The Fall Film Festival Slates Suggest A Loaded Academy Award Race To Come
Over the last few days, many of the upcoming film festivals in the fall have announced which titles will be playing within their respective showcases. Two in question have specifically revealed what they’re packing. The first is the Toronto International Film Festival, while the other is the Venice Film Festival. Interestingly, these revelations actually inform which movies are likely to play at the Telluride Film Festival, and in turn, that helps fill in some possible blanks for the New York Film Festival. Suffice it to say, there are a lot of moving parts right now. Moves are being made, that’s for sure.
The highlights of the recent announcements include a number of crossovers, as well as some exclusives. You can see which are which below, but just a sampling of the films include Ad Astra, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Dolemite Is My Name, Ford v Ferrari, The Goldfinch, Harriet, Hustlers, Jojo Rabbit, Joker, Judy, The King, Knives Out, The Laundromat, Marriage Story, Motherless Brooklyn, The Personal History of David Copperfield, The Two Popes, and Uncut Gems, as well as a special movie in Western Stars, co-directed by none other than Bruce Springsteen. It appears like the fall is going to be chock full of some prestige goodness, doesn’t it?
First up, the TIFF lineup so far:
Galas
Opening Night Film (previously announced): “Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band,” directed by Daniel Roher
Closing Night Film: “Radioactive,” directed by Marjane Satrapi
“A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” directed by Marielle Heller
“Abominable,” directed by Jill Culton
“American Woman,” directed by Semi Chellas
“Blackbird,” directed by Roger Michell
“Clemency,” directed by Chinonye Chukwu
“Ford v Ferrari,” directed by James Mangold
“Harriet,” directed by Kasi Lemmons
“Hustlers,” directed by Lorene Scafaria
“Joker,” directed by Todd Phillips
“Just Mercy,” directed by Destin Daniel Cretton
“Ordinary Love,” directed by Lisa Barros D’Sa and Glenn Leyburn
“The Goldfinch,” directed by John Crowley
“The Sky Is Pink,” directed by Shonali Bose
“The Song of Names,” directed by François Girard
“True History of the Kelly Gang,” directed by Justin Kurzel

“Western Stars,” directed by Thom Zimny and Bruce Springsteen
Special Presentations
“A Herdade,” directed by Tiago Guedes
“Bad Education,” directed by Cory Finley
“Coming Home Again,” directed by Wayne Wang
“Dolemite Is My Name,” directed by Craig Brewer
“Ema,” directed by Pablo Larraín
“Endings, Beginnings,” directed by Drake Doremus
“Frankie,” directed by Ira Sachs
“Greed,” directed by Michael Winterbottom
“Guest of Honour,” directed by Atom Egoyan
“Heroic Losers (La odisea de los giles),” directed by Sebastian Borensztein
“Honey Boy,” directed by Alma Har’el
“Hope Gap,” directed by William Nicholson
“How to Build a Girl,” Coky Giedroyc
“I Am Woman,” directed by Unjoo Moon
“Jojo Rabbit,” directed by Taika Waititi
“Judy,” directed by Rupert Goold
“Knives Out,” directed by Rian Johnson
“La Belle Époque,” directed by Nicolas Bedos
“Marriage Story,” directed by Noah Baumbach
“Military Wives,” directed by Peter Cattaneo
“Motherless Brooklyn,” directed by Edward Norton
“No. 7 Cherry Lane,” directed by Yonfan
“Pain and Glory,” directed by Pedro Almodóvar
“Parasite (Gisaengchung),” directed by Bong Joon-ho
“Pelican Blood (Pelikanblut),” directed by Katrin Gebbe
“Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Portrait de la jeune fille en feu),” directed by Céline Sciamma
“Saturday Fiction (Lan Xin Da Ju Yuan),” directed by Lou Ye
“The Friend,” directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite
“The Laundromat,” directed by Steven Soderbergh
“The Lighthouse,” directed by Robert Eggers
“The Other Lamb,” directed by Malgorzata Szumowska
“The Painted Bird,” directed by Václav Marhoul
“The Personal History of David Copperfield,” directed by Armando Iannucci
“The Report,” directed by Scott Z. Burns
“The Two Popes,” directed by Fernando Meirelles
“Uncut Gems,” directed by Benny Safdie and Josh Safdie
“Weathering With You,” directed by Makoto Shinkai
“While at War (Mientras Dure La Guerra),” directed by Alejandro Amenábar
Following suite, here’s the Venice lineup:
Opening Film
“The Truth,” directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda (in competition)
Closing Film
“The Burnt Orange Heresy,” directed by Giuseppe Capotondi (out of competition)
Competition
“The Perfect Candidate,” directed by Haifaa Al-Mansour
“About Endlessness,” directed by Roy Andersson
“Wasp Network,” directed by Olivier Assayas
“Marriage Story,” directed by Noah Baumbach
“Guest of Honor,” directed by Atom Egoyan
“Ad Astra,” directed by James Gray
“A Herdade,” directed by Tiago Guedes
“Gloria Mundi,” directed by Robert Guediguian
“Waiting for the Barbarians,” directed by Ciro Guerra
“Ema,” directed by Pablo Larrain
“Saturday Fiction,” directed by Lou Ye
“Martin Eden,” directed by Pietro Marcello
“The Mafia Is No Longer What It Used to Be,” directed by Franco Maresco
“The Painted Bird,” directed by Vaclav Marhoul
“The Mayor of the Rione Sanità,” directed by Mario Martone
“Babyteeth,” directed by Shannon Murphy
“Joker,” directed by Todd Phillips
“An Officer and a Spy,” directed by Roman Polanski
“The Laundromat,” directed by Steven Soderbergh
“No. 7 Cherry Lane,” directed by Yonfan
Special Event
“Goodbye, Dragon Inn,” directed by Tsai Ming-Liang
Out of Competition – Fiction
“Seberg,” directed by Benedict Andrews
“Vivere,” directed by Francesca Archibugi
“Mosul,” directed by Matthew Michael Carnahan
“Adults in the Room,” directed by Costa-Gavras
“The King,” directed by David Michod
“Tutto Il Mio Folle Amore,” directed by Gabriele Salvatores
Out of Competition – Non Fiction
“Woman,” directed by Yann Arthus-Bertrand, Anastasia Mikova
“Roger Waters Us + Them,” directed by Sean Evans, Roger Waters
“I Diari Di Angela – Noi Due Cineasti. Capitolo Secondo,” directed by Yervant Gianikian
“Citizen K,” directed by Alex Gibney
“Citizen Rosi,” directed by Didi Gnocchi, Carolina Rosi
“The Kingmaker,” directed by Lauren Greenfield
“State Funeral,” directed by Sergei Loznitsa
“Collective,” directed by Alexander Nanau
“45 Seconds of Laughter,” directed by Tim Robbins
So, what does this all tell us? Not much, truthfully, but it does show a whole lot of potential for the fall. This really only leaves things like 1917, Cats, The Irishman (though things could be brewing there shortly), Little Women, and Lucy in the Sky, plus the Untitled Roger Ailes Project as well as the Untitled Todd Haynes Project left to discover. Some of those will play at other tests like the New York Film Festival or the Telluride Film Festival, but at least a few will skip the circuit altogether and just go into release. Time will tell there, but there’s plenty to be excited about, that’s for sure…
Stay tuned for more on the upcoming fall film festivals!
