AwardsWatch Podcast Ep. 247: New TIFF and NYFF Announcements, New Gotham Awards Categories and International Feature Film Submissions Begin

On episode 247 of the AwardsWatch podcast, AwardsWatch Editor-In-Chief Erik Anderson, Executive Editor Ryan McQuade and Associate Editor Sophia Ciminello take a look at the newest announcements from the Toronto International Film Festival and New York Film Festival, changes to the Gotham Awards and the kickoff of International Feature Film Oscar submissions.

Beginning with the TIFF announcements of new Gala and Special Presentations, we look into the heavy Venice to TIFF crossover with titles like Babygirl, Queer and The Brutalist (all skipping Telluride) as well as the ‘Canadian Premiere’ of Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night, detailing the 90 minutes leading up to the first ever episode of NBC’s Saturday Night Live‘s debut in 1975. Toronto will also get the world premiere of On Swift Horses, with Jacob Elordi, Daisy Edgar-Jones and Diego Calva, which appears to be its sole major fest showing. We then venture into today’s NYFF Spotlight additions, including A Real Pain, Emilia Pérez and Maria. We talk about studio strategies and the paths festivals can create for determining awards contenders and how flying a bit under the radar, like Netflix is doing this year, becomes a vehicle for audience discovery. Next we move to the 2024 Gotham Awards, which announced this week the introduction of two new categories (Best Director and the return of Breakthrough Performer) as well as the rules that come with each of them. Finally, the submissions for the International Feature Film Oscar have started to roll in with Ireland’s Kneecap, Austria’s The Devil’s Bath and Latvia’s animated film Flow as the first out of the gate.

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This podcast runs 45m. We will be back next week on this show for our Telluride Film Festival preview and predictions and on the main show to talk about Alien: Romulus, the state of blockbusters and more. And keep your eyes out for the Thursday drops of Director Watch episodes, which kicks off its Terence Malick series this week. Till then, let’s get into it.

Music: “Modern Fashion” from AShamaleuvmusic (intro), “B-3” from BoxCat Games Nameless: The Hackers RPG Soundtrack (outro)