Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award

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The Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award is an annual film award, presented by the Toronto International Film Festival to the movie rated as the year's best film according to TIFF audience. [1] Past sponsors of the award have included Cadillac and Grolsch. [2]

Contents

The winners of this award have often later earned Academy Award nominations, to the point that the award is now considered to be effectively the "starting gun" of the Academy Award nominations race. [3]

In 2009, the festival introduced separate People's Choice Awards for Documentaries and Midnight Madness. [4] In 2015, it also introduced a People's Choice Award for its satellite Canada's Top Ten festival, [5] which was discontinued after 2018 due to TIFF's decision to switch the Canada's Top Ten program from a dedicated festival to a series of week-long theatrical screenings.

Process

At each film screening, attendees are invited to "vote" for the film by rating the film on their ticket stub and depositing it in a box outside the theatre after the show. [6] However, to ensure that the voting process does not bias the award toward films that screened in larger theatres and that a film's own cast and crew cannot stuff the ballot box, the overall number of votes received is also weighted against the size of the screening audience. [6] For example, a film which screened in a smaller theatre, but had a highly passionate fan base, can have an advantage over a film that had a larger number of raw votes but a more mixed or uneven reception. [6] Because each film is screened multiple times over the course of the entire festival, the process also enables the organizers to evaluate which films are generating more audience buzz, by virtue of a significant increase in attendance and/or People's Choice votes at the follow-up screenings. [6]

For the 2020 festival, which was conducted primarily on an online streaming platform due to the COVID-19 pandemic, People's Choice voting was also conducted online; voters' e-mail addresses were cross-referenced against online ticket registrations to ensure that the vote could not be manipulated by people who had not actually seen the films.

After the award is announced, the festival offers several repeat screenings of the winner at the TIFF Bell Lightbox on the final day of the festival.

Winners

The table below shows the People's Choice winners of past years. Prior to 2000, only the overall winner was named each year; in that year, the festival began announcing the first and second runners-up for the award as well. [6]

The table notes whether films have been winners or nominees for the Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Foreign Language Film or Best Documentary Feature.

Prior to the creation of the separate People's Choice Award for Documentaries, the main award was won by two documentary films, Best Boy in 1979 and Roger & Me in 1989.

On four occasions to date, the award has been won by a Canadian film. Two of those films, The Decline of the American Empire in 1986 and The Hanging Garden in 1997, were also named as the winners of the juried award for Best Canadian Film, although the 2007 winner Eastern Promises and the 2015 winner Room were not. All four films were also Best Picture nominees at the Genie Awards or the Canadian Screen Awards, which The Decline of the American Empire and Room won.

