The Best Films at Sundance, Safdie Brothers Drama, & Guest Roger Durling, executive director of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival

New year, same extra value meals at McDonald's. So now get two snack wraps plus fries and a medium soft drink for just $8 for a limited time only. Prices and participation may vary. Prices may be higher in Hawaii, Alaska and California. And for delivery.

0:00

Welcome to Screental, Indiewire's weekly podcast, bringing you up to speed on what's going on in the film industry. I'm Ann Thompson at the last Sundance Film Festival being held in Park City, Utah.

0:21

And I'm Ryan Lattanzio back in New York after covering the first half of Sundance, where, of course, I was for the final edition of Park City. I sound a little froggy at the moment. I think I'm either a little sick or had too much fun at the Sinnetic Party. I don't know. It's some company.

0:31

It was a good one. It always is. That's the best party at Sundance every year. Every. It's Monday night and I have fond memories. It's like a hiccup in the middle where a lot of things have happened. There's a lot of deal making in progress and people relax and enjoy themselves.

0:49

So obviously we're gonna talk about the festival and what we've seen so far. And then we're also gonna look back at some of the awards developments this week, like the BAFTAs. Also, there's a bit of a poison meme that has emerged from the new page six in Hollywood, the California Post. So we're going to talk about that and what it had to say about the Safdie brothers later today. But first, Ann, we had to take a little pause in Sundance to look at the BAFTA nominations. What was your take?

1:07

Well, the BAFTAs are actually really important because they represent, in a way, the 24% of the academy that are international voters, voters, or at least they give us a sign of where things are going. So again, we have one battle after another leading the way with 14 noms. And then you have the sinners coming right behind with 13. And then Hamnet, we knew Hamnet would do well because it's sort of a home team advantage there. And then we have Marty supreme. And this is the same group of films that have been dominating all along. The fact that Guillermo del Toro did not get in is another sign, you know, of Frankenstein not being in that front pack. It's gonna make lots of noise in the crafts, I would suggest. What's your take?

1:36

Well, I noticed that the BAFTAs gave one more nomination to one battle than sinners, so it didn't quite follow in the pattern of The Oscars, these are obviously both American themed movies. So that was definitely interesting and obvious. They went for some of these younger actors at the Academy. Didn't nominate this year.

2:38

Odessa A. Zion got in there.

2:59

Yeah. And Paul Mescal. Actually, Odessa Zion is. She's a bit in the news at the moment because she was cast in a Sean Durkin movie in this movie called Deep Cuts, where the space on a book where the character is half Jewish, half Mexican, and so people on.

3:01

The Internet, she qualifies for half of it.

3:20

Right, Jewish, yes. Not the other half, though. Even despite some of her personal styling may suggest some ambiguity there. That is def. She is not Mexican.

3:22

Well, the part that I thought was sort of too bad was that she said, well, I accepted the part without having read the book. And I was like, ooh, you know, maybe you should do your homework. I guess I. That was my reaction.

3:33

No, that was a bit green of her. I have to say, though, I know actors, you probably get handed things all the time and you have no idea what it is and you just say yes to an audition. But yeah, I think now she's learned her lesson and will approach her next role more thoughtfully. But back to the baftas. Also. We saw Chase Infinity get in there and we did not.

3:46

But this year the baftas are after the Oscars, so it's like, it's really more a question. I mean, that's nice for Paul Mescal. I thought he would get in and it's nice for her. But I also think that in this case, we're kind of looking at where is it going to. How is it going to affect the actual Oscar wins? You know, who's going to get the momentum? And right now, you know, it is interesting to look at those three. All right. The question of what the impact of that Tatiana Siegel story will have is actually in the Oscar story because she writes about, let's do it. Let's just do this. The Josh Safdie movie Good Times and Benny, they did it together. He was apparently behind the camera as the director. And Benny was taking care of the boom mic in a scene with an underage actress, which they did not realize at the time, who was basically confronted with. With a naked man. You know, this guy was like a shady guy that they hired off the street.

