From Michael Patterson on the Telluride frontlines…

The 40th Telluride Film Festival doesn’t actually start until Thursday morning…but it essentially started Wednesday night with a free concert in the community’s Town Park featuring The Punch Brothers. They will appear on the soundtrack album for The Coen Brothers’ “Inside Llewyn Davis” which was announced as one of the films making up the program for this anniversary year. The “Brothers” included songs from “O Brother Where Art Thou?” and “The Big Lebowski” (which also screened in the outdoor theater Wednesday night).

The Coens were in attendance at the concert and “Llewyn Davis” himself, Oscar Issac, who plays the title character of the film, showed up as well and added his voice to the occasion.

Rain then. A lot of rain. The concert suffered a deluge and I escaped just before the body of the storm hit.

Lots of talk about the lineup…which is incredibly exciting. In addition to “Llewyn” the fest announced screenings of Alexander Payne’s “Nebraska” with Cannes Best Actor winner Bruce Dern in attendance, Jason Reitman’s “Labor Day”, Jonathan Glazer’s “Under the Skin”, Alfonso Cuaron’s “Gravity”, Ralph Fiennes’ “The Invisible Woman”, Errol Morris’ “The Unknown Known”, J.C. Chandor’s “All is Lost” complete with Robert Redford Tribute plus a lot more.

Then there are the “sneaks”…films that the festival hierarchy has in their pocket which will be announced later in the weekend. The buzz around town tonight is that there will be three or four and that one of them is almost certainly Steve McQueen’s “12 Years a Slave”. As to the others, I don’t have any great intell yet, “Salinger”, the documentary about the reclusive author is being mentioned in some circles. I tend to believe earlier whiffs of the possibility of Denis Villenueve’s “Prisoners” may portend a “sneak” of that film.

Then there’s the intriguing story of a last minute screening for festival honchos last night here in Telluride of some “just finished” film. Is it true? If so, what film? Just for fun I’m going to toss out “Foxcatcher”.

The bottom line is that the weekend is going to offer an embarrassment of riches. I hope you’ll look here for an occasional report.

Tomorrow: Patron’s Brunch at 10:00 am. A great opportunity to star gaze, meet old film fest friends and make new acquaintances. At 1:00-Press meeting-duty calls. Patron Screening at 2:30. We don’t know what it will be yet. Last year it was “Argo”. 5:00-My meet-up with followers of my blog followed by dinner at the Opening Night feed on Colorado Ave. After that, a couple of films which will depend on what the Patron Screening is earlier in the day. I could catch the Redford Tribute, “Inside Llewyn Davis”, “All is Lost”, “Blue is the Warmest Color” or “Under the Skin”.

The adventure has begun.

Michael Patterson has been attending the Telluride Film Festival since 2006 and blogging about it since 2008 on Michael’s Telluride Film Blog (www.michaelstelluridefilm.blogspot.com). He, as might expect, is an aspiring screenwriter.