The people have spoken. The votes are in. Steven Spielberg's “The Fabelmans” has won the People's Choice Award at TIFF. Surprising? Of course not. It was an inevitability.
What's more interesting are the runners-up. Hometown girl Sarah Polley's “Women Talking” finished second and in third place was Rian Johnson's *Glass Onion.”
Indie Wire's David Ehrlich tweeted out that there's an inevitability factor with Steven Spielberg's “The Fabelmans” winning the Oscar for Best Picture
“Everybody has to spend the next six months pretending it’s not a done deal because we all have jobs to do but the fabelmans is gonna win best picture right.”
“Everything Everywhere too weird, Babylon (which I haven’t seen) too decadent, Tar too hostile, empire of light too bad, banshees of inisherin too good, top gun too popcorn, women talking too restrained… maybe Wakanda Forever breaks thru if it’s an all-timer? Idk, da movies.”
I understand Ehrlich's frame of mind, but I absolutely wouldn't call the race this early. Especially with “Babylon” still waiting to be unveiled in a couple of months.
Many people were underwhelmed by the “Babylon” trailer, but from what I've gathered, via three people who have already seen the movie, the trailer did not do justice to what Chazelle has actually created here. Which is good news, we need a film to crash this lame party that is the current Best Picture slate of contenders.
Oddly enough, Ehrlich's mention of “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” is not accidental. We've seen Ryan Coogler's upcoming sequel being greatly hyped by many these past few weeks, to the point of ad nauseum. There seems to be a consensus within the critical establishment, that if the movie turns out to be any good, we need to push this one hard. This would greatly diminish the chances of the other big blockbuster being released late in the year, “Avatar: The Way of Water.”
At the moment, my ten bets for Best Picture: The Fabelmans, Babylon, TÁR, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Top Gun: Maverick, Elvis, The Banshees of Inisherin, Green Onion, Empire of Light, and, ugh, Women Talking.
Paul Greengrass’ "The Uprising," starring Andrew Garfield, opened to $3.2M from 2,068 theaters this weekend. Yikes. The budget hasn’t been disclosed, but is said to be in the $20-$30M range.