Fifty years ago, a little-known actor named Sylvester Stallone scored a TKO with the boxing classic Rocky. Frustrated with Hollywood for not giving him a shot at the A-list, Stallone punched his own ticket to stardom by writing the film’s script and refusing to step out of the spotlight when producers encouraged him to cast a bigger name as Philadelphian fighter Rocky Balboa, aka the Italian Stallion. Released over the Thanksgiving holiday in 1976, Rocky became a heavyweight blockbuster and Oscar contender, nominated for 10 statuettes and taking home three, including Best Picture.
That only-in-Hollywood story may sound like the stuff of fiction, but rest assured that it’s all true. Now, though, Stallone’s story has been reverse-engineered into Amazon MGM’s narrative feature I Play Rocky, which had its world premiere at the 51st Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday night. Written by Peter Gamble and directed by Peter Farrelly, the film casts another newcomer, Anthony Ippolito, as the younger Sly as he takes his one in a million shot at stardom.
At the film’s TIFF premiere — which was frequently interrupted by cheers and applause, particularly when Rocky fans saw iconic scenes from the 1976 movie faithfully recreated — Farrelly called Gamble’s script, “the greatest script I’d ever read.” He also revealed that the production planned a worldwide casting search to find the actor who could play Stallone, but casting agent Rick Montgomery already had that taken care of.
“Anthony Ippolito had heard about the movie, somehow got ahold of the script, and then in his grandmother’s basement shot himself doing three scenes, and sent us the tape,” Farrelly recalled. “I looked at it and was like, ‘The search is over; that’s the guy.'”
For his part, Ippolito was visibly affected by the audience’s reception of his transformative star turn. “It took a lot of effort over two years,” the actor said. “I’m so grateful so many people were willing to take a chance on me in this situation. The movie shows that it’s not really easy to an actor sometimes, and this is all surreal.”
I Play Rocky definitely brought the crowd to their feet, but will it be a contender at the 2027 Oscars? Here’s our take on where the film might land some punches in the awards fight.
Best Picture
Farrelly and TIFF are like Rocky and raw eggs: a potent combination that’s great prep work for the Oscar race. Back in 2018, the director brought his race-relations drama Green Book to Toronto where it won that year’s People’s Choice Award — the first step on the film’s road to being crowned an Oscar champ. Nominated for five awards, Green Book scored three prizes including Best Original Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor for Mahershala Ali, and Best Picture. Small wonder that Farrelly has brought several of his subsequent movies, 2022’s The Greatest Beer Run Ever and now I Play Rocky, to world premiere in Toronto as well. It would certainly be the crowd-pleasing closing of a 50-year circle if I Play Rocky were to be nominated for the same prize that Rocky won back in 1976, but the film will have to establish its crowd-pleasing bona fides beyond the TIFF crowd first — especially since Amazon MGM is also chasing a Best Picture nomination for its first-quarter blockbuster Project Hail Mary.
Best Director
Farrelly missed out on a directing nomination for Green Book, putting him in the same weight class as Ben Affleck and Siân Heder — filmmakers who saw their movies win Best Picture without their own Best Director bids. An I Play Rocky nomination would be a make-good for that previous miss, but that category is stacked with some Clubber Lang-sized heavyweights that Farrelly would have to defeat, including The Odyssey‘s Christopher Nolan, Wild Horse Nine‘s Martin McDonagh, and Dune: Part Three‘s Denis Villeneuve. Even if I Play Rocky makes the cut in Best Picture, its director might have to content himself with an 0-for-2 record.
Best Actor
Portraying a real person — particularly a celebrity — is a classic route to Oscar gold. For example, the same year that Green Book won its Best Picture prize, Rami Malek took home the Best Actor statuette for playing Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody, and Renée Zellweger’s won Best Actress the following year for playing Judy‘s Judy Garland. So there’s certainly precedent for an Ippolito nomination, but much like Best Director, the 2026 Best Actor race is a murderer’s row of established actors in career-best star turns, making it a particularly tough cycle for an underdog to break through. Still, even if he misses out on a nomination, Ippolito can definitely consider I Play Rocky to be an audition for bigger opportunities.
Best Supporting Actor
From the minute he entered the frame as the late Carl Weathers — who went toe-to-toe with Stallone as the indomitable Apollo Creed — Toronto-born rising star Stephen James made an immediate impression on the hometown audience. “I’m so honored to be able to carry the legacy of someone like Carl,” James said after the screening. “It meant so much to me to step into his shoes and hopefully do him a little bit of justice.” Unfortunately, James isn’t in the movie quite enough to likely be in serious contention for this prize, but esteemed writer-actor Tracy Letts also has a scene-stealing heel turn as Sandy Maddox, the fictionalized president of MGM/UA who keeps throwing up roadblocks on the way to getting Rocky made. His performance is in the tradition of Michael Lerner’s Oscar-nominated studio boss supporting turn in Barton Fink, and in a weak field, Letts’s name carries a lot of weight.
Best Adapted Screenplay
Much like Stallone himself, I Play Rocky scribe Peter Gamble was previously a jobbing screenwriter who is now taking his shot at leveling up to a different Hollywood weight class. After the screening, he noted that the audience’s reaction to his triumph over adversity telling of Rocky‘s story was only possible because Sly had lived it. That’s a great narrative that could carry Gamble into a Best Adapted Screenplay race that still has room for an upset or two. His heart is most definitely on fire to go for the belt.
