Telluride Film Festival announces this weekend's slate

The organizers of the film festival that first brought you Juno, Slumdog Millionaire and Up in the Air have always played their cards close to their vest, refusing to reveal their slate of films until the day before the festival opens.

This year is no different. The Labor Day Weekend festival opens tomorrow and festival organizers have only today announced the eighty-plus films which they’ll be screening this year:

· A LETTER TO ELIA (d. Martin Scorsese and Kent Jones, U.S., 2010)

· ANOTHER YEAR (d. Mike Leigh, U.K., 2010)

· BIUTIFUL (d. Alejandro González Iñárritu, Mexico, 2010)

· CARLOS (d. Olivier Assayas, France, 2010)

· CHICO AND RITA (d. Fernando Trueba, Javier Mariscal Spain-Cuba, 2010)

· THE FIRST GRADER (d. Justin Chadwick, U.K., 2010)

· THE FIRST MOVIE (d. Mark Cousins, U.K., 2009)

· HAPPY PEOPLE: A YEAR IN THE TAIGA (d. Dmitry Vasyukov with Werner Herzog, Germany, 2010)

· IF I WANT TO WHISTLE, I WHISTLE (d. Florin Serban, Romania, 2010)

· THE ILLUSIONIST (d. Sylvain Chomet, U.K., France, 2010)

· INCENDIES (d. Denis Villeneuve, Canada, 2010)

· INSIDE JOB (d. Charles Ferguson, U.S., 2010)

· THE KINGS SPEECH (d. Tom Hooper, U.K., 2010)

· LE QUATTRO VOLTE (d. Michelangelo Frammartino, Italy, 2010)

· NEVER LET ME GO (d. Mark Romanek, U.K./U.S., 2010)

· OF GODS AND MEN (d. Xavier Beauvois, France, 2010)

· OKA! AMERIKEE (d. Lavinia Currier, U.S.-Central African Republic, 2010)

· POETRY (d. Lee Chang-dong, Korea, 2010)

· PRECIOUS LIFE (d. Shlomi Eldar, Israel, 2010)

· THE PRINCESS OF MONTPENSIER (d. Bertrand Tavernier, France, 2010)

· TABLOID (d. Errol Morris, U.S., 2010)

· TAMARA DREWE (d. Stephen Frears, U.K., 2010)

· THE TENTH INNING (d. Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, U.S., 2010)

· THE WAY BACK (d. Peter Weir, U.K., 2010)

This year the festival will bestows their coveted Silver Medallions on Italian-Tunisian actress Claudia Cardinale (8 1/2, The Pink Panther), Australian director Peter Weir (Witness, Dead Poets Society) and British actor Colin Firth (Pride and Prejudice, A Single Man). British director Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire, Trainspotting) will also be on hand to screen his 2004 family comedy, Millions.

Of course, one of the big draws of the festival are the surprise screenings, which are not announced until just before the film is shown. One of last year’s surprises was a little horror film called Paranormal Activity, which went on to rake in $193 million worldwide.

No one from the festival has confirmed it (of course), but rumors are swirling that Boyle might give festivalgoers a sneak preview of 127 Hours–his drama about the Utah hiker whose arm was trapped under a boulder–one week before its scheduled Toronto premiere.

Will any of this year’s premieres meet the success of Paranomal Activity? Well, for that answer we might just have to wait a little longer.

For more film news, visit the Gazette's Film Blog