Festival Circuit 2024

[yoloswegmaster]

The Joshua Oppenheimer has been finished for a while now, but it was revealed by an insider over at that forum that it was rejected by Venice (alongside the new Audrey Diwan and Steve McQueen films). Speaking of Venice rejects, surprised to see the new Mike Leigh show up here. It was supposed to open in October but they moved the release date to January.

I'm interested in seeing what the breakout film will be from the Midnight Madness titles. One of last year's breakout was an Indian action-thriller film called Kill, and holy shit, one of the most brutal films I've ever seen.

[yoloswegmaster]

Official TIFF Announcements


Galas:

SpoilerShow

Andrea Bocelli: Because I Believe Cosima Spender | UK
World Premiere

Better Man Michael Gracey | USA
Canadian Premiere

Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight Embeth Davidtz | South Africa
Canadian Premiere
Sales Title

Eden Ron Howard | USA
World Premiere
Sales Title

Elton John: Never Too Late R.J. Cutler, David Furnish | USA
World Premiere

Harbin Woo Min-ho | South Korea
World Premiere

Meet the Barbarians Julie Delpy | France
International Premiere
Sales Title

Nutcrackers David Gordon Green | USA
World Premiere
Sales Title

Oh, Canada Paul Schrader | USA
North American Premiere
Sales Title

Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band Thom Zimny | USA
World Premiere

Superboys of Malegaon Reema Kagti | India
World Premiere

*The Deb Rebel Wilson | Australia
World Premiere
Sales Title

The Friend Scott McGehee, David Siegel | USA
International Premiere
Sales Title

The Penguin Lessons Peter Cattaneo | Spain/United Kingdom
World Premiere
Sales Title

The Return Uberto Pasolini | Italy/United Kingdom
World Premiere
Sales Title

The Shrouds David Cronenberg | Canada/France
North American Premiere
Sales Title

The Wild Robot Chris Sanders | USA
World Premiere

Unstoppable William Goldenberg | USA
World Premiere

Will & Harper Josh Greenbaum | USA
International Premiere

Special Presentations:

SpoilerShow

40 Acres R.T. Thorne | Canada
World Premiere

All of You William Bridges | USA
World Premiere
Sales Title

All We Imagine as Light Payal Kapadia | France/India/Netherlands/Luxembourg
Canadian Premiere

Anora Sean Baker | USA
Canadian Premiere

Bird Andrea Arnold | United Kingdom
North American Premiere

Bring Them Down Christopher Andrews | Ireland/Belgium
World Premiere

Can I Get A Witness? Ann Marie Fleming | Canada
World Premiere

Carnival is Over Fernando Coimbra | Brazil/Portugal
World Premiere
Sales Title

Caught by the Tides Jia Zhang-Ke | China
North American Premiere

Conclave Edward Berger | USA/United Kingdom
International Premiere

Emilia Pérez Jacques Audiard | France/USA/Mexico
Canadian Premiere

Hard Truths Mike Leigh | United Kingdom/Spain
World Premiere

Harvest Athina Rachel Tsangari | United Kingdom
North American Premiere
Sales Title

Heretic Scott Beck, Bryan Woods | Canada
World Premiere

I’m Still Here Walter Salles | Brazil/France
North American Premiere

I, the Executioner Ryoo Seung-wan | South Korea
North American Premiere

*K-Pops Anderson .Paak | USA
World Premiere
Sales Title

Love in the Big City E.oni | South Korea
World Premiere
Sales Title

Millers in Marriage Edward Burns | USA
World Premiere
Sales Title

Misericordia Alain Guiraudie | Spain/Portugal/France
Canadian Premiere

*Nightbitch Marielle Heller | USA
World Premiere

On Becoming a Guinea Fowl Rungano Nyoni | Zambia/United Kingdom/Ireland
North American Premiere

Piece by Piece Morgan Neville | USA
International Premiere

Quisling - The Final Days Erik Poppe | Norway
International Premiere
Sales Title

Relay David Mackenzie | USA
World Premiere
Sales Title

*Rez Ball Sydney Freeland | USA
World Premiere

Riff Raff Dito Montiel | USA
World Premiere
Sales Title

Rumours Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson | Canada/Germany
North American Premiere

Sharp Corner Jason Buxton | Canada/Ireland
World Premiere
Sales Title

Shepherds Sophie Deraspe | Canada/France
World Premiere
Sales Title

Sketch Seth Worley | USA
World Premiere
Sales Title

The Assessment Fleur Fortuné | United Kingdom/Germany/USA
World Premiere
Sales Title

The Cut Sean Ellis | United Kingdom
World Premiere
Sales Title

The End Joshua Oppenheimer | Denmark/UK
Canadian Premiere

The Fire Inside Rachel Morrison | USA
World Premiere

The Girl with the Needle Magnus von Horn | Denmark/Poland/Sweden
North American Premiere

