The 2018 Toronto International Film Festival ends today, and awards have been doled out to some of this year’s best films. The Grolsch People’s Choice Award, the top prize at the festival, was awarded to Peter Farrelly’s Green Book, starring Viggo Mortensen as a bouncer who takes a job as a chauffeur for a classical pianist, played by Oscar winner Mahershala Ali, in the 1960s American South. The film, which has universal acclaim thus far, is well-positioned to earn a potential Best Picture nomination at the Oscars, as nine of the last 10 People’s Choice Award winners have. The runners-up for the People’s Choice Award included Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk and Alfonso Cuarón’s ROMA.
Check out the full list of winners for TIFF 2018 below.
GROLSCH PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD
Winner: Green Book
First runner-up: If Beale Street Could Talk
Second runner-up: ROMA
GROLSCH PEOPLE’S CHOICE MIDNIGHT MADNESS AWARD
Winner: The Man Who Feels No Pain (Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota)
First runner-up: Halloween
Second runner-up: Assassination Nation
GROLSCH PEOPLE’S CHOICE DOCUMENTARY AWARD
Winner: Free Solo
First runner-up: This Changes Everything
Second runner-up: The Biggest Little Farm
TORONTO PLATFORM PRIZE PRESENTED BY AIR FRANCE
Winner: Cities of Last Things
- Jury remarks: “This is a deeply moving drama from a director who shows great skill in his ability to weave together multiple genres with social and political critique, while telling a story that remains intimately human at its core. For us, this film has a spirit that always feels beautifully close to real life.”
Honourable Mention: The River
- Jury remarks: “We were completely absorbed by the singular world this film creates through precise and meticulous craft, breathtaking visuals, and a boldly patient yet engrossing observational style.”
THE PRIZE OF THE INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF FILM CRITICS (FIPRESCI PRIZE)
Winner – Discovery Programme: Float Like a Butterfly
- Jury remarks: “Float Like a Butterfly is a pastoral and traditional bucolic film, capturing the familiar angst and anxiety a young adult woman undergoes in order to have her say in the scheme of things in a predominately male-driven patriarchal society. Through her spectacular and deft narrative, nuanced understanding of the dilemmas women face, and a pitch-perfect performance by Hazel Doupe, this film is a triumph of free spirit.”
Honourable Mention: Twin Flower
THE PRIZE OF THE INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF FILM CRITICS (FIPRESCI PRIZE)
Winner – Special Presentations: Skin
- Jury remarks: “Skin is a gripping study of a group of extremists and the choices available to them. It’s raw yet intelligently paced, with stunning performances, especially by a near-unrecognizable Vera Farmiga.”
Honourable Mention: A Faithful Man
The jury was comprised of Jury President Lesley Chow (Australia), Andrés Nazarala (Chile), Astrid Jansen (Belgium), Pierre Pageau (Canada), James Slotek (Canada), and Viswanath Subrahmanyan (India).
NETPAC AWARD
Winner: Ash Mayfair’s The Third Wife
- Jury remarks: “Ash Mayfair’s debut feature The Third Wife signaled the emergence of a young female director-writer whose aesthetic sensibilities, cinematic language, and extraordinary ability to illuminate the past for contemporary audiences augur well for the future of Vietnamese and world cinema.”
Honourable Mention: Bai Xue’s The Crossing
- Jury remarks: “Bai Xue’s storytelling in her debut film The Crossing shattered cinematic boundaries to create an original visual language that propelled her protagonist’s emotional crossing into adulthood as she crossed the physical boundaries of Hong Kong into mainland China.”
The jury, selected from the Network for the Promotion of Asian Pacific Cinema, comprised of Vilsoni Hereniko (Fiji), Meng Xie (China), and Gülin Üstün (Turkey).
EURIMAGES’ AUDENTIA AWARD
Winner: Fig Tree
- Jury remarks: “Fig Tree is a stunning and illuminating debut. Based on her own experiences, Ethiopian-Israeli writer-director Aäläm-Wärqe Davidian takes us on an unsentimental journey and shows us the tragic effects of civil war on ordinary people. Confidently directed with grit and compassion, Fig Tree is a beautifully rendered, big-hearted story about a Jewish teenage girl’s attempt to save those she loves, but it’s also an intimate coming-of-age story of self-discovery and female empowerment.”
Honourable Mention: Phoenix
- Jury remarks: “Phoenix is a courageous debut from Norwegian director Camilla Strøm Henriksen. A visually arresting and emotionally nuanced film, Phoenix focuses on a young teen who assumes an enormous burden of responsibility in the face of her mother’s mental illness and her father’s absence. With a seamless blend of stark realism and cinematic magic realism, Henriksen’s story subtly, yet powerfully, unfolds from the perspective of her mature young protagonist.”
The jury was comprised of Anne Frank, Reinaldo Marcus Green, and Kerri Craddock.
CITY OF TORONTO AWARD FOR BEST CANADIAN FIRST FEATURE FILM
Winner: Roads in February (Les routes en février)
- Jury remarks: “For its warm portrayal of a young woman trying to reconnect with her distant heritage after her father’s untimely death, and for the way the film demonstrates how genuine human connections best develop between two individuals when they stand on common ground, the jury gives the City of Toronto Award for Best Canadian First Feature Film to Katherine Jerkovic’s Les routes en février (Roads in February).”
CANADA GOOSE® AWARD FOR BEST CANADIAN FEATURE FILM
Winner: The Fireflies Are Gone (La disparition des lucioles)
- Jury remarks: “For its true-to-life depiction of a young woman’s quest to find meaning and hope in a world that has constantly disappointed her, the jury gives the Canada Goose® Award for Best Canadian Feature Film to Sébastien Pilote’s La disparition des lucioles (The Fireflies Are Gone).”