The 46th annual Telluride Film Festival—which takes place August 30 to September 2, 2019 in Telluride, Colorado—has announced its lineup of movies. They include the world premieres of “Judy,” starring Renée Zellweger as Judy Garland; “Ford v Ferrari,” starring Christian Bale as a race-car driver and Matt Damon as a car designer who team up to build a champion race car; “Waves,” an African American family drama, starring Sterling K. Brown; and “Motherless Brooklyn,” a crime drama starring and directed by Edward Norton as a private investigator involved in a murder case.
The Telluride Film Festival, along with the Venice International Film Festival in Italy and the Toronto International Film Festival in Canada, can be considered one of the most important Oscar-contender launching pads from August to September. Unlike other major film festivals, which announce their movies weeks in advance, the Telluride Film Festival keeps its slate of movies a secret until a day or two before the festival begins.
Because the Telluride and Venice film festivals overlap in time frame, they both tend to have a lot of the same films, with Venice (the larger festival) usually having the edge in getting world premieres. For example, in 2018, both festivals had “Roma,” “The Favourite” and “First Man”—three movies that had their world premieres at Venice, and went on to win to win several awards, including Oscars and Golden Globes. In 2018, Telluride had the world premiere of the mountain-climbing documentary “Free Solo” (which won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature) and the true-crime drama “Can You Ever Forgive Me?,” which received three Oscar nominations.
The 2019 Telluride Film Festival will also have a tribute to the late Belgian French filmmaker Agnès Varda, who died on March 29. The last film she directed, the documentary “Varda by Agnes,” will screen at the festival.
In addition, the festival’s 2019 Silver Medallion Awards (given to those who’ve had significant achievements in movies) will go to Zellweger; actor Adam Driver (whose movies “Marriage Story” and “The Report” are at the festival); and writer/director Philip Kaufman, who will have two of his movies screening at the festival “The Right Stuff” (1983) and “The Wanderers” (1979).
Dolby Laboratories will receive the festival’s 2019 Special Medallion Award.
Also at the festival is the Aretha Franklin concert documentary “Amazing Grace,” which was filmed in 1972 but wasn’t officially released in theaters until 2018 for a limited run, followed by a wider release in 2019.
Here is the complete lineup of feature-length movies in the “Show” main program at the 2019 Telluride Film Festival:
“The Aeronauts” (Directed by Tom Harper, U.S./U.K.)
“The Assistant” (Directed by Kitty Green, U.S.)
“The Australian Dream” (Directed by Daniel Gordon, Australia)
“Beanpole” (Directed by Kantemir Balagov, Russia)
“The Climb” (Directed by Michael Angelo Covino)
“Country Music” (Directed by Ken Burns, U.S.)
“Coup 53” (Directed by Taghi Amirani, U.K.)
“Diego Maradona” (Directed by Asif Kapadia, U.K.)
“Family Romance, LLC” (Directed by Werner Herzog, U.S./Japan)
“First Cow” (Directed by Kelly Reichardt, U.S.)
“Ford v Ferrari” (Directed by James Mangold, U.S.)
“A Hidden Life” (Directed by Terrence Malick, U.S.)
“The Human Factor” (Directed by Dror Moreh, U.K.)
“Inside Bill’s Brain” (Directed by Davis Guggenheim)
“Judy” (Directed by Rupert Goold, U.K./U.S.)
“The Kingmaker” (Directed by Lauren Greenfield, U.S.)
“Lyrebird” (Directed by Dan Friedkin, U.S.)
“Marriage Story” (Directed by Noah Bumbach, U.S.)
“Motherless Brooklyn” (Directed by Edward Norton, U.S.)
“Oliver Sacks: His Own Life” (Directed by Ric Burns, U.S.)
“Pain and Glory” (Directed by Pedro Almodóvar, Spain)
“Parasite” (Directed by Bong Joon-Ho, South Korea)
“Portrait of a Lady on Fire” (Directed by Céline Sciamma, France)
“The Report” (Directed by Scott Z. Burns, U.S.)
