It all started with a text: “Can we talk?”
Those three little words — which is how Telluride Film Festival Director Julie Huntsinger first learned about the Nathan Fielder documentary about Elizabeth Holmes — catapulted this year’s festival into the most-talked-about event on the competitive film circuit.
Along with A24, the studio behind the doc, Huntsinger planned a secret reveal for the festival that only four people on her team knew about, even keeping her best friend in the dark. And as the world now knows, that covert strategy worked — of course, it helped that Fielder and co-director Lance Oppenheim had the goods. Reviewers have called the film “jaw-dropping,” “triumphant,” and “like nothing you’ve ever seen.”
For her part, Huntsinger considers the feature “terrific and really well-made.” “It’s actually a shocking, horrible portrait of our time,” she tells Gold Derby.
Here, she breaks down the 2026 edition of the festival — the surprises, the disappointments, and what she’s already planning for next year.
Gold Derby: It was such a great festival — congratulations.
Julie Huntsinger: Thank you. It felt really good to me, too. A lot of times, it’s not that I can’t tell — it’s that I’m just too close to it — but this time it felt really, really good. Something about the weather being extra OK, and the lineup was really strong.
And you kind of broke the internet.
It’s so funny that you say that. My colleague uttered those exact words, and his follow-up was, “Now I know why Kim Kardashian likes to do it so much.” They’re going to show it at the New York Film Festival, so I hope everybody who didn’t get to see it will try to see it there.
I just saw that news come through. Give me the backstory. How did it all come together?
We have a very good and longstanding relationship with A24. When they contacted me — and we already had two other films of theirs — it was actually a text that said, “Can we talk?” And I thought, “Oh no, maybe they want to pull something,” you know, do something else with The Debut, or do something else with Club Kid. We didn’t actually get to speak for about two days. Finally, when we did, the conversation was something like, “OK, we have this thing, and it’s super top secret, and I want to tell you about it.” I love Nathan Fielder — although I couldn’t watch The Rehearsal around the flying, because I’m a terrible flyer, so I don’t actually know how funny that is.
We decided to do an actual sneak. I said, “Nobody will know until they walk in the room.” I was so determined throughout the process — only four people in my entire personal and professional world knew. On Thursday night of the festival, my best friend said, “You’re really not even going to tell me?” And I said, “No, I’m not. I’m not telling anyone.” It was somewhat easy, because there’s a way you want to keep that secret for someone else, so they experience the sheer, complete, mind-blowing awe that happens when you watch it. The less you know going in, the better the experience is, and I really wanted to preserve that for our audience, too.
I understand. Because you hear Elizabeth Holmes and you think you know it, but you can’t understand Elizabeth Holmes plus Nathan Fielder plus the reveal. You just have to watch it.
That’s absolutely right. I’ve described this so many times: with each section of the film, your jaw drops a little more, to where at the end, we were shouting, hopping up and down, couldn’t believe it. Now I want to watch it with an audience to see and hear that reaction.
So you weren’t in the theater with the audience as it played?
No, I introed it and then left. I wasn’t about to take up a seat, and I don’t like standing in there.
Because the audience was gasping when the reveal happens.
Really?
Really!
Because she’s fantastic in it. To me, I thought, “God, this really works even better for her in it.” She’s very additive — very, very additive.
It’s going to make for an interesting awards conversation.
There were a few reactions where people said it’s one of the best experiences they’ve ever had — forget about the doc, forget about the category. I like that the conversation is more around it just as a film. It’s so terrific. It’s really well-made. This isn’t just access, but part of what Nathan is able to achieve is his gift — and so that access is another important attribute of the film.
Did you ever give any thought to screening it twice, or simulcasting it in another theater, too?
It was just going to be for the [Werner] Herzog [Theater] and done. Because it’s very much of a piece, isn’t it? I think it will build to this crescendo when it’s actually released. I hope it does quite well for A24. It should. I’m sure people are curious. For me, those three hours flew by. There are other long films out this fall where you’re kind of like, “Oh my God, try not to look at your watch,” but with this, it was over and I still wanted more. But I don’t need more. I hope there’s not going to be a sequel or anything. I heard somebody — I think maybe Nathan’s agent — say that she had seen at one point a three-hour-and-40-minute version, and I thought, “I’m really glad that’s not how it ended up.” I think this is perfect.
Now that you’ve set the bar so high with such a secret screening, could you pull it off again?
Would I do it exactly like that again? Heck yeah! It was really fun. I did hope that the people who were in there would be the people who would appreciate it. I think, regardless of who you are, it’s an extraordinarily good film. Nathan has a very specific kind of humor, and I was worried that some people might not really enjoy it. I wouldn’t even call it a comedy. It’s actually a shocking, horrible portrait of our time and of a person of this moment. But it really did seem like — because there were people I ordinarily would not have pegged for going into this — they all loved it. So that made me feel really good.
I appreciated what he said in the Q&A, “I’m not sure why I was there.”
Yeah, me too. He was terrific. I don’t think I’ve ever had a guest be funnier than when he said, “For those of you who don’t know who we are — we’re sorry to disappoint you.” That was genius.
And not to give short shrift to the other films — it feels like everything else played really well, with Wild Horse Nine, Club Kid, and The Debut. How are you feeling about the slate overall?
