Here's something of an opinion of TLS from the managing director of Telluride film fest. From the Telluride Daily Planet:
Every Labor Day weekend, they stream into the box canyon from the coast, from Europe and middle America towns and college campuses, arriving starry-eyed and full of esoteric knowledge and with a love for movies that borders on rabid.
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There are dozens of movies for the offering this weekend, a dizzying array that can make the eyes glass over and the brain grow numb in deliberation.


Gary Meyer, co-director of the festival, and Julie Huntsinger, the festival's managing director, stopped into the Planet offices this week to drop some knowledge about this year's lineup. Each had the tough task of picking five festival favorites. What they told us may help you festival-goers when you are plotting your schedule.

Here goes:

Huntsinger's picks:

• "Red Riding." This trilogy of films has been adapted from four novels by David Peace. And each features a different director. The stories take place in West Yorkshire in a period that spans 1974-1983, and involves murder and double-crossing and stunning twists of plot. "It's a fantastic set of movies," Huntsinger said. TFF will offer a special back-to-back screening of "Red Riding" on Friday in the Palm.

• "Fish Tank." This movie tells the story of 15-year-old Mia, a hardened English teenager wandering through life under her partying single mom, with only her love of hip-hop dancing as an anchor. "It's a really amazing snapshot of how hard it is to bee a teen in an underprivileged environment," Huntsinger said.

• "Farewell." This French film is a story of double agents trading secrets, but it's also one of the Cold War's ending. With complex characters, an elaborate narrative and an amazing director, this one's not to be missed, Huntsinger said. "It's very, very compelling," she said.


• "The Last Station." This adaptation of Jay Parini's novel is a comic-dramatic account of Leo Tolstoy's tumultuous final months. With a top-notch cast that includes Helen Mirren, James McAvoy and Christopher Plummer, the film is at turns funny and moving. Huntsinger called it "glorious."

• "An Education." This film, with a screenplay by Nick Hornby, is a coming of age story of both a 16-year-old British girl (played by the bright Carey Mulligan) in the early '60s and her country.

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