The 2019 Toronto International Film Festival has always been a terrific precursor to awards season, with many of the year's biggest Oscar contenders screening in the Canadian city before arriving in theaters. This year was no different; the festival slate was packed with the kinds of stories, performances and filmmaking sure to be among the very best of what hits theaters in 2019. From darkly unique comic book origin stories to immensely visceral racecar dramas to overwhelmingly beautiful music-driven films about our most beloved voices, this year's festival kicked off awards season in dramatic - but entertaining - fashion.
Here are a few titles to keep an eye out for. We expect all of them to become major players in the upcoming awards chase.
JoJo Rabbit
Why see it: Well, for starters, it won the People's Choice Award at this year's festival. To put that in perspective, since 2008 10 out of 11 films that have won this award went on to become Best Picture nominees at the Oscars, and four of those films have won (Green Book, 12 Years a Slave, The King's Speech, Slumdog Millionaire). Aside from its awards potential, JoJo Rabbit is one of the most unique films you'll see all year -- a quirky, often hilarious coming-of-age story set towards the end of World War II that revolves around a small boy (Roman Griffin Davis) with dreams of being a Nazi soldier. He wants so desparately to be part of Nazi culture that his imaginary friend is an absurdist version of Adolf Hitler (played by director Taika Waititi). As the boy trains to become a Nazi soldier alongside his buddies, his life is thrown into disarray when he discovers his mother (Scarlett Johansson) is hiding a Jewish girl in their attic. What follows is a sweet and very funny story about befriending your greatest enemy while learning how to be a real man.
Potential Award Nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Taika Waititi), Best Adapted Screenplay
In theaters October 18. Sign up for a fan alert to know when tickets are on sale.
Joker
Why see it: It’s still three weeks from release, but Todd Phillips’ Joker is already the most controversial movie of the year and TIFF only further cemented the divide between those who think it dangerously glorifies a mass murderer and those who think it pushes the comic book movie into exciting new, dirty, and realistic realms. What everyone agrees on, regardless of stance, is that Joaquin Phoenix is astounding in the origin story of Batman’s most well-known opponent. Phillips plays Martin Scorsese bingo—piles of garbage, downtown porno theaters, finger guns to feign suicide, and a rude talk show host (Robert De Niro)—to set the tone of Gotham in complete disarray; chaos and filth living alongside oppressive opulence. This is a dark and brutal film that has a few of the usual origin story shortcomings in too much exposition, but when looking the totality of a story within what we know about Gotham, it is pretty darn masterful. The alternate dimension of our reality is perhaps too close to home and unnerving, but within the setting it’s in, it’s quite a remarkable feat. And regardless of where you fall, you’ll likely be mesmerized by Phoenix’s performance. — Brian Formo
Potential Award Nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor (Phoenix), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, Best Film Editing, and Best Makeup.
In theaters October 4. Sign up for a fan alert to know when tickets are on sale!
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Why see it: Tom Hanks delivers the year's most heartwarming performance as Fred Rogers, but don't expect just another biopic. Instead, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood tracks the friendship Rogers had with a down-on-his-luck journalist assigned to profile the legendary children's show host for Esquire magazine. At first, the journalist -- Lloyd Vogel (Matthew Rhys) -- isn't buying into Roger's warm, friendly approach, but as they continue to meet each other, Vogel's interview turns into a much more cathartic experience that eventually changes his life forever. As such, the film is less about the life of Mr. Rogers and more about the life Mr. Rogers gave back to all of us. - Erik Davis
Potential Award Nominations: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Tom Hanks), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director (Marielle Heller)
In theaters November 22. Sign up for a fan alert to know when tickets are on sale.
Parasite
Why see it: In a completely different way than Joker, Bong Joon-ho’s Palme d’Or winning film, Parasite is also very much about class struggle, cut social services, and ends in shocking violence. But instead of outrage, Parasite has universal praise, and with good reason. This is a tight, funny thriller about a South Korean family who, once placing one child in employment of a rich family, start to replace all of the family’s staff with themselves, instigating multiple firings by their very gullible bosses. But when the family goes out of town, a shocking secret changes everything… We’ll say no more. — Brian Formo
Potential Award Nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, Best Film Editing, and Best Foreign-Language Film.