Oh, so good. And there were less sparkly — I don’t even know how to describe it — less-known titles going into the festival that did really well, too. For example, The Liberation, and Carrie Coon’s performance in that, and Tracy Letts. I so love Bella Ramsey and Odessa Young; they were fantastic. And Lily James — all of them, fantastic. Tenzing, this beautiful, old-fashioned, gorgeous adventure movie, in all the best meanings of those phrases. I love that movie, and it does seem like each of them found fans. I was worried about having that 90,000-pound gorilla in the room, but it worked out super well.
What do you consider the 90,000-pound gorilla? The Nathan Fielder doc?
It did take up a lot of oxygen. But there were beautiful, quiet movies, like Rehearsals for a Revolution and even [The Only Living] Pickpocket [in New York], and Andrew Haigh’s film [A Long Winter], and Sandra Hüller’s beautiful masterpieces [Fatherland and Rose]. If you just spend a little time thinking about each of those, you go, “Oh yeah, strong year.” And we’re already putting next year together — I’m already looking at next year. To be fair, initially I was panicked myself — of, “Is this a barren year?” And as I was seeing things and knowing what was going on, I was like, “We’ve got nothing to worry about.” Now, if we could just get people to make sure and go into theaters when these are released, that’d be great.
What were you panicked about? Was it the worry about the major studios staying away?
No, I don’t ever really worry about that, because in some ways they are fickle, and this is cyclical. The reasons are plenty. It’s expensive to do a festival, any festival, not just us. Title rights can be pricey; it’s hard to get there. But it’s also keeping the momentum up for a film versus saturating it and having too much, like, “Oh my God, if I hear about that movie one more time.” It’s alchemy, all of it. So I always encourage people to just take the check, especially with us, because you can do a thing like A24 did. I think they’re going to be quite careful about how many places it plays until Oct. 16. I know that’s not very long from now, but if you have that big moment and then don’t wait too terribly long — find that nice window in October, November — and then the movie comes out. I think that’s a really, really good strategy, and hats off to them. They really know what they’re doing. They all do. I think Searchlight is genius; I know [Sony Pictures Classics Presidents] Michael [Barker] and Tom [Bernard] are quite smart in how they do everything. But I really want to encourage some of the larger companies to take a chance. Not everything has to show in 20 festivals. It doesn’t have to be that many.
What reaction surprised you the most from this year’s festival?
It wasn’t really a surprise, but when I was getting on my flight yesterday, this couple came up to me — really, really sweet, not what I would have expected at all — and they could not stop raving about La Bola Negra. I know that movie is fantastic. People say, “Oh, did you see it? Did you like it?” about movies that we show, and I say, “Well, yeah — if I don’t like it, it doesn’t show.” I love that movie, zero reservations. But it is quite long, and I was just so thrilled by how much this very normie-looking couple was like, “Oh, La Bola Negra was our favorite movie of the whole day.” So that was really cool.
Was there something that disappointed you — a film you loved that didn’t get the response you’d hoped?
Well, I always hope that people will attend some of the revivals and restorations. Rebecca Hall chose such terrific things for her guest-director program, and they were well-attended. But my dream would be that we turn people away from those sometime. I really think everybody got a pretty decent shake.
There was a lot of conversation this year about women directors not being represented at other festivals, but you managed to take care of women.
You probably know this, but I’ll tell you: it really is true when most festival directors say, “We’re showing what’s out there.” But you can look a little harder. The Idiots! I love that movie, it’s so funny, it’s so well done. I know it was co-directed by a man — it’s her longtime writing partner and ex-partner in life — but she is such a creative, special human being, and I wish the whole world knew as much about her as they did about Elizabeth Holmes. Why can’t she be talked about? She’s this very, very interesting Polish director, and I love that movie. And Aimee Lou Wood — even though she’s quite popular, I still think she’s underrated. It’s a corny, overused word right now, but being intentional — if you just take one little extra minute of thought it’s so much better.
Any favorite moments for you over the course of the weekend?
My absolute favorite: I really admire and respect and love Kelvin Harrison Jr., the actor. There was this fun movie party where everybody did karaoke, and he did this country-western song. I pray that memory never fades. It was my absolute favorite, along with the Nathan Fielder line “for those who don’t know who we are.” Kelvin singing — I think it’s “I’m Your Man” by Josh Turner — I mean, that was a life highlight, let alone a festival highlight.
And what did you think of Oprah’s hug of Andrew Scott — the moment that went viral?
Oh, I got one, too! That woman — I was so proud to have her. I wish she’d do more Q&As for us; even if it’s just one a year, that’s awesome. And I love Andrew. I’m thinking about the charming absurdity of Alpha Gang, the brilliance of Andrew’s performance in Elsinore. … We have a motto: we always leave them wanting more. I think that was the case again this year. But my most fervent hope is that when people leave, they do seek these movies out once they get home — anything they didn’t get to.
And any lessons you learned from this year’s festival? Anything as you look ahead to next year?
I guess that it’s worth it. It’s really worth it — all of this, what we all do — just the love of cinema is really worth it. It does change people’s lives, you know? The power of a well-told humanist tale, a really well-made movie — there’s nothing like it.
This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
