Telluride releases list of ‘combat’ movies –

A tribute to Cate Blanchett, a novel by Sam Mendes set in a theater and a series of documentaries are on the agenda for the 49th Telluride Film Festival, which starts Friday at Rock and runs through Monday.

The intimate Colorado event serves as the unofficial status of awards season, but Telluride may be most notable this year for its cinematic stories, says festival executive director Julie Huntsinger.

“There are a lot more divisive movies,” says Huntsinger, who is Mr. Will Deliver Telluride. Consultant, Tom Beer. “There is more anxiety. There’s just chaos and turmoil in the world, and that’s reflected in the movies. People are fighting for movies this year more than ever before.”

Among the films showing in Telluride that could spark heated debate in theater lobbies is Sarah Paul women are talking, starring Rooney Mara, Claire Foy and Frances McDormand in Mennonite’s #MeToo story; Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu The Bard (or a false chronicle of a handful of truths), a nearly three-hour Mexican tragicomedy; and a documentary by Matthew Heineman retrogradeOn the final months of the US’s 20-year war in Afghanistan.

Huntsinger and Ludi scheduled the council, which includes Mendes’ first public appearances. empire of lightStarring Olivia Colman and Michael Ward and Sebastian Lelio WonderfulA drama starring Florence Pugh as an English nurse investigating a starving girl.

A Silver Medallion tribute to Paul is also planned, marking the director’s fourth feature film; Blanchett, who comes to the festival with the Todd Field drama Tar, in which the director of the German orchestra plays; and prolific Irish documentary filmmaker Mark Cousins, who will screen two new films, March to RomeOn Mussolini’s coming to power and my name is alfred hitchcockAbout the English director.

Some films that premiered at European festivals will make their North American debuts, including the coming-of-age film by Luca Guadagnino. bones and allWith Timothée Chalamet, which opens in Venice; A South Korean drama by Hirokazu Kore-eda Hall, which won Best Actor at Cannes in May; and James Gray’s period drama armageddon timeStarring Anne Hathaway and Jeremy Strong, who also appeared at Cannes.

This year’s Telluride will be quite different from the 2021 festival, which was dominated by COVID protocols, with the festival requiring proof of vaccination, a negative COVID test within 72 hours, and the use of masks indoors. This year, Telluride isn’t making such demands. “I hope everyone wears a mask, and I think a lot of people will, but we’re getting closer. [COVID] How does the rest of the world, which is endemic, deal with it? says Hunsinger.

However, the pandemic continues to play a role in the festival world, big and small. The production is more reluctant to release the actors from filming to promote their films: the producers will not allow Chalamet and Pugh to be filming. Dune To Europe to fly to Telluride for his movies. The city of Telluride has enjoyed a housing boom during the pandemic, which has priced up much of its workforce and increased housing costs for many Telluride ticket holders, a trend that worries Huntsinger. “I never want it to become something that people who don’t have Gulf Streams can’t participate,” he says. And even supply chain problems plagued the festival: this year there will be no Boylan’s Soda, one of its main concessions.

Last year’s Telluride list reflected a post-Covid boom, as producers and distributors who put their films on hold until theaters reopened reaped a bountiful harvest. Film deliveries are lower this year, reflecting the production stoppage during the pandemic.

But Huntsinger says of the Telluride shale: “We will always be like Bordeaux. Even in a bad year, we will have a good harvest.”

The schedule is particularly heavy on documentaries this year, including Brian Fogel’s sequel to a 2017 Oscar win. icaro, Icarus: The Consequences, who captures Russian scientist Grigory Rodchenkov; Steve James a nice spy, about a scientist from the Manhattan Project; white ryan good night oops, about a Mars rover that exceeded expectations; by Matt Tyrnauer The end of the world, about Bennington College in the 1980s; and Eva Weber MerkelAbout German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Some documents come with paternal ties: Robert Downey Jr. brings a film about his director father to the call. Bossis a director bad vegan directed by Chris Smith; Mary McCartney is the director. If these walls could sing, above Abbey Road Studios, where his father Paul recorded with the Beatles; And Ondi Timoner is the director. last flight manAnd, about your father’s suicide.

Russian dissident filmmakers Kantemir Balagov and Kira Kovalenko will present a list of films from Iranian cinema as guest directors of the festival (1987 Where is the friend’s house?), France (1934 L’Atalant) and the Soviet Union (1978 Getting to know the big wild world).

The festival also celebrates one of its most notable regulars this year, Werner Herzog. The German director celebrates his 80th birthday here with his own screening of two films:The Fire Within: A Requiem for Katya and Maurice KraftAbout two French volcanologists and theater of thoughtAbout the human brain – like the movie about it, Werner Herzog: radical dreamerDirected by Thomas von Steinacker. The Duke has come to Telluride nearly every year since 1975, and one of its main theaters, which is also a hockey rink, is named in his honor.