Film festivals fire starting gun on Oscars race

While it is too early to talk of frontrunners — unlike last year when “12 Years a Slave” established itself early in awards season — several movies and actors are already generating buzz in Tinseltown. Steve Carell, Benedict Cumberbatch and Reese Witherspoon are among the performances already tipped, while unique coming-of-age drama “Boyhood” is among films being talked about as possible nominees. Three key festivals – Venice, Telluride and Toronto — have this year overlapped. Telluride has become increasingly important in gaining awards momentum over the last decade, notably because many of the Academy’s 6,000 or so voting members go there.

Summer is over … it’s back to school and it’s become so for the Academy.

Glenn Williamson of UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television

Last year harrowing historical drama “12 Years a Slave” by British director Steve McQueen, which went on to win the best picture Oscar in March this year, made a huge splash at Telluride. It was then presented in Toronto where it took the People’s Choice Award, before sweeping a string of awards season prizes on its way to Hollywood’s highest accolade, the Academy Award. Some think that launching early in the year is a mistake, preferring a late release nearer to Academy voting time. In any case, this year, no one film has yet emerged from the pack, even if a few are jostling for position.

I don’t think that a performance is forgotten by the time [award voters cast their ballots].

Abigail Severance, professor at the California Institute of the Arts School of Film

Oscars Arts