Yesterday, the TIFF roll-out started with titles that will be high-profile at TIFF ’11, but are not potential Oscar-race late entries. Today, 10 titles that are currently without US distribution partners, but could end up not only getting released in 2011, but could be players in the race, either in Best Picture (less likely) or any of the acting or writing categories (much more likely).

Of course, all or any of them could end up stinking. And such is the fun of the TIFF shake-out.

(in alphabetical order)

360, director Fernando Meirelles

Meirelles remains on of the most interesting directors working. This film seems to be a drama with strong sexual themes. Written by Peter Morgan and starring Rachel Weisz and Jude Law – famously paired in Enemy At The Gates – as well as Anthony Hopkins and Ben Foster… all Oscar bait talent. (Forster is the only one never nominated… but has been buzzed repeatedly in recent years.) The script is based on an Arthur Schnitzler’s classic play, La Ronde, which pairs up couples then follows one member of each pairing to the next pairing. (Anything Schnitzler may scare some after Eyes Wide Shut.) Meirelles and Morgan’s version follows lovers through Paris, London, Bratislava, Rio, Denver and Phoenix.

The Deep Blue Sea, director Terence Davies

Another Rachel Weisz performance, more sexual intrigue, and another classic play as the basis, this time Terrence Rattigan’s 1952 play of the same title, which premiered with no less than Dame Peggy Ashcroft in the role Weisz plays in the film. Here, the lead character is paired with Tom Hiddleston (also in two Oscar bait film: Midnight In Paris & War Horse… as well as Thor) as the lover and Simon Russell Beale (one of England’s most acclaimed stage actors) as the spurned husband.

It’s been 11 years since Davies made a feature and this film marks the 100th birthday of the deceased playwright. Will it be this year’s End of The Affair or Far From Heaven? We’ll soon see.

Eye of the Storm, director Fred Schepisi

Schepisi, whose work ranges from The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith to Roxanne to the dingo what ate Meryl’s baby, brought Last Orders to TIFF in 2000 and drew a lot of attention with an all-star cast of great character actors (including pre-Queen Mirren, Caine, Hoskins, Winstone, Courtenay, and a lovely return and farewell (he passed a couple years later, adding another dozen performances, but none of this level) by David Hemmings. But Sony Classics just couldn’t find an audience for the film.

His return to TIFF, 10 years later, shows a lot of promise. Charlotte Rampling is The Matriarch who has decided it’s time to die and Geoffrey Rush and Judy Davis are her “kids,” who want their piece of the family fortune. It’s based on a novel by Patrick White, the only Aussie who ever won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Here is the trailer and a chat from the film’s premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival.

Killer Joe, director William Friedkin

This is Friedkin’s second film of a Tracy Letts play. Since Bug, which got a bit lost because of its hard-to-market tone, Letts picked up a Pulitzer for the play, August: Osage, County. This time, things should be clearer for the marketing team, whoever it ends up being. Adapted by Letts from his first play, Matthew McConaughey is right in his sweet spot as a southern, smooth tough guy… the title character. Emile Hirsch is parented by Thomas Haden Church and Gina Gershon, who all plan a murder for which they want to hire Killer Joe. One of Sundance 2010’s IT girls, Juno Temple, plays the sister/daughter/bait.

Could Matthew McConaughey follow his pal Sandra Bullock to an unexpected Oscar slot?

The big problem here could be the level of sex and violence, which could turn on audiences and turn off Academy voters. But well only really know once we’ve seen the film.

The Lady , director Luc Besson

In the last dozen years, Luc Besson has become one of the most successful movie producers in the world… and a bit of an afterthought as a director. Since The Messenger in 1999, he’s only really directed one movie for adults, Angel-A, which barely got released in 2005. Since then, he’s built his empire, and focused his directing time on three Arthur & The Invisibles films and just last year, another comic book film, The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec .

The Lady looks like a real movie. The true life story of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi, who led her political party to victory in 1990 while under house arrest… a house arrest that went on for almost 15 years. Michelle Yeoh, almost unrecognizable, takes on the dramatic role.

Peace, Love, & Misunderstanding, director Bruce Beresford

This one smells of an Oscar role for Jane Fonda, who plays a hippie grandmother to Sundance co-IT girl Lizzie OIsen and Chace Crawford, and mom to a conservative Catherine Keener (who has to melt, right… but who wouldn’t want to watch her do it?).

It’s one of those movies that seems so obvious an opportunity for quality fun that will do excellent indie business that it’s a little scary that its heading to TIFF without distribution.

Rampart, director Oren Moverman

Just two years ago, after a lot of fighting to get the film out there by Oscilloscope Laboratories, Moverman’s film The Messenger (no relation to Besson’s) picked up two Oscar nominations, for screenplay and for Woody Harrelson. The duo returns with this story set in the real life tale of the corrupt Rampart police division in Los Angeles.

The cast is a killer, including Ben Foster, Sigourney Weaver, Steve Buscemi, and Robin Wright. The screenwriter is no one less than James Ellroy.

So why isn’t there a distributor? Maybe Harsh Times, the terrific little film with Christian Bale that went no where in a hurry a half-dozen years ago. But that film was tied up in a messy marriage of a new producer, a flailing distributor, etc.

Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, director Lasse Haalstrom

This one feels a bit like we have seen it before. Chocolat meets The Cider House Rules? Ewan McGregor is the scientist who is tasked with bringing salmon fishing to Yemen. Emily Blunt & Kristin Scott Thomas ensue.

Like any cliche, there is a reason why certain ideas become cliche. When they click, we LOVE them. (Well, audiences love them.) So what will this one be? Will is be sparkling or flat? Unlike an LA lunch, one option is definitively better than the other.

Shame, director Steve McQueen

McQueen’s first film was a masterpiece. Painful to experience, but really, masterpiece.

Who knows whether his second time out will be as difficult, but we do know that there is a theme of incest in the mix. Two of the world’s hottest young actors, Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan star.

I expect it to be tough. But Fassbender has been a superstar in wait, in terms of the US, and he gets to roll out the charismatic and the dramatic in this role. Mulligan is a consummate actress who got love for her sweet side and is apparently ready to take audiences somewhere darker. Audiences ran away from that in Never Let Me Go, which for me is easily her film best work to date… it just wasn’t charming.

I am not so surprised that distributors are scared to death of this film. But I am expecting greatness. I hope I’m not hoping for too much.

Take This Waltz – director Sarah Polley

It’s been 5 years between Sarah Polley movies. A lot of people have been waiting.

This time, her players are closer to her own age. Michelle Williams is the married woman who finds herself falling in love with another man. Seth Rogan and Sarah Silverman, seem (having not seen the film) to be stretching past their normally broad comic roles.

It will be nice to see Michelle Williams without the entire weight of the world on her shoulders… not that there won’t be drama.

The film seems to take its title from the Leonard Cohen song of the same name.

Of course, Moviefone went right for what they consider the most important story… Sarah Silverman telling them she’d be nude in the film. They quote her saying the same thing TWICE in this story. Apparently editors don’t work well with one hand on the keyboard. They’ll fit in well with HuffPo.

The film has, it seems, been offered around. Does that mean it’s not good, that taste levels are low, or that pricing for indie films is so rough these days that the best hope is to get some heat from Polley’s home country uberfest?

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