YearFilmDirector(s)Academy Award honoursGenie/CSA honoursRef
1978 Girlfriends Claudia Weill [7]
1979 Best Boy Ira Wohl Best Documentary Feature winner [8]
1980 Bad Timing Nicolas Roeg [9]
1981 Chariots of Fire Hugh Hudson Best Picture winner
Best Original Screenplay winner		 [10]
1982 Tempest Paul Mazursky [11]
1983 The Big Chill Lawrence Kasdan Best Picture nominee
Best Original Screenplay nominee		 [12]
1984 Places in the Heart Robert Benton Best Picture nominee
Best Original Screenplay winner		 [13]
1985 The Official Story (La historia oficial) Luis Puenzo Best Foreign Language Film winner
Best Original Screenplay nominee		 [14]
1986 The Decline of the American Empire (Le déclin de l'empire américain) Denys Arcand Best Foreign Language Film nomineeBest Picture winner [15]
1987 The Princess Bride Rob Reiner [16]
1988 Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios) Pedro Almodóvar Best Foreign Language Film nominee [17]
1989 Roger & Me Michael Moore [18]
1990 Cyrano de Bergerac Jean-Paul Rappeneau Best Foreign Language Film nominee [19]
1991 The Fisher King Terry Gilliam Best Original Screenplay nominee [20]
1992 Strictly Ballroom Baz Luhrmann [21]
1993 The Snapper Stephen Frears [22]
1994 Priest Antonia Bird [23]
1995 Antonia Marleen Gorris Best Foreign Language Film winner [24]
1996 Shine Scott Hicks Best Picture nominee
Best Original Screenplay nominee		 [25]
1997 The Hanging Garden Thom Fitzgerald Best Picture nominee [26]
1998 Life Is Beautiful (La vita è bella) Roberto Benigni Best Picture nominee
Best Foreign Language Film winner
Best Original Screenplay nominee		 [27]
1999 American Beauty Sam Mendes Best Picture winner
Best Original Screenplay winner		 [28]
2000 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (卧虎藏龙) Ang Lee Best Picture nominee
Best Foreign Language Film winner
Best Adapted Screenplay nominee		 [29]
The Dish Rob Sitch
Innocence Paul Cox
Billy Elliot Stephen Daldry Best Original Screenplay nominee
2001 Amélie (Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain) Jean-Pierre Jeunet Best Foreign Language Film nominee
Best Original Screenplay nominee		 [30]
Maya Digvijay Singh
Monsoon Wedding Mira Nair
2002 Whale Rider Niki Caro [31]
Bowling for Columbine Michael Moore Best Documentary Feature winner
Bend It Like Beckham Gurinder Chadha
2003 Zatōichi Takeshi Kitano [32]
Go Further Ron Mann Best Documentary nominee
The Corporation Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott Best Documentary winner
2004 Hotel Rwanda Terry George Best Original Screenplay nominee [33]
2005 Tsotsi Gavin Hood Best Foreign Language Film winner [34]
Live and Become Radu Mihaileanu
Dreamer John Gatins
Brokeback Mountain Ang Lee Best Picture nominee
Best Adapted Screenplay winner
Mother of Mine Klaus Härö
2006 Bella Alejandro Gómez Monteverde [35]
My Best Friend (Mon meilleur ami) Patrice Leconte
Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck
2007 Eastern Promises David Cronenberg Best Picture nominee [36]
Juno Jason Reitman Best Picture nominee
Best Original Screenplay winner
Body of War Ellen Spiro and Phil Donahue
2008 Slumdog Millionaire Danny Boyle Best Picture winner
Best Adapted Screenplay winner		 [37]
More Than a Game Kristopher Belman
The Stoning of Soraya M Cyrus Nowrasteh
