Pages

Thursday, June 11, 2026

TFF #53 Has a Poster / The Social Reckoning Has a Trailer / The Story of Documentary Film Has a Poster / Release Date for Fatherland

 TFF #53 HAS A POSTER



The official poster for TFF #53 has been released:

BERKELEY, CA – Telluride Film Festival (September 4 – 7, 2026) is proud to announce British designer, filmmaker, and cultural curator Bella Freud as its poster artist for the 2026 Festival.


Bella Freud founded her eponymous label in 1990 and has become internationally recognized for her distinctive work across fashion, interiors, perfumery, filmmaking, and publishing. Known for her intelligent yet playful approach, Freud distills emotion and personal narrative throughout her collections, creating a singular visual language that resonates across disciplines.


Her iconic Word sweaters, including Ginsberg is God and 1970, have become contemporary classics worn by a devoted global following that includes Rosamund Pike, Rashida Jones, Alexa Chung, Kate Moss, and Rebecca Ferguson. Freud’s creative practice extends beyond fashion through collaborations with Marks & Spencer, King & McGaw, Nick Cave, and filmmaker John Malkovich, among many others.


In October 2024, Freud launched Fashion Neurosis with Bella Freud, a podcast exploring the relationship between fashion and identity through intimate and deeply personal conversations set in the atmosphere of her London sitting room. The series quickly reached number one in the UK arts podcast charts and entered the global top ten, featuring leading voices from fashion, film, music, and literature.


“The words Film Festival and Telluride are filled with promise and intrigue,” comments Freud. “Film is our modern mythology; it gives us courage and imagination. Telluride is the Shangri-La where some kind of conversation will take place that will change your life. SHOW.”


Festival director Julie Huntsinger adds, “Bella Freud possesses a rare ability to connect style, storytelling, and emotional truth with wit, intimacy, and extraordinary intelligence. Her work moves fluidly between disciplines while remaining deeply cinematic in spirit. We are thrilled to present Bella’s poster for the 53rd TFF, whose curiosity, perspective, and passion for culture brings a unique dimension to the collection.”


Each year, Telluride Film Festival welcomes artists whose work expands cultural conversation across disciplines and reflects the Festival’s enduring commitment to creativity and cinematic storytelling. Bella Freud joins a celebrated group of filmmakers, writers, musicians, and visual artists whose unique perspectives have contributed to the Festival’s ongoing history and artistic community including Daniel Clowes, Jim Dine, Maira Kalman, Ed Ruscha, Julian Schnabel, among others.


About Telluride Film Festival


The prestigious Telluride Film Festival ranks among the world’s best film festivals and is an annual gathering for film industry insiders, cinema enthusiasts, filmmakers, and critics. TFF is considered a major launching ground for the fall season’s most talked-about films. Founded in 1974, Telluride Film Festival, presented in the beautiful mountain town of Telluride, Colorado, is a four-day international educational event celebrating the art of film. Telluride Film Festival’s long-standing commitment is to join filmmakers and film connoisseurs together to experience great cinema. The exciting schedule, kept secret until just before Opening Day, consists of over three dozen filmmakers presenting their newest works, special Guest Director programs, major Tributes to guest artists, special events, and remarkable treasures from the past. Telluride Film Festival is a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational program. Festival headquarters are in Berkeley, CA.


THE SOCIAL RECKONING HAS A TRAILER


On the outer edge of the MTFB watch list is Aaron Sorkin's The Social Reckoning,  It's the sequel to The Social Network written by Sorkin and directed by David Fincher back in 2010.  The new film stars Jeremy Strong as Mark Zuckerberg.  Here's the trailer from YouTube:






The film has is set for release on Oct. 9th.

THE STORY OF DOCUMENTARY FILM HAS A POSTER

I'm not saying Mark Cousins' The Story of Documentary Film is a lock for TFF #53 but I'd be surprised if it didn't play the Fest. Here's a bit of a peek with a photo of the film's poster from Cousins' X account:




RELEASE DATE FOR FATHERLAND




Numerous sources reporting that Pawel Pawlikowski's Fatherland will release in the United States on Oct. 23rd.  That's a release window that would easily allow a screening at TFF.





EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

X (Twitter) @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

Bluesky: @gort2.bsky.social

MTFB's Facebook Page

MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

If you would like to be added to the MTFB e-mail list send an email to mpgort@gmail.com

Monday, June 8, 2026

Film Fest Heads Discuss the Future / Awards Radar Updates for Best Picture and TFF Potentials

 FILM FEST HEADS DISCUSS THE FUTURE




A couple of weeks back Indiewire hosted a conversation at Cannes  featuring four film festival directors including Telluride's Julie Huntsinger.  Other fest directors included were from Sundance, Berlin and New York.  The convo was hosted by Indiewire's Anne Thompson.

The focus was the future of film festivals.  You can see the entire 44 minute video at Indiewire's website.

https://www.indiewire.com/news/events/film-festival-directors-discuss-future-cannes-1235195002/


AWARDS RADAR UPDATES FOR BEST PICTURE AND TFF POTENTIALS




Joey Magidson of Awards Watch has updates his Best Picture predictions as of the end of the Cannes Film Fest.  He lists 25 films in all and in their order of likelihood in terms of being nominated and winning the 2027 Oscar.  I've broken those down into various categories as it relates to the potential for a TFF #53 play.

No chance: (Because they already have premiered before Telluride): 

#2 The Odyssey
#4 Project Hail Mary
#9 Tony
#11 Disclosure Day
#14 Josephine (Sundance) 
#21 The Invite
#24 Wuthering Heights
#25 Michael

Unlikely: (for a variety of reasons):

#1 Dune: Part Three
#6 Digger
#8 The Adventures of Cliff Booth

Smallish chance at Telluride:

#3 Wild Horse Nine
#5 The Social Reckoning
#10 Saturn Return
#12 I Play Rocky
#13 Being Heumann
#16 The Uprising
#17 Behemoth!
#19 Jack of  Spades
#20 A Place in Hell


Decent chance at Telluride:

#7 Fjord
#15 Paper Tiger
#18 Clarissa
#22 All of a Sudden
#23 Artificial
 
https://awardsradar.com/best-picture/





EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

X (Twitter) @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

Bluesky: @gort2.bsky.social

MTFB's Facebook Page

MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

If you would like to be added to the MTFB e-mail list send an email to mpgort@gmail.com

Thursday, June 4, 2026

Hope for Hope? / Announced Release Dates for TFF Possible Films / Yellow Letters and Berlin

HOPE FOR HOPE?



Alex Billington at First Showing.net posted that Cannes competition choice Hope will be released in the U.S. on Sept. 9th which means it's a film that could play TFF #53...but it's cutting it very tight.  TFF will conclude on  Monday, Sept. 7th.  The film made a minor splash at Cannes and ended that fest with a 6.15 rating on the Cannes-ratins.org website.

IMDb describes it:

"A mysterious discovery is made on the outskirts of the remote harbor town. The residents find themselves in a desperate fight for survival against something they have never encountered before."

The film is being distributed domestically by NEON which doesn't diminish any chance that it could play TFF.

For the moment I'm going to put it in the "possible but not probable" column.

https://www.firstshowing.net/schedule2026/#aug


As a matter of fact...

ANNOUNCED RELASE DATES FOR TFF POSSIBLE FILMS

Digger 10/2 (Has been announced as not planning any festival exposure)
The Social Reckoning 10/9
Wild Horse Nine 11/6
I Play Rocky 11/13


YELLOW LETTERS AND BERLIN




Mubi posted an overview of Ilker Catak's Berlin Golden Bear winner Yellow Letters on Monday which reminded me that I haven't really mentioned that I think it has a very good shot at making the TFF lineup.  Catak was at Telluride in 2023 with The Teacher's lounge which ended up with an Oscar nomination for Best International Feature.

The description for Yellow Letters goes like this:

"The marriage of Derya and Aziz is under pressure after losing their jobs because of state arbitrariness and moving to Istanbul to live with Aziz's parents. They and their 13-year-old daughter Ezgi have to redefine their way of life."

