Director Steven Spielberg’s upcoming The Fablemans is months from its premiere date, but it’s already receiving accolades. It has received strong buzz as a personal look at his early life, and, now, has become a forerunner for the next Best Picture Oscar after winning a major precursor award at the TIFF event.
News of the movie releasing in December as well as it being recognized with the People’s Choice Award at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival is reported in a Deadline Hollywood article. The People’s Choice Award has been awarded every year since 1978 and past winners have been Nomadland, Green Book, 12 Years A Slave, The King’s Speech, Slumdog Millionaire, American Beauty and Chariots of Fire. Each of those have gone on to win the top Oscar during their respective campaign years and the film from Spielberg currently has a 98 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes with critical consensus indicating the 75-year-old has not lost his magic talents.
The Fablemans comes out Dec. 30 in the United States. It features David Lynch in a surprise role along with stars Gabriel LaBelle as the Spielberg stand-in Sammy Fableman as well as Michelle Williams and Paul Dano as the representations of Spielberg’s parents. Seth Rogen is in the piece as a friend of the family who later becomes a surrogate uncle to young Sammy. Spielberg had considered bringing the story to life earlier, but delayed for fear of what his parents would think of his critical-but-loving eye. An earlier version was also written by his sister, Anne, and at the time was under the title I’ll Be Home instead of The Fablemans.