07, 2018 7:15 pm
It's slightly insane to me that after this year's Cannes and Venice, there is now a mini-festival of world premieres going on right now in Toronto with Claire Denis, Barry Jenkins, Steve McQueen, and Mia Hansen-Løve.
I'm driving the "2018 is a great film year" bandwagon... feel free to join me!

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Omensetter
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Re: Festival Circuit 2018

#281 Post by Omensetter » Fri Sep 07, 2018 8:26 pm

I didn't even include Locarno in that quotation! There's usually a big studio release or two that has yet to debut, too. I forget what this year's are---Backseat? Adam McKay isn't too inspiring, but the subject matter is intriguing.

In any event, I'm glad The Beach Bum is in 2019, where I hope Vox Lux joins it, because Midwestern arthouse screens are pretty well booked.

I obviously haven't seen nearly as many of this year's pure 2018 titles as you (I've never considered going to Telluride despite my proximity because the line-up reveal days beforehand is too much the financial gamble), but my true barometer for the year is that it's entirely plausible one of these titles can remove Zama from the top of my best-of list.

Second on my list is the SXSW-debuting Support the Girls, which I bring up because I saw it on VOD. It's making it tempting to just embrace Netflix when I know I can see their 2018 films soon while my arthouse appears to have some Nick Hornby adaptation, that fucking Glenn Close movie, and some service-dog documentary on deck.

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Re: Festival Circuit 2018

#282 Post by DarkImbecile » Sat Sep 08, 2018 12:02 am

Omensetter wrote:
Fri Sep 07, 2018 8:26 pm
I didn't even include Locarno in that quotation! There's usually a big studio release or two that has yet to debut, too. I forget what this year's are---Backseat? Adam McKay isn't too inspiring, but the subject matter is intriguing.
I think there’s still a chance James Gray’s Ad Astra gets a qualifying release before the end of the year, though if Fox thinks the field is too crowded for awards attention - especially with First Man owning the space epic corner this fall - or that it might interfere with Fox Searchlight’s The Favourite’s campaign, it might get pushed to Cannes or even the Fall festivals next year.

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mfunk9786
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Re: Festival Circuit 2018

#283 Post by mfunk9786 » Sat Sep 08, 2018 12:20 am

McKay is listed as consulting on the Philadelphia Film Festival lineup this year which is making us petrified that his film is going to open it, therefore making our badges that much more annoyingly expensive merely because a Cheney film starting a bunch of people who look nothing like the people they're playing is probably going to be absolutely unbearable

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Omensetter
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Re: Festival Circuit 2018

#284 Post by Omensetter » Sat Sep 08, 2018 10:57 am

Oh, Ad Astra definitely screams next year. Neil Armstrong via the director of La La Land has the thoughtful films in space market covered. I'm sure Cannes would happily take it, and it's still easy to launch an awards player from there, of course, so long as your film is good.

I looked at the Philadelphia Film Festival lineup from last year, and they most definitely do not need such a splashy premiere. It's good as is! It reminds me of the only film fesival I've ever attended: the 2012 Chicago Film Festival, which was basically me leisurely watching Cristian Mungiu and Carlos Reygadas in a cinema where they usually screen Christopher Nolan. It was super chill. That said, I have no idea why Annapurna would want their big awards hope, which seems to have an Oscar for Amy Adams, to play Philadelphia and not AFI, where the most voters are.

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Re: Festival Circuit 2018

#285 Post by ianthemovie » Sat Sep 08, 2018 11:09 am

Omensetter wrote:
Sat Sep 08, 2018 10:57 am
Neil Armstrong via the director of La La Land has the thoughtful films in space market covered.
And that's not even counting Claire Denis' High Life (though that's unlikely to be an Oscar contender, and its release date is also undecided).

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domino harvey
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Re: Festival Circuit 2018

#286 Post by domino harvey » Sat Sep 08, 2018 2:12 pm

Venice results:

Golden Lion: "Roma," Alfonso Cuaron

Grand Jury Prize: “The Favourite,” Yorgos Lanthimos, Greece, U.K.

Silver Lion for Best Director: Jacques Audiard, “The Sisters Brothers,” U.S.

Volpi Cup for Best Actress: Olivia Colman, “The Favourite,” Greece, U.K.

Volpi Cup for Best Actor: Willem Dafoe, “At Eternity’s Gate,” U.S.

Best Screenplay: Joel and Ethan Coen, “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” U.S.

Special Jury Prize: “The Nightingale” Jennifer Kent, Australia

Marcello Mastroianni Award for Young Performer: Baykali Ganambarr “The Nightingale,” Australia

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domino harvey
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Re: Festival Circuit 2018

#287 Post by domino harvey » Sat Sep 08, 2018 2:13 pm

That Audiard win is wild-- worth remembering that Del Toro was on the Cannes jury that awarded Dheepan too!

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Re: Festival Circuit 2018

#288 Post by DarkImbecile » Sat Sep 08, 2018 2:28 pm

Glad to see the largely positive response (barring the shouted epithets) to The Nightingale. Along with Suspiria, Beale Street, Vox Lux, and one or two others it’s among my most anticipated for the remainder of the year.

