And there we have it. After going home with the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month, Chloé Zhao‘s “Nomadland” just took the coveted People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival 2020. This award is often a precursor to an eventual Best Picture Oscar nomination. Last year’s award went to Taika Waititi‘s “Jojo Rabbit” which won the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar and got a Best Picture nod. Will history repeat itself even in the midst of a highly unusual year? Only time will tell, but it feels almost normal to be able to say that we have a frontrunner for Awards season.
READ MORE: Chloé Zhao’s ‘Nomadland’ Is As Vast As The American Landscape It Travels [Venice Review]
All of this year’s winners were directed by women. The first runner-up for the top audience prize was Regina King‘s directorial debut “One Night in Miami,” while the second runner-up was Tracey Deer‘s “Beans.” Meanwhile, the People’s Choice Documentary Award winner is Michelle Latimer‘s “Inconvenient Indian,” and the People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award went to “Shadow in the Cloud” by Roseanne Liang.
TIFF 2020 was a year we won’t soon forget,” said Cameron Bailey, TIFF Artistic Director and Co-Head, in a statement. “Over the last 10 days, we have experienced community in the truest sense. The pandemic hit TIFF hard and we responded by going back to our original inspiration — to bring the very best in film to the broadest possible audience and transform the way people see the world through film. We heeded the urgent calls for greater representation of under-represented voices. And we watched as audiences embraced cinema’s ability to transport them through screens of all sizes by joining us online from all over this country — something that we would never have seen in previous years. TIFF delivered on its promise to provide Festival-goers and the industry with impactful programming. We are very proud of what the TIFF team accomplished.”
The 2020 Changemaker Award is awarded to “Black Bodies,” a short film by Kelly Fyffe-Marshall.
The three Amplify Voices Awards presented by Canada Goose winners are as follows.
Amplify Voices Award for Best Canadian Feature Film: “Inconvenient Indian,” dir. Michelle Latimer
Special Mention: “Fauna,” dir. Nicolás Pereda (Canadian Film)
Amplify Voices Award: “The Disciple,” dir. Chaitanya Tamhane
Amplify Voices Award: “Night of the Kings,” dir. Philippe Lacôte
Special Mention: “Downstream to Kinshasa,” dir. Dieudo Hamadi
