Francis Ford Coppola Janus Films Gloria Swanson New York state Colorado city Minneapolis county Hanover film opera Francis Ford Coppola Janus Films Gloria Swanson New York state Colorado city Minneapolis county Hanover

Bill Pence Dies: Telluride Film Festival Co-Founder Was 82

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deadline.com

Bill Pence, a former VP at Janus Films who co-founded the integral Telluride Film Festival in 1974, has died. He was 82. The Telluride Daily Planet said Pence died December 6 after a long illness.

A native of Minneapolis, Pence launched the Telluride fest with his wife, Stella, along with friend and film historian James Card, who became the event co-director.

The inaugural festival at the Colorado burg’s Sheridan Opera House — and a local bar — featured tributes to Francis Ford Coppola, Gloria Swanson and Leni Riefenstahl and was a surprise sellout.

Pence guided the fest’s growth, adding three more venues by 1986. In 1991, he made a key deal with the town’s lone school to put a 500-seat theater in its gym every winter, using a small upstairs music room as a projection facility.

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