The Venice Film Festival wrapped up on September 8th and the highly anticipated Paul Thomas Anderson film "The Master" emerged as the darling of the festival, scoring two major awards (and denied the 'Best Picture' equivalent Golden Lion due to festival rules). Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman won the Volpi Cup at Venice, the Best Actor prize at the festival, cementing their presence in this year's awards season. 

Ben Affleck's new motion picture "Argo" premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on Friday and the film's reception has been adulating to say the least; critical praise of the acting from Affleck, John Goodman and Alan Arkin, the direction (also from Affleck) and the movie as a whole is making this picture out to be one of this fall's most anticipated releases. The academy loves satire and politics; Mr. Affleck may have struck the winning combination by mixing the two. 

In the next day or so I will update the rankings, as I just recently saw Beasts of the Southern Wild. Expect more on that one in my next post. Cheers!