Five days after the start of fall film festivals, we have a real season of awards. Maybe even a monster price season.
And for that, we may have to thank some iconoclastic international filmmakers and a pair of British works of literature written in 1600 and 1818, or roughly.
This is the conclusion after the first five days of the Venice Film Festival and the first three (out of only four) of the Telluride Film Festival, where the epic adaptation of Guillermo del Toro of “Frankenstein” and Chloé Zhao emotionally devastable Riff Riff “Hamnet” made its emotionally debut and cement as great competitors.
Some of the high -level films that have been presented so far still have work to be done before they can be considered the best price players, but others have left the door, and many can be on the fence as better hopes, but are definitely in the mixture for other categories.
Venice, for example, started with “La Grazia” by Paolo Sorrentino, a drama on a politician in conflict who seems to have become the favorite to be the submission of Italy in the best international Oscar race, the third time that one of the films of Sorrentino has been chosen. (This has no harm that he is the only director in the past 26 years to win an Oscar for Italy, which he did in 2013 with “The Great Beauty”)))))
In the English language titles with a deeper profile, Venice revealed “Bugonia” by Yorgos Lanthimos, a wacky science fiction concoction which could condemn daring voters and could be too bizarre for the United States, although Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons will undoubtedly get a lot of attention for things for Yorgos; “Jay Kelly”, a mixture of comedy and drama Noah Baumbach which has a showbiz decor (attractive to voters), a mainly charming performance of George Clooney (Ditto) and a cast with an incredible fan of names (Sag Ensemble or the new Oscar for the cast, anyone?); “After hunting”, the story of Luca Guadagnino’s problems in the academic world, which has proven to be predictable the division (who knew that some people would offer themselves a film on the ease with which people were offending everything?) But also has the most substantial performance of Julia Roberts for years.
The solid selection of documentaries shown so far in Venice includes a solid work of the winner of the former Laura Poitras (“Caping”, with Mark Obenhaus) and the former nominees Gianfranco Rosi (“under the clouds”) and Tamara Kotevska (“The Tale of Silyan”).
And then there is “Frankenstein” by Guillermo Del Toro, an adaptation of Mary Shelley’s novel in 1818 and a monumental work even if some criticisms thought that two and a half are too long. Given the fully locked appointments of the film in many categories below the line, and taking into account its history with the Academy – six nominations and three victories for “Pan’s Labyrinth”, as well as the names of the best films for three of its last four films, including a victory for “The Shape of Water” – this one emerged from its Saturday Venice Premimere as a first order name. (And by the way, everyone loves Guillermo. Everyone.)
Venice has another week to go, and this week will include potential contenders like “A House of Dynamite” by Kathryn Bigelow, “The Smashing Machine” by Benny Sadfie, “The Brutalist” Co-editor of Benny Sadfie, “The Testament of Ann Lee” and Julian Schnabel, “In the handful of Dante”.
In the Meantime, Telluride Wraps Up with a day of Screenings on Sunday and then Some Repeat Showings on Monday, But It has Already Given Us a de facto Best picture frontrunner in Chloé Zhao’s “Hamnet,” by all report O’farrell novel about William Shakespeare and His Wife in the Wake of the Death of Their Young Son in the Late 16th Century, Just Before He Wrote “Hamlet.”
You can expect more measured reactions to occur when the film is more in sea level, but it is likely to obtain another delighted reaction at the Toronto film festival, at the fans, and to get out of the first batch of autumn festivals as an alleged leader. It is a very difficult position to maintain for the six and a half months by the Oscars, but two films have done so in recent years: “Oppenheimer” in 2023 and “Nomadland” (by, uh, Chloé Zhao) in 2020.
Telluride also presented “The Ballad of A Small-player” by a prolific “All Quiet on the Western Front” and “Conclave”, director Edward Berger and “Springsteen: Delive Me de Nowhere” by Scott Cooper, both could have chances of the best film and Jeremy Strong for the last.
Admittedly, the Burzz of the Film Festival must always be taken with more than a minimum of suspicion: which is brilliant for viewers on the banks of the Adriatic or in the Colorado mountains does not always maintain this attraction in a more banal environment. But for the moment, it seems that the 2025-2026 award season has left great.
