Telluride: ‘Springsteen’ and ‘Hamnet’ World Premieres, Baumbach, Hawke, Panahi and Ross Career Tributes Announced
At the Telluride Film Festival, you never know who is going to stroll past you on the street, sit across from you on a gondola or catch a movie next to you in a cinema. This year, it might just be George Clooney, Werner Herzog, Jodie Foster, Jeremy Allen White, Wagner Moura, Claire Foy, Adam Sandler, Colin Farrell, Zoey Deutch, Dustin Hoffman, Riz Ahmed or one of the Skarsgards, father Stellan or son Alexander. They all have films in the lineup — which was announced by the fest on Thursday morning, includes over 60 features and shorts from more than 30 countries, and appears in full at the bottom of this post — and are expected to be in the Rockies over Labor Day weekend, along with subjects of documentaries that will be playing at the fest including David Remnick and E. Jean Carroll.
The highest-profile titles set to have their world premiere at the fest’s 52nd edition are Scott Cooper’s Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (Searchlight), a portrait of Bruce Springsteen around the time of his Nebraska album, which stars White as The Boss; Hamnet (Focus), Nomadland Oscar winner Chloé Zhao’s adaptation of a novel about Shakespeare (Paul Mescal), his wife (Jessie Buckley) and their child; and Ballad of a Small Player (Netflix), from director Edward Berger, who returns to Telluride, a year after unveiling Conclave at the fest, with a picture about a high-stakes gambler (Farrell).
Also debuting at the fest: the latest — and, given the defunding of public broadcasting, perhaps last — Ken Burns documentary series for PBS, The American Revolution, which he co-directed with Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt; a Netflix doc feature about a great journalistic institution, Marshall Curry’s The New Yorker at 100, and a Netflix doc short about children killed in school shootings, Josh Seftel’s All the Empty Rooms; and several promising films that are still seeking U.S. distribution, including Navalny Oscar winner Daniel Roher’s Tuner, featuring Hoffman as a piano tuner-turned-thief; Aneil Karia’s Hamlet, in which Shakespeare’s play is relocated to the present day, with Ahmed as the title character; Philippa Lowthorpe’s H Is for Hawk, in which Foy plays a woman who bonds with a hawk; Oscar winner Morgan Neville’s Paul McCartney doc Man on the Run; Highway 99: A Double Album, Ethan Hawke’s doc about Merle Haggard; and a doc about and — featuring the cooperation of — the advice columnist and Trump accuser E. Jean Carroll, Ivy Meropol’s Ask E. Jean.
Coming directly from world premieres at the Venice Film Festival will be Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly (Netflix), with an impressive ensemble highlighted by Clooney and Sandler; Bugonia (Focus), the latest collaboration between Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone; Cover-Up (still seeking U.S. distribution), a documentary, co-directed by Citizenfour Oscar winner Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus, about investigative journalist Sy Hersh; the latest of many Paolo Sorrentino and Toni Servillo collabs, La Grazia (MUBI); Telluride regular Werner Herzog’s latest doc, the Angola-set Ghost Elephants (still seeking U.S. distribution); and Megadoc (Utopia), Mike Figgis’ doc chronicling Francis Ford Coppola’s odyssey with Megalopolis.
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The lineup also includes a number of films that bowed earlier this year at Sundance and/or Berlin and/or Cannes: Sentimental Value (Neon), which reunites The Worst Person in the World helmer Joachim Trier and star Renate Reinsve; A Private Life (Sony Classics), with two-time Oscar winner Foster; If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, a dramatic vehicle for Rose Byrne; It Was Just An Accident (Neon), the latest film from Iranian dissident Jafar Panahi, which won Cannes’ Palme d’Or; Richard Linklater’s homage to the French New Wave, Nouvelle Vague (Netflix); Pillion (A24), a BDSM dramedy starring Alexander Skarsgård and Harry Melling; Babygirl star Harris Dickinson’s directorial debut, Urchin (1-2 Special); The History of Sound (MUBI), which stars Mescal and Josh O’Connor in a WWI-era love story; Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind (MUBI), also starring O’Connor; The Secret Agent (Neon), for which Moura won Cannes’ best actor prize; and Blue Moon (Sony Classics), which reunites Before trilogy and Boyhood collaborators Linklater and Hawke.
