This year’s crop of fall film festival offerings boast the talents of a slew of big-name directors, from Paul Thomas Anderson with his highly-anticipated drama “The Master” to Ang Lee and his visually-stunning adaptation of Yann Martel’s acclaimed 2001 novel “Life of Pi.” Even Terrence Malick – suddenly one of the more prolific auteurs on the scene – is debuting a new movie, with his romantic drama “To the Wonder” starring Ben Affleck and Rachel McAdams set to debut at next week’s Venice Film Festival.
All of these directors and the studios behind their works are hoping to generate enough positive buzz at one or more of the season’s fall festivals – Venice, Telluride, Toronto and New York – to mark themselves and their films as contenders as awards season begins.
In the gallery below, you can find a list of the 20 films premiering on this year’s circuit that we’re most curious about. (Of course, Telluride has not officially announced its schedule, but you can expect a number of these features to screen in front of the many Academy members who make the annual trek to the Labor Day weekend festival.)
Let us know if there are any films you think we missed in the comments.
Look for complete coverage from the Venice, Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals beginning this week on HitFix.