2009 Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire Lee Daniels Best Picture nominee
Best Adapted Screenplay winner		 [38]
Mao's Last Dancer Bruce Beresford
Micmacs Jean-Pierre Jeunet
2010 The King's Speech Tom Hooper Best Picture winner
Best Original Screenplay winner		 [39]
The First Grader Justin Chadwick
2011 Where Do We Go Now? (وهلّأ لوين؟) Nadine Labaki [40]
Starbuck Ken Scott
A Separation Asghar Farhadi Best Foreign Language Film winner
Best Original Screenplay nominee
2012 Silver Linings Playbook David O. Russell Best Picture nominee
Best Adapted Screenplay nominee		 [41]
Argo Ben Affleck Best Picture winner
Best Adapted Screenplay winner
Zaytoun Eran Riklis
2013 12 Years a Slave Steve McQueen Best Picture winner
Best Adapted Screenplay winner		 [42]
Philomena Stephen Frears Best Picture nominee
Best Adapted Screenplay nominee
Prisoners Denis Villeneuve
2014 The Imitation Game Morten Tyldum Best Picture nominee
Best Adapted Screenplay winner		 [43]
Learning to Drive Isabel Coixet
St. Vincent Theodore Melfi
2015 Room Lenny Abrahamson Best Picture nominee
Best Adapted Screenplay nominee		Best Picture Winner [44]
Angry Indian Goddesses Pan Nalin
Spotlight Tom McCarthy Best Picture winner
Best Original Screenplay winner
2016 La La Land Damien Chazelle Best Picture nominee
Best Original Screenplay nominee		 [45]
Lion Garth Davis Best Picture nominee
Best Adapted Screenplay nominee
Queen of Katwe Mira Nair
2017 Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Martin McDonagh Best Picture nominee
Best Original Screenplay nominee		 [46]
I, Tonya Craig Gillespie
Call Me by Your Name Luca Guadagnino Best Picture nominee
Best Adapted Screenplay winner
2018 Green Book Peter Farrelly Best Picture winner
Best Original Screenplay winner		 [47]
If Beale Street Could Talk Barry Jenkins Best Adapted Screenplay nominee
Roma Alfonso Cuarón Best Picture nominee
Best Foreign Language Film winner
Best Original Screenplay nominee
2019 Jojo Rabbit Taika Waititi Best Picture nominee
Best Adapted Screenplay winner		 [48]
Marriage Story Noah Baumbach Best Picture nominee
Best Original Screenplay nominee
Parasite Bong Joon-ho Best Picture winner
Best International Feature Film winner
Best Original Screenplay winner
2020 Nomadland Chloé Zhao Best Picture winner
Best Adapted Screenplay Nominee		 [49]
One Night in Miami... Regina King Best Adapted Screenplay nominee
Beans Tracey Deer Best Picture winner
2021 Belfast Kenneth Branagh Best Picture nominee
Best Original Screenplay winner		 [50]
Scarborough Shasha Nakhai, Rich Williamson Best Picture winner
The Power of the Dog Jane Campion Best Picture nominee
Best Adapted Screenplay nominee
2022 The Fabelmans Steven Spielberg Best Picture nominee
Best Original Screenplay nominee		 [51]
Women Talking Sarah Polley Best Picture nominee
Best Adapted Screenplay winner
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery Rian Johnson Best Adapted Screenplay nominee
2023 American Fiction Cord Jefferson Best Picture nominee
Best Adapted Screenplay winner		 [52]
The Holdovers Alexander Payne Best Picture nominee
Best Original Screenplay Nominee
The Boy and the Heron Hayao Miyazaki Best Animated Feature winner
2024 The Life of Chuck Mike Flanagan [53]
Emilia Pérez Jacques Audiard
Anora Sean Baker

