TIFF announced its awards. The People’s Choice Award, selected Focus’ Features' Hamnet, directed by Chloé Zhao.
Whoever wins TIFF’s top prize, has a high chance of being nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. In the past 14 years, 13 TIFF winners were Best Picture nominated, with four winning (Nomadland, Green Book, 12 Years a Slave, The King's Speech).
If Hamnet goes on to win the Best Picture Oscar, that will mean Chloé Zhao will have two Best Picture wins that first won at TIFF (previous: Nomadland).
Hamnet follows Jesse Buckley’s journey as she falls in love, marries, and has children with William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal). But there’s a darkness to the entire endeavor that drags us into the emotional pits of hell through the loss and the ultimate creation of a profound work of art.
It retains some of the same narrative pacing as Nomadland but adds in the dynamism of a sexually charged yet emotionally tenuous romance .
I saw the film at TIFF and can say that it has one of the best endings of all time.
The rest of the TIFF winners:
Frankenstein (1st runner-up)
Dir: Guillermo del Toro
Cast: Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, Oscar Isaac
Premiere: Venice Film Festival
Distributor: Netflix
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (2nd runner up)
Dir: Rian Johnson
Cast: Daniel Craig, Cailee Spaeny, Jeremy Renner, Andrew Scott, Mila Kunis, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin, Josh O'Connor
Premiere: TIFF
Distributor: Netflix
International People’s Choice Awards:
No Other Choice
Dir: Park Chan-wook (Decision to Leave)
Distributor: Neon
Neon also had the first runner-up as well with Sentimental Value, which also took 2nd place at Cannes, where it premiered.
People’s Choice Award Documentary Awards:
Synopsis:
A gripping first-person account of how one grandfather helped rescue two generations of his family held hostage by terrorists for nearly 12 hours.
EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert (1st runner up)
Dir: Baz Luhrmann
Trailer
You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution... (2nd runner up)
People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award:
Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie
Dir: Matt Johnson
Premiere: SXSW
Distributor: Neon
A time-traveling comedy from Canadian creators Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol, based on their cult mockumentary series.
Directed by Johnson (dir/actor: Operation Avalanche) and cowritten with McCarrol, the film follows two aspiring musicians who scheme to play a gig at Toronto’s Rivoli, despite never having written a song.
This was one of the wildest films at the 2025 SXSW Festival.
Obsession (1st runner-up)
Distributor: Focus Features
The Furious (2nd runner-up)
Platform award, given to films with high artistic merit and strong directorial vision:
To the Victory!
Dir: Valentyn Vasyanovych
Synopsis:
In post-war Ukraine, a struggling filmmaker remains in his homeland while his wife and daughter start fresh in Vienna. Stuck between hope and uncertainty, he grapples with his choice to stay behind.
From TIFF Platform Jury:
To The Victory! is the unanimous choice for this year’s Platform Award amongst a very strong selection. Bringing cinematic language to its roots and, at the same time, masterfully playing with audience expectations, this film dismantles convention to reveal deeply resonant universal emotions.
For a full list of winner, including the Best Canadian Feature Award and the Best Canadian Discovery Award, click here.