The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) concluded its landmark 50th edition by announcing 12 prestigious awards, including the audience-voted People’s Choice Awards presented by Rogers and the juried Platform Award. This year’s festival welcomed over 700,000 guests, nearly 2,000 accredited media, 6,000 industry delegates, and hosted 1,200 screenings with talent gracing 110 red carpets. New additions to the awards lineup included the International People’s Choice Award and the Short Cuts Award for Best Animated Short Film, reflecting TIFF’s commitment to evolving global cinema.
People’s Choice Awards Presented by Rogers
The 48th edition of the People’s Choice Awards, determined by public votes across all feature films and Primetime series in TIFF’s Official Selection, highlighted audience favorites in multiple categories.
People’s Choice Award: Hamnet, directed by Chloé Zhao
First Runner-Up: Frankenstein, directed by Guillermo del Toro
Second Runner-Up: Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, directed by Rian Johnson
International People’s Choice Award: No Other Choice, directed by Park Chan-wook
First Runner-Up: Sentimental Value, directed by Joachim Trier
Second Runner-Up: Homebound, directed by Neeraj Ghaywan
People’s Choice Documentary Award: The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue, directed by Barry Avrich
First Runner-Up: EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert, directed by Baz Luhrmann
Second Runner-Up: You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution…, directed by Nick Davis
People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award: Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, directed by Matt Johnson
First Runner-Up: Obsession, directed by Curry Barker
Second Runner-Up: The Furious, directed by Kenji Tanigaki
The Short Cuts Awards, judged by Ashley Iris Gill, Marcel Jean, and Connor Jessup, honored outstanding short films, with each winner receiving a $10,000 CAD bursary.
Best International Short Film: Talk Me, directed by Joecar Hanna (Spain/USA)
Jury Statement: “This film sparked one of the most interesting conversations around the jury table. Talk Me is bold in its portrayal of intimacy and the universal longing for connection. The characters fit so naturally into the film’s unique, evocative world that everything feels normal very quickly. Its cinematography is beautiful, delicate yet deliberate, each frame carefully crafted to draw us deeper into the story. By allowing the visuals to lead, the film creates an immersive experience of vulnerability and honesty. For its courage, craft, and sensitivity, the jury presents the Short Cuts Award for Best International Short Film to Joecar Hanna’s Talk Me.”
Honourable Mention: Agapito, directed by Arvin Belarmino & Kyla Danelle Romero (Philippines)
Jury Statement: “For its formal precision, command of a delicate tone, poetic awareness of space and movement, and deeply personal reflections on family, the jury is thrilled to present an Honourable Mention to Arvin Belarmino and Kyla Danelle Romero’s remarkable Agapito. The jury also wants to acknowledge the brilliantly nuanced and committed performances of the film’s young cast.”
Best Canadian Short Film: The Girl Who Cried Pearls, directed by Chris Lavis & Maciek Szczerbowski (Canada)
Jury Statement: “In addition to highlighting the film’s daring technical achievement and sumptuous artistic direction, the jury also wants to recognize a fable about greed and the capacity of artists to create a fantastic world by the power of their narrative voice. The Short Cuts Award for Best Canadian Short Film goes to Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski for The Girl Who Cried Pearls.”
Honourable Mention: A Soft Touch, directed by Heather Young
Jury Statement: “A Soft Touch really pierced our hearts. It finds a way to transform routine, everyday moments into a quietly devastating portrait of neglect and resilience. With searing precision and simplicity, the film illuminates how easily older folks can be overlooked, and in doing so, demands our attention, empathy, and accountability. The jury awards an Honourable Mention to Heather Young’s A Soft Touch.”
Best Animated Short Film: To the Woods, directed by Agnès Patron (France)
Jury Statement: “This wordless journey into the bond between two siblings becomes a transcendent meditation on the mysteries of time and memory, love and loss, connection and transformation. Animated with lush, cosmic beauty and vibrating with tenderness and insight, the film plunges its viewer into deep, deep feeling. For its overwhelming artistry, luminous spirit, and soul-expanding sense of mystery, the jury presents the Short Cuts Award for Best Animated Short Film to Agnès Patron’s To the Woods. The jury also wants to note the film’s jaw-dropping sound design and the work of composer Pierre Oberkampf, whose score ranks among the best film music of recent years.”
The FIPRESCI jury, comprising Katharina Dockhorn, Francisco Ferreira, Jean-Philippe Guerand, Andy Hazel, and Justine Smith, awarded the International Critics Prize to a debut feature in the Discovery or Centrepiece programs.