Additionally, I think the other Berlin film that might show at The SHOW is Markus Schleinzer's Rose starring the actress of the moment Sandra Huller.  Huller won the Berlin award for Best Actress.  Rose is also being distributed by MUBI.

The description for Rose:

"A woman in the early 17th century, who is disguised as a man and wants to be a good citizen at any cost."

I'm not saying these are locks for TFF #53 by any means but, I wouldn't be surprised if one or both where in the lineup on announcement morning.

https://mubi.com/en/notebook/posts/being-powerless-but-ethical-in-erdogan-s-new-turkey-ilker-catak-s-yellow-letters




EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

X (Twitter) @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

Bluesky: @gort2.bsky.social

MTFB's Facebook Page

MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

If you would like to be added to the MTFB e-mail list send an email to mpgort@gmail.com

Monday, June 1, 2026

Fatherland Has a Trailer / The Dreamed Adventure Is Acquired / Everytime Is Acquired

FATHERLAND HAS A TRAILER

Many readers of MTFB have already picked up on the notion that Pawel Pawlikowski's Fatherland is right up there as far as films I'm hoping make an appearance at TFF #53.  I was a pretty big fan of his 2018 film Cold War (Thrice Oscar nominated!).  Unfortunately I've never been able to catch his 2013 Oscar winning film Ida (Best Foreign Language Film). 

At any rate, I'm very much looking forward to Fatherland and have a good feel about its chances for Telluride.

MUBI, which has the distribution pf the film for the U.S. released a trailer for the film late last week.  here it is from YouTube:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-I2-X9v-ogs

Looks impressive!


THE DREAMED ADVENTURE IS ACQUIRED




Janus films has acquired all North American rights to Valeska Grisebach‘s The Dreamed Adventure according to The Hollywood Reporter The film was a late-screened film at Cannes and won the Jury Prize.  The IMDb description of the film goes like this:

"A woman...agrees to a deal to help an old acquaintance. She follows the hero on his adventure and enters dangerous territory where she is then confronted with her own desire."

The acquisition by Janus could facilitate a play at TFF #53.  Janus isn't a house that is at every Telluride but they show up at a lot of them, especially lately:

2025: Carol & Joy
2024: All We Imagine as Light, Misericordia, Made in England: The Film of Powell and Pressburger
2023: Anselm, Totem, Orlando: My Political Biography
2022: Godland, Tori and Lokita

With a solid 6.93 compiled critical rating from Cannes-ratings.org, it seems well situated for a TFF slot.  we'll see.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/cannes-film-prize-winner-the-dreamed-adventure-janus-deal-1236607903/


EVERYTIME IS ACQUIRED




The Hollywood Reporter also posted that Sandra Wollner's Everytime has been acquired for North America by fledgling outfit 1-2 Special. Everytime played in the Un Certain Regard section of Cannes and won the UCR Grand Prize.  Its Cannes-ratings.org compiled critics' rating was a sturdy 7.33.

Additionally, although fairly new to the game, 1-2 Special landed Harris Dickenson's Urchin at last year's TFF.

Everytime's IMDb description:

"Follows a mother, her daughter, and a teenage boy blamed for a tragic death as they travel to Tenerife together, confronting grief, blame, and forgiveness on a family holiday that never happened."

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/cannes-un-certain-regard-winner-everytime-1-2-special-deal-1236609015/

1-2 Special also has Cannes success La Gradiva (which had this year's highest rated film per Cannes-ratins.org at 8.25).  Which makes you think it could be a candidate for Telluride as well.

Ls Gravdiva's IMDb description:

"A group of high school students sets off on a school trip to discover the ruins of Pompeii. They are seized by a sense of vertigo. They allow themselves to be overwhelmed by desire and anger, until they surrender completely."

All worth keeping an eye on.



EMAIL:  mpgort@gmail.com

X (Twitter) @TheMTFB OR @Gort2 

Bluesky: @gort2.bsky.social

MTFB's Facebook Page

MTFB is published on Mondays and Thursdays

If you would like to be added to the MTFB e-mail list send an email to mpgort@gmail.com