Bill Pence, co-founder of the Telluride Film Festival, dies at 82

Bill Pence, co-founder of the Telluride Film Festival, died on December 6 after a long illness, Wednesday. He was 82 years old.

Pence co-founded the festival in 1974 with his wife Stella, film curator James Card, producer Tom Luddy and the Telluride Council for the Arts and Humanities. He was also co-director and president of the National Film Preserve, which continues to host the Telluride Film Festival each year.

"Bill Pence is an almost mythical figure in the landscape of the Telluride Film Festival. An incredibly generous founder, but one description alone is not enough," said Julie Huntsinger, Executive Director of the Telluride Film Festival, in a statement shared with Variety. "A showman, a visionary, a great leader, a cinephile - all these things and more. But most important of all, Bill was a great person. Kind and intelligent and a wonderful father and husband. We continue to be inspired by his example and pledge to continue the important work of film appreciation. »

A native of Minneapolis, Pence worked as an usher at the city's movie palaces growing up. He joined and ran the student film society at Carnegie Tech (now Carnegie Mellon University) in the 1950s, where he presented a regular program of films to students. After college, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and served for several years.

From 1965 to 1978, Pence worked as vice president of Janus Films in New York. He was instrumental in the growth of his collection which later served as the basis for the Criterion collection.

For 33 years, the Pences have been involved in the programming and expansion of the Telluride Film Festival until when they retired in 2006. They also established the Santa Fe Film Festival in 1980, which ran for three years.

After leaving Telluride, Pence and his wife were recruited by Turner Classic Movies to help organize and directing the TCM Classic Film Festival. For more than 50 years, Pence has amassed a collection of film prints that are currently housed in the Museum of Modern Art and the Harvard Film Archive.

In addition to his wife, Pence is survived by his daughters Zazie and Lara and four grandchildren .

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