The Toronto International Film Festival has officially handed out its hardware. After 11 days of star-studded premieres, packed screenings and the annual TIFF frenzy, the festival has crowned Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi’s La Bola Negra as the winner of its biggest audience prize.
The Spanish drama, inspired by Federico García Lorca’s unfinished play, took home the People’s Choice Award. The film weaves together three stories set across different periods of Spanish history.
The international prize went to Elsinore, Simon Stone’s drama starring Andrew Scott as British actor Ian Charleson. Lee Chang-dong’s Possible Love finished as the first runner-up, while Hur Jin-ho’s The Assassin(s) took second runner-up.
On the documentary side, Barry Avrich’s Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been won the People’s Choice Award, beating out James Marcus Haney’s Black Sunflowers and Mila Aung-Thwin’s The Ultra Runner.
Then there was Midnight Madness, where TIFF audiences proved they were ‘Canada down’. Matthew Rankin’s Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney won the section’s top audience prize, putting the director behind Universal Language back in the TIFF spotlight. Paolo Strippoli’s The Spiral was the first runner-up, with SABU’s Arrested Memory taking second.
Canadian filmmakers also picked up two of the festival’s homegrown prizes. Serville Poblete’s Sunburn won Best Canadian Feature Film, while Cody Lightning’s Smudge the Blades took Best Canadian Discovery.
