La La Land, the musical comedy-drama starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone has generated some major Oscar buzz after premiering at the Venice Film Festival on Wednesday. Directed by Whiplash’s Damien Chazelle, critics are saying the movie harkens back to the Hollywood of old and are predicting it will score multiple Oscar nominations next year.

Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling in La La LandEmma Stone and Ryan Gosling in La La Land

Stone stars as an aspiring actress who works as a waitress, serving coffees to movie stars in-between auditions. While working she meets jazz musician Sebastian (Gosling) and the pair strike up a romance, which becomes threatened when their dreams start to come true.

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Deadline’s Pete Hammond described it as ‘a gorgeous romantic fever dream of a musical that should hit contemporary audiences right in their sweet spot.’  Adding that it’s ‘been a very long time since we have seen something quite this lyrical, lovely, and most importantly, original on the screen.’

Writing in Variety, Owen Gleiberman said that the vintage-style film’s most convincing pleasures are ‘the moments when it lifts the audience into a state of old-movie exaltation, leading us to think, “What a glorious feeling. I’m happy again.”’

Giving it five stars, The Telegraph’s Robbie Collins wrote that La La Land ‘has its head in the stars, and for a little over two wonderstruck hours, it lifts you up there too.’ The film is now expected to give Damien Chazelle his first best director Oscar nod, after being nominated for best adapted screenplay for Whiplash in 2015.

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Gosling and Stone could both also walk away with nominations, with critics praising both their performances along with their sining and dancing skills. The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw described the two leads as “terrific”, singling out Stone as having “never been better.” La La Land will also be shown at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 12, before being released in the US on December 2.

Watch the trailer for La La Land below: