Toronto, Sept. 19 (U.S.): Kenneth Brana’s semi-autobiographical “Belfast,” a black and white family drama about the Northern Irish city during the turmoil of the late 1960s, won the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival on Saturday. , which is an expressive indicator of the chances of the Oscars.
The festival’s highest honor, voted on by festival-goers at TIFF, is widely seen as the harbinger of an Oscar. The previous nine winners have all gone on to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, and 13 of the last 14 winners have received a People’s Choice Award. These include Best Picture winners “12 Years a Slave,” “Green Book” and last year’s pick for Chloé Zhoe’s “Nomadland.”
“Belfast,” which premiered at the Telluride Film Festival, was inspired by Prana’s childhood in Belfast. The film, starring Jamie Dornan, Judi Dench and Ciaran Hinds, will be released on November 12 by Focus Features, the AP reports.
The awards wrapped up the silent Toronto International Film Festival that has been unaffected for the past ten days. Usually one of the biggest movie shows in the world, TIFF this year was a pandemic-shrinked hybrid, shown at both socially distanced and virtually online shows. other major autumn festivals – in Venice; Telluride, Colorado; And New York – we chose the completely personal versions.
But it was also a much more powerful TIFF than last year’s almost entirely hypothetical. The list of about 100 feature films was far from the typical 250 in Toronto, but it included many of the most awaited films of the fall—including Denis Villeneuve’s science fiction “Dune”, Jane Campion’s Western melodrama “The Power of Dog” and Pablo Larren Princess’ Diana Biography. Spencer”. As of Saturday, only one positive case of COVID-19 from a visitor to the festival has been reported by TIFF.
“Dune” and “Spencer” did not make themselves eligible for the People’s Choice Award, which requires both in-person screening and availability on the festival’s digital portal. Usually, festival volunteers distribute ballot papers to moviegoers on their way out of shows. This year, due to the pandemic, all voting took place online.
In a presentation broadcast in Canada and broadcast online globally, other awards included the Platform Award – an award chosen by a jury chaired by actor Riz Ahmed – that went to Indonesian director Camila Andini’s “Uni,” a teenage drama. A girl is approaching the prospect of an arranged marriage.
The festival said the closest contenders to “Belfast” in terms of votes are “The Power of the Dog” (second runner-up), Shasha Nakhai and “Scarborough” (first runner-up), which follows three children over the course of one school year in a Toronto neighborhood.
The People’s Choice Award for Documentary went to E Chai Vasarheli and Jimmy Chin “Rescue,” a non-fiction account of the 2018 mission to rescue a beleaguered young soccer team from Tham Luang Cave in Thailand.