When the Toronto International Film Festival wrapped up last weekend, it ended a busy two weeks of festival news coming out of Telluride, Venice, and Toronto. These festivals are also seen as the kick-off to the awards season, with the top movies at these festivals usually competing for major awards.
This may be especially true in 2024, since none of the summer blockbusters INSIDE OUT 2, DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE, DESPICABLE ME 4, and TWISTERS are under serious consideration. Last summer, the top-grossing films BARBIE and OPPENHEIMER were prime awards contenders and won many of the top prizes.
This year, Oscar watchers are focused on a handful of films coming out of the fall festivals, starting with Brady Corbet’s THE BRUTALIST, one of the darlings of Venice 2024. The 215-minute epic depicts the story of a Hungarian-born Jew shortly after the end of World War II and has received rave reviews at the festival and the runner-up award at Venice. It’s worth noting that when Venice began the movie had not yet locked down any theatrical distribution. With the buzz around it building, A24 quickly swooped in to acquire the distribution rights, and awards watchers expect it to contend across all the major categories.
At Telluride, SATURDAY NIGHT was touted as a potential sleeper hit at the fall box office and awards contender, especially for its director Jason Reitman. The film follows the 90 minutes leading up to the first episode of NBC’s iconic late-night comedy program “Saturday Night Live.”
It was very warmly received by festivalgoers at Telluride and will be distributed by Sony in a limited introduction on 9/27 and wide expansion on 10/11. Another festival hit was SEPTEMBER 5, which was praised after its premiere in Venice, especially for the performance of its lead actor Peter Sarsgaard. Paramount has stepped in to distribute it, opening in theatres on 11/27.
Another film to feature prominently at both Telluride and Toronto was Edward Berger’s CONCLAVE. Its storyline focuses on the drama surrounding the election of a new Pope and was noted for its timely release in the run-up to this year’s Presidential election which will take place on 11/5. Edward Berger’s last film ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT won multiple Oscars and was praised for both his direction and lead performance by Ralph Fiennes. CONCLAVE will be released by Focus Features on 10/25.
All of these films, in addition to Cannes Palm D’Or winner ANORA, are being discussed as prime candidates for Best Picture and other top awards and should be playing widely throughout the fall at both art houses and mainstream cinemas.