Oscar Frontrunners Eddie Redmayne, Sandra Bullock & Julianne Moore Shine at Toronto Film Fest
We have a look at some of the early favorites for Oscar's class of 2016.
The Toronto International Film Festival usually provides an accurate foreshadowing of Oscar night. Eight out of the last 10 Best Picture winners have played at the Toronto International Film Festival and last year's Best Actress and Best Actor winners, Julianne Moore and Eddie Redmayne, were favorites at the festival in 2014. GoldDerby.com's Tom O'Neil told ET who could have big nights at the 88th Annual Academy Awards.
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"Oscar voters love transformative performances," O'Neil said, indicating that The Danish Girl star Redmayne has a good shot at back-to-back wins.
In the movie, Redmayne plays transgender woman Lili Elbe, who was one of the first recipients of gender reassignment surgery. The film is based on the award-winning historical novel of the same name, which tells a fictionalized version of Elbe's real-life story.
While the trailer for the movie has been gathering plenty of buzz, Redmayne isn’t a shoe-in. O’Neil expects Matt Damon to give him a run for his money for his performance in The Martian. Damon told ET that his wife Luciana was also a fan of the movie.
"She liked it," Damon said. "She was very excited to be out of the house. Her mom stayed with the kids, so we had a date night."
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As for the actress category, Julianne Moore, Sandra Bullock and Emily Blunt seem to be early frontrunners.
Moore stars opposite Ellen Page in the drama Freeheld, in which she plays a gay woman dying of cancer.
"She's in a struggle to secure benefits for her lesbian lover before she dies," O'Neil said. "There is a huge human rights issue at stake here. The Academy loves that."
Bullock plays a hard-nosed political strategist in the drama Our Brand Is Crisis, a role originally meant for George Clooney. Blunt shot the action-drama Sicario right after having her first child with husband John Krasinski.
"[I was] suddenly playing this loner in a very violent world," said Blunt, who plays an FBI agent in the film. "I would be going home to a perfect pink baby and going on set with these guys."
Michael Keaton could get a second shot at Oscar gold with his supporting role in Spotlight, a film following the true story of how the Boston Globe uncovered a massive cover-up within the local Catholic Archdiocese concerning child molestation.
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"A lot of people think Michael Keaton should have won the Oscar last year, so they might give it to him this year," O'Neil said.
And Johnny Depp also might get his first Oscar for his portrayal of real-life mob boss Whitey Bulger in the gangster flick Black Mass.
"Johnny Depp is out front to win his overdue Oscar," O'Neil said. "Most experts pick him to win."
Find out how the story unravels when the Academy Awards air Feb. 28, 2016 on ABC.