Despite the overall favorable reviews coming out from the Toronto International Film Festival, according to THR the Oscar contention that is usually a factor at Toronto seems to be lacking this year. In recent years the festival has served as a spring board for such Oscar-bait as “The Last King of Scotland,” “Atonement,” and the eventual best picture winner, “No Country for Old Men.”
A production company executive said about the festival,”The festival is more than half over, and you still have no idea who the Oscar front-runners are.” It even seems so far instead of serving as an Oscar spring board the festival is being used as a commercial outlet for such audience friendly films as “Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist,” and the Coen brothers new film “Burn After Reading.”
As far as Oscar talk has gone at Toronto this year seems to be limited to the word of mouth buzz for Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler,” which has been one of the success stories of the festival so far. Some also think that Danny Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire” has the potential to have Juno-like Oscar success, but we think that American audiences won’t be as warm to an impoverished Indian youth as they were to that smart-ass pregnant teen.
The lack of Oscar buzz doesn’t seem to be helped by the fact that the most Oscar-talked movies of the year weren’t ready for, or just didn’t make the journey to Toronto, such as “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “Changeling,” and “Australia.” Frankly we have enjoyed the lack of Oscar buzz from the festival so far, because it is usually quite annoying and it tends to keep lesser-known gems out of the public eye.
