Telluride festival ends with preview of 127 Hours, Black Swan
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Oscar-winning British director Danny Boyle's new drama "127 Hours" and American Darren Aronofsky's psycho-thriller "Black Swan" were screened to rave views as the 37th Telluride Film Festival ended Monday in the ski resort town of Telluride, Colorado.
The two came as surprise "sneak preview" movies after the four-day festival had earlier unveiled the lineup of 24 feature films in its main program, its organizers said.
"127 Hours" features mountain climber Aron Ralston's (James Franco's) remarkable life-saving adventure after a fallen boulder crashes onto his arm and traps him in an isolated canyon in Utah.
"Black Swan", a heavily sexualized psycho-thriller about an over-wrought ballerina in New York competing for the leading role in Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake", brought the audience to its feet for a five-minute standing ovation at the premiere.
Both "127 Hours" and "Black Swan" have been considered by many as hopefuls for next year's Academy Awards and thus set the stage for their onslaught on the trophies. Danny Boyle's previous film, "Slumdog Millionaire", went from Telluride to the Oscars last year.
The festival also screened 13 documentaries in the Backlot program and 25 new short films as well as six revivals selected by guest director Michael Ondaatje.
This year, the Silver Medallion went to veteran Italian Tunisian actress Claudia Cardinale, British Academy Award nominee Colin Firth and Australian director Peter Weir, while the special Medallion was given to the UCLA Film & Television Archive.
First held in 1974, the annual Colorado event ranks with much larger festivals such as Venice and Toronto as one of the world's premier international film festivals.
It has been ranked among the top 10 international festivals and among top five U.S.festivals, along with Sundance, Austin Film Fest, AFI Fest and Tribeca.
