Photo credit: David Hindley Courtesy of LD Entertainment and Roadside Attractions(TORONTO) — Starring in the biopic Judy, which is essentially a movie about a comeback, has become a comeback vehicle for Renee Zellweger.
In the film, the Jerry Maguire star plays Judy Garland, decades after she stole America’s heart as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.
The film earned a marathon standing ovation at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it it screened Tuesday evening. Some attendees said they’d never before seen such a reaction.
“In 15 years at #TIFF I have never seen a standing ovation like the one for Renee Zellweger at JUDY,” one critic captioned her video. “I started this about a minute into [the ovation] and it only stopped because she made us.”
In the clip, you can see the humbled actress fight back tears, then tell the audience to stop applauding so she doesn’t mess up her makeup.
The reaction has many pundits thinking she’s a shoo-in for an Oscar nomination.
The film follows Garland as she prepares for a sold-out run of concerts in London in 1968. Her voice isn’t what it once was, and she’s battling an addiction to pills, but she powers through the shows to provide for her children, Joey Luft, Lorna Luft and Liza Minnelli.
She even manages to find love again with her soon-to-be fifth husband Mickey Deans, played by Unbroken‘s Finn Wittrock. But sadly, Garland passed away a year later, in June of 1969.
Judy hits theaters on Sept. 27.
Copyright © 2019, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.