TIFF 2018: Let the Oscar Buzz Begin
A look at the movies you won't be able to stop hearing about this awards season
After 10 days of back-to-back screenings, high-profile red carpets and after-parties, the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival has come to a close. And now that Cannes, Venice and Toronto are behind us, we can finally start speculating about all the films that are going to begin their Oscar campaigns in just a month or two, when “awards season” unofficially begins. TIFF, as the last film festival of the year, marks the beginning of a roughly six-month long campaign mounted by film studios to take home the gold, culminating in the Academy Awards in February. The festival circuit is the best way to gauge which films and actors are making the most waves, judging by the performances critics can’t stop raving about on Twitter or while waiting in line to get into their next screening, and also by the film that wins the TIFF Grolsch People’s Choice Award. The winner of this award is a pretty good indication of which film will sweep the Oscars, at the very least in nominations if not wins: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, La La Land, Room, 12 Years a Slave and Silver Linings Playbook are all Grolsch winners that went on to dominate the Oscars conversation in their respective years. This year’s winner was Green Book, a film starring Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen that tells the true story of acclaimed black musician Don Shirley and his tour through the Deep South in the 1960s with a brash Italian-American as his chauffeur/bodyguard. While I had predicted that A Star is Born would walk away with this one, I’m not surprised that this crowd-pleaser eventually nabbed the prize. It’s full of laughs, warm moments, and the kind of rousing change-of-heart condemnations of racism that’s easy for audiences to get behind. Ali and Mortensen will likely get nods for their great performances, though whether in the Lead Actor or Supporting Actor category is hard to say.
Read on for the other films that are likely to walk away with the most Academy Award nods.
A Star is Born
This soaring, romantic, rise-to-fame film is almost guaranteed to get nods in all the big categories of the night: actor, actress, director, film and screenplay. (Not to mention original song. I have not been able to get “The Shallow” out of my head since watching the film several days ago.) This also means that the odds are very heavily stacked in Bradley Cooper’s favour: as the lead actor, director and screenwriter of the film, he’s got solid chances at going home with an Oscar. Lady Gaga is also a lock for the Best Actress category, and she’s got the standing ovations at TIFF to prove it.
Beautiful Boy
Expect acting noms for Timothee Chalamet and Steve Carell, as well as one for Adapted Screenplay—the film script was adapted from two memoirs by father and son David and Nic Sheff, whose lives the heartbreaking addiction drama is based on.
First Man
Critics have been raving about this Neil Armstrong biopic directed by La La Land director Damien Chazelle and starring Ryan Gosling. Noms for both are a guarantee, and Claire Foy will probably earn one for Supporting Actress too.
Ben Is Back
Another drug addiction drama, but executed far differently than Beautiful Boy. Instead of following the life of a young addict over a period of time, Ben Is Back documents a single day in the life of a recovering addict, played by Lucas Hedges. His nom is in the bag, as is Julia Roberts’ for Best Actress, Peter Hedges for Best Director and Original Screenplay, and the film itself for Best Picture.
Destroyer
Nicole Kidman is all anyone could talk about after the press screening of Destroyer, a film about a former undercover detective drawn back into an old case. It’s rare to see gritty crime dramas with a woman at the centre, and Kidman pulls out all the stops with her conflicted, layered and raw performance. Sebastian Stan could earn a Supporting Actor nod too, and who knows, maybe director Karyn Kusama will be one of the few women to get a Best Director nomination.
Widows
Viola Davis. Elizabeth Debicki. Michelle Rodriguez. Steve McQueen. Gillian Flynn. There are lots of Oscar possibilities here. As a trio of women forced to pull off a daring heist when their criminal husbands are killed, Davis, Rodriguez and Debicki (who’s also in this year’s Vita & Virginia as a frail but luminescent Virginia Woolf) are simultaneously terrified and tough, disillusioned and determined. It’s a hard line to walk and they do it flawlessly. Flynn and McQueen’s script could earn them Best Adapted Screenplay, and the Director and Picture nods are solid possibilities too.
If Beale Street Could Talk
Adapted from a James Baldwin novel, this Barry Jenkins drama about two young black kids whose love story is derailed thanks to a false accusation of rape is beautifully, evocatively shot, and should earn him a Director nod, as well as one for Best Adapted Screenplay. Regina King could nab herself a Supporting Actress nom, and perhaps rising star (and Canadian!) Stephan James could earn his first Oscar nomination for playing the character of wrongfully accused Fonny with so much earnestness, resignation, and a heartbreaking mix of righteous anger and sorrow.
Hotel Mumbai
This film, which dives into the true events of the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, is pretty much a lock in at least three categories: Best Original Screenplay, Picture and Director (for Anthony Maras). Since the film boasts a large, excellent ensemble cast, nods in the supporting categories are most likely: my money’s on Armie Hammer and Dev Patel.
Colette
The Academy loves period dramas, and this one, which tells the true story of Colette, the anonymous Belle Epoque-era novelist whose husband takes the credit for her wildly successful ‘Claudine’ series of novels, is a shoo-in for a few Oscar nods, including Keira Knightley for Actress and Dominic West for Supporting Actor.
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Melissa McCarthy shines in this real life story of Lee Israel, an out-of-work writer who embarks on a life of crime by forging letters purportedly written by late literary greats like Dorothy Parker and Noel Coward. After a spate of pretty terrible comedies like Life of the Party and The Boss, it’s wonderful to see McCarthy given material to really sink her teeth into, and she kills it as the bitter, desperate and acerbic Israel. Richard E Grant, whom I’ve loved ever since his Withnail and I breakout, is utterly delightful as her flamboyant and up-for-anything partner in crime John Hock, and is almost certainly a lock for Supporting Actor.
