TheToronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award is an annual film award, presented by theToronto International Film Festival to the movie rated as the year's best film according to TIFF audience.[1] Past sponsors of the award have includedCadillac andGrolsch.[2]
The winners of this award have often later earnedAcademy Award nominations, to the point that the award is now considered to be effectively the "starting gun" of the Academy Award nominations race.[3]
In 2009, the festival introduced separate People's Choice Awards forDocumentaries andMidnight Madness.[4] In 2015, it also introduced a People's Choice Award for its satelliteCanada's Top Ten festival,[5] 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.
For the2025 Toronto International Film Festival, TIFF announced plans to introduce a newInternational People's Choice Award for films from outside North America, while reserving the original People's Choice Award for films from Canada and the United States.[6]
At each film screening, attendees are invited to vote for the film as People's Choice after the show.[7] Formerly conducted in the lobby of the theatre after the show, People's Choice voting is now conducted principally online, with voters' e-mail addresses cross-referenced against ticket registrations to ensure that the vote cannot be manipulated by people who have not actually seen the film at TIFF.
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]
Films that are in strong contention for the People's Choice Award will often, although not always, have extra screenings added to the program toward the end of the festival,[8] although this does not necessarily guarantee that a film with added screenings will always make the top three.
After the award is announced, the festival offers several repeat screenings of the winner at the TIFF Bell Lightbox on the final day of the festival.
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] At the 2004 festival, no first or second runners-up were officially named for the People's Choice Award; however, festival directorPiers Handling did provide the media with a list of numerous other films that had been in the running, includingCrash,Gunner Palace,I, Claudia,Up and Down,3-Iron,Ma Mère,The Holy Girl,Red Dust,Brides,Saving Face andSideways.[9] The festival named four runners-up rather than two in 2005, and only one runner-up in 2010, but has otherwise always named two runners-up for the award.
The table notes whether films have been winners or nominees for theAcademy Award forBest Picture,Best Screenplay,Best Foreign Language Film orBest 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 andRoger & 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 andThe Hanging Garden in 1997, were also named as the winners of the juried award forBest Canadian Film, although the 2007 winnerEastern Promises and the 2015 winnerRoom were not. All four films were alsoBest Picture nominees at theGenie Awards or theCanadian Screen Awards, whichThe Decline of the American Empire andRoom won.
To date,Chloé Zhao is the only director ever to have won the top award twice, winning in 2020 forNomadland and in 2025 forHamnet.[10]
| Year | Film | Director(s) | Academy Award honours | Genie/CSA honours | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 | Girlfriends | Claudia Weill | [11] | ||
| 1979 | Best Boy | Ira Wohl | Best Documentary Feature winner | [12] | |
| 1980 | Bad Timing | Nicolas Roeg | [13] | ||
| 1981 | Chariots of Fire | Hugh Hudson | Best Picture winner Best Original Screenplay winner | [14] | |
| 1982 | Tempest | Paul Mazursky | [15] | ||
| 1983 | The Big Chill | Lawrence Kasdan | Best Picture nominee Best Original Screenplay nominee | [16] | |
