Oscar 2009: SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, Anne Hathaway, Mickey Rourke at Toronto 2008
Tom Long’s "Toronto film festival is short on slam-dunk, breakaway movies" at DetNews.com:
"This year’s Toronto International Film Festival is filled with good movies and thin on great ones, at least here at the halfway mark. And no film has become a breakaway, everybody’s-talking stand-out in the way Brokeback Mountain, Sideways, Borat or Juno did in recent festivals.
"A few films and performances have garnered Oscar buzz — Jonathan Demme’s Rachel Getting Married [above] seems sure to nab a best actress nom for Anne Hathaway and possibly supporting actress for Rosemarie DeWitt, while Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler is a slam-dunk best actor nom for Mickey Rourke."
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Tom O’Neil’s "Everybody’s at the Toronto Film Festival! Hey, where’s Oscar?" in The Envelope:
"Ever since American Beauty broke out at the Toronto International Film Festival in 1999 and won the Oscar for best picture, many other ponies followed and went quite far in later derbies: Crash, Capote, Sideways, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, etc.
"Last year, four of the five best-picture nominees, including winner No Country For Old Men, played at the Toronto festival (the lone holdout — There Will Be Blood). However, this year the overwhelming majority of the flicks considered to be the best-pic front-runners aren’t here."
…
"These fests have often proved to be great launch pads for small artsy pix, but last year some Oscar consultants claimed that Atonement made a mistake by unspooling at the fests. They believe that a big commercial epic like that would’ve done better to just go right to theaters, thus avoiding the wolf packs of film critics and industry rascals at events like this who often go gunning for commercial fare — just because, well, they’re wolves out to prove how intellectually superior they are."
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Jeremy Kay on Mickey Rourke and Darren Aronofsky’s Venice Film Festival winner The Wrestler in The Guardian:
"Toronto is a key awards season launchpad and while the number of take-offs so far at the festival has been lighter than usual, Aronofsky’s film is a classic example of how swiftly things can come together. …"
"The word is that Slumdog, a Celador Films and Film4 production, has the gravitas to compete in the best film category. … The Wrestler may be too dark for the Academy in the best picture category, leaving the focus on Rourke. It will be interesting to see how far Rourke’s comeback goes after this. Does he have the range to play anything other than pugilists and lowlifes and still be engaging?"
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Steven Rea on Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire in The Philadelphia Inquirer:
"You hope for it to happen, and then, finally, it does: a movie that rocks you to the core, inspires, delights, shocks, compels, surprises. That’s what Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire did Saturday morning: two separate rounds of applause at the end. The film, to be released by Fox Searchlight in November, tells the story of an Indian street urchin who grows up and gets on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? — and improbably keeps answering the questions correctly.
"Like a Bollywood Dickens tale, directed by Brit Boyle with the same flash and panache he brought to Trainspotting and 28 Days Later, Slumdog is a love story, a look at a culture of vast wealth and brutal poverty. . . Oscars, here they come."
Venice Film Festival Awards 2008
Oscar 2009: Documentary Submissions Deadline
Oscar 2009: WORLDS APART Is Denmark’s Submission
Miami Film Festival Awards 2008
Oscar 2009: Scientific and Technical Achievement Awards Deadline
Jerusalem Film Festival Awards 2008
Gotham Awards Open for Submissions
Moscow Film Festival Awards 2008
Los Angeles Film Festival Awards 2008
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I hope WALL-E ends up on the Best Picture Nod. If it doesn’t I will not watch the oscars.
I also like to see the Dark Knight end up on the category, but I’m not giving it too much support because it is the most overrated movie in history. Still, I love that movie.
What is it about animated movies to discriminate? Finding Nemo should have receive a Best Picture nod long ago. It had great storytelling. Are people saying that if WALL-E was completely live action, then it deserves the nod?
WALL-E is waay better than Shrek. WALL-E is certainly not funnier than Shrek, but Shrek is what it is, a majorily comedy, while WALL-E focused more on a unique storyline. Plus WALL-E costed 180,000,000 to make. So many people worked so hard on it. Ben Burtt did amazing sound design, Stanton wrote his most daring script, the computer graphics were realistic, Newman did a beautiful themed score, etc.,etc.
I also find WALL-E to be better than Beauty and the Beast. That was a great movie, but WALL-E told the better story.
WALL-E is not one of the bloated romance films like the overrated Titanic. Titanic did nothing but circled around Jack and Rose romance. There were many things going on beside WALL-E’s and EVE’s romance- There was a legathic society, a polluted Earth, and machines discovering life. And WALL-E romance with EVE affected humanity.
If WALL-E doesn’t show up on the Best Picture category, I will never watch the Oscars again. Mark my words.
WALL-E is no animated film. Saying that is discriminating. WALL-E is a movie.