As I suspected, La La Land's Oscar frontrunner status was confirmed today after winning one of the bellwether early awards, the Audience Award from the Toronto Film Festival. I haven't done my TIFF round-up yet, but the movie played extremely well there, just like it did at Telluride, to many standing ovations and continued adoration (this coming after Emma Stone's first Best Actress win for the film at the Venice Film Festival). The TIFF Audience Award has a recent corresponding history with Oscar Best Picture. 6 of the last 7 winners have gone on to be nominated for Best Picture, while 5 of the last 6 have won. So, this cements what could well be a sweep year, while the first runner-up was the Weinstein Co.'s Lion, adding to its own sleeper potential as an Oscar contender. I think this could be it guys, I really do. Smells like this year's The Artist to me.
