Every fall, three film festivals run back-to-back that help to shape the annual race for Academy Awards glory. The Venice Film Festival, the Telluride Film Festival, and the Toronto International Film Festival program their collective slates with movies that hope to contend for year-end accolades, so experts head to these film meccas hoping to see the stories, performances, and craftwork that will contend for the top Oscars, handed out in March 2024.
In collaboration with AMC Theatres, which aims to make modern movie masterpieces available to cinema fans through their AMC Artisan Films program, CinemaBlend traveled to Toronto for several days of movie screenings at TIFF 2023. And we left with a better sense of some contenders in multiple Oscar categories that we believe will be part of the conversation as the awards season heats up. Some of the names are very familiar, and tend to see themselves in the Oscar race time after time. Others, however, are complete surprises that still turned our heads, and deserve recognition. Here are nine Oscar contenders that emerged from the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival.
Jamie Foxx, The Burial
Jamie Foxx is no stranger to the Academy Awards, having won Best Actor for playing Ray Charles, and earning a nomination acting opposite Tom Cruise in Collateral. Foxx has made headlines as of late for his health scares, but his performance as a slick, fast-talking attorney in the legal courtroom thriller The Burial puts the conversation back on his charismatic screen presence. It’s a story based on true events, where a lawyer helps an underdog funeral home owner (Tommy Lee Jones) protect his business against a conglomerate. The Academy loves those types of stories, and Foxx is just that good.
Nicolas Cage, Dream Scenario
For a while now, Nicolas Cage has enjoyed a run where he basically plays “Nic Cage” on screen. Even when he’s Dracula in Renfield or an alternate Superman in The Flash, he’s still recognizable as the quirky character actor. But in Dream Scenario, Cage loses himself completely to play a schlubby college professor who begins showing up in everyone’s dreams… and starts getting used to the attention that comes with this phenomenon. With a push by A24, Cage easily could get into the Best Actor race (though it’s a competitive year, as our next selection will prove).
Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers
Alexander Payne once mined Paul Giamatti’s particular brand of fussiness for Oscar glory in the 2004 comedy Sideways. Their latest collaboration would strike similar chords in awards voters, as Giamatti relishes the particular role of a private school teacher ordered to chaperone the prep students who have no place to go over Christmas break. Payne’s attention to period detail is impeccable, and this absolutely will earn a Best Picture nomination (see below). But Giamatti is a huge part of the reason why The Holdovers works so well, and I predict he’ll be in the Best Actor conversation.
Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction
It’s a strong year for male performances so far, which means someone is going to have to be left out. Don‘t bet against Jeffrey Wright, the beloved character actor who receives his own version of a Sideways-style midlife crisis comedy in American Fiction. He plays esteemed author “Monk” Ellison, who returns home to Boston to care for his impaired mother and wrestles with family, a potential new love, and a fresh direction for his writing career. Wright is spectacular – no real surprise – and deserves Oscar consideration… particularly after American Fiction won the coveted Audience Award at TIFF.
Jessica Chastain, Memory
Often, you won’t even know that a movie is coming until it makes a splash on the festival circuit. And you would think that a movie that pairs Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard would be on our radar. But it wasn’t until Chastain attended the Venice Film Festival on behalf of Memory that we started paying attention to the story of former friends who reconnect at a high school reunion, mainly because reviews went nuts for Chastain. Can she ride that wave to an Oscar nomination? It would be her fourth, and would arrive on the heels of her winning for The Eyes of Tammy Faye.
Ava DuVernay, Origin
Never count Ava DuVernay out of awards consideration, especially when she’s exploring history, racial strife, and social controversies. The director surprised the industry when she sent her newest film, Origin, to both Venice and Toronto. But once the reviews started rolling in, it became clear that DuVernay’s unique adaptation of Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson’s book Caste would become a major player in the upcoming Oscars race. The film decimated our own Corey Chichizola, who called it the best movie he saw at TIFF 2023. And in addition to the awards buzz for leading lady Aunjanue Ellis (King Richard), the chances of Origin earning a Best Picture nomination are also high.
The Holdovers
When you finally see Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers, you will know that it’s the ideal picture the Academy loves. That’s not a slight. Traditionally, there’s a formula, and when movie’s follow it well, they earn Oscars love. Payne is a pedigreed director, working off a dependable screenplay from David Hemingson. He has a terrific ensemble led by the great Paul Giamatti. The movie doesn’t reinvent the wheel. It’s a solid double smacked right between the shortstop and the second baseman. Enjoy it for what it is.
Anatomy Of A Fall
Every once in a while, an international film makes its way into the Best Picture race. Roma, Amour, and Life is Beautiful are part of the ranks. Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite became the first foreign-language film to win Best Picture! So the door has been kicked open, and it’s possible that Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall walks through this year. The German true-crime thriller rides along on a stellar lead performance by Sandra Huller, playing a successful author who becomes the lead suspect in her husband’s death. There are twists, and there are turns. And they all might lead to a Best Picture nomination when the nominees are announced early next year.
Look for these, and other upcoming 2023 movies, as they make their way to an AMC Theatres near you – and possibly also onto their curated list of AMC Artisan films – in the coming weeks and months.
