Telluride Film Festival News

Download the 34th TFF wrap press release

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

It's a wrap!
Read our wrap on the 34th Telluride Film Festival, and see what the media is saying.
Download the 34th TFF wrap press release here

Download the 34th TFF program guide

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Download the 34th TFF program guide: PDF 1.7mb

TFF Picks at the Oscars & Spirit Awards

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

The Telluride Film Festival doesn't factor in glitz or awards potential when choosing the films it showcases each year. Our sole criterion is quality, we try and find the very best movies, new and old, from the U.S. or anywhere, to share with our audiences. Still, it's hard not to feel a bit of pride that the movies that we helped launch from our tiny box canyon have done so well in the bigger world. In total, members of the Telluride family took home two Oscars (for Diablo Cody's JUNO screenplay and tributee Daniel Day Lewis' performance in THERE WILL BE BLOOD) and 17 Oscar nominations (for, in various categories, PERSEPOLIS, THE SAVAGES, INTO THE WILD, I'M NOT THERE, DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY, SALIM BABA, THE COUNTERFEITERS and MADAME TUTLI-PUTLI). Add to that nine of the 17 Independent Spirit Awards and acclaim from critics groups from around the continent. What a year, both for Telluride and for high-quality cinema. We congratulate our friends who earned these justly-deserved awards, and thank them again for sharing these amazing films with us.

TFF Films Score Big at Indie Awards

Sun, 11 May 2008 00:00:00 +0000

The Telluride Film Festival salutes the success of TFF discoveries recognized by the 17th Annual Gotham Awards and nominated for the forthcoming 2008 Spirit Awards.

Inaugurating the film awards season, The Gotham Awards honored the TFF gem INTO THE WILD with Best Feature honors. The films fellow nominees in the best feature category, MARGOT AT THE WEDDING, I'M NOT THERE, and THE NAMESAKE (TFF 2006), have each graced Tellurides celluloid stages. Director Craig Zobel, whose film GREAT WORLD OF SOUND rounded out the nominee list for Best Feature, and landed him a win in the Breakthrough Director category, was a 1998 TFF Student Symposium attendee. Director Mira Nair, a TFF regular attendee, received a prestigious Gotham Tribute for her influential work in the film industry. In addition, DAY NIGHT DAY NIGHT, directed by Julia Loktev and featured in our 33rd Festival program, was nominated for Breakthrough Director and actress Luisa Williams received a Breakthrough Actor nomination for her work in the film.

The upcoming 2008 Spirit Awards, celebrating the best in independent film, features numerous TFF favorites as nominees, among them Julian Schnabel's THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY (Best Feature, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography), Tamara Jenkins' THE SAVAGES (Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Male Lead for Philip Seymour Hoffman), Jason Reitman's JUNO (Best Feature, Best Director, Best First Screenplay, Best Female Lead for Ellen Page), Craig Zobel's GREAT WORLD OF SOUND (Best First Feature), and Todd Haynes' I'M NOT THERE (Best Feature, Best Director, Best Supporting Female for Cate Blanchett, Best Supporting Male for Marcus Carl Franklin). I'M NOT THERE will also receive the Robert Altman Award, given to one film's director, casting director and its ensemble cast. Jennifer Jason Leigh garnered a Best Supporting Female nomination for her work in MARGOT AT THE WEDDING, and Irrfan Khan's performance in THE NAMESAKE received a Best Supporting Male nomination. In the Best Foreign Film category, three of the five nominated films delighted film enthusiasts at Telluride: Cristian Mungius' 4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS, AND 2 DAYS (Romania), Eran Kolirin's THE BAND'S VISIT (Israel) and Vincent Paronnaud & Marjane Satrapi's PERSEPOLIS (France).

The Telluride Film Festival staff congratulates each of these films and artists! Well-deserved!

2009 Production Apprentice Applications Now Available

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Applications are now being accepted for the 36th TFF Production and Volunteer Departments. There are many ways to become involved in our Festival Family, so read carefully and apply accordingly! Applications must be received no later than Friday March 27, 2009.

Click here for details on how to become part of our behind-the-scenes experience!

2009 Patron Passes Now on Sale

Wed, 03 Dec 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Buy Your 36th TFF Patron Pass Today!
Have you long been considering a Patron Pass? Are you one of our Patron regulars? Don’t miss the opportunity to secure your pass early! Our Patron Passes grow more popular every year, though our number of passes to sell remains unchanged.

