UPDATE, 9:45 a.m. with a statement from Steven Spielberg: Here’s Steven Spielberg’s full statement when he won the Toronto Film Festival’s People’s Choice Award for The Fabelmans. “As I said on stage the night before, ‘Above all, I’m happy to have brought this film to Toronto!’ This is the most personal film I’ve ever made, and the warm welcome from everyone in Toronto made my first visit to TIFF so intimate and personal for me and my entire Fabelman family. Thanks to Cameron Bailey and the incredible staff at TIFF. thanks to Universal Pictures. and a very special thank you to all the movie fans in Toronto for making this a weekend I’ll never forget.” PREVIOUSLY: The People’s Choice Award from the just-concluded 2022 Toronto Film Festival went to Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans. The first runner-up is Women Talking by Sarah Polley of Canada. Second runner-up was Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery by Rian Johnson. The Documentary Award went to Black Ice and the Midnight Madness winner was Weird: The Al Yankovic Story. Toronto Film Festival 2022 photo gallery Voted online by audience members since 1978 and often considered a precursor to the Best Picture Oscar, the TIFF People’s Choice Award has earned Best Picture Oscar winners such as Nomadland, Green Book, 12 Years a Slave, The King’s Speech, Slumdog Millinaire, American Beauty and Chariots of Fire. Best Picture nominees include last year’s winner Belfast, as well as JoJo Rabbit, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Room, La La Land, The Imitation Game, Silver Linings Playbook, Precious, Life Is Beautiful, Places in the Heart and the great chill. With the closure of Toronto’s first fully live festival in three years, affected like all others by Covid in the recent past, it also represents the end of the fall festival trifecta of Venice, Telluride and Toronto that traditionally opens the official semester. awards season. With Venice unusually awarding its Golden Lion to a documentary, director Laura Poitras’ All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (but not making TIFF’s top 3), and now TIFF’s People’s Choice Award going to The Fabelmans, the race is at this point appearing wide open and perhaps heading into unpredictable territory. However, with this award and the general feeling that Fabelmans emerged after its enthusiastic TIFF premiere a week ago as an Oscar front-runner at least for now, it means the film is in a good early position for Universal and the more personal by Spielberg. movie yet. Time will tell. Steven Spielberg Talks ‘Disheartening’ Experience Bringing Teenage Years to the Big Screen in ‘The Fabelmans’ – Toronto Festival director Cameron Bailey notified Spielberg very early this morning and said he was very grateful and again, as he said after the huge ovation at its premiere, he was very happy to bring it to Toronto (which he noted last week was the his first festival for one of his directed films, but it should also be noted that 2018’s Green Book, another People’s Choice winner, was produced by Spielberg’s company). At the New York Film Festival later this month and then in London. Here is the official list of winners from TIFF with all 2022 honorees: IMDbPro Short Cuts Award for Best Film Snow in September, sir. Lkhagvadulam (Dulmaa) Purev-Ochir. NETPAC Award Sweet As, dir. Labor Officer FIPRESCI Award Basil Khalil’s A Gaza Weekend Amplify Voices Award for Best Canadian Feature Film To Kill A Tiger, dir. Nisha Pahuja Special Mention for Best Canadian Feature Film Viking, sir. Stéphane Lafleur Amplify Voices Award Eleanor Will Never Die, dir. Martika Ramirez Escobar Special Mention for Best Feature Film by an Emerging BIPOC Filmmaker Buffy Sainte-Marie: Carry It On, dir. Madison Thomas. Shawn Mendes Foundation Changemaker Award You said something last night by Luis De Filippis. Platform Award Riceboy Sleeps, written and directed by Anthony Shim PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD Now in its 45th year, the People’s Choice Awards recognize the festival’s top audience title, as voted by the audience. All films in TIFF’s Official Selection were eligible. TIFF People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award Weird: The Al Yankovic Story dir. Eric Appel First runner-up: Pearl dir. Ti West.Second runner-up: The Blackening dir. Tim Story TIFF People’s Choice Documentary Award Black Ice dir. Hubert Davis First runner-up: Maya and the Wave dir. Stephanie JohnesSecond runner-up: 752 Is Not a Number dir. Babak Payami TIFF People’s Choice Award The Fabelmans dir. Steven Spielberg First runner-up: Women Talking dir. Sarah Polley Second Runner Up: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery dir. Rian Johnson
