Scaled-down Venice and Toronto festivals and MIA movies will likely mute the impact of the events that usually launch awards season
In a normal year, the next three weeks would be a huge moment of truth for the awards race.
This is not a normal year.
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With the Venice International Film Festival kicking off on Wednesday and the Toronto International Film Festival launching a week from Thursday, early September is typically the time when studios trot out their biggest awards contenders and put them on display for cineastes, awards watchers and the international press. By the time the Venice, Toronto and Telluride festivals come to an end in the middle of the month, we usually have a pretty good idea of what awards season is going to look like for the next five months.
But in this delayed, COVID-stricken, confusing year, we’re likely to come to the end of TIFF on Sept. 20 not knowing much more than we do right now.
Also Read: Toronto Film Festival Lineup to Include Films Directed by Regina King, Halle Berry
Between the scaling down of some festivals and the cancellation of others, the absence of most of the top movies expected to compete for awards (including everything from Netflix) and the smaller spotlight the festivals will receive because of less press attention, this will be a festival season that probably won’t give any movie genuine awards momentum, and one that will probably deal a blow to the festivals’ usual record as Oscar predictors.
Since 2007, the Oscar Best Picture winner has screened in Venice, Telluride or Toronto every year, with Toronto playing host to the winner 12 times in 13 years and Telluride doing it 10 times in the same stretch. Of the films that would go on to be nominated for Best Picture since the category expanded in 2009, TIFF has screened between three and five nominees every year and Telluride has averaged two and a half.
The chances of that happening this year are slim indeed because the festivals won’t be their usual selves. The Venice International Film Festival — the platform that launched the Best Picture winners “The Hurt Locker,” “Birdman,” “Spotlight” and “The Shape of Water,” and that last year turned “Joker” from a presumed comic-book movie to an awards heavyweight — is taking place from Sept. 2-12 in a scaled-down version that will include social distancing, mandatory masks and thermo-scanners, as well as required reservations for its screening rooms.
Its lineup this year includes only one film that is thought to be a solid contender from an American studio, Searchlight’s “Nomadland,” which stars Frances McDormand and was directed by Chloe Zhao. The rest of its slate is largely from European directors, who may find it easier to get to Venice if they’re inclined to do so, and whose films may end up competing in the Oscars international race later this year. (Of course, considering that the Korean film “Parasite” won Best Picture earlier this year, there’s always a chance for some of the non-English entries to make a case for itself as a true contender.)
Also Read: Venice Film Festival Lineup Includes Record 8 Features With Female Directors in Competition
Venice is also restricting its screenings to people who are in Italy for the festival; unlike Toronto, it is not making links available to press who aren’t there. With most Americans unable or unwilling to travel at this point, that will limit the visibility that the Venice slate will have in the U.S., where most Oscar voters are.
Meanwhile, the Telluride Film Festival, which usually sits between the two other festivals and offers a couple dozen carefully curated selections, would have opened on Friday for four days of screenings in the Colorado mountains — but because of the coronavirus, it canceled the physical festival and simply released a list of movies that it would have screened if it had taken place.
“Nomadland” is also on that list, as is British director Francis Lee’s period romance “Ammomite,” with Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan; Ricky Staub’s “Concrete Cowboy,” with Idris Elba and Caleb McLaughlin; and Roger Michell’s “The Duke,” with Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren. But with nobody headed to Telluride for screenings, the chance for a film to stir up enthusiasm at 8,750 feet, which has been instrumental in awards launches from “Slumdog Millionaire” to “Argo” to “Moonlight,” is nonexistent this year.
And then there’s the Toronto International Film Festival, which will run from Sept. 10-20 but in a far different format than usual. TIFF has cut its program from more than 200 feature films to fewer than 60, and it will show those only to local residents in drive-in theaters, outdoor venues and socially-distanced screening rooms. All of its press and industry screenings have been moved online, with no press on site in Toronto.
Also Read: Frances McDormand's 'Nomadland' to Get Joint World Premiere From Venice and Toronto Film Festivals
TIFF will screen “Nomadland,” “Ammomite,” Regina King’s “One Night in Miami,” Halle Berry’s “Bruised” and more than 50 others, including a large percentage of international films and a small selection of its always-essential documentary choices. But TIFF usually hosts nightly galas of the biggest studio contenders: Last year, for instance, it included “Knives Out,” “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” “Hustlers,” “Dolemite Is My Name,” “Marriage Story,” “Jojo Rabbit,” “Ford v Ferrari,” “Joker,” “The Two Popes,” “Judy” and “Harriet” … just in the first six days.
One of the reasons that won’t be the case this year is that Netflix has opted not to send its films to any festivals, taking a cautious stance early in this most unusual awards season. That is a big change for a company that sent past films like “Roma” and “Marriage Story” to almost every fall festival, and a company that will likely be the single most dominant studio in this year’s race. (Its 2020 slate includes Ron Howard’s “Hillbilly Elegy,” David Fincher’s “Mank,” Aaron Sorkin’s “Trial of the Chicago 7,” George C. Wolfe’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” George Clooney’s “The Midnight Sky,” Joe Mantello’s “The Boys in the Band,” Edoardo Ponti’s “The Life Ahead” and Ryan Murphy’s “The Prom.”)
