Overview The Telluride Film Festival is a four-day film festival over Labor Day weekend in a Victorian mining town in the Colorado Rockies, and its program stays secret until opening day: passholders commit to the weekend before they know what is showing. The slate mixes new American and international films, restorations and revivals, shorts and three Tributes to guest artists, shown on eleven screens around town. The National Film Preserve, a nonprofit arts and education organization, presents it; the 2026 edition was the 53rd. On site The Sheridan Opera House, a 240-seat theater built in 1912, is the primary venue, where most world and U.S. premieres screen and the Tributes are held. The Werner Herzog Theatre in Town Park seats 650, the Palm 660, the Galaxy 510, and the Chuck Jones Cinema sits up in Mountain Village, a free 12-minute gondola ride from downtown. Le Pierre and Masons Hall are the small rooms for the rarest programs. The Abel Gance Open Air Cinema in Elks Park, built in 1979 to show Napoleon, plays festival films free every night to crowds of up to 700. The weekend opens with the Opening Night Feed on the main street and closes with the Labor Day Picnic in Town Park, and the Brigadoon hospitality tent is the hub in between. Audience More than 92% of attendees travel in for it, and the festival counts more than 7,800 attendees and more than 60,000 admissions over four days. Filmmakers, actors, producers and entertainment executives attend alongside the passholders, and the noon seminars in Elks Park put industry panels in front of hundreds of them in an open forum. Critics from Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times cover it. More than 700 volunteers, the ShowCorps, run it. Talent and Influencers Each year three artists receive a Silver Medallion Tribute: in 2026 John Malkovich, Sandra Huller and Andrew Haigh, whose A Long Winter premiered there. Earlier tributees include Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson, Cate Blanchett, George Clooney, Emma Stone and the Coen Brothers. A Guest Director curates a program each year - Rebecca Hall in 2026, and before her Don DeLillo, Alexander Payne, Rachel Kushner and Adam Curtis. The poster artist gets one rule, to work the word SHOW into the art; Ed Ruscha, Gary Larson, Chuck Jones and Dave Eggers have all done it. Track record Best Picture winners that screened at Telluride include Slumdog Millionaire, The King's Speech, The Artist, Argo, 12 Years a Slave, Birdman, Spotlight, Moonlight, The Shape of Water and Parasite. The 2026 slate carried world premieres from Jesse Eisenberg, Mike Leigh and Jennifer Peedom. In 2025 the festival was raising a $25 million capital campaign to turn the historic Nugget Building into its year-round home, with a new Atmos theater. Brand presence Sponsors attach to a piece of the festival rather than to the whole: a theater, a program such as the Tributes, the noon seminars or the ShowCorps, a special event from the Filmmaker Welcome Dinner for about 150 guests to the Patron Brunch for 600 at a private ranch, or an education program run with the American Film Institute and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The top tier, the SHOW level, puts a presenting credit on every mention of the festival. In the 2025 deck Mandarin Oriental was the worldwide hospitality partner, Delta the festival airline, Audi the exclusive automotive partner and Stanley the ShowCorps sponsor, and brands can demo product in the Digital Studio inside the Brigadoon tent.