Jessie Buckley in 'Hamnet' and Renate Reinsve in 'Sentimental Value.' Agata Grzybowska/Focus Features/Courtesy Everett Collection; Neon/Courtesy Everett Collection Share on Facebook Share on X Share to Flipboard Send an Email Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Print the Article Post a Comment The 52nd Telluride Film Festival is now in the books. Margot Robbie, Ryan Coogler, Oprah Winfrey, David Oyelowo, Rian Johnson, Janet Yang, Kathy Kennedy and Frank Marshall were among those who came just to watch movies. Screenings were introduced with a group meditation (Chloé Zhao), a song (Jesse Plemons) and a wave (man of few words Bruce Springsteen). Adam Sandler and Emma Stone posed for photos in the streets with ecstatic local schoolkids. And the Oscar race came into clearer focus. Below, you can read my biggest awards-related takeaways from the fest. Related Stories Movies 'Karl' Review: A Likable Lagerfeld Documentary Prioritizes Breadth Over Depth Movies 'Lost in the Jungle' Review: 'Free Solo' Directors Capably Tackle a Remarkable Tale of Survival in the Amazon for Nat Geo Four high-profile films that already have U.S. distribution had their world premieres in Telluride: Ballad of a Small Player (Netflix), Bugonia (Focus), Hamnet (Focus) and Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere (20th Century). How did they go over? Focus has plenty of cause for celebration, as both Bugonia and Hamnet played like gangbusters and look almost certain to land Oscar noms for best picture and plenty else. Zhao's Hamnet, an adaptation of Maggie O'Farrell's best-selling 2020 novel of the same name, which centers on the Shakespeare family and its tragic loss that allegedly inspired the play Hamlet, garnered rave reviews (it's at 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and 95 percent on Metacritic), including particularly strong notices for leading lady Jessie Buckley, who plays William's wife Agnes. Some are already proclaiming it to be the best picture Oscar frontrunner. I certainly think it will be a big factor in the season. I would just caution that numerous Academy members quietly expressed to me their feeling that the film has tonal issues - some called it "trauma porn" - and that it has been so hyped by critics that other Academy members will inevitably feel disappointed when they catch up with it. We'll see. As for Bugonia, which reunites filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos and actress/producer Stone in a dark comedy about people who "do their own research," reactions have been nearly as enthusiastic. It played, for me, like a high-end Black Mirror episode - I mean that as a major compliment - and it also has been likened to a prior off-the-wall Lanthimos/Stone collab, Poor Things. Like that 2023 film, it could land multiple acting noms (Stone and Plemons are great), if less recognition for below-the-line work. Scott Cooper's Springsteen, meanwhile, is not what a lot of people expected it to be - a jukebox musical in the vein of Bohemian Rhapsody, Rocketman or Elvis - but rather an examination of the causes and effects of a deep depression that engulfed The Boss (The Bear's Jeremy Allen White) in the early 1980s and resulted in his iconoclastic 1982 album Nebraska. It remains to be seen if/how that will impact the film's box office appeal, but reviews have been solid, and White and Jeremy Strong, who plays Springsteen's manager, stand a real shot at lead and supporting actor Oscar noms, respectively. Then there's Edward Berger's Ballad of a Small Player, which comes a year after Conclave and three years after All Quiet on the Western Front, Berger films that were of a large scale and about matters of social import (and landed a bunch of Oscar noms, including best picture). Ballad is neither of those things - it's about a gambling addict in present-day Macao who grows increasingly desperate as his luck runs out - and the no-holds-barred performance of its lead actor, Colin Farrell, is its best bet for a nom. Of films that came directly from world premiering in Venice to make their North American debut in the Rockies, did anything pop? Yes, La Grazia (Mubi) and Jay Kelly (Netflix). And it was striking to me how differently people reacted to those two films in Telluride versus in Venice. Ironically, La Grazia, the Italian film that opened both fests, was far better received in America. The seventh collab between filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino and actor Toni Servillo, it centers on an Italian president during the last six months of his term. (Maybe Americans were just happy to be reminded that dignified leaders still exist?) I suspect that Italy will eventually submit it for the best international feature Oscar, as it previously did two other Sorrentino films, 2013's The Great Beauty (which won) and 2022's The Hand of God, and also that Servillo could make a run at a long-overdue first Oscar nom. A similar thing happened with Noah Baumbach's Jay Kelly, a film about a mov