Joey Magidson
My friends, I’m back from the mountains of Colorado. Yes, I have returned from the 51st Telluride Film Festival. In literally just a day, I’ll be off to Canada and the Toronto International Film Festival. At the moment, I’m home in New York City for a scant 24 hours, already missing the box canyon of Telluride. You see, as much as I enjoy watching the movies there, and this year was a strong one, just being in that bucolic environment is something to look forward to. The views, as well as time spent with colleagues, always stands out when I look back on my time at the fest.
Much like last year, I didn’t hate anything that I saw at Telluride. One film was a disappointment, but everything was, at worst, simply good. The three absolute best titles, the cream of the crop, happened to be Anora, Conclave, and Saturday Night. They’re each very different films, but all exceeded my already high expectations. Those movies deserve to be major Oscar players, but beyond that, they just represent the potential for cinema. Kudos to all involved.
The performances that stood out to me most in the mountains? That would be Mikey Madison in Anora taking the cake, but also Danielle Deadwyler in The Piano Lesson, Ralph Fiennes in Conclave, Angelina Jolie in Maria, and Stanley Tucci in Conclave. So many others were great, with the Anora supporting players standing out, as well as the ladies of Emilia Pérez, but the above men and women blew me away.
Here now are my picks for the best of Telluride, including some awards, as well as a ranking. It was quite the time, with Toronto and TIFF just around the corner!
2024 Telluride Film Festival Awards
Best Picture
Winner – Anora
Runner Ups – Conclave and Saturday Night
Best Director
Winner – Sean Baker for Anora
Runner Up – Edward Berger for Conclave and Jason Reitman for Saturday Night
Best Actor
Winner – Ralph Fiennes for Conclave
Runner Up – Sebastian Stan for The Apprentice and John David Washington for The Piano Lesson
Best Actress
Winner – Mikey Madison for Anora
Runner Up – Angelina Jolie for Maria and Naomi Watts for The Friend
Best Supporting Actor
Winner – Jeremy Strong for The Apprentice
Runner Up – Corey Michael Smith for Saturday Night and Stanley Tucci for Conclave
Best Supporting Actress
Winner – Danielle Deadwyler for The Piano Lesson
Runner Up – Isabella Rossellini for Conclave and Rachel Sennott for Saturday Night
Best Adapted Screenplay
Winner – Peter Straughan for Conclave
Runner Up – Jacques Audiard for Emilia Pérez and Scott McGehee and David Siegel for The Friend
Best Original Screenplay
Winner – Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan for Saturday Night
Runner Up – Sean Baker for Anora and Jesse Eisenberg for A Real Pain
–
This is how I would rank everything I saw at the Telluride Film Festival this year:
11. The Apprentice
10. Fly
9. In Waves and War
7. Emilia Pérez
6. A Real Pain
5. The Friend
4. Maria
2. Conclave
1. Anora
That’s a wrap on Telluride for 2024!
[…] The Best of the 2024 Telluride Film Festival […]
Someone pointed out to me yesterday that if enough people share your admiration for Jeremy Strong‘s work and he is able to go all the way with the Academy this season for The Apprentice, then Roy Cohn will have been responsible for Emmy, Tony, and Oscar-winning performances.
All that would need to happen is for a respected voice actor to put out an audiobook of The Autobiography of Roy Cohn or Citizen Cohn for the infamous attorney, as a character, to achieve full EGOT status.
That would be wild. I have my doubts he’d win, but a nomination, if the film catches on, is decidedly not out of the question.
[…] The Best of the 2024 Telluride Film Festival […]