Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans” has won the 2022 TIFF People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, TIFF organizers announced at an awards breakfast on Sunday in Toronto.
Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking” took the first runner-up slot, while Rian Johnson’s “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery” was the second runner-up.
The People’s Choice Documentary award went to Hubert Davis’ hockey doc “Black Ice,” while the Midnight Madness award was won by Eric Appel’s entirely fake rock biopic “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.”
In a year with an abundance of high-profile, crowd-pleasing movies in the TIFF lineup, other films in competition for the award included Martin McDonagh’s “The Banshees of Inisherin,” Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale,” Florian Zeller’s “The Son,” Gina Prince-Bythewood’s “The Woman King,” Nicholas Stoller’s “Bros,” Sam Mendes’ “Empire of Light” and Peter Farrelly’s “The Greatest Beer Run Ever,” the new film from a director whose last film, “Green Book,” won the TIFF award to kick off a run that ended with the Best Picture Oscar.
In the 14 years since “Slumdog Millionaire” won in 2008, the TIFF winner has gone on to be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar 12 times and has won that award five times, including “Nomadland” in 2020. In that time, an additional eight TIFF runner-ups have been nominated for Best Picture, and three have won. Last year’s Oscar winner, “CODA,” did not play in Toronto.
In other TIFF Awards, “Riceboy Sleeps” won the Platform Jury Prize for films in the Platform section of the festival.
The FISPRECI Award, given by the international film critics organization, went to Basil Kahlil’s dark West Bank comedy “A Gaza Weekend.” Amplify Voices awards went to “To Kill a Tiger,” “Leonor Will Never Die” and “While We Watched.” The Shawn Mendes Foundation Changemaker Award was given to “Something You Said Last Night.”
The awards:
People’s Choice Award: “The Fabelmans,” Steven Spielberg
First Runner-up: “Women Talking,” Sarah Polley
Second Runner-up: “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” Rian Johnson
People’s Choice Documentary Award: “Black Ice,” Hubert Davis
First Runner-up: “Maya and the Wave,” Stephanie Johns
Second Runner-up: “752 Is Not a Number,” Babak Payami
Midnight Madness People’s Choice Award: “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story,” Eric Appel
First Runner-up: “Pearl,” Ti West
Second Runner-up: “The Blackening,” Tim Story
Platform Jury Prize: “Riceboy Sleeps,” Anthony Shim
Shawn Mendes Foundation Changemaker Award: “Something You Said Last Night,” Luis De Filippis
Amplify Voices Award for Best Canadian Feature Film: “To Kill a Tiger,” Nisha Pahuja
Amplify Voices Award: “Leonor Will Never Die,” Martika Ramirez Escobar
Amplify Voices Award: “While We Watched,” Vinay Shukla
IMDbPro Short Cuts Award for Best Film: “Snow in December,” Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir
Honorable Mention: “Airhostess 737,” Thanasis Neofotistos
IMDbPro Short Cuts Award for Best Canadian Film: “Simo,” Azziz Zoromba
Honorable Mention: “Same Old,” Lloyd Lee Choi
IMDbPro Short Cuts Share Her Journey Award: “Nanitic,” Carol Nguyen
NETPAC Award: “Sweet As,” Jub Clerc
FIPRESCI Prize: “A Gaza Weekend,” Basil Kahlil
