Telluride Film Festival unveils 53rd edition Oscar contenders

MUMBAI: The Oscar race is officially getting its mountain legs, as the Telluride Film Festival prepares to open its 53rd edition on Friday with a lineup packed with world premieres, festival favourites and early awards contenders.

Running through Monday, Telluride will showcase several films expected to feature prominently in the North American awards conversation, including world premieres such as Elsinore, starring Andrew Scott as late Chariots of Fire actor Ian Charleson; Jesse Eisenberg’s musical The Debut, led by Oscar winner Julianne Moore; Mike Leigh’s Tender Loving Care; Guy Nattiv’s The Liberation, starring Carrie Coon as a Holocaust survivor drawn into a cult; and Tenzing, about the Sherpa who accompanied Edmund Hillary to the summit of Mount Everest.

The festival will also bring together films that have already made noise at other major festivals. Sundance titles Once Upon a Time in Harlem and The Only Living Pickpocket in New York will screen alongside Berlin selection Rose, for which Sandra Hüller won the best actress prize.

From Cannes, the lineup includes Palme d’Or winner Fjord, Grand Prize winner Minotaur, directing co-winners Fatherland and La Bola Negra, as well as Avedon, Club Kid, Gentle Monster and The Man I Love.

A handful of films arriving from the ongoing Venice Film Festival will add further awards-season intrigue. They include Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine, starring John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell; Danny Boyle’s Ink, which explores Rupert Murdoch’s early steps towards becoming a media mogul; Werner Herzog’s Bucking Fastard, featuring sisters Kate and Rooney Mara; and Everest: The Other Side, the documentary from Free Solo Oscar winners Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi.

Telluride’s tradition of celebrating filmmakers and performers continues this year, with actress Rebecca Hall serving as guest director. Career tributes will go to Malkovich, Hüller and indie filmmaker Andrew Haigh, whose latest film A Long Winter will also debut at the festival.

One actor is particularly hard to miss this year. Léa Seydoux appears in an unprecedented three films in the lineup Gentle Monster, Alpha Gang and The Unknown with festival director Julie Huntsinger praising the markedly different performances.

The programme also carries a strong thread of displacement and political upheaval. Two Russian exile filmmakers, Minotaur director Andrey Zvyagintsev and My Undesirable Friends: Part II – Exile filmmaker Julia Loktev, are expected at the festival. Other films explore AI, events in Minnesota, exile from Berlin in the 1930s and the disappearance of a father in Syria.

The festival itself has had a plot twist of its own. One of its marquee venues, the Palm Theatre, was significantly damaged by a flash flood over the summer. Huntsinger said repairs have been completed and the venue successfully hosted an EDM concert over two nights last week. The lobby and aisles will be without carpeting, but the theatre is expected to operate normally for the festival.

Telluride will also mark the 10th anniversary of Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight, which premiered at the festival before going on to win the Academy Award for best picture. Jenkins, a longtime member of the festival community, will present the anniversary screening as well as curate and present its shorts programme.

The festival’s relationship with its autumn rivals remains less harmonious. Huntsinger said Telluride, Venice and Toronto were unlikely to stop competing over premieres and exclusivity, pointing to the different pressures created by government funding and sponsors. Telluride, she said, relies on its audience, community and stakeholders and therefore protects the festival’s tradition of unveiling films that audiences have not already seen elsewhere.

With its mix of premieres, Cannes and Sundance holdovers, Venice arrivals and heavyweight tributes, Telluride once again finds itself where the awards conversation likes to begin before the red carpets get crowded and the Oscar predictions get serious.