{"id":132197,"date":"2025-09-09T21:47:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T21:47:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/132197\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T21:47:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T21:47:06","slug":"tiff-takeaways-sydney-sweeneys-oscar-hopes-crowdpleasers-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/132197\/","title":{"rendered":"TIFF Takeaways, Sydney Sweeney’s Oscar Hopes, Crowdpleasers and More"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe Toronto Film Festival<\/a>\u2019s 50th edition may not have reached previous heights, but it was the liveliest and starriest in years. <\/p>\n

\n\tDaniel Craig and a parade of A-listers delivered \u201cWake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery\u201d to a boisterous crowd; Channing Tatum and Brendan Fraser<\/a> enjoyed some of the best reviews of their careers for \u201cRoofman\u201d and \u201cRental Family,\u201d both of which premiered at TIFF; and Sydney Sweeney<\/a> took the festival by storm, earning plaudits for \u201cChristy\u201d and gamely working the room at any event she attended.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere may not have been the splashy sales of years past, but several films looking for distribution, such as Steven Soderbergh\u2019s \u201cThe Christophers,\u201d Mona Fastvold\u2019s \u201cThe Testament of Ann Lee\u201d and Daniel Roher\u2019s \u201cTuner,\u201d seem certain to land deals after scoring with critics. It\u2019s just going to take more time to collect those big checks. As TIFF winds down, here are five takeaways from a festival that is starting to regain its stride.<\/p>\n

\n\tMake Some Room, Boys!<\/p>\n

\n\tThe best actor race is looking mighty crowded. After receiving raves at Venice for \u201cThe Smashing
Machine,\u201d Dwayne Johnson<\/a> continued to build momentum<\/a> for his transformative performance as troubled MMA fighter Mark Kerr, earning another thunderous ovation at the film\u2019s Canadian premiere. But he\u2019ll have to deliver a knockout to some heavyweight contenders. They include a never-better Tatum, who stars as a kindhearted crook in \u201cRoofman,\u201d as well as Fraser\u2019s work as a lonely actor in \u201cRental Family,\u201d Colin Farrell portraying a gambling addict in \u201cBallad of a Small Player\u201d and Russell Crowe turning in a comeback tour de force as one of the worst human beings in history, Hermann G\u00f6ring, in \u201cNuremberg.\u201d And we have yet to see what Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet is serving up in \u201cMarty Supreme,\u201d which seems like another potential nominee. With all these sizzling star turns, someone will find himself left out in the cold when Oscar nominations are announced.<\/p>\n

\n\tNew Kids on the Block<\/p>\n

\n\tYou may have heard, but it\u2019s not exactly boom times <\/a>at the box office. Despite the setbacks, a few brave souls are still willing to bet on a movie business revival. Black Bear, which has made a name for itself backing acclaimed indies like \u201cSing Sing,\u201d recently said it would distribute up to 12 films annually. At TIFF it took \u201cChristy,\u201d a buzzy true-life boxing drama that it financed, off the table, announcing that it would handle the film\u2019s theatrical rollout. Then there\u2019s Row K, which is backed by Media Capital Technologies
and plans to bring 10 movies a year<\/a> to theaters. Distributing films is cost-intensive and risky \u2014 just ask Annapurna, Broad Green and a host of other studios that lost their shirts trying to make it work. But Black Bear has enlisted Benjamin Kramer, an old hand from CAA, to oversee operations, and Row K has tapped Megan Colligan, a former Paramount and Imax executive, to lead the company. Both are veterans who bring impressive track records, but will their skills translate to the Wild West of distribution?<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tChristy
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of TIFF<\/p>\n

\n\tSydney Sweeney Enters the Ring<\/p>\n

\n\tThe \u201cEuphoria\u201d star may want to start rehearsing her acceptance speech<\/a> after dazzling audiences at
TIFF with her turn as Christy Martin. To play the pioneering boxer, Sweeney packed on 30 pounds and
did her own fighting. Oscar voters often reward that kind of commitment (see Charlize Theron in \u201cMonster\u201d or Hilary Swank in \u201cMillion Dollar Baby\u201d), and Sweeney, one of Hollywood\u2019s fastest-rising stars, proves that she\u2019s also a formidable acting talent. Of course, being on the awards circuit presents
certain hazards. Sweeney has kept silent on the controvers<\/a>y that erupted around her American
Eagle jeans campaign, but at some point, she may need to find a tactful way to address the backlash.<\/p>\n

\n\tHorror Gets a Makeover<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring a public talk<\/a> about the state of the industry, NBCUniversal chief Donna Langley revealed that horror, one of the most reliable box office forces, is undergoing a shake-up. The old model of cheaply produced scares isn\u2019t delivering like it once did \u2014 witness Blumhouse\u2019s recent struggles with \u201cM3GAN 2.0\u201d and \u201cDrop.\u201d Instead, Langley argued, audiences want auteur-driven horror films, such as Robert Eggers\u2019 \u201cNosferatu,\u201d Ryan Coogler\u2019s \u201cSinners,\u201d Osgood Perkins\u2019 \u201cLonglegs\u201d and Zach Cregger\u2019s \u201cWeapons,\u201d which have a prestige veneer and carry higher budgets. And it\u2019s not enough to have a homicidal maniac in a mask and expect audiences to turn up. \u201cThe weirder, the better,\u201d Langley said. She\u2019s putting her money where her mouth is. Focus, a division of Universal, is shelling out $15 million to buy \u201cObsession,\u201d a horror film from YouTube sensation Curry Barker that puts a bloody spin on the romance genre.<\/p>\n

\n\tForget Your Troubles<\/p>\n

\n\tAwards races are often dominated by very earnest movies about very important topics. But with the
world on fire, it may be time to banish the blues. Many of the films that hit Toronto and the other
major festivals are unabashedly entertaining. \u201cRoofman\u201d and \u201cRental Family,\u201d for instance, deftly
balance humor and heart, while the twisty pleasures of \u201cWake Up Dead Man\u201d delighted critics, who called it the franchise\u2019s most entertaining entry<\/a>. In the end, however, these crowd-pleasers may have to overcome much weightier fare to be declared the winner. \u201cHamnet,\u201d Chlo\u00e9 Zhao\u2019s shattering look at how the death of Shakespeare\u2019s young son impacted his artistic life, is widely considered the Oscar frontrunner. It may be brilliant, but escapist it assuredly is not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Toronto Film Festival\u2019s 50th edition may not have reached previous heights, but it was the liveliest and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132198,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[42413,49,48,31998,75,8917,2559],"class_list":["post-132197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-brendan-fraser","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-dwayne-johnson","tag-entertainment","tag-sydney-sweeney","tag-toronto-film-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}