Telluride 2024 Starts the Oscar Talk: ‘September 5,’ ‘Emilia Pérez,’ ‘Nickel Boys,’ and More

Telluride is where it all begins. It’s the launch of a long culling process as audiences and critics watch, and judge, the carefully curated program. Some movies will land distributors; some will have the right stuff to build word of mouth, critical support, and the momentum that can sustain a lengthy Oscar campaign.

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This year’s Telluride is a starrier affair than the last. With strikes in the rear view, optimism and anxiety run high in equal measure. At the annual Patrons’ Brunch, where the mountain views are sublime (see below), French auteur Jacques Audiard hung in the shade while his Cannes prize-winning “Emilia Pérez” star Karla Sofía Gascón soaked up sun and attention. Netflix is campaigning her for Best Actress, while her costar at the brunch, Selena Gomez, will go for supporting.

It was Gascón’s first Telluride, she said through an interpreter. Also enjoying her first Telluride was Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia (here with Sideshow principal Jonathan Sehring), whose “All We Imagine as Light” won the Grand Prix at Cannes and might wind up submitted for the Oscars — if not by India, by France.

Kieran Culkin told me his only prior Colorado experience was a visit to Durango. Searchlight flew him and his “A Real Pain” costar/writer-director Jesse Eisenberg to the festival, a sure sign that their distributor is mounting an Oscar campaign.

Also back at Telluride after many years are David Seigel and Scott McGehee, who came here with their first film, “Suture.” Their new film “The Friend” stars Naomi Watts and a Great Dane with heterochromia eyes. (That’s a charming dog named Bing; he attended the lunch as well.) They financed the film with private equity and are looking to sell world rights.

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Also on hand was John David Washington, who stars in his father Denzel’s production of August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson.” Peter Sarsgaard looked remarkably fresh for having winged in from Venice, where “September 5,” the riveting recreation of the Olympic terrorist attack, debuted well. He told me the European filmmakers found a collector who had all the equipment used by the original ABC Sports News team in 1972. A distribution deal is in the offing.

Will Ferrell is accompanying Netflix doc “Will & Harper” ; Bill Murray was also on hand, as well as Martha Stewart, star of another Netflix doc, R.J. Cutler’s “Martha.” He had final cut, but she had plenty to say when she saw it. “We were partners,” said Cutler.

Focus Features is backing Edward Berger’s pope drama “Conclave” and “Piece by Piece,” which screened as a festival preview for patrons. Oscar-winning director Morgan Neville (“Twenty Feet from Stardom”) introduced the film and his musician subject, Pharrell Williams, whose idea it was to tell his story as a Lego movie. The film was shot as a documentary with interviews, video clips, and rambunctious music, then animated. It’s safe to say you have not seen this movie before. (Full disclosure: My daughter works for Neville’s company, Tremolo.) How the respective Oscar branches will receive it is an open question.

Next up as the festival proper gets underway: “Conclave,” Cannes Palme d’Or winner “Anora,” from Sean Baker, RaMell Ross’s “Nickel Boys,” and the Aussie musical “Better Man.”