With the fall festival season now upon us, this past weekend saw the coming and going of the 35th annual Telluride Film Festival in Telluride, Colorado. For the uninitiated, Telluride is a yearly festival focusing on independent features and featuring national, and even a few worldwide debuts. Thanks to the writer's strike this year's festival was a little lacking on American-made Oscar contenders (Juno, The Savages, and Into the Wild all premiered at last year's festival) but nonetheless showcased a number of very promising domestic and foreign properties ready to be snatched up by specialty studios.
The festival's opening on Friday saw an extended tribute to and interview with director David Fincher (Se7en, The Game, Fight Club, Panic Room and Zodiac). Immediately following the interview Fincher debuted 20 minutes worth of clips for his upcoming holiday release The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, staring Brad Pitt as a man who ages backwards. Reactions to the first extended look at the $150 million dollar feature have been mixed. Industry analysts like Variety's Anne Thompson are insisting it played well, while various bloggers such as Peter over at /film were quite underwhelmed.
The general consensus on this year's standouts include director Marc Abraham's (Children of Men, The Family Man) Flash of Genius, staring Greg Kinear, British breakout Happy-Go-Lucky, and the all-around showstopper, Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire. There was also good buzz around Paul Schrader's Adam Resurrected staring Jeff Goldblum, which is currently without a distributor, but certain to get snagged at the earliest opportunity. Full reviews from around the web below.
+/- Full Reviews
Slumdog Millionaire -- Variety /film first showing
Flash of Genius -- /film
Happy-Go-Lucky -- /film
O'Horton -- first showing
Flame and Citron -- first showing