As the 53rd Telluride Film Festival came to a close, The Hollywood Reporter’s executive editor (awards) Scott Feinberg and senior entertainment writer David Canfield, both longtime attendees of the fest, huddled to discuss and dissect their Labor Day weekend at the movies.

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SCOTT FEINBERG Dave, I’m still catching my breath and not thinking entirely clearly after four days of running around in the high altitude. But I can’t recall a stronger edition of the fest in the 15 years that I’ve been coming — the films were almost uniformly great, the surprise screening really packed a punch, and the vibes overall were really good. I just ran into Sid Ganis, the longtime studio exec and former president of the Academy, who has been attending for 36 years, and he felt the same way, so maybe I’m not crazy. How was it for you?

DAVID CANFIELD Absolutely agree. This was the strongest, deepest lineup the festival has assembled in the years I’ve been attending. The most common refrain I heard around town was: So many great movies, so little time — arguably a legitimate problem for a program this packed playing out over just four days. Few would mind an extra day! 

You had an ideal mix of buzzy world premieres; the best of Cannes and Sundance (and Berlin!); and, of course, a smattering of Oscar players asserting themselves. I heard so many films cited as highlights — including by high-profile attendees: Ira Sachs loved Mike Leigh’s Tender Loving Care, Oprah hugged Andrew Scott in emotional embrace over Elsinore, Rian Johnson was all about Club Kid, Ken Burns raved about the brilliant archival doc Once Upon a Time in Harlem, and Sofia Coppola may have found her new favorite filmmaking duo in La Bola Negra’s Los Javis.But I digress. In an embarrassment of riches this year, what stood out as the biggest breakouts?

World premieres

FEINBERG Nothing on the schedule was in higher demand than Sunday’s closely-guarded “surprise screening,” which turned out to be the world premiere of You Can See Everything, an A24 documentary from Nathan Fielder (The Rehearsal) and Lance Oppenheim (Primetime, which just premiered at Venice) about the notorious Theranos scammer Elizabeth Holmes. Somehow, it not only lived up to but exceeded the great expectations of festivalgoers who had been promised something really special — reactions from critics and pundits have been through the roof. Jeremy Barber, the UTA partner who reps Oppenheim, described it to me as “one of the best festival screenings I have ever been to, and I have been to a few.”

CANFIELD I had to miss that one because I was moderating a Q&A — we divide and conquer here at THR — so fill me in: what made it so great?

FEINBERG The film employs Fielder’s patented style of inserting himself into strange situations and then organizing reenactments of them to help him work through his thoughts, and it also features numerous shocking twists and turns that left people’s jaws on the floor — one being the significant participation of an A-list actress, who elevates it from a triple to a home run. Members of the Academy’s doc branch who were at the screening seemed to love it — two-time Oscar winner Ben Proudfoot, for instance, posted on Instagram, “My God, I barely blinked for three hours… entirely original and all-consuming. Legit next level.” But I think A24 would be wise to think beyond the documentary branch, which tends to be conservative, and lobby the full Academy in pursuit of best picture and acting noms: no doc has ever landed either, but then again, there has never been a doc quite like this one.

CANFIELD The success of You Can See Everything feels like icing on the Telluride cake for A24, which was already smashing it in the Rockies between Club Kid’s North American launch and the world premiere of Jesse Eisenberg’s zany The Debut, both of which we can talk about more in a moment. They really led this Telluride — a major comeback after they largely sat out last year, save the lovely but lower-profile Pillion.

Another studio back on the ground after a year off was Searchlight. Safe to say, Scott, that Wild Horse Nine is off to a galloping start? 

FEINBERG Indeed. It came out of the gate with a 14-minute standing ovation following its world premiere at Venice, then came to Telluride as the kickoff screening, and with each showing here Oscar buzz grew for the film and particularly for its lead, John Malkovich, the revered stage and screen vet. Malkovich was feted by the fest with its Silver Medallion, which recognized not only his performance as a dying CIA agent reflecting on his life in Martin McDonagh’s dramedy, but his entire body of work. I think there’s a strong likelihood that the Academy will take his full career into account (his two Oscar noms to date both came more than 30 years ago) when weighing its best actor options. Malkovich, for his part, said during a Q&A that I moderated with the entire Wild Horse Nine contingent, “I don’t think much about awards. I’m not in competition with all of the wonderful colleagues that I’ve had making movies across the world. I’m just grateful and delighted that I was a part of this.”

CANFIELD Just when we thought Malkovich might run away with the best actor race, along came the world premiere of Elsinore, with a performance for the ages from Andrew Scott. Oprah wasn’t the only one it left in tears, rest assured. Scott, never Oscar-nominated, is astounding as the late Scottish actor Ian Charleson in an ‘80s-set biopic that follows him simultaneously playing Hamlet at the National Theatre and dying of AIDS. I’m not sure how far the movie can go around him, but regardless, as you wrote, he’s in it to win it.

