Telluride 2023: New Films From Emerald Fennell, Andrew Haigh, Jeff Nichols, Alexander Payne

Lise Pedersen LYON, France — Four-time Oscar winner Alfonso Cuarón and “Time Bandits” helmer Terry Gilliam will join a star director-studded lineup at this year’s Lumière Film Festival including Wes Anderson, Alexander Payne and Wim Wenders. Cuarón (“Roma,” “Gravity”) is returning to Lyon – where he was a guest of honor in 2018 – to present a selection of films by Swiss filmmaker Alain Tanner (“Charles Dead or Alive,” “The Salamander,” “Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000”).

Nicki Minaj is giving fans a first listen at a new song off of ucpoming album!

Jeff Nichols was just at the Telluride Film Festival last weekend for the world premiere of his upcoming film, “The Bikeriders.” And while he was there, the director hopped on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast to talk about his new movie, failed pitches for projects like “Aquaman,” and other topics. That includes “Alien Nation,” a long-gestating project of Nichols’ that never panned out (and is the reason for seven years between “The Bikeriders” and 2016’s “Loving” and “Midnight Special“) but came closer to being made than anyone realizes.

After seven years, Jeff Nichols returns this year with “The Bikeriders,” a motorcycle gang drama starring Austin Butler, Jodie Comer, Nichols regular Michael Shannon, and Tom Hardy. And critics loved Nichols’ upcoming film at its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival last weekend.

EXCLUSIVE: Jeff Nichols spent two decades considering how to approach what would become his new film The Bikeriders because he did not want to glamorize motorcycle culture.

“From the beginning?” Kathy asks the interviewer. “Yes, please,” he responds. Flash back to 1965 Chicago and the rise of the Vandals. “The was the golden age of bike riders,” she says.

Jaden Thompson 20th Century Studios has released the trailer for Jeff Nichols’ upcoming motorcycle gang drama “The Bikeriders,” starring Austin Butler, Jodie Comer, and Tom Hardy. The film opened the Telluride Film Festival on Aug. 31 to critical acclaim.

Austin Butler is starring in his next big film.

It’s been seven long years since Jeff Nichols dropped “Midnight Special” and “Loving” on moviegoers back in 2016. Now he’s back with his latest film, “The Bikeriders,” fresh off its world premiere at Telluride last weekend.  And given reviews out of the festival, it sounds like “The Bikeriders” will be worth the wait (read The Playlist’s review of the film here).

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events.

Daddio is a knockout, the sort of breakthrough by a virtual unknown that many might dream about but only rarely takes place. Entirely set in a taxi stuck for a long time at night on a jammed highway heading from New York City’s JFK airport to Manhattan, debuting writer-director Christy Hall has created a marvelous two-hander between a veteran New York cabbie who’s seen it all and a young woman trying to figure things out.

TELLURIDE – Considering the success and adoration of the “Sideways,” it’s sort of surprising it took Alexander Payne and Paul Giamatti this long to find another film to make together. Almost 20 years later, the director and actor have reteamed for “The Holdovers,” which debuted at this year’s Telluride Film Festival.

UPDATED with latest: The Telliride Film Festival began August 31 with a lineup for the Rockies event’s 50th edition that includes world premieres of Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers (Focus Features), Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn (Amazon) and Free Solo filmmakers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s narrative feature Nyad (Netflix).

EXCLUSIVE: Emerald Fennell likened making Saltburn, her dangerously dark comedy of class and lack of manners, “to taking your clothes off and exposing yourself.”

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Two-time Oscar winner Alexander Payne returns to the big screen with his entertaining and crowd-pleasing film “The Holdovers” which debuted at the Telluride Film Festival on Thursday night, where he was in-person to introduce. With a 1970s aesthetic, a sharp script by David Hemingson, and a trio of exquisite performers, the film feels like the slam-dunk Oscar contender the establishment members of the Academy can get behind. “The Holdovers” reunites Payne with his “Sideways” star Paul Giamatti.

Thank god for Alexander Payne. The filmmaker is, and always have been, a true humanist. A writer/director more interested in human beings, something that has always been the special effect of his movies. A two-time Oscar winning writer, his latest film, The Holdovers, which had its World Premiere Thursday at the Telluride Film Festival, is one of the rare movies in which he doesn’t also have a writing credit. David Hemingson did the screenplay, but the idea, an inspired one, came from Payne, a real film buff who was always intrigued by Marcel Pagnol’s 1935 French film Merlusse about a group of boarding school students stuck over the holidays with a much-despised teacher. The director thought it had the bones for a new story and developed with Hemingson. Still, set in 1970, it is Payne’s first period film after a celebrated career for movies like Sideways, The Descendants, and many others. He has made some contemporary classics, no doubt, but the warm humanity of a trio of people left alone at Christmas in a snowy boarding school, ranks right up there with his very best. It is funny, sad, witty, poignant, filled with snark and heart and great acting. It also manages to be a film set at the holidays that offers something truly new for the genre, and also delightfully not only evokes the period in which it is set, it also purposely looks like a movie made then.

TELLURIDE- Despite a varied resume that includes art-house Sci-Fi, a classic coming-of-age tale, and a haunting drama on racial injustice, we weren’t sure Jeff Nichols had it in him to make a movie such as “The Bikeriders.” After its world premiere at the 2023 Telluride Film Festival, we’ll likely never doubt him again. Nichols has crafted a highly entertaining period piece on a legendary biker club that is at times sexy, funny, and filled with fisticuffs.

Biker movies are almost a subgenre of films unto themselves, beginning with Marlon Brando’s The Wild One in the early ’50s and then through all those AIP exploitation titles of the ’60s including The Wild Angels, Hells Angels on Wheels and many more, notably Tom Laughlin’s predecessor to Billy Jack called Born Losers, all culminating with Easy Rider with Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper and Jack Nicholson, which became the Citizen Kane of biker cinema.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic We’ve all seen our share of stories about inspirational teachers. “The Holdovers” is dedicated to the opposite sort: a hard-ass named Paul Hunham whom everyone hates. The feeling is mutual, as Mr.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic The best scene of “Call Me by Your Name” has nothing to do with fruit, but a frank father-son conversation. Brittle to the point of breaking, Timothée Chalamet sits on the couch, arms crossed, resenting his dad for acknowledging the source of his anguish. “You’re too smart not to know how rare, how special, what you two had was,” Michael Stuhlbarg tells the boy.