4:07

Yeah, the actor.

5:19

Actor.

5:20

Well, he's. He's been in some other Safdie movies. His name is Buddy Duress, but he was. He's kind of a non professional actor at this point with a criminal record, mind you.

5:20

So this was. This was. Do you want to elaborate further on what he actually did in that. In that she freaked her out completely?

5:29

Well, allegedly, he exposed herself, himself to her in this scene. This is a 17 year old actress who's cast to play a prostitute in a scene that involved nudity and sex, with some elements of this allegedly being unsimulated. And she came out of it basically saying she was traumatized. And the incident, or details of the incident resurfaced in 2023, allegedly. And that's when the Safdies were saying, you know, we didn't know she was underage. Whether or not that's true, I don't know. And then the blame was kind of shifted to the producer, Sebastian Bear McClard, who also in 2023, was accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women.

5:40

Uh huh. All right, so this is one of those things. This happens every once in a while where you read a story. Now, Tatiana Siegel is a reputable reporter. She's been at the trades for decades. I know her, I worked with her. I know that she's a good, tough report. But this story is so full of unattributed sources, people who are anonymous, people who are quoted behind the scenes. And a lot of a friend of him has said this and a friend of his said that. Not that many sources, I might add. And then you don't have the two players. And she's making it out that because of this incident, that is the reason that the two brothers became estranged, apparently. Now, I saw them together many times during the awards season, especially at the governor's awards. They seemed friendly enough. I mean, you can always put on a show, but they went their separate ways in terms of directing. So I don't know where this all falls down in terms of what really happened. Did you have the same reaction, Ryan?

6:22

I did. And some of it was a bit of a nothing burger, as they say, to, you know, especially because I think that some of this story has been going around for a couple years and the timing of it makes me feel like it's a studio planted story in some ways or by somebody else.

7:35

You know, it's the timing. It's the timing. It's designed to take down a movie that's coming on strong at this moment. But the impact would be on the directing. But. And I don't actually think that Safdie is going to be, you know, one of the. He's not going to be the winner in the directing race anyway. I don't think.

7:53

No. And I don't know how much of the story is going to penetrate the larger culture? It's actually surprising to me that it was the COVID story of this first edition of California Repose, because I'm not sure a lot of people who read Page Six even know who the safdies are. And, you know, think about this, that. I mean, Ann, you've covered the Oscars for a long time. You've seen smear campaigns in history where these sort of anonymous concerns are leaked to the press or old controversies are resurfaced. A lot of these obviously came in the Weinstein era, you know, not 15 years ago or so. This is not to legitimize these claims, but there was all these sexual harassment allegations against Casey Affleck that resurfaced during voting season.

8:13

He won anyway.

8:53

Yeah. So I think what I'm trying to say is that the timing on these things can appear.

8:55

Yeah. I remember when the Russell Crowe movie that Ron Howard directed, what's it called? Beautiful Mind. Beautiful Mind. I remember when Beautiful Mind had a whole thing going on right around the time that the movie was being voted on. It was a little late and it didn't have any impact. It did well at the Oscars. But the question here, I mean, the one, the most recent campaign, it turned out that these are legitimate concerns, was Emilia Perez, which was poised at this point in time in the Oscar race. It had the most nominations. Carla Garcia Gascon was poised to be the best actress winner. There was a lot going on there. Jacque Diar was in the race. And then the whole thing fell apart. Completely, completely demolished. And Zoe Saldano was the survivor, basically.

8:59

Yeah. These things are often coming out of bad faith, but then they turn out to be legitimate.

9:58

That one was legitimate. Although, you know, why did that. Why did that journalist find these claims when they did? You know, it's an interesting question. Anyway, this happens every year, and I don't know if this is going to have an impact on him or not, but again, I don't think he was planning. I don't think he was about to win Best Director anyway. And I don't think it'll have an impact on any of the other categories, do you?