FEINBERG Scott’s performance is one of the greatest I have ever seen in a film, and he absolutely deserves to be in the thick of the best actor conversation along with Malkovich, The Odyssey’s Matt Damon and Project Hail Mary’s Ryan Gosling. I also wouldn’t sleep on John Turturro, who is pitch-perfect as the title character in The Only Living Pickpocket in New York (the only film this year included in the lineups of the Sundance, Berlin, Telluride, Toronto and New York film fests), which Telluride audiences really enjoyed. I still can’t believe that, as you noted in your recent profile of him, he has never even been nominated for an Oscar, despite unforgettable performances over the decades in everything from Do the Right Thing to Quiz Show to Barton Fink. Sony Classics chiefs Michael Barker and Tom Bernard couldn’t have been clearer to me that they are all-in on righting that wrong.

CANFIELD Of the other narrative world premieres, Bleecker Street found success with The Liberation, which we can get into more in a bit, and Tender Loving Care, one of the best-reviewed films of the fall with a knockout Kate O’Flynn turn that might just be enough to get Mike Leigh back into the awards conversation as he’s long deserved (for what’s likely his final film, no less).

FEINBERG Netflix found a warm reception for Ink, Danny Boyle’s film about the beginning of the end of responsible journalism. I think the film might well crack the best picture top 10, and Jack O’Connell, who plays newsman Larry Lamb, and Guy Pearce, as Rupert Murdoch, have real shots lead and supporting acting noms, respectively.

CANFIELD Mubi brought Andrew Haigh’s elegiac A Long Winter, while Apple screened the Everest-climbing docudrama Tenzing. The former found many critical admirers, but its overall reception was more muted than Haigh’s last Telluride launch, All of Us Strangers. And I’m afraid that, despite the on-the-ground starpower of Tom Hiddleston and Caitriona Balfe (who is also in A Long Winter), Tenzing didn’t make much noise at all.

Cannes carryovers

FEINBERG Interestingly enough, some of the films that generated the most excitement in Telluride weren’t world premieres but imports from the Cannes Film Festival.

CANFIELD The movie I heard the most about all weekend was Netflix’s La Bola Negra, recalling when the studio’s Emilia Pérez took off like a rocket here a few years ago (until its crash landing, of course — Los Javis, vet those tweets!). The buzz crystallized on Sunday morning at a post-screening Q&A moderated by yours truly. There were tears, rounds of roaring applause and many famous faces in the audience. This one has got the goods. And that same day, some of the best reviews ever for a Netflix original film rolled in across the Atlantic from Venice for Lee Chang-dong’s Possible Love. Hard to remember a better single launch day, in terms of awards ambitions, in the company’s history.

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FEINBERG La Bola Negra, which chronicles three generations of Spaniards linked together by the last, unfinished play of the poet and playwright Federico García Lorca, is exciting a lot of people because it’s a sort of film that we don’t see very often anymore: a sweeping romantic epic, with a huge ensemble and high production value, that assumes its audience is smart and can keep up with it. It actually reminded me a lot of The English Patient, which, like La Bola Negra, was not for everyone (see: Seinfeld), but, based on the fact that it won the best picture Oscar, clearly was for a lot of people.

CANFIELD Club Kid, the directorial debut of and acting showcase for Jordan Firstman, also emerged as a best picture player after its scrappy, lauded Cannes launch in the Un Certain Regard section; it’s a subversive crowdpleaser that audiences couldn’t seem to get enough of.

FEINBERG It’s a lot of fun, as are the people involved with it. Nobody was at more screenings or parties than Firstman, who rolled deep with a group that included Cara Delevingne, Diego Calva, Alaska Riley, Miss Benny, Saturn Risin9, 14-year-old Reggie Absolom and 73-year-old Colleen Camp. While the risqué elements of the film will turn off some, the energy and charisma of its talent might turn on even more.

CANFIELD Cannes prizewinners Fjord and Minotaur hummed along just fine, too, but these are dense, confronting works from masters of the form that will have to play the long game this season. To go back to Netflix for a moment: a film I greatly admire, Marie Krutzer’s Gentle Monster, also made the leap from the Croisette but seemed less assured in maintaining its momentum. Its terrific star, Léa Seydoux, was all over Telluride (also appearing in and supporting Alpha Gang and The Unknown), where the best actress race seemed to explode. Is she still in it?

Leading ladies

FEINBERG I think so. I’ve loved her in so many things over the years, and I don’t think she has ever been better than she is in Gentle Monster, but man, that film — a portrait of a woman whose life is upended when her husband and the father of her child faces horrific accusations — is a tough sell. A far breezier film anchored by an incredible leading lady was The Debut…

CANFIELD All eyes were on what Julianne Moore would bring to that oneand she certainly delivered — this is a go-for-broke performance from one of our greatest actors, and it’s a thrill to watch her run wild. To my mind, she is now the one to beat — the film around her is strong (Paul Giamatti is in it for a supporting nod), and who could argue with her being a two-time Oscar winner?