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Omensetter
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Re: Festival Circuit 2018

#289 Post by Omensetter » Sat Sep 08, 2018 2:46 pm

domino harvey wrote:
Sat Sep 08, 2018 2:13 pm
That Audiard win is wild-- worth remembering that Del Toro was on the Cannes jury that awarded Dheepan too!
And he was rumored to have been a massive fan of The Lobster that year too, when it won the Jury Prize.

It looks like a decent batch of winners, with the presence of the westerns only being the true surprises.

It seems like Roma and The Favourite will be tethered together going forward. Both debuted on the same day at the same festival, both were the most praised of the festival, and both won the top two prizes.

Really happy Willem won.

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Re: Festival Circuit 2018

#290 Post by Persona » Sat Sep 08, 2018 3:42 pm

Really happy for Cuaron and Roma and everything I've read about The Favourite has convinced me that I'm finally going to like a Lanthimos film.

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Re: Festival Circuit 2018

#291 Post by ng4996 » Sat Sep 08, 2018 7:52 pm

domino harvey wrote:
Sat Sep 08, 2018 2:13 pm
That Audiard win is wild
Was this not well received? I thought it was generally well liked.

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Omensetter
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Re: Festival Circuit 2018

#292 Post by Omensetter » Sat Sep 08, 2018 9:07 pm

Generally well-liked seems about right---Metacritic places it at 80, and I imagine stateside critics will be more generous. Someone like Corbet would have been more interesting for Director, but it's not hard to see something like The Sisters Brothers uniting enough members of the jury.

Also, apparently Roma won unanimously, which sounds about right from what we've heard so far. Right now, I'm at the stage where I'm thinking that it surely could not be that good. All of the Oscar outlets think it can win Best Picture, which I'll believe when it happens.

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Re: Festival Circuit 2018

#293 Post by John Cope » Sat Sep 08, 2018 10:40 pm

Omensetter wrote:
Sat Sep 08, 2018 9:07 pm
All of the Oscar outlets think it can win Best Picture, which I'll believe when it happens.
If they have indeed dropped their popular film contest then I cant imagine it happening. Best Director seems far more feasible.

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domino harvey
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Re: Festival Circuit 2018

#294 Post by domino harvey » Sat Sep 08, 2018 10:43 pm

A Star is Born is all but guaranteed to be the front runner, and it will have the most broad support with critics and (likely) audiences all rooting for it. If there are enough passionate people voting for it in #1, Roma could do what Moonlight pulled off, but we'll have to see

And I only meant the Audiard win was wild because no one was predicting him as a likely possibility. By most accounts it was well-merited

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Re: Festival Circuit 2018

#295 Post by Ribs » Sun Sep 09, 2018 12:06 am

The race almost definitely will be A Star Is Born vs... something. Could be Roma, could be the Favourite, could be First Man. Could be Untitled Adam McKay, even! Could even imagine Boy Erased still being in the mix despite a muted-positive reaction reminscent of Loving's; we really don't know what Academy members think, and they might *love* something that's plain and traditional and not particularly exciting. A Star is Born has about nineteen narratives behind it that make it an ideal Best Picture frontrunner, from Cooper's Eastwood turn to Gaga to the fact the movie will undoubtedly make hundreds of millions of dollars to its all-time classic, super easy Hollywood narrative and practically everything in between.

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Re: Festival Circuit 2018

#296 Post by felipe » Sun Sep 09, 2018 7:16 pm

I'm still surprised by A Star is Born's reviews. Not that it's being well-received but the fact that the reviews are so superlative they almost seem to be coming from fan message boards.

From Rolling Stone: ‘A Star Is Born’ Is Damn Near Perfect

"And, at least for its glorious first hour, the movie gifts you with some of the best American filmmaking you’re likely to see before this year ends in sprints to the shiny-statuette finish line."

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Persona
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Re: Festival Circuit 2018

#297 Post by Persona » Tue Sep 11, 2018 6:49 pm

Beautiful write-up from Justin Chang on TIFF and some of the better words I've seen on If Beale Street Could Talk and High Life

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Re: Festival Circuit 2018

#298 Post by accatone » Thu Sep 27, 2018 3:28 am

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuDpOJJoNnY

Lav Diaz for the Film Festival Viennale #18.

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Re: Festival Circuit 2018

#299 Post by mfunk9786 » Wed Oct 03, 2018 11:36 am

The program guide for the 27th Philadelphia Film Festival is up.

After La La Land and I, Tonya opened the festival the last two years, the absolutely mediocre looking Julia Roberts vehicle Ben is Back, from the director of Dan in Real Life, is opening this year. Which makes me extremely glad I didn't buy a badge ahead of time - usually PFF limits opening night to badge holders and press only, and occasionally they'll do a $50 ticket for the film - this year you can get in for $20.

No The Nightingale, no The House that Jack Built, no Angelo, no At Eternity's Gate. A lot of films that seem to have been sort of a shoo-in at festivals so far this year are absent. But hey, at least they're showing a (surely digital) print of the Welles!

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Omensetter
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Re: Festival Circuit 2018

#300 Post by Omensetter » Wed Oct 03, 2018 5:23 pm

All the same, it certainly reminds me of where I live. That'll no doubt be your best opportunity to see An Elephant Sitting Still and perhaps A Long Day's Journey into Night.

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