The Last Showgirl Gia Coppola | USA
World Premiere
Sales Title

The Life of Chuck Mike Flanagan | USA
World Premiere
Sales Title

The Order Justin Kurzel | Canada/USA
North American Premiere

The Piano Lesson Malcolm Washington | USA
International Premiere

We Live in Time John Crowley | United Kingdom/France
World Premiere

Went Up the Hill Samuel Van Grinsven | New Zealand/Australia
World Premiere
Sales Title

Without Blood Angelina Jolie | USA/Italy
World Premiere
Sales Title

Young Werther José Avelino Gilles Corbett Lourenço | Canada
World Premiere
Sales Title

Does the Oppenheimer being a Canadian Premiere mean that it will be at Venice and Telluride? I can't remember how these designations work. Looks like the following films are screening at Telluride (alongside others that I didn't catch in the list): Anora, All We Imagine as Light, Misericordia, Meet the Barbarians, and Emilia Perez.

EDIT: Phantom Pages have also been found for The Substance (which is probably going to Midnight Madness) and Rodrigo Prieto's Pedro Páramo.

[yoloswegmaster]

Venice 2024 Lineup

[Never Cursed]

Who'da thought that The Brutalist would run over an hour longer than the latest Wang Bing film?

[yoloswegmaster]

Who'da thought that The Brutalist would run over an hour longer than the latest Wang Bing film?

More importantly, who would have thought that it would be shot on 70mm?

[therewillbeblus]

Or that it would ever come out at all? Please shoot four hours of highly detailed Corbet vibes straight into my veins

[Never Cursed]

Oh wait, glad too to see that Alex Ross Perry's Pavement movie is done

[Roger Ryan]

Oh wait, glad too to see that Alex Ross Perry's Pavement movie is done

Is it actually titled "Pavements" (plural) as indicated in the Indie Wire article or is that a mistake?

[diamonds]

Is it actually titled "Pavements" (plural) as indicated in the Indie Wire article or is that a mistake?

It is actually called Pavements, and in fact it's already been screened for a few critics in some form. There's an interview with Perry about it in Cinema Scope.

[therewillbeblus]

There's an interview with Perry about it in Cinema Scope.

Great interview, thanks for sharing! I love how Perry refers to Kicking and Screaming as "the movie equivalent of Pavement."

[nicolas]

Who'da thought that The Brutalist would run over an hour longer than the latest Wang Bing film?

More importantly, who would have thought that it would be shot on 70mm?

IndieWire clarified that it was shot in VistaVision.

https://www.indiewire.com/features/comm ... 235028754/

[yoloswegmaster]

Who'da thought that The Brutalist would run over an hour longer than the latest Wang Bing film?

More importantly, who would have thought that it would be shot on 70mm?

IndieWire clarified that it was shot in VistaVision.

https://www.indiewire.com/features/comm ... 235028754/

I think you meant to link this article, as the one you linked doesn't mention VistaVision. Anyways, cool that Venice decided to screen a 70mm blowup. Hopefully this isn't a one-time thing and that there are more 70mm screenings planned.

[yoloswegmaster]

Bored and curious users on a rambunctious separate forum Watching the Awards season appear to have accidentally stumbled upon TIFF selections based upon the existence of phantom page addresses entered manually into a web browser. As of right now, the supposed phantom pages redirect directly to the website's 404 page, while films without a corresponding page or junk inputs simply display the 404 message without redirecting. The following titles 404 and thus appear to have phantom pages:

Spoiled for lengthShow

All We Imagine as Light
Anora
The Assessment
Better Man
Bird
Bonjour Tristesse
Bring Them Down
Caught by the Tides
Conclave
Daniela Forever
Emilia Perez
The End
The Fire Inside
The Girl with the Needle
Hard Truths
Harvest
I'm Still Here
The Last Showgirl
Matt and Mara
Megalopolis
Misericordia
Nonnas
Oh Canada
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
On Falling
The Order
Paying For It
The Piano Lesson
Piece by Piece
Really Happy Someday
Relay
The Return
Rumours
Seeds
Sharp Corner
Shook
The Shrouds
They Will Be Dust
Unstoppable
Vermiglio
Without Blood

Many of these (the various Cannes titles and rumored Venice premieres) are hardly surprising, but it is nice to get some kind of confirmation that Joshua Oppenheimer's next is ready. Depending upon how they eventually get listed, surely some will pop up at Telluride as well. Also, who on earth would even want a Bonjour Tristesse remake

More phantom pages have been found, this time for The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Presence, April, Cloud, The Substance, Universal Language, Kill the Jockey, Happy Holidays, Happyend, Diciannove, Edge of Night, By the Stream, and Flow.

