For Your Consideration: 10 Things The Fall Fests Told Us About Awards Season

Suggestion: Speaking specificially to Francesca Gregorini and Tatiana von Furstenberg’s prep school-circa-today-set “Tanner Hall” and Jordan Scott’s boarding school-circa-1934-set “Cracks,” we wondered whether the female coming of age trend in fess this year (dominated by the former “Precious” and “Education”), could extend to these two buzzy titles. Our suggestion lacked much confidence, but bet if either took off, they’d head to 2010.

Outcome: Neither title managed to gain much traction in Toronto, but this speaks to a whole other issue (see #9).

3. Is Michael Moore still capable of causing a stir? And can this equal a best picture nomination?

Suggestion: “‘Capitalism: A Love Story’ still rouses the crowds, but it’s quieter than usual, and talk of a best picture nomination dies quickly.

Outcome: Our suggestion was maybe overly optimistic.  Critical support out of the fests was definitely more tepid that usual for Moore, and public interest was certainly not as loud as we’ve seen in the past.  A best picture nomination is a very unlikely idea at this point.

4. Is Tom Ford capable of making a good movie?

Suggestion: “I’d love to say I’m sure it will end up a poignant tale of gay love and loss (its about Firth’s character losing his longtime lover in a car crash) and puts Julianne Moore (playing Firth’s fun-loving best gal pal) in line for gold, but that’s a grand prediction to make considering Ford’s entirely unproven directorial talents.”

Outcome: Perhaps we should have been more grand. Ford’s “A Single Man” premiered at Venice to raves, won the fest’s best actor prize, and then headed to Toronto to quickly become the only major awards discovery out of any of these festivals so far.  While landing on the best picture top ten might be a stretch for this artful, somewhat uncommercial film, nods for stars Colin Firth and Julianne Moore (and art direction and costume design) seem like good possibilities.

5. Did “The Road”‘s delays actually suggest anything about how good it is?

Suggestion: “It’ll be better than most of us might have thought, but too bleak to make a serious play for Oscar’s big categories.”

Outcome: Critical response was quite intensely mixed, but those who liked it seemed to really like it. That said, it’s hard to take the film seriously as a major Oscar contender just yet - we’ll have to wait until late November to see how the film’s theatrical release is met both publicly and critically before making confident judgements. At this point, though, the Weinsteins’ “Road” to Oscar might be long and hard.

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