Telluride 2018: World Premieres, Special Tributes, Oscar Dreams

by Nathaniel R

Kidman will be travelling a lot this week with Boy Erased and Destroyer both hitting Telluride and TIFF We don't attend Telluride and are morally opposed to it, in point of fact, since they actually charge the press (and not a cheap charge either) to glorify their name. Curiously the press happily oblige so it's the most elitist of all the festivals, essentially. Weirdly, though, it's not hated despite everybody being so up in arms about the elitism of Oscar season... remarkably some of the same folks who sing Telluride's praises also bitch at the Oscars for their elitism. Cognitive dissonance runs amok in today's world. 

Nevertheless Telluride have positioned themselves as an Oscar giant. Each year they convince filmmakers to forego glitzier world premieres at other major festivals like TIFF and Venice to play in the beautiful mountains to well-moneyed folk for a couple of days. The future Best Picture winner usually plays here even if it sometimes premieres elsewhere (often at Venice, if not here).

So here's their lineup this year with their world premieres in red, plus a note on curious omissions... 

FEATURES

• BIRDS OF PASSAGE (Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego) - Colombia's Oscar submission. Premiered at Cannes
• BORDER (d. Ali Abbasi, Sweden, 2018) - Sweden's Oscar submission. Premiered at Cannes
• BOY ERASED (Joel Edgerton)
• CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME? (Marielle Heller)
• COLD WAR (Pawel Pawlikowski) - Expected to be Poland's Oscar submission. Premiered at Cannes
• DESTROYER (Karyn Kusama) - World Premiere
• DOGMAN (Matteo Garrone) - Expected to be Italy's Oscar submission. Premiered at Cannes
• DOVLATOV (Aleksei German) - From Russia. Premiered at Berlinale
• FIRST MAN (Damien Chazelle) - Premiered at Venice
• GIRL (Lukas Dhont) - Belgium's Oscar submission. Premiered at Cannes
• NON FICTION (Olivier Assayas) - France. Premiered at Venice
• PETERLOO (Mike Leigh) - from the UK. Premiered at Venice
• ROMA (Alfonso Cuarón) - Expected to be Mexico's Oscar submission. Premiered at Venice.
• SHOPLIFTERS (Hirokazu Kore-eda) - Japan's Oscar submission. Won the Palme d'or at Cannes
• THE FAVOURITE (Yorgos Lanthimos) from the UK. -Premiered at Venice
• THE FRONT RUNNER (Jason Reitman) -- and the trailer was also just released so here it is:

• THE OLD MAN & THE GUN (David Lowery)
• THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND (Orson Welles) - from 1976. Premiered at Venice
• THE WHITE CROW (Ralph Fiennes)
• TRIAL BY FIRE (Ed Zwick)
• WHITE BOY RICK (Yann Demange)

All of the titles in red are having their international premiere at TIFF except The White Crow and Trial by Fire. 

DOCUMENTARIES

• ANGELS ARE MADE OF LIGHT (James Longley)
• BE NATURAL: THE UNTOLD STORY OF ALICE GUY-BLACHÉ (Pamela E. Green)
• FREE SOLO (Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi)
• GHOST FLEET (Shannon Service and Jeffrey Waldron)
• GRAVES WITHOUT A NAME (Rithy Panh) - from Cambodia
• MEETING GORBACHEV (Werner Herzog and André Singer)
• REVERSING ROE (Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg)
• THE GREAT BUSTER (Peter Bogdanovich)
• THEY’LL LOVE ME WHEN I’M DEAD (Morgan Neville)
• WATERGATE – OR, HOW WE LEARNED TO STOP AN OUT-OF-CONTROL PRESIDENT (Charles Ferguson)

Two Films that don't even have IMDb pages yet so we know nothing of them

• FISTFUL OF DIST (Sebastian Silva)
• THE BIGGEST LITTLE FARM (John and Molly Chester)

