I love fall, not just because it’s spooky season and means my birthday is coming, but because it’s also film festival season! With the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), BFI London Film Festival in October, and Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) all just ending, let’s discuss some of the coolest movies that had their big screen debut and which ones are anticipated to win awards next year.
The Toronto International Film Festival took place from Sep 7, 2023 – Sep 17, 2023 and featured 60 films from 70 different countries. What makes this film festival different from the rest is that it’s much more accessible to the public and, since its founding in 1976, has had a wide mix of critics, people in the film industry, and normal everyday people attending each year. The top prize at TIFF is the People’s Choice Award, which is voted on by the entire festival audience. This year the award went to American Fiction, a satire about the publishing industry, directed by Cord Jefferson. Jefferson’s feature debut follows a novelist named Monk who, tired of the industry profiting from Black entertainment tropes, writes his own outrageous hood book leading him to confront the hypocrisy around him. The Holdovers (Dir. Alexander Payne) and The Boy and the Heron (Dir. Hayao Miyazaki) were awarded first and second runners-up to the Choice Award. The Holdovers is about a grouchy teacher forming a bond with the people who ended up staying on campus during Christmas break. Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron follows a 12-year-old boy, Mahito, who accidentally enters a new world when he goes searching for his recently deceased mother. In the past 15 years, fourteen of the People’s Choice Awards winners have received a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars (and five of those films have won). It’ll be exciting to see if American Fiction keeps with this trend or not when Oscar nominations come out on January 23, 2024.
The London Film Festival happened earlier in October from Oct 4, 2023 – Oct 15, 2023 and screened 252 titles in 11 theatres around the city. The winning films were chosen by four acclaimed juries and then screened again to close the festival. Evil Does Not Exist (Dir. Ryusuke Hamaguchi) took home the Winner of the Best Film Award in Official Competition. The jury said “Hamaguchi’s assured drama supersedes the sum of its parts. It is both a lyrical portrait of family and community, and a nuanced consideration of the ethics of land development. Amid a strong competition the jury is unanimous in our admiration!” Evil Does Not Exist revolves around Takumi and his daughter learning of plans to build a glamping site near their house that would disrupt the ecological health of their village. This film was also awarded the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice International Film Festival in early September. Hamaguchi previously won an Oscar for Drive My Car, so it’s going to be interesting to see if he’ll win another one for Evil Does Not Exist.
The Tokyo International Film Festival just happened from Oct 23, 2023 – Nov 1, 2023, which screened 219 films and recorded 74,841 guests. The top prize at TIFF, the Tokyo Grand Prix, was awarded to Snow Leopard (dir. Pema Tseden). The film is about a father and a son having a debate over whether they should kill the snow leopard that killed their nine sheep or not. Tsden died on May 8, 2023 of a heart attack at the age of 53, so Snow Leopard will be his last film. The Special Jury Prize went to Tatami (dir. Zahra Amir and Guy Nattiv) which is about a judo athlete and her coach who are made by Iranian authorities to withdraw from a match against an Israeli athlete. Zar Amir also won Best Actress for Tatami. The Audience Award went to (Ab)normal Desire directed by Kishi Yoshiyuki who also won the Award for Best Director. (Ab)normal Desire is about a prosecutor and a contract worker who become intertwined by the accidental death of a person.
I don’t know about you, but I’m personally super excited for all of the movies I mentioned. If you’re interested, here are the release dates for some of the movies and where to watch them!
American Fiction
December 15, 2023: limited theatrical release
December 22, 2023: wide theatrical release
The Holdovers
October 27, 2023: limited theatrical release
November 10, 2023: wide theatrical release
The Boy and The Heron
In theatres December 8th
Evil Does Not Exist
Picked up for North American release by Sideshow and Janus Films, but there’s no official date yet
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