The Toronto Film Festival doesn’t wrap up until this Sunday, which is when we’ll find out which film takes the People’s Choice Award, voted on by the festival audience. It’s often a strong indicator that a film will go on to a healthy Oscar-season campaign (recent winners include The Fabelmans, Belfast, and Nomadland).
I’m Rebecca Ford, and as we wait for those results, I’m keeping in mind that TIFF was a little off this year due to the strike. The lineup wasn’t as stacked as usual with obvious awards contenders, but instead presented many films looking for distribution. Still, there were some significant breakouts, including American Fiction, starring Jeffrey Wright, which I expect to see make a strong Oscar push in the coming months.
The Venice Film Festival already gave out its awards last weekend, bestowing its top prize on Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things and cementing the eccentric dark-comedy-adventure film as a clear Oscar contender. There were actually several films that benefited from strong debuts on the Lido this year, including Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, Bradley Cooper’s Maestro, and Michael Mann’s Ferrari. Cailee Spaeny picking up the best-actress prize for starring in Priscilla especially gives her and the film a big boost. Plus, one new Oscar contender entered the field when Ava DuVernay’s Origin was picked up by Neon for distribution after debuting in Venice. Sources say it will come out this year and could be a major part of the race.
And although the Telluride Film Festival doesn’t give out awards, the completion of this trifecta of fall festivals has given us at Awards Insider a much clearer picture of the films we will be discussing for the next few months. We’ve summarized our findings here, highlighting the biggest breakouts from the festivals. Beyond the obvious ones I’ve already mentioned, our team was able to spot a few hidden gems. A couple of those films are still looking for distributors, so it remains to be seen if they’ll land in this awards season.
While there may be a clearer picture of the films we’ll be covering for this coming Oscar season, there’s still so much unknown about this year. The ongoing actors and writers strikes continue to prevent some from promoting their films, and leave insiders wondering how the awards calendar will shake up if things don’t get resolved by the end of the year. And there are still several 2023 releases that have not made their debuts yet, like The Color Purple and Napoleon, which could result in some late-in-the-game entries this season. There’s much more to come, so stay tuned.
