Sept. 04--It'll get noisier, once the screenings Friday afternoon commence at nine different venues, and several thousand visitors try to squeeze into the same 17 restaurants.
But arriving in Telluride Thursday evening for the 42nd edition of this film festival was, like, where's the festival? Too quiet. Too much glaring serenity, amid such striking Colorado scenery (stating the obvious here). No deadline sweat to be detected, yet, on the brows of the working journalists cover the film festival veterans describe as "Sundance 20 years ago," before Sundance became a snow-caked monster.
Telluride, which I reached after driving a few serene hours north from Albuquerque, has been described variously as the Tiffany of international film festivals, and the most charming boutique festival in North America, if not the world. It's 8,750 feet up in the San Juan mountains, taking over a tony ski town dotted with Sotheby's real estate signs and $36 entrees on the menus taped to the bistro windows along Colorado Avenue.
The news coming out of the Venice film festival (wrapping up this weekend) on certain high-profile Telluride titles, "Spotlight" and "Black Mass" among them, has been very encouraging. This morning there's a meet-and-greet "patron brunch" followed, if reports are correct, by an early look at the Davis Guggenheim documentary "He Named Me Malala," part of the official line-up. It profiles Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani girl who spoke out against the Taliban and nearly paid for it with her life.
Under grey and rainy skies, Friday brings a pileup of competing screenings including the Cate Blanchett/Rooney Mara "Carol" (saw it at Cannes; it's very good), which is the centerpiece of a Mara tribute. Also screening: "Room," "Amazing Grace," the world premiere of "Suffragette," "Anomalisa" and too many more.
For now, I take heart from what Telluride festival co-director Julie Huntsinger told Eric Kohn of indiewire.com regarding how the Telluride slate may affect the awards season conversation, i.e., the Oscars.
"I don't think the conversations will be quite as loud this year," she said. "There is a steadiness to the films and a balance in quality. Sometimes there are things that are so super sparkly and explosive. This year, we have films that require a lot of thought. If that means awards people get bored, so be it."
