Will This Fall’s Film Festivals Finally Kick Off a Normal Awards Season?

is going to arrive in force, isn’t it?Please?That’s the feeling in the community I like to think of as Hollywood’s Kudo-Industrial Complex. That community limped through one year, 2020, in which theaters were closed, film festivals were canceled or moved online and almost all the shows were virtual; and a second year, 2021, that started out to be a cautiously muted season but was then blindsided by a COVID resurgence that forced a return to streaming and virtual events.Now, as the Venice Film Festival begins on Wednesday, followed by the three-day Telluride Film Festival on Friday and then the mammoth Toronto International Film Festival next Thursday, there’s a palpable yearning for things to return to normal.

In fact, you could say it’s a desperation for the days of packed screenings and delirious crowds on the Lido or in the mountains or on the Canadian streets.After all, here’s a touch of what the next two-and-a-half weeks will bring:Noah Baumbach! Alejandro G. Inarritu! Sam Mendes!Darren Aronofsky, Martin McDonagh, Werner Herzog, Rian Johnson, Peter Farrelly, Gina Prince-Bythewood!Steven Spielberg!!Plus, onscreen appearances from Jennifer Lawrence, Colin Farrell, Hugh Jackman, Olivia Colman, Jessica Chastain, Eddie Redmayne, Nicholas Cage, Viola Davis, Daniel Craig and double doses of both Florence Pugh and Harry Styles!No constant COVID-19 testing! Fewer travel restrictions!But just as the box-office revenues came roaring back with “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Elvis” a few months ago, only to peter out as studios wavered in their commitment to theatrical exhibition, there’s no real guarantee that the fall festivals – the overlapping Venice/Telluride/Toronto trio, followed two weeks later by the New York Film Festival –