Telluride Film Festival

 

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32nd poster, by Dave McKean
32nd poster, by Dave McKean

The Telluride Film Festival was started in 1974 by Bill and Stella Pence, Tom Luddy and Jim Card in the town of Telluride, Colorado. It is operated by the National Film Preserve, LTD.

During the 33rd Festival, Bill and Stella Pence announced that they would be retiring as Director and Managing Director. Gary Meyer was announced as the new Co-Director, with Tom Luddy. Julie Huntsinger was later hired to act as Managing Director. The festival is now based in Berkeley, California after years of having been based in Hanover, New Hampshire and later Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It is held on Labor Day weekend each year, although you will not find the word “annual” on any information, posters or announcements regarding the festival.

The program is a mix of forgotten gems and films making their North American, and in some cases World, premieres. Each year, tributes are paid to directors and actors who have fundamentally changed the world of film.

Some noteworthy film premieres include: Sling Blade, Roger & Me, Gummo, The Crying Game, Amélie, El Mariachi, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Swingers, Nosferatu, City of God, Bowling for Columbine,* El Norte, Rushmore, My Dinner with André, To End All Wars, Lost in Translation, The Qatsi Trilogy, Shattered Glass, Touching the Void, House of Flying Daggers,* The Fog of War,* Finding Neverland, Brokeback Mountain, Walk the Line, Capote, Conversations with Other Women, Elephant,* Gunner Palace, Kinsey, Yes, Cyrano de Bergerac and The Civil War by perennial attendee Ken Burns. (Asterisks indicate American, not worldwide, premieres.)

Tributes have been paid to artists such as Gloria Swanson, Jack Nicholson, Gérard Depardieu, Clint Eastwood, Fay Wray, Klaus Kinski, Laura Linney, Isabelle Huppert, and Jodie Foster. The list of directors who've accepted Telluride tributes includes: Francis Ford Coppola, Werner Herzog, Chuck Jones, Robert Altman, Andrei Tarkovsky, Pedro Almodóvar, Ken Burns and Neil Jordan.

Not to be confused with Mountainfilm in Telluride, another film festival held annually in Telluride over Memorial Day weekend.

Contents

Special Honors

There are no prizes or awards given, unlike other film festivals. Instead, simply being included in the program is an honor that a mere 40 or so films get to earn each year. The primary focus is on independent film. In addition to features, a number of shorts and student films are also selected from myriad submissions each year. The program is created by co-directors Gary Meyer, Tom Luddy and a third, carefully chosen "guest director" each year. Past guest directors include Errol Morris, Peter Bogdanovich, Bertrand Tavernier, Salman Rushdie, Don DeLillo, Peter Sellars, Stephen Sondheim and Buck Henry, among others.

While the selection process involved in putting the program together is highly competitive, there are no juried awards given at this festival. There are, however, special honors bestowed upon a few people each year. These include:

Working for the festival

A staff of over 500 volunteers comes together each year to build venues, project films, serve popcorn, and host special events. Each year, the festival offers a small number of production apprentice positions that people over the age of 21 can apply for. A wage is paid and housing is provided to these lucky few.

Film entry

Unsolicited works may be submitted for consideration from May 1 to July 15 each year. Movies of any length, in any format, and in all genres and disciplines are eligible for consideration. Professional and amateur filmmakers working in all aesthetic disciplines and genres are welcome. The TFF has one key restriction, however, on feature length films: any works 60 minutes or longer which have had any public exposure in North America prior to the Labor Day event are immediately precluded from consideration.

The 34th Festival 2007

The 33rd Festival 2006

33rd poster, by John Canemaker Program PDF download: http://telluridefilmfestival.org/pdfs/33tffguide_abcd.pdf
33rd poster, by John Canemaker
Program PDF download: http://telluridefilmfestival.org/pdfs/33tffguide_abcd.pdf

Festival trivia

 Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (September 2007)

Each year, a small painting is applied to the sidewalk outside the Sheridan Hotel to commemorate the near fatality of festival director Tom Luddy.

The festival operations/production department is unofficially known as Vespucci Pictures, whose slogan is "Save a buck, make a buck".

There is a festival super hero; bike riding Cookie Boy.

Unlike most other film festivals, the Telluride Film Festival does not announce its program line-up in advance. Filmgoers purchase festival passes on faith, and the schedule is released the day before the Festival begins.

The Telluride Film Festival is rated among top 10 international festivals, as well as among the top 5 of U.S. Festivals, alongside Sundance, Austin Film Fest, AFI Fest and Tribeca.

External links