[ot-caption title=”The annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) gives us a glimpse into some of the great movies in store for us this fall.  (via, Mina Mikhail)”]

To put it bluntly, this year has not been the best year in terms of film releases. While there have certainly been some gems (e.g. Green Room,The Invitation, and Weiner), as far as highly anticipated major releases, 2016 has come up empty handed. The list of disappointments goes on and on: X-Men Apocalypse, Ghostbusters, Batman v Superman, Suicide Squad, Independence Day: Resurgence. Even Stone’s Snowden, Spielberg’s The BFG, and Greengrass’s Jason Bourne were all met with middling responses. With that said, the year is far from over, and as award season begins to ramp up, some of the year’s biggest hitters, such as Scorsese’s long awaited Silence, are on the verge of release.

Over the past few years one of the best indicators of which films will dominate the theaters in the fall and the Oscars in the winter has been the annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). The 2016 TIFF has proven to be no different, with major fall releases premiering at the festival and receiving critical praise.

The first major film to come out of the 2016 TIFF, and for me one of the most anticipated films of the fall, was Prisoners and Sicario director Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival. Amy Adams stars as Louise Banks, an expert linguist who is called in to investigate a mysterious spacecraft that has landed on earth. Since its TIFF premiere, the film has received widespread acclaim, with Jason Gorber of Dork Shelf describing the film as, “Quite simply…one of the most extraordinary, affecting films of the year.”

Only one film has managed to reach, if not surpass, the critical praise and anticipation that Arrival received. That film is La La Land, Damien Chazelle’s follow-up to his 2014 film Whiplash. La La Land seems to be the call back to the classic, mid-twentieth century musicals that many have been eagerly awaiting. As Stephen Mayne of PopMatters puts it, “People complain they don’t make ’em like they used to. Well, they can’t say that, anymore.” La La Land portrays Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone’s characters struggling to maintain their relationship as they both begin to succeed in their respective careers. On top of the incredibly positive reviews the film has received, La La Land has cemented itself as one of this year’s top films by receiving the TIFF’s People’s Choice Award, an award that has been given to previous Oscar winners such as The King’s Speech, 12 years a Slave, Argo, and Slumdog Millionaire.

While this year has been pretty rough so far in regards to film releases, the Toronto International Film Festival seems to indicate that things might be turning around as we move into awards season. Make sure to look out for Arrival, premiering November 11th and La La Land, premiering December 2nd.

Sources: IMDB, The Verge, Dork Shelf, The Hollywood Reporter, Rotten Tomatoes, IndieWire

Photo Source: Mina Mikhail