Peter Weir, Danny Boyle, Mark Romanek and Errol Morris will be headlining this year’s Telluride Film Festival, which kicks off Friday.

The Colorado mountain fest, now in its 37th year, officially announced its program Thursday, and festival directors Tom Luddy, Gary Meyer and Julie Huntsinger have stocked the high-altitude event with a typical mix of the new and unseen, the archival and obscure. Festivalgoers who make the trek to the lush box canyon in the western end of the San Juan Mountains will have their choice of outdoor screenings, shorts programs, filmmaker panels and sneak peeks at some of the fall’s new releases as the program unspools through Monday.

Romanek’s “Never Let Me Go,” which Alex Garland adapted from the Kazuo Ishiguro novel, will screen Friday night at the 650-seat Palm Theatre. Keira Knightley, Andrew Garfield and Carey Mulligan star in the film, which Fox Searchlight will also show at the Toronto film festival before a theatrical release September 15.

Later that night, Morris will unveil his new documentary “Tabloid,” about the bizarre case of former Miss Wyoming Joyce McKinney, before it also moves on to Toronto.

Though Boyle will officially be on hand to present a special Sunday morning screening of his 2005 film “Millions,” it is widely expected that he will also sneak in his new film “127 Hours” ahead of its Toronto berth. Fox Searchlight has a November theatrical release scheduled for the drama, which stars James Franco as a hiker trapped under a boulder in Utah for days.

Doug Liman’s political drama “Fair Game” will screen at the Austin Film Festival, fest organizers announced Tuesday.

Among the ten films thus far lined up for the screenwriter-focused fest, which runs October 21-28, are Travis Fine’s drama “The Space Between,” starring Melissa Leo; David Palmer and Dax Shepard’s “Brother’s Justice,” starring Shepard, Tom Arnold and Bradley Cooper; and Maryam Azadi and Hossein Keshavarz’s “Dog Sweat.” As usual, the line-up will also feature a host of Austin-made films, including Eric Heuber’s “Rainbow’s End,” Bradley Scott Sullivan’s “I Didn’t Come Here to Die” and Steven Belyeu’s “Dig.”

Bill Ivory and Nigel Cole’s “Made in Dagenham,” J. Clay Twell’s “Make Believe” and Shan Nicholson’s “Rubble Kings” complete the fest's "Early 10" selections.

Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth wrote the screenplay for “Fair Game,” which stars Naomi Watts and Sean Penn as outed CIA operative Valerie Plame and her diplomat husband, Joseph Wilson. Summit Entertainment acquired the suspense thriller before its world premiere at Cannes in May, and it plans an early November theatrical release.

The Austin fest’s complete program, including short films and competition titles, will be announced in mid-September.

As usual, the Telluride Film Festival is steadfastly refusing to release its official program until the fest opens Sept. 3. But given the high-altitude, low-intensity fest's growing reputation for having a kudos-christening golden touch, it's tempting to speculate on what festivalgoers are likely to see there. (And then see again, after the New Year, swimming in nominations.)

In the last few years, festival programmers have cannily slung one or two last-minute surprises into the mix that ended up skating on to awards-season attention. "Slumdog Millionaire" is the most noteworthy example; the film was slipped in as a last-minute premiere in September 2008 on its way to eight Oscars, including best picture, five months later.

But award-heavy films "Juno" (2007), "The Last King of Scotland" (2006), "Walk the Line" (2005) and "Brokeback Mountain" (2005) all got their start at the Colorado mountain fest too. Last year's surprises included "Up in the Air," Jason Reitman's follow-up to "Juno" that landed six Oscar noms; John Hillcoat's "The Road"; and Werner Herzog's "Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans" -- plus a little horror indie called "Paranormal Activity."

So what's climbing the mountain to this year's 37th edition?

The Toronto International Film Festival has a trailer for the Millennium/Nu Image Films thriller "Trust," the sophomore directing effort from David Schwimmer ("Run, Fatboy, Run").

At first glance, it looks like a fairly standard ordinary guy-wants-revenge nail-biter, in the tradition of "Breakdown," "Ransom" and "Reservation Road." But with stars Clive Owen and Catherine Keener running point, it promises to have some more idiosyncratic touches. (At least, I hope it does.)

The film will have its world premiere at the Toronto fest next month. Check it out.

The Austin Film Festival, which pops in October, announced today that David Simon, the creator of "The Wire" and "Treme," will receive the outstanding television writer award at the 2010 edition.

Simon, who will also appear on several panels during the 17th annual fest's companion conference, will receive the honor at the award luncheon Saturday, Oct. 23 at the Austin Club.

Fest organizers also have lined up many of the TV and film writers for its conference panels and seminars. Allan Loeb ("Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps"), Peter Murrieta (“Wizards of Waverly Place”), Jon Lucas & Scott Moore ("The Hangover"), John Lee Hancock ("The Blind Side"), Phil Hay ("Clash of the Titans"), Larry Doyle (“The Simpsons”), John August ("Charlie and the Chocolate Factory") and Randall Wallace ("Braveheart") have plans to attend this year.

The current full list is below the jump.

