Forget about best actor awards or controversies about favoritism, the Toronto Film Festival closing ceremony has a refreshingly ego-free feel to it.
Unlike the glitzy, red carpet theater affairs of the Cannes or Venice film festivals, TIFF is non-competitive, so the stars usually just go home after their film as screened, as opposed to waiting around for awards to be handed out.
Rather than declare a festival “winner”, Toronto organizers hand awards voted on by audience members critic, as well as a clutch of smaller prices to
Much of the last day is all about supporting the Canadian up-and-comers over a brunch of scrambled eggs, bacon and pancakes at the conclusion of the 11-day film extravaganza.
There are no egos here, where the winners are ecstatic by the honor and joke about how the cash awards can finally help pay off some overdue back taxes (Denis Villeneuve’s “Incendies” for best Canadian feature film) and keep them from having to work at Starbucks (Deborah Chow for directorial debut “The High Cost of Living”).
Here is where the public gets to shine and Toronto audiences have been apparently have good taste, having often picked films that have gone on to much success during the awards season.
The public voted “The King’s Speech”, directed by Tom Hooper, to the People’s Choice Award, a story of the man who would rather not be king. It stole Oscar buzz at the festival, with Colin Firth as the monarch who overcame a debilitating stammer to do the job and Geoffrey Rush as the the speech therapist who helps him do it.
Has Toronto extended its win streak ofOscar winners?
Forget about best actor awards or controversies about favoritism.
The Toronto International Film Festival closing ceremony has a refreshingly ego-free feel to it.
Unlike the glitzy, red carpet theater affairs of the Cannes or Venice film festivals, TIFF is non-competitive, so the stars don’t stick around after a gala world premiere screening of their film for splashy awards to be handed out.
Rather than declare a festival “winner”, much of the last day is all about supporting the Canadian up-and-comers over a friendly Sunday brunch of, yes, scrambled eggs, bacon and pancakes.
