I’ve noted before that while the Telluride Film Festival (9.2 thru 9.5) is billed as a four-day festival, it’s really a three-day thing. They always wait until 3 pm or thereabouts on Friday afternoon (i.e., after the picnic) to kick things off, and they know that many people are gone by Monday lunch or early afternoon, so it’s (a) a half-day on Friday, (b) two full days over the weekend, and (c) a half day on Monday. If you have to file and pack on Monday morning it’s more like a 2 and 1/2 day festival.
If the Telluride fathers wanted to make it more time-efficient, they would start with a screening or two on Thursday night (when most people arrive) and then jump right into the first showings on Friday morning.
Approximately 20 films will play within this three-day time frame, which means even if you can hit four per day (if you hit five you’ll have no time to file) you’ll only catch about twelve. HE Priorities: Arrival (d: Denis Villeneuve), La La Land (d: Damian Chazelle), Neruda (d: Pablo Larrain), Bleed for This (d: Ben Younger), Moonlight (d: Barry Jenkins), Manchester by the Sea (d: Kenneth Lonergan), Una (d: Benedict Andrews), Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer (d: Joseph Cedar), The B-Side (d: Errol Morris), Into the Inferno (d: Werner Herzog), Frantz (d: Francois Ozon) and Fire at Sea (d: Gianfranco Rosi).
Plus there’s a slot for a major American film showing that isn’t on anyone’s list right now, or at least none that I know of. But it’ll be there.