Director Cord Jefferson’s latest film, “American Fiction” garnered the top prize, People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Jefferson, who has been a writer on “Succession” and “Watchmen,” made his feature directorial debut with the movie and wrote the screenplay. It is based on Percival Everett’s 2001 novel, “Erasure.” MGM is releasing the film this year.
People’s Choice Award has been considered to be a strong Oscar contenders for last decade. The winners of the top prize as “Green Book,” “12 Years a Slave” and “Nomadland” went on to grab the best picture at the Academy Awards. Other recipients, including “Belfast,” “La La Land,” “Jojo Rabbit,” and 2022’s winner, “The Fabelmans,” were all best picture nominees. Even though the 2023 selections might not be This year’s Toronto was a much more low-key affair with fewer red carpets and splashy premieres, due to the WGA and AG-AFTRA strikes. She actors received the promotion interim agreement for small indie films.
Alexander Payne’s boarding school dramedy “The Holdovers” was the first runner-up for the People’s Choice Award, while Hayao Miyazaki’s animated coming-of-age story “The Boy and the Heron” was the second runner-up.
“Dicks: The Musical,” a raunchy satire from “Borat” director Larry Charles, won the People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award. A24 will release the film later this month. The first runner-up in the Midnight Madness category was Nikhil Nagesh Bhat’s “Kill,” while “Hell of a Summer,” co-directed by Finn Wolfhard and Billy Bryk, was the second runner-up.
The audience prize for documentary went to Robert McCallum’s “Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe,” a profile of children’s entertainer Ernie Coombs. Jen Markowitz’s “Summer Qamp” and Lucy Walker’s “Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa” were the first and second runner-ups in the non-fiction category.
Here’s the complete list of the award winners.
People’s Choice Award: “American Fiction” (dir. Cord Jefferson)
People’s Choice Documentary Award: “Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe” (dir. Robert McCallum)
People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award: “Dicks: The Musical” (dir. Larry Charles)
Platform Award: “Dear Jassi” (dir. Tarsem Singh Dhandwar)
Best Canadian Feature Film: “Solo” (dir. Sophie Dupuis)
Best Short Film: “Electra” (dir. Daria Kascheeva)
Best Canadian Short: “Motherland” (dir. Jasmin Mozaffari)
#ShareHerJourney Award: “She” (dir. Renee Zhan)
NETPAC Award: “A Match” (dir. Jayant Digambar Somalkar)
FIPRESCI Jury Award: “Seagrass” (dir. Meredith Hama-Brown)
Amplify Voices Award for Best BIPOC Canadian Feature: “Kanaval” (dir. Henri Pardo)
Amplify Voices Award for Best BIPOC Canadian First Feature:“Tautuktavuk” (dir. Carol Kunnuk and Lucy Tulugarjuk)
Amplify Voices BIPOC Canadian Trailblazer Award: Damon D’Oliveira
Changemaker Award: “We Grown Now” (dir. Minhal Baig)
