Andrew Haigh Premieres 'A Long Winter' at Telluride — SkimNews
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- Andrew Haigh received the Silver Medallion career tribute at the 53rd Telluride Film Festival alongside Sandra Hüller and John Malkovich, with a career reel drawing from "Weekend," "Lean on Pete," and HBO's "Looking."
- "A Long Winter" premiered as Haigh's first feature since "All of Us Strangers," adapted from a Colm Tóibín short story Haigh first read around 2006 and pursued for nearly two decades; originally set in Spain's Pyrenees, the film was relocated to the 1950s American West.
- Fred Hechinger, Caitríona Balfe, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Kit Connor star in the film, with Hechinger flagged as a "breakthrough performance" and Balfe anchoring the piece as a mother whose absence "hollows out everything around her."
- Mubi distributes "A Long Winter," with the article noting the company's expanded Oscar campaign infrastructure after "The Substance" earned five nominations including best picture last year.
- Haigh's awards history frames the stakes: "All of Us Strangers" earned six BAFTA nominations but zero Oscars, while "45 Years" brought Charlotte Rampling a best actress nomination — making this a test of whether the Academy will finally engage with his work.
- At 53, Haigh signaled a new creative phase, telling the Telluride audience that films about "missing mothers, fractured families and unclaimed grief" may have run their course, with upcoming projects including a film about the environment and a 1980s New York TV series.
Why it matters: With Mubi now wielding the campaign machinery it built for 'The Substance's' five Oscar nominations, 'A Long Winter' enters the Telluride-Toronto-New York corridor as Haigh's clearest shot at Academy recognition — though the director's signature restraint has historically read as 'not for them' to Oscar voters, leaving the acting branches as the most viable path.
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