Telluride Film Fest 2022: Strong Edition of Features and Documentaries

There were countless movies that had viewers fuming (e.g. Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s semi-autobiographical epic Bardo), arguing (e.g. Sarah Polley’s novel adaptation Women Talking) and covering their eyes in horror (Luca Guadagnino’s cannibal drama Bones and All)

Several movies generated passionate fans, but only a few were crowd pleasers.

Ryan White’s space exploration documentary Good Night Oppy (Amazon). With its NASA bona fides and E.T.-like sense of awe (Spielberg’s company Amblin is producer), Oppy seemed to be a tonal respite for many from some of the political or harrowing films that screened here.

Oscar Contenders:

Olivia Colman in Empire of Light (Searchlight), written and directed by Oscar winner Sam Mendes.

Colman said that Mendes is now her favorite director). Colman, playing a troubled woman who enters into romance with a much younger colleague at the cinema where she has long overseen operations, is riveting, as always, and could earn the actress her fourth nominations in five years (she won for the 2018 The Favourite).

Great Actresses

The memorable ensemble cast of Women Talking (UAR), which includes Rooney Mara, Jessie Buckley, Claire Foy and Frances McDormand.

Polley said they were “like a delegation,” with 12 people at the fest, including producer Dede Gardner.

Best actress frontrunner, Michelle Yeoh for Everything Everywhere All at Once (A24), who was in Telluride to attend a screening of 2000’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon as part of festival tribute to Sony Classics on its 30th birthday.

But the presence of Yeoh, who is 60 and has never won or even been nominated for an Oscar, served as reminder to the press and Academy members.

She will remain on the circuit, when she heads to Toronto to accept the inaugural Share Her Journey Groundbreaker Award at the TIFF Tribute Awards gala on September 11.

Each of his prior features was well-reviewed and Oscar-nominated.

Netflix presence:

Noah Baumbach’s White Noise, which opened the Venice Film Festival on Aug. 31, and the Ana de Armas-as-Marilyn Monroe vehicle Blonde, which will premiere there on Thursday.

Two other films that impressed at Telluride: Sebastián Lelio’s The Wonder and Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover.

Two that will premiere in Toronto, Rian Johnson’s Knives Out sequel Glass Onion, with Daniel Craig, and The Good Nurse, starring Oscar winners Eddie Redmayne and Jessica Chastain.

Also maintaining momentum was another Belgian film, Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne’s Tori and Lokita (for which the Dardenne brothers received a special Cannes award),

Hirokazu Koreeda’s Broker (which brought Song Kang-Ho, who is best known for Parasite, Cannes’ best actor prize)

Mia Hansen-Løve’s One Fine Morning (which features yet another great Léa Seydoux performance)

 Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spider (for which Zar Amir Ebrahimi won best actress in Cannes)

Hlynur Pálmason’s Godland (Pálmason’s follow-up to his acclaimed A White, White Day)

Charlotte Wells’s Aftersun.

Old-fashioned but crowd-pleasing title that came to Telluride via Sundance and Venice: Living, Oliver Hermanus’s reimagining of Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru, anchored by an understated Bill Nighy.

Films that Premiered at Venice Fest

Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin (Searchlight), which stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, got the longest applause at 12 minutes.

Also voluminously applauded were Guadagnino’s Bones and All (UAR);

Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale (A24), which marks a comeback for Brendan Fraser, who was moved to tears.

Documentaries:

Telluride, like Venice, marks just the beginning of the awards season, and that attention will next turn to Toronto where some of the same films will screen alongside new batch of awards hopefuls:

Spielberg’s The Fabelmans (Universal);

Gina Prince-Bythewood’s The Woman King (Sony), starring Viola Davis;

Reginald Hudlin’s Poitier documentary Sidney (Apple).