Greetings from the Toronto International Film Festival, where it is miraculously jacket weather, and I’m still getting over how early I needed to line up for this morning’s hottest press screening — Mike Leigh’s Tender Loving Care. (Heartbreaking! More on that one tomorrow.)
It’s going to be a very, very busy few days for Team Ankler here at TIFF, so here’s the rundown. We’ll send daily editions of this newsletter tomorrow through Tuesday, featuring video interviews and portraits from our studio in downtown Toronto — plus intel and gossip from the various screenings and events that make up the fest. I must say: We’ve got so many people coming through the studio in the next few days — stars from all the biggest titles here — that you really won’t believe it.
On top of all that, Christopher Rosen and I will be broadcasting live daily dispatches on YouTube and the Prestige Junkie After Party Substack — subscribe to both to get notified when we’re live! We’ll do our best to capture the biggest buzz, behind-the-scenes insight from the video studio and maybe even wrangle some of our festival-going friends to join us.
So yes, so much more to come. But before the storm, I’m unpacking the seven biggest questions I’ll be asking myself (and everyone I run into) over the next week in Toronto. Is the future best picture winner about to be born? Will the best actress race be more competitive than we thought? What surprises are in store? Here’s my best guess at some answers.
1. Will Possible Love Make the Leap?
Even with the much-discussed lack of major Hollywood movies at the Venice Film Festival this year, a handful of strong awards contenders emerged — and three are now headed to Toronto to see if they can keep building momentum. Netflix’s Ink and Searchlight’s Wild Horse Nine have already shown staying power, hitting Telluride shortly after Venice, and playing just as well in the Colorado mountains as they did by the Italian canals. As Christopher Rosen and I discussed on the podcast earlier this week, screening at both festivals in quick succession is a real show of confidence — and it appears well-earned in both cases.
But I’m especially eager to see what Toronto audiences make of Netflix’s Possible Love, the new film from South Korean auteur Lee Chang-dong that earned universal raves at Venice and may very well win one of that festival’s awards before its TIFF premiere on Monday. A talky, thoughtful domestic drama about two couples from different sides of the wealth spectrum, Possible Love isn’t the kind of crowd-pleaser we usually talk about winning over TIFF audiences. But I haven’t talked to anyone who wasn’t dazzled by it, and I expect that enthusiasm to only grow in the next week.
2. Can Elsinore Keep Its Momentum?
Every festival season, at least one movie experiences a bizarre boomerang: It gets intense reactions on one side of the spectrum at Venice or Telluride, then the exact opposite in Toronto.
Last year it was Frankenstein, which received at best an indifferent reception at the earlier festivals, only to bring the house down at TIFF; it won the runner-up prize for the audience award. Meanwhile, I vividly remember the 2019 film Waves arriving in Toronto on a wave (sorry) of Telluride buzz, only to sink like a stone at the first press screening.
So will that happen to anyone this year? Elsinore with Andrew Scott is certainly flying high among the Telluride premieres, Oprah endorsement and all, but I wonder if some Toronto critics will try extra hard to resist the movie’s emotional pull. Meanwhile, Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut got strong but not universally ecstatic reviews at Telluride, and it’s possible to imagine the New Jersey-set love letter to musical theater finding a warmer crowd on the East Coast. (After all, its Toronto premiere is at the Princess of Wales Theatre, which will get back to hosting musicals once the festival is through.)
3. Is Club Kid an Audience Award Contender?
Nearly every title that made a major splash at Cannes in May is now heading to Toronto, and with the festival’s newly established International People’s Choice Award up for grabs, the stakes are high. Netflix’s La Bola Negra has the spectacle and emotional heft that often makes TIFF crowds go wild, while Neon’s Fjord has the Palme d’Or win that will make it a must-see for many audience members.
Cannes titles that weren’t in the main competition will have a chance to pop as well. Ahead of the festival, I got to catch up with La Gradiva and Everytime, which competed in the Critics’ Week selection at Cannes; both are set to be released by the new art house distributor 1-2 Special. They’re also each spectacular, and ought to benefit from the kind of excited word-of-mouth buzz that TIFF is especially good at creating.