FEINBERG She clearly should have one or two more than she does (Justice for Far from Heaven!), and even those who aren’t totally sold on The Debut can acknowledge that she’s outstanding in it.

But you know who was comparably great? Carrie Coon as a Holocaust survivor ensnared in a cult in The Liberation, the story of director Guy Nattiv’s own grandmother. It had its world premiere here and received raves from all of the trades, particularly for Coon’s haunting turn. She has been celebrated for her work on TV — in fact, she’ll be at the Emmys next week as a nominee for The Gilded Age — but has had limited opportunities in films. I really hope Bleecker Street will have the resources to give her — and the Emmys-bound leading lady of another of its films, Tender Loving Care’s Kate O’Flynn — the shot she deserves.

CANFIELD Sandra Hüller received a tribute — one Q&A for which you moderated — with two starring vehicles here, Fatherland and Rose. I caught Fatherland in Cannes, and she’s excellent in the film, but it felt a little quiet for an Oscar campaign. Then I saw Rose here, and it was my top discovery of the festival. (She already won best lead performance in Berlin for it, so I was behind the curve.) Beautifully directed by Markus Schleinzer, it’s a stark 17th-century folktale about a mysterious female soldier disguised as a man. Hüller is mesmerizing in what initially feels like a silent-film performance, magnificently expressive and physical, before the emotional wallop of the final act. It may be her best work, which is saying something. Mubi has good folks working on this one, and I have to imagine if enough Academy members see Rose, she makes the Oscar best actress cut for the second time.

Animation and docs

FEINBERG Telluride tends to show a lot of animated and documentary films. This year, there were few of the former — Laika brought clips of its not-yet-locked Wildwood, along with the film’s director Travis Knight and legendary lenser Caleb Deschanel — but tons of the latter. You Can See Everything and Once Upon a Time in Harlem couldn’t have gone over bigger or better. Everest: The Other Side, which features a lot of Telluride and had a Q&A moderated by local homeowner Oprah, was also very well received, as was another Nat Geo doc, Carl Sagan: We Are Made of Star Stuff. Netflix generated buzz on the ground for Avedon with the attendance of director Ron Howard and subject Lauren Hutton and for The Disciple with a party at which the only copy of Wu-Tang-Clan’s Once Upon a Time in Shaolin album was played. Sony Classics came with Rehearsals for a Revolution, Sofia Coppola was here on behalf of her late mom Eleanor’s Making Marie Antoinette, about Sofia’s 20-year-old film.

CANFIELD Telluride has long been a great festival for documentaries. But again, with just four days, it was virtually impossible to make room for some of the most anticipated nonfiction titles — namely, My Undesirable Friends: Part II – Exile and The Story of Documentary Film, the former of which clocks in just under six hours and the latter at … 16. Whew. Even broken up into parts, it’s a daunting ask with so much else to see. But per critics, at least, those who made the time were generously rewarded.

For sale

CANFIELD Critics were not so generous to the handful of narrative sales titles that launched in this year’s program, like The Idiot(s) and Alpha Gang. It’s always a curious, small grab bag of films seeking distribution in the Rockies. I moderated a nicely attended Q&A for Ira Sachs’ moving The Man I Love, which is still out for acquisition despite garnering warm reviews back in Cannes.

FEINBERG It’s possible that the doc sales titles here will fare better. Everyone I know who caught Pete Townshend: Behind Blue Eyes and The Row, which had their world premieres here, and Burgundy, which came direct from Venice, seemed to really like them.

CANFIELD Many more sales titles — narrative and doc — are set to premiere in Toronto in the coming days, and I suspect several may make some noise there, including Cody Fern’s debut Closing Night, at which we have a first look today.

FEINBERG I also caught that one recently and think that Sarah Paulson could make a real run at a best actress nom if the right distributor swoops it up.

Looking ahead to TIFF

CANFIELD What else do you have your eye on as you head to TIFF?

FEINBERG Based on your enthusiasm for Possible Love and my affection for director Lee’s prior work, I’m very excited to catch up with Possible Love. I’m also hearing great things out of Venice regarding A24’s Primetime, especially Robert Pattinson’s performance as To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen. As far as world premieres, I’m not sure if Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, which is advertised as an action-thriller, has any awards prospects, but I’d happily see Mahershala Ali in anything. I’m looking forward to Chris Rock’s Misty Green. And The Stunt Driver sounds fun. The one I’m most curious about, though, is I Play Rocky, a film about Sylvester Stallone’s quest to make Rocky — when Peter Farrelly brought a crowd-pleasing film to TIFF eight years ago, it won the audience award and went on to win the best picture Oscar (you may remember Green Book?), and Anthony Ippolito is said to be off-the-charts as Sly.

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One thing is for certain: awards season, in earnest, has begun.