(Toronto) Sophie Dupuis’ film SOLO won the award for best Canadian film, while Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction, a satire about race and personal agency, won the audience award at this year’s Toronto Film International Festival.
Posted at 2:36 p.m.
Noel Ransome The Canadian Press
In the feature film, Jeffrey Wright plays an African-American novelist who is forced to limit himself to works about trauma and poverty.
The audience award is awarded after a vote on the Internet. The winner is often considered for the subsequent Academy Awards.
Last year, the choice fell on the film “The Fableman” by Steven Spielberg, which subsequently received a nomination in the “Best Film” category at the Oscars.
The award was presented at a breakfast at the end of the eleven days of the festival.
The $10,000 prize for the best Canadian film, selected by a jury, went to the film SOLO by Quebecer Sophie Dupuis. The feature film tells the story of a star of the Montreal drag scene with Théodore Pellerin, Félix Maritaud and Alice Moreault.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, LA PRESSE ARCHIVE
The actors of the film SOLO with the director Sophie Dupuis
“With this film we brought everyone together. I loved that. “I would like to thank you for this award because it makes it even more visible and we can get in touch with even more people,” said the director when accepting the award.
“Every step of this production confirmed to us how important it was to make a film like this so that queers could see themselves, accept themselves and love themselves,” she added.
The Platform Award, recognizing a film with unique directorial perspectives, was presented to Indian director Tarsem Singh Dhandwar’s Dear Jassi. The feature film tells the story of two lovers who are kept at a distance by geographical distance and family constraints.
The audience award for the documentary went to “Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe” by Robert McCallum, a reflection on the child actor Ernie Coombs.
The film Carnival by director Henri Pardo, whose family emigrated from Haiti to Quebec, won the award for best Canadian BIPOC film in the Centerpiece section.
“I salute all Black, Indigenous and filmmakers of color at TIFF 2023. We are underrepresented, but we have so many wonderful stories to tell,” he said as he accepted the award.
The 2023 festival lost some of its luster due to the absence of the usual Hollywood stars who were unable to attend due to the strike affecting them. Several directors used the platforms provided to them to demand pay increases for workers and protections against the use of artificial intelligence.
“It was a complex festival to organize. “We knew that the writer and actor strikes in the United States would impact us in some way,” festival CEO Cameron Bailey said in an interview. But people came, directors came and several actors came. And what’s more important: the films were well received. »