Sony brought royalty to the Toronto International Film Festival on Friday night and the studio was rewarded with near-unanimous acclaim for its forthcoming feature "The Woman King" - a rarity of consensus in these early days of awards season.
Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood and starring former Oscar winner Viola Davis as well as "The Underground Railroad" breakouts Thuso Mbedu and Sheila Atim as well as Lashana Lynch ("No Time to Die") and John Boyega (the "Star Wars" franchise), "The Woman King" was hailed as "exquisite," a "rare Hollywood spectacle," and a "crowd-pleasing action epic" that "kicks so much ass." Davis and Mbedu were singled out as the film's top performers, with other notices pointing to the film's score by Terence Blanchard (an Oscar nominee for "BlacKkKlansman" and "Da 5 Bloods") and cinematography by Polly Morgan ("Where the Crawdads Sing") as awards-worthy. "It's the 'Gladiator' of our time," wrote Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis.
Comparisons to Ridley Scott's Best Picture winner, as well as another former Best Picture champion, "Braveheart," are no accident. Prince-Bythewood was inspired by those films and said she had long sought to make something on an epic scale but was boxed-in by the industry. "I've always wanted to be in that bigger sandbox, but women were shut out of it and it wasn't until 'Wonder Woman' and Patty Jenkins and the success that she had, that suddenly cracked open that door and led to more opportunities," she told Uproxx in an interview published before the "The Woman King" debuted.
Sony will release "The Woman King" in theaters next week, meaning the film could ride its festival buzz to a strong opening weekend and beyond: There are only a few major studio releases set to premiere in the coming weeks, including "Don't Worry Darling" on September 23 and "Black Adam" on October 21. Beyond the box office, "The Woman King" could find its way into a very wide-open Best Picture lineup - especially with some of the presumed contenders, such as "Bardo" and "The Son," causing friction among audiences at festivals so far. Davis, meanwhile, remains a strong contender in the Best Actress race and could add to her record as the most-nominated Black actress in Oscars history.
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