Rocky Mountain High Time: Thoughts as I Head Back to the Telluride Film Festival

Well folks, here we go yet again. If you read this today, on the day it’s published, I’m a day away from festival fever. Tomorrow, I’ll be en route to the Telluride Film Festival once more. Yes, I’m headed to the airport early in the morning (and then waiting for the shuttle bus) for another Rocky Mountain high…sort of. I’m headed to the mountains of Colorado once again, not to ski, but to the hallowed streets of Telluride for the prestigious Telluride Film Festival. After last year’s successful outing, I’m returning again for the 53rd installment of the festival! With Telluride about to kick off on Friday in earnest, and as I’m going to be there the rest of the week/weekend, I figured I’d muse a little bit once again about all of this today…

For those who don’t know, last year was my fourth one at Telluride, largely due to the cost of attending. Since the festival is basically the only one that charges the press to attend, I’d long been opposed to that. The first year was an experiment, with the second more or less confirming what I suspected, but lo and behold, after the third and fourth ones, I’m fully hooked. Twice I’ve done the more traditional flying and taking a shuttle into town rout, and twice I’ve flown to Denver and roadtripped the rest of the way. The latter version of travel is much longer, but boy is it beautiful. Still, it’s ultimately about the movies when thinking about Telluride, especially considering the expense. Not only is it a fest that impacts awards season in a major way, it’s also just a wonderful experience, one I’m actually bummed I didn’t allow myself to do sooner. The price is ridiculous, admittedly, but when you’re in the awards game, it’s one of the costs of doing business, as it were.

So, what makes Telluride such a consistently big deal year in and year out? Well, a lot of it is how beautiful the town is, but also how small it is, compared to how big the Oscar players that screen there are. For a while, a film that won Best Picture at the Academy Awards was always playing there, and it remains a hallmark of the fest. So, most studios consider it an excellent place to hawk their best wares. Even as distributors and studios are re-evaluating festival bows for their contenders, Telluride remains not just a welcoming spot, but one of the most logical as well.

At Telluride, what will I be seeing? Well, as always it’s a secret! At least until midday Thursday, that is. I have my suspicions, as I’ve detailed on some recent episodes of the Awards Radar Podcast and in an article earlier this week, but it’s all going to be revealed soon enough. Whatever ends up in the lineup, it’ll be some of the highest profile titles of 2026. Once it’s known, I’ll be arranging my schedule to fit as much in as possible, with reviews to come as soon as humanly possible. There’s no rest for the weary kind, after all!

It’s going to be a busy time, my friends. I’ll in Telluride until Monday morning, then back home for only about 48 hours or so, before I whisk myself off to Canada and the Toronto International Film Festival once again on Thursday. More on that next week, but this week is all about Telluride, and rightly so. Exciting times are forthcoming, friends. Stick around and sit tight for all of the movies, as they’re likely to impact the Oscar season in a major way. It’s all about to happen…

Stay tuned for all of my coverage and reviews from the 2026 Telluride Film Festival!