The Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award is an annual film award, presented by the Toronto International Film Festival to the film rated as the year's most popular film with festival audiences.[1] Past sponsors of the award have included Cadillac and Grolsch.[2]
The winners of this award have often later earned Academy Award nominations, to the point that the award is now considered to be effectively the "starting gun" of the Academy Award nominations race.[3]
In 2009, the festival introduced separate People's Choice Awards for Documentaries and Midnight Madness.[4] In 2015, it also introduced a People's Choice Award for its satellite Canada's Top Ten festival,[5] which was discontinued after 2018 due to TIFF's decision to switch the Canada's Top Ten program from a dedicated festival to a series of week-long theatrical screenings.
At each film screening, attendees are invited to "vote" for the film by rating the film on their ticket stub and depositing it in a box outside the theatre after the show.[6] However, to ensure that the voting process does not bias the award toward films that screened in larger theatres and that a film's own cast and crew cannot stuff the ballot box, the overall number of votes received is also weighted against the size of the screening audience.[6] For example, a film which screened in a smaller theatre, but had a highly passionate fan base, can have an advantage over a film that had a larger number of raw votes but a more mixed or uneven reception.[6] Because each film is screened multiple times over the course of the entire festival, the process also enables the organizers to evaluate which films are generating more audience buzz, by virtue of a significant increase in attendance and/or People's Choice votes at the follow-up screenings.[6]
For the 2020 festival, which was conducted primarily on an online streaming platform due to the COVID-19 pandemic, People's Choice voting was also conducted online; voters' e-mail addresses were cross-referenced against online ticket registrations to ensure that the vote could not be manipulated by people who had not actually seen the films.
After the award is announced, the festival offers several repeat screenings of the winner at the TIFF Bell Lightbox on the final day of the festival.
The table below shows the People's Choice winners of past years. Prior to 2000, only the overall winner was named each year; in that year, the festival began announcing the first and second runners-up for the award as well.[6]
The table notes whether films have been winners or nominees for the Academy Award for Best Picture, Best Foreign Language Film or Best Documentary Feature.
Prior to the creation of the separate People's Choice Award for Documentaries, the main award was won by two documentary films, Best Boy in 1979 and Roger & Me in 1989.
On four occasions to date, the award has been won by a Canadian film. Two of those films, The Decline of the American Empire in 1986 and The Hanging Garden in 1997, were also named as the winners of the juried award for Best Canadian Film, although the 2007 winner Eastern Promises and the 2015 winner Room were not. All four films were also Best Picture nominees at the Genie Awards or the Canadian Screen Awards, which The Decline of the American Empire and Room won.
| Year | Film | Director(s) | Academy Award honours | Genie/CSA honours | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Girlfriends | Claudia Weill | [7] | |||
| Best Boy | Ira Wohl | Best Documentary Feature winner | [8] | ||
| Bad Timing | Nicolas Roeg | [9] | |||
| Chariots of Fire | Hugh Hudson | Best Picture winner Best Original Screenplay winner | [10] | ||
| Tempest | Paul Mazursky | [11] | |||
| The Big Chill | Lawrence Kasdan | Best Picture nominee Best Original Screenplay nominee | [12] | ||
| Places in the Heart | Robert Benton | Best Picture nominee Best Original Screenplay winner | [13] | ||
| The Official Story (La historia oficial) | Luis Puenzo | Best Foreign Language Film winner Best Original Screenplay nominee | [14] | ||
| The Decline of the American Empire (Le déclin de l'empire américain) | Denys Arcand | Best Foreign Language Film nominee | Best Picture winner | [15] | |
| The Princess Bride | Rob Reiner | [16] | |||
| Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios) | Pedro Almodóvar | Best Foreign Language Film nominee | [17] | ||
| Roger & Me | Michael Moore | [18] | |||
| Cyrano de Bergerac | Jean-Paul Rappeneau | Best Foreign Language Film nominee | [19] | ||
| The Fisher King | Terry Gilliam | Best Original Screenplay nominee | [20] | ||
| Strictly Ballroom | Baz Luhrmann | [21] | |||
| The Snapper | Stephen Frears | [22] | |||
| Priest | Antonia Bird | [23] | |||
| Antonia | Marleen Gorris | Best Foreign Language Film winner | [24] | ||
| Shine | Scott Hicks | Best Picture nominee Best Original Screenplay nominee | [25] | ||
