Telluride Film Festival: 'The Piano Lesson,' 'Conclave,' & 'Saturday Night' Are 2024 World Premieres

The Venice Film Festival has begun and the Toronto International Film Festival is a week away, but in the mountains of Colorado, perhaps one of the most influential festivals in the world has finally announced its slate. The 2024 Telluride Film Festival will screen nearly 60 feature films including world premieres of Malcolm Washington’s “The Piano Lesson,” Edward Berger’s “Conclave,” Michael Gracey’s “Better Man,” Scott McPhee and David Siegel’s “The Friend,” Jason Reitman’s “Saturday Night,” Joshua Oppenheimer’s “The End,” and RaMell Ross’ “Nickel Boys.” Documentary screenings include Morgan Neville’s “Piece by Piece” and Errol Morris’ “Separated.”

READ MORE: Venice Film Festival Preview: 15 must-see movies including “Maria,” “Queer” & “Joker: Folie à Deux”

The festival will also screen Sean Baker’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner “Anora” as well as award winners such as Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Perez,” Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” and Jesse Eisenberg’s Sundance screenwriting winner “A Real Pain.” Additionally, Pablo Larrain’s “Maria,” starring Angelina Jolie, and Tim Fehlbaum’s September 5” and Alfonso Cuarón’s “Disclaimer” will make the trip from Venice to Telluride to screen at the festival.

Audiard is one of three Telluride Tribute recipients this year as well as Saoirse Ronan and legendary film editor Thelma Schoonmaker. Ronan’s Sundance drama, “The Outrun,” arriving in theaters in October, will screen with her tribute Q&A. The Tribute recipients receive a gold medallion during their first Q&A.

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A regular destination for more Academy members than you can count, Telluride has staked a reputation as a Best Picture and Oscar kingmaker over the past 15 years securing world premieres of Best Picture winners such as “Slumdog Millionaire,” “The King’s Speech,” “12 Years A Slave,” and “Moonlight.” Last year’s edition featured the debuts of “The Holdovers,” “Saltburn,” “Rustin,” and “All of Us Strangers.” It also screened eventual Best Picture nominees “Poor Things,” “The Zone of Interest,” and “Anatomy of a Fall.”

The complete list of films for the 2024 edition is as follows:


·      ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT (d. Payal Kapadia, France-India-Netherlands-Luxembourg, 2024)
·      ANORA (d. Sean Baker, U.S., 2024)
·      APOCALYPSE IN THE TROPICS (d. Petra Costa, Brazil-U.S.-Denmark, 2024)
·      BETTER MAN (d. Michael Gracey, Australia, 2024)
·      BIRD (d. Andrea Arnold, U.K., 2024)
·      BLINK (d. Daniel Roher, Edmund Stenson, U.S.-Canada, 2024)
·      CARVILLE: WINNING IS EVERYTHING, STUPID! (d. Matt Tyrnauer, U.S., 2024)
·      CONCLAVE (d. Edward Berger, U.K., 2024)
·      DISCLAIMER (d. Alfonso Cuarón, U.K.-U.S., 2024)
·      DON’T LET’S GO TO THE DOGS TONIGHT (d. Embeth Davidtz, South Africa, 2024)
·      EMILIA PÉREZ (d. Jacques Audiard, France, 2024)
·      IN WAVES AND WAR (d. Bonni Cohen, Jon Shenk, U.S., 2024)
·      JEAN COCTEAU (d. Lisa Immordino Vreeland, U.S., 2024)
·      LEONARDO DA VINCI (d. Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, David McMahon, U.S., 2024)
·      MARIA (d. Pablo Larraín, Germany-Italy-U.S.-Hungary-France-Greece, 2024)
·      MARTHA (d. R.J. Cutler, U.S., 2024)
·      MEMOIR OF A SNAIL (d. Adam Elliot, Australia, 2024)
·      MISERICORDIA (d. Alain Guiraudie, France-Spain-Portugal, 2024)
·      NICKEL BOYS (d. RaMell Ross, U.S., 2024)
·      NO OTHER LAND (d. Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor, Palestine-Norway, 2024)
·      ONE TO ONE: JOHN & YOKO (d. Kevin Macdonald, U.K., 2024)
·      PIECE BY PIECE (d. Morgan Neville, U.S., 2024)
·      SANTOSH (d. Sandhya Suri, U.K.-Germany-France, 2024)
·      SATURDAY NIGHT (d. Jason Reitman, U.S., 2024)
·      SEPARATED (d. Errol Morris, U.S., 2024)
·      SEPTEMBER 5 (d. Tim Fehlbaum, Germany, 2024)
·      SOCIAL STUDIES (d. Lauren Greenfield, U.S., 2024)·      
THE END (d. Joshua Oppenheimer, Ireland-Germany-Italy-Sweden-Denmark-U.K., 2024)
·      THE FRIEND (d. David Siegel, Scott McGehee, U.S., 2024)
·      THE OUTRUN (d. Nora Fingscheidt, U.K.-Germany, 2024)
·      THE PIANO LESSON (d. Malcolm Washington, U.S., 2024)
·      THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG (d. Mohammad Rasoulof, Germany-France-Iran, 2024)
·      THE WHITE HOUSE EFFECT (d. Bonni Cohen, Jon Shenk, Pedro Kos, U.S., 2024)
·      WILL & HARPER (d. Josh Greenbaum, U.S., 2024)
·      ZURAWSKI V TEXAS (d. Maisie Crow, Abbie Perrault, U.S., 2024)

