Oscars race intensifies at Toronto International Film Festival, where survival is the theme
Idris Elba and Kate Winslet in The Mountain Between Us, Jake Gyllenhaal in Stronger and Angelina Jolie’s First They Killed My Father among the 300 films showing at the largest film festival in North America
The race for the Oscars heats up this week at the Toronto International Film Festival, where a raft of films will focus on survival in dark times, with mounting political, religious and racial tensions around the world.
More than 300 feature and short films from 74 countries will be screened at the 42nd TIFF, the biggest film festival in North America, which opens on Thursday and runs until September 17.
The event is often seen as a way for Oscar-conscious studios to generate buzz about their films, with hundreds of filmmakers and actors to hit the red carpet in Canada’s largest city.
“This year’s big theme is survival,” says festival chief executive Piers Handling.
From climate change and overpopulation to terrorism, North Korea and fringe right-wing groups in America, people worldwide are facing “an atmosphere of great uncertainty and a real fear about certain issues,” he says. “I think it’s a very unsettling time for many of us.”
“Some of the films are absolutely uplifting, showing that individually or collectively, you can overcome if you harness your resources and work together. But of course, not all the films have a happy ending,” he says.
By contrast, American director Alexander Payne offers a quirky solution to the issue of human consumption rapidly exhausting the Earth’s resources. His science fiction social satire Downsizing, about a man who chooses to shrink himself to simplify his life, stars Matt Damon.
Other featured films chronicle efforts to live on in times of war and chaos.
In previous years, films such as Spotlight , 12 Years a Slave , and Slumdog Millionaire went on from winning the Toronto festival’s People’s Choice award for best picture to take the top honour at the Oscars.
Many of the films being positioned for accolades this year will have already premiered at the Venice, New York or Telluride film festivals before screening in Toronto.
“The season is very crowded,” says Handling.
But Handling insists Toronto continues to be the launch pad for Oscar contenders.
“I think Toronto is still seen as the key place to amplify films going into awards season. Films may premiere in Venice or Telluride but the amplification actually happens here in Toronto,” he says.
The festival will also host intimate talks with Jolie, Javier Bardem, Gael Garcia Bernal and Helen Mirren.
Lady Gaga will perform following the screening of the documentary Gaga: Five Foot Two.