As much as I enjoy watching movies at the Telluride Film Festival, I also enjoy snapping pictures. Here are some of my favorites from this year’s gathering, with some thoughts about the filmmakers and the work they brought with them.
Master animator Richard Williams and his wife Imogen Sutton show off a poster for Richard’s new short subject, which debuted in Telluride. He says it’s the best work he’s ever done. I didn’t get to see it over the busy weekend (to my regret) but I look forward to a Los Angeles screening sometime soon.
Director Todd Haynes and Rooney Mara, who costars with Cate Blanchett in his new film Carol, chat with The Hollywood Reporter’s chief critic Todd McCarthy. Mara is one of the youngest actresses to receive a Telluride tribute, but Carol has been commanding a lot of attention since its debut at Cannes in May.
After a showing of the new documentary He Named Me Malala, its “star,” the remarkable Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai, appeared via satellite for a brief interview with filmmaker Ken Burns. She couldn’t attend in person because she is in the midst of exams in her adopted home of Birmingham, England. She’s applying to colleges right now, including Oxford. I have a feeling that if she writes “Winner, Nobel Peace Prize” on her application it may cut through some red tape.
Director Danny Boyle chats with his collaborator on Steve Jobs, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin. Boyle joined the project after David Fincher dropped out, but it’s hard to picture anyone else getting more out of Sorkin’s expansive screenplay, which bears echoes of Citizen Kane.
Talk about a talented trio: director Tom McCarthy hits a bull’s-eye with his new film Spotlight, which he also co-wrote, about the Boston Globe’s 2001 investigation of sexual abuse in the Catholic church. Michael Keaton delivers another great performance as the leader of the editorial team. Meryl Streep plays women’s rights advocate Emmeline Pankhurst in Sarah Gavron’s Suffragette, and even though it’s a cameo appearance, she was proud to represent the film in Telluride.
Rachel McAdams costars in Spotlight as one of Michael Keaton’s dogged reporters; it’s a great part, based on a real-life journalist. The film brings to mind All the President’s Men—in the best possible way.
Davis Guggenheim is a second-generation documentarian, following in the footsteps of his father Charles, with an Oscar to his credit for An Inconvenient Truth. His latest endeavor is He Named Me Malala, which opens theatrically in October. With him is writer-director Alexander Payne, who came to Telluride as a Guest Director several years ago and got hooked; now he’s a regular attendee.
Brie Larson gives a standout performance in Lenny Abrahamson’s Room, opposite a precocious young Jacob Tremblay. It’s also on the October release schedule. Here she is following an outdoor panel following Telluride’s Labor Day picnic.
Chapin Cutler and his team at Boston Light & Sound equip and run all the venues at Telluride, including several that are “invented” every year out of a high school gymnasium, a conference center, and a skating rink. This is the projection booth at the Chuck Jones Cinema, equipped with digital equipment as well as film projectors. At the far right is a 16mm machine!
