Toronto isn’t known for its heat, except when it comes time for the Toronto International Film Festival.

While Clooney and Pitt are always the talk of the town, two new films have really surprised audiences and are being talked about as Oscar contenders.

The first one is from director Steve McQueen (no relation to the late movie icon), entitled Shame.

Michael Fassbender is receiving rave reviews for his turn as a sex addicted New York City bachelor whose world is turned upside down when his erratic younger sister (Carey Mulligan) comes to stay with him. A few days ago, the role won him the best actor prize at the Venice Film Festival.

Fassbender — who is also in Toronto with David Cronenberg’s “A Dangerous Method” — notes that sex has become such a powerful marketing tool that people have become desensitized to it.

“I mean, you’d have to walk around with blinkers on, really, not to see how sex is so weaved into our society and how we’re told how to go about our sexual lives,” he said.

The sex scenes are said to be so graphic, that the film could get an NC-17 rating.

The second film that has Toronto buzzing is Anonymous.

Did William Shakespeare really write all of his brilliant works?

Lionized in Shakespeare in Love, the Bard takes one on the chin in Anonymous, a movie that portrays him as an illiterate buffoon, barely smart enough to fool Elizabeth’s London into thinking he actually wrote all those plays and sonnets. No indeed, in this movie young Will is a mere front for the noble Edward de Vere, Earl of Oxford, one of the more twisted characters in English history but, alas, a decent poet who has long had his adherents as the true author of Hamlet, et al. Of course, others line up behind Christopher Marlowe, Francis Bacon, Queen Elizabeth herself and perhaps even the stable boy at the Globe Theater. Anyone but Shakespeare!

Rhys Ifans is earning high praise for his turn as the Earl of Oxford and of course as always, Vanessa Redgrave as Elizabeth I.

Shame will be sexing up the theaters when it hits the states at the end of the year, while Anonymous will take the big stage on October 28th.