“Tell Me Who I Am” (Directed by Ed Perkins)
“Those Who Remained” (Directed by Barnabás Toth, Hungary)
“The Two Popes” (Directed by Fernando Meirelles, U.K.)
“Uncut Gems” (Directed by Josh Safdie and Benny Safdie, U.S.)
“Varda by Agnès” (Directed by Agnès Varda, France)
“Verdict” (Directed by Raymond Ribay Gutierrez, Philippines)
“Waves” (Directed by Trey Edward Shults, U.S.)
“Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema” (Directed by Mark Cousins, U.K.)
Here is the complete list of films for the “Backlot” selection of documentaries at the 2019 Telluride Film Festival:
“63 Up” (Directed by Michael Apted, U.K.)
“Billie” (Directed by James Erskine, U.K.)
“Chulas Fronteras” (Directed by Les Blank, U.S., 1976)
“The Gift: The Journey of Johnny Cash” (Directed by Thom Zimny, U.S.)
“Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice” (Directed by Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman, U.S.)
“Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin” (Directed by Werner Herzog, U.S.)
“Soros” (Directed by Jesse Dylan, U.S.)
“Uncle Yanco” (Directed by Agnès Varda, France/U.S., 1967) + “Black Panthers” (Directed by Agnès Varda, France-U.S., 1968)
Guest Director Pico Iyer, who serves as a key collaborator in the festival’s program, presents the following revival programs:
“Late Autumn” (Directed by Yasujirō Ozu, Japan, 1960)
“The Makioka Sisters” (Directed by Kon Ichikawa, Japan, 1983)
“Mr. and Mrs. Iyer” (Directed by Aparna Sen, India, 2002)
“The Phantom Carriage” (Directed by Victor Sjöström, Sweden, 1921) — new 35 mm print
“Under the Sun” (Directed by Vitaly Mansky, Czech Republic-Russia-Germany-Latvia-North Korea, 2015)
“When a Woman Ascends the Stairs” (Directed by Mikio Naruse, Japan, 1960)
“The Wind” (Directed by Victor Sjöström, U.S, 1928)
The following is a press release from the Telluride Film Festival:
Telluride Film Festival, presented by the National Film Preserve, today announced its official program selections for the 45th edition of the Telluride Film Festival. TFF’s celebration of artistic excellence brings together cinema enthusiasts, filmmakers and artists to discover the best in world cinema in the beautiful mountain town of Telluride, Colorado. TFF will screen over 60 feature films, short films and revival programs representing 22 countries, along with special artist Tributes, Conversations, Panels, Student Programs and Festivities. Telluride Film Festival takes place Friday, August 31 – Monday, September 3, 2018.
