One thing that is unusual (and, at times, irritating) is that they do NOT announce the festival program until the festival opens. So, you have no idea what (or who) you might be seeing at the festival until you’re actually there. Like Sundance, Telluride appeals to filmmakers because they can do business AND have a vacation in a gorgeous place at the same time. The Festival Program for Telluride was released today and you can download it now and see who you could have bumped into.

I am already distressed to see that David Fincher will be honored this year. There are typically three (3) Tributes at Telluride; special programs featuring the works of the honoree AND opportunities to hear them discussed how and why they made the films they did. I love Fincher and notice they’re showing the Director’s Cut of ZODIAC.

They’re also honoring film critic Richard Schickel. And they’ve expanded the animation section.

Each year, there are three tributes to remarkable filmmakers. The tributes this year include actor Daniel Day Lewis, composer, arranger, pianist Michel Legrand and director Shyam Benegal. I always loved the panel discussions with tributees.

There are several films I love to see. Very high on the list would be Jon Krakauer’s tale of a trip into the Alaskan Wilderness that was adapted to become Sean Penn’s INTO THE WILD. After seeing Noah Baumbach’s THE SQUID AND THE WHALE at Sundance, I think it would be neat to see MARGOT AT THE WEDDING at Telluride. Margot is played by the luminous Nicole Kidman. To be honest, I never much likd Nicole Kidman films. I don’t know when she that shift occurred but now I really like her work. There are documentaries by Werner Herzog and Barbet Schroeder that I would love to see. Guess I’ll to what everyone else does, wait for them to come out in the theaters. Dang it.