The Alan Turing Biopic – The Imitation Game – nabbed the People’s Choice Award in this year’s recently concluded Toronto Film Festival. The win is an indicator that the Alan Turing biopic and the man behind the lead role, British actor, Benedict Cumberbatch, will have a sure spot in next year’s Academy Awards.
Cumberbatch has won over film critics with his characterization of the socially awkward, but brilliant mathematician Alan Turing during the height of the Second World War. Not only did the Alan Turing biopic showed how the cryptologist managed to break the German’s unbreakable Enigma Code and built the first prototype of the modern-day computer, it also tackled on how Turing was convicted for being a homosexual and was sentenced to go through hormonal therapy.
Winning the People’s Choice Award Means…
As for going straight to the Oscars next year, winning the People’s Choice Award in the film fest is a strong indication of having a sure place among the film contenders in the said event. As a matter of fact, previous winners of the Toronto Film Fest these past few years also made it big at the Academy Awards. 2013’s 12 Years a Slave went on to take home the trophy for Best Picture. The Jennifer Lawrence-Brad Cooper movie, Silver Linings Playbook, which won in the film fest in 2012 went on to have eight Oscar nominations. The King’s Speech’s plight in 2009 was also the same.
So, many are hopeful that this Alan Turing biopic will be Benedict Cumberbatch’s ticket to an Oscar nomination.
Cumberbatch on the Alan Turing Biopic and the Oscars
Nevertheless, the British actor commented that it’s still premature to talk about Oscar glory at this point. He is just glad that the Alan Turing biopic has stirred a lot of buzz. This means that people will really get to see it.
As for Alan Turing, Cumberbatch calls the treatment the British mathematician received after his impressive contribution during the war as shocking. In an interview with a news portal, he stated that being storytellers, he hopes they have done justice to the legacy the brilliant mind of Alan Turing left.