Staying away from the festivals is a safe strategy in a year in which the Oscars has been pushed from its usual February date all the way to April 25, and films can still qualify for the 2020 Academy Awards if they’re released in January or February of 2021. Besides, even if a film did come out of the festivals with lots of momentum, its prospects for a theatrical run remain uncertain until more theaters have opened, particularly ones in the industry hubs of Los Angeles and New York.
In other words, there’s still plenty of time to get those awards campaigns off the ground. Venice, Telluride and Toronto may be the traditional launching pad for Oscar season, and they may still be able to showcase lots of quality cinema — but this is 2020, so what’s the hurry?
Chadwick Boseman's 10 Most Memorable Roles, From Jackie Robinson to Black Panther (Photos)
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Chadwick Boseman, who died of colon cancer on Friday at age 43, made a striking impression in both TV and on the big screen in his too-short time in the spotlight.
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ABC Family
Nathaniel Ray, "Lincoln Heights" (2008-09)
Chadwick Boseman had popped in small TV roles in the early 2000s but he had his first major breakthrough role in this ABC Family drama as a member of the U.S. Army who belatedly learns he's the son of the series lead (Russell Hornsby).
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NBC
Graham McNair, "Persons Unknown" (2010)
He followed "Lincoln Heights" with a role on a short-lived NBC drama about a group of strangers who find themselves plunked into a ghost town.
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Warner Bros.
Jackie Robinson, "42" (2013)
Boseman landed his first lead role on the big screen in Brian Helgeland's biopic of Jackie Robinson, the first Black player to break into Major League Baseball. He starred opposite Harrison Ford, who played the Brooklyn Dodgers' general manager.
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Lionsgate
Vontae Mack, "Draft Day" (2014)
Boseman switched sports for his next role, as top linebacker prospect from Ohio State who's considered a safe No. 1 pick for a Cleveland Browns GM played by Kevin Costner.
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Universal
James Brown, "Get on Up" (2014)
Boseman left the playing field but returned to the biopic genre for this next project, Tate Taylor's look at the rock legend James Brown.
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Netflix
Jacob King, "Message From the King" (2016)
In this Netflix film, Boseman plays a South African man who arrives in Los Angeles searching for his missing younger sister -- and then embarks on a vengeance quest in an unfamiliar city.
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Disney
Black Panther (2016-19)
After making an introduction in "Captain America: Civil War," Boseman helped create a cultural phenomenon with the success of 2018's standalone "Black Panther" as the prince of the fictional African nation of Wakanda who becomes a superhero beyond his isolated realm. The film grossed $1.3 billion worldwide.
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Open Road
Thurgood Marshall, "Marshall" (2017)
Boseman returned to playing famous historic figures in Reginald Hudlin's courtroom drama -- which narrowed its look at Thurgood Marshall to an early case he tried as a lawyer for the NAACP, long before he ever imagined taking a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court.
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STX Entertainment
Andre Davis, "21 Bridges" (2019)
In this thriller, Boseman plays an NYPD detective in the midst of a manhunt for two cop-killers as he discovers that his fellow officers may be up to shady business themselves.
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Netflix
Stormin' Norman, "Da 5 Bloods" (2020)
Boseman has a small role in Spike Lee's Vietnam-set drama as the leader of all-Black squadron sent to recover the cargo from a downed CIA helicopter. Though he only appears in flashbacks, he makes a striking impression.
The actor died Friday at age 43 of colon cancer
Chadwick Boseman, who died of colon cancer on Friday at age 43, made a striking impression in both TV and on the big screen in his too-short time in the spotlight.
Steve Pond
Steve Pond has been writing about film, music, pop culture and the entertainment industry for more than 40 years. He has served as TheWrap’s awards editor and executive editor, awards since joining the company in 2009. Steve began his career writing about music for the Los Angeles Times, where he remained a contributor for more than 15 years, and Rolling Stone, where he was West Coast Music Editor and wrote 16 cover stories. He moved into film coverage with a weekly column in the Washington Post and became a contributing writer at Premiere magazine, where he became the first journalist to have all access to the Academy Awards show and rehearsals. He has also written for the New York Times, Movieline, the DGA Quarterly, GQ, Playboy, the Christian Science Monitor, USA Today, New York, the Christian Science Monitor, Live! magazine and many others. He is the author of the Los Angeles Times bestseller “The Big Show: High Times and Dirty Dealings Backstage at the Academy Awards” (Faber and Faber, 2005). He has also written “Elvis in Hollywood” (New American Library, 1990) and contributed to books that include “Cash,” “The Rolling Stone Reader,” U2: The Rolling Stone Files,” “Bruce Springsteen: The Rolling Stone Files” and “The Rolling Stone Interviews: The 1980s.” He was the co-managing editor of the syndicated TV news program “The Industry News” and the creative consultant for the A&E series “The Inside Track With Graham Nash.” He has won L.A. Press Club awards for stories in TheWrap, the Los Angeles Times and Playboy, and was nominated for a National Magazine Award for a story in Premiere.