Yes, it appears that ’12 Years a Slave’ will screen at
Telluride on Friday. Rumors and speculation on the Telluride Film Festival thread at
Awards Watch predicted this as early as Tuesday, and I have added my two cents
into that conversation. It is expected that Michael, Steve and Lupita will be
guests of honors, but that’s not 100%. A lot of commentary is also stating that
Fox Searchlight maybe trying to pull out all the stops and get TYAS on the AMPAS
radar as early and as strong as possible. If it does well at Telluride (a
small, but might festival catered to industry folks and critics) and at
Toronto, as expected, opening at these two North American festivals strong and
with great word of mouth from fans and critics alike, is key to its long term
success in the Oscars race. It is more clear now that this American history
drama is deliberately opening in North America for these audiences in
particular (industry folk at Telluride, American/Int’l audiences at TIFF). And
I also believe that since Fox Searchlight dropped the ball with Shame two
seasons ago, they have some making up to do to that same team that is now
presenting to us, ’12 Years a Slave’.