![](http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://fashionmagazine.com/flare/celebrity/tiff-2018-oscar-buzz/&title=TIFF 2018: Let the Oscar Buzz Begin&picture=https://fashionmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/giphy.gif&description=After 10 days of back-to-back screenings, high-profile red carpets and after-parties, the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival has come to a close. And now that Cannes, Venice and Toronto are behind us, we can finally start speculating about all the films that are going to begin their Oscar campaigns in just a month or two, when "awards season" unofficially begins. TIFF, as the last film festival of the year, marks the beginning of a roughly six-month long campaign mounted by film studios to take home the gold, culminating in the Academy Awards in February. The festival circuit is the best way to gauge which films and actors are making the most waves, judging by the performances critics can't stop raving about on Twitter or while waiting in line to get into their next screening, and also by the film that wins the TIFF Grolsch People's Choice Award. The winner of this award is a pretty good indication of which film will sweep the Oscars, at the very least in nominations if not wins: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, La La Land, Room, 12 Years a Slave and Silver Linings Playbook are all Grolsch winners that went on to dominate the Oscars conversation in their respective years. This year's winner was Green Book, a film starring Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen that tells the true story of acclaimed black musician Don Shirley and his tour through the Deep South in the 1960s with a brash Italian-American as his chauffeur/bodyguard. While I had predicted that A Star is Born would walk away with this one, I'm not surprised that this crowd-pleaser eventually nabbed the prize. It's full of laughs, warm moments, and the kind of rousing change-of-heart condemnations of racism that's easy for audiences to get behind. Ali and Mortensen will likely get nods for their great performances, though whether in the Lead Actor or Supporting Actor category is hard to say.
Read on for the other films that are likely to walk away with the most Academy Award nods.
A Star is Born
This soaring, romantic, rise-to-fame film is almost guaranteed to get nods in all the big categories of the night: actor, actress, director, film and screenplay. (Not to mention original song. I have not been able to get "The Shallow" out of my head since watching the film several days ago.) This also means that the odds are very heavily stacked in Bradley Cooper's favour: as the lead actor, director and screenwriter of the film, he's got solid chances at going home with an Oscar. Lady Gaga is also a lock for the Best Actress category, and she's got the standing ovations at TIFF to prove it.
Beautiful Boy
Expect acting noms for Timothee Chalamet and Steve Carell, as well as one for Adapted Screenplay—the film script was adapted from two memoirs by father and son David and Nic Sheff, whose lives the heartbreaking addiction drama is based on.
First Man
Critics have been raving about this Neil Armstrong biopic directed by La La Land director Damien Chazelle and starring Ryan Gosling. Noms for both are a guarantee, and Claire Foy will probably earn one for Supporting Actress too.
Ben Is Back
Another drug addiction drama, but executed far differently than Beautiful Boy. Instead of following the life of a young addict over a period of time, Ben Is Back documents a single day in the life of a recovering addict, played by Lucas Hedges. His nom is in the bag, as is Julia Roberts' for Best Actress, Peter Hedges for Best Director and Original Screenplay, and the film itself for Best Picture.
Destroyer
Nicole Kidman is all anyone could talk about after the press screening of Destroyer, a film about a former undercover detective drawn back into an old case. It's rare to see gritty crime dramas with a woman at the centre, and Kidman pulls out all the stops with her conflicted, layered and raw performance. Sebastian Stan could earn a Supporting Actor nod too, and who knows, maybe director Karyn Kusama will be one of the few women to get a Best Director nomination.
Widows
Viola Davis. Elizabeth Debicki. Michelle Rodriguez. Steve McQueen. Gillian Flynn. There are lots of Oscar possibilities here. As a trio of women forced to pull off a daring heist when their criminal husbands are killed, Davis, Rodriguez and Debicki (who's also in this year's Vita & Virginia as a frail but luminescent Virginia Woolf) are simultaneously terrified and tough, disillusioned and determined. It's a hard line to walk and they do it flawlessly. Flynn and McQueen's script could earn them Best Adapted Screenplay, and the Director and Picture nods are solid possibilities too.
If Beale Street Could Talk
Adapted from a James Baldwin novel, this Barry Jenkins drama about two young black kids whose love story is derailed thanks to a false accusation of rape is beautifully, evocatively shot, and should earn him a Director nod, as well as one for Best Adapted Screenplay. Regina King could nab herself a Supporting Actress nom, and perhaps rising star (and Canadian!) Stephan James could earn his first Oscar nomination for playing the character of wrongfully accused Fonny with so much earnestness, resignation, and a heartbreaking mix of righteous anger and sorrow.
Hotel Mumbai
This film, which dives into the true events of the 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, is pretty much a lock in at least three categories: Best Original Screenplay, Picture and Director (for Anthony Maras). Since the film boasts a large, excellent ensemble cast, nods in the supporting categories are most likely: my money's on Armie Hammer and Dev Patel.
Colette
The Academy loves period dramas, and this one, which tells the true story of Colette, the anonymous Belle Epoque-era novelist whose husband takes the credit for her wildly successful 'Claudine' series of novels, is a shoo-in for a few Oscar nods, including Keira Knightley for Actress and Dominic West for Supporting Actor.
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Melissa McCarthy shines in this real life story of Lee Israel, an out-of-work writer who embarks on a life of crime by forging letters purportedly written by late literary greats like Dorothy Parker and Noel Coward. After a spate of pretty terrible comedies like Life of the Party and The Boss, it's wonderful to see McCarthy given material to really sink her teeth into, and she kills it as the bitter, desperate and acerbic Israel. Richard E Grant, whom I've loved ever since his Withnail and I breakout, is utterly delightful as her flamboyant and up-for-anything partner in crime John Hock, and is almost certainly a lock for Supporting Actor.
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