Thompson on Hollywood

The 39th Telluride Film Festival Calls for Entries

Festivals

The Telluride Film Festival (August 31 – September 3, 2012) is calling for entries in all categories including student, short and feature length films. Each year the must-attend four-day Telluride Film Festival plays host to an average of 24 feature films and 25 shorts and student films.

By Maggie Lange
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April 19, 2012 6:19 PM
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Ex-'Island President" Nasheed Talks Timely Eco Doc': "It's Not Just Us"

Video

One of the surprise hits to come out of Telluride and Toronto (where it won the People’s Choice Documentary Award) was small political doc "The Island President," which takes the drama of climate change to another level.

By Anne Thompson
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March 28, 2012 3:52 PM
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Werner Herzog Talks 'Into the Abyss,' Looks "deep into the heart of ourselves" (video)

Features

One reason that Werner Herzog's docs are so compelling and entertaining is that his powerful personality is all over them, commenting, narrating, querying. Herzog's docs, as lauded as they are, are often overlooked by the Oscar documentary branch, which nominated while Encounters at the End of the World but did not recognize Grizzly Man, Into the Abyss and Cave of Forgotten Dreams (which was not screened in 3-D). (Michael Moore cites these oversights in his successful quest for changing the Academy rules.) "It's not easy to figure out how the system works," says Herzog. "It doesn't give me sleepless nights. This one is more what they think the documentary is supposed to be. It's so straightforward. No radioactive albino crocodiles. No commentary."

By Anne Thompson
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October 3, 2011 8:18 AM
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Toronto Wrap: Best of Fest, Oscar Boosts, Winners and Losers

The trick with the fall film festivals is to gauge expectations going in vs. what was actually achieved. Various distributors launched their fall slates, and watched with pleasure or horror at how their movies were received by audiences and critics. Oscar contenders either moved forward in the awards race, or were pushed back. Other indies hoped their films would be picked up by the right distributor in time for this year's Oscar race. Some were, some weren't. It's tough for films that have already debuted at other festivals to pick up new momentum, although the press will bank features for release. The biggest noise goes to the new players, always.

By Anne Thompson
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September 21, 2011 7:04 AM
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Oscar Talk: Toronto's Impact on Race, Who's Up, Who's Down

In Contention's Kris Tapley and I had plenty to discuss this week as we compared notes on how various awards hopefuls fared at the Toronto Film Festival, which wraps up this weekend. We agree that The Artist and The Descendants came out way ahead.

By Anne Thompson
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September 16, 2011 4:21 AM
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Tilda Swinton and Lynne Ramsay Need to Talk About Kevin: Demon Seed or Bad Mothering?

One of my favorite Cannes’ competition films, Lynne Ramsay's adaptation of Lionel Shriver's 2003 Brit bestseller We Need to Talk About Kevin, debuted to mixed reaction there, failing to land any awards. The film played well at Telluride alongside a Tilda Swinton Tribute and continued to cut a critical swathe through Toronto and beyond.

By Anne Thompson
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September 12, 2011 11:40 AM
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Weekly Wrap: Venice and Telluride Reviews, Pre-Toronto Buys, Lifetime Achievement Awards

INTERVIEWS:

By Maggie Lange
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September 9, 2011 10:04 AM
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Oscar Talk Post-Telluride, Pre-Toronto: Descendants, Shame, Dangerous Method, Albert Nobbs

In Contention's Kris Tapley and I hit a timing snag on Oscar Talk this week, with him three hours behind in Los Angeles and me traveling to the Toronto Fest. We grabbed a shortish Oscar Talk nonetheless, and a cantankerous one, as we disagree on everything, it seems, except the exciting prospect of Eddie Murphy as Oscar host. We can promise you a longer one next week, when we will have seen even more films. We are both bullish on Alexander Payne's The Descendants, argue over Glenn Close's Albert Nobbs, Steve McQueen's Shame and David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method.

By Anne Thompson
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September 9, 2011 6:57 AM
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Telluride Final Catch-up: The Story of Film, Diana Vreeland, Shame, Le Havre

Meredith Brody catches up on her last day in Telluride before heading to Toronto. I had a great last movie day in Telluride, seeing a documentary, two new features, and an hour of Mark Cousins’ 15-hour The Story of Film: An Odyssey, interspersed with two actual meals. But looking back at the jam-packed schedule, I could have assembled several equally exciting programs. I had arranged to meet my friend Hilton Als at 9:15 a.m. for the new documentary Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel, before he was to flee the mountain at noon, which meant missing competing screenings of the Israeli film Footnote, the Iranian A Separation, and a 1972 Russian favorite of Tom Luddy’s, Happy-Go-Lucky, by (and starring) Vasili Shuksin, a Russian actor-director whose work I’ve never seen.

By Meredith Brody
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September 9, 2011 6:39 AM
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Telluride Wrap: Pina, La Luna, Alice and Tilda

Meredith Brody wraps up Telluride--and heads for Toronto, which opens Thursday. Finally, Wim Wenders’ Pina, at 9:15 a.m. in the lovely Galaxy theater, which has been specially fitted out with not only top-of-the-line 3-D projection, but a brand-new sound system by Meyer Sound, the best there is.