10:04

No.

10:29

As we've just pointed out in history, these things don't really have an impact other than the one from last year.

10:30

Okay. All right, so then we go to Sundance. Tell me, what's your take on Sundance so far? We were ships passing in the night.

10:36

So between the platform priest greetings and what I saw on the ground, which is probably 20 to 25 movies so far. And I plan to marathon quite a few more over the weekend. And even though there's already been some attrition on the platform with the removal of the film Chasing Summer by Josephine Decker, which I actually gave a rather.

10:46

Tepid review to, you were tough on that film.

11:04

I was, but other people were as well that, you know. Well, let's come back to that one. But I think overall it was one of the weaker lineups in my Sundance experience, unfortunately. But I think the elegiac air in Park City, you know, certainly made it a memorable one because there are a lot of wonderful tributes shared of all the years that the 40 plus years that the festival has been in the city. So that really kind of took over. I think regardless of the quality of some of the movies, there were some major disappointments. A Cathy Yan film called the Gallerist, which was horrible, starring Natalie Portman and Jenna Ortega and Divine Joy Randolph. Really good cast.

11:06

But you didn't like the moment, did you?

11:53

The moment is disappointing also and I think will only be meaningful to fans of Charli xcx, who I don't even necessarily see coming out in theaters to see the movie which opens today as of when this podcast runs on January 30.

11:56

She was supposed to be the it girl cause she had several films. But the one who turned out to be the it woman was Olivia Wilde.

12:11

Olivia Wilde did make a bit of a comeback, as we know. Don't worry, Darling sort of queried with some of her abilities and people were hard on that movie. And there was a lot of tabloid controversy surrounding her. I don't even need to rehash it. But she wrote and directed the Invite, which won by a 24 in a huge bidding war, which is a movie about. Starring Seth Rogen, Olivia Wilde herself, Penelope Cruz and Edward Norton as two couples that are gearing up to possibly engage in a foursome. And as a gay man who understands the ins and outs of polyamory to.

12:21

A degree, as it were.

13:03

I found this movie to be rather basic, but I think it'll play well for the audience. That this movie is for is probably Gen Xers and maybe even some, some, some boomers. I think it will be meaningful to them. The question is, do these people go out and go to the theater and merit the eight figure spend that a 24?

13:05

This is a 10 million plus buy. And just about every single distributor was in the mix reportedly, which is nice to see. I mean, they all got in there. They were all trying to get the movie and a 24 prevailed, but they had to pay. They had to cough up. And that's a lot of money for a little movie. But that's the movie that came out of the festival with the biggest imprimatur. It just had the most buzz of anything.

13:26

So the other Olivia Wilde movie was that she starred in Greg Araki's I Want yout Sex, which is a return to form for the director, who has not made a feature since 2014's White Bird in a Blizzard, though he's directed a lot of TV since then. This movie stars an excellent Cooper Hoffman as an assistant at a gallery where Olivia Wilde is the gallerist and engages in a somewhat predatory BDSM relationship with him, where she is the dom and he is the sub, and the two actors are just great together. The movie itself, it's a little cheaper looking and cheaper feeling, I think, than some of my favorite beloved Iraqi movies. But those actors have great chemistry and everybody loved her performance.

13:57

Can't wait. Can't wait to see these. I get terrible FOMO when I'm not there. It's a terrible feeling to read every Sundance review, and then you have your studio and your interviews and everybody else has theirs, and it's just. But I'm here now. I'm here now, and I'm having fun. Josephine is the next movie. It's Beth G. Araujo, and she's already directed before. This is not her first feature, but I watched this one on the Portal. The press gets to watch things on the Portal a day early. This is a very good movie. This is a very strong drama, and I was very caught up in it and very upset by it because it's not an obvious situation where somebody's bad and somebody's good. It's a family where everybody's intentions are good, but they're not looking after their little girl. So the little girl, 8 years old, witnesses by happenstance a rape in the park. And it's horrible and violent, and she knows it. She absolutely recognizes that. And eventually she emerges from behind a tree and the guy runs off and the police. Her father finds her, and the police come, and the father has played very, very well, I think. I think it's one of his best performances by Channing Tatum. The mother is Gemma Chan, who's also very good. And the dynamics of the family play very accurately, I think. And the little girl is acting out. She's upset. They don't know what to do to help her. And the father's a rather authoritarian guy. It's fascinating. I was very taken with it. What about you, Ryan?

