Actor Brendan Fraser (The Whale) will receive the Tribute Award for Performance at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), marking a major high point in the Canadian’s career.
According to TIFF’s CEO Cameron Bailey: “Brendan Fraser gives a performance of staggering depth, power, and nuance in The Whale…This former Torontonian has been an action star, a screen comic, and a romantic lead. We’re thrilled to welcome him home as the actor behind one of the finest performances of the year.”
Brendan Fraser, whose high-profile career has slowed considerably since The Mummy Trilogy concluded in 2008, is poised to make a comeback, with The Whale and Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon forthcoming. Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale stars Fraser as “a reclusive English teacher living with severe obesity [attempting] to reconnect with his estrange teenage daughter.” Fraser’s fat suit and makeup helped transform him into his 600-pound character.
The festival and its awards are seen as a precursor to the Academy Awards. In the past decade, all ten TIFF People’s Choice Award winners were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, with three winning.
Past recipients of the Tribute Award–considered a variation on a lifetime achievement award–include Meryl Streep, Anthony Hopkins and Kate Winslet. In addition to Brendan Fraser, the cast of The Policeman will also be honored with a TIFF Tribute Award.
The Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 8-18. Make sure to keep your eye out for coverage on JoBlo as we’ll be there at the festival!
What do you think? Does Brendan Fraser have an early shot of getting a Best Actor nomination for The Whale at the Academy Awards?