TIFF rolls up the red carpet on another year

As the Toronto International Film Festival enters its final weekend, the focus now turns to find out who are the big winners as possible Oscar contenders.

Sean Leathong has covered the entire TIFF week for CHCH and has his synopsis.

The films that receive awards here at TIFF tend to have their names called at Oscar time as well. For example last year’s people’s choice winner, ’12 Years a Slave’, was later named best picture. So we spoke with 2 film critics to see what we can expect.

The flashing lights of TIFF will continue into the weekend, but the signs are here that the festival is winding down. Film critics like Peter Howell from the Toronto Star and Bonnie Laufer are already calling Oscar nominees.

Peter Howell: “Benedict Cumberbatch in the imitation game, very layered performance, I think that’s pretty much guaranteed.”

Bonnie Laufer: “Kudos to Benedict Cumberbatch, he has been the darling of the festival.”

The festival darling’s portrayal of enigma code breaker Alan Turing makes him a likely Oscar frontrunner with stiff competition from Eddie Redmayne’s portrayal of Steven Hawking in ‘The Theory of Everything’. There were also other great acting performances.

Peter Howell: “Steve Carell in Foxcatcher, Reese Witherspoon in Wild.”

Bonnie Laufer: “I’m banking that we’ll see Jennifer Aniston at the Oscars next year I think, and also Julianne Moore.”

Aniston’s role in the movie Cake was a bit of a surprise as it received a standing ovation in Toronto. Whereas Carell, Witherspoon, and Moore, who is in Canadian David Cronenberg’s ‘Maps to the Stars’, came with considerable buzz.

So while the critics agree that this has been one of the best years for acting performances, they also agree that there’s been a little something missing.

Peter Howell: “The acting categories are rich this year, but maybe the best picture ones aren’t so obvious.”

Bonnie Laufer: “I always have a feeling like, this is gonna’ be the best picture. I knew it with the artist, and I knew it with ’12 Years a Slave’. This year I’m not feeling it either Sean.”

This year the festival insisted that any film shown in the first 4 days had to be a world premier, which may have sent some big films elsewhere.

Peter Howell: “There’s a movie like ‘Birdman’ that went to Telluride, that’s going to go to New York, ‘Gone Girl’ is going to New York. Would they have made a similar splash here in Toronto, maybe, it’s hard to say.”

But Howell thinks that the new rule actually strengthened the festival by moving big films like the imitation game to the second week. And it may have made room for an unexpected favourite. The Bill Murray film St. Vincent is now generating Oscar buzz for Murray, and some buzz for a possible best picture nod.