Telluride Film Festival

 

     

 

 

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  Telluride Film Festival Lodging Book Here

2010 Telluride Film Festival Program Guide click here

2008 Telluride Film Festival Program Guide click here

2007 TBA Below (click here)

A wide range of accommodations is available in the town of Telluride and nearby

Mountain Village. Telluride's downtown lodging facilities are conveniently located

within easy walking distance of most Festival sites and lodgers in Mountain Village

can easily access Festival sites via the free gondola. Acme Passholders may wish

to obtain accommodations in the Mountain Village, where Chuck Jones’ Cinema

is located.

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As flights into the Telluride area  are limited, attendees are strongly urged to

immediately contact Telluride Central Reservations, the Festival's travel partner,

to arrange transportation. They have  access to flights unavailable elsewhere, including

charter flights from Los Angeles and Denver. Contact Telluride Central Reservations

via e-mail to make a reservation request.

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“The most exclusive film festival of all is Telluride. Why? Because it is the most

ifficult to get to, it doesn’t announce its program in advance, it charges the press

for a pass and it has as its guests some of the best filmmakers in the world. It’s one

of the friendliest and most democratic, as if the least important attendees were just

as consequential as the most distinguished.”

– Derek Malcolm, The Guardian (London)

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“The Telluride Film Festival is widely regarded as the Tiffany of the world’s filmfestivals. 

Telluride each year draws devoted movie lovers from all over the world to this

beautiful Colorado mountain town.”

– John Hartyl, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

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“Of all the film events I’ve attended, Telluride comes closest to being a real

people’s film festival.”


– David Sterrit, Christian Science Monitor

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Steven Winn: "Telluride a major player in film festival circuit"

Courtesy of SF Gate.com       Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Thirty-three years ago, when Bay Area film polymath Tom Luddy and some colleagues decided to launch a Labor Day

weekend festival in the remote Rocky Mountain town of Telluride, Colo., a lot of people must have wondered what they were thinking.

ilm festivals were a relative rarity back then, as opposed to the seemingly limitless growth industry they have since become. Almost

all of them took place in major cities - Berlin, Venice, New York, San Francisco. Cannes, a resort town on the French Riviera, was the

geographical exception that proved the rule.

Today, riding a recent wave of high-profile U.S. and world premieres, the Telluride Film Festival is a major destination and

closely watched cinematic barometer. In 2004, "Hotel Rwanda," "Ray" and "Kinsey" opened at Telluride. In 2005, it was "Brokeback

Mountain," "Capote" and "Walk the Line." Last year's lineup included "The Lives of Others," "The Last King of Scotland," "Babel"

and "Little Children."

Gary Meyer, the Landmark Theatres co-founder who now co-directs the Telluride Festival with Luddy, believes there are at least

two foreign-language films on this year's bill that "will make a lot of noise on 10-best lists and during the awards season." What

Meyer couldn't do was name those or any other films that will be screened. It's a time-honored tradition that the program at Telluride

remain a closely guarded secret. The identity of the 22 feature films scheduled for this year's festival, which opens Friday and

continues through Labor Day, are embargoed until Thursday afternoon.

The Telluride Film Festival is, in many ways, an anomaly, a proudly independent operation that goes its own way, relies on

reputation to attract visitors to its pricey and out-of-the-way venue and routinely sells out. But it also offers a perspective

n the current festival-driven film world, the competitive and sometimes courtly behaviors it produces, and some effects of the

mind-boggling number of films that festival programmers and attendees see.

Luddy, Meyer and this year's guest director, film scholar and archivist Edith R. Kramer, discussed their work over lunch in

erkeley one sunny day. None of them looked as if they had been spending much time outdoors.

Meyer began with a nostalgic lament for the days when submissions were received on videotape rather than DVD, the

form in which most of the 500 or so unsolicited entries now arrive. "At least I could record 'The Sopranos' over them," he said

of the rejected tapes. "About all you can do with a DVD is use it as a coaster."

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Humor may be essential for the sanity of any film festival programmer. While many of the Telluride aspirants are weeded

out by a team of screeners, the directors log plenty of screen time with unknowns, hoping for an exciting, out

of-the-blue discovery.

That's not the only or even the primary way they scout for films. Much of the work of putting together a festival is done at

other festivals. Luddy attended the Berlin Film Festival this year. He and Meyer were both at Cannes.

Luddy is a seasoned connoisseur of festival serendipity, which can cut both ways. Last year, for example, "The Lives of

Others" fell into Telluride's lap after both the Berlin and Cannes festivals passed on the highly praised story of a

Stasi surveillance operation.

"We were the first festival to show it," said Luddy. That happened because the Berlin directors, who are often criticized for

not showing enough German films, already had four of them in place when they saw 'Lives.' They decided, apparently fo

 reasons of balance, that they couldn't add another German film. "The rumor is that Cannes passed on it because Berlin

turned it down," added Luddy with a bemused smile. The film went on to win the Oscar for best foreign film.