And then there’s A24’s Club Kid, which seemingly won the unofficial Telluride award for the most “you know what I really loved” film of the festival, and ought to do more of the same in Toronto. It feels like a real contender for TIFF’s People’s Choice Award, which would be a huge boost for the Jordan Firstman film that’s looking like more of a major contender by the day.
4. Will Anyone Beat Julianne Moore?
The Telluride premiere of The Debut confirmed what many of us have suspected for months: Julianne Moore is in a very, very good position to win her second best actress Oscar. And Moore knows better than anyone how TIFF can change things: Her film Still Alice world premiered in Toronto in 2014, was picked up by Sony Classics and won Moore her first Oscar months later.
Two veteran actresses have Still Alice-esque central roles worth watching: Laura Linney leads Onwards and Sideways, about a woman diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, while Sarah Paulson stars in the family drama Closing Night. Meanwhile, all eyes will turn Saturday night to the world premiere of A24’s Misty Green, directed by Chris Rock and starring Rosalind Eleazar in a breakthrough performance already earning great buzz.
And while she’s not a new contender, it’s worth noting that Obsession star Inde Navarette will be on the ground in Toronto, technically celebrating the one-year anniversary of the film’s TIFF premiere but very much kicking off an awards campaign as well. (She’s here with the film’s writer and director, Curry Barker.) Many pundits have accepted Navarette as a solid contender based on Obsession’s success as well as what appears like a softer field — but showing up at events and meeting voters will be key for the 25-year-old newcomer to cement her spot.
5. Did Amazon MGM Bet on the Right Strategy?
I’ve been one of many people discussing how major studios have largely eschewed festival premieres this fall, seemingly following the One Battle After Another model and waiting to pull out the stops for their fall releases.
The major exception is Amazon MGM. While the studio’s biggest awards contender is probably still the spring release Project Hail Mary, it has three major TIFF world premieres lined up: Rachel Morrison’s Love of Your Life, the Mahershala Ali-led Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother and especially I Play Rocky from Peter Farrelly, the director of TIFF audience award winner and eventual best picture winner Green Book.
I don’t think any of these have to win a People’s Choice Award for Amazon MGM awards strategists to consider their trip to TIFF worth it (but I’m sure they wouldn’t complain!). Toronto is a great place to premiere a down-the-middle crowd-pleaser, and as Amazon MGM continues to increase its theatrical movie output and define what kind of movies work for the studio, TIFF feels like the perfect festival to help them figure it out. And while we’re talking about crowd-pleasers…
6. What Will Win the People’s Choice Award?
I mentioned Club Kid above, and several other titles seem like good bets for the audience award, too. But we won’t have an answer to this for a while — TIFF awards won’t be announced until Sept. 20.
Still, the parlor game will go on throughout the festival, guessing not just the audience award winners but the two runners-up too. I always give an edge to world premieres in terms of the eventual winner — which might put I Play Rocky, Misty Green or opening-night film Being Heumann toward the top of the list. But TIFF audiences can surprise you — remember Life of Chuck’s triumph two years ago? If you want to share your predictions in advance, though, I’m all ears.
7. Which of My Personal Faves Will Pop?
I’ll spend a lot of my time in Toronto inside The Ankler’s portrait and video studio, talking to the people behind most of the festival’s biggest titles — again, make sure you’re following us on YouTube and Instagram so you don’t miss a moment! That means I won’t get to experience many movies alongside the famously great TIFF audiences. But it also means I got to see a lot of titles ahead of time — and there are a few world premieres I’m especially eager to see the crowds embrace.
I’m probably embargoed from saying too much, but it’s no surprise that the documentary Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been is full of gorgeous music and the indomitable personality of singer Darlene Love. I’ll just say to keep an eye out for Trash Mountain, starring and co-written by comedian Caleb Hearon and featuring Zooey Deschanel in her best role since New Girl ended. After bingeing the Hulu series Furious last month, I was so glad to see Scoot McNairy tackle another dynamic role in The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd, directed by none other than Tim Blake Nelson. And finally, the Sundance hype for the documentary Once Upon a Time in Harlem had it exactly right — this is a fascinating excavation of the past that, like the best historical documentaries, feels incredibly current.
There’s so much to say about other films playing the festival, including many I haven’t seen yet and the inevitable surprises that will come out of nowhere to win us all over. Luckily, you’ll be hearing a lot from me in the coming days — see ya soon.
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