45th Telluride Film Festival is proud to present the following new feature films to play in its main program:
• ANGELS ARE MADE OF LIGHT (d. James Longley, U.S.-Denmark-Norway, 2018)
• BE NATURAL: THE UNTOLD STORY OF ALICE GUY-BLACHÉ (d. Pamela B. Green, U.S., 2018)
• BIRDS OF PASSAGE (d. Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego, Colombia-Denmark-Mexico, 2018)
• BORDER (d. Ali Abbasi, Sweden, 2018)
• BOY ERASED (d. Joel Edgerton, U.S., 2018)
• CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME? (d. Marielle Heller, U.S., 2018)
• COLD WAR (d. Pawel Pawlikowski, Poland-France-U.K., 2018)
• DESTROYER (d. Karyn Kusama, U.S., 2018)
• DOGMAN (d. Matteo Garrone, Italy-France, 2018)
• DOVLATOV (d. Aleksei German, Russia-Poland-Serbia, 2018)
• FIRST MAN (d. Damien Chazelle, U.S., 2018)
• FISTFUL OF DIRT (d. Sebastián Silva, U.S., 2018)
• FREE SOLO (d. Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, U.S., 2018)
• GHOST FLEET (d. Shannon Service and Jeffrey Waldron, U.S., 2018)
• GIRL (d. Lukas Dhont, Belgium-Netherlands, 2018)
• GRAVES WITHOUT A NAME (d. Rithy Panh, France-Cambodia, 2018)
• MEETING GORBACHEV (d. Werner Herzog and André Singer, U.K.-U.S.-Germany, 2018)
• NON FICTION (d. Olivier Assayas, France, 2018)
• PETERLOO (d. Mike Leigh, U.K., 2018)
• REVERSING ROE (d. Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg, U.S., 2018)
• ROMA (d. Alfonso Cuarón, U.S.-Mexico, 2018)
• SHOPLIFTERS (d. Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japan, 2018)
• THE BIGGEST LITTLE FARM (d. John Chester, U.S., 2018)
• THE FAVOURITE (d. Yorgos Lanthimos, Ireland-U.K.-U.S., 2018)
• THE FRONT RUNNER (d. Jason Reitman, U.S., 2018)
• THE GREAT BUSTER (d. Peter Bogdanovich, U.S., 2018)
• THE OLD MAN & THE GUN (d. David Lowery, U.S., 2018)
• THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND (d. Orson Welles, U.S., 1976/2018)
• THE WHITE CROW (d. Ralph Fiennes, U.K., 2018)
• THEY’LL LOVE ME WHEN I’M DEAD (d. Morgan Neville, U.S., 2018)
• TRIAL BY FIRE (d. Ed Zwick, U.S., 2018)
• WATERGATE – OR, HOW WE LEARNED TO STOP AN OUT-OF-CONTROL PRESIDENT (d. Charles Ferguson, U.S., 2018)
• WHITE BOY RICK (d. Yann Demange, U.S., 2018)
The 2018 Silver Medallion Awards, given to recognize an artist’s significant contribution to the world of cinema, will be presented to Academy Award winning director Alfonso Cuarón (with ROMA), Academy Award winning actor Emma Stone (with THE FAVOURITE) and Oscar nominated Rithy Panh (with GRAVES WITHOUT A NAME). Tribute programs include a selection of clips followed by the presentation of the Silver Medallion, an onstage interview and a screening of the aforementioned films.
Guest Director Jonathan Lethem, who serves as a key collaborator in the Festival’s program, presents the following revival programs:
• ANGEL (d. Ernst Lubitsch, U.S., 1937)
• BIGGER THAN LIFE (d. Nicholas Ray, U.S., 1956)
• NEVER CRY WOLF (d. Carroll Ballard, U.S., 1983)
• THE TARNISHED ANGELS (d. Douglas Sirk, U.S., 1957)
• THE WHITE MEADOWS (d. Mohammad Rasoulof, Iran, 2009)
• TO BE OR NOT TO BE (d. Ernst Lubitsch, U.S., 1942)
Additional film revival programs include CHRISTIAN WAHNSCHAFFE, PARTS I & II (d. Urban Gad, Germany, 1920 – 1921), FIEÈ̀VRE (d. Louis Delluc, France, 1921), COEUR FID È̀̀LE (d. Louis Delluc, France, 1923) and REMOUS (d. Edmond T. Gréville, France, 1934).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fp_i7cnOgbQ
Telluride Film Festival annually celebrates a hero of cinema who preserves, honors and presents great movies. This year’s Special Medallion award goes to Dieter Kosslick, film critic, journalist and researcher and current Director of the Berlin International Film Festival. The Special Medallion film, ELDORADO (d. Markus Imhoof, Germany-Switzerland, 2018) will screen in celebration.