March 1, 2009 will open our Box Office for all pass levels, and we anticipate sales will be brisk right out of the gate. Click here to order online.

2009 Student Symposium Applications Now Available

Fri, 06 Feb 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Imagine being part of an exclusive give and take with filmmakers like David Fincher, Danny Boyle, Nandita Das, Wayne Wang, Ken Burns, Gus Van Sant, Diablo Cody, and Tamara Jenkins. Now, don't just imagine it - be there!

Applications for the 2009 Student Symposium are now available. We are looking for college and university students representing a variety of study disciplines, cultures and backgrounds, and who appreciate healthy and vigorous philosophical debates with their colleagues. It's an opportunity you do not want to miss - and it all starts here.

2008 Telluride Film Festival Draws To A Close

Tue, 02 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Labor Day Picnic Seminar with moderator Anne Thompson of Variety, Paul Schrader (Adam Ressurected), Nandita Das (Firaaq), Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire), Jan Troell (Everlasting Moments) and Ari Folman (Waltz with Bashir). Photo by Lisa Law.

The 35th Telluride Film Festival featured a diverse selection of programming from across the globe with over seventy filmmakers, writers, actors and artists in attendance.

The Festival kicked off in style Friday night with a tribute to David Fincher. Rumors proved true when, following a dynamic Q&A between Fincher and Variety’s Chief Film Critic Todd McCarthy, the packed house got a first look at twenty minutes of Fincher’s highly anticipated new film, THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON. Laura Linney made an unannounced appearance at the Festival to present screen legend Jean Simmons the Silver Medallion at her Tribute on Saturday night. The third Tribute was for Oscar-nominated Swedish director Jan Troell who also presented his newest film, EVERLASTING MOMENTS.

Festival attendees included: Alloy Orchestra, Nicole Beharie, Cathal Black, Nae Caranfil, Philippe Claudel, Ron Colby, Lance Daly, Tim Disney, Tony Donoghue, Francois Dupeyron, Sergei Dvortsevoy, Nicholas Eliopoulos, Ari Folman, Matteo Garrone, Jeff Goldblum, Bent Hammer, Bill Haney, Kim Ji-Woon, Yoram Kaniuk, Joe Lawlor, Jane Lee, Mike Leigh, Thomas Lynch, Ole Christian Madsen, Steve McQueen, Christine Molloy, Youssou Ndour, Maud Nelissen, Tim Blake Nelson, Will Patton, Kimberly Reed, Richard Schickel, Paul Schrader, Jan Sikl, Götz Spielmann, Peggy Stern, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Paul Vester, Paul Watson, Félicité Wouassi, Slavoj Zizek, and Elsa Zylberstein. Salman Rushdie also made a special appearance to introduce Indian actress Nandita Das’s directorial debut, FIRAAQ.

Senegalese musician and composer Youssou Ndour and his band played surprise concerts following screenings of I BRING WHAT I LOVE.

In keeping with Festival tradition, audiences were treated to three sneak previews: Danny Boyle brought his just completed SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE about a young man seeking wealth on an Indian TV version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire,” who reveals his brutal, sometimes comic life story through a series of questions asked by the hilariously slippery on-air TV host; FLASH OF GENIUS, directed by Marc Abraham and starring Greg Kinnear and Lauren Graham, all of whom were in attendance to introduce the film. The film tells the true story of a David (Kinnear) who took on the Goliath of the Detroit auto industry; and JAN TROELL’S MAGIC MIRROR, a trip inside the creative process of one of the world’s great directors.

2008 All Passes Sold Out!

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Cinephile Pass? Sold out. Acme Pass? Sold out. Festival Pass? Sold out. Patron Pass? That’s right, sold out. There are only a finite number of passes we can make available for sale, and it looks like, once again, we’ve come to the bottom of our well.

Even though we have no more passes for sale, we’d still love to see you in the mountains this Labor Day. If your spirit of generosity allows, a limited number of Sponsor passes are still available (for more information on becoming a Sponsor of the Telluride Film Festival contact our Development department at 510.559.9400) Otherwise, you can check out our Festival on a Budget Page for some tips on how to enjoy the SHOW without even having a pass.

Thanks to all those who got their orders in to us, we’re looking forward to seeing you all in line in Telluride!

Telluride Film Festival Announces 2008 Lineup!

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Telluride Film Festival announces its program for the 35th annual Festival. Featuring diverse programming from around the globe, including a surge of international films, TFF once again sets the stage for some of the most highly anticipated films of the year.