| 1984 | Places in the Heart | Robert Benton | Best Picture nominee Best Original Screenplay winner | [17] | |
| 1985 | The Official Story (La historia oficial) | Luis Puenzo | Best Foreign Language Film winner Best Original Screenplay nominee | [18] | |
| 1986 | The Decline of the American Empire (Le déclin de l'empire américain) | Denys Arcand | Best Foreign Language Film nominee | Best Picture winner | [19] |
| 1987 | The Princess Bride | Rob Reiner | [20] | ||
| 1988 | Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios) | Pedro Almodóvar | Best Foreign Language Film nominee | [21] | |
| 1989 | Roger & Me | Michael Moore | [22] | ||
| 1990 | Cyrano de Bergerac | Jean-Paul Rappeneau | Best Foreign Language Film nominee | [23] | |
| 1991 | The Fisher King | Terry Gilliam | Best Original Screenplay nominee | [24] | |
| 1992 | Strictly Ballroom | Baz Luhrmann | [25] | ||
| 1993 | The Snapper | Stephen Frears | [26] | ||
| 1994 | Priest | Antonia Bird | [27] | ||
| 1995 | Antonia | Marleen Gorris | Best Foreign Language Film winner | [28] | |
| 1996 | Shine | Scott Hicks | Best Picture nominee Best Original Screenplay nominee | [29] | |
| 1997 | The Hanging Garden | Thom Fitzgerald | Best Picture nominee | [30] | |
| 1998 | Life Is Beautiful (La vita è bella) | Roberto Benigni | Best Picture nominee Best Foreign Language Film winner Best Original Screenplay nominee | [31] | |
| 1999 | American Beauty | Sam Mendes | Best Picture winner Best Original Screenplay winner | [32] | |
| 2000 | Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (卧虎藏龙) | Ang Lee | Best Picture nominee Best Foreign Language Film winner Best Adapted Screenplay nominee | [33] | |
| The Dish | Rob Sitch | ||||
| Innocence | Paul Cox | ||||
| Billy Elliot | Stephen Daldry | Best Original Screenplay nominee | |||
| 2001 | Amélie (Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain) | Jean-Pierre Jeunet | Best Foreign Language Film nominee Best Original Screenplay nominee | [34] | |
| Maya | Digvijay Singh | ||||
| Monsoon Wedding | Mira Nair | ||||
| 2002 | Whale Rider | Niki Caro | [35] | ||
| Bowling for Columbine | Michael Moore | Best Documentary Feature winner | |||
| Bend It Like Beckham | Gurinder Chadha | ||||
| 2003 | Zatōichi | Takeshi Kitano | [36] | ||
| Go Further | Ron Mann | Best Documentary nominee | |||
| The Corporation | Mark Achbar andJennifer Abbott | Best Documentary winner | |||
| 2004 | Hotel Rwanda | Terry George | Best Original Screenplay nominee | [37] | |
| 2005 | Tsotsi | Gavin Hood | Best Foreign Language Film winner | [38] | |
| Live and Become | Radu Mihaileanu | ||||
| Dreamer | John Gatins | ||||
| Brokeback Mountain | Ang Lee | Best Picture nominee Best Adapted Screenplay winner | |||
| Mother of Mine | Klaus Härö | ||||
| 2006 | Bella | Alejandro Gómez Monteverde | [39] | ||
| My Best Friend (Mon meilleur ami) | Patrice Leconte | ||||
| Dixie Chicks: Shut Up and Sing | Barbara Kopple andCecilia Peck | ||||
| 2007 | Eastern Promises | David Cronenberg | Best Picture nominee | [40] | |
| Juno | Jason Reitman | Best Picture nominee Best Original Screenplay winner | |||
| Body of War | Ellen Spiro andPhil Donahue | ||||
| 2008 | Slumdog Millionaire | Danny Boyle | Best Picture winner Best Adapted Screenplay winner | [41] | |
| 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 Best Adapted Screenplay winner | [42] | |
| Mao's Last Dancer | Bruce Beresford | ||||
| Micmacs | Jean-Pierre Jeunet | ||||
| 2010 | The King's Speech | Tom Hooper | Best Picture winner Best Original Screenplay winner | [43] | |
| The First Grader | Justin Chadwick | ||||
| 2011 | Where Do We Go Now?(وهلّأ لوين؟) | Nadine Labaki | [44] | ||
| Starbuck | Ken Scott | ||||
| A Separation | Asghar Farhadi | Best Foreign Language Film winner Best Original Screenplay nominee | |||
