On Movies: Over the border, an eye on Oscar 2016

T oo early to talk Oscars?

Not if you're an actor, a filmmaker, a studio exec, a publicist, a blogger - or a humble movie critic - heading to the 40th Toronto International Film Festival.

The biggest festival in North America and the launchpad for awards season contenders and wannabes, TIFF 2015 opens Thursday and runs through Sept. 20. This year's schedule boasts 399 films - 289 features and 110 shorts - from 71 countries.

A lot of those films will end up on VOD platforms, or reappear at smaller fests, make their way to art houses and Amazon, or never be seen again. But there are scores of others - many with studio logos attached, some still in search of distribution - with their proverbial eyes on the prize(s). Academy Awards, Golden Globes, Indie Spirits, the various Hollywood guilds kudos, the 10-best lists.

Below are 25 of the most hotly anticipated titles to be screened in Toronto, most with their respective stars trotting across the red carpets for the gala premieres. Last year at TIFF, the lineup of not-yet Oscar and Golden Globe nominees and winners included Steve Carell and Mark Ruffalo with Foxcatcher, Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley with The Imitation Game, Julianne Moore with Still Alice, Eddie Redmayne with The Theory of Everything, and Reese Witherspoon with Wild.

And this year? You can bet some of these films, their casts, and crews will be on the nominations list when the 2016 Academy Awards roll around.

45 Years British acting giants Tom Courtenay and Charlotte Rampling are a couple whose long, steady marriage is rocked by the discovery of a long-gone lover's remains.

About Ray Elle Fanning in the title role of a transgender teen drama, with Naomi Watts as her/his mom, Susan Sarandon as the lesbian grandmother.

Anomalisa Being John Malkovich's Charlie Kaufman wrote and codirects a stop-motion animated feature about "a man crippled by the mundanity of his life."

Beasts of No Nation Child mercenaries in Africa, starring Idris Elba, directed by True Detective's (first season) Cary Fukunaga.

Black Mass Johnny Depp as Boston mobster and murderer James "Whitey" Bulger. Crazy Heart's Scott Cooper directs.

Born to Be Blue Ethan Hawke as jazz great Chet Baker. "It's a play on the legend," the actor said this year. "It's almost fiction."

Brooklyn Saoirse Ronan uses her real accent for once, in the Nick Hornby-scripted adaptation of Colm Tóibín's novel about a young Irish woman's life-changing move to New York in the early 1950s.

Demolition Jean-Marc Vallée, the Quebecois director of TIFF and Oscar titles Dallas Buyers Club and Wild, steers Jake Gyllenhaal through a drama about an investment banker's breakdown in the wake of his wife's death. Naomi Watts costars.

Desierto Gael Garcia Bernal in a U.S./Mexican border drama from Gravity cowriter Jonás Cuarón.

Eye in the Sky Aaron Paul and Helen Mirren in a drone thriller.

The Family Fang Jason Bateman directs - and stars with Nicole Kidman - in a comedy about siblings in search of their famous, and missing, parents. Dad Fang is played by Christopher Walken.

Five Nights in Maine Philadelphia filmmaker Maris Curran's drama about a mother (Dianne Wiest) and her son-in-law (David Oyelowo) dealing with the untimely death of her daughter, his wife, and the cultural, existential, and racial issues that ensue.

Freeheld Still Alice Oscar-winner Julianne Moore plays Ocean County, N.J., police detective Laurel Hester, and Ellen Page is her domestic partner, Stacie Andree, in this true-life account of the couple's historic fight for equal treatment under the law.

Heart of a Dog Multidisciplinarian Laurie Anderson muses on loss, grief, and memory, considering the deaths of her husband, Lou Reed; her mother; and a dog. From TIFF's documentary program.

High-Rise J.G. Ballard's novel about life in a London luxury tower circa 1975 adapted, with Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Miller, and Elizabeth Moss.

I Saw the Light Speaking of Hiddleston, the British actor, a.k.a Loki in the Marvel Universe franchise, yodels and croons his way through a biopic of country music legend Hank Williams.

The Lady in the Van Maggie Smith in the film based on the award-winning Alan Bennett play, a true story about an elderly woman who lived in a beat-up car on the driveway of writer Bennett's home - for 15 years.

The Lobster Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz in a Kafka-esque sci-fier, winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes, about matchmaking madness in a dystopian future.

Maggie's Plan A romantic comedy from Rebecca Miller, with Bill Hader, Ethan Hawke, Julianne Moore, and Mistress America's Greta Gerwig in the title role.

The Martian Matt Damon is an astronaut left for dead on the Red Planet. When his NASA crewmates back on Earth discover he's still alive, a rescue attempt is made. Ridley Scott directs what's expected to be one of the blockbusters of the fall.

The Program Ben Foster gets into gear as disgraced, de-titled Tour de France champ Lance Armstrong in a sports-doping drama from British director Stephen Frears.

Room A woman and a child, long captive in a room, plan their escape. With Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay. Frank director Lenny Abrahamson adapts the novel by Emma Donoghue.

Spotlight A journalism procedural, straight from the Venice Film Festival, about the Boston Globe's Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation of the sex-abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic Church. With Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, and Liev Schreiber.

Stonewall Dramatization of the events surrounding the historic Stonewall Riots, the violent clash between cops and gays in 1969 New York.

Trumbo Bryan Cranston as blacklisted and brilliant screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, from the biography by Bruce Cook.

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