14:41

Yeah, I love this movie. That screening that I was in at the echoes for this movie, people were dead silent. That movie totally had everyone in the palm of its hand. It's extremely upsetting. It's almost like a horror movie. This filmmaker really, I think, uses a number of horror trumps. I mean, there's even horror tropes. There's even kind of jump scares and hallucinatory moments in it.

16:31

Well, she's got the guy sort of in her. Yeah. She sees the little girl, sees the rapist. He's in her room, he's in her house, he's on the street. It's very disturbing.

16:55

Yeah. He's played by Phil Ettinger and it's a totally non verbal performance and he's just sort of there as this looming, horrifying presence. Yeah. This is a great movie. And I am predicting it's going to win, if not the grand jury prize, I think the grand jury prize and maybe another award or at least direct or something. It's going to win a significant award. And I. There hasn't been a sale announced yet, but I know that a number of people are looking at it.

17:06

So as of Friday, the awards will be announced Friday morning and so we'll know what they are. And then Friday brings also a day of remembrance where, you know, I've been enjoying also the way you have all these tributes and people on Facebook and I know you're not on Facebook, but the boomers are on Facebook and everybody from my generation who's been attending Sundance for years, they're all sharing their remembrances. And so I'm gonna participate in this thing tomorrow and see what I come up with to commemorate the festival. It is a sad. Everybody seems to be on the same page, though. There's something sad about it. And even the town, there's no snow, right. So it's like it's just gotten cold enough so that they can make snow. It's interesting that they, you know, I think the town is like, oh, maybe we made a mistake here.

17:30

Yeah.

18:35

Because when there's no snow, the festival keeps the coffers flowing. But anyway, the festival had no control over all the locals and how much they were gouging the attendees. And so now it's time for Boulder and everybody's ready. Everybody is on. You know, I can feel it that it's. It's onward to Boulder. And that's a good thing. Now, what other movies did you like?

18:37

The other movies That I like. There is one movie that Neon bought called Leviticus that. It's not a perfect film, but the emotions that it elicits are there. It is a queer horror movie out of Australia. It's probably Mia Vasikowska is in it. We never. We hardly ever see her anymore.

19:04

I haven't seen her in a while.

19:18

Yeah, she doesn't do Hollywood anymore. She's. She only does movies in Australia or that are an Australian production for a number of reasons. And this is about two young boys that are subjected to a conversion therapy cult that basically makes it so that they are stalked by an apparition of the. The person that they desire the most. And in this case, it's each other. So it's almost like a gay version of it follows and it's very moving, it's very exciting, and whatever this director does next I think will be really great.

19:19

Well, one movie we both saw was a follow up to the Fire of Love, which was a Saradosa documentary about these two obsessed volcanologists who chased volcanoes and eventually met their death at the hand of one volcano. A great movie that Nat Geo bought in 2022. So this year she came to the festival with Time and Water about a dying glacier in Iceland. And she used a similar narrative technique, this time. The scientist. No, the poet activist, Andre Magnussen. And he's a very effective narrator and he's talking about his own family. He had archives of his grandparents on various glacier back in the day when they were just huge expanses that were going to go on forever and no one ever thought in terms of anything bad happening. So this is about the first little glacier to die. And I found the movie very effective. How about you, Ryan?

