The Netflix Movies Generating Massive Oscar Buzz Out of TIFF

Netflix did very well last year when awards season came around. The company had two artistic heavy-hitters in KPop Demon Hunters and Frankenstein. Who would’ve thought two of their most viable awards contenders would be pure genre films, an animated musical about battling monsters and a retelling of the defining monster tale?

Sadly, Netflix doesn’t have any movies with a supernatural backbone in the running this year, but they do have a variety of dramas with awards juice.

At the Toronto International Film Festival – a 10-day delight jam-packed with movies and passionate movie fans, albeit a few odd ducks too – the streamer debuted and showed off several dramas with awards season potential. La Bola Negra, Ink, and Possible Love, to name a few, will continue to receive their due recognition over the next few months.

Gentle Monster Star Léa Seydoux for Best Actress

Gentle Monster is a polarizing film. Given its delicate subject matter, that makes sense. It’s a suitably tough drama from Marie Kreutzer. It’s rough around the edges, often in a way that’s appropriate, sometimes in a way that leaves you wanting more from its supporting characters and themes. But the film, as Rendy Jones wrote in his review, is “anchored by Léa Seydoux’s lived-in, visceral performance, reminding the masses of her immense abilities.” There is so much burning beneath the surface of Seydoux’s performance, even when she’s still. It’s one of those performances where an audience buys everything an actor does and says. 

In Waves for Best Animated Picture

In Waves will receive a theatrical release for awards contention. Do not miss it on the big screen. On a small screen, its emotional resonance will remain intact, but the vibrant animation and rich characters in the drama about love, loss, and surfing is best served by a screen as big as its character-driven waves. From director Phuong Mai Nguyen, based on AJ Dungo’s autobiographical graphic novel, “The humanity of the story feels so fresh and unsanitized for animation,” Ryan Gaur wrote from Annecy. “In Waves can inspire a tsunami of artists to go that one step further.”

Ink’s Alwin H. Küchler For Best Cinematography 

Film fans can always count on a visually exhilarating experience from filmmaker Danny Boyle and cinematographer Alwin H. Küchler. They’ve given us Steve Jobs, Sunshine, and now, Ink. It’s another rapid-fire, visually engaging – almost maddening, rightfully so – experience in the world of Rupert Murdoch and The Sun. There’s nothing quite like the images Boyle and Küchler piece together, especially at the ferocious pace they do. Here’s hoping Küchler gets his first, long overdue Academy Award nomination for Ink.

La bola negra for Best Picture

The consensus at Toronto was unanimous: La bola negra is Netflix’s best shot to date at winning Best Picture at the Academy Awards. The streamer has yet to reach that goldest of golden statues at the big show, despite a few films worthy of it. Here’s looking at you, The Irishman. La bola negra, from filmmakers Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, took home the TIFF Audience Award. Then again, so did Mike Flanagan’s The Life of Chuck, which didn’t get its due when awards season came around. But La bola negra left too many people moved and stunned to not become a serious frontrunner in the Best Picture race.

On Behalf of My Son Star Rejane Faria

Similar conversation was generated around Rejane Faria’s performance in On Behalf of My Son. From the sound of it, a viewer would need to be a rock not to feel something for her work in Gabriel Martins’ film about grief. Faria’s performance will likely continue to connect with audiences and award voters over the next few months. Nobody was left unmoved by her work in the film. 

Possible Love for Everything

Possible Love will also more than likely earn a Best International Feature Film nomination at the Academy Awards. It’s a tremendous film. Every emotion rings true in director Lee Chang-dong’s epic drama, spanning nearly three immersive hours. It’s such an intimate epic that, at times, you feel like you’re eavesdropping on neighbors, seeing all of their lives. The closeness depicted here, from the performances to the cinematography to the production design, is masterful. Actress Jeon Do-yeon should absolutely not leave awards events empty-handed. It’s a quiet yet mammoth performance. Even the tiniest of her gestures tell a complicated story.