Movie Cricket

When it debuted at Sundance in January, the movie "Push: Based on the Novel by Sapphire" looked to be a festival sensation — hugely emotional to audiences, but how were they going to market it?

Since then, the film's producers have made some extremely cagey moves to turn the movie — about an illiterate teen (played by newcomer Gabourey (Gabby) Sidibe, pictured) dealing with pregnancy and an abusive mother (played by the comedian Mo'Nique) — from a movie only festival audiences will see into a potential Oscar contender.

First, they found some heavy-hitters to sign on as executive producers: talk-show host Oprah Winfrey, who can use her media empire to promote the film, and director-producer Tyler Perry, who's proven himself quite a force in Hollywood with his string of hits (the latest being "I Can Do Bad All By Myself") targeted at African-American audiences.

A title change was necessary, because of another movie called "Push" (a supernatural thriller starring Dakota Fanning that opened in February) — so the movie now bears the title "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire."

And the producers worked the festival circuit hard, first at Cannes, and last week at the Toronto International Film Festival — which paid off in an audience award, announced this weekend.

Roger Ebert predicted Saturday that "Precious" picking up the Toronto audience award "could not be a better omen for the Oscar chances of 'Precious'; it is all but certain to win a place on the expanded list of the Academy's 10 'best picture' nominees. Its star, Gabourey (Gabby) Sidibe, is also a real possibility for an acting nomination."

Others have noted that last year's audience pick at Toronto was "Slumdog Millionaire" — the first step on that movie's road to Oscar glory.