Here’s a thought to chew on: It’s been 11 years since the best picture Oscar went to a film — Martin Scorsese’s “The Departed” — that hadn’t premiered at a film festival (though it did screen as a work in progress at the 2006 Toronto fest to select eyeballs).
Prior to that, festival indies were the exception rather than the norm in the best picture race, which was ruled by the kind of big-studio prestige pics that didn’t need the momentum-building progression of a festival rollout.Needless to say, a lot has changed at the Oscars (and, indeed, in Hollywood) this century, as the kind of tony, adult-oriented drama that tends to rule awards season has become largely the preserve of the independent realm.
Film festivals, meanwhile, have been drawn ever more integrally into the Oscar dance: the imagined “official” kickoff of awards season may come with the early-fall trifecta of Venice,
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