(For those keeping track at home, that’s two films at the fest for Mescal, O’Connor, Linklater and Hawke — and one film each for two different Skarsgards. Also, your eyes aren’t deceiving you: the lineup includes Hamlet and Hamnet — as well as a documentary feature called King Hamlet!)
The fest, meanwhile, will present its Silver Medallion, in recognition of career achievement, to four very different members of the global film community: Baumbach, Hawke, Panahi and longtime Film 4 chief-turned-producer Tessa Ross.
Fest director Julie Huntsinger tells THR that her team has worked hard to enable Panahi to attend the fest — “We got him a travel-ban waiver, and I just pray that he’s able to enter the country with no issues,” she says — while gushing about It Was Just An Accident: “For me, this is his best film. It totally deserved the Palme d’Or; it was not just a political win. I don’t think Panahi has been this direct in his criticism of the fascistic [Iranian] regime, and he really deserves this tribute.”
Of Baumbach, Huntsinger said, “I have loved his films, and we’ve shown so many of them,” adding that Jay Kelly represents “a maturation of who he is as a person and of his filmmaking,” and that the fest will also be screening the filmmaker’s wonderful The Squid and the Whale, which turns 20 this year. She called Hawke “a national treasure” and “a real Telluride stalwart, too.” And she said that while Ross is perhaps less well known than the other three, her filmography stands out for its “insanely high quality, and how prolific she is, so she deserves this acknowledgement.”
Meanwhile, Ezra Edelman, the documentarian best known for his Oscar-winning O.J.: Made in America, has been tapped to serve as guest director for this year’s fest. Huntsinger explained, “I love him, I think he’s so interesting, I love what he has to say and he has never been to Telluride, so I thought, ‘Okay, let’s have you come right now, before you embark on another opus.’”
The festival’s main program, the SHOW, will feature the following titles.
• A PRIVATE LIFE (d. Rebecca Zlotowski, France, 2025)
• ASK E. JEAN (d. Ivy Meeropol, U.S., 2025)
• BALLAD OF A SMALL PLAYER (d. Edward Berger, Hong Kong/Macau, 2025)
• BLUE MOON (d. Richard Linklater, U.S./Ireland, 2025)
• BUGONIA (d. Yorgos Lanthimos, U.K., 2025)
• COVER-UP (d. Laura Poitras, Mark Obenhaus, U.S., 2025)
• EVERYWHERE MAN: THE LIVES AND TIMES OF PETER ASHER (d. Dayna Goldfine, Dan Geller, U.S./U.K., 2025)
• GHOST ELEPHANTS (d. Werner Herzog, Angola/Namibia/U.S., 2025)
• H IS FOR HAWK (d. Philippa Lowthorpe, U.K./U.S., 2025)
• HAMLET (d. Aneil Karia, U.K., 2025)
• HAMNET (d. Chloé Zhao, U.K., 2025)
• HIGHWAY 99 A DOUBLE ALBUM (d. Ethan Hawke, U.S., 2025)
• IF I HAD LEGS I’D KICK YOU (d. Mary Bronstein, U.S., 2025)
• IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT (d. Jafar Panahi, Iran/France/Luxembourg, 2025)
• JAY KELLY (d. Noah Baumbach, Italy/U.K./U.S., 2025)
• KARL (d. Nick Hooker, U.K., 2025)
• LA GRAZIA (d. Paolo Sorrentino, Italy, 2025)
• LOST IN THE JUNGLE (d. Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, Juan Camilo Cruz, U.S./Colombia, 2025)
• LUMIÈRE, LE CINÉMA (d. Thierry Frémaux, France, 2024)
• MAN ON THE RUN (d. Morgan Neville, U.S., 2025)
• NOUVELLE VAGUE (d. Richard Linklater, France, 2025)
• PILLION (d. Harry Lighton, U.K., 2025)
• SENTIMENTAL VALUE (d. Joachim Trier, Norway/France/Denmark/Germany, 2025)
• SHIFTY (d. Adam Curtis, U.K., 2025)
• SPRINGSTEEN: DELIVER ME FROM NOWHERE (d. Scott Cooper, U.S., 2025)
• SUMMER TOUR (d. Mischa Richter, U.S., 2025)
• THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION (d. Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein, David Schmidt, U.S., 2025)
• THE BEND IN THE RIVER (d. Robb Moss, U.S., 2025)
• THE CYCLE OF LOVE (d. Orlando von Einsiedel, U.K./India/Sweden, 2025)
• THE HISTORY OF SOUND (d. Oliver Hermanus, U.S., 2025)
• THE MASTERMIND (d. Kelly Reichardt, U.S., 2025)
• THE NEW YORKER AT 100 (d. Marshall Curry, U.S., 2025)
• THE RESERVE (d. Pablo Pérez Lombardini, Mexico/Qatar, 2025)
• THE SECRET AGENT (d. Kleber Mendonça Filho, Brazil/France/Netherlands/Germany, 2025)
• THIS IS NOT A DRILL (d. Oren Jacoby, U.S., 2025)
• TUNER (d. Daniel Roher, U.S./Canada, 2025)
• URCHIN (d. Harris Dickinson, U.K., 2025)
The following short films will screen in the main program:
• LAST DAYS ON LAKE TRINITY (d. Charlotte Cooley, U.S., 2025)
• SALLIE’S ASHES (d. Brennan Robideaux, U.S., 2025)
• SONG OF MY CITY (d. David C. Roberts, U.S., 2025)
• ALL THE EMPTY ROOMS (d. Joshua Seftel, U.S., 2025)
• ALL THE WALLS CAME DOWN (d. Ondi Timoner, U.S., 2025)
Guest director Ezra Edelman has programmed screenings of the following films in partnership with Turner Classic Movies…
• ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN (d. Alan J. Pakula, U.S., 1976)
• MALCOLM X (d. Spike Lee, U.S., 1992)
• NETWORK (d. Sidney Lumet, U.S., 1976)
• RASHOMON (d. Akira Kurosawa, Japan, 1950)
• THE INSIDER (d. Michael Mann, U.S., 1999)
Backlot, Telluride’s intimate screening room that projects behind-the-scenes movies and portraits of artists, musicians and filmmakers, will screen the following titles (all free and open to the public):
• ALL I HAD WAS NOTHINGNESS (d. Guillaume Ribot, France, 2025)
• CAROL & JOY (d. Nathan Silver, U.S., 2025)
• CHAPLIN: SPIRIT OF THE TRAMP (d. Carmen Chaplin, Spain/U.K./Netherlands, 2024)
• EARTH TO MICHAEL (d. Nico López-Alegría, ZZ, U.S., 2025)
• ELIE WIESEL: SOUL ON FIRE (d. Oren Rudavsky, U.S., 2024)
• KING HAMLET (d. Elvira Lind, U.S./Denmark, 2025)
• MEGADOC (d. Mike Figgis, U.S./U.K., 2025)
• SHOOTING (d. Netalie Braun, Israel, 2025)
• THE GOLDEN SPURTLE (d. Constantine Costi, U.K./Australia, 2025)
• THEIR EYES (d. Nicolas Gourault, France, 2025)
Special screenings and festivities include:
• CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS 3D 2025: Restoration and Recreation (d. Werner Herzog, France/Canada/U.S./U.K./Germany, 2010)
• LEARNING TO FLY (d. Max Lowe, U.S./France/Switzerland/Italy/China/Hong Kong, 2025)
• STEAL THIS STORY, PLEASE! (d. Carl Deal, Tia Lessin, U.S., 2025)
• 4K restoration of THE GOLD RUSH (d. Charles Chaplin, U.S., 1925)
• The New Yorker At 100: A Gallery Exhibition, a curation ofcinema-inspired cover art and cartoons from The New Yorker’s iconic archives
• Festival Poster Signing with Daniel Clowes
• Truth Be Told: Journalism and Filmmaking in the 21st Century, a Special Panel presented by Turner Classic Movies
• Behind The Lens: AI and Filmmaking, presented by Google
• The SHOW App, sponsored by CRITERION
• Audi Drive Experiences, all weekend