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The 49th Telluride Film Festival opens Friday in a much-awaited edition that is set to feature world premieres of Searchlight’s Oscar hopeful Empire of Light from director Sam Mendes, starring Olivia Coleman and Colin Firth; Women Talking from director Sarah Polley, starring Rooney Mara and Frances McDormand in the ensemble; Sebastian Lelio’s The Wonder, starring Florence Pugh; and Sony/Netflix’s sizzling new version of D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover with Emma Corrin and Jack O’Connell; among other films.

Considered a must stop on the awards circuit, Telluride also will feature Silver Medallion tributes to Cate Blanchett, docu filmmaker Mark Cousins and Polley. Netflix, Searchlight, Sony Pictures Classics, Amazon and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are among those also throwing dinners and parties over the Labor Day weekend event, which runs September 2-5 in the Colorado Rockies town.

In addition to the world premieres,...

Telluride Film Festival’s official 2022 lineup has been announced, revealing world premieres of Sam Mendes’ “Empire of Light,” Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking,” Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre’s “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” and Sebastián Lelio’s “The Wonder.”

In its 49th year, the festival will pay tribute to two-time Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett, whose new film “TÁR,” from director Todd Field, will debut stateside after premiering at the Venice Film Festival.

In addition, the festival will also tribute Academy Award nominee Polley (adapted screenplay for 2006’s “Away from Her”) and acclaimed documentarian Marc Cousins, who has two films dropping at the fest. One is “My Name Is Alfred Hitchcock,” which is based on a fictional monologue between Cousins and the master of suspense. The other is “The March on Rome,” depicting the ascent of fascism in Europe during the 1930s.

Other Venice bows heading over to the Colorado Mountains are Luca Guadagnino’s...

The Toronto International Film Festival, running September 8 through 16, has announced its Docs lineup spanning 22 feature films. Opening the program is the Apple Original Films documentary “Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues” from director Sacha Jenkins, followed by a lineup featuring new films from the likes of Patricio Guzmán and Werner Herzog. IndieWire spoke with TIFF documentary programmer Thom Powers about highlights from the programming.

It wouldn’t be a true documentary season without a new entry from the quixotic mind of Herzog. The distinctive Bavarian director, who turns 80 a week ahead of this year’s TIFF, will visit the festival to screen “Theatre of Thought,” a study of the human brain that goes beyond the traditional boundaries of neurological inquiry.

“It’s a real science-meets-poetry kind of exploration,” Powers said. “He’s exploring the landscape inside our skulls. He also asks if fish have souls and how a tightrope walker conquers fear.

One of the key things that encouraged AP Pobjoy to apply for the Victorian Screen Development Internship, which sees creatives spend 12 months working across Film Victoria, the ABC and either Fremantle Australia or Princess Pictures, was that their identity was actually listed on the application.

“Being a queer, trans person it was so great to see I had a level opportunity to make it into a type of initiative where I hadn’t seen my gender on a piece of paper before,” the filmmaker tells If.

“I was ready to take the next step in my career, but also bring my identity with me.”

AP joins producer and writer Ravi Chand in being selected for this year’s program, aimed at talent from under-represented backgrounds.

The initiative is designed to “fast-track” career progression by giving recipients exposure to the lifecycle of development.

At Film Vic, the duo will help assess pitches,...

Meg O’Connell.

Thanks to Screen Queensland’s Enterprise Funding, Meg O’Connell is adding two execs at her banner Unless Pictures to help drive her slate and grow the business.

One new hire is her frequent collaborator, producer Jackson Lapsley Scott. The other, yet to be chosen, will be a development producer.

The producer/creator/writer is teaming up again with writer Anna Barnes on vertical murder mystery series Apollo under the Snapchat and Screen Australia joint initiative.

O’Connell and Barnes were among the creatives behind the Ludo Studio/ABC iview comedy Content and the ABC’s Retrograde.

Set at an exclusive boarding school for children of the elite, Apollo will be a co-production between Unless Pictures and Kurt Royan and Dan Lake’s Orange Entertainment.

The plot revolves around the murder of the class president, which leads to a spate of killings. A student turned private detective investigates...

Marshall Heald, Adrian Swift, Tanya Denning Orman, Dan Monaghan and Michael Carrington.

The future of the TV landscape remains difficult to predict, but commercial networks expect to feel the impact of coronavirus on commissioning budgets well into 2021, and many broadcasters are concerned about scheduling into next year and extra costs associated with restarting production.

These are some of the insights from a panel of commissioners speaking on the most recent session of Running Free Live, a webinar hosted by Denise Eriksen and presented by Acmi, Film Victoria and Media Mentors Australia.

Nine Network head of production and development Adrian Swift said revenues were “fundamentally” down at all three commercial networks.

“The reality is it’s completely screwed us for this financial year, and probably most of next financial year,” Swift said.

“That changes what you can commission. Our commissioning budgets have been completely revised as a result of what’s happened.