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References

  1. ↑ Walmsley, Katie (September 2009). "Oprah flick 'Precious' wins top award at Toronto". CNN . Retrieved June 8, 2010.
  2. ↑ Chris Knight (September 18, 2011). "Lebanese film wins TIFF People's Choice Award". National Post.
  3. ↑ "The Oscar race starts at TIFF – but who's in the running?". The Globe and Mail , September 7, 2017.
  4. ↑ "TIFF lineup expands with horror, music". Telegraph-Journal , July 22, 2009.
  5. ↑ "TIFF’s Top Ten Film Festival: Spotlight on Canadian film". Toronto Star , December 1, 2014.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 "Choose wisely: At the Toronto International Film Festival, how do you ensure that the people have actually spoken?". The Globe and Mail , September 7, 2017.
  7. ↑ Michael Walsh, "Girlfriends would bring tears to a glass eye". The Province , October 6, 1978.
  8. ↑ "Best Boy selected most popular film". The Globe and Mail , September 17, 1979.
  9. ↑ Jay Scott, "Festival of Festivals: unwieldy, but a winner". The Globe and Mail , September 15, 1980.
  10. ↑ "Chariots voted festival favorite". The Globe and Mail , September 20, 1981.
  11. ↑ Jay Scott, "Ending on a negative note Censor board accused of 'attempting to destroy festival'". The Globe and Mail , September 20, 1982.
  12. ↑ Jay Scott, "Big Chill the big winner". The Globe and Mail , September 19, 1983.
  13. ↑ Jay Scott, "Film wins place in fans' hearts". The Globe and Mail , September 17, 1984.
  14. ↑ Jay Scott, "Official Story voted most popular film; No Surrender, American Cousin critics' choices". The Globe and Mail , September 16, 1985.
  15. ↑ "Quebec film Le declin tops in T.O.; Arcands sex comedy wows public and jury". Montreal Gazette , September 15, 1986.
  16. ↑ Jay Scott, "No attendance figures released; Critics laud Zoo as best film". The Globe and Mail , September 21, 1987.
  17. ↑ "Spanish film is most popular at Toronto fest". Montreal Gazette , September 20, 1988.
  18. ↑ Sid Adilman, "Toronto director surprise winner of $25,000 film prize". Toronto Star , September 18, 1989.
  19. ↑ "Cyrano festival's most popular film". Ottawa Citizen , September 17, 1990.
  20. ↑ Mark Bastien, "Film festival winner gives $25,000 away". Montreal Gazette , September 16, 1991.
  21. ↑ Jane Stevenson, "Robert Morin's Requiem is top Canadian feature film at Festival of Festivals". Ottawa Citizen , September 21, 1992.
  22. ↑ Craig MacInnis, "$25,000 Toronto-City prize goes to native filmmaker". Toronto Star , September 20, 1993.
  23. ↑ "Once again, Egoyan win means double happiness for directors". Vancouver Sun , September 19, 1994.
  24. ↑ "Film fest names winners". Edmonton Journal , September 18, 1995.
  25. ↑ "Toronto director scoops top film prize". Saskatoon Star-Phoenix , September 17, 1996.
  26. ↑ "Hanging Garden wins two awards". The Globe and Mail , September 15, 1997.
  27. ↑ Peter Howell, "Life's beautiful for Benigni". Toronto Star , September 21, 1998.
  28. ↑ Liam Lacey, "Five Senses tops jury list at Toronto Film Festival: Canadian audience gazes favourably on American Beauty at award brunch capping off star-studded year". The Globe and Mail , September 20, 1999.
  29. ↑ "People prize Chinese action ; Best Canadian feature award goes to Calgary director Gary Burns". Toronto Star , September 18, 2000.
  30. ↑ "Movies win role in a traumatized world ; Toronto film festival ended with hope for better future". Toronto Star , September 17, 2001.
  31. ↑ "Spider, Whale Rider win big in Toronto". Timmins Daily Press , September 17, 2002.
  32. ↑ "Barbarian Invasions wins best Canadian feature: Toronto International Film Festival wraps up". Orillia Packet and Times, September 15, 2003.
  33. ↑ "Hotel Rwanda tops at T.O. film fest". The Province , September 20, 2004.
  34. ↑ "South African drama is people's choice at TIFF". The Globe and Mail , September 19, 2005.
  35. ↑ "Winners a list of surprises". The Globe and Mail , September 18, 2006.
  36. ↑ Chris Knight, "Toronto film fest's people's choice award stays home". Vancouver Sun , September 17, 2007.
  37. ↑ Adam McDowell, "Slumdog emerges as top dog at TIFF; People's Choice". National Post , September 15, 2008.
  38. ↑ Adam McDowell, "'Precious' awarded top prize at TIFF". Regina Leader-Post , September 21, 2009.
  39. ↑ "The King's Speech is People's Choice; Incendies voted best Canadian picture". Vancouver Sun , September 20, 2010.
  40. ↑ "Lebanese film wins TIFF's top prize; Starbuck is People's Choice runner-up". National Post , September 19, 2011.
  41. ↑ "Silver Linings Playbook writes surprise TIFF ending". Toronto Star , September 17, 2012.
  42. ↑ Bruce Kirkland, "Slave tops TIFF winners". Toronto Sun , September 16, 2013.
  43. ↑ Bruce Kirkland, "Benedict Cumberbatch film takes audience prize at TIFF". Toronto Sun , September 15, 2014.
  44. ↑ Jim Slotek, "TIFF 2015: 'Room' wins People's Choice Award". Winnipeg Free Press , September 20, 2015.
  45. ↑ Chris Knight, "And the winner is ...; La La Land takes bellwether award". National Post , September 19, 2016.
  46. ↑ Jeremy Kay (September 17, 2017). "'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri' wins Toronto audience award". Screen Daily. In other key awards handed out on Sunday afternoon (17), Warwick Thornton's Sweet Country claimed the Toronto Platform Prize, while Joseph Kahn's Bodied won the Grolsch People's Choice Midnight Madness Award. Agnès Varda and JR's Faces Places took the Grolsch People's Choice Documentary Award.
  47. ↑ "'Green Book' boosts awards season prospects with TIFF audience award win". Screen Daily , September 16, 2018.
  48. ↑ Etan Vlessing, "Toronto: Taika Waititi's 'Jojo Rabbit' Wins Audience Award". The Hollywood Reporter , September 15, 2019.
  49. ↑ Etan Vlessing, "Toronto: Chloe Zhao's 'Nomadland' Wins Audience Award". The Hollywood Reporter , September 20, 2020.
  50. ↑ Steve Pond, "‘Belfast’ Wins Toronto Film Festival’s People’s Choice Award". TheWrap , September 18, 2021.
  51. ↑ Christian Zilko, "‘The Fabelmans’ Wins TIFF 2022 People’s Choice Award". IndieWire , September 18, 2022.
  52. ↑ Steve Pond, "‘American Fiction’ Wins Toronto Film Festival’s Audience Award". TheWrap , September 17, 2023.
  53. ↑ Rebecca Rubin, "Tom Hiddleston’s ‘The Life of Chuck’ Wins Toronto Film Festival’s People’s Choice Award". Variety , September 15, 2024.
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