"The trifecta of Venice, Telluride and Toronto was once seen as an inescapable fixture on a film's road to the Oscars. Best picture winners such as 12 Years a Slave, Spotlight, Birdman, Moonlight, The Shape of Water and Green Book all rose within that circuit and cemented their reception at festivals and world premieres and often felt judged for awards potential over quality."
"This year saw a further swing away from the film festival to Oscar pipeline with the two most dominant films emerging the old-fashioned way: as wide studio releases without a festival stop. The films Sinners and One Battle After Another amassed 10 Oscars between them and both came from Warner Bros, a studio celebrating a banner year of betting big on auteurs taking risks."
"The discourse surrounding them had grown exhausting by the time Sunday's ceremony arrived, not just because of how over-extended this season had been but because, for once, so many people had actually seen the films in question. It was a blessing and a curse but mostly, if one stayed away from Twitter, it was the former, a thrill to have people invested in the Oscars once again."
The Venice, Telluride, and Toronto festival circuit once served as a guaranteed pathway to Oscar success, with numerous Best Picture winners launching from these venues. However, this pattern has shifted dramatically in recent years due to Academy diversification and broader industry changes. Recent Oscar winners have emerged from Cannes, Sundance, SXSW, and notably, without any festival premiere at all. This year exemplified the trend further, with two dominant Oscar-winning films arriving as wide studio releases from Warner Bros without festival stops. These films generated significant public discourse and widespread viewership, creating genuine audience investment in the awards season—a refreshing contrast to the previous year's underwhelming festival offerings.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]