They have also changed the designation for Bird from being a North American Premiere to a Canadian Premiere, which means that it will be at Telluride.

[beamish14]

From Darkness to Light, a documentary on The Day the Clown Cried which features unseen footage, is premiering at Venice

[yoloswegmaster]

RaMell Ross’s The Nickel Boys will be opening NYFF, while Steve McQueen's Blitz will be closing it

[yoloswegmaster]

Films in competition at San Sebastian:

Emmauelle （Audrey Diwan）
Bound to Heaven（Xin Huo）
Conclave（Edward Berger）
El hombre que amaba los platos voladores（Diego Lerman）
The Wailing（Pedro Martin-Calero）
El lugar de la otra（Maite Alberdi）
Hard Truths（Mike Leigh）
Serpent's Path（Kiyoshi Kurosawa）
Last Breath（Costa-Gavras）
Glimmers（Pilar Palomero）
On Falling（Laura Carreira）
When Fall Is Coming（Ozon）
I Am Nevenka（Iciar Bollain）
Afternoons of Solitude（Albert Serra）
The End（Joshua Oppenheimer）
The Last Showgirl（Gia Coppola）

[Mr Sausage]

Stuff I saw at this year's Fantasia Film Festival (Hong Kong viewings here), listed in order of preference.

Great:

Steppenwolf (Adilkhan Yerzhanov): The best film I saw at the festival, an homage to The Searchers by way of Mad Max that I'm sure alienated as many viewers as it compelled. It's a horribly violent, beautifully photographed, absurdly humorous road film about a violent former police officer and a mentally challenged/neurodivergent/deeply traumatized woman searching for the woman's lost child in a post-apocalyptic Kazakhstan. Not to be missed. How such brutal wastelands could look so beautiful, I don't know.

Electrophilia (Lucía Puenzo): a woman wakes from a 6-week coma to learn she'd been struck by lightning, indeed marked by the electricity in the form of snaking scars. What follows is a disturbing, erotic, violent journey that usually avoids melodrama or suspense in favour of an floating, almost trancelike atmosphere. For anyone like me who enjoys movies about broken women exploring the edges of their fractured psyches.


Good:

The Silent Planet (Jeffrey St. Jules): a beautifully acted and emotional movie about two prisoners trapped on an empty penal colony on a far away planet, and how they negotiate their loneliness, guilt, and trauma. There is a large amount of world-building for such an intimate movie, all of it necessary context. Also: keep an open mind during the third act. The film appears to stumble before recovering beautifully. This might be Elias Koteas' best performance.

Darkest Miriam (Naomi Jaye): a broken, internalized woman working at a Toronto library has a number of fragmentary experiences that link past and present. It's a fun, sweet, dark romantic comedy told in a somewhat fragmentary style to match the fragmentary novel it was adapted from.

The Chapel (Carlota Pereda): The ghost story plot had a lame resolution, but this is all about the child actress, a brilliant and precocious Maia Zaitegi, and her interactions with the jaded, caustic woman who has to deal with her. A movie where the able horror elements are just trappings for the excellent character writing.

Animalia Paradoxa (Niles Atallah): An experimental, heavily symbolic story of an inexplicable post-apocalyptic world told in a mix of mediums, from live action, to stop motion, to marionettes. The story is not told conventionally; there is little in the way of context to help decipher the strange rituals and behaviours. A must for fans of experimental, demanding cinema, even if the movie doesn't quite sustain its 80 minute run time.


Fine:

The Tenants (Yoon Eun-Gyeong): The ending kinda ruined a very good anti-capitalist allegory. A Korean salaryman on the cusp of being renovicted exploits a loophole that allows him to rent out part of his one-room apartment to other tenants, only to find himself shackled to a pair of weirdos who choose to live in his bathroom. A lot to like here, just without the ambition to give its conceits that extra push they need.

Parvulos (Isaac Ezban): Again, lots to like here, including the goofy humour that'll no doubt put off a lot of viewers but which I thought was welcome and novel. The choice to desaturate the footage nearly to the point of black and white robbed the film of its visual interest, I thought, and while the film did a lot with its premise initially (a South American family living in the aftermath of some disaster has to care for a monster chained in its basement), it eventually tired of its own inventiveness and settled for a conventional third act. Also, the film's reveal will be obvious to anyone paying attention even a little. A somewhat unsatisfying film with a lot going for it.

Cockfighter (Monte Hellman): A screening of a restored print for its 50th anniversary (indeed screened on the exact day of its premiere, 50 years later). Kier-La Janisse was on hand to introduce it, and her passion for this weird movie made me wish I liked it more. I thought it was lax and sloppy. There was plenty of I guess documentary interest in its portrait of this subculture, with its own rules, rituals, and ethos, and the performances were across the board great, especially a Warren Oates who proves he could've been a brilliant silent film actor if needed. But the drifting, unstructured narrative (this is technically a sports movie, tho' you can't tell how or why the winner of the championship manages to be the winner) and endless animal abuse got in the way of my enjoyment.

