The road to the Oscars often runs through the Rocky Mountains, the home of the Telluride Film Festival. Now in its 53rd year, the annual fest, which is held Labor Day weekend, features a highly selective, well-curated lineup with a strong track record of launching films on the awards circuit. And while other fests trumpet their lineups well in advance, Telluride’s lineup is held secret until the day before the event itself.
And now the slate has been unveiled. This year’s festival includes the world premieres of The Debut with Julianne Moore, Elsinore starring Andrew Scott, and director Andrew Haigh’s A Long Winter, along with Cannes favorites like Fjord and La Bola Negra hoping to reignite a spark to propel them through March. Last year, Hamnet‘s rapturous reception at Telluride launched Jessie Buckley’s successful campaign for Best Actress, along with the premieres of I Had Legs I’d Kick You, which led to Rose Byrne’s nomination, and Blue Moon, for which Ethan Hawke earned a Best Actor nod.
While other festivals this year have struggled for studio participation and been criticized for lack for diversity, Telluride has no such issues. Credit the steady hand of festival director Julie Huntsinger, who has been painstakingly programming the event for 20 years. And while secrecy has been paramount, you can always count on a must-see mix of indie filmmakers, Cannes favorites, and topical documentaries that will have people talking up and down the gondola. And of course, there’s always a secret “to be announced” screening or two.
A series of films for this year’s festival were selected by guest director Rebecca Hall, marking her first time at the festival. Hall stars in Adam Wingard’s new A24 action thriller Onslaught and appears in the upcoming season of Netflix’s Monster, as well as The Man I Love and The End of It, both of which premiered at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.
Here’s a look at what’s on the lineup at this year’s Telluride Film Festival.
The Debut
Writer-director Jesse Eisenberg (A Real Pain) is stirring awards buzz with A24’s The Debut, starring Julianne Moore as a bored housewife who gets cast in a community theater production; Paul Giamatti co-stars as the tyrannical director. Moore is already topping Gold Derby’s leaderboards for her knockout performance.
A Long Winter
Andrew Haigh (All of Us Strangers) will be returning to Telluride with A Long Winter, a period drama adapted from Colm Toibin’s short story. Fred Hechinger stars as Mike, whose life is upended when his mother (Caitriona Balfe) disappears during a blizzard, leaving him with his aging, stoic father (Ebon Moss-Bachrach).
Fjord
Palme d’Or winner Fjord will be launching its U.S. festival tour, continuing Neon’s strong streak of shepherding films with huge Oscar buzz. Cristian Mungiu’s critically lauded film, which is officially Romania’s submission for Best International Feature, stars Academy Award nominees Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan, as deeply religious parents who relocate to a remote coastal town, only to face allegations of abuse of their five children.
Ink, La Bola Negra, Gentle Monster
Netflix will be bringing three films: Ink, La Bola Negra, and Gentle Monster. Danny Boyle’s Ink, which is making the Venice-Telluride hop as that festival’s opening film, stars Jack O’Connell, Guy Pearce, and Claire Foy in an adaptation of James Graham’s play about the rise of tabloid culture in the U.K. at the hands of Rupert Murdoch. La Bola Negra, from directors Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, debuted to critical acclaim at Cannes, tells an interconnected love story of three generations of men; Penélope Cruz and Glenn Close also star. Gentle Monster, which was written and directed by Marie Kreutzer, features Lea Seydoux as a pianist who must face uncomfortable truths about her husband; it also premiered at Cannes.
Elsinore
Focus Features is, well, focusing on director Simon Stone’s Elsinore, a biographical drama starring indie darling Andrew Scott. He stars as Scottish actor Ian Charleson in the final months of his life as he prepared to play Hamlet while struggling with his HIV diagnosis; Olivia Colman co-stars as his doctor.
Wild Horse Nine
Wild Horse Nine, from Searchlight Pictures, will also be making its North American premiere after debuting at Venice. Martin McDonagh’s much-talked-about feature stars John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell as CIA agents sent to Chile by their bureau chief (Steve Buscemi) just before the 1973 coup.