| 2012 | Silver Linings Playbook | David O. Russell | Best Picture nominee Best Adapted Screenplay nominee | [45] | |
| Argo | Ben Affleck | Best Picture winner Best Adapted Screenplay winner | |||
| Zaytoun | Eran Riklis | ||||
| 2013 | 12 Years a Slave | Steve McQueen | Best Picture winner Best Adapted Screenplay winner | [46] | |
| Philomena | Stephen Frears | Best Picture nominee Best Adapted Screenplay nominee | |||
| Prisoners | Denis Villeneuve | ||||
| 2014 | The Imitation Game | Morten Tyldum | Best Picture nominee Best Adapted Screenplay winner | [47] | |
| Learning to Drive | Isabel Coixet | ||||
| St. Vincent | Theodore Melfi | ||||
| 2015 | Room | Lenny Abrahamson | Best Picture nominee Best Adapted Screenplay nominee | Best Picture Winner | [48] |
| Angry Indian Goddesses | Pan Nalin | ||||
| Spotlight | Tom McCarthy | Best Picture winner Best Original Screenplay winner | |||
| 2016 | La La Land | Damien Chazelle | Best Picture nominee Best Original Screenplay nominee | [49] | |
| Lion | Garth Davis | Best Picture nominee Best Adapted Screenplay nominee | |||
| Queen of Katwe | Mira Nair | ||||
| 2017 | Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri | Martin McDonagh | Best Picture nominee Best Original Screenplay nominee | [50] | |
| I, Tonya | Craig Gillespie | ||||
| Call Me by Your Name | Luca Guadagnino | Best Picture nominee Best Adapted Screenplay winner | |||
| 2018 | Green Book | Peter Farrelly | Best Picture winner Best Original Screenplay winner | [51] | |
| If Beale Street Could Talk | Barry Jenkins | Best Adapted Screenplay nominee | |||
| Roma | Alfonso Cuarón | Best Picture nominee Best Foreign Language Film winner Best Original Screenplay nominee | |||
| 2019 | Jojo Rabbit | Taika Waititi | Best Picture nominee Best Adapted Screenplay winner | [52] | |
| Marriage Story | Noah Baumbach | Best Picture nominee Best Original Screenplay nominee | |||
| Parasite | Bong Joon-ho | Best Picture winner Best International Feature Film winner Best Original Screenplay winner | |||
| 2020 | Nomadland | Chloé Zhao | Best Picture winner Best Adapted Screenplay Nominee | [53] | |
| One Night in Miami... | Regina King | Best Adapted Screenplay nominee | |||
| Beans | Tracey Deer | Best Picture winner | |||
| 2021 | Belfast | Kenneth Branagh | Best Picture nominee Best Original Screenplay winner | [54] | |
| Scarborough | Shasha Nakhai,Rich Williamson | Best Picture winner | |||
| The Power of the Dog | Jane Campion | Best Picture nominee Best Adapted Screenplay nominee | |||
| 2022 | The Fabelmans | Steven Spielberg | Best Picture nominee Best Original Screenplay nominee | [55] | |
| Women Talking | Sarah Polley | Best Picture nominee Best Adapted Screenplay winner | |||
| Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery | Rian Johnson | Best Adapted Screenplay nominee | |||
| 2023 | American Fiction | Cord Jefferson | Best Picture nominee Best Adapted Screenplay winner | [56] | |
| The Holdovers | Alexander Payne | Best Picture nominee Best Original Screenplay nominee | |||
| The Boy and the Heron | Hayao Miyazaki | Best Animated Feature winner | |||
| 2024 | The Life of Chuck | Mike Flanagan | [57] | ||
| Emilia Pérez | Jacques Audiard | Best Picture nominee Best International Feature Film nominee Best Adapted Screenplay nominee | |||
| Anora | Sean Baker | Best Picture winner Best Original Screenplay winner | |||
| 2025 | Hamnet | Chloé Zhao | [58] | ||
| Frankenstein | Guillermo del Toro | ||||
| Wake Up Dead Man | Rian Johnson |
In other key awards handed out on Sunday afternoon (17), Warwick Thornton's Sweet Country claimed the Toronto Platform Prize, while Joseph Kahn's Bodied won the Grolsch People's Choice Midnight Madness Award. Agnès Varda and JR's Faces Places took the Grolsch People's Choice Documentary Award.