TIFF Awards: A Boost to Oscar Hopes
Chloe Zhao’s film Hamnet has won the TIFF People’s Choice Award at the 50th anniversary of the Toronto International Film Festival, increasing its prospects for an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. This is the second time Zhao has won the award, the last time being in 2020 for her film Nomadland, which also won the Best Picture Oscar.
A Proven Track Record
Hamnet stars Jessie Buckley, who is being touted as an early Oscar leader for her performance as Agnes, wife of William Shakespeare, alongside Paul Mescal as the bard. The film follows the parents as they mourn the loss of their title child. The drama premiered on November 27th in Telluride and opened on November 27th with limited releases, expanding on December 12th. The audience award winner is a proven bellwether in the award season, with every winner in the past 15 years earning an Oscar nomination for Best Picture, and three – 12 Years a Slave, Green Book, and Parasite – winning the Oscar for Best Picture.
Other TIFF Winners
Park Chan-Wook’s No Other Choice, which premiered in Venice and opened in Busan this week, took the first runner-up spot in the international People’s Choice Award. The dark comedy is also South Korea’s Oscar submission. Barry Avrich’s The Street Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue won the documentary film award. Matt Johnson’s Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie won the People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award.
Full List of TIFF Winners
People’s Choice Awards
- People’s Choice Award: Hamnet, Dir. Chloe Zhao
- First runner-up: Frankenstein
- Second runner-up: The Dead Man Wake Up: A Knife in the Secret
- People’s Choice International Award: No Other Choice, Dir. Park Chan-Wook
- First runner-up: Sentimental Value
- Second runner-up: Homebound
- People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award: Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, Dir. Matt Johnson
- First runner-up: Obsession
- Second runner-up: The Angry
- People’s Choice Documentary Award: The Street Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue, Dir. Barry Avrich
- First runner-up: Epos: Elvis Presley in Concert
- Second runner-up: They Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Sparked the Comedy Revolution
Short Cuts Awards
- Best International Film: Talk to Me (SP-US), Dir. Joecar Hanna
- Best Canadian Film: The Girl Who Cried Pearls, Dir. Chris Lavis & Maciek Szczerbowski
- Best Animated Short Film: To the Forest (Fri), Dir. Agnes Patron
Fipsci Award
- Outsider (SP-IT-SWE), Dir. Lucia Aleña Iglesias
Netpac Award
- Looking for Heaven (Vimukt, India), Dir. Jitank Singh Gurjar
Best Canadian Discovery Award
- Blauer Heron, Dir. Sophy Romvari
- Honourable mention: 100 Sunset, Dir. Kunsang Kyirong
Canadian Film Award from Canada Goose
- Uikssaringitara (False Husband), Dir. Kunuk Zacharias
- Honourable mention: There Are No Words, Dir. Min Sook Lee
Platform Competition Award
- To Win! (UKR-LITH), Dir. Valentyn Vasyanovych
- Honourable mention: Hen (GER-GRE-HUN), Dir. György Pálfi
