Telluride Film Festival Set With World Premieres Of Sam Mendes’ ‘Empire Of Light’, Sarah Polley’s ‘Women Talking’, Cate Blanchett Tribute And More

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The 49th Telluride Film Festival opens Friday in a much-awaited edition that is set to feature world premieres of Searchlight’s Oscar hopeful Empire of Light from director Sam Mendes, starring Olivia Coleman and Colin Firth; Women Talking from director Sarah Polley, starring Rooney Mara and Frances McDormand in the ensemble; Sebastian Lelio’s The Wonder, starring Florence Pugh; and Sony/Netflix’s sizzling new version of D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover with Emma Corrin and Jack O’Connell; among other films.

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Considered a must stop on the awards circuit, Telluride also will feature Silver Medallion tributes to Cate Blanchett, docu filmmaker Mark Cousins and Polley. Netflix, Searchlight, Sony Pictures Classics, Amazon and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are among those also throwing dinners and parties over the Labor Day weekend event, which runs September 2-5 in the Colorado Rockies town.

In addition to the world premieres, there will be several films making their North American debuts after premiering at Cannes in May or at Venice, which is running simultaneously and opened Wednesday night with Noah Baumbach’s White Noise. Among Venice films making the trek to Telluride are Blanchett’s Tár, which is director Todd Field’s first film in 16 years and contains a heavily awards-buzzed turn from its star; five-time Oscar winner Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s first feature in seven years, and perhaps his most personal, with the three-hour-plus Bardo; Luca Guadagnino’s Bones and All, starring Timothée Chalamet, and the director’s wonderful documentary on Ferragamo, Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams, which premiered at Venice in 2020 but only now is making it stateside bow ahead of its November theatrical release from Sony Pictures Classics. Additionally a documentary debuting in Venice today also will show up this weekend in T-Ride: Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy from Nancy Buirski.

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Cannes titles include its Grand Prize winner Close from Belgian helmer Lukas Dhont and A24; Hirokazu Kor-eda’s Broker; the Iranian serial-killer drama Holy Spider; James Gray’s Armageddon Time from Focus Features, with stars Jeremy Strong and Anne Hathaway joining the director in person; Davy Chou’s Korean pic Return to Seoul; and Mia Hansen-Love’s terrific One Fine Morning. 

If anything might define this 49th edition of Telluride, however, it is the multitude of documentaries of all stripes that will be premiering including Good Night Oppy,  Amazon’s and Amblin’s ambitious retelling of the 14-year Mars Rover expedition, which has been called a cross between WALL-E and The Martian. Amazon also has Wildcat, which chronicles a war veteran’s efforts to prepare orphaned ocelots in the Peruvian jungles to live on their own. Among other docus will be Retrograde, Matthew Heineman’s account of the last days of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan; the first docu portrait of former German leader Angela Merkel, appropriately called Merkel; Greg LeMond Tour de France tale The Last Rider; SPC’s country music saga The Return of Tanya Tucker featuring Brandi Carlisle; and on another musical note there is Paul McCartney’s daughter Mary McCartney’s account of the famous Abbey Road studio, If These Walls Could Sing.

Silver Medallion honoree Cousins, who just debuted his docu The March on Rome in Venice, also will have his clever My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock, narrated by a Hitchcock soundalike, on display at Telluride. Telluride regular Werner Herzog — who has his own theater named after him at the festival — is back with a new docu, Theatre of Thought, and filmmaker Chris Smith and Robert Downey Jr. will be in town showing Sr., the story of Downey’s dad. Bryan Fogel will be on hand with the sequel to his Oscar-winning Icarus, and Matt Tyrnauer’s latest, The End of the World, will be there as well.

Also set are Anton Corbijn’s album-cover docu Squaring the Circle; 1314 Frames of Love and War, which profiles war photographer Micha Bar Am; and a Sundance debut, Living, with Bill Nighy. MTV Films’ Last Flight Home is a remarkable and riveting look at one man’s right-to-die journey as seen through the lens of his filmmaker daughter Ondi Timoner. There also will be numerous docu shorts including Guerrilla Habeas, examining the herculean efforts of immigration lawyers and directed by Betsy Hershey and Emma Wall, the latter married to the aforementioned Jeremy Strong, so husband and wife will both be hitting the mountain town with different films, just to keep it all in the family.

Telluride festgoers can, as usual, expect a couple of “sneaks” that aren’t listed in the release but are using the opportunity to pop in as a surprise.

