The 2013 Toronto International Film Festival wrapped up this past Sunday, concluding the first chapter in this years awards season race. The Academy Awards themselves arent until March 2014, but that doesnt stop rabid speculation from building months in advance of the ceremony. The TIFF provides the perfect arena for premature Oscar prognosticating; the festival screens numerous highly anticipated films to audiences (and critics), whose reactions can set the tone for the rest of the awards season. Last year, Ben Afflecks Argo (2012) opened at Toronto to rave reviews and significant Oscar buzz and February found Affleck on the stage of the Dolby Theatre thanking the Academy for his films Best Picture win. Its a critical jumping-off point for films hoping to make similarly positive impressions on these early audiences.
This year, most Oscar buzz focused on one film in particular: acclaimed British director Steve McQueens 12 Years a Slave. The movie portrays the life of Solomon Northup, a black man born into freedom in antebellum America that was later kidnapped and sold into slavery. Based on a true story, 12 Years a Slave was Academy catnip based on the trailer alone. The reaction to the film itself, however, has been nothing short of astonishing.
Critics have reported audience members sobbing through the film and leaving the theater utterly speechless. Kyle Buchanan, a writer for Vulture (the online pop culture component of New York Magazine), explained a conversation with a colleague after seeing the film.
I said, A century from now, when they put together a montage about the history of movies? Theyll put the film we just saw in the first 10 seconds of that montage, he said.
Anthony Breznican, who covers the awards season race for Entertainment Weekly, predicted that 12 Years will easily land an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture and that Chiwetel Ejiofor, who plays Northup, will receive a Best Actor nomination. Ejiofor and his costar Lupita Nyongo have been at the epicenter of the nomination guessing game, overshadowing their more famous costars including Brad Pitt, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Giamatti and Michael Fassbender. There is plenty of time left in the awards season race for a shake-up, but for now, 12 Years has a commanding and decisive lead, bolstered by its Peoples Choice Award win at the TIFF. When it opens on Oct. 18, audiences will be able to judge for themselves whether the hype surrounding the film is justified.
Several other films with solid chances at the Oscars also screened at the TIFF, including Gravity, Dallas Buyers Club and August: Osage County. Sandra Bullock has been garnering positive reviews and significant Oscar buzz for her role in Gravity as an astronaut trying to survive after her space shuttle is damaged. Directed by Alfonso Cuar
