The Toronto International Film Festival drew to a close yesterday (and oh yes, you can read all of our coverage here) with the announcement of the festival’s awards, which included a couple of curveballs. The People’s Choice Award is the most high-profile prize of the festival; previous winners have included Amelie, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Hotel Rwanda, Precious, Silver Linings Playbook, The Imitation Game, Room, La La Land, and future Best Picture Oscar winners American Beauty, Slumdog Millionaire, The King’s Speech, and 12 Years a Slave.
This year’s winner is Martin McDonagh’s extraordinary Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, a small, character-driven comedy/drama that outgunned such high-profile titles as The Shape of Water, Battle of the Sexes, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and runners-up Call Me By Your Name and I, Tonya. And a similar upset occurred in the documentary category, where Faces Places, a free-wheeling, low-budget title from non-fiction legend Agnès Varda and her new collaborator JR took the People’s Choice prize. It will next play at the New York Film Festival; Three Billboards will open November 10 in limited release.
Here’s the full list of award winners:
People’s Choice Award:
People’s Choice: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, directed by Martin McDonagh (Runner-up: I, Tonya, directed by Craig Gillespie; Second runner-up: Call Me By Your Name, directed by Luca Guadagnino.)
Documentary: Faces Places, directed by Agnès Varda and JR (Runner-up: Long Time Running, directed by Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier; Second runner-up: Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!, directed by Morgan Spurlock)
Midnight Madness: Bodied, directed by Joseph Kahn (Runner-up: The Disaster Artist, directed by James Franco; Second runner-up: Brawl in Cell Block 99, directed by Craig Zahler.)
Discovery Programme Filmmakers Award:
Best Canadian Short Film: Pre-Drink, directed by Marc-Antoine Lemire
Best Short Film: Min börda, directed by Niki Lindroth von Bahr
Best Canadian First Feature: Luk’Luk’I, directed by Wayne Wapeemukwa
Best Canadian Feature Film: Les Affamés, directed by Robin Aubert
Fipresci Prizes of the International Federation of Film Critics:
Discovery: AVA, S directed by adaf Foroughi
Special Presentations: El Autor, directed by Manuel Martín Cuenca
Network for the Promotion of Asian and Pacific Cinema Award: The Great Buddha+, directed by Huang Hsin-Yao
Toronto Platform Prize: Sweet Country, directed by Warwick Thornton