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After some Oscar-contending films debuted at the Telluride and Venice festivals, the movie studios and some independent companies took some of their highest-profile productions to the Toronto International Film Festival, which wrapped up over the weekend.
Historically, the Canadian film fest is where movies pick up Oscar buzz — or lose it completely.
The Frame's John Horn talks with Kyle Buchanan, a senior editor at vulture.com, who just returned from Toronto, about what films stood out — both good and bad:
What was one film that had good buzz coming out of the Toronto festival?
One of the happily surprising films was "The Martian." This is that big-budget Ridley Scott movie. One of the few festivals where you'll see a giant budget movie like "The Martian" is Toronto. But based on Ridley Scott's recent track record, delivering movies like "Prometheus," I think everybody went in with reserved expectations. This, though, is an out-of-the-box pleasurable big studio hit and I think it could go far at the Oscars depending on how much traction it gets with audiences.
What was a movie that came in with a lot of buzz that maybe limped out of Canada?
Well, you'll recall Julianne Moore won best actress this past year. I don't think she's going to two-peat this year. Her big contender at Toronto was "Freeheld." It's a gay rights drama starring her and Ellen Page and, wow, I just don't know. It's a surprisingly disengaged, flat, uncomfortable performance from her. It just shows that as much Oscar buzz as you can amass going into Toronto, you can leave [the festival] with squat.
Let's talk about awards. The Toronto International Film Festival has an audience award where past winners have gone to win best picture at the Oscars. What happened this year?
The winner was "Room." This is a kidnap drama starring Brie Larson as a woman who's been imprisoned for years in a shed. She's even borne a child and she's trying to devise an escape to get both of them out. It's a really terrific movie, very good, very emotional — and I think that last thing is the key.
Another movie getting a lot of buzz from both the Toronto and Telluride festivals is "Spotlight."
I think "Spotlight" is currently our best picture frontrunner. This is a movie about a team of Boston Globe reporters, including Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams and Mark Ruffalo, who uncover the staggering extent of misdeeds in the Catholic church in the early 2000's. Hearing that synopsis, you might think it's some sort of dry procedural. This is an incredibly smooth, pleasurable, watchable, even sometimes fun movie about putting together a story. It's incredibly done and I think a lot of Oscar voters will respond to it.
There was also a film that was bought at Toronto that made a lot of headlines.
Yeah, this movie is called "Anomalisa." It's written and directed by Charlie Kaufman who was the writer behind classic oddball movies like "Being John Malkovich" and "Adaptation." It is a stop-motion animated film about a motivational speaker in an anonymous hotel room in the Midwest who has a one night stand. It is definitely unusual — and even more unusual than the movie is that Paramount bought it in a huge buy.
This is the studio behind "Mission Impossible." You don't really associate Paramount with Charlie Kaufman movies.
You don't at all, but the very reason that it's that studio means they don't have a very stocked Oscar shelf at all. I think that they came there hungry for something they could push, otherwise there's a lot of people who will be sitting on their hands this season and that movie will need that help.
I think the footnote behind "Anomalisa" is that Paramount bought it for multiple millions of dollars. I guess the important question for Paramount is: What is the audience for this movie?
I think they think that there's a young, hip audience that's gonna go for it. I did talk to another buyer who said that the young, hip audiences aren't that big. It's probably going to top out at four or five million, but I think that Paramount wanted to make a splash. They wanted to assert themselves in a certain way and they definitely did.