TIFF: Notes on Oscar hopefuls "Darkest Hour" and "Downsizing"

Detroit may have bombed but the letter "D" could still reign come Oscar time with Dunkirk, Darkest Hour, and Downsizing all potential Best Picture players. Though it can sometimes feel gross to discuss rich movies from an Oscar perspective before they've even been considered as films, it happens to us all this time of year and the films invite it with their slow rollouts from festival reviews that result in months of discussion and speculation before the public can buy tickets. In other words: Look what they made me us do!

DOWNSIZING
After 'miniature masterpiece' style reviews at Venice the critics got considerably chillier with Alexander Payne's latest once it hit Telluride. Now the film is playing in Toronto and the reviews continue to be mixed. This could spell trouble for the film, but be patient. Initial reviews are only part of the Oscar equation...

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TIFF: Jamie Bell, Daniela Vega, and Donald Sutherland

our ongoing TIFF adventures

Helen Mirren & Donald Sutherland at the Leisure Seekers premiereI've hit a brick wall here on Day 5 for which I blame the parties of days 1 through 4... or rather my eagerness to attend them. As with most week-plus long festivals much of the press and industry vanishes after the first half of the fest so... grab the free drinks, scrumptious eats, and celebrity chatter while you can. Saturday night's Sony Pictures Classics dinner presented the opportunity to congratulate Donald Sutherland on his Honorary win. Which I took don'cha know...

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Official Foreign Film Submissions Thus Far

All the foreign submission charts have been updated to reflect the speedy announcements of new titles. We're now up to 84 (last year's tally was an all time record of 85). Somehow I neglected to include Ireland on the submission charts. They've selected an "audacious" biopic about the singer Joe Heany called Song of Granite. The film uses both documentary footage and narrative sequences. It's in black and white and looks gorgeous in still photos

Submissions we've reviewed thus far here at TFE...

• Argentina's Zama
• Austria's Happy End
• Belgium's The Racer and the Jailbird
• Estonia's November
• Hungary's On Body and Soul
• Norway's Thelma

Submissions we've seen but haven't yet reviewed...

• Czech Republic's Ice Mother
• Egypt's Sheikh Jackson
• Finland's Tom of Finland
• France's 120 Beats per Minute
• Polan's Spoor

Submissions we're scheduled to see soon...

• Sweden's The Square
• Switzerland's The Divine Order

The rest of the list (thus far). We'll look out for opportunities to see them...

• Afghanistan A Letter to the President
• Albania's Daybreak
• Algeria's Road to Instanbul
• Armenia's Yeva
• Azerbaijan's Pomegranate Orchard
• Bangladesh's Khacha
• Bolivia's Dark Skull
• Bosnia & Herzegovina's Men Don't Cry
• Brazil's Bingo: King of the Mountain
• Bulgaria's Glory
• Cambodia's First They Killed My Father
• Canada's Hochelaga, Land of Souls
• Chile's A Fantastic Woman
• Colombia's Guilty Men
• Croatia's Quit Staring at My Plate
• Denmark's You Disappear
• Dominican Republic's Woodpeckers
• Ecuador's Alba
• Georgia's Scary Mother
• Germany's In the Fade
• Greece's Amerika Square
• Hong Kong's Mad World
• Iceland's Under the Tree
• India's Newton
• Indonesia's The Leftovers
• Iran's Breath
• Iraq's The Dark Wind
• Ireland's Song of Granite
• Israel's Foxtrot
• Italy's A Ciambra
• Japan's Her Love Boils Bathwater
• Kazakhstan's Road to Mother
• Kenya's Kati Kati
• Kosovo's Unwanted
• Kyrgyzstan's Centaur
• Laos's Dearest Sister
• Latvia's Chronicles of Melanie
• Lebanon's The Insult
• Lithuania's Frost
• Luxembourg's Barrage
• Mexico's Tempestad
• Morocco's Razzia
• Mozambique's The Train of Salt and Sugar
• Nepal's White Sun
• Netherland's Layla M
• New Zealand's One Thousand Ropes
• Pakistan's Saawan
• Palestine's Wajib
• Panama's Beyond Brotherhood
• Paraguay's Los Buscadores
• Peru's Rosa Chumber
• Philippines's Birdshot
• Portugal's Saint George
• Romania's The Fixer
• Russia's Loveless
• Serbia's Requiem for Mrs J
• Singapore's Pop Aye
• Slovakia's The Line
• Slovenia's The Miner
• South Africa's The Wound
• South Korea's A Taxi Driver
• Spain's Summer 1993
• Taiwan's Small Talk
• Thailand's By the Time It Gets Dark
• Tunisia's The Last of Us
• Turkey's Ayla: The Daughter of War
• Ukraine's Black Level
• United Kingdom's My Pure Land
• Uruguay's Another Story of the World
• Venezuela's El Inca
• Vietnam's Father and Son

Current predictions

"I'm Armie"

our ongoing adventures at TIFF 2017

Timothee Chalamet, Armie Hammer, and Luca Guadagnino at the after party for CALL ME BY YOUR NAME

Armie Hammer is very tall (6'5" according to IMDb) but less intimidating than that heighth and his big screen beauty would suggest in real life. Let's set the scene.

It's the after party for the TIFF premiere of Call Me By Your Name  at a swank Toronto steakhouse called STK. I arrive slightly underdressed -- you can always spot the writers by their more casual attire than the stars/industry/scenesters -- and quickly down my "director's cut."...

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TIFF: Foreign Oscar Hopefuls from Hungary & Belgium

by Nathaniel R

On day one of TIFF two official Oscar foreign film submissions, one emphatically weird but kind of irresistible and the other mainstream but lush and erotically charged.

what's that panda doing in her bed?

On Body and Soul (Hungary)
Written and directed by Ildikó Enyedi 

Ildikó Enyedi first came to niche fame in 1989 winning the Camera d'Or at Cannes for My Twentieth Century the story of identical twins separated as children who both board the Orient Express as much different adults unaware of the other. The film had a succesful arthouse run in the US and was submitted but not nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Oscars. 28 years later Enyedi is winning prizes again for another film that concerns doubling...

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