19:58

This movie for me was sort of beautiful collage to experience, but I felt that there was too much poetic extrapolation between the story of the grandparents and the story of the glaciers. This idea that he held a funeral for a dying glacier, I thought was such a beautiful central metaphor and a place, a launchpad from which to make his explorations. But I was more invested in the natural beauty aspects of the documentary than who I didn't understand really who the grandparents were or why I needed to care about them quite as much. Whereas in Fire of Love I felt like I really understood this romance, that the movie really burrowed you inside. I don't know that this movie quite succeeds on that level of emotion, but the use of music, the editing, the cinematography, those elements are all very beautiful. So it was certainly a transportive, a beautiful experience.

21:03

And Nat Geo has it again, so it will be shown and I think it's likely to be one of the Oscar contenders at the end of the day. So what happens at Sundance? I know you said it was a tough Sundance, but the truth of the matter is Every year there's five or 10 movies, five docs, five narratives that really emerge. It isn't a big number and very few movies get distributed. So this is typical, as far as I can tell from the outside. But we shall see. All right, I want to introduce our special guest, Roger Durling, the director of the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. We've had him on the cast before and stay tuned and we'll learn what they're up to. You thank this year. Hi, Roger.

21:53

Morning.

22:43

Hello, Roger.

22:44

So, Roger, bring us up to speed on what this year's Santa Barbara International Film Festival is going to bring us. I always look forward to all the tributes and the award galas that you have. Maybe we could start there.

22:46

Well, the biggest thing is that we just, you know, we acquired a year ago a multiplex in downtown Santa Barbara. And in time for the festival, we are opening the Film center and we spend $21 million. And the grand opening is next week to coincide. And we're gonna run, and we're gonna run a year round, you know, like an art house, like the Film Forum in New York City. And we're going to program nonstop throughout the year, showing independent cinemas, foreign film retrospectives, documentaries, family programming, and the festival will take place in this venue as well.

23:02

Are you still going to use the other venues?

23:47

Arlington? Of course. I mean, because this, I mean, the arlington is a 2000 seater. And for the big events, like you hosting stellan skarsgrd 2000 is the right venue for. Yeah, we're actually almost all the events are sold out.

23:49

Well, the point is that you've built sort of like Toronto. You've built a cinephile community. So you actually have a group of people who are probably gonna go to that theater.

24:11

Correct? Yeah, year round and you know, we already have one. I don't think you've ever been to it. We have in Montecito, we have a one screen art house. It's called the Riviera Theater. And we run that year round. And it definitely taught us that we can, in this community, we can have a very healthy art house throughout the year. But, you know, we still need the other venues like the Arlington, which, you know, you'll be hosting the writers panel there and you'll also be doing the honors with Stellan Skarston.

24:23

I am looking forward to that. He is, he is. I've been watching all of his red carpet and his different interviews and everything. He's a hoot. He's a hoot. He's really something. But he also gave one of the great performances of the year and in Sentimental Value.

24:59

Absolutely. But, you know, I'm, I'm pretty sure you guys have been talking about this. It's interesting that Delroy Lindo is now nominated and we did him.

25:16

I interviewed Delroy Lindo at your festival.

25:28

Correct. But this year, you know, you have two 70 year old actors that are, you know, deserving. They both have such a lengthy career and Delroy is writing, you know, on 16 nominations for sinners. It'll be really interesting what happens.

25:32

I couldn't agree more. Ryan, you got any questions?

25:51

No. Well, I, you know, obviously, Roger, the festival, a lot of its function is as a sort of retrospective of the year's Oscar contenders and you bring a lot of them in person to Santa Barbara for these conversations that we're talking about. But I'm curious to know what are some of these standout films, whether world premieres or other movies that are making their way to the festival that aren't part of this section of it and, you know, films that you might recommend that people check out. I know that maybe you don't want to single out one of your, you know, darlings over the other, but I'm sure that there's a few that come to mind.

25:56

Well, there must be an opening nighter too.

