Oscar nominations 2018: The Best Actress race promises to be the most exciting in years

Female stars stole the show with some spectacular performances at this year’s festival

Sally Hawkins plays a mute cleaning woman in Del Toro’s latest fantasy

The most exciting Oscar race for Best Actress in years manifested before the eyes of critics and industry folk gathered at Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) this month.

Towering actresses in two immensely different films were on everybody’s lips: Frances McDormand for her no-nonsense role in In Bruges director Michael McDonagh’s black comedy Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and the star of Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water, Sally Hawkins.

McDormand plays the steely Mildred Hayes in one of those galvanising roles that causes viewers to rub their hands together in glee. The latter provides an astonishing turn playing the mute Elisa Esposito, communicating her way through Del Toro’s fantasy tale using sign language. Both performances will be in contention come next February – nominations are all but guaranteed – aided by the fact that their films are, simply put, showstoppers with Del Toro providing his best work since Pan’s Labyrinth (2006).

A few days into Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) however, another actress entered the race in a rather unheralded yet unsurprising fashion: Jessica Chastain who stars in Aaron Sorkin’s very-wordy directorial debut Molly’s Game, a memoir adaptation recounting the story of Molly Bloom, an Olympic skier who was investigated by the FBI after running her own poker empire. Chastain is an actress long overdue an Oscar win (she has two nominations to her name) and in Molly’s Game, she builds upon the powerhouse performance she gave in the underrated Miss Sloane to deliver perhaps her best one yet.

Margot Robbie has also been gaining heat for her role as figure skater Tonya Harding in biopic I, Tonya. While the drama – directed by Craig Gillespie – may be an illuminating, entertaining watch, it screams out to be a film in which the central performance elevates its staying power; a nomination for Robbie is inevitable.

Another unremarkable film based on an incredible story comprised of worthy performances is Battle of the Sexes which charts the story of tennis champion Billie Jean King’s nationally televised exhibition match opposite self-confessed chauvinist Bobby Riggs in 1973. Reigning Best Actress victor Emma Stone stars as King, going a tiny bit further out of her comfort zone than she has before. It’s the kind of performance that’ll tickle the appreciation of Academy members and a film that’ll no doubt gather awards steam when it’s released, much in the same way as directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris’s previous Oscar winner, Little Miss Sunshine, in 2007. Interestingly, Stone filmed this before La La Land.

Making a racket: Emma Stone and Steve Carell square off in ‘Battle of the Sexes’

Hostiles is the new film from Scott Cooper who directed Jeff Bridges to a deserved Best Actor win for Crazy Heart in 2009. The female lead is Rosamund Pike in a performance that proves her astonishing turn in Gone Girl was no fluke. Frustratingly, the film is yet to acquire distribution so it’s looking like Pike will miss out on the race this time around.

The talk of TIFF overall was Saoirse Ronan who sparked excitement for her lead role in Greta Gerwig’s directorial debut Lady Bird. It was one of the toughest screenings to get into at TIFF but if successful, you would have seen one of those films you'll be happy exists: a poignant coming-of-age tale that will be watched for generations to come.

‘Lady Bird’, starring Saoirse Ronan, was one of the hardest screenings to get into at TIFF

These may be roles usually favoured by the Golden Globes, but their placement in the Oscars category would only bolster what is going to be the fiercest Best Actress race in some time.