New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

But we do not know quite yet what we will be seeing in the Colorado mountains, although we can venture some guesses based on how TIFF has continued to label its showings with particular titles (“Canadian Premiere”) (“International Premiere”) in a way that offers strong clues as to what will happen in Colorado - much to the chagrin of the Telluride planners no doubt.

This year, the best guesses suggest that the Emma Stone/Steve Carell comedy Battle of the Sexes will be there, a movie that could have some timeliness to today. It also seems likely that we will see Darkest Hour, the Churchill biopic starting Gary Oldman, though this kind of non-fictional film has never seemed that much up of Telluride’s alley. And, no doubt they will showcase some of the Venice movies - the answer as to which one will tell us much indeed about which film has which chances.

You may even see some Sundance recurrences, including the gay love story Call Me by Your Name or the stunning racial tension movie Mudbound.

Toronto: Importance Decreasing?

Whereas Venice and Telluride have established themselves as the extraordinary one-two punch that kick starts the award season, Toronto has sort of stumbled, through arguably nothing more than the vicissitudes of the calendar, into an uncomfortable third place.

Years after showcasing two indie movies with no distributors, one calledSlumdog Millionaire, the other The Hurt Locker, Toronto has struggled to find that sort of TIFF-to-Oscar riches story. Even the last two winners of its once-vaunted People’s Choice Award - Room and La La Land - have eventually faltered in the final analysis.

What gives? Toronto is stuck not just because it does not get World Premieres, thanks mostly to Telluride/Venice, but because of how it chooses to deal with that. It will only showcase true premieres in its Gala Section, leaving a lot of their headline grabbing pictures as lesser movies that do not really seem worthy of awards contention but pack the red carpets. So, The Magnificent Seven and The Judge have, in years prior, opened TIFF, but neither movie got any awards chatter to speak of. This year, the tennis drama Borg/McEnroe has that perhaps-now dubious distinction, and no one is expecting much of it.

Oh, of course TIFF will play all of the Telluride/Venice films, and then some as it will also bring back major Sundance and Cannes titles that are looking to reenter the conversation, including Call Me By…, Mudbound, and Palm D’Or winner The Square, from the Swedish director of Force Majeure.

TIFF is also an embarrassment of riches for contemporary world cinema, and past Best Foreign Language Oscar nominees and winners are usually seen there, as are documentaries that eventually end up award winners. The list is too long to go through extensively here (over 200, despite TIFF’s attempts at shortening its own ranks). Rest assured that we will watch and cover them here as the festival progresses. The few movies that are premiering at TIFF that seem to have awards potential are Jessica Chastain’s movie, Aaron Sorkin’s directorial debut, called Molly’s Game, and maybe even I, Tonya, the Tonya Harding drama starring the beautiful Margot Robbie.

In a way, TIFF seems light years away. The big buzz has to drop from Venice and Telluride first. In another, it seems almost over, what with the speed with which it all goes, and the quickness with which it propels us into the next level.

Stay tuned.

Continued:       1       2