26:29

Yeah, well, the opening night film, super proud of, it's called Mosquito in the Year. It was based on a graphic novel and, and it's about a young couple, that American couple that goes to India to adopt a young girl. It's, it's very timely about cultures and about actually being open to, to immigrants and yeah, it's, it's a really, really, really powerful film. Yeah. So I'm looking forward to that. We have the US Premiere of Julian Schnabel's film In the Hand of Dante, which, yeah, he'll be with us and we're doing a retrospective of all of his films.

26:31

And good luck, Roger.

27:17

I actually, I remember that movie, Roger. I don't know if you saw my review of them.

27:19

Yes, yes. He, you know, he shoots. I mean, the film, it's not for everybody. It's, it's very ambitious. I actually have seen so several versions of it and there's parts of it that I, I'm really into. Yeah, I Agree that the film is troublesome, but it's. It. Give him credits for the ambition.

27:24

Sure, sure.

27:49

Yeah.

27:51

Yeah. So, yeah, he was. But he was on my. He was on my plane after Venice. Not that he knows who I am, but I was in line right behind him and I was like, oh, I don't want him to see me after I wrote that review.

27:51

Yeah, he's just sweet. He's actually a very nice guy.

28:03

He can be, but I've had my. I did a panel once with him for the Diving Bell and the Butterfly where he was drunk.

28:07

Oh, my goodness.

28:17

He was not pleasant. That was not a good.

28:18

He doesn't suffer fools. And, yeah, I've had. I mean, my. My. Funny enough, it was Diving Bell. My first ever encounter with him was not easy, but ever since, we're. We're. We. We get along great. He's a. He's a good friend. So. So I. Yeah, I don't want to talk too much about the other films because I do get dinged about singling films out, but the opening, it's really terrific and. No, excited. Excited about it.

28:22

And you've got some amazing people. You finally. I mean, you've got Guillermo del Toro on my writing panel. I'm really delighted. Yes, that'll be good. Yeah, I'm excited.

28:54

And then. And I have the five. I do the best international features panel, and I have the five nominees locked. And we're working on directors. We have one holdout that we should be hearing soon.

29:03

Pta, I'm sure.

29:18

Yes, yes. Bingo. That's a bingo. But, yeah, the writers. And then this year we're launching a casting directors panel, which. Yeah. Next year we may have to do a stunt.

29:20

No, that's not happening. That's not happening.

29:35

Who are you bringing out for the casting directors panel? Oh, good. Because I recently hung out with Gabriel Dominguez for the Secret Agent, and I really like that guy. He was in New York a couple weeks ago.

29:38

That's a big deal that the Secret Agent got on that. That was nominated for casting. That's a sign of strength. A lot of people are debating. Roger, I'm curious what you think. Because Sentimental Value got nine nominations, Oscar nominations, more than any of the other international films. People think that's a lock for best international Oscar. But Secret Agent has Wagner Mora. It has a lot of.

29:49

It has screenplay.

30:16

Yeah.

30:17

Doesn't it have screenplay and it has casting.

30:17

Yeah.

30:19

And best of Best Best Picture as well. Yeah, no, it'll be. It'll be interesting. I actually think that. Do not Underestimate the secret Agent.

30:20

Exactly.

30:31

I have it on my ballot. I has a secret agent having the upper hand. Those Brazilians. Those Brazilians there. I don't know if you encountered them last year. They're. They're vociferous, very passionate.

30:31

It's true. Well, the whole. I would think that the whole South American contingent would go for the secret agent.

30:47

It's crazy that two years in a row we have two best pictures from Brazil and two leading actors from Brazil.

30:56

Well, there's a block. There is a block of voters from that part of the world. So what are your other big star people showing up for the tributes?

31:04

Well, we just sent out Ethan Hawke and we have Kate Hudson and we have the Triumvirate from one bottle after another. We have Leo and Sean and Benicio. One reading for them. We have Michael B. Jordan with sinners and my goodness, you name it.

31:15

Any sign of Timothee Chalamet?

