Turing of Toronto: What TIFF means for the 2015 Oscar race

Following in the gloried footsteps of 12 Years a Slave and Colin Firth, the march towards an Oscars dust-up has begun for The Imitation Game and Benedict Cumberbatch, following the former’s big win at last weekend’s TIFF finale.

For the Toronto International Film Festival is the second telling smoke-signal for things to come over the next few months; the People’s Choice Award winner is likely to feature among the Best Picture nominees come February’s Academy Awards and, like 12YaS, The King’s Speech and Slumdog Millionaire in the last six years alone, could well go on and win the whole darn caboodle. (The first – in case you were wondering – is obviously the prescience of this very blog.)

Rhys Darby looked sheepish after asking for a photo with Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley and their mates (Credit: Hannah Yoon/The Canadian Press)

As for its star…it’s ironic, I guess – a film about a man whose sole mission is to prevent the Nazis from taking over the world, played by an actor that is clearly hell-bent on invading and occupying Hollywood. Like a rogue panzer behind enemy lines, Cumberbatch’s otter-faced one-man mission to star in every film ever made continues in debonair earnest.

For Your Consideration: Two Days, One Night

Next to René Magritte’s bizarre surrealism and Marouane Fellaini’s even more bizarre bounce, the Dardenne brothers are undeniably Belgium’s most important cultural export. Will Two Days, One Night finally allow them to add an Oscar to their two Palme D’Ors and make Mrs Dardenne the proudest mumsy in all of Liège…?

Two Days, One Night (2014)

The Dardennes have been so indefatigable in their pursuit of realism during the course of their 30-odd year career that the very mention of science fiction must bring them out in a sweat as cold as a seriously refrigerated bottle of Hoegarrden. Those familiar with their oeuvre will be immediately accustomed with the style (single handheld camera) and tone (relatively bleak everyday Belgian working class life) of Two Days, One Night.

What may confound complacent viewers however, is the appearance of a bona fide star harnessed into the lead role. Marion Cotillard is the emotionally and financially fragile  Sandra who, after a long stress related lay off from her employ at the local solar panel factory, is given her marching orders. But she has a longshot of a lifeline – if she can convince more than half of her 16 colleagues to agree to forgo their €1,000 bonus, she can keep her job.