Michael Ondaatje to be guest director at Telluride

Author invited to select film series

by Amber Wilkinson

Telluride Film Festival has announced its guest director this year will be writer Michael Ondaatje.

The author - whose books include The English Patient and In The Skin Of A Lion - will join festival directors Tom Luddy, Gary Meyer and Julie Huntsinger in selecting films to present at Telluride's 37th edition, which runs from September 3 to 6.

Tom Luddy said: “When we first met with Michael to invite him to be our Guest Director, his enthusiasm was infectious and we knew we had made a perfect choice."

Julie Huntsinger added: “The ideas were already flowing in that first meeting. In the following weeks he asked us to help secure prints for him to screen movies fondly remembered as well as those he had heard about and was curious to consider.”

Past guest directors include Alexander Payne, Salman Rushdie, Peter Bogdanovich, B. Ruby Rich, Phillip Lopate, Errol Morris, Bertrand Tavernier, John Boorman, John Simon, Buck Henry, Laurie Anderson, Stephen Sondheim, G. Cabrera Infante, Peter Sellars, Don DeLillo, J.P. Gorin, Edith Kramer and Slavoj Žižek.

In keeping with Telluride Film Festival tradition, Ondaatje’s film selections, along with the rest of the Telluride lineup will be kept secret and unveiled on the festival's opening day.

For more information about Telluride Film Festival, visit their website.

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