The Hopkins Center for the Arts 2014-15 film season opens with six films straight from the famed Telluride Film Festival—starring the likes of Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Marion Cotillard, and Reese Witherspoon and offering the latest by such renowned cinematic figures as directors Mike Leigh, Luc and Jen-Pierre Dardenne, and Volker Schlöndorff, and novelist-screenwriter Nick Hornby. Telluride at Dartmouth runs Friday, September 19, through Thursday, September 25.

Selections this year include tales about real people: The Imitation Game, starring Cumberbatch and Knightly, about World War II-era English math genius Alan Turing; Wild, starring Witherspoon, about bestselling author and adventurer Cheryl Strayed; Mr. Turner, about the brilliant and eccentric British painter J.M.W. Turner; and Diplomacy, about a German general and Swedish diplomat brokering the future of Paris landmarks during the Nazi occupation. In addition are Two Days, One Night, starring Cotillard in a timely tale of attempted worker solidarity; and Wild Tales, by writer-director Damian Szifron and producer Pedro Almodovar, and a suite of shorts set in Argentina and united by the common theme of vengeance.

Dartmouth’s Bill Pence and Telluride’s Origins

The first Telluride Film Festival, co-founded by Dartmouth’s Bill and Stella Pence in Telluride, Colo., celebrates its 41st anniversary this fall. Telluride at Dartmouth, which this year begins September 19, was founded 29 years ago.

The website Fandor marks the occasion of this year’s festival by publishing a chapter from Coming Soon to a Festival Near You: Programming Film Festivals, edited by Dartmouth’s Jeffrey Ruoff, an associate professor of film and media studies. The chapter, which Ruoff wrote, tells the story of the western festival and the role the Pences played.

Read the chapter, titled Programming the Old and the New: Bill and Stella Pence on the Telluride Film Festival, published on Fandor.

The Telluride Film Festival, occurring each Labor Day weekend in Colorado, is considered one of the premier arts events in the country. Each year, hundreds of cinema lovers flock to a tiny mountain town to immerse themselves in a three-day celebration of film. Telluride consistently presents a remarkable and diverse slate: the rare and unknown, restored gems, retrospectives, and the latest (and greatest) from the upcoming season. The New York Times calls Telluride “the smallest, most original, and most stimulating of the major festivals.”

Telluride at Dartmouth was born 29 years ago through a long-standing relationship between the festival and College. Each year, six films come directly from Colorado for special advance screenings at the Hop. This is a unique opportunity for the Dartmouth community to get a sneak peek at the latest international films—often months before they’re released.

Passes and ticket sales begin on Friday, September 5. For more information, visit the Hop website.

Telluride at Dartmouth Schedule(All shows are in Spaulding Auditorium in the Hop)

• The Imitation Game (Friday, September 19, at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.)
• Wild (Saturday, September 20, at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.)
• Mr. Turner (Sunday, September 21, at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.)
• Two Days, One Night (Tuesday, September 23, at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.)
• Diplomacy (Wednesday, September 24, at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.)
• Wild Tales (Thursday, September 25, at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.)