Mike Flanagan’s Chuck’s life “Toronto” won the top honor of the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival on Sunday, a 2024 festival that’s once again getting celebrity buzz but remains in the shadow of Venice and Cannes.
Starring Mark Hamill, Karen Gillan and Chiwetel Ejiofor, the film based on Stephen King’s novella tells the story of embracing hope in the face of tragedy and had its world premiere in Toronto. In a statement, Flanagan thanked TIFF for awarding the Audience Award: “I am simply overwhelmed. We are so grateful. Chuck’s life Connecting with the audience in such a powerful way that I didn’t expect it to be.
The second runner-up for the People’s Choice Award is Jacques Audiard emilia perez, A queer crime musical coming to Netflix has won the director the Cannes Jury Prize, while its eponymous star Karla Sofía Gascón became the first woman to win best actress at a French film festival A transgender woman took the acting crown, which she shared with fellow stars Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz and Zoe Saldana. Runner-up was Sean Baker’s screwball comedy about sex workers Anorawon the Cannes Palme d’Or.
With Hollywood awards season upon us, TIFF’s top audience award is considered a barometer of future Oscar nominations. Previous TIFF Audience Award winners—including Room, Le City, Twelve years a slave and nomadic land — got a helping hand at the usually celebrity-studded Canadian film festival, where it picked up an Academy Award.
The People’s Choice Award for Best Documentary went to Tragic fashion: no rehearsaldirected by McDowney. Prime Video and MGM Amazon Studios optioned the film about the Canadian band’s final concert after lead singer Gord Downey (brother of director Mike Downey) was diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Runner-up in this category was Josh Greenbaum will and harpera road trip movie starring Will Ferrell and ex- saturday night live Head writer Harper Steele takes bow at Sundance and heads to Netflix, second runner-up is your tomorrow A film about Toronto’s Ontario Place from director Ali Weinstein made a splash at TIFF.
Coralie Fargeat wins TIFF Audience Award for Best Midnight Madness Title substanceThe film, which premiered in Cannes, stars Margaret Qualley as Demi Moore, a Hollywood actress in decline who is at odds with her younger self. Runners up are: Dead Talent Associationdirected by John Hsu, which made its North American bow in Toronto after its Taiwan bow, with the third runner-up going to Andrew DeYoung friendship After the world premiere at TIFF.
The People’s Choice Award is voted on by TIFF attendees. The 2024 Toronto Film Festival brings together Oscar contenders and arthouse gems, with SAG-AFTRA members unable to promote their latest films at TIFF and other fall film festivals following last year’s Hollywood actors’ strike. Celebrity buzz has picked up this year unless their producers sign tentative deals.
However, the 2024 festival was lackluster compared to Venice and Cannes, as Toronto held no official press conferences to help market films targeting Oscars, Golden Globes and other prestigious awards, and no official film competition. Being Hollywood signings, stars hit the red carpet in Toronto and waved to fans outside Roy Thomson Hall, but without the glitz and glamor of the Esplanade and Lido.
Among the jury awards was Spanish film producer Carlos Marques-Marcet They will eventually turn into dustAn ensemble drama about a woman with an incurable disease who travels to Switzerland to end her life won the Platform Award. “I want to thank all the activists or right-to-die associations who are helping us think about how to deal with this. We will be there. So hopefully we can think, talk and have a discussion about how we want to do this.
The FIPRESCI Prize was awarded to Mom, Mom, Directed by Somali-Canadian recording artist K’naan Warsame. The NETPAC Award honors a first- or second-time feature film director participating in TIFF for Best Asian Film. the last sea womanis a documentary directed by Sue King and produced by Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai.
Elsewhere, Canada’s Emerging Filmmaker Discovery Awards were presented to common languageDirector Matthew Rankin pays homage to the absurdism of Iranian cinema. The TIFF Jury Award for Best Canadian Feature Film goes to Sophie Deraspe shepherd, a drama about a A Montreal copywriter reinvents himself as a shepherd in the French Alps. Deraspe previously made her mark with ” Antigone 2019.
The award for Best International Short Film went to Deck 5Bdirected by Swedish director Malin Ingrid Johansson, and the Best Canadian Short Film Award went to Bec Pecout. Are you afraid of being yourself because you think you might fail?
On the film sales front, Toronto has announced no deals in the past 10 days after another quiet year in 2023, when writers and actors went on strike and SAG-AFTRA restrictions prevented buyers from traveling to Toronto or making acquisitions locally Movie deal.
After Toronto announced it would launch an official content market in 2026, the informal sales market fell into a lull. On September 5, protesters disrupted the opening ceremony of TIFF and chanted that the festival’s official banking partner, the Royal Bank of Canada, was “funding genocide.”
Russian-Canadian director Anastasia Trofimova faces backlash in both Venice and Toronto as Ukrainian Canadians protest her documentary russians at war in Toronto ahead of its North American premiere. TIFF organizers ultimately canceled public screenings of the controversial film during the 11-day event due to safety concerns, then rescheduled the film for a Sept. 17 screening at the TIFF Lightbox.
A spokesman for the Toronto Police Service confirmed hollywood reporter Decided to suspend screenings on Sunday russians at war was “produced independently by the event organizers” without the involvement of local police authorities.