Special Tributes... Oscar campaigning always starts early, y'all

• Emma Stone (The Favourite)
• Alfonso Cuaron (Roma)
• Rithy Panh (Graves Without a Name)

Retrospective Screenings

• Angel (Ernst Lubitsch, 1937)
• Bigger Than Life (Nicholas Ray, 1956)
• El Norte (Gregory Nava, 1983)
• Food, Inc. (Robert Kenner, 2008)
• Never Cry Wolf (Carroll Ballard, 1983)
• The Tarnished Angels (Douglas Sirk, 1957)
• To Be Or Not To Be (Ernst Lubitsch, 1942)

Three very notable omissions this year that are suspected to be Oscar contenders: Beautiful Boy (Toronto), A Star is Born (Venice), and Widows (Toronto). Films that are skipping the festival circuit this year are November/December titles like Mary Queen of Scots, Welcome to Marwen, On the Basis of Sex, and Mary Poppins Returns though you can bet that at least a couple of those will show up at the AFI fest in November in Los Angeles which is the last festival premiere option before Oscar season proper.

Here's where the last 20 Best Picture Winners had their premieres so you can see how this has been evolving:

1998 Shakespeare in Love (regular movie theater premiere)
1999 American Beauty (regular movie theater premiere)
2000 Gladiator (regular movie theater premiere)
2001 A Beautiful Mind (regular movie theater premiere)
2002 Chicago (regular movie theater premiere)
2003 Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (regular movie theater premiere)
2004 Million Dollar Baby (regular movie theater premiere)
2005 Crash (TIFF the year before)
2006 The Departed (regular movie theater premiere)
2007 No Country for Old Men (Cannes)
2008 Slumdog Millionaire (Telluride)
2009 The Hurt Locker (Venice the year before)
2010 The King's Speech (Telluride)
2011 The Artist (Cannes)
2012 Argo (Telluride)
2013 12 Years a Slave (Telluride)
2014 Birdman (Venice)
2015 Spotlight (Venice)
2016 Moonlight (Telluride)
2017 The Shape of Water (Venice)

Comments

[markgordonuk]

I like Hugh Jackman but he seems to be and it's hard to judge on 2 mins but acting with an A in the trailer.

[Tr]

And what's wrong with that?

[Mareko]

American Beauty famously premiered at TIFF (and won the People's Choice award award) in '99, didn't it?

[Jon]

Ralph Fiennes's The White Crow will be this year Phantom Thread. Trust me, people! Maybe we have Ralph retiring to the gold 25 years later of Schindler's List and Hamlet (Broadway).

Go, Ralph!! Gooo!!

[Brad]

Ooh, I just picked my movies for TIFF today! I'm very excited. I can't wait to watch Kidman in Destroyer. Not sure if I should try to find some last minute tickets to Boy Erased.

[Suzanne]

Jon, I so hope you are correct about The White Crow. Nobody is talking about it, but of course that may mean nothing. I thought Coriolanus was fantastic but was only middling on The Invisible Woman.

[Jon]

@Suzanne

The invisible woman didn't catch me neither. Except the look, especially the costumes and cinematography.

But I really hope that The White Crow is that good like Coriolanus.

[BJT]

I know The Other Side of the Wind is technically 1976, but given it's only come together as a film in the last couple of years could it, theoretically, be campaigned for awards for this year?

I think the longest a film sat on the shelf before getting Oscar attention was Jessica Lange & Blue Sky with 3 years between Orion pictures going backrupt and director Tony Richardson's death and it's eventual release/awards run.

[AlexD]

Worth noting that even though they haven't premiered at Telluride, that's the only festival where all BP winners have shown in the last decade. The last BP not to be in Telluride was The King's Speech

[Geekteller]

Awards season is upon us :) I'm curious to see Roma (already getting buzz), Boy Erased, Destroyer (Lucas Hedge and Nicole Kidman are gonna have a busy awards season, they both have at least 2 buzz-worthy movies coming out)

[Kaycee Windler]

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