Foreign festivals signal what's to come

The northern hemisphere festival season is hitting its stride and is showcasing the films headed for Oscar status and those likely to provide choice fare for demanding New Zealand cinemagoers.

Although Cannes is traditionally considered the leader, its May setting is too early for the Oscars and other festivals have emerged as more significant trendsetters, such as the just-finished Toronto and forthcoming London.

The circuit certainly notched a gear at Venice earlier this month, when the first of the Oscar contenders emerged, while Toronto and London now tend to confirm trends rather than set them.

For example, Toronto is now the most important showcase for European films in the North American market while London’s huge audiences are guaranteed to bring later commercial success – last year’s The King’s Speech went on to win four Oscars in Hollywood and to gross more than $5 million at the New Zealand box office.

This was bettered only by the blockbusters Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II and Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

This year’s Italian Film Festival in New Zealand, starting this week, upstages London with screenings of Nanni Moretti’s Habemus Papam (We Have a Pope), which premiered at Cannes. London is showing several titles that screened here in July at the NZ International Film Festival.

On festival form, the next wave of crossover and arthouse hits will include these:

DRIVE Danish-born and New York-raised director Nicolas Winding Refn has garnered much attention for this Los Angeles-set noir thriller with Ryan Gosling as a mechanic and stunt driver who takes car chase movies to a new level. Applauded at Cannes and due on the commercial circuit here on November 3.

TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY The John Le Carré spy thriller has already been a TV series but this two-hour version was considered even better at Venice and is already on commercial release in the UK. The top cast includes Gary Oldman as George Smiley, Colin Firth and Tom Hardy with direction by Swede Tomas Alfredson (Let the Right One In).

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN UK director Lynne Ramsay’s adaptation of Lionel Shriver’s harrowing bestseller about mother haunted by her teenage killer son. Tilda Swinton stars as well as produces. Premiered at Cannes and will also be at London.

SHAME Irish-German actor Michael Fassbender (Jane Eyre) won the Venice award for his role as a sex addict in a screenplay by Abi Morgan (BBC’s The Hour) and direction by Steve McQueen, who also made Hunger with Fassbender.

A DANGEROUS METHOD Fassbender is also in David Cronenberg’s award-winning form at Venice with his study of the origins of psychoanalysis and the rivalry between Freud and Jung (Fassbender). Keira Knightley is the key character as a Russian mental patient diagnosed with hysteria.

THE IDES OF MARCH George Clooney stars and directs in a US presidential election campaign thriller based on a play by Beau Willimon. Premiered at Venice and screening at London. NZ release: February 16

THE DESCENDANTS Clooney also stars in this bittersweet Hawaiian-set family drama as a, landowner, lawyer and father of two daughters whose mother is in a coma after a water skiing accident.

CARNAGE Roman Polanski again wowed audiences at Venice with this claustrophobic drama about two couples locked in conflict over the death of a son. The high-powered cast comprises Jodie Foster and John C Reilly as one couple and Kate Winslet and Christoph Waltz as the other. Premiered at Vienna and will also be at London.

CONTAGION Steven Soderbergh’s medical thriller about the global outbreak of a Sars-like virus was well received at Venice and is already slated for NZ release on November 10.

THE SKIN I LIVE IN Considered Spanish director Pedro Almodovar’s best in ages when premiered at Cannes. Antonio Banderas is a cosmetic surgeon who takes his experiments on his wife too far.

WUTHERING HEIGHTS Quirky UK director Andrea Arnold (Fish Tank) takes liberties with the classic Emily Bronte novel by casting black actor James Howson as Heathcliff. On show in London after its Venice debut.