TIFF Oscar Buzz: ‘The Martian,’ ‘Room’ And ‘The Danish Girl’ Lead In Oscar Race

by Olivia Truffaut-WongNovember 12, 2015, 10:14 pm >

The Martian, Room and The Danish Girl emerge Oscar front-runners as the Toronto International Film Festival comes to a close.

Brie Larson And Alicia Vikander Emerge As Best Actress Contenders

TIFF is wrapping up as the Oscar buzz continues to grow for films featured in the festival, with Room, The Danish Girl, The Martian and Black Mass leading the pack. Both Black Mass and The Martian are leading the pack with Best Actor buzz for leading men Johnny Depp and Matt Damon, respectively. But, it’s actresses Brie Larson and Alicia Vikander that are really taking audiences by surprise.

Room, based on the hit novel of the same name by Emma Donoghue, tells the story of Ma/Joy, a young mother played by Larson, who has raised her five-year-old son, Jack, alone in a garden shed after being kidnaped and kept prisoner for seven years. Larson and her young co-star Jacob Tremblay have been receiving mountains of praise at TIFF, with many calling Larson’s performance Oscar-worthy. It’s more than likely that the young actress will get a Leading Oscar nomination.

“A lesser actress might have rendered Joy with a shivers and tics, playing her psychological damage outwardly, with broad strokes. But Larson, with Donoghue and director Lenny Abrahamson’s help, employs a quieter, more pensive tactic in realizing Joy, subtly drawing a young woman whose fierce love for her son is certainly fully felt, but who is also understandably muted, stunned by her plight into a kind of dazed resilience,” wrote Vanity Fair critic Richard Lawson.

Joining Larson in the Best Actress speculation are Oscar-winners Julianne Moore for Freeheld, Sandra Bullock for Our Brand Is Crisis and Cate Blanchett for Truth; not to mention Emily Blunt for Sicario and Alicia Vikander for The Danish Girl.

The Danish Girl‘s Eddie Redmayne Could Win Second Oscar

The Danish Girl isn’t just boosting Vikander into the Oscar race. The film is also earning praise for its main star, and last year’s Oscar-winner, Eddie Redmayne, who stars as artist Einar Wegener, who came out as transgender in the late 19th century and began living as Lili Elbe. Redmayne’s performance is so strong that critics suggest he could be the first actor in 20 years to win consecutive Oscars.

“Redmayne, who could well become the first performer to win Oscars in consecutive years since Tom Hanks won for 1993’s Philadelphia and 1994’s Forrest Gump, gives a…no-holds-barred, truly transformational performance of such sincerity and sensitivity that even those fiercely resistant to the idea of transgenderism may reconsider that position,” wrote The Hollywood Reporter’s Scott Feinberg.

Of course, there are still Oscar contenders that have yet to premiere, including Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s latest film, The Revenant, which has been earing major Oscar buzz for its lead, Leonardo DiCaprio.