Telluride – A Preview of “The Show”

Diverse as always, the Telluride Film Festival presents its usual eclectic mix of standout films, foreign gems, and old classics.

Documentaries look to have a major focus this year in Telluride. Martin Scorsese and Kent Jones will be premiering A Letter to Elia, a full-length documentary about the late Elia Kazan. Errol Morris and Ken Burns will also be premiering their documentaries, Tabloid and The 10th Inning. Tabloid is about a former Miss Wyoming that abducts and imprisons a Mormon Missionary, and The 10th Inning is a follow up to Ken Burns’ famous Baseball miniseries. Werner Herzog will also be present for his documentary about the indigenous people of the village Bakhtia at the river Yenisei in the Siberian Taiga. To round it up, the Cannes favorite, Inside Job, will also be making its U.S. premiere.

Peter Weir and Colin Firth are two stars that will be receiving the Silver Medallion awards at the Telluride Film Festival. Previous recipients were Viggo Mortenson, Daniel-Day Lewis, and David Fincher. Both stars will be premiering their new films, The Way Back and The Kings Speech. Stephen Frears and Mark Romanek will be giving world premieres of their films as well.

Danny Boyle is also in town, so its likely that his 127 Hours will be a surprise showing later in the week. There will also be a few more along the way. Will Black Swan make its U.S. premiere in Telluride? Time will tell.

Another Year, Biutiful, The Illusionist, Poetry, and Never Let Met Go will also be making U.S. premieres.

This is just a taste of what is to come for Telluride, and not even touching on guest director Michael Ondaatje’s choices, or the Backlot premieres that are movies that take place behind-the-scenes or focus solely on artists and performers.

By the end of this Labor Day Weekend, there will likely be a few answers to who may be getting nominated for an Academy Award. As for myself, I am looking forward to The Illusionist and Olivier Assayas’ Carlos.

A full list of premieres and screenings can be found at http://telluridefilmfestival.com/.

-Eric Bialas