Toronto International Film Festival opens, first stop for Oscar hopefuls

The buzz starts now.

Beginning Thursday night and running through Sept. 19, the 35th Toronto International Film Festival will set a select group of dramas and romances, heart-tuggers and pulse-pounders, prestige productions, and engaging oddities off and running on their quest for accolades and Oscar gold.

Inquirer movie critic Steven Rea will file dispatches from the Toronto International Film Festival beginning Friday to his blog, "On Movies Online," at www.philly.com/philly/blogs/onmovies.

The largest film festival in North America, with 300 films this year, and arguably the most important, TIFF's mid-September slot - on the heels of the quirky Telluride and prestigious Venice fests - has made it the ideal platform for Hollywood studios launching their awards season campaigns. Up in the Air took off in Toronto last year, and Slumdog Millionaire wowed the press corps and the roaming packs of cinephilic Torontonians the year before.

So, this year, will it be Black Swan, from The Wrestler director Darren Aronofsky, with Natalie Portman as a ballerina battling physical and psychic pain, that departs Canada in a whirl of praise and positivity?

Or how about Danny Boyle's 127 Hours, the Oscar-winning director's take on the true-life travail of mountain climber Aron Ralston, who amputated his arm in order to save his life? James Franco stars, and the early word is altitudinous.

The King's Speech, with Colin Firth donning royal threads, tells the tale of the man who became King George VI, father of Queen Elizabeth II. It's already being touted as an Oscar contender in some circles - particularly the ones surrounding Harvey Weinstein, its voluble U.S. distributor.

And Kelly Reichardt, the filmmaker behind the quiet indie gems Wendy and Lucy and Old Joy, returns with Meek's Cutoff, an ambitious feminist western starring Michelle Williams.

Old pros Woody Allen, Clint Eastwood, and Robert Redford all have new ones to hawk, and they'll be talking at news conferences and walking on red carpets, in hopes of propelling their films into the rounds of best-of lists, and Golden Globe and Academy Award nods.

Allen's film is You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, a meditation on marriage, shot in London and starring Anthony Hopkins, Gemma Jones, Naomi Watts, Josh Brolin, Antonio Banderas, and Lucy Punch. The trailer is dreadful, but early word is strong.