ARGO Poster Lands – Will It Win Best Picture?

With a month to go until the premiere at the London Film Festival, here’s the new poster for the film everyone was talking about at Toronto, ARGO. Can’t you picture this one-sheet framed in some cinema in the early 1970’s? With the official release date of October 12th, ARGO is directed by and stars Ben Affleck as well as being produced by Academy Award® winner George Clooney, Oscar® nominee Grant Heslov and Ben Affleck. Warner Bros. Pictures will release the film in the UK on November 7th.

After seeing the movie at the Telluride FIlm Festival, Sasha Stone over at Awards Daily said, “I think it is one of those rare perfect films that give you a satisfying cinematic experience. It’s funny, suspenseful and ultimately moving. It is filled with great dialogue and performances. It’s, to my mind, perfect.”

Roger Ebert has already called the race:

The winner of the Academy Award for Best Picture will be Ben Affleck’s tense new thriller “Argo.” How do I know this? Because it is the audience favorite coming out of the top-loaded opening weekend of the Toronto Film Festival. Success at Toronto has an uncanny way of predicting Academy winners; I point you to the Best Pictures of the last five years in a row: “No Country for Old Men,” “Slumdog Millionaire,” “The Hurt Locker,” “The King’s Speech” and “The Artist.”

Ben Affleck has already proven himself a gifted director (“Gone Baby Gone,” “The Town”). Now he approaches the tricky thriller genre and produces a spellbinder.

Wow. Good for Ebert putting the “no guts, no glory” prediction out there and so early. However, there are still more festivals looming as Autumn begins and a few films that remain to be seen.

Plus don’t forget about the raves for David O. Russell’s SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK out of Toronto. Of the film, Pete Hammond over at Deadline said,

“It had critics and awards pundits doing backflips and today was named winner of the potentially telling BlackBerry People’s Choice Award at TIFF. (Argo was first runner-up.) That’s a distinction that has gone to such past Oscar-winning Best Pictures as The King’s Speech, Slumdog Millionaire and American Beauty. A harbinger of good things to come? It sure can’t hurt. And it immediately sets up Silver Linings as a real contender for the gold as the season moves forward.

The New York Film Festival, running Sept 28 – Oct 14,  is where we’ll get the first reactions to other Award hopefuls –  Ang Lee’s LIFE OF PI and Robert Zemeckis’ FLIGHT. As far as the Oscars go, it’s the big guns – LINCOLN & LES MISERABLES – that I’m interested in.

Based on true events, Warner Bros. Pictures’ and GK Films’ dramatic thriller ARGO chronicles the life-or-death covert operation to rescue six Americans, which unfolded behind the scenes of the Iran hostage crisis—the truth of which was unknown by the public for decades.

Academy Award® winner Ben Affleck (“The Town,” “Good Will Hunting”) directs and stars in the film, which is being produced by Academy Award® winner George Clooney (“Syriana”), Oscar® nominee Grant Heslov (“Good Night, and Good Luck.”) and Affleck.

On November 4, 1979, as the Iranian revolution reaches its boiling point, militants storm the U.S. embassy in Tehran, taking 52 Americans hostage. But, in the midst of the chaos, six Americans manage to slip away and find refuge in the home of the Canadian ambassador. Knowing it is only a matter of time before the six are found out and likely killed, a CIA “exfiltration” specialist named Tony Mendez (Affleck) comes up with a risky plan to get them safely out of the country. A plan so incredible, it could only happen in the movies.

ARGO also stars Oscar® winner Alan Arkin (“Little Miss Sunshine”), Bryan Cranston (TV’s “Breaking Bad”) and John Goodman (“You Don’t Know Jack”). The main cast also includes Kerry Bishé, Kyle Chandler, Rory Cochrane, Christopher Denham, Tate Donovan, Clea DuVall, Victor Garber, Zeljko Ivanek, Richard Kind, Scoot McNairy, Chris Messina, Michael Parks, and Taylor Schilling. Affleck is directing the film from a screenplay by Chris Terrio, based on a selection from Master in Disguise by Antonio Mendez. David Klawans, Chris Brigham, Graham King, Tim Headington, Chay Carter and Nina Wolarsky are serving as executive producers.

The behind-the-scenes creative team includes Oscar®-nominated director of photography Rodrigo Prieto (“Brokeback Mountain”), production designer Sharon Seymour (“The Town”); Oscar®-nominated editor William Goldenberg (“Seabiscuit,” “The Insider”); and Oscar®-nominated costume designer Jacqueline West (“The Social Network,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”).