Award winners for the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival were announced today (September 17) at the closing ceremony hosted by Piers Handling, CEO and Director of TIFF, and Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director.
This marked the 40th year that Toronto audiences were able to cast ballots for their favorite festival film for the Grolsch People’s Choice Award. This year’s honor went to Martin McDonagh for “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.” The award offers a $15,000 cash prize. The first runner up was Craig Gillespie’s “I,Tonya.” The second runner up was Lucas Guadagnino’s “Call Me by Your Name.”
The Grolsch People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award went to Joseph Kahn’s “Bodied.” The Grolsch People’s Choice Documentary Award went to AgnèsVarda and JR’s “Faces Places.”
The Canada Goose Award for Best Canadian Feature Film went to Robin Auber’s “Les Affamés.” The award carries a cash prize of $30,000 sponsored by Canada Goose. The jury gave honorable mention too Simon Lavoie’s “The Little Girl Who Was too Fond of Matches.”
The City of Toronto award for Best Canadian First Feature Film went to Wayne Wapeemukwa’s “Lul’Luk’l.” The award carries a cash prize of $15,000 made possible by the city of Toronto. Honorable mention went to Sadaf Foroughi’s “Ava.”
The IWC Short Cuts Award for Best Short Film went to Niki Lindroth von Bahr’s “The Burden,” with honorable mentions to Matthew Rankin’s “The Tesla World Light” and Qiu Yang’s “A Gentle Night.”
As selected by a jury from the Network for the Promotion of Asian Pacific Cinema for the sixth consecutive year, the NETPAC Award for World or International Asian Film Premiere went to Huang Hsin-Yao’s “The Great Buddha+.” The Toronto Platform Prize by Air France was awarded to Warwick Thornton’s “Sweet Country.”
A jury of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) awarded its honor for the Discovery program to Sadaf Foroughi for “Ava,” and its award for Special Presentations to Manuel Martin Cuenca for “The Motive.”
The annual TIFF has emerged as one of the most important film festivals in the world and attracts a huge international press corps. Posted September 17, 2017.