31:39

No, no, no sign of him. But Jessie Buckley will be doing she's coming for a screening of Hammond and doing a Q A. Delroy Lindo's coming.

31:42

Have you had Timothee Chalamet before?

31:54

Yeah, we did last year and we also.

31:57

He also came to honor Tricia Rounan the year that I did her. He came and presented to her.

31:59

That's right. And he was also under Virtuoso's as well. The year of call me by your name. So he's been. He's been coming. He's been coming. He was honored last year, Ryan. Big tribute that Josh Brolin hosted. So. No, that's all right. No, yeah, and there'll be others. I mean, Jerry Bruckheimer is coming with F1. We're doing a Q and A with him.

32:06

And you've got Adam Sandler.

32:35

And we got Adam Sandler. Yeah. Then Dustin Huffman will be presenting the award to Adam.

32:37

Well, I'm glad he's getting a moment. It's too bad that he didn't end up with a nomination, but his time will come.

32:44

His time will come. And this is a salute to everything he's done up until now, which is very vast.

32:51

I mean, I think there's other movies even before Jay Kelly that he was deserving of a nomination of even more.

32:59

So Punch Drunk Love.

33:05

Punch Drunk Love. Yes.

33:08

I teach at the local college here and every semester I show Punch Drunk and the performance is phenomenal. It's really heartfelt and only an actor like him could pull off Punch Drunk. Yeah, it's really an uncut gems. He's Terrific. And. And Hustle also. I don't know if. I mean, you guys remember Hustle. It was a wonderful performance, but his time will come. His time will come. And I love that he is conscious about. I mean, look at the directors he's worked with. Noah Baumbach and Paul Thomas Anderson and the Safdie Brothers. I mean, he's. He's. He's a. He's a great performer, and he's where he. That deserves a big tribute, you know, saluting everything he's done up. Up until now.

33:09

So what are your virtuosos? That's always one of my favorite virtuosos.

34:06

We got Jacob Elordi and Frankenstein. We got Chase Infinity, One bottle after Another, Tiana Taylor. We got Amy Mad Again.

34:10

Oh, that's going to be a hot panel. Those are all people who are willing to say whatever they want. Right?

34:21

Well, and Amy does. Yeah, Wumi is also part of that. Inga. So, no, it's going to be a fun. That's always a fun night. That's always, you know, and they all get an individual moment, about 10 minutes with Dave Karger, and then they all come out together. And that's actually where the fun begins because Dave always gets them to do something fun, like, you know, sing or do something. Yeah.

34:27

Sydney Sweeney is on there, too.

34:58

Sydney Sweeney. How could I thank you for reminding.

35:00

How could you.

35:03

Yeah. That she didn't get nominated. But people are asking me, is she gonna show up? And she's bought a. She's bringing. She got a lot of friends here in Santa Barbara, so she personally bought a lot of tickets for the evening. So she's coming. She's coming off of it.

35:04

She's coming off of a really big hit. My God, the housemaid was such a shocker.

35:20

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what are you guys predicting is going to be Best Picture? Where are you guys at right now?

35:26

Where do you think? I mean, we're.

35:34

One battle is the leader still, but there's a possibility. There's a possibility that Ryan Coogler could win director. That is my. I wonder. I wonder if that could happen. For all sorts of reasons.

35:36

I think that Sinners is gonna win, but PTA might get the director and split.

35:54

They could split it either way. Yeah. I think one battle wins picture. And I'll tell you why. Sinners is still a horror movie. That's good. I think the Academy does get concerned about, like, the substance. Got lots of nominations, but only one makeup, that kind of thing. They do have a sense of what's Appropriate, I think still no.

36:01

And there's definitely been some efforts to try and control the narrative around Sinners to make it seem less like a horror movie somehow, almost like baiting and switching people to get into the movie. But it's undeniably a genre movie.

36:26

You're right.

36:38

Well.

36:40

It'S rebelling against genres, the film. And that's actually, to me, the beauty of what Ryan Coogler's done with the film.

