The first big film festival, Telluride, has opened. There’s already Oscar buzz and great reviews for Alexander Payne’s “Downsizing” with Matt Damon, and Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape of Water” with Sally Hawkins. “Dunkirk” was getting lonely sitting by itself on Oscar lists. Here’s the Telluride rundown. The big festival, Toronto, starts in one week.

• ARTHUR MILLER: WRITER (d. Rebecca Miller, U.S., 2017)
• BATTLE OF THE SEXES (d. Valerie Faris, Jonathan Dayton, U.S., 2017)
• DARKEST HOUR (d. Joe Wright, U.K., 2017)
• DOWNSIZING (d. Alexander Payne, U.S., 2017)
• EATING ANIMALS (d. Christopher Quinn, U.S., 2017)
• FACES PLACES (d. Agnes Varda, JR, France, 2017)
• A FANTASTIC WOMAN (d. Sebastián Lelio, Chile-U.S.-Germany-Spain, 2017)
• FILM STARS DON’T DIE IN LIVERPOOL (d. Paul McGuigan, U.K., 2017)
• FIRST REFORMED (d. Paul Schrader, U.S., 2017)
• FIRST THEY KILLED MY FATHER (d. Angelina Jolie, U.S.-Cambodia, 2017)
• FOXTROT (d. Samuel Maoz, Israel, 2017)
• HOSTAGES (d. Rezo Gigineishvili, Georgia-Russia-Poland, 2017)
• HOSTILES (d. Scott Cooper, U.S., 2017)
• HUMAN FLOW (d. Ai Weiwei, U.S.-Germany, 2017)
• THE INSULT (d. Ziad Doueiri, France-Lebanon, 2017)
• LADY BIRD (d. Greta Gerwig, U.S., 2017)
• LAND OF THE FREE (d. Camilla Magid, Denmark-Finland, 2017)
• LEAN ON PETE (d. Andrew Haigh, U.K.-U.S., 2017)
• LOVELESS (d. Andrey Zvyagintsev, Russia-France-Belgium-Germany, 2017)
• LOVE, CECIL (d. Lisa Immordino Vreeland, U.S., 2017)
• LOVING VINCENT (d. Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman, U.K.-Poland, 2017)
• A MAN OF INTEGRITY (d. Mohammad Rasoulof, Iran, 2017)
• THE OTHER SIDE OF HOPE (d. Aki Kaurismäki, Finland, 2017)
• THE RIDER (d. Chloé Zhao, U.S., 2017)
• THE SHAPE OF WATER (d. Guillermo del Toro, U.S., 2017)
• TESNOTA (d. Kantemir Balagov, Russia, 2017)
• THE VENERABLE W. (d. Barbet Schroeder, France-Switzerland, 2017)
• THE VIETNAM WAR (d. Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, U.S., 2017)
• WORMWOOD (d. Errol Morris, U.S., 2017)
• WONDERSTRUCK (d. Todd Haynes, U.S., 2017)

Uh oh.

After such a great year this past year with making the Academy more multicultural, trouble is on the horizon.

There are few potential black nominees for the Oscars. Very few. This is quite a snap back to reality after last season was such a success broadening out the Oscars. “Moonlight” won Best Picture, and the two supporting actors were black– Viola Davis and Mahershala Ali.

Denzel Washington has potential as the title character in “Roman Israel,” directed by Dan Gilroy. Octavia Spencer is always compelling, so her part in “The Shape of Water” could bring her back into the game. Washington and Spencer are past Oscar winners.

Otherwise, things look dim.

The thee big “black” movies have come out already: “Detroit,” “Get Out” and “Girl Trip.” “Detroit” scored nearly all rave reviews, but audiences didn’t see it. Kathryn Bigelow’s important feature could come back, but it might be an uphill battle.

“Get Out” and “Girls Trip” were terrific, but the first was a horror film and the second was a comedy. They’re just no Oscar material despite their big box office returns.

Only the indie, “Mudbound,” which has a black female director– Dee Rees– might come through. But the main actors in it are all white. The black actors, save for Jason Mitchell, have supporting roles. Mitchell is also featured in “Detroit.” This week he had a meltdown on a Delta flight that made it to TMZ. It’s unclear if that would affect his chances at awards (I should hope it wouldn’t– he was in the right.)

Combing through all the Oscar-level releases of 1017, including “Dunkirk,” it sure looks like another white out. Even a movie like “Murder on the Orient Express,” which could have been cast with people of any color, is basically a snow storm. The only black actor in it is Leslie Odom, Jr., and his part doesn’t seem particularly large.

But unless there’s some major surprise at one of the imminent film festivals, the situation for this coming awards season appears to be dire.

Tom Cruise’s new movie had what you could only call a soft opening this weekend. “American Made” hasn’t been released in America yet– and won’t be for another month.

Around the world, though, “American Made” was met with limited enthusiasm. Its best showing was in Australia, where it scored $1.7 million on 359 screens.  In the UK, it took $1.4 million. In New Zealand they picked up $160,000 on 76 screens.

Other countries include Lithuania, Romania, Slovenia and Norway. In the latter, “American Made” was like a lox with $200,000.

“American Made” won’t be helping the US box office when it’s released if other countries are a foreshadowing. In Australia, the box office dropped 10% from the prior week, for example.

Even the cheapest Tom Cruise costs $150 million, with Tom getting $20 million first dollar back. So the road ahead is long. More countries this weekend, and then more the next and the next until it’s given United Nations status as its own state.

“American Made” opens in America on September 29th.