1. La Vie Rêvée Des Anges (The Dreamlife Of Angels) (Zonca)
2. Happiness (Solondz)
3. Life Is Beautiful (Benigni)
4. A Simple Plan (Raimi)
5. Pleasantville (Ross)
6. The Celebration (Vinterberg)
7. Rushmore (Anderson)
8. Elizabeth (Kapur)
9. Conte D'Automne (Rohmer)
10. Aprile (Moretti)
11. The Silence (Makhmalbaf)
12. Little Voice (Herman)
13. Am I Beautiful? (Dörrie)

As the Toronto International Film Festival establishes itself as Hollywood's premiere launchpad for late-year releases, it follows that, in addition to the ringing of cell phones and talk of acquisitions, the ten days of fervored filmgoing also carries the distinct scent of Oscar in the air . The list of films which played the festival last year that went on to capture Oscar nominations is rather sizable -- L.A. Confidential, Boogie Nights, The Wings Of The Dove, The Apostle, The Sweet Hereafter, Afterglow, In & Out, Gattaca, 4 Little Girls, Character, and Four Days In September -- totalling some twenty-five nominations between them. (I was fortunate enough to have screened seven of the films at the time -- in my 1997 coverage, I had the initative to successfully muse about Julie Christie's future Afterglow Best Actress nomination.) This is not an especially new trend for the event -- for example, 1996 saw Shine, among others, capture multiple nominations, as did 1995's much-lauded Leaving Las Vegas.

Among the forty-seven films that I screened this time around, I suspect that several of them shall make their presence felt in this year's upcoming Oscar race. (Sadly, scheduling conflicts prevented me from seeing catching other potentially Oscar-friendly works, such as The Mighty and A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries, but I can only attest to the feasibility of films and performances which I've seen.) I humbly submit the following works to the Oscar-watchers in the audience as those which I believe have a substantial chance of netting nominations:

• Life Is Beautiful - Picture and/or Foreign Language Picture, Director (Benigni), Original Screenplay (Vincenzo Cerami, Benigni)
• Cate Blanchett, Elizabeth - Actress
• Jane Horrocks, Little Voice - Actress
• Billy Bob Thornton, A Simple Plan - Supporting Actor
• Pleasantville - Visual Effects (Chris Watts et al.)

While I have varying degrees of confidence about the above, I'm certainly more tentative of the works listed below. I suspect the Oscar chances of the following range from the way-out-there longshots to the almost probable, heavily dependent on the strength of the emerging competition, but list them below all the same in no particular order. (I'm henceforth not even going to suggest other possible films for the Best Foreign Language Film category, since it's usually futile attempting to make any sense out of the films which countries elect to submit as their national candidates.)

• Actor - Roberto Benigni, Life Is Beautiful
• Actress - Meryl Streep, Dancing At Lughnasa
• Supporting Actor - William H. Macy, Pleasantville; David Kelly, Waking Ned Devine
• Supporting Actress - Joan Allen, Pleasantville
• Director - Sam Raimi, A Simple Plan
• Original Screenplay - Todd Solondz, Happiness; Gary Ross, Pleasantville
• Adapted Screenplay - Scott B. Smith, A Simple Plan
• Art Direction - Lucy Richardson, Peter Howitt, Elizabeth; Dianne Wager, Jeannine Oppewall, Pleasantville
• Cinematography - Alar Kivilo, A Simple Plan
• Costume Design - Alexandra Byrne, Elizabeth
• Editing - William Goldenberg, Pleasantville; Arthur Coburn, Eric L. Beason, A Simple Plan
• Score: Comedy - Randy Newman, Pleasantville; Shaun Davey, Waking Ned Devine
• Score: Drama - Danny Elfman, A Simple Plan

Note, of course, that these ruminations do not necessarily infer that I appreciated the above performances or works (though in most cases I certainly did) -- it's an attempt to project the historical preferences of AMPAS upon the various films I've seen. If I had my druthers, Elodie Bouchez and Natacha Régnier from La Vie Rêvée Des Anges would be certain nominees, Happiness would be a Best Picture nominee, and all sorts of other impossibilities ...

Alex Fung (aw220@freenet.carleton.ca)

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