Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award: Documentaries

The Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award for Documentaries is an annual film award, presented by the Toronto International Film Festival to the film rated as the year's most popular documentary film with festival audiences.[1] The award was first introduced in 2009;[2] prior to its introduction, documentary films were eligible for the Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award.

After the award is announced, the festival offers a repeat screening of the winner at the TIFF Bell Lightbox on the final day of the festival.

Process

The voting process is the same as for the feature film People's Choice: at each documentary film screening, attendees are invited to "vote" for the film by rating it on their ticket stubs and leaving the stubs in voting boxes outside the theatre after the show.[3]

Winners

Year Film Director(s) Ref
2009 The Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls Leanne Pooley [4]
Capitalism: A Love Story Michael Moore
2010 Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie Sturla Gunnarsson [5]
Nostalgia for the Light Patricio Guzman
2011 The Island President Jon Shenk [6]
First Position Bess Kargman
Pearl Jam 20 Cameron Crowe
2012 Artifact Jared Leto [7]
Storm Surfers 3D Christopher Nelius, Justin McMillan
Revolution Rob Stewart
2013 The Square (Al-Midan) Jehane Noujaim [8]
Hi-Ho Mistahey! Alanis Obomsawin
Beyond the Edge Leanne Pooley
2014 Beats of the Antonov Hajooj Kuka [9]
Do I Sound Gay? David Thorpe
Seymour: An Introduction Ethan Hawke
2015 Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom Evgeny Afineevsky [10]
This Changes Everything Avi Lewis
Al Purdy Was Here Brian D. Johnson
2016 I Am Not Your Negro Raoul Peck [11]
Abacus: Small Enough to Jail Steve James
Before the Flood Fisher Stevens
2017 Faces Places Agnès Varda, JR [12]
Long Time Running Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier
Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken! Morgan Spurlock
2018 Free Solo E. Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin [13]
This Changes Everything Tom Donahue
The Biggest Little Farm John Chester
2019 The Cave Feras Fayyad [14]
I Am Not Alone Garin Hovannisian
Dads Bryce Dallas Howard
2020 Inconvenient Indian Michelle Latimer [15]
No runners-up named due to the reduced lineup in light of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada.
2021 The Rescue Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin [16]
Dionne Warwick: Don't Make Me Over Dave Wooley, David Heilbroner
Flee Jonas Poher Rasmussen
2022 Black Ice Hubert Davis [17]
Maya and the Wave Stephanie Johnes
752 Is Not a Number Babak Payami
2023 Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe Robert McCallum [18]
Summer Qamp Jen Markowitz
Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa Lucy Walker
2024 The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal Mike Downie [19]
Will & Harper Josh Greenbaum
Your Tomorrow Ali Weinstein

See also

References

  1. ^ Walmsley, Katie (September 2009). "Oprah flick 'Precious' wins top award at Toronto". CNN. Retrieved June 8, 2010.
  2. ^ "TIFF lineup expands with horror, music". Telegraph-Journal, July 22, 2009.
  3. ^ "Choose wisely: At the Toronto International Film Festival, how do you ensure that the people have actually spoken?". The Globe and Mail, September 7, 2017.
  4. ^ Adam McDowell, "'Precious' awarded top prize at TIFF". Regina Leader-Post, September 21, 2009.
  5. ^ "The King's Speech is People's Choice; Incendies voted best Canadian picture". Vancouver Sun, September 20, 2010.
  6. ^ "Lebanese film wins TIFF's top prize; Starbuck is People's Choice runner-up". National Post, September 19, 2011.
  7. ^ "Silver Linings Playbook writes surprise TIFF ending". Toronto Star, September 17, 2012.
  8. ^ Bruce Kirkland, "Slave tops TIFF winners". Toronto Sun, September 16, 2013.
  9. ^ Bruce Kirkland, "Benedict Cumberbatch film takes audience prize at TIFF". Toronto Sun, September 15, 2014.
  10. ^ Jim Slotek, "TIFF 2015: 'Room' wins People's Choice Award". Winnipeg Free Press, September 20, 2015.
  11. ^ Chris Knight, "And the winner is ...; La La Land takes bellwether award". National Post, September 19, 2016.
  12. ^ Jeremy Kay (17 September 2017). "'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri' wins Toronto audience award". Screen Daily. 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.
  13. ^ "'Green Book' boosts awards season prospects with TIFF audience award win". Screen Daily, September 16, 2018.
  14. ^ Etan Vlessing, "Toronto: Taika Waititi's 'Jojo Rabbit' Wins Audience Award". The Hollywood Reporter, September 15, 2019.
  15. ^ Etan Vlessing, "Toronto: Chloe Zhao's 'Nomadland' Wins Audience Award". The Hollywood Reporter, September 20, 2020.
  16. ^ Steve Pond, "‘Belfast’ Wins Toronto Film Festival’s People’s Choice Award". TheWrap, September 18, 2021.
  17. ^ Christian Zilko, "‘The Fabelmans’ Wins TIFF 2022 People’s Choice Award". IndieWire, September 18, 2022.
  18. ^ Steve Pond, "‘American Fiction’ Wins Toronto Film Festival’s Audience Award". TheWrap, September 17, 2023.
  19. ^ Steve Pond, "‘The Life of Chuck’ Wins Toronto Film Festival’s People’s Choice Award". TheWrap, September 15, 2024.