Sound is always important to us, but for Uncut Gems it was absolutely critical as it was a main part of how we communicated the mania of our main character Howie. To be honest, it was just surreal…to be able to hear our film through a Meyer Sound system was amazing…an absolute luxury.”
Joshua SafdieDirector, Uncut Gems
The Telluride Film Festival is widely seen as a key stepping-stone on the journey towards awards season with the screening of eight Best Picture winners in the last decade. This edition was no different with major world premieres of highly anticipated titles such as James Mangold’s Ford v Ferrari, Tom Harper’s The Aeronauts, Ken Norton’s Motherless Brooklyn and Joshua and Ben Safdie’s Uncut Gems.
Through a long-term partnership with a goal of creating extraordinary film experiences, Meyer Sound and Telluride have collaborated to bring a custom designed Meyer Sound cinema sound system to three of the festival major venues, including the 650 seat Werner Herzog Theatre, converted each year from a hockey rink; the Galaxy, converted from a middle-school gymnasium and The Nugget, originally built in 1892 as a bank and converted to a movie theatre in 1935. The Nugget is Telluride’s only year-round movie theater and through this partnership, residents will now have the extraordinary cinema sound experience year-round through the permanent installation of the system.
Speaking just after the world premiere of The Aeronauts at The Herzog Theatre on August 30, Amazon head of movies Ted Hope said, “People think that movies come alive by what’s up on the screen but for a movie to really soar to great heights, it has to have great sound. And that’s the joy of bringing movies to Telluride – you know audiences will have a terrific sonic experience.” The Aeronauts will be released by Amazon Studios on December 6, 2019.
In advance of James Mangold’s Ford v Ferrari, Telluride Film Festival leaders thanked Meyer Sound for making the Herzog “probably the best theatre in the world right now to experience this film.” Both James Mangold and Production Director Aaron Downing complimented the Meyer team on the sound, which was clearly a driver for the audience experience. In her Indiewire review, Anne Thompson said, “Audiences at the Werner Herzog Theater in Telluride were on the edge of their seats after being put through the wringer with intense racing scenes. Some left the theater in tears.”
Ed Norton, who both directed and starred in Motherless Brooklyn, received hearty applause during introductory remarks when he praised the Werner Herzog experience expressing amazement that this “world class theater was a hockey rink little over a week ago” and going on to proclaim Telluride Film Festival a “true festival for film lovers.”
Directors Joshua and Benny Safdie were also in the Herzog audience for their latest movie, Uncut Gems. Known for their involvement in nearly every aspect of their films, the two brothers confessed to being completely obsessed about sound, sharing a story about how they ensured the gritty authentic sound of New York’s iconic diamond district by personally going into the field to record additional audio detail. In effusive remarks following the film, Joshua Safdie said, “Sound is always important to us, but for Uncut Gems it was absolutely critical as it was a main part of how we communicated the mania of our main character Howie [Adam Sandler]. To be honest, it was just surreal…to be able to hear our film through a Meyer Sound system was amazing…an absolute luxury.”