TELLURIDE, Colo. â€" To celebrate its 40th anniversary, the Telluride Film Festival â€" which devotes each Labor Day weekend to restored classics, world cinema discoveries and possible Oscar contenders â€" has added an extra day of screenings. This means that the festival’s lineup, a closely guarded secret, has been announced a day earlier than usual.
Starting Thursday, there will be tributes to Robert Redford, Joel and Ethan Coen and T Bone Burnett, and screenings of 27 new films in Telluride’s main slate, known locally as the Show. Among them will be Abdellatif Kechiche’s “Blue Is the Warmest Color,†the already controversial lesbian coming-of-age story that won the Palme d’Or in Cannes, and J.C. Chandor’s “All Is Lost,†starring Mr. Redford as a solo sailor fighting for survival in the Indian Ocean.
Other selections include the Coens’ “Inside Llewyn Davisâ€; “The Past,†a French-language film from the Iranian director Asghar Farhadi (“A Separationâ€); and “The Unknown Known,†Errol Morris’s documentary about former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Alphonso Cuaron’s “Gravity,†starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, will make its first North American appearance here shortly after opening the Venice Film Festival.
Among the known unknowns of Telluride are the sneak previews, movies not on the official schedule that pop up over the weekend. (“Argo†was a sneak last year.)
For its anniversary, the festival has invited back some of its past guest directors to present favorite movies. The novelists Michael Ondaatje and Salman Rushdie will be here in that capacity, as will Don DeLillo, who will be analyzing one of the most intensely scrutinized film in history, the 26-seconds of footage shot by Abraham Zapruder of the assassination of John F. Kennedy.
The full Telluride lineup can be found here. For updates, once the screenings are underway, check this blog and also Twitter, @aoscott.
