The Toronto International Film Festival, an annual launching pad of major studio Oscars bait and the “official” start of awards season (if you’re into months of Hollywood machers patting themselves on the back) has announced the initial lineup of films screening at the event, which runs from September 5 through 15. “The Fifth Estate,” a timely film about Julian Assange, opens the party, and “Life of Crime,” an Elmore Leonard adaptation, closes the festivities.
The Assange flick, which stars Benedict Cumberbatch as the white-haired media scoundrel behind WikiLeaks, has already been denounced by its subjects. Director Bill Condon (“Dreamgirls”) claims people involved with WikiLeaks have not seen the film and are judging its content based on an old script, but the organization claims to have read the filming script and still doesn’t approve (WikiLeaks also denounced “We Steal Secrets,” a documentary that presented a damning portrait of Assange). Either way, considering Assange’s reported involvement in the asylum of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the film could not be coming out at a better time, and the producers are surely hoping they can use the traction gained at the festival to ride their way to awards season glory.
The Audience Award, the festival’s equivalent to Best Film, is the most coveted prize in Toronto, and films that take home this award are guaranteed nominations for other awards — almost. For every “Silver Linings Playbook” or “Slumdog Millionaire,” both previous recipients of the honor, there is an “Eastern Promises,” David Cronenberg’s underworld tale that left Toronto with high hopes only to receive scant notice when it came time for major awards recognition. The Audience Award is typically handed over to a film with a feel-good ending, something that can appeal to a wide audience. We suspect “The Fifth Estate” is not that, so its filmmakers will have to hope that people will praise its “seriousness” and “contemporary relevance.”
Other films competing for Oscar buzz include “August: Osage County,” starring Meryl Streep and Julie Roberts; Steve McQueen’s “12 Years a Slave,” starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, and Brad Pitt; and Jason Reitman’s “Labor Day,” starring Kate Winslet.
In the shadow of the awards-season hype machine, there are a few films worth singling out: Kelly Reichardt’s eco-terrorist drama “Night Moves,” starring Jesse Eisenberg; animated “Attila Marcel,” from French director Sylvain Chomet; Sebastián Lelio’s “Gloria,” well received at the Berlinale earlier this year; Jonathan Glazer’s sci-fi thriller “Under the Skin,” starring Scarlett Johansson; and Bertrand Tavernier’s “Quai d'Orsay.” The festival will also be featuring some of the highlights from this year’s Cannes Film Festival, including controversial “Blue is the Warmest Color,” and Jim Jarmusch’s well-received vampire drama “Only Lovers Left Alive.”
In addition to the many narrative features screening at the festival, Toronto shows a wide variety of experimental films under its Wavelengths sidebar. These films are unfortunately pushed aside, but the lineup, which will soon be announced, is always worth paying attention to.
While Toronto doesn’t have the prestige of Cannes, or the film-lover excitement of Locarno or Berlinale, it very often determines which films will be discussed to death in America this fall. So if you want to impress your friends and family and pretend like you know which Hollywood movies will walk away with golden statuettes, keep your eyes locked on Toronto.