Amid global turmoil, the Telluride Film Festival returns with a politically charged lineup

Tucked away in a remote Colorado box canyon, the Telluride Film Festival has long leaned into its image as a kind of Brigadoon for cinephiles. But in recent years, not even the rugged mountains that ring the picturesque town could keep Hollywood’s woes at bay — from a global pandemic that devastated theaters to last year’s crippling dual strikes of actors and writers.

With the 51st edition of the festival set to kick off Friday and roll out over Labor Day weekend, Telluride Film Festival executive director Julie Huntsinger is eager to finally get back to some semblance of normalcy.

“I shouldn’t even say this because I’m going to jinx it, but there’s not any catastrophe hanging over this year,” Huntsinger says. “Within our film community, there’s not that immediate existential threat, the way COVID and the strikes were. For those of us who may be a little less religious than others, this is our church. This is where we go to get replenished and be reminded of what is good about human beings, and what is faulty that we can hopefully fix.”

Of course, with conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza still raging and a bitterly divisive U.S. presidential election heading into its final stretch, even the briefest glance at today’s headlines shows there is plenty that needs fixing. Perhaps not surprisingly, this year’s Telluride lineup, featuring nearly 40 feature films and shorts in its main program, is particularly heavy on political themes, reflecting a world that remains very much on edge.

World premieres include the thriller “Conclave” from director Edward Berger (“All Quiet on the Western Front”), which centers on the secretive process of selecting a new pope; RaMell Ross’ adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s racial-injustice novel “Nickel Boys,” set in a 1960s reform school notorious for abusive treatment of students; and Jason Reitman’s “Saturday Night,” which chronicles the launch of “Saturday Night Live” in 1975. Tim Fehlbaum‘s period drama “September 5,” about the kidnapping and massacre of Israeli athletes by Palestinian militants at the 1972 Munich Olympics, will make its North American premiere at Telluride days after debuting at the Venice Film Festival.

Over the years, Telluride has become an increasingly pivotal stop on the awards-season calendar, playing host to recent Best Picture Oscar winners from “Moonlight” and “The Shape of Water” to “Parasite.” But with numerous features and documentaries tackling the most hot-button issues of the day — and attracting a few major non-Hollywood celebrities as guests — political chatter is likely to be as heated as awards prognostication at this year’s festival.

There will be political star power at this year’s festival to match the usual Hollywood wattage. Famed Democratic strategist James Carville will be on hand as the subject of Matt Tyrnauer’s biographical doc “Carville: Winning Is Everything, Stupid!,” while Hillary and Chelsea Clinton will be in attendance to support the documentary “Zurawski v Texas,” which centers on the ongoing battle over reproductive rights.

“Involvement by people of that much recognition can bring more eyeballs to something,” says Huntsinger. “‘Zurawski v Texas’ is something that everybody needs to watch.”

Among other politically charged docs, Brazilian director Petra Costa follows up her Oscar-nominated “The Edge of Democracy” with “Apocalypse in the Tropics,” about the rise of Jair Bolsonaro, while Errol Morris takes on the Trump administration’s controversial family-separation border policy with his new film, “Separated.” (In a category that could be termed “politics-adjacent,” the festival’s Backlot program will include a screening of “The Easy Kind,” a narrative feature about a Nashville singer-songwriter from documentarian Katy Chevigny, whose husband happens to be special prosecutor Jack Smith.)

As she put together the program this summer, with the presidential campaign going through head-snapping gyrations, Huntsinger says the political theme emerged organically rather than out of any doctrinaire impulse. “For us, the absolute first criterion is quality,” she says. “Does a movie capture your heart and soul? Is it riveting? Is it very well made?”

Thatt’s not to say that the Telluride lineup will be all about wallowing in the world’s woes. The redemptive power of music is be a recurring theme: Documentarian Morgan Neville’s “Piece by Piece” uses Lego animation to chart the evolution of hitmaker Pharrell Williams, while British pop star Robbie Williams plays himself in the biographical drama “Better Man.”

Chilean director Pablo Larraín, who most recently brought the arty horror film “El Conde” to Telluride, will return with “Maria,” starring Angelina Jolie as opera legend Maria Callas. And, in what could prove one of the festival’s most talked-about curveballs, documentarian Joshua Oppenheimer (“The Act of Killing”) will unveil his first narrative feature, “The End,” an apocalyptic musical (yes, you read that right) about a wealthy family living in an underground bunker long after the end of the world.

“There are a lot of musicals and movies with music as an important part of the film, which I believe comes from our relentless desire to be uplifted,” says Huntsinger. “We don’t want to live in darkness. And film, to me, is always a light. Even in those really difficult ones that make us cry, there’s catharsis that comes out of that.”

Though steadfastly dedicated to cinema, Telluride also will make room this year for some longer-form works bound for the small screen. Director Alfonso Cuarón’s buzzy upcoming Apple TV+ series “Disclaimer,” starring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline and Sacha Baron Cohen, will be shown in its seven-hour entirety over two sessions, with Apple contributing pizza and breakfast burritos to keep any hunger pangs at bay. Lauren Greenfield’s five-part FX docuseries “Social Studies,” a disturbing look at how social media shapes the lives of teenagers, also will be screened in full.

“Even though we wholeheartedly believe in the theatrical experience, for decades the festival has acknowledged astonishing achievement in things that are shown on television as well as the giant screen,” says Huntsinger.

This year’s Telluride will include special tributes to French filmmaker Jacques Audiard, whose Cannes Jury Prize-winning musical crime comedy “Emilia Pérez” will screen, as well as Oscar-winning editor Thelma Schoonmaker and actor Saoirse Ronan, whose new drama “The Outrun” will be shown at the festival.

As in previous years, Huntsinger says there will be one or two surprise screenings at this year’s festival, with the rumor mill already rampant with speculation that buzzy offerings like the Trump biopic “The Apprentice,” which has yet to formally announce a U.S. distributor or release date, and Robert Eggers’ upcoming horror film “Nosferatu” could pop up unannounced.

After 18 years of programming the Telluride Film Festival alongside its co-founder Tom Luddy, who died last year, Huntsinger says she continues to feel hopeful about the future of movies, despite the industry’s many challenges.

“All across the board, there are so many movies that are entertaining and smart that I feel very heartened,” she says. “Yes, there’s great tumult right now and things are so fractured and consensus is hard to come by. But all of us who come to Telluride have an obligation as ambassadors to try to get people to go to a cinema.”