Why Timothee Chalamet Is the Breakout Star of the Toronto Film Festival

The 21-year-old actor is earning Oscar buzz for his performance in 'Call Me By Your Name.'

September 16, 2017 5:00 am

Timothee Chalamet, a 21-year-old actor from New York, is this year’s breakout star of the Toronto International Film Festival for his role in Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name.

The film, an adaptation by James Ivory of an André Aciman’s novel, will be released by Sony Pictures Classic on Nov. 24, according to the New York Daily News. In the movie, Chalamet plays a headstrong 17-year-old who lives with his parents in Italy in the 1980s. He experiences an awakening when a handsome stranger comes to stay with them (played by Armie Hammer).

Chalamet, who can speak multiple languages and play numerous instruments, had a supporting role in Greta Gerwig’s coming-of-age tale Lady Bird and co-stars in the Western Hostiles, which stars Christian Bale. But his role in Call Me By Your Name is his biggest. In it, he plays piano and guitar and speaks both French and Italian.

The New York Daily News says the film and its cast are likely to be considered for Academy Awards, partly because of Chalamet’s “uncommon poise and wide-ranging intelligence in a deeply sensual movie.”

Chalamet has been working towards this for a while. He was a regular on the Showtime series Homeland and played smaller roles in the films Interstellar and Men, Women and Children. He has also performed on stage.

He will be back on the big screen soon, as he is set to star in Woody Allen’s next film.

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