05 Apr Telluride Film Fest: 2015 Guest Director Announced
Telluride Film Festival, presented by National Film Preserve LTD., is proud to announce its 2015 Guest Director, Rachel Kushner. The award-winning author is set to select a series of films to present at the 42nd Telluride Film Festival running over Labor Day Weekend, September 4-7, 2015.
Festival organizers annually select one of the world’s great film enthusiasts to join them in the creation of the Festival’s program lineup. The Guest Director serves as a key collaborator in the Festival’s programming decisions, bringing new ideas and overlooked films to Telluride. In keeping with Telluride Film Festival tradition, Kushner’s film selections, along with the rest of the Telluride lineup will be kept secret until Opening Day.
Also, in a rare co-presentation between Telluride Film Festival and San Francisco International Film Festival, Kushner is set to present the 1970 film “Wanda” on Saturday, April 25 at the historic Castro Theatre. Kushner will be in appearance at the 58th SFIFF to introduce this remarkable film by writer-director Barbara Loden. “Wanda” screened at the 2005 Telluride Film Festival as Guest Director Don DeLillo’s selection. For SFIFF screening information, and other Festival co-presentation details, please visit www.sffs.org.
“Rachel was a natural choice as the 42nd TFF Guest Director,” said Telluride Film Festival executive director Julie Huntsinger. “Our audience will be as grateful as Tom and I have been to listen to her thoughts and insight and see the outstanding film choices she has made. We actually owe a huge debt of thanks to our past Guest Director Michael Ondaatje for urging us to work with her. “
Rachel Kushner is the author of The Flamethrowers, a finalist for the 2013 National Book Award, the Folio Prize, the James Tait Black Prize, and on almost every Best Book list, including the New York Times Top Five Novels of 2013. Kushner’s debut novel, Telex from Cuba, was a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, winner of the California Book Award, and a New York Times bestseller and Notable Book. Kushner is the only writer ever to be nominated for a National Book Award in Fiction for both a first and second novel. She was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2013. Her fiction and essays have appeared in the New Yorker, Harper’s, the New York Times Magazine, the Paris Review, Artforum and Bookforum. A slim volume of her early work, The Strange Case of Rachel K, was published in the spring of 2015. She lives in Los Angeles.
“Telluride has an incredible history and reputation, and I’ve long known of it as a unique entity that makes a place for writers–one more aspect of this exceptional film festival in the Colorado “Alps,” said Kushner. “It still feels a bit dreamlike to me that I have been given this privilege to be a guest director — to indulge my love of cinema, to share with the world films I’ve long loved, and to work with the great Tom Luddy and the great Julie Huntsinger and their extended family of kindred souls.”
Past Guest Directors include Guy Maddin, Caetano Veloso, Michael Ondaatje, Alexander Payne, Salman Rushdie, Peter Bogdanovich, B. Ruby Rich, Phillip Lopate, Errol Morris, Bertrand Tavernier, John Boorman, John Simon, Buck Henry, Laurie Anderson, Stephen Sondheim, G. Cabrera Infante, Peter Sellars, Don DeLillo, J.P. Gorin, Edith Kramer and Slavoj Zizek.
42nd Festival passes are now available at www.telluridefilmfestival.org.
About Telluride Film Festival
The prestigious Telluride Film Festival ranks among the world’s best film festivals and is an annual gathering for film industry insiders, cinema enthusiasts, filmmakers and critics. TFF is considered a major launching ground for the fall season’s most talked-about films. Founded in 1974, Telluride Film Festival, presented in the beautiful mountain town of Telluride, Colorado, is a four-day international educational event celebrating the art of film. Telluride Film Festival’s long-standing commitment is to join filmmakers and film connoisseurs together to experience great cinema. The exciting schedule, kept secret until Opening Day, consists of over two dozen filmmakers presenting their newest works, special Guest Director programs, three major Tributes to guest artists, special events and remarkable treasures from the past. Telluride Film Festival is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit educational program. Festival headquarters are in Berkeley, CA.
About Our Sponsors
Telluride Film Festival is supported by Turner Classic Movies, EY, National Endowment for the Arts, Telluride Mountain Village Owners Association, Meyer Sound, Universal Studios, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, VistaJet, Dolby, The London Hotels: NYC & West Hollywood, Américas Film Conservancy, Seghesio Family Vineyards, Teatulia Organic Teas, Telluride Alpine Lodging, Shopkeep POS, New Sheridan Hotel
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