TIFF: Guy Maddin wades into more conventional fare with ‘Rumours.’ [Video]

TORONTO –

Guy Maddin has built a career helming bewildering, dreamlike, avant-garde films, but the Winnipeg auteur’s new dark political comedy “Rumours” may be his most accessible work yet.

Ahead of its North American debut at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 6, the 68-year-old quips the stylistic departure could open “Rumours” to awards season consideration.

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“The idea is to get 12 or 13 Oscars — or at least the noms — so that would have meant a slight tweak of the dial from my previous work. But luckily, this is a script that demanded such dial-turning anyway,” Maddin says on a recent video call from his Winnipeg apartment with co-directors and co-writers Evan and Galen Johnson.

“Do they do with the Oscars what they do with the Stanley Cup here in Canada? You go to your hometown and you drink out of them?”

“Is this how Oscars campaigning works? Is …