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In case you missed it, movies are back — and so is Oscar season!
This year’s crop of starry contenders started taking shape over Labor Day weekend thanks to the Telluride and Venice Film Festivals, where red carpets were rolled out and hotly anticipated movies finally screened in public. Who is emerging as a force to be reckoned with at next year’s Oscars, which air on ABC March 12?
Cate Blanchett
Let’s start with Blanchett, who stuns inTár(out Oct. 7) playing a ruthless, globally renowned composer leading the world’s most celebrated orchestra in Berlin. The two-time Oscar winner gives an " an extraordinary, shattering performance" wroteEntertainment Weekly’s Leah Greenblatt, portraying a powerful, predatory perfectionist obsessed with her legacy. Even with a runtime of two hours and forty minutes, “I didn’t want it to end,” wrote theLos Angeles Times' Justin Chang. Through Blanchett’s no-holds-barred performance, we meet a woman who ascended in a patriarchal system where one has to “plant yourself at the podium and you cannot entertain doubt. It’s your way or the highway,” said Blanchett at a Telluride Film Festival Q&A.
Brendan Fraser
Olivia Colman
Three years after winning an Oscar forThe Favorite,Colman returns to the screen in director Sam Mendes' personal new filmThe Empire of Light(out Dec. 9) playing Hilary, a manager at a local movie theater in a seaside English town who quietly copes with schizophrenia. The role marks yet another remarkable turn from Colman, as her resilient, often lonely character seeks joy and connection, particularly with the theater’s young and handsome new employee (Michael Ward).Variety’s Clayton Daviscalledthe film “a career best performance” from the British star.
Women Talking
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The Banshees of Inisherin
The Venice Film Festival is known for generous standing ovations, but 13 minutes? That’s high praise across the pond for director Martin McDonagh’s rather diabolical 1920s tale of two best friends, Colm (Brendan Gleeson) and Padraic (Colin Farrell) suffering from a massive, mysterious fallout in a tiny Irish town. “It’s a treat to see Farrell and Gleason, so glimmering with chemistry as talkative hitmen in McDonagh’sIn Bruges, back together again,” wroteVanity Fair’s Richard Lawson. “Farrell could land the first best actor nomination of his career,” wroteVariety.Bansheeshits theaters Oct. 21.
Who else will join this prestigious list? All eyes are on this weekend’s Toronto Film Festival, where Steven Spielberg will unveil his semi-autobiographical filmThe Fabelmans, Netflix will roll out its starry sequelGlass Onion: A Knives Out MysteryandJennifer Lawrencereturns to the big screen in her military dramaCauseway.
source: people.com
