The Telluride Film Festival is happening this holiday weekend and it is typically a venue where Oscar contenders are born. This seems to be the case for Denis Villenueve’s Prisoners (out September 20), a crime thriller starring Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhall. The first screening has been met with rapturous critical reviews with more than one saying it’s career-best work from Jackman and Gyllenhall. Just last year, Jackman received his first Best Actor nomination for Les Miserables. Based on the reaction to Prisoners, it’s very well likely he’ll receive two in a row.
Canadian director Villenueve is making his American debut with Prisoners, about a child abduction. The film is set to be extremely unsettling and violent but also, according to a number of early reviews, brilliant. One prominent critic compared it to Seven and Mystic River. Based on reaction alone at Telluride, Prisoners is now in contention for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Jackman), and Best Supporting Actor (Gyllenhall). There’s also some talk already of Melissa Leo for Supporting Actress. She plays the mother of a suspect in the case.
Prisoners has immediately become a movie to pay close attention to this awards season and it’s certainly vaulted to the top of my must-see pics of the fall.
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