The awards were read out at the Lightbox on the closing day, and for the fourth year running the headline prize went to a film that most of the industry had filed under "charming, small, probably not." The audience disagreed. They usually do.
Here is the full list, with a note on each — and a link to every winner's page so you can see where it played and what else was in the room.
The audience prizes
La Bola Negra (dirs. Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi) took the People's Choice Award presented by Rogers. It is the ballot that has predicted the eventual Best Picture more often than any jury in the world, so read into that what you like. Behind it: I Play Rocky (dir. Peter Farrelly) as first runner-up and Being Heumann (dir. Siân Heder) as second.
The International People's Choice Award went to Elsinore (dir. Simon Stone), ahead of Possible Love (dir. Lee Chang-dong) and The Assassin(s) (dir. Hur Jin-ho). Three very different kinds of formal control, and the one that won is the one that shouted least.
In documentary, Darlene Love: I Know Where I've Been (dir. Barry Avrich) took the People's Choice Documentary Award, with Black Sunflowers (dir. James Marcus Haney) and The Ultra Runner (dir. Mila Aung-Thwin) following.
Midnight Madness did what Midnight Madness does. Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney (dir. Matthew Rankin) won the People's Choice Midnight Madness Award over The Spiral (dir. Paolo Strippoli) and Arrested Memory (dir. SABU). If you were in that room at 11:59pm, you already knew.
The juries
The TIFF Platform Prize went to Angh (dir. Theja Rio, India), with a Special Jury Award for Brace Your Heart (dir. Amanda Kernell). Platform has been the most reliable early signal in the programme for a decade, and this year the jury didn't hedge.
Canada took both of its own prizes seriously. Best Canadian Feature Film went to Sunburn (dir. Serville Poblete), with an honourable mention for Man in Motion: The Rick Hansen Story (dir. Adrian Buitenhuis). Best Canadian Discovery went to Smudge the Blades (dir. Cody Lightning), with an honourable mention for The Black Box is Orange (dir. Yuula Benivolski).
The critics' prize, FIPRESCI, went to Ancestors (dir. David Turpin). The NETPAC Award went to Thirteen in Gaza (dir. Hosam Abu Dan) — a film that several people walked out of and rather more people could not stop talking about afterwards.
Short Cuts
Shorts don't have pages here, so these three link to TIFF's own announcement.
- Best International Short Film: MAMMALIA (dir. Elia Kalogianni), with an honourable mention for The Spectacular Death of Prisca (dir. Kaelo Iyizoba).
- Best Canadian Short Film: Fight Kid (dir. Michael Del Monte), with an honourable mention for Almost Pink (dir. Justine Prince).
- Best Animated Short Film: Into The Betaverse (dirs. Varun Raman and Tom Hancock), with an honourable mention for Terminal (dir. Alexandre Siqueira).
The laurels at the top of the journal carry the same list, and each one opens the winning film's page. The official announcement, with the jury citations in full, is on tiff.net.