18 Movies Everyone Will Talk About At TIFF 2014
In the last 15 years, seven movies that won the Toronto International Film Festival’s audience award went on to score an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. Four of those movies — “American Beauty,” “Slumdog Millionaire,” “The King’s Speech” and last year’s “12 Years A Slave” — went on to win. Which is proof awards season goes through Toronto for a reason, and good news for the surfeit of features that will screen at this year’s festival. TIFF organizers announced the initial lineup on Tuesday, and even with presumed awards favorites such as Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “Birdman or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance” (set to debut at the Venice Film Festival) and David Fincher’s “Gone Girl” and Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Inherent Vice” (both tapped for the New York Film Festival) not in play, the dance card loaded with possible Oscar contenders. Ahead, 18 movies that should plant flags in awards season after Toronto.
“The Last Five Years” (dir. Richard LaGravenese) (World Premiere)
What TIFF says: “In this adaptation of the hit Broadway musical, The Last Five Years is a musical deconstruction of a love affair and a marriage taking place over a five year period. Jamie, a young, talented up-and-coming Jewish novelist falls in love with Cathy, a Shiksa Goddess and struggling actress. The film, told almost entirely through song and a beautiful pop music score, portrays an honest, heartbreaking, often funny, exploration of love and its consequences on individual identity. Starring Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan.”
Awards possibilities: “The Last Five Years” has no current distribution plans, but if it does come out this year, perhaps Anna Kendrick could become an awards player. There have been some whispers on Twitter that Kendrick could score an Oscar nomination for her supporting part in “Into the Woods,” but “The Last Five Years,” another musical, should provide her with the kind of full-bodied role that wins the hearts and minds of Oscar voters.
