The 52nd Telluride Film Festival, one of the world’s most esteemed showcases for cinematic artistry, has officially unveiled its 2025 lineup, confirming its reputation as a crossroads for world premieres, festival favorites, and Oscar hopefuls. The announcement, made on August 28, 2025, sets the stage for a four-day celebration of film, running from August 29 through September 1, in the picturesque Colorado mountain town that has become a pilgrimage site for filmmakers and cinephiles alike.
According to the official press release and reporting from major outlets, this year’s Telluride selection is a carefully curated blend of global auteurs, American independents, and documentary giants. The program includes more than thirty feature films, a robust slate of short films, retrospectives, educational initiatives, and tributes to some of cinema’s most influential figures.
Headlining the 2025 festival are several highly anticipated world premieres. Chloé Zhao, the Oscar-winning director of Nomadland, returns with Hamnet, a project shrouded in secrecy but already generating awards buzz. Edward Berger, fresh from the international success of All Quiet on the Western Front, brings Ballad of a Small Player, while Scott Cooper debuts Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, a documentary expected to draw both music and movie lovers.
The festival is also welcoming a number of Venice and Cannes alumni, a hallmark of Telluride’s programming. Yorgos Lanthimos’ Bugonia, Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly, Laura Poitras’ Cover-Up, and Paolo Sorrentino’s La Grazia all make their North American debuts, following acclaim on the European festival circuit. Other highlights include Richard Linklater’s double-feature of Blue Moon and Nouvelle Vague, Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident, Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent, Harris Dickinson’s Urchin, Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind, Oliver Hermanus’ The History of Sound, and Rebecca Zlotowski’s A Private Life.
Telluride’s main program also features an impressive list of documentaries and international features, such as Everywhere Man: The Lives and Times of Peter Asher (Dayna Goldfine, Dan Geller), Ghost Elephants (Werner Herzog), H Is for Hawk (Philippa Lowthorpe), Hamlet (Aneil Karia), Highway 99 A Double Album (Ethan Hawke), If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (Mary Bronstein), Karl (Nick Hooker), Lost in the Jungle (Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, Juan Camilo Cruz), Lumière, Le Cinéma (Thierry Frémaux), Man on the Run (Morgan Neville), Pillion (Harry Lighton), Shifty (Adam Curtis), Summer Tour (Mischa Richter), The American Revolution (Ken Burns, Sarah Botstein, David Schmidt), The Bend in the River (Robb Moss), The Cycle of Love (Orlando von Einsiedel), The New Yorker at 100 (Marshall Curry), The Reserve (Pablo Pérez Lombardini), This Is Not a Drill (Oren Jacoby), Tuner (Daniel Roher), and Urchin (Harris Dickinson).
Short films are not left out of the spotlight, with entries like All the Empty Rooms (Joshua Seftel), All the Walls Came Down (Ondi Timoner), Last Days on Lake Trinity (Charlotte Cooley), Sallie’s Ashes (Brennan Robideaux), and Song of My City (David C. Roberts) rounding out the main program.
Tributes and special awards are a defining feature of Telluride, and this year’s Silver Medallion will be presented to three towering figures: Oscar-nominated writer/director Noah Baumbach (screening Jay Kelly), Oscar-nominated actor/writer/director Ethan Hawke (with Blue Moon and Highway 99 A Double Album), and award-winning Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi (with It Was Just an Accident). Each tribute includes a compilation of clips, a live interview, and a screening of the honoree’s latest work.
Ezra Edelman, the Emmy- and Academy Award–winning documentarian behind O.J.: Made in America, serves as this year’s Guest Director. Edelman’s curated program, presented in partnership with Turner Classic Movies (TCM), includes classics such as All the President’s Men (Alan J. Pakula, 1976), Malcolm X (Spike Lee, 1992), Network (Sidney Lumet, 1976), Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1950), and The Insider (Michael Mann, 1999). This tradition, as the festival notes, “offers audiences a fresh lens through which to explore cinema history.”
Educational outreach remains central to Telluride’s mission. Programs like the Student Symposium (an immersive seminar for undergraduates and graduates), the City Lights Project (pairing high schoolers and teachers with festival films and guests), FilmLAB (connecting leading filmmakers with American Film Institute fellows), and FilmSCHOLAR (for young critics and scholars) aim to foster the next generation of film lovers and creators.
Backlot, Telluride’s behind-the-scenes screening room, is again open to the public, with offerings such as All I Had Was Nothingness (Guillaume Ribot), Carol & Joy (Nathan Silver), Chaplin: Spirit of the Tramp (Carmen Chaplin), Earth to Michael (Nico López-Alegría), Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire (Oren Rudavsky), King Hamlet (Elvira Lind), Megadoc (Mike Figgis), Shooting (Netalie Braun), The Golden Spurtle (Constantine Costi), and Their Eyes (Nicolas Gourault).
Special screenings and festivities include a restoration and recreation of Werner Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams 3D 2025, Max Lowe’s Learning to Fly, Steal This Story, Please! (Carl Dean, Tia Lessin), and a 4K restoration of Charles Chaplin’s The Gold Rush (1925). The festival also hosts a gallery exhibition celebrating The New Yorker’s centenary, poster signings, industry panels like “Truth Be Told: Journalism and Filmmaking in the 21st Century,” and “Behind The Lens: AI and Filmmaking.”
Sponsorship continues to play a vital role in Telluride’s success. This year, new partners include Google (supporting the shorts section), Barco (providing laser projection at the Palm Theater), goodr (supporting festival staff), and HOKA (enhancing the Labor Day Picnic). Returning sponsors such as Audi, Mandarin Oriental, MUBI, National Geographic Documentary Films, Panavision, Amazon MGM Studios, Netflix, Dolby, and Meyer Sound underscore the festival’s dedication to technical excellence and hospitality.
As the festival launches its 52nd edition, it is also looking toward the future with the Nugget Project. This ambitious initiative aims to establish a permanent home for the festival in the historic Nugget Building, with spaces for artist residencies, expanded educational programming, community events, and the state-of-the-art Atmos Nugget Theater. Festival director Julie Huntsinger summed up the mood best: “At Telluride, there always seems to be a thread of beautiful humanism in the stories told and this year is no different. At the heart of every one of them is the essence of humanity that is profoundly illuminating and beautiful, even if they’re also heartbreaking. We’re thrilled with what these filmmakers are sharing and proud to welcome back some old friends as well as new voices. Long live cinema, long live the theatrical experience.”
With its signature blend of tradition, innovation, and community spirit, the 2025 Telluride Film Festival promises to be a cinematic event that both honors the past and looks boldly to the future.