36:44

It was my number one movie of the year.

36:53

I still think that I've encountered so many Academy members that are so passionate about it, that are really rabid about it. I, you know, I, I mentioned I teach and I, I, I'm teaching it this week. And for the first hour, there is no, there's no horror. It's, it's till the later half. And by then you're so mesmerized by everything that's happening. The narrative, I think the narrative is so strong. The subject matter about appropriation and about, you know, slavery and, and the, the trauma that we're still dealing with after the, the antebellum period. It's a, it's a landmark film, and so is one battle after. Well, you know, I'm, I'm still going to be happy with who with either of those films. I'm, I'm definitely excited about seeing if Sinners actually pulls it through. And Brian Coogler, the narrative of being the first African American director, that's what.

36:56

We'Re talking about here. That's why I think that has a shot at happening. It's shocking because every year, every time it's the same. It's, oh, they're going to get a screenplay when, you know, that's what happens. Settle for screen.

38:07

But we've never had a, we've never had a director. African American director. Win Best Picture. I mean, one Best Director. It'll be interesting. Secret Agent and Sentimental Value and Best International Feature and Best Picture. All the other categories are pretty, Are pretty.

38:23

Yeah, I think we know what's going on. Yeah.

38:45

You know, with Timothy and Jesse Buckley. And where are you guys at with Best Supporting? Tiana?

38:48

Yeah.

38:57

Yeah, I think so.

38:58

Pretty clear.

39:00

Though. I think that, I still think Jacob Elordi can pull it out, but. And quibbles with that.

39:03

I think he gets a nomination. That's a win for him. He's a young guy.

39:09

Yeah. I actually think that Delroy Maine, if we are going to see a Sinners, a Best Picture, remember that always an actor or actress, you know, a performer gets swept into It. If you're going to see a sinner's surge towards Best Picture, Delroy might be the person that gets carried along.

39:13

Yeah, yeah.

39:39

Because, I mean, he. It is a phenomenal performance, and he's overdue and. And he should have been nominated before.

39:40

For the Five Bloods.

39:49

Yeah, yeah. And he's out there. He's out there. Ever since he got nominated, he's out there. It's powerful. That. That speech that he gives about the lynching in the car is. It's haunting. It's. It's incredible. So. So that. And I think I'm still. I'm still thinking that Amy might pull it. Poland, you know, her narrative, 40 years in between her two nominations, It's a pretty strong narrative.

39:51

And it's fun to see her getting hired for other movies now. You know, she's back in the game. Yeah, it's wonderful.

40:26

And don't you want to see Ed Harris applauding his wife applauding and crying as she gets the award?

40:33

I do.

40:41

Yeah.

40:42

Because we're.

40:43

I think we're so used to an image of those two not applauding at the office.

40:43

That's right.

40:47

Or turning their back, sitting on their hands.

40:50

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

40:54

Exactly. Yeah.

40:58

Yeah. Well.

41:00

Well, Roger, thank you for coming on again. We love you.

41:01

Kidding me? I. I love. I finally get to chat with Ryan. Last year, remember? It was just you and I and.

41:04

Sorry.

41:12

I don't know what happened, but it wasn't personal.

41:12

I mean, you were at Sundance.

41:15

You were busy.

41:16

Yeah. I won't hold it against you. I.

41:17

Thank you.

41:20

I'm a big fan of the two of you. I. Listen.

41:21

Thanks, Roger.

41:24

All the time.

41:24

Thanks, Roger.

41:25

And I'll be seeing Ann in. In.

41:26

In person.

41:29

A week. Yeah, in no time.

41:30

Twice.

41:32

Because you going to be doing Stellan Skarsgard and the writer's panel.

41:33

Yeah. You're going to get sick of me, but I'm looking forward to it. And I'll see you soon. All right.

41:37

Excellent. Thank you so much for having me. Ciao.

41:43

Bye. Bye.

41:46