The Telluride Film Festival is hard to get to, which is by design.
Nestled in the southwest corner of Colorado among the San Juan Mountains, the former silver mining camp and current ski resort is accessed by most attendees via charter flights from New York and Los Angeles. Authors of movie newsletters who happen to live in Denver can opt to drive instead, a seven-hour trip that eased me into the festival the same way opening credits ease me into a movie.
There’s a reason so many make the trek: Telluride plays exceptional, sought-after movies before they can be seen anywhere else. Because so many of these films factor into awards season, it's an essential stop for cinephiles and industry types alike. Held over the long Labor Day Weekend and now in its 51st edition, this year’s lineup consisted of the usual mix of Cannes holdovers and world premieres. My favorites mostly belonged to the former category, but there were worthy titles across the program.
Any superlative you can think of — star-making, career-defining — applies to Mikey Madison’s performance in Anora while still falling short of conveying its raw, visceral power. Sean Baker’s latest is his magnum opus, which is saying a lot considering how many wonderful movies he’s already made: Starlet, Tangerine, and The Florida Project, just to name a few. Madison plays Anora herself, a sex worker who falls in love with the son of a Russian oligarch and sees her life turn into a whirlwind (mis)adventure as a result; it’s a film so vibrant and alive you’ll want to stay in its world, even when the exuberant joy inevitably gives way to something darker and more melancholy. You’d be hard-pressed to name a more humanist filmmaker than Baker, or even one with such consistent, enduring affection for his own characters. (Release date: October 18)
If you’ve never heard of compassionate appointment, you probably aren’t the widow of an Indian policeman. The program allows bereaved wives to replace their husbands on the force, albeit in the “lady police” capacity — which, for the title character in Santosh, entails being ignored by your male superiors while investigating the rape and murder of a Dalit teenager. The caste system is alive and well in Sandhya Suri’s thoughtful drama, which nimbly explores India’s class and gender roles — every step forward is followed by two steps back, making it impossible for Santosh not to become part of the problem she’s trying to solve. (Release date: TBA)
Emilia Pérez has the festival’s most gleefully out-there premise: a musical about a narco who fakes his death, undergoes gender reassignment surgery, and poses as a nonexistent cousin in order to reunite with his wife and children years later. What follows is like an opera, melodrama, and telenovela all in one, with the zaniness grounded by a quartet of performances so remarkable that all four thespians shared the Best Actress prize at Cannes. As great as Karla Sofía Gascon, Selena Gomez, and Adriana Paz are, Zoe Saldaña is the standout — she sings, dances, and acts her way to a career-best performance that ranks among the most memorable of the year. (Release date: November 1)
It once took three years to elect a pope. It only takes two hours to watch Conclave, and one imagines it’s a considerably more exciting experience. “Exciting” might not be the word that first comes to mind when thinking of a movie about the papal conclave, but Edward Berger’s follow-up to All Quiet on the Western Front is engaging throughout. Starring Ralph Fiennes as the Dean of the College of Cardinals alongside Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow as two of the contenders, it’s a twisty, backstabbing political thriller in the guise of a religious procedural. It’s also sure to make a lot of people angry, though not as many as it pleasantly surprises. (Release date: November 1)
You won't be surprised by the character Jesse Eisenberg plays in A Real Pain, but you might be surprised to learn that he wrote and directed the heartfelt dramedy as well. It isn't his first time behind the camera, but it is more fully realized than last year's When You're Done Saving the World. Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin co-star as cousins who visit Poland to reconnect with their Jewish roots, first as part of a tour and then on their own pilgrimage to their grandmother's former home. Eisenberg is the neurotic one, Culkin is the fun one — but beneath his charming exterior is a wellspring of pain that tends to erupt at the worst possible moment, often to humorous effect. This is a bittersweet journey, but one worth taking. (Release date: November 1)
The story behind The Seed of the Sacred Fig is even more remarkable than the movie itself. Mohammad Rasoulof, an Iranian filmmaker who has long faced legal troubles at home due to the political nature of his films, was sentenced to eight years in prison before his latest debuted. He had to flee the country in order to attend its premiere and remains in exile to this day. Taking its title from ficus religiosa, a tree considered sacred to four different religions, The Seed of the Sacred Fig is set against the backdrop of the protests that began when a young woman named Mahsa Amini died in police custody two years ago. It tells of a family torn apart by the conflict as well as its own internal turmoil; like the eponymous tree, the roots of one twist around the other until no one can breathe. What’s left is weaker than it was before, and by the time anyone realizes it there’s nothing to be done. (Release date: November 27)
Alternately sad and dreamy, Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine as Light follows a nurse eking out a lonely existence while her husband is away in Germany. He left shortly after their arranged marriage, leaving her with all the restrictions of married life and none of the benefits. Then there’s her young-and-in-love roommate, who’s freer but has yet to truly discover herself. All We Imagine is set in Mumbai during monsoon season, with the city slowly emerging as a character unto itself; though sometimes thought of as a place of dreams, Kapadia suggests it’s really a place of illusions — not all of them harmful, perhaps, but still less than real. Movies themselves exist somewhere between dream and illusion, of course, and waking up from this one will have you longing to fall back asleep. (Release date: November 15)
