Film festivals kick-off the buzz for awards season

With almost six months to go until Hollywood’s biggest party, the Academy Awards are already on everyones minds in Tinseltown as films festivals season gets into full-swing. Not many will admit that the thought of winning Oscar gold crosses their mind, though.

“Pass” - Oscar winner Cate Blanchett said with a laugh, declining to discuss the award prospects for her performance in the film “Elizabeth: The Golden Age,” the follow-up to 1998’s “Elizabeth” which earned the actress her first Oscar nomination.

Surely people who haven’t won an Oscar must fret over their chances?

“No” - said Brad Pitt, the one-time nominee, who delivers a potent performance as the legendary Old West outlaw in “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.” “And I don’t read the tabloids, either.”

Both Blanchett and Pitt’s movies are playing the Toronto International Film Festival, which (with its Telluride and Venice counterparts) marks the unofficial start of the award season by spotlighting independent films and prestige productions looking to catch some early Oscar buzz.

Whether any film festival entries will maintain awards momentum through nominations day on Jan. 22 and the 80th Academy Awards ceremony on Feb. 24 remains to be seen. The idea for studios and publicists is simply to trot out the films, get the stars and filmmakers to mug for photographers at red-carpet premieres and hope the critics say nice things such as “Oscar-worthy performance” or “best-picture contender.”

Other Toronto films that will get the once-over by awards watchers include “Michael Clayton,” with Oscar winner George Clooney in a sober legal drama; director Sean Penn’s “Into the Wild,” the real-life tale of a fiercely independent young man based on the Jon Krakauer novel which was an audience fave at Telluride and “The Brave One,” with two-time Oscar winner Jodie Foster delivering a chilling performance as a woman who turns vigilante after a violent ordeal.

Other films appearing at Toronto are; “Sleuth,” an update of the 1972 romp that earned Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine best-actor nominations, the new version starring two-time Oscar winner Caine in the Olivier role and Jude Law in Caine’s part; and “In the Valley of Elah,” a somber murder mystery set among returning Iraq war veterans that stars Oscar winners Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron and Susan Sarandon.

Actors brush aside Oscar questions, not wanting to appear covetous of that little golden statue. Clooney, a supporting-actor winner for “Syriana,” said they all think about the Oscars, though.

“Every actor in the world would be lying if they denied that somehow in their head they had always wanted to win an Oscar,” Clooney said. “The funny thing is, once you’ve won one, you actually have beaten your expectation of what you thought you’d achieve. I’ve got a statue sitting at home somewhere in a room.”

Oscar candidates have emerged from films released early this year, notably best-actress winner Julie Christie, who delivers a powerhouse performance in “Away From Her”.

At this point, many potential Oscar contenders remain under wraps. December releases on the awards radar include “Charlie Wilson’s War,” a foreign-policy drama starring Oscar recipients Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts and Philip Seymour Hoffman from best-director winner Mike Nichols, and Tim Burton’s musical “Sweeney Todd,” with past nominees Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter.