The Toronto Film Festival is over (boo!) and a surprising winner dominated all of the buzz: a little British film called The King’s Speech, starring Colin Firth as King George VI, and Helena Bonham-Carter as Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mum), and Geoffrey Rush as King George’s speech therapist. The film is all about the war years, after King Edward/The Duke of Windsor’s abdication, when King George reigned the Empire during World War II, and was beloved by his people. King George had a noticeable stutter, and he, like Churchill and FDR, felt the need to buck up his people with radio addresses during the war, especially during the bombing of Britain. So… the film is about that. The King trying to learn how to give a speech, trying to keep the British people’s hopes alive, and how much he struggled during the war years. Anyway, The King’s Speech won the “fan favorite” award at TIFF, and Colin Firth is now being discussed as a major Oscar contender. Could this be the year where a suave, dapper, lovely, talented Englishman takes home Best Actor? God, wouldn’t that be lovely?

“The King’s Speech” was crowned the fan favorite at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday, a possible precursor to an Academy Award nomination.

The British/Australian film is a critically acclaimed portrait of a stammering monarch preparing for war. It stars Colin Firth as King George VI, Geoffrey Rush as his Australian speech therapist and Helena Bonham Carter as the Queen Mother.

It won the Cadillac People’s Choice Award as the most popular film. The festival itself doesn’t give out awards, but there are a few awards from sponsor companies. The film festival’s director, Piers Handling, predicted Oscar nominations for the three leads and a possible best picture slot for Tom Hooper’s film, noting it garnered steady attention throughout the 11-day movie festival that ended Sunday.

“So many people were talking about that film during the festival,” said Handling, noting that previous audience-pleasers including “Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire” and “Slumdog Millionaire” went on to multiple Academy Award nominations.

The Toronto International Film Festival is a prime launching place for big Hollywood movies and Academy Awards contenders. Unlike such festivals as Cannes, Venice and Sundance, Toronto is a noncompetitive event where filmmakers are not up against one another for prizes.

[From Huffington Post]

Yes, I could see Rush getting nominated, because he’s like the Aussie Meryl Streep – Rush gets nominated just for breathing at this point. Not to diminish his talent, which is considerable, and I do love him. It would also be nice to Helena get nominated – if it happens, it would only be her second nomination (she got her first for Wings of the Dove). But my guess is that producers will probably throw big money at an Oscar campaign for Colin – he’s the kind of actor where you could easily say “It’s his turn to win.” He’s turned in solid to wonderful performances for two decades, he has no drama in his personal life, he’s happily married and loves his family, and plus, the Academy loves rewarding actors who play kings and queens and political leaders. Colin seems like he’s acting his ass off in The King’s Speech too – I imagine it would be hard to act out a stutter without it seeming like you’re making fun of the condition. Colin does it brilliantly:

Header: Colin at TIFF on Sept. 10, 2010. Credit: WENN. PR image courtesy of promotional site.