Mike Flanagan’s The Life Of Chuck picked up the top People’s Choice honor Sunday at the Toronto Film Festival as its 2024 edition wrapped with renewed celebrity heat but still in the shadow of Venice and Cannes.
The Stephen King novella adaptation stars Mark Hamill, Karen Gillan and Chiwetel Ejiofor in a genre-tripping film about embracing hope in the face of tragedy. Flanagan in a statement thanked Toronto for the top audience award prize: “I’m absolutely overwhelmed. We’re so grateful that The Life of Chuck connected with audiences in such a powerful way, but never expected this.”
The second runner up for the People’s Choice Award was Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Perez, a queer crime musical headed to Netflix after it earned the jury prize in Cannes for the director, and the first runner-up was Sean Baker’s sex worker screwball comedy Anora, which earned the Palme d’Or in Cannes.
TIFF’s top audience award is considered a barometer of future Oscar nominations as Hollywood’s awards season kicks into gear.
Previous TIFF audience award winners — including Room, La La Land, 12 Years a Slave and Nomadland — received a lift from the normally celebrity-drenched Canadian festival on their way to Academy Award wins.
The People’s Choice award for best documentary went to The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal, directed by Mike Downie, and the audience award for best Midnight Madness title at TIFF went to Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance, which stars Demi Moore as a fading Hollywood actress feuding with the manifestation of her younger self, played by Margaret Qualley.
The People’s Choice Awards are voted on by TIFF attendees. Participants could not vote more than once online using their email address, as TIFF measured the origin of each vote and matched it to the festival’s ticket-buyer information and database.
More to come.
