Telluride Film Festival

August 29- September 1

Photo B&A

Labor Day Weekend sponsers one of the last weekend of summer where the tiny mountain village of Telluride, Colorado triples in size. Swells of passionate film enthusiasts flood the town for four days of total cinematic immersion, embarking on a viewing odyssey, blissfully spending entire days in flickering dark rooms. With only an appreciation of celluloid to guide them, these devotees flock to the show, year after year. Why? Blind faith. The festival producers don't reveal the program until everyone lands in town. Yet the Telluride family trusts that a unique experience will unfold.

The Telluride Film Festival is not just a picture show. It is tributes to luminaries who've pushed the medium forward; it is discussions with a film's creator or the historian who champions it; it is running into filmmaker guests and sharing your thoughts; it is engaging in lively debate with a fellow passholder on the street or in line. Telluride Film Festival audiences were the first in the world to partake of MY DINNER WITH ANDRE, to visit TWIN PEAKS, to witness THE CIVIL WAR and to learn the secret of THE CRYING GAME. They resurrected the silent epic NAPOLEON, and highlighted the genius of animator Chuck Jones.

They take great pains to remain not a competition, but a celebration of the best in film -- past, present and future -- from all around the world. One weekend immersed in an unabashed carnival of film: viewing, breathing, eating, and talking cinema. Or, as they like to call it: THE SHOW. www.telluridefilmfestival.org