2024 Telluride Film Festival Report – The Calm Before the Storm

Weather in Telluride is always unpredictable, so, even though the forecasts for the Labor Day weekend are anticipating afternoon shower possibilities nearly every day, who knows what we’re actually going to get. That unpredictability is par for the course when considering the films and stars coming and how the industry will react to the fare presented. That’s part of the experience and always has been of what we about to witness at this year’s Telluride Film Festival.

As I sit and acclimate to the altitude arriving a few days prior to the start of the fest proper, I take time to reflect on our industry’s current situations and what that may portend for the future of all. Mind you, my personal prognostications are often wrong (just look back on my tweeted predictions as to what films I’d like to see here through the previous months, lined up against the films that actually play in the mountains.) But hopefully, a little musing might bring up some questions of where the most potential changes may be brewing and maybe, if lucky, a little light gets shined on some possible answers.

You hear the numbers muttered about in every corner of the industry and they seem dire. Forty percent less production in LA than the peak years of the high point of television driven production just a few years back. Double-digit drops in production from just last year due to a multitude of factors, some conflicting with other explanations. The facts stand, the interpretations are debated but all can agree that traditional production is in turmoil.

With some believed blockbusters more bust than block while surprising second-stringer films knock it out of the park the industry pundits of late adjust to getting things wrong a lot or learn to keep their mouth shut. With streamers reeling as if they’ve lost hold of the water hose at full blast, it is difficult to speculate which direction is the correction needed to keep things flowing.

With the recent and ongoing budget cuts, re-organizations and shutdowns, the film press contingent will likely be altered on the ground here as well. You can get a sense of how it feels to be a film critic right now by reading some of the somewhat bitter reactions some critics expressed with the Lionsgate trailer of Megalopolis and its made up critic quotes. I understood the sentiment of being undervalued, but, some of the vitriol came across as petty and whimpery. One has to admit that those who follow film and give critical reviews of what they watch are much less a part of the moving and shaking of the marketing industry of films than they were long ago.

The industry has changed. How it gets covered has changed as well. It just might be that how it gets covered in the future will reveal even further change. It has never been easy, nor particularly very rewarding for most of us, to cover films. What gets most of us through it is we love films and filmmakers and want to shout to the rooftops when we’ve discovered a good one. How we do that may change, but, our hearts are still in it. And as the footing under our feet shifts, we’ll need to keep our heads up while we move along with it.

Last year, because of the strikes, there was a forced change in which filmmakers were in attendance. We saw an unusually large number of editors called up to fill the ranks in the film discussion panel. (You could tell them because they had pasty complexions and kept blinking at the sunlight, wondering what it was.) It was relayed to me that this allowed some fest goers to take the absence of “stars” to adopt a more zen-like experience-oriented approach to the event, an attitude I adopted long ago to go with what opportunities and surprises this unique fest offers.

This year should be more in the old mold, even with one of the regular venues out of the mix, (the Nugget theater is in the midst of a massive renovation along with the rest of the building that the Film Festival purchased as part of a long term plan to give a permanent home to the fest year-round within the town of Telluride). It is likely that the actors will be back in full force and you’ll be hard-pressed to see editors in the mix, (with possibly one very special exception). Strolling the streets between venues and rubbing shoulders with the famous will likely be familiar again.

Will this herald a return to the Telluride of old, the first champion of this year’s award winners and film accolades to come? Is that status even possible anymore? It has become harder and harder to predict where the buzziest award fare will be found and with the changes in the industry, it may be impossible to return to the days where Telluride’s crystal ball was finely tuned. Telluride Film Festival will definitely continue to exist if that doesn’t happen. It existed in its own little Brigadoon before that run and will retain its unique qualities of a fest hopefully long into the future.

Will anything return to what it once was? Will we recognize the industry, festivals or filmmakers when the deluge of changes flows through the streets? Or will we have to adapt and change along with filmmaking while it pulls itself up by its roots and finds fresh earth to replant in? Only time will tell. 

We’ll keep watch and report back what we see in the meantime. Our best advice? Weather the storms, sometimes even the most powerful tumult contains great beauty and surprise.

The 2024 Telluride Film Festival runs August 30 - September 2.