The following short films will screen in the main program:

·      A SWIM LESSON (d. Rashida Jones, Will McCormack, U.S., 2024)

·      ALOK (d. Alex Hedison, U.S., 2024)

·      THE TURNAROUND (d. Kyle Thrash, Ben Proudfoot, U.S., 2024)

This year’s guest director is filmmaker Kenneth Lonergan and he has programed the following archive selections:

·      ARCH OF TRIUMPH (d. Lewis Milestone, U.S., 1948)

·      BARRY LYNDON (d. Stanley Kubrick, U.K.-U.S., 1975)

·      DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (d. David Lean, U.K.-Italy-U.S., 1965)

·      GRAND HOTEL (d. Edmund Goulding, U.S., 1932)

·      MY DARLING CLEMENTINE (d. John Ford, U.S., 1946)

Special Screenings include: “Beauty and the Beast” (d. Jean Cocteau, France, 1946); “Charles, Dead or Alive (d. Alain Tanner, Switzerland, 1969) presented by Alfonso Cuarón; “Fly” (d. Christina Clusiau, Shaul Schwarz, U.S., 2024); “Hindle Wakes” (d. Maurice Elvey, U.K., 1927) with live musical accompaniment by Donald Sosin; and “Prince of Broadway” (d. Sean Baker, U.S., 2008).

Backlot screenings, which are free and open to the public include:

·      A SUDDEN GLIMPSE TO DEEPER THINGS (d. Mark Cousins, U.K., 2024)

·      ¡CASA BONITA MI AMOR! (d. Arthur Bradford, U.S., 2024)

·      CHAIN REACTIONS (d. Alexandre O. Philippe, U.S., 2024)

·      HER NAME WAS MOVIOLA (d. Howard Berry, U.K., 2024)

·      MADE IN ENGLAND: THE FILMS OF POWELL AND PRESSBURGER (d. David Hinton, U.K., 2024)

·      NOBU (d. Matt Tyrnauer, U.S., 2024)

·      RIEFENSTAHL (d. Andres Veiel, Germany, 2024)

·      THE EASY KIND (d. Katy Chevigny, U.S., 2024)

·      THE HEXAGONAL HIVE AND A MOUSE IN A MAZE (d. Tilda Swinton, Bartek Dziadosz, U.K., 2024)

·      THE SWALLOW (d. Tadhg O’Sullivan, Ireland, 2024)

The 51st Telluride Film Festival takes place Friday, August 30 through Monday, September 2, 2024. Look for the latest Telluride reviews from The Playlist all weekend long.