Fabelmans: Spielberg big Oscar favorite for his most personal film?

The Oscar race has officially begun! A grueling marathon that will end on March 12, 2023, and whose participants are beginning to reveal themselves. Although each country chooses its paper for the trophy of the best foreign language film and trends have emerged from the Venice Film Festival (The Banshees of Inisherin, Cate Blanchett in Tár…), Toronto offered us the first favorite.

By walking away with the Audience Award, Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans certainly confirmed its status as a credible contender. Of course, without much surprise, because the director is often synonymous with a golden statue. But it’s official now, especially since all ten previous Audience Award winners have made their name on the Oscar list, winning the top trophy ( Twelve Years a Slave , Green Book , Nomad Country ) or not.

We’ll still have to wait a few months before we find out which category Fabelmans will be featured in. And if he will. But Steven Spielberg’s triumph would be all the more beautiful because the feature film is inspired by his childhood and his love for cinema is evident in the first images when the film was about to be transferred to Toronto. And here’s what we know, for now, about this opus.

when is it published?

The Fabelmans were originally scheduled to appear in France on Wednesday, November 23. Or on the same day as in the US, where it is set to take advantage of Thanksgiving to achieve a good first weekend at the US box office. But the film has since been pushed back to January 25, 2023 in France.

A frequent mismatch between feature films that have Oscar sights and which can thus surf on already received nominations or awards (for example, Golden Globes) to a wider audience. Even if one might think that Steven Spielberg’s name is largely enough to attract moviegoers.

what will it be

The youth of Sammy Fabelman, who we follow from the age of 7 to 18, and who dreams of becoming a director. In the absence of an official synopsis, this is all we know about its story, although a “Based on the childhood of its director Steven Spielberg” It would be equally telling.

For the occasion, the director co-wrote the screenplay with Tony Kushner (who wrote West Side Story, his last film), something he hasn’t done since AI in the early 2000s.

But could it be any other way than this incredibly personal project, which he has wanted to create for almost thirty years after incorporating various elements of his childhood (especially the absence of his father) into the themes of his feature films? previous?

After West Side Story and the dream of a musical comedy, another wish of his is that he is in the process of giving a feature film officially announced in March 2021, which began shooting in July of the same year for several months. later.

However, The Fabelmans will only be loosely inspired by Steven Spielberg’s life, and the characters’ names will not be the same as those they are based on. The hero, for example, is called Sam.

Who will it be with?

Steven Spielberg’s big screen alter ego, Sam, will be played by Gabrielle LaBelle, seen in The Predator, episodes of Fresh Cherry Flavor and Season 2 of iZombie. A relatively unknown actor, unlike the big names alongside him. The name of the actress that became known, Michelle Williams will definitely be the hero’s mother, inspired by the words of the director, who, however, specified that he would give it to her. “The Original Voice”.

Recently seen in Batman as the disturbing Riddler, Paul Dano will play Sam’s father. So, Steven Spielberg’s version, whose absence was felt in many of his films after his parents’ divorce. Until the last West Side Story, almost devoid of parental figures, he still dedicated to his father.

The role we imagine in the main filmography is the role of a filmmaker, played by an actor who made his first steps as a director in 2018 with a very beautiful wildlife, focused on the degradation of a couple.

Armed with his usual likability and amiability, Seth Rogen will play the character inspired by young Spielberg’s beloved uncle. And Julia Butters (Trudi in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood) will be the hero’s sister.

There are other names in the cast, in roles that have yet to be revealed. Like Judd Hirsch or the young Oakes Fegley revealed in the Amblin remake of Peter and Elliot’s Dragon. Is that how the director caught his eye?

Now that the already very moving trailer has been released, it remains only to wait wisely for the French release, which seems a long way off, given the enthusiasm The Fabelmans is already generating. And if he has everything, on paper, about the perfect last film, Steven Spielberg has already said that this will not be the end of his career.