Along with my colleague Todd McCarthy, a four-decade veteran of the fest, and our latest Deadline addition columnist Baz Bamigboye, we will be covering it all weekend as the nascent 2022 Oscar race kicks off and Telluride has its impact.

Here is the complete lineup:

ARMAGEDDON TIME (d. James Gray, U.S., 2022) In person: James Gray, Jeremy Strong, Anne Hathaway

BARDO, FALSE CHRONICLE OF A HANDFUL OF TRUTHS (d. Alejandro González Iñárritu, Mexico-U.S., 2022) In person: Alejandro González Iñárritu, Daniel Giménez Cacho, Griselda Siciliani, Ximena Lamadrid, Íker Sánchez Solano

BOBI WINE, GHETTO PRESIDENT (d. Christopher Sharp and Moses Bwayo, Uganda-U.K., 2022) In person: Christopher Sharp, Moses Bwayo, Bobi Wine, Barbie Kyagulanyi

BONES AND ALL (d. Luca Guadagnino, U.S., 2022) In person: Luca Guadagnino, Taylor Russell, Mark Rylance

BROKER (d. Hirokazu Kore-eda, South Korea, 2022) In person: Hirokazu Kore-eda, Song Kang-ho

CLOSE (d. Lukas Dhont, Belgium-France-Netherlands, 2022) In person: Lukas Dhont, Eden Dambrine

A COMPASSIONATE SPY (d. Steve James, U.S.-U.K., 2022) In person: Steve James

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER (d. Dror Moreh, U.S., 2022) In person: Dror Moreh

EMPIRE OF LIGHT (d. Sam Mendes, U.K.-U.S., 2022) In person: Sam Mendes, Micheal Ward

THE END OF THE WORLD (d. Matthew Tyrnauer, U.S., 2022) In person: Matthew Tyrnauer, Jonathan Lethem

THE FUTURE TENSE (d. Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor, Ireland, 2022) In person: Christine Molloy, Joe Lawlor, Molly Lawlor

GODLAND (d. Hlynur Pálmason, Denmark-Iceland-France-Sweden, 2022) In person: Hlynur Pálmason, Ída Mekkín Hlynsdóttir

GOOD NIGHT OPPY (d. Ryan White, U.S., 2022) In person: Ryan White, Steve Squyres

HOLY SPIDER (d. Ali Abbasi, Denmark-Germany-Sweden-France, 2022) In person: Ali Abbasi, Zar Amir Ebrahimi

ICARUS: THE AFTERMATH (d. Bryan Fogel, U.S., 2022) In person: Bryan Fogel

IF THESE WALLS COULD SING (d. Mary McCartney, U.K., 2022) In person: Mary McCartney

LADY CHATTERLEY’S LOVER (d. Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, U.K.-U.S., 2022) In person: Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre, Emma Corrin, Jack O’Connell

LAST FLIGHT HOME (d. Ondi Timoner, U.S., 2022) In person: Ondi Timoner, Morgan Doctor, Rabbi Rachel Timoner, and the Timoner family

LIVING (d. Oliver Hermanus, U.K., 2022) In person: Oliver Hermanus, Bill Nighy, Aimee Lou Wood

THE MARCH ON ROME (d. Mark Cousins, Italy, 2022) In person: Mark Cousins

MERKEL (d. Eva Weber, U.K.-Denmark-Germany, 2022) In person: Eva Weber

MY NAME IS ALFRED HITCHCOCK (d. Mark Cousins, U.K., 2022) In person: Mark Cousins

ONE FINE MORNING (d. Mia Hansen-Løve, France, 2022) In person: Mia Hansen-Løve, Léa Seydoux

RETROGRADE (d. Matthew Heineman, U.S., 2022) In person: Matthew Heineman, General Sami Sadat, Matt Chaney

“SR.” (d. Chris Smith, U.S., 2022) In person: Chris Smith, Robert Downey Jr., Susan Downey

SQUARING THE CIRCLE (d. Anton Corbijn, U.K., 2022) In person: Anton Corbijn

TÁR (d. Todd Field, U.S., 2022) In person: Todd Field, Cate Blanchett, Nina Hoss

TORI AND LOKITA (d. Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, Belgium-France, 2022) In person: Joely Mbundu

WILDCAT (d. Melissa Lesh and Trevor Beck Frost, U.S., 2022) In person: Melissa Lesh, Trevor Beck Frost, Harry Turner, Samantha Zwicker

WOMEN TALKING (d. Sarah Polley, U.S., 2022) In person: Sarah Polley, Frances McDormand, Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Judith Ivey, Jessie Buckley, Sheila McCarthy, Michelle McLeod, August Winter, Kate Hallett, Liv McNeil

