Tinseltown Toronto: Film Festival Heralds Oscar Season

Sept. 11, 2006 — -- Romantics will say, "Timing is everything," while real estate salespeople maintain, "Location is everything."

Whomever you believe, it's a little of both that's making the Toronto International Film Festival kick-off time for Oscar hopefuls.

A diamond-studded A-list of Hollywood stars are due in town for the festivities, including Brad Pitt, Jennifer Lopez, Russell Crowe, Reese Witherspoon and Tom Hanks, as well as Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan, political agitator Michael Moore, and guaranteed-to-offend subversive comic Sacha Baron Cohen.

Toronto's film festival, now in its 31st year, doesn't have the Cannes French Mediterranean glamour, and it can't match Sundance for paparazzi shots of celebrities on the ski slopes, but it's no doubt come into its own as an event every Hollywood bigwig circles on his or her calendar.

"Brokeback Mountain," "Crash" and "Capote" -- three of the five films that vied last year for best picture -- were ballyhooed as Oscar hopefuls after showings here.

"Crash" -- a 2005 summer release -- had its first public showing at Cannes in 2004.

Here is where buzz started building for the performances of Jamie Foxx in "Ray," and Joaquin Phoenix and Witherspoon in "Walk the Line."

"Toronto's timing is just right," said Brandon Gray of BoxOfficeMojo.com. "This is just when the summer season ends and the film industry starts thinking of the prestige pictures it wants to send off with a boost, when the holiday season begins."

That might explain what Toronto has over Sundance, which is held in January, and Cannes, which is held in May.

Toronto, however, is also jumping ahead of the Venice Film Festival and the Telluride Festival -- both end-of-summer fetes -- in industry prominence.

The reason for that -- as a real estate mogul might point out -- is "location, location, location."

Geographically speaking, Toronto offers the best of both worlds.

It's close to the United States, making it a fair measure of the North American market, but also an international city, allowing filmmakers to test how their work might play worldwide.