Telluride Film Festival Wrap

Telluride 2011 Poster

George Clooney

Tilda Swinton

The four-day 2011, 38th Telluride Film Festival (TFF), known as The Show, wrapped Monday, Labor Day. First of all Telluride is a non-competetive festival, meaning there are no grand prize winners. Instead, the sole emphasis is on the films and the film-going experience.

The Festival screened six film revivals selected by Guest Director Caetano Veloso, plus twenty-eight new feature films in its main program, nine Backlot programs, nine classics and restorations, 30 shorts and student films, and hosted nine seminars and conversations between festival guests.

Pierre Étaix

Whew! What a whirlwind that must have been. All that in four days! In addition, the Telluride Film Festival's Silver Medallion awards, given to recognize an artist’s significant contribution to the world of cinema, went to George Clooney, Pierre Étaix, and Tilda Swinton.

I'm fairly certain my readers can identify George Clooney and Tilda Swinton but perhaps not as easily the man in the middle. Pierre Étaix is a French clown, comedian and filmmaker, born in 1928.

Étaix made a series of acclaimed short and feature-length films, which are available again. The TFF festival goers were treated to Frederick Wiseman’s portrait of Paris’s glamorous cabaret of the same name; and Le Grand Amour (Great Love), TFF Tributee Pierre Étaix’s lost masterpiece, never-before-seen in North America. It was screened as a Sneak Preview.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Sneak Previews at Telluride are an unofficial part of the TFF program. They are not revealed in the program. Instead, they are announced at various times during the Festival. This year there were three, Le Grand Amour; Jim Field Smith’s Butter (U.S., 2011) starring Jennifer Garner and Ty Burrell, all three of whom were in attendance to present the film; and Crazy Horse (U.S., 2011).

The Special Medallion award, given to a hero of cinema that preserves, honors and presents great movies, went to one of my favorite movie magazine, the British film magazine Sight and Sound.  Editor Nick James accepted the award in-person.

Lots of goodies, including the above poster, are for sale in the Telluride Show Shop.