The important directors with new movies at the fall festivals this year are Pedro Almodovar, Jane Campion, Paul Schrader, Denis Villeneuve, Edgar Wright and Paolo Sorrentino … yikes.
Almost every studio is skipping the festivals with movies that should have been big priorities. Suffice to say, it’s going to be another eccentric fall season. Yes, Telluride, Toronto and Venice will have strong content to showcase, but the list of movies not showing up anywhere just keeps getting bigger and the big director names are not showing up.
Just look at who is not going:
Nightmare Alley (Guillermo del Toro)
Soggy Bottom (Paul Thomas Anderson)
West Side Story (Steven Spielberg)
Cry Macho (Clint Eastwood)
Don't Look Up (Adam McKay)
House of Gucci (Ridley Scott)
Being the Ricardos (Aaron Sorkin)
C'mon C'mon (Mike Mills)
Tender Bar (George Clooney)
A Journal for Jordan (Denzel Washington)
We always get some late comers or contenders that would normally skip festivals but not like this. Is it studio hesitation due to the unpredictability of COVID? Maybe. We are inevitably headed towards a fourth wave of the virus and maybe that could delay a few prominent contenders from being released this year. Stay tuned …
Of course, we all know the rule: take these reactions with a grain of salt rather than treating them as gospel. Still, I will say that the film tested like gangbusters earlier this year, and Lionsgate clearly has confidence.