Venice, Telluride, and Toronto.
With those three film festivals, which unspool over the course of a little over a fortnight from late August till mid-September, the course of the year in cinema can be changed forever.
Future Oscar nominees are revealed, career-defining performances are seen for the first time, and audiences take note of the movies they’re longing to see in the months ahead.
That’s the tradition, anyway, though seldom have the fall festivals served up the cornucopia of riches they did in 2018, when “A Star Is Born” premiered within days of touch-the-stars Neil Armstrong biopic “First Man” at Venice, and best picture follow-ups “Widows” (from “12 Years a Slave” director Steve McQueen) and “If Beale Street Could Talk” (by “Moonlight’s” Barry Jenkins) screened the same weekend in Toronto.
Here, from a bounty of more than 300 new features, are the 15 films that most impressed Variety chief critics Owen Gleiberman and Peter Debruge.
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