Variety announces Spike Lee’s WWII epic will have its premiere at the Toronto Film Fest (Sept. 4-13), along with a few others, like the world premier of Disgrace, directed by Steve Jacobs and based on the Booker-winning novel, starring John Malkovich doing South African, Viggo Mortensen who gets sucked into the Nazi regime in Good, and Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist, starring Michael Cera. Another interesting release is Kathryn Bigelow’s Iraq thriller “The Hurt Locker,” starring Ralph Fiennes, Guy Pearce and David Morse. Finally, Paolo Sorrentino’s Il Divo, the Cannes jury prize winner.
Toronto is a tad more high pressure than Sundance or Cannes which can exist and do exist well beyond the need for Oscar attention. Many judging eyes are there at the fest posting “is it or isn’t it” nonsense stories. If the film is crushingly bad beyond a reasonable doubt, there will be plenty of folks at the ready to spill the beans with glee. That certainly is news. However, early buzz can be misleading as well; often film fests exist in a vacuum. A movie that will do well often needs room to breathe to really impact Oscar voters. It doesn’t need a lot of people chattering about it long before it ever hits theaters and they themselves deciding whether it is an Oscar movie or not. Therein lies the rub. Columnists often confuse their own opinion and project it onto “what the Academy will do.” We here at Awards Daily try to keep an open mind and take opinions for what they represent in the bodily organ department (everybody has one). Nonetheless, hearing about these up and comers put the heat on the glass.