Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award

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The Toronto International Film Festival Grolsch 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] The award's current corporate sponsor is Grolsch;[2] past sponsors of the award have included Cadillac.[3]

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.[4]

In 2009, the festival introduced separate People's Choice Awards for Documentaries and Midnight Madness.[5] In 2015, it also introduced a People's Choice Award for its satellite Canada's Top Ten festival,[6] 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.

Process

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.[7] 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.[7] 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.[7] 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.[7]

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 awards are announced, the festival closes with a free public screening of the winning film at Roy Thomson Hall.

Winners

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.[7]

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 honors Genie/CSA honors
1978 Girlfriends Claudia Weill
1979 Best Boy Ira Wohl Best Documentary Feature winner
1980 Bad Timing Nicolas Roeg
1981 Chariots of Fire Hugh Hudson Best Picture winner
1982 Tempest Paul Mazursky
1983 The Big Chill Lawrence Kasdan Best Picture nominee
1984 Places in the Heart Robert Benton Best Picture nominee
1985 The Official Story (La historia oficial) Luis Puenzo Best Foreign Language Film winner
1986 The Decline of the American Empire (Le déclin de l'empire américain) Denys Arcand Best Foreign Language Film nominee Best Picture winner
1987 The Princess Bride Rob Reiner
1988 Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios) Pedro Almodóvar Best Foreign Language Film nominee
1989 Roger & Me Michael Moore
1990 Cyrano de Bergerac Jean-Paul Rappeneau Best Foreign Language Film nominee
1991 The Fisher King Terry Gilliam
1992 Strictly Ballroom Baz Luhrmann
1993 The Snapper Stephen Frears
1994 Priest Antonia Bird
1995 Antonia Marleen Gorris Best Foreign Language Film winner
1996 Shine Scott Hicks Best Picture nominee
1997 The Hanging Garden Thom Fitzgerald Best Picture nominee
1998 Life Is Beautiful (La vita è bella) Roberto Benigni Best Picture nominee
Best Foreign Language Film winner
1999 American Beauty Sam Mendes Best Picture winner
2000 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Wo Ho Cang Long)[8] Ang Lee Best Picture nominee
Best Foreign Language Film winner
The Dish[8] Rob Sitch
Innocence[8] Paul Cox
Billy Elliot[8] Stephen Daldry
2001 Amélie (Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain)[9] Jean-Pierre Jeunet Best Foreign Language Film nominee
Maya[9] Digvijay Singh
Monsoon Wedding[9] Mira Nair
2002 Whale Rider Niki Caro
Bowling for Columbine Michael Moore Best Documentary Feature winner
Bend It Like Beckham Gurinder Chadha
2003 Zatōichi Takeshi Kitano
Go Further Ron Mann
The Corporation Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott Best Documentary winner
2004 Hotel Rwanda Terry George
2005 Tsotsi Gavin Hood Best Foreign Language Film winner
Live and Become Radu Mihaileanu
Dreamer John Gatins
Brokeback Mountain Ang Lee Best Picture nominee
Mother of Mine Klaus Härö
2006 Bella Alejandro Gómez Monteverde
My Best Friend (Mon meilleur ami) Patrice Leconte
Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck
2007 Eastern Promises David Cronenberg Best Picture nominee
Juno Jason Reitman Best Picture nominee
Body of War Ellen Spiro and Phil Donahue
2008 Slumdog Millionaire Danny Boyle Best Picture winner
More Than a Game Kristopher Belman
The Stoning of Soraya M Cyrus Nowrasteh
2009 Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire Lee Daniels Best Picture nominee
Mao's Last Dancer Bruce Beresford
Micmacs Jean-Pierre Jeunet
2010 The King's Speech Tom Hooper Best Picture winner
The First Grader Justin Chadwick
2011 Where Do We Go Now? (وهلّأ لوين؟) Nadine Labaki
Starbuck Ken Scott Best Picture nominee
A Separation Asghar Farhadi Best Foreign Language Film winner
2012 Silver Linings Playbook David O. Russell Best Picture nominee
Argo Ben Affleck Best Picture winner
Zaytoun Eran Riklis
2013 12 Years a Slave Steve McQueen Best Picture winner
Philomena Stephen Frears Best Picture nominee
Prisoners Denis Villeneuve
2014 The Imitation Game Morten Tyldum Best Picture nominee
Learning to Drive Isabel Coixet
St. Vincent Theodore Melfi
2015 Room Lenny Abrahamson Best Picture nominee Best Picture winner
Angry Indian Goddesses Pan Nalin
Spotlight Tom McCarthy Best Picture winner
2016 La La Land Damien Chazelle Best Picture nominee
Lion Garth Davis Best Picture nominee
Queen of Katwe Mira Nair
2017 Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Martin McDonagh Best Picture nominee
I, Tonya Craig Gillespie
Call Me by Your Name Luca Guadagnino Best Picture nominee
2018 Green Book Peter Farrelly Best Picture winner
If Beale Street Could Talk Barry Jenkins
Roma Alfonso Cuarón Best Picture nominee
Best Foreign Language Film winner
2019 Jojo Rabbit[10] Taika Waititi Best Picture nominee
Marriage Story[10] Noah Baumbach Best Picture nominee
Parasite[10] Bong Joon-ho Best Picture winner
Best International Feature Film winner
2020 Nomadland Chloé Zhao Best Picture winner
One Night in Miami... Regina King
Beans Tracey Deer Best Picture winner
2021[11] Belfast Kenneth Branagh Best Picture nominee
Scarborough Shasha Nakhai, Rich Williamson Best Picture winner
The Power of the Dog Jane Campion Best Picture nominee

References

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  4. "The Oscar race starts at TIFF – but who's in the running?". The Globe and Mail, September 7, 2017.
  5. "TIFF lineup expands with horror, music". Telegraph-Journal, July 22, 2009.
  6. "TIFF’s Top Ten Film Festival: Spotlight on Canadian film". Toronto Star, December 1, 2014.
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 "Choose wisely: At the Toronto International Film Festival, how do you ensure that the people have actually spoken?". The Globe and Mail, September 7, 2017.
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 "People prize Chinese action ; Best Canadian feature award goes to Calgary director Gary Burns". Toronto Star, September 18, 2000.
  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 "Movies win role in a traumatized world ; Toronto film festival ended with hope for better future". Toronto Star, September 17, 2001.
  10. 10.0 10.1 10.2 Etan Vlessing, "Toronto: Taika Waititi's 'Jojo Rabbit' Wins Audience Award". The Hollywood Reporter, September 15, 2019.
  11. Steve Pond, "‘Belfast’ Wins Toronto Film Festival’s People’s Choice Award". TheWrap, September 18, 2021.