TFF opens its 35th year with over twenty-five new feature films plus special artist tributes and salutes, guest director programs by Slavoj Zizek, a new animation section, classics and restorations, shorts, student prints, seminars and conversations.

35th Festival Guest Director: Zizek!

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

The Directors of the Telluride Film Festival are thrilled to announce that Slavoj Zizek will preside as the Guest Director of the Festival's 35th Show. The Slovenian-born irrepressible political philosopher, cultural theorist, academic superstar and impassioned cinephile is certain to stimulate controversy and conversation with his hand-picked film treasures and exhilarating approach to talking about movies, art, culture, politics, and desire.

Most recently, Zizek collaborated with filmmaker Sophie Fiennes on The Pervert's Guide to Cinema (2006), a film that offers a striking visual introduction to Zizek's ideas on subjectivity, sexuality, and the relationship between fantasy and reality. Fiennes observes that Zizek is "always inverting things and setting up unexpected relationships. It's kind of like a mind gym."

"What I love about Slavoj's way of looking at film", Fiennes says, "is that he shows how important form is. Intuitively, when you watch films, you are enjoying that idiosyncratic language. And his explicit way of reading great moments is exhilarating for me." In the film, Zizek guides viewers into a close examination of some of the most lauded and fascinating films in cinema history.

Join us at the 35th Telluride Film Festival to meet Slavoj Zizek and savor the feast of films he will bring to the Festival!

35th Poster - A Chair Awaits You...

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 00:00:00 +0000

A chair awaits you with our 35th Poster, compliments of Laurie Anderson, returning to us as this year’s poster artist. Many of you may remember Laurie attending as our Guest Director for our 18th Festival and with a repeat performance in 2005 with “ Hidden Inside Mountains. ”

“It is a great honor to have been asked to create this year’s Festival poster,” said Laurie Anderson. “*The chair drawing was featured in my book called “Night Life” which is a book of dream drawings I made a couple of years ago while out on tour. The red chair in the poster was part of a dream drawing I made that happened to be set in a theater at Telluride! So of course it seemed perfect for the Festival poster since it’s all about the audience and the dreams that films really are.”

Writer, director, visual artist and vocalist, Anderson has created groundbreaking works that span the worlds of film, art, theater, and experimental music. Her recording career, launched by “O Superman” in 1981, includes the soundtrack to her feature film “Home of the Brave” and “Life on a String.” Anderson has published seven books and her visual work has been presented in major museums around the world. In 2002, she was appointed the first artist-in-residence of NASA which culminated in her touring solo performance The End of the Moon. Anderson has contributed music to films by Wim Wenders and Jonathan Demme and a score for Robert LePage*s theater production, “Far Side of the Moon.” She has created pieces for National Public Radio, The BBC, and Expo ‘92 in Seville.

“Laurie had all kinds of ideas,” said Co-Director Gary Meyer. ” She showed us photographs and graphics with a wide range of possibilities. When we saw the chair, we knew it was the right image. But we had no idea there was a Telluride connection until long after she designed the actual poster.”* *”One of the great pleasures for us is when we can work with an artist in an ongoing relationship,” adds Co-Director Tom Luddy.

Her recent projects include a series of audio-visual installations and a high definition film, “Hidden Inside Mountains,” created for World Expo 2005 in Aichi, Japan. In 2007 she received the prestigious Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize for her outstanding contribution to the arts. Currently she is recording a new album for Nonesuch Records, “Homeland”, and touring internationally with an accompanying performance.

Laurie’s poster will be available during the Festival at our Memorabilia store located in Brigadoon, or contact the Festival offices in Berkeley.

2009 Call for Entries

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 00:00:00 +0000

Our film submission period is now open!

Student and Short film submissions must be received no later than 5:00 pm, July 1, 2009. Feature film submissions must be received no later than 5:00 pm, July 15, 2009. All submissions must have been completed after July 15, 2008 and no works in progress will be accepted. Feature-length films (60 minutes or longer) will only be considered if they are to have their first North American screening at Telluride Film Festival. Final program determinations will be made by August 1, 2009.

Professional and amateur filmmakers working in all aesthetic disciplines and genres are welcome. Shorts, features, documentaries, animation, film and video are eligible for consideration. Each year the four-day Telluride Film Festival plays host to an average of 25 feature films and 30 to 40 shorts and student films. Films selected to screen at Telluride Film Festival will be shown out-of-competition. TFF is not a competitive festival.

Please click here to download the 2009 Film Entry Submission form and regulations for the 36th Telluride Film Festival.

