2024 Telluride Film Festival Report – The Lineup is Major League

Telluride Film Festival director Julie Huntsinger rewards our breathless anticipation with expressions of her own, “We’re delighted to now share what we found to be the most exciting, interesting and profound works on film of this year. Our Telluride Film Festival community is remarkable, and we’re so grateful for the passion and enthusiasm they bring. May the community of film lovers continue to grow and find their way to movie theaters everywhere.”

The announcement of films are broad reaching and each unique. A collection of narratives and documentaries, brand new films alongside classic, rarely seen cinema and old faves. Although we never know exactly what we’re going to get we’re never surprised that the selection is so loaded with potential for wonderment and awe.

The List

I would be remiss in not including the list of films, even if the bare-bones elements are now available in every report from the festival. Here are the films. I’ll follow this with a few thoughts, observations and hopes to put my own spin on the feast we’re about to embark upon.

The SHOW

New feature films and episodic works to play in the main program, the SHOW:

· PIECE BY PIECE (d. Morgan Neville, U.S., 2024)

Shorts

Additionally, three short films will be screened together:

As well as the usual collections of shorts within the Filmmakers of Tomorrow’s three programs curated by Barry Jenkins and Gregory Nava, Student Prints, Calling Cards and Great Expectations.

And dominated by documentary films, the offerings in the intimate Backlot venue include:

Presentations and Classics

No Telluride Film Festival would be complete without the experiences that only occur while here. Hand-picked classics, special screenings, live music accompaniment to long silent films, recognition awards for a few of cinema’s greats, and the ever popular Noon Seminars and Conversations can’t be found anywhere else and shouldn’t be missed.

This year’s Guest Director Kenneth Lonergan has hand-picked five classics of film cinema to entertain us:

The 2024 Silver Medallion Awards will be presented to award-winning French filmmaker Jacques Audiard (with EMILIA PÉREZ); Academy Award-nominated actress Saoirse Ronan (with THE OUTRUN); and Oscar-winning editor Thelma Schoonmaker. This year’s Special Medallion award goes to French film company Les Films du Losange (with MISERICORDIA).

Thoughts, Observations and Hopes

As you can see above, there is a lot to chew on and consider. We can anticipate that any of these films that have made it up the mountain are deserving cinema. Which will rise to be remembered and great or groundbreaking or the crème of the crop, we’ll have to wait and see.

I do note, that because of the loss of one of the venues, namely the currently being renovated Nugget mentioned in my last post, it’ll be interesting to see how they schedule all these films without having too many sold-out showings, always a concern. And since I wondered in my last missive whether the attendance numbers of invited press would show the industry turmoil, the fest assures that they’ve not seen any drop in press people. Sure, the individual outlets ebb and flow in how many they send each year, but, they have seen no significant drop in aggregate. This heartens me knowing that, whatever else is going on in the industry, coming to Telluride is still a priority for those truly interested in the best of what film has to offer.

I hope to see a lot of great films. I have no idea which ones they will be just yet. But, I know the quality level will not disappoint. After all, this is Telluride. More to come, soon.

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