Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet has won the 50th anniversary edition Toronto International Film Festival’s TIFF People’s Choice Award, boosting its prospects of a best picture Oscar nomination.
This is the second time Zhao has won the award, the last time being with Nomdland in the asterisk year of 2020 when it debuted simultaneously in Toronto, Telluride and Venice in the thick of the Covid pandemic and went on to win the best picture Oscar.
Hamnet stars Jessie Buckley, who is regarded by awards pundits as the early Oscar frontrunner for her performance as Agnes, wife of William Shakespeare, alongside Paul Mescal as the Bard. The film follows the parents as they grieve the loss of their titular child. The drama premiered in Telluride and opens through Focus Features on November 27, expanding wide on December 12.
The audience award winner is a proven bellwether in awards season. Over the last 15 years, all but two winners have earned a best picture Oscar nomination, and three – Nomadland, 12 Years A Slave, and Green Book – have won the Academy Award for best picture.
Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice, which premiered in Venice and opens Busan this week, claimed the inaugural International People’s Choice Award. The dark comedy is also South Korea’s Oscar submission.
Barry Avrich’s The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue, which was at the centre of a reinstatement controversy at TIFF this year, won the documentary award.
Matt Johnson’s Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie won the People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award.
Full list of TIFF winners below:
People’s Choice Awards
People’s Choice Award
Hamnet, dir. Chloe Zhao
First runner-up: Frankenstein
Second runner-up: Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
People’s Choice International Award
No Other Choice, dir. Oark 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 Furious
People’s Choice Documentary Award
The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue, dir. Barry Avrich
First runner-up: EPiC: Elvis Presley In Concert
Second runner-up: You Had To Be There: How The Toronto Godspell Ignited The Comedy Revolution…
Short Cuts Awards
Best International Film
Talk Me (Sp-US), dir. Joecar Hanna
Best Canadian Film
The Girl Who Cried Pearls, dirs. Chris Lavis & Maciek Szczerbowski
Best Animated Short Film:
To The Woods (Fr), dir. Agnès Patron
FIPRESCI Award
Forastera (Sp-It-Swe), dir. Lucía Aleñar Iglesias
NETPAC Award
In Search Of The Sky (Vimukt, India), dir. Jitank Singh Gurjar
Best Canadian Discovery Award
Blue Heron, dir. Sophy Romvari
Honourable Mention: 100 Sunset, dir. Kunsang Kyirong
Best Canadian Film Award presented by Canada Goose
Uiksaringitara (Wrong Husband), dir. Zacharias Kunuk
Honourable Mention: There Are No Words, dir. Min Sook Lee
Platform Competition Award
To The Victory! (Ukr-Lith), dir. Valentyn Vasyanovych
Honourable mention: Hen (Ger-Gre-Hun), dir. György Pálfi.