51st Telluride Preview and Predictions: What Could Be There and Who Might Be Getting Tributes

As Telluride famously does, the actual lineup of films isn’t released until the first day of the Labor Day weekend festival (August 30) but with Venice, Toronto and New York announcements and designations of films as a ‘world premiere,’ ‘international premiere,’ ‘North American premiere’ or ‘Canadian premiere’ we have a pretty good idea of many of the films that will show up, with all important world premiere titles that we’ll likely be seeing.

This year looks like we’ll have Edward Berger’s papal thriller Conclave (Focus Features) starring Ralph Fiennes, John Lithgow and Stanley Tucci, Michael Gracey’s Robbie Williams biopic Better Man (Paramount Pictures) with the UK star playing himself, Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night (Sony Pictures), telling the story of the first night of SNL in 1975 with Gabriel LaBelle, Dylan O’Brien, Rachell Sennott, Cory Michael Smith and Willem Dafoe, Malcolm Washington’s adaptation of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning The Piano Lesson starring Samuel L. Jackson, Danielle Deadwyler and John David Washington, Embeth Davidtz’s Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, and RaMell Ross’s Nickel Boys (Amazon MGM), adapting Colson Whitehead’s Nickel Boys with Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor and Hamish Linklater, as well as Joshua Oppenheimer’s musical The End with Tilda Swinton, Piece by Piece (the Pharrell Williams LEGO life story movie) and The Friend, starring Naomi Watts and Bill Murray from Scott McGehee and David Siegel.

Telluride is also host to Sundance, Berlin and Cannes highlights, offering the cream of the crop from those earlier in the year festivals. Sundance winner A Real Pain, plus Cannes winners Emilia Pérez, Anora, All We Imagine as Light and The Seed of the Sacred Fig should find their way to the Palm or Werner Herzog theaters. Others likely to show are Exhibiting Forgiveness (Roadside Attractions), The Remarkable Life of Ibelin (Netflix), Will & Harper (Netflix), Parthenope (A24), The Apprentice (Briarcliff Entertainment), Apocalypse in the Tropics, Flow, Santosh, No Other Land, Misericordia, and Memoir of a Snail.

A few titles that have not showed up anywhere that might land here include The Actor, from NEON and starring André Holland or Julian Schnabel’s Hand of Dante with Oscar Isaac, Al Pacino, Martin Scorsese and Gal Gadot. While it would be strange to pop in here without any other festival appearance announced (yet), these are some outliers we could see if they’re not held for 2025 fests.

Traditionally, the Venice-to-Telluride crossover has had a rich history but this year, Alberto Barbara, who heads up Venice, has been pretty stingy, programming some heavy hitters later in the festival (which has full overlap with Telluride, running August 28-September 7), meaning we won’t see A24’s Babygirl with Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson, Brady Corbet’s near four-hour opus The Brutalist starring Adrien Brody, Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door with Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton, or Luca Guadagnino’s Queer, with Daniel Craig. But we should be seeing Pablo Larraín’s Maria with Angelina Jolie and Alfonso Cuarón’s new Apple series Disclaimer make the jump.

Telluride medallions are also a topic of conversation with three traditionally up for grabs. Based on the expected lineup I think it will be Jason Reitman, Angelina Jolie and Samuel L. Jackson but there’s a handful of possible contenders here, including Sean Baker, Jacques Audiard (Emilia Pérez), Ralph Fiennes, and Saoirse Ronan (The Outrun) in the mix.

You can also listen to our Telluride Preview and Predictions podcast featuring myself, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade, Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello with guest Christina Birro of Pop Culture Confidential.

Tune back on August 29 when the lineup for the 51st Telluride Film Festival is revealed and follow us as we hit the mountains for full festival coverage.

Likely World Premieres

• Better Man (Paramount Pictures)
• Conclave (Focus Features)
• Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight
• The Friend
• Nickel Boys (Amazon MGM)
• The Piano Lesson (Netflix)
• Piece by Piece (Focus Features)
• Saturday Night (Sony Pictures)
• The End (NEON)

From other festivals

• All We Imagine as Light (Cannes)
• Anora (Cannes)
• Apocalypse in the Tropics (Venice)
• The Apprentice (Cannes)
• Bird (Cannes)
• A Different Man (Berlin)
• Disclaimer (Venice)
• Emilia Pérez (Cannes)
• Exhibiting Forgiveness (Sundance)
• Flow (Cannes)
• Maria (Venice)
• Memoir of a Snail (Annecy)
• Misericordia (Cannes)
• No Other Land (Berlin)
• The Outrun (Sundance)
• Parthenope (Cannes)
• A Real Pain (Sundance)
• The Remarkable Life of Ibelin (Sundance)
• Santosh (Cannes)
• The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Cannes)
• Union (Sundance)
• Will & Harper (Sundance)

Maybe?

• The Actor
• Hand of Dante