| The Hanging Garden | Thom Fitzgerald | Best Picture nominee | [26] | ||
| Life Is Beautiful (La vita è bella) | Roberto Benigni | Best Picture nominee Best Foreign Language Film winner Best Original Screenplay nominee | [27] | ||
| American Beauty | Sam Mendes | Best Picture winner Best Original Screenplay winner | [28] | ||
| Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (卧虎藏龙) | Ang Lee | Best Picture nominee Best Foreign Language Film winner Best Adapted Screenplay nominee | [29] | ||
| The Dish | |||||
| Innocence | |||||
| Billy Elliot | Best Original Screenplay nominee | ||||
| Amélie (Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain) | Jean-Pierre Jeunet | Best Foreign Language Film nominee Best Original Screenplay nominee | [30] | ||
| Maya | Digvijay Singh | ||||
| Monsoon Wedding | |||||
| Whale Rider | Niki Caro | [31] | |||
| Bowling for Columbine | Best Documentary Feature winner | ||||
| Bend It Like Beckham | |||||
| Zatōichi | Takeshi Kitano | [32] | |||
| Go Further | Best Documentary nominee | ||||
| The Corporation | Best Documentary winner | ||||
| Hotel Rwanda | Terry George | Best Original Screenplay nominee | [33] | ||
| Tsotsi | Gavin Hood | Best Foreign Language Film winner | [34] | ||
| Live and Become | |||||
| Dreamer | |||||
| Brokeback Mountain | Best Picture nominee Best Adapted Screenplay winner | ||||
| Mother of Mine | |||||
| Bella | Alejandro Gómez Monteverde | [35] | |||
| My Best Friend (Mon meilleur ami) | |||||
| Eastern Promises | David Cronenberg | Best Picture nominee | [36] | ||
| Juno | Best Picture nominee Best Original Screenplay winner | ||||
| Body of War | |||||
| Slumdog Millionaire | Danny Boyle | Best Picture winner Best Adapted Screenplay | [37] | ||
| More Than a Game | Kristopher Belman | ||||
| The Stoning of Soraya M | |||||
| Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire | Lee Daniels | Best Picture nominee Best Adapted Screenplay winner | [38] | ||
| Mao's Last Dancer | |||||
| Micmacs | |||||
| The King's Speech | Tom Hooper | Best Picture winner Best Adapted Screenplay winner | [39] | ||
| The First Grader | |||||
| 2011 | Where Do We Go Now? (وهلّأ لوين؟) | Nadine Labaki | [40] | ||
| Starbuck | |||||
| A Separation | Best Foreign Language Film winner Best Original Screenplay nominee | ||||
| Silver Linings Playbook | David O. Russell | Best Picture nominee Best Adapted Screenplay nominee | [41] | ||
| Argo | Best Picture winner Best Adapted Screenplay winner | ||||
| Zaytoun | |||||
| 12 Years a Slave | Steve McQueen | Best Picture winner Best Adapted Screenplay winner | [42] | ||
| Philomena | Best Picture nominee Best Adapted Screenplay nominee | ||||
| Prisoners | |||||
| The Imitation Game | Morten Tyldum | Best Picture nominee Best Adapted Screenplay winner | [43] | ||
| Learning to Drive | |||||
| St. Vincent | |||||
| Room | Lenny Abrahamson | Best Picture nominee Best Adapted Screenplay nominee | Best Picture Winner | [44] | |
| Angry Indian Goddesses | |||||
| Spotlight | Best Picture winner Best Original Screenplay winner | ||||
| La La Land | Damien Chazelle | Best Picture nominee Best Original Screenplay nominee | [45] | ||
| Lion | Best Picture nominee Best Adapted Screenplay nominee | ||||
| Queen of Katwe | |||||
| Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri | Martin McDonagh | Best Picture nominee Best Original Screenplay nominee | [46] | ||
| I, Tonya | |||||
| Call Me by Your Name | Best Picture nominee Best Adapted Screenplay winner | ||||
| Green Book | Peter Farrelly | Best Picture winner Best Original Screenplay winner | [47] | ||
| If Beale Street Could Talk | Best Adapted Screenplay nominee | ||||
| Roma | Best Picture nominee Best Foreign Language Film winner Best Original Screenplay nominee | ||||
| Jojo Rabbit | Taika Waititi | Best Picture nominee Best Adapted Screenplay winner | [48] | ||
| Marriage Story | Best Picture nominee Best Original Screenplay nominee | ||||
| Parasite | Best Picture winner Best International Feature Film winner Best Original Screenplay winner | ||||
| Nomadland | Chloé Zhao | Best Picture winner Best Adapted Screenplay Nominee | [49] | ||
| One Night in Miami... | Best Adapted Screenplay nominee | ||||
| Beans | Best Picture winner | ||||
| Belfast | Kenneth Branagh | Best Picture nominee Best Original Screenplay winner | [50] | ||
| Scarborough | Best Picture winner | ||||
| The Power of the Dog | Best Picture nominee Best Adapted Screenplay nominee | ||||
| The Fabelmans | Steven Spielberg | Best Picture nominee Best Original Screenplay nominee | [51] | ||
| Women Talking | Best Picture nominee Best Adapted Screenplay winner | ||||
| Best Adapted Screenplay nominee | |||||
| American Fiction | Cord Jefferson | Best Picture nominee Best Adapted Screenplay winner | [52] | ||
| The Holdovers | Best Picture nominee Best Original Screenplay Nominee | ||||
| The Boy and the Heron | Best Animated Feature winner |