Toronto Film Festival 2023
Cord Jefferson’s story of a novelist (Jeffrey Wright) grappling with the publishing industry’s expectations of black writers is now virtually guaranteed serious Oscar bidding
“American Fiction,” the literary satire starring Jeffrey Wright as a novelist who grapples with the publishing industry’s expectations of black writers, has won the influential People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, a result that earns him virtually guaranteed serious Oscar consideration and competition for major awards.
Described as “hilarious and devastating” by the Guardian, American Fiction triumphed over pre-festival favorites such as Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers and Hayao Miyazaki’s latest film The Boy and the Heron, which took second place. It is written and directed by Cord Jefferson, a well-known writer of TV series such as “The Good Place”, “Watchmen” and “Station Eleven”, who is now making his debut as a feature film director.
Review of American Fiction – concise literary satire takes no prisoners
The People’s Choice Award, voted on by the festival’s audience, has been a clear signpost for future success on the awards scene in recent years. This decade’s previous winners – “The Fablemans”, “Belfast” and “Nomadland” – all secured Academy Award nominations for best picture, with “Nomadland” winning the Oscar. Other People’s Choice winners that went on to win the Best Picture Oscar include Green Book, 12 Years a Slave and The King’s Speech.
Meanwhile, Dicks: The Musical, an adaptation of an off-Broadway musical by Josh Sharp and Aaron Jackson (in which they also star), won the People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award and Mr Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe won the People’s Choice Documentary Awards.
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