Sneak Screening Of 'Argo' Planned For The Telluride Film Festival

The Playlist is earning its air miles this month. With Oliver currently sipping espressos in Italy, we've got another man on the ground in Colorado, where the Telluride Film Festival gets underway today. As per usual, organizers dropped their slate right before the kickoff yesterday, revealing an impressive selection of films culled from the best of Venice and Cannes, with premieres including Noah Baumbach's "Frances Ha," "Hyde Park on Hudson" with Bill Murray, Michael Winterbottom's "Everyday," Deepa Mehta's "Midnight's Children" and more. The fest seemed to be missing a knockout title (or two), but it appears one of them has been revealed.

The LA Times reports that Ben Affleck's "Argo," which will still have its official world premiere at TIFF next week, will have a "sneak peek" at Telluride. It certainly adds to the film's muster as a possible Oscar contender, with Affleck's third film as a director telling the true story of a CIA team who disguise themselves as filmmakers to rescue a small group of Americans trapped in Iran after the U.S. Embassy gets taken over in 1979. It certainly has the kind of cast a red carpet is more than happy to roll out for with Alan Arkin, Bryan Cranston, John Goodman, Kyle Chandler, Richard Kind, Scoot McNairy, Chris Messina, Michael Parks, Taylor Schilling and more lending their talents. It definitely looks like weightier fare which, if the film works, could boost its awards season chances.

As is always the case at Telluride, there may be one or two more movies announced as things are underway. Our potential guess? Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln." Word has it that it starts screening for critics next month and given that we have no trailer and no buzz for the movie less than three months before release, it would be a helluva way to start off the campaign for the movie. But again, we're just spitballing here and certainly there are lots of other films that could pop up as well.

More to come over the weeekend. The Telluride Film Festival runs through September 2nd.