FIPRESCI Prize: Forastera, directed by Lucía Aleñar Iglesias (Spain/Italy/Sweden)
Jury Statement: “Spanish cinema, long shaped by the exuberance of Pedro Almodóvar, has found a new distinctive voice in Lucía Aleñar Iglesias. Set on sun-drenched Mallorca, Forastera follows 16-year-old Cata, whose carefree family holiday is brought to a halt by the death of her grandmother. In her grief, the teenager takes on the older woman’s persona — wearing her clothes, adopting her gestures and silences. Aleñar Iglesias directs with restraint and precision, finding power in understatement. Performances from newcomer Zoe Stein and veteran Lluís Homar anchor the film’s dreamlike rhythms. What might sound slight becomes luminous: a meditation on an adolescent’s first encounter with death, and a ghost story about how the past lingers in the present. Forastera is a quietly assured debut, simple yet transformative, marking Aleñar Iglesias as a filmmaker the FIPRESCI jury would like to bet on.”
The NETPAC Award, presented by the Network for the Promotion of Asian Pacific Cinema, recognized a film from the Asian and Pacific regions by a first or second-time director. The jury included Dina Iordanova, Helen Lee, and Keoprasith Souvannavong (Jury Chair).
NETPAC Award: In Search of The Sky (Vimukt), directed by Jitank Singh Gurjar (India)
Jury Statement: “For offering an indelible tale of tolerance, desperation and faith, conveyed through a unique lens of realism and poetics, elevated by striking performances. In Search of The Sky (Vimukt) is a truly independent achievement by Indian filmmaker Jitank Singh Gurjar. The film transports the audience to rural central India, where an impoverished elderly couple contends with their cognitively challenged adult son and the villagers who threaten their existence. A beacon of hope comes in the form of the Maha Kumbh Mela, a pilgrimage to the world’s largest spiritual gathering where they seek renewal and new possibilities of life.”
This award celebrates emerging Canadian filmmakers’ first or second features, with a $10,000 CAD prize. The jury, consisting of Jennifer Baichwal, Sophie Jarvis, and R.T. Thorne, also judged the Best Canadian Feature Film Award.
Best Canadian Discovery Award: Blue Heron, directed by Sophy Romvari (Canada)
Jury Statement: “Blue Heron, written and directed by Sophy Romvari, is a film centered on a family struggling with a troubling personal crisis, where all elements — script, direction, cinematography, performance and editing — unite to powerfully transcend the sum of their parts. The complexity of story, perspective, and emotion is conveyed with understated simplicity — nothing is superfluous — and the transitions between real and imagined, past and present, are seamless, as well as heartbreaking. Blue Heron is a stunning and assured feature debut about love, grief, memory, and the yearning to go back to the moment before everything changed.”
Honourable Mention: 100 Sunset, directed by Kunsang Kyirong (Canada)
Jury Statement: “We as a jury were struck by the remarkable world-building in 100 Sunset, Kunsang Kyirong’s directorial debut. She invites us into the apartment complex that is home to members of the Tibetan immigrant community in Toronto, where we experience the gossip, rivalries, and intrigues through the eyes of an observant young thief who rarely speaks but seems to register everything. The growing friendship between the thief and a newly arrived young wife is a study in seeing and being seen, and the interplay of an old DV camera perspective takes us along on their journey of expanding horizons.”
The jury also praised the strength of Indigenous films supported by the Indigenous Screen Office, noting their variety and storytelling as a powerful indicator of Canadian cinema’s future.
Best Canadian Feature Film Award
This award honors established Canadian feature films (excluding first or second features), with a $10,000 CAD prize, judged by the same jury.
Best Canadian Feature Film Award: Uiksaringitara (Wrong Husband), directed by Zacharias Kunuk (Canada)
Jury Statement: “Wrong Husband, directed by Zacharias Kunuk, is a love story from thousands of years ago that blends the epic and intimate and immerses viewers in a mesmerizing and unique cinematic experience. The supernatural is ever-present and matter of fact alongside exquisite details of the daily rhythms of ancient Inuit life. The humour, gentleness and stoicism in the characters’ interactions is deeply moving, and the landscape is both a sublime setting and a character in itself. This is a beautiful and not unexpected achievement from a master storyteller.”
Honourable Mention: There Are No Words, directed by Min Sook Lee (Canada)
Jury Statement: “An Honourable Mention goes to There Are No Words, written and directed by veteran documentarian Min Sook Lee. This film is a profound and devastating story of unspeakable loss; the shifting shape and mingling of individual and collective memory; the sometimes brutal immigrant experience; and how past violent personal and political realities can continue to define the identity of a family.”