Alfonso Cuarón's 'Roma' wins Golden Lion at Venice Film Festival; Coen Brothers, Olivia Colman, and more walk away with awards
The first weekend of the Toronto International Film Festival has come and gone, which means awards season is officially in full swing. We've seen most of the major players at this point, and it's now a matter of finding out where the momentum shifts in the coming months. It's far too early for favorites, but there does seem to be a general consensus beginning to form around Bradley Cooper's A Star is Born, which is the early front-runner for the TIFF audience award. Other festival circuit winners include Damien Chazelle's First Man, Yorgos Lanthimos's The Favourite, and Barry Jenkins's If Beale Street Could Talk, the James Baldwin adaptation that just held its wildly successful world premiere last night.
The final major contender from this first wave of Oscar hopefuls is Roma, Alfonso Cuarón's critically acclaimed follow-up to Gravity (for which he won the Best Director Oscar). The Netflix release earned raves upon its premiere at the Venice Film Festival, and it walked away with the biggest prize of the fest. Following in the footsteps of close friend and colleague Guillermo del Toro (who led this year's jury after winning Venice's top prize for The Shape of Water), Cuarón took home the Golden Lion for his autobiographical portrait of 1970s Mexico City. No reasonable pundit needed Roma to nab a major win at Venice to realize that it's a guaranteed factor in the Oscar race, but the Golden Lion victory cements it as one of the films to beat.
But Cuarón's black-and-white epic wasn't the only film with Oscar buzz to receive a boost from the Venice jury. Lanthimos's aforementioned The Favourite took home the Silver Lion, with star Olivia Colman winning the Best Actress prize for her turn as the maniacal Queen Anne. Co-stars Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz also earned praise for their performances in the absurdist royal comedy, but Colman walked away with the lion's share of the buzz. If the team at Fox Searchlight is smart (which they clearly are, based on their excellent campaigns last year), they'll be pushing Colman for an Oscar win. Lanthimos doesn't usually make films that connect with broad audiences, but it sounds like this project could be different.
To go along with Colman's Best Actress victory, Willem Dafoe won Best Actor for his portrayal of Vincent Van Gogh in Julian Schnabel's At Eternity's Gate. After falling short to Sam Rockwell in the Best Supporting Actor race last year, could this be Dafoe's time to shine? If CBS Films runs a solid campaign, the chips could fall in his favor. Just like The Favourite, At Eternity's Gate will be making its way to the New York Film Festival for its next campaign stop.
In something of a minor surprise, Jacques Audiard won Best Director for The Sisters Brothers, putting the unique Western in a nice spot for awards season. After hearing some mixed buzz over the summer, I'm thrilled by the reviews for Audiard's latest, with a few pundits even mentioning it as a stealth Best Picture contender.
Westerns were clearly a favorite of this jury, as Joel and Ethan Coen won the Best Screenplay award for The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. The anthology film received mostly solid reviews, so we'll see if Netflix puts together a strong campaign in the coming months to go along with their push for Roma.
Finally, the Special Jury Prize was awarded to Jennifer Kent for The Nightingale, her follow-up to instant horror classic The Babadook. In addition, star Baykali Ganambarr won the Marcello Mastroianni Young Actor or Actress Award for his performance in the film. The Nightingale is still without a confirmed U.S. distributor, but I really hope that I get the chance to see this film sooner rather than later.
Look for more news from the festival circuit in the coming days.
Image: Netflix
The final major contender from this first wave of Oscar hopefuls is Roma, Alfonso Cuarón's critically acclaimed follow-up to Gravity (for which he won the Best Director Oscar). The Netflix release earned raves upon its premiere at the Venice Film Festival, and it walked away with the biggest prize of the fest. Following in the footsteps of close friend and colleague Guillermo del Toro (who led this year's jury after winning Venice's top prize for The Shape of Water), Cuarón took home the Golden Lion for his autobiographical portrait of 1970s Mexico City. No reasonable pundit needed Roma to nab a major win at Venice to realize that it's a guaranteed factor in the Oscar race, but the Golden Lion victory cements it as one of the films to beat.
But Cuarón's black-and-white epic wasn't the only film with Oscar buzz to receive a boost from the Venice jury. Lanthimos's aforementioned The Favourite took home the Silver Lion, with star Olivia Colman winning the Best Actress prize for her turn as the maniacal Queen Anne. Co-stars Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz also earned praise for their performances in the absurdist royal comedy, but Colman walked away with the lion's share of the buzz. If the team at Fox Searchlight is smart (which they clearly are, based on their excellent campaigns last year), they'll be pushing Colman for an Oscar win. Lanthimos doesn't usually make films that connect with broad audiences, but it sounds like this project could be different.
To go along with Colman's Best Actress victory, Willem Dafoe won Best Actor for his portrayal of Vincent Van Gogh in Julian Schnabel's At Eternity's Gate. After falling short to Sam Rockwell in the Best Supporting Actor race last year, could this be Dafoe's time to shine? If CBS Films runs a solid campaign, the chips could fall in his favor. Just like The Favourite, At Eternity's Gate will be making its way to the New York Film Festival for its next campaign stop.
In something of a minor surprise, Jacques Audiard won Best Director for The Sisters Brothers, putting the unique Western in a nice spot for awards season. After hearing some mixed buzz over the summer, I'm thrilled by the reviews for Audiard's latest, with a few pundits even mentioning it as a stealth Best Picture contender.
Westerns were clearly a favorite of this jury, as Joel and Ethan Coen won the Best Screenplay award for The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. The anthology film received mostly solid reviews, so we'll see if Netflix puts together a strong campaign in the coming months to go along with their push for Roma.
Finally, the Special Jury Prize was awarded to Jennifer Kent for The Nightingale, her follow-up to instant horror classic The Babadook. In addition, star Baykali Ganambarr won the Marcello Mastroianni Young Actor or Actress Award for his performance in the film. The Nightingale is still without a confirmed U.S. distributor, but I really hope that I get the chance to see this film sooner rather than later.
Look for more news from the festival circuit in the coming days.
Image: Netflix
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