Backlot, Telluride’s intimate screening room featuring behind-the-scenes movies and portraits of artists, musicians and filmmakers, will screen the following programs:
• A FINAL CUT FOR ORSON: 40 YEARS IN THE MAKING (d. Ryan Suffern, U.S., 2018) + THE EYES OF ORSON WELLES (d. Mark Cousins, U.K., 2018)
• HAL (d. Amy Scott, U.S., 2018)
• HUGH HEFNER’S AFTER DARK: SPEAKING OUT IN AMERICA (d. Brigitte Berman, Canada, 2018)
• IT MUST SCHWING! THE BLUE NOTE STORY (d. Eric Friedler, Germany, 2018)
• THE GHOST OF PETER SELLERS (d. Peter Medak, U.K.-Cyprus, 2018)
• WHAT SHE SAID: THE ART OF PAULINE KAEL (d. Rob Garver, U.S., 2018)
Additional Festivities will take place throughout the Festival including a Poster Signing with 2018 poster artist Woody Pirtle; a special screening of RETURN TO PODOR (d. Kevin Macdonald, U.K.-Senegal, 2018) followed by a special appearance by Baaba Maal and Ben Lovett (Mumford & Sons); Eliza McNitt’s three-part virtual reality series SPHERES; 10th Anniversary screening of FOOD INC. (d. Robert Kenner, U.S., 2008); a screening of Gregory Nava’s EL NORTE (U.S.-U.K.-Mexico, 1983); and an afternoon celebration of the life of Pierre Rissient.
“I could not be more pleased with the program lineup for the 45th Telluride Film Festival,” said TFF executive director Julie Huntsinger. “The storytelling brought by this amazing group of filmmakers is both tender and fierce. They are able to bring their ideas and images to an audience with such an observant, artful exploration. This year’s lineup is a true testament to the power and force of film.”
Huntsinger goes on to praise the wonderful partnerships that help make the Festival successful year after year. “Collaborations with an incredible group of partners enhance and uplift our Festival experience each year. Of particular note this year, we are thrilled to embark on a distinctive multi-year partnership with Meyer Sound to bring their extraordinary audio experience to the Galaxy and Werner Herzog Theaters. Corporate and institutional support at Telluride Film Festival plays a dynamic role in the life of the Festival and underscores the Festival’s commitment to quality, adventure and distinction in the art of cinema. TFF is honored to feature some of the world’s most renowned consumer and entertainment brands. We are filled with gratitude for their unique contributions and for exceptional long-term relationships with Turner Classic Movies, EY, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, Dolby, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, UCLA TFT, Universal Studios, and Criterion Collection. We appreciate deepening relationships with Amazon Studios, FilmStruck, ARRI, and Participant Media. And, a terrific welcome to new sponsors Netflix, SAG Awards® & SAG-AFTRA, and Piper-Heidsieck, and more!”
Telluride Film Festival’s shorts program, Filmmakers of Tomorrow, includes three sections: Student Prints, Calling Cards and Great Expectations from sixteen emerging filmmakers from around the globe. TFF is also pleased to feature two films by emerging Iranian filmmaker, Saba Riazi: ICE CREAM (U.S.,-Iran, 2018) and THE WIND IS BLOWING ON MY STREET (Iran-U.S., 2010).
Telluride Film Festival’s Student Programs present students the opportunity to experience film as an art and expand participants’ worldview through film screenings and filmmaker discussions. The Student Symposium, celebrating its 30th year, provides 50 graduate and undergraduate college students with a weekend-long immersion in cinema. The City Lights Project brings 15 high school students and five teachers from three schools the opportunity to participate in a concentrated program of screenings and discussions. FilmLAB offers a master-class program for UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television graduate filmmaking students. The FilmSCHOLAR program gives young film scholars and aspiring critics the opportunity to immerse themselves in a weekend of cinema and learn from some of the best in the field. Created in conjunction with the University of Wisconsin. TFF/ Roger Ebert University Seminars offer university professors and students special festival programming throughout the weekend.
