2023 Telluride Film Festival Report: Pre-Fest Question – Is Anybody Out There?

With the double edge sword of Guild strikes still poised to slash through the status quo and render major changes however the end results of the battle turn out, there is one thing for certain, the film world isn’t going to be the same when all the blood has been let and the healing starts. But the industry has survived many upheavals throughout its history and continued on, changed, sometimes nearly unrecognizably.

The film industry that was vibrant on the east coast early days of silents survived the uprooting of its center as far west as the trains could take it to get away from Edison’s patents and find a little breathing space. The changes led to unexpected alterations in what was possible and what a film would be from then on.

Then the changes wrought by the advent of synched sound wreaked havoc again, gutting the careers of major stars overnight, and bringing to light entirely new ways of seeing- and hearing- movies. Changes changed cinema again, and cinema survived.

Over and over again, the independent films of the 60s and 70s, reactions to the oppression of yearning freedoms of expression of the young bucks, changed what movies could be, and cinema adapted. The advent of home video, once feared as the death of Hollywood, came and was consumed and changed the playing fields, making them fertile for new growth.

The changing global marketplaces, rises and falls of financial players, alterations in the very structures of how the business was done, altered everything, and yet, movies still got made. They looked and felt different, but, something called Hollywood was still there.

So now there are economic pressures changing the playing field of cinema (a common occurrence,) right at a crux point where labor unrest is resolving to stand united until real changes are implemented. What will result when the dust settles and whatever compromises are made and new deals are adopted? Will we still recognize it as cinema?

That’s the dilemma facing all the peripheral entities irrevocably tied to the producing industry. Film festivals are only relevant if you have films to fete. And if the new iteration of what we will call film in the future doesn’t fit well into the established structures of the film festivals we’ve grown to know, they’ll be in trouble in remaining as important as they once were, to the whole picture.

As we’ve discussed before, most film festivals have their own flavor, their own unique take on how to stand out from the crowd while serving the audience what they desire. Some festivals, like Toronto, cater to the glitz and glamour of the red carpet flashing lights. The pulse of the fest can be measured by the number of flashbulbs going off as the hottest actors come to promote their latest works. Take that away and that fest has the potential to feel hollow, a shadow of itself, even if most of the rest of the fest continues in step. With the Guild strikes, most of the paparazzi will be keeping their lens caps on and the boon of exposure of the fest will likely wain in that absense.

Other fests may weather the current storms a bit better. By happenstance, Telluride has evolved itself to be known as a strongly director-driven festival. Luckily for the fest, the Directors Guild has signed their new contracts and so there isn’t an obstacle to them appearing and touting their films. I looked through the just-released schedule of films and see, as usual, nearly all represented by a director present at the fest. This feels somewhat normal. But there is a palpable absence in the anticipation of what to expect. Those directors were often accompanied by several of their collaborators, actors, and writers. Not seeing them listed, especially when the names are ones that are known to enjoy their appearances here, feels funny. The director-centric moniker is well earned, but, Telluride is more than just that, and whatever this year’s event becomes it will certainly be one thing, different.

This is a glitch, of course. The actors and writers will resolve their issues and will be available for future promoting opportunities for future works. But, with the changes that will be made, with those works take on a different hue than what we’ve been used to of late? It is conceivable that significant and as yet unpredictable fallout will ensue from the changes coming. Will they be a slight realignment or a paradigm shift? At the moment, it is uncertain. You might even say, it depends. But something will survive. And we just might call it cinema. Will it change the ground plane enough so that film festivals will have to greatly alter what they do to remain relevant or will they be too stuck, unable to modify or need to change too much to stay intact? That’s a question for each festival to address on its own. We’ll have to wait and see.

But on the flight into the mountains, I accidentally witnessed a hopeful sign. Purely by chance on a three-hour flight I happened to be sitting behind two people who had not known each other prior to sitting down. One, a neophyte filmmaker coming as a film student program participant for the first time to TFF. The other I recognized as a long-standing TFF staff member. A conversation ensued that continued for the entire flight, sharing hopes and dreams, questions, and honest advice. Their enthusiastic exchange and encouraging attitudes reminded me of the real corps of all film festivals and most filmmaking endeavors. Whenever like-minded creators gather, even accidentally, they can foster and encourage a desire to keep film alive, in whatever form it will eventually take. There will always be those who hold the flame close. It will never go out.

Telluride Film Festival 2023 will be held from August 31, 2023 to September 4, 2023.