In Our Blood (Pedro Kos): The gimmick here is that veteran documentary filmmakers have tried their hand at a found footage horror about documentarians. A young woman returns to her hometown to reconnect with her mother, now clean after decades of substance abuse, and chooses to film the return as part of a documentary. Her mother disappears after their first night together, and the woman and her cameraman/boyfriend are drawn into something sinister. The strongest part is the acting, the understanding of the ins and outs of documentary filmmaking, and the location shooting in New Mexico among homeless people and recovering addicts. But the horror elements generate little suspense, and the reveal is incoherent if you think about it.


Bad:

The Beast Within (Alexander J. Farrell): a fellow festival goer had a good summary, to the effect that he expected a good movie with a bad Kit Harrington performance and ended getting the opposite. This is not a good movie. It looks bad, its story is trite, and the filmmakers don't have the skills or sensitivity to pull off using werewolves as a metaphor for abusive relationships. To be avoided.

[beamish14]

That brand new print of Cockfighter is coming to the American Cinematheque this month. Jon Davison, Journalist e Dante, and Roger Corman’s estate have struck new prints of many films produced by Corman in conjunction with the Academy Film Archive

[Mr Sausage]

That brand new print of Cockfighter is coming to the American Cinematheque this month. Jon Davison, Journalist e Dante, and Roger Corman’s estate have struck new prints of many films produced by Corman in conjunction with the Academy Film Archive

The print looked terrific. If you're a fan of this film, don't miss it.

[therewillbeblus]

I think Cockfighter is a particularly challenging film to like, beyond the animal violence, because it’s essentially an anti-character study, or rather one about a delusional man where Hellman restrains himself from cueing the audience in on the sad joke until the end, in some respects. I love it, but I can’t fault anyone for finding fault in it. My thoughts from elsewhere:

Cockfighter: Leave it to Hellman to give us an exceptionally unique character study that's far more complex than its deceptively simple shaggy-dog portrayal. This is partially due to the simplicity that Oates clings to in defining his behavior and identity. The film is at once a sincere depiction of small-time American Dream-chasing, dropping us into a detailed fringe underbelly of southern milieu, and also an observational study of fear-based delusion. Oates' life may be simple, but he hides from vulnerability in the 'sport', staking everything on the chase, and never stalling to really engage with a life that might challenge him. A static lifestyle isn't the enemy because it's going to yield regressive consequences, it's Oates' kryptonite because it will challenge him to sit with himself and others and participate fully. The parameters of the game are unknown, so to fail at that would be an existentially-shattering risk, while it's lower-stakes to get back on the Sisyphean wheel and risk lose your life savings in five seconds. I love how the voiceover cues us into the ruse of his silence-as-stoicism - immediately defining Oates as a rambling, boring man, who is only vapid because he doesn't let himself go deeper, but is vapid nonetheless - rather than a cool guy. A silly superstition determines his behavior, after all, not a life choice perpetuated by motivated self-development.

[Mr Sausage]

Can't argue with anything you said. That's spot on.

More positively, a guy I spoke with after the screening said that he was blown away by Cockfighter despite not liking older movies. He thought it was really something. Again, I wish I could share his enthusiasm.

[beamish14]

Can't argue with anything you said. That's spot on.

More positively, a guy I spoke with after the screening said that he was blown away by Cockfighter despite not liking older movies. He thought it was really something. Again, I wish I could share his enthusiasm.

I’ve never seen it, as I’ve waited years to see a print of it worth screening. I’m a fan of Charles Willeford’s work, with Pick-Up
being not just an incredible noir, but easily one of the best American novels of the 50’s, and its very last line is among the most incredible twists I’ve ever come across

[therewillbeblus]

I’m a fan of Charles Willeford’s work, with Pick-Up
being not just an incredible noir, but easily one of the best American novels of the 50’s, and its very last line is among the most incredible twists I’ve ever come across

Wow, high praise! I just picked up a copy on your rec, surprised it was never adapted

[beamish14]

I’m a fan of Charles Willeford’s work, with Pick-Up
being not just an incredible noir, but easily one of the best American novels of the 50’s, and its very last line is among the most incredible twists I’ve ever come across

Wow, high praise! I just picked up a copy on your rec, surprised it was never adapted

That final line is what makes it impossible to adapt, and I won’t say anymore. I hope you got it as part of those excellent Library of America sets

[therewillbeblus]

I hope you got it as part of those excellent Library of America sets

I got the Dead Authors Society one from Amazon - what’s the difference?