37th Telluride: World Preems for Chico & Rita, The First Grader, The Way Back, Never Let Me Go & 127 Hours

There are still plenty of “to be announced” surprise films including Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours that will be unveiled hours before they screen, but for the most part, this year’s Telluride festival can claim the North American premiere status away from TIFF on a large number of Cannes items (this includes Michelangelo Frammartino’s must see, still unsold, docu-essay Le Quattro Volte) and they can also claim first dibs on world preems for acquisition titles such as: Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal’s Chico and Rita (see pic above), Justin Chadwick’s audience tickler The First Grader, the Dmitry Vasyukov with Werner Herzog doc Happy People: A Year in the Tagia and Errol Morris’ Tabloid.

Attention worthy selections include the world premeire for The Way Back – Peter Weir will also be on hand to receive the Silver Medallion award, as will Colin Firth. The high profile indie studio showcases, the Weinsteins are showing Tom Hooper’s The Kings Speech (hence the Firth selection) and having skipped Venice, Fox Searchlight are showcasing Romanek’s Never Let Me Go. And before hitting PBS in late September, Ken Burns will deliver the last decades of baseball in The Tenth Inning, and though I’m not a fan of American’s favorite past-time, I’ve already set my recorder for this one. Here are the selected films.

37th Telluride Film Festival is pleased to present the following new feature films to play in the ‘SHOW’:

· A LETTER TO ELIA (d. Martin Scorsese and Kent Jones, U.S., 2010)
· ANOTHER YEAR (d. Mike Leigh, U.K., 2010)
· BIUTIFUL (d. Alejandro González Iñárritu, Mexico, 2010)
· CARLOS (d. Olivier Assayas, France, 2010)
· CHICO AND RITA (d. Fernando Trueba, Javier Mariscal Spain-Cuba, 2010)
· THE FIRST GRADER (d. Justin Chadwick, U.K., 2010)
· THE FIRST MOVIE (d. Mark Cousins, U.K., 2009)
· HAPPY PEOPLE: A YEAR IN THE TAIGA (d. Dmitry Vasyukov with Werner Herzog, Germany, 2010)
· IF I WANT TO WHISTLE, I WHISTLE (d. Florin Serban, Romania, 2010)
· THE ILLUSIONIST (d. Sylvain Chomet, U.K., France, 2010)
· INCENDIES (d. Denis Villeneuve, Canada, 2010)
· INSIDE JOB (d. Charles Ferguson, U.S., 2010)
· THE KINGS SPEECH (d. Tom Hooper, U.K., 2010)
· LE QUATTRO VOLTE (d. Michelangelo Frammartino, Italy, 2010)
· NEVER LET ME GO (d. Mark Romanek, U.K./U.S., 2010)
· OF GODS AND MEN (d. Xavier Beauvois, France, 2010)
· OKA! AMERIKEE (d. Lavinia Currier, U.S.-Central African Republic, 2010)
· POETRY (d. Lee Chang-dong, Korea, 2010)
· PRECIOUS LIFE (d. Shlomi Eldar, Israel, 2010)
· THE PRINCESS OF MONTPENSIER (d. Bertrand Tavernier, France, 2010)
· TABLOID (d. Errol Morris, U.S., 2010)
· TAMARA DREWE (d. Stephen Frears, U.K., 2010)
· THE TENTH INNING (d. Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, U.S., 2010)
· THE WAY BACK (d. Peter Weir, U.K., 2010)

GUEST DIRECTOR PROGRAMS from Michael Ondaatje

· THE ASCENT (d. Larisa Shepitko, U.S.S.R., 1977, archive print)
· CONFIDENCE (d. István Szabó, Hungary, 1980, archive print)
· FAT CITY (d. John Huston, U.S., 1972, archive print) followed by an interview with author Leonard Gardner
· HERE’S YOUR LIFE (d. Jan Troell, Sweden, 1966, restoration print from the Swedish Institute)
· THE HUSTLER (d. Robert Rossen, U.S., 1961, archive print)
· MOTHER DAO, THE TURTLELIKE (d. Vincent Monnikendam, Netherlands, 1995, archive print)

ADDITIONAL FILM REVIVALS

· ROTAIE (d. Mario Camerini, Italy, 1930) – Pordenone Presents with live music performance by Judith Rosenberg.
· MOANA: A STORY OF THE SOUTH SEAS (d. Robert Flaherty, U.S., 1926) – With the 1970s soundtrack Flaherty’s daughter Monica created to honor her father’s original intentions and a restored print by his great-grandson Sami van Ingen. With special guest documentarian Richard Leacock who worked with Flaherty.

BACKLOT

· BERGMAN: featuring two films by Stig Björkman …BUT FILM IS MY MISTRESS (Sweden, 2010) and IMAGES FROM THE PLAYGROUND (Sweden, 2009)
· CAMERAMAN: THE LIFE AND WORK OF JACK CARDIFF (d. Craig McCall, U.K., 2010)
· CHEKHOV FOR CHILDREN (d. Sasha Waters Freyer, U.S., 2010)
· DANIEL SCHMID: LE CHAT QUI PENSE (d. Pascal Hoffmann, Benny Jaberg, Germany, 2010)
· DOCUMENTARIST (d. Harutyun Khachatryan, Armenia, 2003)
· HURRICANE KALATOZOV (d. Patrick Cazals, France, 2010)
· THE MAGNIFICENT TATI (d. Michael House, U.K.-U.S.-France, 2009)
· MOGULS AND MOVIE STARS (d.Jon Wilkman, U.S., 2010, two episodes, TCM television documentary series)
· MUSIC MAKERS OF THE BLUE RIDGE (d. David Hoffman, U.S., 1965)
· ON “BEING THERE” WITH RICHARD LEACOCK (d. Jane Weiner, U.S., 2010)
· PYGMIES IN PARIS (d. Mark Kidel, U.K., 1992)
· THE WORLD ACCORDING TO ION B. (d. Alexander Nanau, Romania, 2010)