The Big Picture · Interview · Discussion · Awards

The Return of the Big Oscar Bet and the Best Movies at the Toronto International Film Festival

September 16, 2024/ 111 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins

Adam Nayman phones in from Toronto with the TIFF slate, then Sean and Amanda revive their big Oscar bet and predict all 11 major categories a month before anyone's been nominated.

92 films across 3 segments.

AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.

Dispatches from Torontowith Canadian correspondent Adam Nayman

Adam Nayman on TIFF

The Life of Chuck 2024

Won the People's Choice Award, a 12-year precursor to a Best Picture nod. Mike Flanagan's Stephen King adaptation, and still without a distributor.

Adam Nayman on TIFF

The Room Next Door 2024

Almodovar's first English-language feature. Adam found it designed to win awards and little else.

Adam Nayman on TIFF

The Shrouds 2024

Cronenberg on grief and repression. Cheap-looking, no US distributor. Still the film Adam couldn't shake.

Adam Nayman on TIFF

Nightbitch 2024

Marielle Heller's motherhood body-horror with Amy Adams. Adam thought it pulled itself apart while playing it safe.

Adam Nayman on TIFF

Saturday Night 2024

Jason Reitman's SNL-origin story. Adam's diplomatic pan of its Lorne-Michaels-as-Prometheus myth-making.

Adam Nayman on TIFF

Friendship 2024

Andrew DeYoung's Tim Robinson / Paul Rudd comedy, just acquired by A24. Adam's favorite of the fest.

Adam Nayman on TIFF

Cloud 2024

Kiyoshi Kurosawa's online-scammer revenge thriller, one of three features he made this year.

Adam Nayman on TIFF

Harvest 2024

Athina Rachel Tsangari's pre-industrial community portrait with Caleb Landry Jones.

Adam Nayman on TIFF

Dahomey 2024

Mati Diop's documentary on looted artifacts repatriated from France to Benin.

Adam Nayman on TIFF

Caught by the Tides 2024

Jia Zhangke's film assembled from 20 years of footage of Zhao Tao, who ages in real time.

Adam Nayman on TIFF

Ick 2024

Joseph Kahn's B-movie allegory about apathy, roughly received but, Adam argues, smarter than it looks.

Adam Nayman on TIFF

Heretic 2024

Hugh Grant back in genre for an A24 horror. Adam liked Grant, not the movie.

Adam Nayman on TIFF

Matt and Mara 2024

Matt Johnson's Toronto drama, and the TIFF red-carpet debut of Adam's daughter Avery.

Adam Nayman on TIFF

The Brutalist 2024

The 3.5-hour American epic everyone raved about. Adam ran out of time to see it.

Adam Nayman on TIFF

Anora 2024

Placed third for the Audience Award. Sean Baker's Palme d'Or winner, mirroring the Parasite run.

Adam Nayman on TIFF

Emilia Pérez 2024

A People's Choice runner-up, lodged in the awards conversation all fall.

Adam Nayman on TIFF

The Substance 2024

Body-horror on beauty standards, name-checked next to Nightbitch.

Two more from the festthe ones Sean caught without leaving town

The Order 2024

Justin Kurzel's true-crime drama on an FBI hunt for an '80s white-supremacist cell. Jude Law and a standout Nicholas Hoult. Sean's comp: American History X meets Heat.