This is the first in a series of stories from the 2008 Telluride Film Festival that is held over the Labor Day weekend. Offerings will include "Sneak Reviews," a quick look at a film screened the previous night; "High on Telluride," highlights of some of the group discussions and celebrity appearances; and "Festival Buzzwords," focusing on what's getting the most attention — good or bad — throughout the weekend.
The 35th Telluride Film Festival on Thursday announced its lineup of eclectic movies and events that will run through the Labor Day weekend and noticeably missing was a list of high-profile actors and sure-fire Academy Award-contending films.
Maybe some of the blame for upstaging this little slice of heaven at 8,750 feet tucked into the southwestern corner of Colorado can go to the Democratic National Convention, with Spike Lee, Susan Sarandon, Ashley Judd, and Anne Hathaway supplying plenty of star power, or the Venice Film Festival, where George Clooney and Brad Pitt already have appeared this week to promote the upcoming Coen Brothers farce Burn After Reading.
There are expected to be several “sneak previews” and surprise attendees over the weekend in Telluride, though, and the four-day event never seems to disappoint.
In the past three years alone, the eventual Academy Award winners for best actor have attended. Philip Seymour Hoffman (Capote), Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland) and Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood) brought insight to their upcoming projects.
The tributes that honor some of best performers and filmmakers continue this year. Among the honorees are: Denver-born director David Fincher (Zodiac, Fight Club, Se7en), whose highly-anticipated Christmas Day release, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, starring Pitt and Cate Blanchett, will be part of the tribute in the form of a 20-minute snippet; acclaimed actress Jean Simmons (Guys and Dolls, Spartacus, Elmer Gantry), who has been making movies for more than 60 years and was nominated for a best actress Oscar for Hamlet in 1949 and The Happy Ending in 1969; and and Jan Troell, a Swedish filmmaker known for his Oscar-nominated companion pieces, The Emigrants and The New Land.
Richard Schickel, longtime film critic (Time), author, and documentary filmmaker, on Saturday will be presented the festival’s Special Medallion award, which “honors the passionate heroes of cinema.”
Article comments