Club Kid
Another Cannes festival favorite, A24 secured Jordan Firstman’s directing debut in a fierce bidding war — adding to the studio’s lineup of awards contenders. Firstman, who also wrote the script, stars as a gay New York City club promoter whose lifestyle is turned upside down by the arrival of a 10-year-old son he never knew he had. Club Kid is set for a limited theatrical release on Nov. 6
The show slate (new feature films and documentaries)
A Long Winter (director: Andrew Haigh, U.K., 2026)
Act 3 (directors: Christine Molloy, Joe Lawlor, Ireland/U.K., 2026)
Alpha Gang (directors: David Zellner, Nathan Zellner, U.S., 2026)
Avedon (director: Ron Howard, U.S., 2026)
Bucking Fastard (director: Werner Herzog, Ireland/U.S., 2026)
Burgundy (directors: Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw, France, 2026)
Carl Sagan: We Are Made of Star Stuff (director: Nanette Burstein, U.S., 2026)
Club Kid (director: Jordan Firstman, U.S., 2026)
The Debut (director: Jesse Eisenberg, U.S., 2026)
The Disciple (director: Joanna Natasegara, U.K./U.S./Morocco, 2026)
Elsinore (director: Simon Stone, U.K., 2026)
Everest: The Other Side (directors: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, U.S./China/Nepal, 2026)
Fatherland (director: Paweł Pawlikowski, Poland/France/Germany/Italy, 2026)
Fjord (director: Cristian Mungiu, Romania/France/Norway/Sweden/Denmark, 2026)
Gentle Monster (director: Marie Kreutzer, Austria/Germany/France, 2026)
The Idiot(s) (directors: Małgorzata Szumowska, Michał Englert, Poland/Germany, 2026)
Ink (director: Danny Boyle, U.K./U.S./France, 2026)
La Bola Negra (directors: Javier Ambrossi, Javier Calvo, Spain/France, 2026)
The Liberation (director: Guy Nattiv, U.S., 2026)
Making Marie Antoinette (director: Sofia Coppola, Italy/U.S., 2026)
The Man I Love (director: Ira Sachs, U.S., 2026)
Minotaur (director: Andrey Zvyagintsev, France/Germany/Latvia, 2026)
My Undesirable Friends: Part II – Exile (director: Julia Loktev, U.S., 2026)
Once Upon a Time in Harlem (directors: David Greaves, Liani Greaves, U.S., 2026)
The Only Living Pickpocket in New York (director: Noah Segan, U.S., 2026)
Pete Townshend: Behind Blue Eyes (directors: Frank Marshall, Nigel Sinclair, U.S./U.K., 2026)
Rehearsals for a Revolution (director: Pegah Ahangarani, Czech Republic/Spain, 2026)
Rose (director: Markus Schleinzer, Austria/Germany, 2026)
The Row (director: Bryan Fogel, U.S./Australia/Ireland, 2026)
The Story of Documentary Film (director: Mark Cousins, Scotland/U.K., 2026)
Sumo: Spirit Weighs Nothing (director: Erik Shirai, U.S./Japan/U.K./Denmark, 2026)
Tender Loving Care (director: Mike Leigh, U.K., 2026)
Tenzing (director: Jennifer Peedom, U.S./Australia, 2026)
The Unknown (director: Arthur Harari, France/Italy, 2026)
Wild Horse Nine (director: Martin McDonagh, Chile/U.S., 2026)
The rest of the main program
Also playing in the main program are two newly restored features: Begotten (director: E. Elias Merhige, U.S., 1989/2026) and Beau Geste (director: Herbert Brenon, U.S., 1926), with live musical accompaniment by Donald Sosin; short films: A Song for the Snow Lion (director: Pawo Choyning Dorji, Bhutan/U.S., 2026), A Dance Through Time (director: Sarah Gavron, U.K., 2026), Maybe Tomorrow (director: Wafa Mustafa, Waad Al-Kateab, U.K., 2026), Sawyer Avenue, Sunday Afternoon (director: Bill Morrison, U.S., 2026), Love, Rendered (director: Liz Garbus, U.S., 2026), The Revolution Against Death (director: Joshua Oppenheimer, Denmark/Sweden, 2026), and Ben Proudfoot’s The Buffalo Miracle (U.S., 2026) and Witt v. Air Force (U.S., 2026).
Guest Director program
(Rebecca Hall’s selections)
Akenfield (director: Peter Hall, U.K., 1974)
Margaret (director: Kenneth Lonergan, U.S., 2011)
Portrait of Jason (director: Shirley Clarke, U.S., 1967)
The Servant (director: Joseph Losey, U.K., 1963)
Synecdoche, New York (director: Charlie Kaufman, U.S., 2008)
What’s Up, Doc? (director: Peter Bogdanovich, U.S., 1972)
Backlot program
The Golden Age (director: Bérenger Thouin, France/Italy, 2026), preceded by The Stars Watch From Long Ago (director: Stacey Steers, U.S., 2026)
House of Criticism (director: Alison Chernick, U.S., 2026)
The Illusion of an Everlasting Summer (director: Alessandra Sanguinetti, Argentina/U.S., 2026)
Into the Breach (director: Freddie Fox, U.K., 2026)
Maverick: The Epic Adventures of David Lean (director: Barnaby Thompson, U.K., 2026), preceded by To Escape (director: David C. Roberts, U.S., 2026)
The Natural State (director: Matthew Dougherty, U.S., 2026)
One More Time (directors: Cindy Kleine and André Gregory, U.S., 2026)
Zero Intention of Living Quietly (director: Edward Lovelace, U.K., 2026)
Special screenings and festivities
2001: A Space Odyssey (director: Stanley Kubrick, U.K./U.S., 1968)
Across the Universe (director: Julie Taymor, U.S./U.K., 2007)
The Bridge on the River Kwai (director: David Lean, U.K./U.S., 1957)
Christine (director: Antonio Campos, U.S., 2016)
Marie Antoinette (director: Eleanor Coppola, U.S., 2006)
Moonlight (director: Barry Jenkins, U.S., 2016), celebrating the 10th anniversary of its Telluride premiere
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (director: Jane Schoenbrun, U.S./Canada, 2026)
Filmmaking and Technology With Empathy: AI For Societal Benefit, sponsored by Google
The Humanity Dilemma, a multimedia presentation
Marfa Stance Studio: A Groundbreaking Collaboration, including a roundtable discussion with women directors
Roger Corman at 100 panel, followed by The Intruder (U.S., 1962)
Step Inside The F-Stop, an immersive cinematic traveling Airstream experience celebrating Focus Features films
Wildwood: Inside The Frame, an exhibition celebrating the handmade artistry behind Laika’s upcoming release, including a live discussion with its creators