36th Poster Artist: William Wegman

Mon, 11 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

We are pleased to announce William Wegman as our 36th Telluride Film Festival poster artist. Known worldwide for his photographs and videos, especially those starring his Weimaraners, Wegman will design, create and present the Festival with its 2009 Festival poster art.

“Given the opportunity to present an idea for the 36th Telluride Film Festival, I immediately came up with the thought of using a photograph of one of my favorite models: Chip,” says Wegman. “A grey velvet curtain falls around him as he patiently awaits further direction, while the audience wonders what cinematic mysteries are hiding behind it.”

Wegman has created two posters for the 36th Telluride Film Festival. The second poster, available in a limited edition, is from an original painting created for this year’s Festival and will be unveiled over Labor Day weekend. An exhibition of photographs and paintings related to the Telluride posters will be shown at the Schilling Gallery in Telluride during the Festival’s run. Wegman will also be in attendance at the Festival.

Wegman began his career as a painter, earning a B.F.A. in painting at the Massachusetts College of Art, Boston in 1965 and an M.F.A. in painting from the University of Illinois, Champagne-Urbana in 1967. From the early 70s his work has been exhibited internationally. He is the author of numerous books, and his film and video work have appeared on Saturday Night Live, Nickelodeon and Sesame Street.

Wegman’s recent exhibitions have included retrospectives in Sweden, Japan, Korea and Spain and the touring exhibition “Funny/Strange,” which opened at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in 2006 and traveled to the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus in 2007. Wegman’s work is in the permanent collections of museums throughout the US and Europe including The Whitney Museum of American Art, MoMA, SFMoMA, MoCA, The LA County Museum of Art, the Ludwig Museum, Cologne and the Centre Pompidou, Paris.

TFF 36 Announces Manny Farber Tribute and Guest Director Alexander Payne

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

The Celebration of Manny Farber

Telluride Film Festival and The Library of America are pleased to present a special program in honor of artist and film critic Manny Farber. "The Celebration of Manny Farber" will include an intimate bookstore signing of The Library of America's September 2009 release Farber on Film: The Complete Film Writings of Manny Farber with editor Robert Polito and Farber's wife and collaborator, Patricia Patterson. They will also be part of an interactive panel with guests Jean-Pierre Gorin, Kent Jones, Greil Marcus, David Thomson, and Robert Walsh. More special guests will be in attendance for a screening of one of Farber's favorite films to be announced on Opening Day, September 4, 2009.

Alexander Payne as 36th Guest Director

We are proud to announce Alexander Payne as our 2009 Guest Director. The acclaimed director and screenwriter has been invited to enhance the already prestigious program and select a series of films to show at the 36th Telluride Film Festival.

Each year the Festival’s directors select one of the world’s great film lovers to join them in the creation of the Festival. The Guest Director serves as a key collaborator in the Festival’s programming decisions, bringing new ideas and overlooked films to Telluride.

“Alexander has succeeded in programming a group of films with both rarity and variety,” said co-director Gary Meyer. “We have a sophisticated audience at Telluride and he has met the challenge and exceeded our highest expectations.”

Payne won both the Academy Award and Golden Globe in 2005 for Best Screenplay for the film SIDEWAYS. Another of Payne’s acclaimed works, ABOUT SCHMIDT, earned Jack Nicholson an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Payne’s film credits also include ELECTION and CITIZEN RUTH. Upcoming projects include the HBO series HUNG.

“I have had the pleasure of knowing Alexander for many years – from the time he was a Stanford student who came to see rare films at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley and throughout his career,” said co-director Tom Luddy. “I have long admired his work and his obvious love of the art of film. Our partnership with him on this year’s Festival has been seamless.”

Julie Huntsinger, the Festival’s Managing Director adds, “In addition to his inspired film selections, Alexander's wit and enthusiasm will captivate our audience. We are thrilled he'll join us this year.”

In keeping with Telluride Film Festival tradition, Payne's film selections, along with the rest of the Telluride program will be kept secret and unveiled on Opening Day, September 4, 2009.

Box Office is Open

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0000

ACME Passes are sold out - Cinephile, Festival, and Patron Passes still available!

That's all folks - for Acme Passes! We encourage you to act now for Cinephile, Festival and Patron Passes - we have limited numbers and do not want you to miss out! The 36th Telluride Film Festival will be here before you know it - September 4-7, 2009. Order your passes online, or if you prefer to send via post you may download a form through the link at the bottom of our Passes Page. See you at the SHOW!