In theaters October 18. Sign up for a fan alert to know when tickets are on sale!
Ford v Ferrari
Why see it: Based on the real story of Ford's quest to defeat Ferrari in the 1966 Le Mans 24-hour car race, Ford v Ferrari is an adrenaline-fueled masterclass in filmmaking from director James Mangold. Starring Matt Damon as the man Henry Ford Jr. tasks with bulding an unstoppable racecar, and Christian Bale as its too-outspoken-for-his-own-good driver, the film plays like an unconventional buddy drama and looks like a throwback to another time, with terrific performances across the board, including a whole lot of scene stealing from Tracy Letts (playing Ford). The bigger story here, though, may not even be the performances or the direction, but the sound. If there's ever been a film that's defined by its sound and experienced through its sound, it's this one. Coincidentally, another film screening in Toronto this year, Sound of Metal (starring Riz Ahmed), is also very much defined by the way it uses sound throughout.
Potential Award Nominations: Best Picture, Best Director (James Mangold), Best Supporting Actor (Christian Bale), Best Actor (Matt Damon), Best Cinematography, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, More..
In theaters November 15. Sign up for a fan alert to know when tickets are on sale!
Hustlers
Why see it: In Toronto, Los Angeles, New York—regardless of where you’re at—whenever we’ve told people that Hustlers is a great film, featuring a career performance from Jennifer Lopez, everyone acts shocked or asks if we’re for real. We are for real. 100 percent. Hustlers is The Wolf of Wall Street in a strip club. Lopez’s character entrance—on the pole, showered in money, and then immediately smoking a cigarette while lying on her fur coat on the strip club roof, looking at the stars—is iconic. If we gotta clap, we’ll clap, Lopez deserves a Best Supporting Actress nomination as the matriarch of a group of strippers—Constance Wu, Lili Reinhardt, Keke Palmer, Madeleine Brewer—who take advantage of Wall Street bros looking for a good time, drug them, rip them off, and get in way over their heads. Writer/director Lorene Scafaria directs the film with respect to the women and anger at how much Wall Street was able to get away with in 2008. The soundtrack is perfect for each year chronicled. And Usher makes a cameo at the club, as himself. It’s fun, it’s relevant, it’s directed with tightrope curiosity. Yes, Hustlers is very good. Believe it. — Brian Formo
Potential Award Nominations: Best Supporting Actress (Lopez) and Best Adapted Screenplay.
In theaters NOW! Get tickets today!
Judy
Why see it: Renée Zellweger is so good as Judy Garland in Judy, it's the type of performance you never want to stop watching. Set in the final months of Garland's life, the film follows the aging Hollywood veteran as she travels to London for a string of sold-out shows. Hard up for cash and just plain beaten up by life, Garland wrestles with her love of performing and her duty as a mother and new wife, battling inner demons while struggling to finally overcome everything and everyone that's ever dragged her down. Zellweger adds authenticity by singing all of the music herself -- by the time we get over that rainbow, you'll want to have a box of tissues ready because there won't be a dry eye in the house. - Erik Davis
Potential Award Nominations: Best Actress (Renée Zellweger)
In theaters September 27. Sign up for a fan alert to know when tickets are on sale.
Waves
Why see it: Waves is best seeing cold, to just let it wash over you. There’s a surprising transition in the film that’s beautifully achieved through sight and sound that will make you rethink the entire viewing experience. The main story involves a Miami family. Sterling K. Brown puts excess pressure on his son (Kelvin Harrison, Jr.), a Senior wrestler; his daughter (Taylor Russell) and wife (Renée Elise Goldsberry) receive less of his attention. There are parallel stories of young love and expiring love. But what makes Waves, really exciting, is that what at first seems like a feature film version of Euphoria is able to give us two teen vantage points and you realize what writer-director Trey Edward Shults is doing is applying a different energy and sound design—chaos and calm—to two teens to show how individual the teen experience is. The belief that teen lives are intricate and singular is rare and Shults pulls it off beautifully. — Brian Formo
Potential Award Nominations: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Brown, Harrison), Best Supporting Actress (Goldsberry, Russell), and Best Film Editing.
In theaters November 1. Sign up for a fan alert to know when tickets are on sale!
