‘Three Billboards’ Takes Home the Top TIFF Audience Prize

In case it was lost in the midst of the Hollywood shuffle and kerfuffle, we spent the better part of last week wandering the mean streets of Toronto in search of quality cinema. That means we attended the Toronto International Film Festival and reviewed some of the key movies that’ll be hitting theaters in the next couple of months. And while most critics have returned home to frantically finish their last few reviews and recaps, the festival itself did not officially wrap until today, with the festival organizers announcing their winners at the closing ceremony earlier today.

As befitting its origins as a hotbed of national cinema, the Toronto International Film Festival tends to take a more Canada-focused approach to its awards, with a handful of feature and short films taking home major awards meant to celebrate Canadian film. That being said, audiences and critics alike did take time to acknowledge some of the more impressive international movies to play the festival, with Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri walking away with the big audience prize.

Here’s the full list of winners from the festival:

IWC SHORT CUTS AWARD FOR BEST CANADIAN SHORT FILM

Pre-Drink, dir: Marc-Antoine Lemire

IWC SHORT CUTS AWARD FOR BEST INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM 

Min Börda, dir: Niki Lindroth von Bahr

CITY OF TORONTO AWARD FOR BEST CANADIAN FIRST FEATURE FILM

 Luk’ Luk’l, dir: Wayne Wapeemukwa

CANADA GOOSE AWARD FOR BEST CANADIAN FEATURE FILM

Les Affamés, dir: Robin Aubert

THE INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF FILM CRITICS - DISCOVERY PRIZE

Ava, dir: Sadaf Foroughi

THE INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF FILM CRITICS - SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS

The Motive, dir: Manuel Martín Cuenca

NETPAC AWARD FOR WORLD OR INTERNATIONAL ASIAN FILM PREMIERE

The Great Buddha+, dir: Huang Hsin-Yao

TORONTO PRIZE PLATFORM

Sweet Country, directed by Warwick Thornton

GROLSCH PEOPLE’S CHOICE MIDNIGHT MADNESS AWARD

Bodied, directed by Joseph Kahn

GROLSCH PEOPLE’S CHOICE DOCUMENTARY AWARD

Faces Places, dir: Agnès Varda

GROLSCH PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, dir: Martin McDonagh

And now that the Toronto International FIlm Festival is over, we can finally get back to some of the more pressing matters of our day and age: deciding which movies that played at the Toronto International Film Festival have emerged as front-runners for the Academy Awards race. Gosh, isn’t the film industry just the best sometimes?