'Shame,' 'The Artist,' 'The Descendants,' 'Albert Nobbs' & More Journey To Telluride This Weekend

‘Tinker Tailor Solider Spy’ Remains MIA On North American Festival Shores


While Venice has kicked off the fall festival season in grand style, the awards season really starts with Telluride. Reactions from the hippie resort film festival have proven to be a crystal ball at both box office and awards season performance and for many studios, cause to tweak and adjust their fall plans accordingly based on what happens in Colorado. Moreover, with TIFF right around the corner, a strong showing at Telluride can often put a previously under the radar the film into a strong spotlight in Toronto. “Up In The Air,” “Juno,” “Slumdog Millionaire” and “Brokeback Mountain” are just some of the films that have benefited in the past, and with today’s announced lineup, we could see the game change for a few more films.

The first thing to note is that unlike past years, there is no big premiere here. While rumors of “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” making an appearance at Telluride have been rife in the past few days, it seems that Venice still remains it’s only festival appearance and Focus Features seems determined to blue ball North American press until December when the movie opens. No matter, as there are plenty of other titles to focus on. Michel Hazanavicius‘ “The Artist,” Alexander Payne‘s “The Descendants,” Steve McQueen‘s “Shame,” David Cronenberg‘s “A Dangerous Method,” and Lynne Ramsay‘s “We Need To Talk About Kevin” are easily the big enchiladas of the lineup. However, we’re wondering if the real story of the fest might not be “Albert Nobbs” with Glenn Close in a cross-dressing period drama. The film has been on the downlow thus far, but a strong showing here could suddenly propel it into Oscar talk (and certainly, there has already been some good buzz for Close in the film). But there is plenty more to discover.

Foreign film fans will be treated to the Dardennes‘ solid “The Kid With The Bike,” Aki Kaurismaki‘s crowd-pleasing and heartwarming “Le Havre” and the Chilean po-mo romantic comedy “Bonsai.” Remember the 2004 drug-mule drama “Maria Full Of Grace”? Well director Joshua Marston is back with “The Forgiveness Of Blood,” his Albanian blood feud drama that we actually recently saw in Melbourne, but its inclusion here is certainly intriguing.

On the documentary front: Werner Herzog will present his latest about death row prisoners “Into The Abyss” (and it received a pre-fest bump by being picked up by Sundance Selects); Wim Wenders will unveil his 3D dance pic “Pina” and Martin Scorsese will show off his epic George Harrison flick “Living In The Material World.”

Anyway, lots to dive into including a couple movies that are fascinating mysteries (“The Way Home“? “Target“?) which are hoping to get some big boosts. Telluride runs from September 2-5, check out the slate below. [via Deadline]

38th Telluride Film Festival is proud to present the following new feature films to play in its main program, the ‘SHOW’:

· ALBERT NOBBS (d. Rodrigo Garcia, U.S., 2011)

· THE ARTIST (d. Michel Hazanavicius, France, 2011)

· BECOMING BERT STERN (d. Shannah Laumeister, U.S., 2011)

· BITTER SEEDS (d. Micha X. Peled, U.S., 2011)

· BONSÁI (d. Cristián Jiménez, Chile, 2011)

· A DANGEROUS METHOD (d. David Cronenberg, U.K.-Switzerland-U.S.-Canada, 2011)

· THE DESCENDANTS (d. Alexander Payne, U.S., 2011)

· DIANA VREELAND: THE EYE HAS TO TRAVEL (d. Lisa Immordino-Vreeland, U.S., 2011)

· FOOTNOTE (d. Joseph Cedar, Israel, 2011)

· THE FORGIVENESS OF BLOOD (d. Joshua Marston, U.S.-Albania-Denmark-Italy, 2011)

· GOODBYE FIRST LOVE (d. Mia Hansen-Løve, France, 2011)

· LE HAVRE (d. Aki Kaurismäki, Finland, 2011)

· HOLLYWOOD DON’T SURF (d. Greg Macgillivray, Sam George, U.S., 2011)

· IN DARKNESS (d. Agnieszka Holland, Poland, 2011)

· INTO THE ABYSS: A TALE OF DEATH, A TALE OF LIFE (d. Werner Herzog, U.S., 2011)

· THE ISLAND PRESIDENT (d. Jon Shenk, U.S., 2011)

· THE KID WITH A BIKE (d. Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Belgium, 2011)

· LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD (d. Martin Scorsese, U.S., 2011)

· PASSERBY (d. Eryk Rocha, Brazil, 2011)

· PERDIDA (d. Viviana García Besné, Mexico, 2011)

· PINA (d. Wim Wenders, Germany, 2011)

· A SEPARATION (d. Asghar Farhadi, Iran, 2011)

· SHAME (d. Steve McQueen, U.K., 2011)

· THE STORY OF FILM: AN ODYSSEY (d. Mark Cousins, U.K., 2011)

· TARGET (d. Alexander Zeldovich, Russia, 2011)

· THE TURIN HORSE (d. Béla Tarr, Hungary, 2011)

· THE WAY HOME (d. Dr. Biju, India, 2010)

· WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN (d. Lynne Ramsey, U.K., 2011)