‘The Holdovers’ Telluride Review: Alexander Payne & Paul Giamatti Reunite For a ’70s Nostalgia Dramedy

With Alexander Payne‘s latest “The Holdovers” making the festival rounds before it hits theaters in October, fans of the director wonder what he’ll start work on next. Will it be the long-gestating sequel to his 1999 film “Election,” titled “Tracy Flick Can’t Win“? Payne’s short answer about that project: don’t hold your breath.

Jaden Thompson The Newport Beach Film Festival, which will run from Oct. 12-19 this year, has announced their opening and closing night films. Marco Perego’s “The Absence of Eden,” which stars Zoë Saldana, will open the festival on Oct.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Attentive music fans have had some time now to become familiar with who and what the singer Laufey is: a young Icelandic-Asian-American woman whose traditional balladry often recalls the pre-rock era. Still, for a few of us, it might have come as a very slight surprise to see her step onto the outdoor stage of the Ford in Hollywood over the weekend and be reminded that she is 24 and not 124.

Lise Pedersen LYON, France — Four-time Oscar winner Alfonso Cuarón and “Time Bandits” helmer Terry Gilliam will join a star director-studded lineup at this year’s Lumière Film Festival including Wes Anderson, Alexander Payne and Wim Wenders. Cuarón (“Roma,” “Gravity”) is returning to Lyon – where he was a guest of honor in 2018 – to present a selection of films by Swiss filmmaker Alain Tanner (“Charles Dead or Alive,” “The Salamander,” “Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000”).

The People’s Choice Award from the just-wrapped 2023 Toronto Film Festival has gone to American Fiction . First Runner Up is Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers. Second Runner Up was Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy And The Heron . The Documentary Award went to Mr. Dressup: The Magic Of Make-Believe, ,and the Midnight Madness winner was Dicks: The Musical.

Brent Lang Executive Editor “American Fiction,” Cord Jefferson’s satire of race and media, captured the Toronto International Film Festival’s people’s choice award, bolstering its Oscars chances. TIFF’s people’s choice award is considered to be among the best predictors of eventual awards success, though the 2023 festival hosted a weaker lineup than most years due to the writers and actors strikes that saw some prominent contenders skip a Canadian premiere. In the past, winners of the prize such as “Green Book,” “12 Years a Slave” and “Nomadland” went on to be named best picture at the Academy Awards.

Emily Longeretta Desean Terry, who portrayed former anchor Daniel Henderson on the first two seasons of Apple TV+’s “The Morning Show,” will not be part of Season 3. His contract was not picked up for the latest season of the show, Variety confirms. On Thursday, the actor took to Instagram to share a video after receiving comments and questions about his whereabouts.

the atomic bomb, a revisionist doll and CGI Harrison Ford have gobbled up our attention, for better or worse, but not because any of those varied titles have much heart.Then there’s the “The Holdovers,” directed by Alexander Payne, which is set during frigid Christmastime at a Northeast boarding school that’s nearly empty of students. The lovable dramedy, which just screened at the Toronto International Film Festival, is blanketed in snow and ice — and it’s the warmest cinematic experience you’ll have all year. Running time: 133 minutes.

The Buffy the Vampire Slayer universe is expanding.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic Just when you thought Nicolas Cage’s filmography couldn’t get any weirder, along comes Kristoffer Borgli’s “Dream Scenario” to mess with your head. Cage plays a character you probably wouldn’t notice in real life: Paul Matthews. Schlubby, balding, in wrinkled pants and brown leather loafers, he’s a tenured professor at a university you’ve never heard of, droning on year after year about collective consciousness and the wisdom of the herd.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor With “American Fiction,” Cord Jefferson, best known for penning television episodes of “Succession” and “Watchmen,” helms one of the finest directorial debuts seen since Sam Mendes’ “American Beauty.” In the style that feels like an audacious blend of the screenplays of Alexander Payne’s “Sideways” and Nicole Holofcener’s “Can You Ever Forgive Me,” he shepherds an audacious dramedy anchored by a career-best and Oscar-worthy performance from star Jeffrey Wright. After debuting at the Toronto International Film Festival, it’s a movie that could be a contender for the coveted TIFF Audience Award, and it would be deserved.

Todd Longwell When people discuss busy U.S. production hubs outside of Los Angeles and New York, they tend to namecheck Georgia and New Mexico.

UPDATED with latest: The Toronto Film Festival began September 7 in Ontario with opening-night movie The Boy and the Heron, from Oscar-winning filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki. It kicks off a lineup for the fest’s 48th edition that includes world premieres of GameStop pic Dumb Money, Netflix’s Pain Hustlers, Taika Waititi’s Next Goal Wins, Kristin Scott Thomas’ Scarlett Johansson pic North Star, Chris Pine’s Poolman, Michael Keaton-directed Knox Goes Away, Anna Kendrick’s Woman of the Hour, Atom Egoyan’s Seven Veils, Michael Winterbottom’s Shoshana, Grant Singer’s Reptile, Viggo Mortensen’s The Dead Don’t Hurt, Lee Tamahori’s The Convert and Alex Gibney’s doc In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon.

After a disappointing 2022 edition, the Telluride Film Festival had a major comeback for its 50th Anniversary. Sure, there were only a few actors on hand (including one who was rumored as not supposed to be there), but there was hardly a bad film on the screening slate and a number of world premieres that will dominate critic’s year-end top 10 lists.

Sophia Scorziello editor Virginia’s Middleburg Film Festival, now in its 11th year, is set to open this October with Netflix’s Bayard Rustin biopic “Rustin” starring Colman Domingo. Director George C.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events.

It’s officially September. Summer is winding down, school is starting, and the Fall film festival circuit has kicked off.

UPDATED with latest: The Telliride Film Festival began August 31 with a lineup for the Rockies event’s 50th edition that includes world premieres of Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers (Focus Features), Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn (Amazon) and Free Solo filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s narrative feature Nyad (Netflix).

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Two-time Oscar winner Alexander Payne returns to the big screen with his entertaining and crowd-pleasing film “The Holdovers” which debuted at the Telluride Film Festival on Thursday night, where he was in-person to introduce. With a 1970s aesthetic, a sharp script by David Hemingson, and a trio of exquisite performers, the film feels like the slam-dunk Oscar contender the establishment members of the Academy can get behind. “The Holdovers” reunites Payne with his “Sideways” star Paul Giamatti.

Thank god for Alexander Payne. The filmmaker is, and always have been, a true humanist. A writer/director more interested in human beings, something that has always been the special effect of his movies. A two-time Oscar winning writer, his latest film, The Holdovers, which had its World Premiere Thursday at the Telluride Film Festival, is one of the rare movies in which he doesn’t also have a writing credit. David Hemingson did the screenplay, but the idea, an inspired one, came from Payne, a real film buff who was always intrigued by Marcel Pagnol’s 1935 French film Merlusse about a group of boarding school students stuck over the holidays with a much-despised teacher. The director thought it had the bones for a new story and developed with Hemingson. Still, set in 1970, it is Payne’s first period film after a celebrated career for movies like Sideways, The Descendants, and many others. He has made some contemporary classics, no doubt, but the warm humanity of a trio of people left alone at Christmas in a snowy boarding school, ranks right up there with his very best. It is funny, sad, witty, poignant, filled with snark and heart and great acting. It also manages to be a film set at the holidays that offers something truly new for the genre, and also delightfully not only evokes the period in which it is set, it also purposely looks like a movie made then.