"The Boys of St. Vincent," a Canadian docudrama about priests molesting orphan boys, came to Telluride in 1992 under

comparable circumstances. The home-country Toronto International Film Festival never even considered "Boys" because it

was originally made for TV, not the big screen. It was added to the Toronto program as an "extra" at the last minute,

after the premiere created a stir in Colorado.

"It's very strange what goes on among people who run festivals," noted Kramer. "There is this pleasure of getting a film that

someone else has passed on. On the other hand, you start to mistrust films when certain colleagues turn them down."

Competition and insecurity aren't the only factors. Inter-festival politics and politesse scuttled hoped-for screenings of "The

Queen" (paired with a Helen Mirren tribute) and "Pan's Labyrinth" at Telluride. When Stephen Frears' film about Queen

Elizabeth and Princess Diana was selected to open the glossy New York Film Festival, Luddy backed off. "There's this

understanding that we're not going to make trouble," he said. "Pan's Labyrinth" got away because the director, Guillermo

del Toro, was a Venice International Film Festival juror. He couldn't get away from Venice in time to make it to Telluride,

and he couldn't bear the idea of his film premiering in Colorado when he was still in Italy.

Venice (today-Sept. 8), Toronto (Sept. 6-15) and Telluride (Friday-Monday) all crowd each other on the increasingly

crammed international film festival calendar. The clamor for attention is now almost constant. In the Bay Area, for

alphabetical starters, there are festivals devoted to American Indian, Arab, Armenian and Asian American film. June

brings the Queer Women of Color Film Festival. July offers the San Francisco Sex Worker Film and Arts Festival. The

call for entries is now out for next year's San Francisco Ocean Film Festival. Any director without a film festival credit

of one kind or another must not be trying very hard.

Kramer described a film festival in Bologna she's attended a number of times, where screenings begin at 9 a.m. and

end late at night, day after day. "Is this any way to see movies?" she asked. "No, it's not normal. People ask, 'What

did you see?' and you realize one film is running into another." Even a manageable festival like Telluride, where people

are gorging on 22 films, various shorts and other programs in four days, has a potential to overwhelm.

But seeing lots of movies in a concentrated way - the good, the not-so and the dismal - can also be liberating. "Most

good films, even very good films, may only have a few moments that are terrific," said Kramer, "and lots of flaws.

Audiences often expect things to be perfect. But they're not, they can't be. It's so difficult to make a good film.

There are so many decisions a filmmaker has to make, under all kinds of pressures. If something redeeming

comes out of that process, it's really pretty amazing."

E-mail Steven Winn at swinn@sfchronicle.com

 

Telluride Film Festival 2007 "To Be Announced" Listings:
Monday, September 3, 2007
PALM NOON PM-SNEAK PREVIEW-JUNO w/Q&A
PALM 3 PM-12 THE COUNTERFEITERS
PALM 5:30 PM-5 RAILS AND TIES
PALM 8:15 PM-17 INTO THE WILD
GALAXY 3:15 PM-27 MARGOT AT THE WEDDING
GALAXY 6:15 PM-SNEAK PREVIEW-JUNO
GALAXY 8:30 PM-9 THE BAND'S VISIT
CJC 12:30 PM-7 THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY
CJC 3:30 PM-SNEAK PREVIEW-THE SAVAGES w/Q&A
CJC 6:30 PM-c (Info on page 38) STEEP
SOH 3:30 PM-19 JAR CITY
SOH 6 PM-8 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS (this starts 15 minutes later than grid)
SOH 8:30 PM-28 ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD
NUGGET 1:30 PM-25 PEOPLE ON SUNDAY w/Mont Alto Orchestra
NUGGET 3:30 PM-13 PERSEPOLIS
NUGGET 6 PM-22 BRICK LANE
NUGGET 8:30 PM-SNEAK PREVIEW-THE SAVAGES
MASONS 1:30 PM-26 CARGO 200
MASONS 4:15 PM-32 DILLINGER IS DEAD
MASONS 6:30 PM-38 STUDENT PRINTS
MASONS 8:45 PM-20 ELLYFISH
PIERRE 1:30 PM-24 MY ENEMY'S ENEMY
PIERRE 3:45 PM-39 CALLING CARDS
PIERRE 6:15 PM-21 BLIND MOUNTAIN
PIERRE 8:30 PM-11c ZUBEIDAA
ELKS PARK 8:30 PM-29 I'M NOT THERE
MEMORABILIA AT BRIGADOON - Final Day Sale - Discounts Galore
COURTHOUSE CONVERSATION 10 AM
Jason Reitman - Director, JUNO & Tamara Jenkins - Director, THE SAVAGES

TOWN PARK-MONDAY SEMINAR-NOON
"Is there a woman behind every good movie? The Gender shift in the film world."*
Moderator: Steve Wasserman
Panelists:
Tannishtha Chatterjee  Actor, BRICK LANE
Diablo Cody  Screenwriter, JUNO
Allison Eastwood  Director, RAILS AND TIES
Jyll Johnstone  Director, HATS OFF
Jennifer Jason Leigh  Actor, MARGOT AT THE WEDDING
Laura Linney  Actor, THE SAVAGES
Alexandra Sun  Producer, BLIND MOUNTAIN