Telluride Film Festival’s Talking Heads programs allow attendees to go behind the scenes with the Festival’s special guests. Six Conversations take place between Festival guests and the audience about cinema and culture, and three outdoor Noon Seminars feature a panel of Festival guests discussing a wide range of film topics. These programs are free and open to the public.
Download a copy of the TFF 45 2018 Program Guide here.
TFF 45 2018 Guest Director Jonathan Lethem
We are proud to announce our 2018 Guest Director, Jonathan Lethem. The award-winning novelist, essayist and short story writer is set to select a series of films to present at the 45th Telluride Film Festival running over Labor Day Weekend, August 31 – September 3, 2018.
The Guest Director serves as a key collaborator in the Festival’s programming decisions, bringing new ideas and overlooked films to Telluride. In keeping with Telluride Film Festival tradition, Lethem’s film selections, along with the rest of the Telluride lineup, will be kept secret until Opening Day.
“Tom and I first met Jonathan through Criterion Collection,” said TFF executive director Julie Huntsinger. “Since then, we have forever been impressed with his knowledge of and enthusiasm for cinema. We are thrilled to have him join us for the 2018 Festival!”
One of America’s greatest contemporary writers, Jonathan Lethem was born in 1964 in Brooklyn, NYC to artist Richard Lethem and late political activist Judith Lethem. His impressive body of work spans 10 novels, five short story collections, a novella, two books of essays, a comic series and writings in The New Yorker, Rolling Stone and McSweeny’s. Lethem’s first genre-defying novel, Gun with Occasional Music (1994) experimented with science fiction and crime and gained him a strong cult following. In 1999, Lethem’s fifth novel Motherless Brooklyn met with significant commercial and critical success winning the National Book Critics Circle Award, Macallan Gold Dagger for Crime Fiction, Salon Book Award and was named Esquire’s book of the year. The film adaptation of Motherless Brooklyn, directed by Edward Norton and starring Bruce Willis, Alec Baldwin, Willem Dafoe and Leslie Mann is currently in production and slated for a 2019 release. Lethem’s more recent novels include New York Times Bestseller The Fortress of Solitude (2003), You Don’t Love Me Yet (2007), Chronic City (2009), Dissident Gardens (2013) and A Gambler’s Anatomy (2016). In 2005, Jonathan Lethem was the recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship.
“From the very beginning for me, my love for literature and my love for film were splendidly mixed-up and inextricable,” said Lethem. “I always saw the two great 20th Century storytelling forms as speaking to and through one another. So, when by my great good luck I fell in with Tom Luddy and Julie Huntsinger, I immediately recognized them as being of my tribe; they feel the same resonance and have designed their wonderful festival in the mountains to reflect it. When I learned they’d involved writers I admire like Michael Ondaatje and Rachel Kushner and Geoff Dyer in the heart of the program, I was thrilled – and envious! I’m still pinching myself in disbelief that it’s my turn to play at programming the Dream Multiplex.”
Past Guest Directors include Joshua Oppenheimer, Volker Schlöndorff, Rachel Kushner, Guy Maddin, Caetano Veloso, Michael Ondaatje, Alexander Payne, Salman Rushdie, Peter Bogdanovich, B. Ruby Rich, Phillip Lopate, Errol Morris, Bertrand Tavernier, John Boorman, John Simon, Buck Henry, Laurie Anderson, Stephen Sondheim, G. Cabrera Infante, Peter Sellars, Don DeLillo, J.P. Gorin, Edith Kramer and Slavoj Žižek.
The Guest Director program is sponsored by FilmStruck, Turner’s subscription on-demand service that offers film aficionados a comprehensive and constantly refreshed library of films including an eclectic mix of contemporary arthouse, indie, foreign, cult and classic Hollywood films. FilmStruck is the exclusive streaming home to the Warner Bros. classic film library and the Criterion Collection. FilmStruck was developed by Turner Classic Movies (TCM) and is managed by TCM in partnership with Warner Bros. and the Criterion Collection.
