TORONTO, ONT – With the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival now in the books and Oscar season around the corner, the three movies that generated the most buzz were Idris Elba’s ‘Concrete Cowboy’, Kate Winslet’s ‘Ammonite’ and Chloe Zhao’s ‘Nomadland’
Thanks to COVID-19 greatly reducing the amount of industry people invading Canada’s largest city to partake in one of entertainment’s biggest film festivals, you would be forgiven in calling it TIFF Lite. With media access restricted to credentialed industry personnel, etc, a lot out interaction was done remotely via virtual screenings.
That being said, the three movies that many up in T-Dot were talking about.
Concrete Cowboy: Black urban cowboys in north Philly? Who would have ever thought that was a thing? Apparently in the Ricky Staub-directed film, based off of the novel, Ghetto Cowboy by Greg Neri, starring Idris Elba as a horse trainer in The City of brotherly Love trying to reconnect with his estranged son featuring Stranger Things’ Caleb McLaughlin.
Ammonite: Starring Academy Award winner Kate Winslet and the uber-talented Saorise Ronan, this Francis Lee romantic drama, based on the life of British paleontologist Mary Anning, centers on a romantic relationship between Anning (Winslet) and Charlotte Murchison (Ronan).
Nomadland: A true masterpiece and likely heavy favorite for Best Picture thanks to being named People’s Choice Award Winner at TIFF, Chole Zhao’s Nomadland stars veteran actors Frances McDormand and David Strathairn in a fascinating story of two people on a journey across today’s America. And could easily be one of the best film’s made in a long time.
Other noteworthy films to keep an eye out for come Oscar time include Regina King’s directorial debut, ‘One Night In Miami’ based on a play by Kemp Powers starring Leslie Odom Jr., Aldis Hodge, Ben-Adir and Eli Goree about a fictitious 1964 encounter between Sam Cooke, Jim Brown, Cassius Clay and Malcolm X down in Miami celebrating Clay’s upset win over Sonny Liston.
Thomas King’s seminal documentary, Inconvenient Indian and Emma Seligman’s debut film, Shiva Baby about a young directionless bisexual Jewish woman attending a shiva with her family.