*Panelists Subject to Change
**Your Attendance Is Required in 2008

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2007 Sneak Preview - THE SAVAGES

Former Telluride Tributee Laura Linney and Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman play a brother

nd sister who are yanked from their busy lives as, respectively, an aspiring playwright and college

professor, when their father becomes ill. Achingly funny, familiar and poignant, THE SAVAGES is a

showcase for two of America's most perceptive, expressive actors and as a brilliant return to feature

filmmaking by writer-director Tamara Jenkins

(SLUMS OF BEVERLY HILLS). (U.S., 2007, 113m) In person: Laura Linney, Tamara Jenkins


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2007 Sneak Preview - THE PRINCESS OF NEBRASKA

Wayne Wang's second collaboration with writer Yiyun Li follows 24 hours in the life of Sasha,

a young Chinese woman who is four months pregnant, through a fling back in Beijing. Interrupting

her first year of college in Nebraska, she travels to San Francisco to abort the child and confront

her lover's male friend. Sasha's unborn baby takes her on a daring journey from Beijing to the

streets of San Francisco, and is the untold umbilical film to A THOUSAND YEARS OF GOOD

PRAYERS. (U.S., 2007, 78m) In person: Wayne Wang, Yiyun Li


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2007 Sneak Preview - REDACTED

From early counter culture classics GREETINGS and HI MOM, to forays into Hitchcockian

suspense like DRESSED TO KILL and BODY DOUBLE and the socially realistic epics like

SCARFACE and CASUALTIES OF WAR, director Brian De Palma has been a major force

n American cinema. He has managed to focus on themes of voyeurism, violence, and

fractured identity, while developing his own utterly distinctive cinematic language. In REDACTED,

De Palma tells a tiny horrific anecdote of the Iraq war. He's particularly fascinated by how the chaos

there is mediated by multiple cinematic perspectives, a soldier's video diary, verite journalism,

and Internet imagery. In REDACTED De Palma manages to gather together all the topics that

have previously obsessed him, now fusing them with a new element of moral indignation that

humanizes and deepens his work. Made on a tiny budget with an excellent cast of unknowns

REDACTED may be the crowning accomplishment of Brian De Palma's already illustrious career. -LG (86 min)


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2007Sneak Preview - JUNO

Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page) is a smart and sassy sixteen-year-old. Director Jason Reitman

(THANK YOU FOR SMOKING) balances serious problems she faces with smart humor when

Juno has sex with her friend (Michael Cera) and decides to give birth to the resulting baby

but offer it for adoption to a couple (Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman) she finds in the

Penny Saver. Diablo Cody s ( Candy Girl ) witty script provides twists and unexpected

surprises. Strong performances by all with young Ellen Page proving she will be a star.

(92 min) In person: Director Jason Reitman, Writer Diablo Cody

TFF Discoveries Recognized by Golden Globes


For us to attempt to choose "winners" from among Telluride selections would be like trying

 

to pick one child over another (wink to CARMICHAEL & SHANE). We just can't do it.

However, we must say that those with a talent for such things seem to repeatedly

reward artists and films featured at our little event.

At this year's recent Golden Globe ceremony, The Hollywood Foreign Press has awarded

op honors to Alejandro González Iñárritu's masterfully crafted BABEL, for Best Motion

icture - Drama. Speaking at a Festival seminar last Labor Day weekend, Alejandro

revealed one of the great inspirations for his non-linear technique. "My father, always

a great storyteller, started in the middle. He would start with a hook from the middle

someplace. Then he'd go back for the beginnings. Then more hooks. Back and forth toward the end."

The HFP also named Forest Whitaker as Best Actor for his menacing, multilayered

portrayal of Idi Amin in THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND. After screening the film at

our last Festival, Joe Morgenstern wrote in the Wall Street Journal, "Forest Whitaker's

portrayal in THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND is enormous, mercurial, terrifying,

endlessly seductive and, more simply put, one of the great performances in

odern movie history." We re glad to see we're not the only ones to notice.

Congratulations to everyone who worked so hard to make these great movies,

and thanks to the Hollywood Foreign Press for their continuing dedication to

celebrating the very best work in contemporary cinema.


TFF Discoveries Honored by European Film Awards

We are proud to announce that two films featured in our 33rd Festival program

have taken awards at the EFA in Warsaw, Poland. VOLVER, directed by Pedro

lmodovar, walked away with a stunning five awards, including Best Director and

Best Cinematography. Its star, Telluride Tributee Penelope Cruz took the award

for Best Actress.
For all of it's success at the ceremony, however, VOLVER didn't quite edge out

THE LIVES OF OTHERS (also screened at our last festival) by Florian Henckel,

which was honored with the award for Best Film. We send a hearty congratulations out to all of them - well done!

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