As per tradition, the top-secret lineup for the Telluride Film Festival stays under lock and key until the day before the festival opens. This year, the wait will prove well worth it.
The 53rd Telluride Film Festival , which takes place from September 4 to 7, offers a slew of high-profile world premieres, including Jesse Eisenberg’s next directorial project, The Debut, Andrew Haigh’s drama, A Long Winter, Andrew Scott’s star turn in Elsinore, and Mike Leigh’s latest (and perhaps last) movie, Tender Loving Care.
“It's a return of this kind of beautiful, artisanal filmmaking,” Telluride Film Festival executive director Julie Huntsinger tells Vanity Fair of this year’s lineup.
Julianne Moore as Mona Friedman in The Debut.
The Debut, written and directed by Eisenberg, is a musical comedy that follows a timid, middle-age woman (Julianne Moore) who becomes the star of a local theater production, and her relationship with the production’s enigmatic director (Paul Giamatti). Eisenberg’s directorial debut, A Real Pain, earned two Oscar nominations and a win for best supporting actor for Kieran Culkin.
“It couldn't be more different from his last film,” says Huntsinger. “It is absurd.
It is funny. It's a musical.
It is the most beautifully corny, cool thing I’ve ever seen, which is a good combo.”
Haigh, who directed the 2023 drama All of Us Strangers, is returning to the fest with A Long Winter, an adaptation of the Colm Tóibín short story of the same name. It stars Fred Hechinger as a young man living in the Colorado mountains who refuses to give up hope after his mother (Caitríona Balfe) goes missing.