THE WONDER (d. Sebastián Lelio, U.K.-Ireland, 2022) In person: Sebastián Lelio

Additional episodic works and short films also playing in the main program:

ANASTASIA (d. Sarah McCarthy, U.K.-Russia, 2022) In person: Sarah McCarthy, Anastasiia Shevchenko, Vladislava Shevchenko, Mikhail Shevchenko

ANGOLA DO YOU HEAR US? VOICES FROM A PLANTATION PRISON (d. Cinque Northern, U.S., 2022) In person: Cinque Northern, Liza Jessie Peterson

THE BEST CHEF IN THE WORLD (d. Ben Proudfoot, U.S., 2022) In person: Ben Proudfoot

GUERRILLA HABEAS (d. Emma Wall and Betsy Hershey, U.S., 2022) In person: Emma Wall, Betsy Hershey, Gregory Copeland, Baba Sillah, Mamou Drame

LE PUPILLE (d. Alice Rohrwacher, Italy-U.S., 2022)

MARIANNE (d. Lara Porzak and Rebecca Ressler, U.S., 2022) In person: Lara Porzak, Rebecca Ressler, Marianne Wiggins

RUSSIA [1985-1999] TRAUMAZONE (d. Adam Curtis, U.K., 2022)

THE U.S. AND THE HOLOCAUST Episode 1 (d. Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, and Sarah Botstein, U.S., 2022)

TFF’s 2022 Guest Directors Kantemir Balagov and Kira Kovalenko will be present to introduce their finely curated film selections:

ELEGY OF A VOYAGE (d. Aleksandr Sokurov, France-Russia-Netherlands, 2001)

GETTING TO KNOW THE BIG, WIDE WORLD (d. Kira Muratova, Soviet Union, 1978)

L’ATALANTE (d. Jean Vigo, France, 1934)

OASIS (d. Lee Chang-dong, South Korea, 2002)

WHERE IS THE FRIEND’S HOME? (d. Abbas Kiarostami, Iran, 1987)

THE WONDERS (d. Alice Rohrwacher, Italy-Switzerland-Germany, 2014)

Five film revival programs include two shows presented in collaboration with The Film Foundation: the five-hour miniseries EIGHT DEADLY SHOTS (d. Mikko Niskanen, Finland, 1972); ÉL (d. Luis Buñuel, Mexico, 1953); two shows presented by Serge Bromberg of Lobster Films: THE MÉLIÈS AMERICAN NEGATIVES: World Premiere 3-D Screening and THE ROBBER SYMPHONY (d. Friedrich Feher, U.K., 1936); as well as KENTUCKY PRIDE (d. John Ford, U.S., 1925).

Backlot, Telluride’s intimate screening room featuring films about movies and portraits of artists, musicians, and cultural icons, will screen the following programs:

1341 FRAMES OF LOVE AND WAR (d. Ran Tal, Israel-U.S.-U.K., 2022)

DESPERATE SOULS, DARK CITY AND THE LEGEND OF MIDNIGHT COWBOY (d. Nancy Buirski, U.S., 2022)

FRAGMENTS OF PARADISE (d. KD Davison, U.S., 2022)

THE LAST RIDER (d. Alex Holmes, U.K., 2022)

THE MÉLIÈS MYSTERY (d. Serge Bromberg and Eric Lange, France, 2021)

MIÚCHA, THE VOICE OF BOSSA NOVA (d. Daniel Zarvos and Liliane Mutti, Brazil-France, 2022)

THE PADILLA AFFAIR (d. Pavel Giroud, Spain-Cuba, 2022)

SALVATORE: SHOEMAKER OF DREAMS (d. Luca Guadagnino, Italy, 2020)

SEE YOU FRIDAY, ROBINSON (d. Mitra Farahani, France, 2022)

Special Screenings and Festivities programmed throughout the Festival include ORLANDO (d. Sally Potter, U.K.-Russia-Italy-France-Netherlands, 1992); THE RETURN OF TANYA TUCKER – FEATURING BRANDI CARLILE (d. Kathlyn Horan, U.S., 2022); THE FIRE WITHIN: A REQUIEM FOR KATIA AND MAURICE KRAFFT (d. Werner Herzog, U.K.-France-Switzerland-U.S., 2022); THEATER OF THOUGHT (d. Werner Herzog, U.S., 2022); WERNER HERZOG: RADICAL DREAMER (d. Thomas von Steinaecker, Germany-U.K., 2022); Bobi Wine in Concert; and a poster signing with 49th TFF poster artist Leanne Shapton.

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