The Telluride Film Festival is just two months away, and the fest's organizers have selected author Michael Ondaatje as this year's guest director. Ondaatje, whose novel "The English Patient" was spun into the Academy Award-winning Best Picture of 1997 by Anthony Minghella, joins past novelist guest directors Salman Rushdie and Don DeLillo.

Last year's guest director was Alexander Payne, who chose the 1963 Spanish film "El Verdugo," the 1963 Japanese epic "Daisan no Kagemusha: The Third Shadow Warrior" and the 1952 Italian comedy "Le Ragazze di Piazza di Spagna" among his selections.

In his honorary position, Ondaatje will select a series of films for screening as part of the program of the 37th annual fest, which runs from September 3-6. Ondaatje’s selections, and the rest of the Telluride lineup, will not be revealed until the first day of the fest, as per tradition.

“When we first met with Michael to invite him to be our Guest Director, his enthusiasm was infectious and we knew we had made a perfect choice," said Tom Luddy, festival director along with Gary Meyer and Julie Huntsinger.
 
Ondaatje's memoirs, poetry, music and film writing include "Running in the Family," "There’s a Trick With a Knife I’m Learning To Do," "The Cinnamon Peeler: Selected Poems," "Coming Through Slaughter," "Anil's Ghost," "The Conversations: Walter Murch & the Art of Editing Film," "Divisadero." He has also directed two documentaries, "Sons of Poetry" and "The Clinton Special: A Film About The Farm Show."

“The ideas were already flowing in that first meeting," said Huntsinger. "In the following weeks he asked us to help secure prints for him to screen movies fondly remembered as well as those he had heard about and was curious to consider.”
 

During the Silverdocs Film Festival last weekend, Writers Guild of America, East president Michael Winship interviewed FCC chairman Julius Genachowski in front of an audience.

The discussion, excerpted here, ranged over issues such as piracy, the future of online journalism, broadband expansion and other hot-button issues.

Notably, in a brief aside, Genachowski claimed that his favorite movie is "1776," the big-screen adaptation of the Broadway musical that Columbia released in 1972.

It's a safe choice in that it's non-partisan and patriotic. But the film did star Ken Howard as future president Thomas Jefferson, as Genachowski noted. Howard was elected national president of the Screen Actors Guild last year, so maybe the FCC chairman was signaling something after all.

As least Hollywood labor now knows who to send in carrying the flag for Net Neutrality...

By Jay A. Fernandez Tommy Butler’s “Etopia” script won Showtime’s Tony Cox Screenplay Competition for emerging writers Sunday as the 15th annual Nantucket Film Festival came to a close. Jennifer Arnold, director of “A Small Act,” was awarded the Adrienne Shelley Excellence in Filmmaking Award, and her film tied with Radu Mihaileanu’s “The Concert” for the audience award for best feature at the closing ceremony of the fest. Ticket sales for the festival, which ran from June 17-20, nearly doubled this year as organizers corralled the East Coast premiere of “Toy Story 3” as well as celebs Ben Stiller, Zach Galifianakis, Andy Samberg, Sarah Silverman and Brian Williams (at right) for its annual All Star Comedy Roundtable. Executive director Colin Stanfield also pointed to the use this year of Nantucket High School as the fest’s main venue, since it accommodated a larger number of participants.

The Telluride Film Festival, which runs September 3-6 this year, is issuing a last call for film submissions. The deadline is July 1 for any last shorts or student films that want a shot at a slot in the 37th annual fest. The feature film deadline is July 15. Fest organizers point out that past first-time filmmakers that screened at Telluride include Terry Zwigoff, Richard Rodriguez, Doug Liman, Jon Favreau and Lodge Kerrigan.

The screenwriter-focused Austin Film Festival launched a week-long Producers Badge promotion today that runs through Monday, May 31. Those who spring for the $525 badge (a discounted amount for only this week) will be entered into a drawing for lunch with writer-director John Lee Hancock ("The Blind Side," "The Rookie," "A Perfect World"). Five winners will kick off the 2010 festival and conference, which runs October 21-28, with the Hancock lunch, on the AFF's tab. Conference panelists this year will include Jon Lucas & Scott Moore ("The Hangover"), Craig Mazin ("The Hangover 2"), John August ("Big Fish") and Peter Hedges ("What's Eating Gilbert Grape").

In the midst of pristine white luxury yachts anchored in the Mediterranean stands the "Steve Irwin," an all black 60-meter vessel named after the late Australian conservationist. I am invited to come aboard the ship to meet Captain Paul Watson, founder and president of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, a non-profit organization that confronts illegal fishing activities on the high seas.

As the Festival de Cannes comes to a close, a handful of films have found homes with three different indie distributors via last minute acquisitions. IFC Films acquired U.S. rights to director Bertrand Tavernier's "The Princess of Montpensier," indie cult helmer Gregg Araki's "Kaboom" and Mexican filmmaker Jorge Michel Grau's directorial debut, "We Are What We Are." Additionally, Sony Pictures Classics acquired U.S., Australia and New Zealand rights to the French film, "Of Gods & Men" while Anchor Bay Entertainment has picked up U.S. distribution rights to "Altitude," the supernatural thriller directed by comics artist Kaare Andrews.