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TORONTO – For a festival that may be a hotbed of hysteria at the Oscars, the academy in the "Best Popular Film" category of the Academy of Arts and Film Science has just made its debut at the International Film Festival from Toronto.
Most were also at the heart of the 254 feature films that took place throughout the festival to bother with the request to withdraw from the academy for a Best Commercial Film Award. And if the "popular" category of the Oscars was to bridge the growing gap between the general public and the best works in the film industry, Toronto – the tempting centerpiece of the fall season – reminded people of how "Popularity" can mix.
Hard to distinguish between criticism and the public, with Lady Gaga in "A star is born" or the fervor of the first English film by French director Claire Denis, "High Life", a space drama. with Robert Pattinson. A round of applause met with Peter Farrelly's "Green Book," the comforting road movie, while Barry Jenkins' lyrical adaptation of James Baldwin's "If Beale Street Could Talk" was replaced by crowds. The activism mixed with the cinema, the documentary "Fahrenheit 11/9" of the time of Donald Trump of Michael Moore in the drama "The Hate U Give" inspired by Black Lives Matter.
In short, the populist power of movies was booming.
"Art is one of our most powerful weapons. And this art form is our most populist art form, "Moore said. "It's the art form that everyone can afford. You can not afford to go see U2 in the garden. You can not afford to go see the Knicks or the Giants.
Tickets are no cheaper at the Toronto Film Festival. But close to half a million festival-goers in Toronto are part of the festival's unique atmosphere, spread across theaters, big and small, in the downtown core of the Canadian city. Most of the other major film festivals are more focused on film buyers or the industry's elite, but in Toronto the chemistry of cinema and the public is an essential part debates.
That's why Toronto's most wanted prize is not a jury prize, but a prize of choice. This year, he went to "Green Book", the output of the festival that came to represent the particularly popular TIFF. This Farrelly, half of the sibling duo behind "There's Something About Mary" and "Kingpin", was the toast of a prestigious film festival, which was a surprise to him.
"I once thought that" Dumb and Dumber "was at the Cannes Film Festival, but then I learned that my brother was breaking my mouth," joked Farrelly at the premiere of his film.
"Green Book", which is close to the Oscar-nominated "Hidden Figures" in 2016, manages to comment on the harsh realities of racism while remaining comical and edifying. Mahershala Ali ("Moonlight") is a kind of "Driving Miss Daisy" in reverse, as a classical pianist visiting the Deep South with an Italian-American bouncer (Viggo Mortensen) for a driver.
If the story holds (the last ten winners of the Toronto Public Award have all been nominated for the best Oscar photo), "Green Book" will join what is coming up: ironically, given the efforts of the academy, a particularly populist field of action. In the foreground are "Black Panther", "BlacKkKlansman", "A Star Is Born" and "First Man".
Following his victory at the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and his equally acclaimed momentum in Toronto, Alfonso Cuaron's "Roma" is perhaps the most famous film of the fall. It has many features of the "film of art" – a deeply personal film filmed in black and white on a carefully composed extract of his characters. But "Roma" is also a version of Netflix, which means it will be much more widely available than in theaters. It is possible that, given Netflix's 130 million global subscribers, many have seen "Roma" by the Oscars as having purchased tickets for "Green Book" or "A star is born".
And if the nature of a "popular" film changes because of streaming, the opinion leaders who can shape the season's rewards could be too. Toronto has paved the way for some 180 critics of under-represented groups to diversify its media outlets. The festival also hosted a women's gathering and argued that its programming included 35% female filmmakers.
Among the many personalities include "Destroyer" by Karyn Kusama, who plays Nicole Kidman, a bitter detective and hard to drink in Los Angeles. Kidman was one of many actresses whose bold and daring performances illuminated Toronto, including Viola Davis ("Widows"), Carey Mulligan ("Wildfire"), Natalie Portman ("Vox Lux") and Amandla Stenberg (" The Hate U Give "), Melissa McCarthy (" Can you forgive me? ") And newcomer KiKi Layne (" Beale Street ").
The best actress already looks like the most competitive category of the year.
"If you look at all the women's performances this year, it's crazy to see how many brilliant roles there are for women," Mulligan said. "So it's certainly going in the right direction, but to achieve parity, it will take longer. People will have to keep beating the drum.
"Widows," directed by Steve McQueen ("12 Years a Slave"), encompassed much of what set Toronto this year, and then a few. Seemingly a film about a group of recently widowed women trying to do the job of their dead husbands, McQueen turns the genre's thriller into a vast exploration of gender equality, racial divisions and politics. The filmmaker said he was inspired by 1970s films like "The Godfather" and "Chinatown".
"They brought the audience with them and brought sophistication. They responded to the ups and downs, "McQueen said. "But I do not think there are any ups and downs. I think there are just good movies and bad movies, and that's all.
The good atmosphere in Toronto will not be clear for months. As a launcher, Toronto has developed a course that could help redefine what "popular" means for the Oscars.
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Follow Jake Coyle on Twitter at the following address: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP
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