Possible Oscar Winners At Toronto

10 September 2008

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After a disappointing Venice, where many possible Oscar contenders are highlighted, it seems that the Academy Award fight has broken out at the Toronto Film Festival.

In the past the likes of Crash, American Beauty and Sideways have all caught the Academy's attention at Toronto but many of the films expecting to be a force come awards season are missing from this year's line-up.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Soloist, Frost/Nixon, Revolutionary Road and W are all noticeably absent despite four of this year's five Best Picture nominations being screened at Toronto last year.

Despite some of these movies missing it's the Best Actress category that has been in the spotlight over the last few days as four women in particular have grabbed the attention of audiences and critics.

Leading the way is Brit actress Keira knightley whose current performance in her new film The Duchess is winning over the critics. This role comes just twelve months after her performance, which surprisingly didn't even get an Oscar nod, in Joe Wright's Atonement.

Also surrounded in Oscar chatter is Sally Hawkins for her role in Happy-Go-Lucky as is Anne Hathaway for Rachel Getting Married, which also showed in Venice, and Kristen Scott Thomas for I've Loved You So Long.

But over the next couple of months there are some strong performances from Nicole Kidman in Australia, Kate Winslet in Revolutionary Road and Doubt for Meryl Streep that could possibly bag the nominations.

For the men Benicio Del Toro's performance in Che is still gathering support despite the film being almost four hours long. But leading the race is Viggo Mortensen who is hoping to follow up his Best Actor nod last year for Eastern Promises and has three movies out between now and January.

he has two on show in Toronto this week with Western Appaloosa, directed by Ed Harris, and Good a Holocaust drama but he will follow these up with The Road later this year, which is expected to be his best bet for a nomination.

In terms of a possible Best picture Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler is currently being called ' the best American movie of 2008' by the press after it scooped the Golden Lion at a lackluster Venice Film Festival and all the talk surrounds it's leading man Mickey Rourke and how he may just resurrect his career with this performance with an Oscar win.

Also exciting the Toronto crowds was Slumdog Millionaire which follows Jamal Malik, an eighteen year old orphan from the slums of Mumbai who is on the verge of winning twenty million rupees on India's How Wants to be a Millionaire?

But when the show breaks for the night police arrest him on suspicion of cheating: how could a street kid know so much?

Desperate to prove his innocence, Jamal tells the story of his life in the slum where he and his brother grew up, of their adventures together on the road, of vicious encounters with local gangs, and of Latika, the girl he loved and lost.

Also gaining support is Blindness from director Fernando Meirelles which has been altered since failing to win over the critics at Cannes earlier this summer.

Over the next couple of day The Brothers Bloom, Che, Good, Achilles and the Tortoise await the Toronto crowds. Toronto Film Festival runs until the 13th September.

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw

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