"Room" directed by Lenny Abrahamson
Jia Zhangke personally presented awards for the film.
Sohu Entertainment Feature (Sen Yue / Wen) On the afternoon of September 20, local time, the 40th Toronto Film Festival closed, adapted from the Irish female writer Emma Donohue's novel of the same name, "Room" won the Audience Choice Award, the film tells the special experience of a boy born in a cell; and the competition unit "Platform" Unit Award named after the work of Chinese director Jia Zhangke also decided the final winner "Injury", this film tells the legendary story of the Canadian one-legged runner, Jia Zhangke personally presented the award for the film. In addition, the new film "Desert" directed by Honas-Caron (son of Alfonso-Caron), who participated in the creation of Gravity, won the Special Critics Award; Japanese director Yuan Ziwen's black-and-white film "Quiet Star" won the Asian Film Award.
Founded in 1976, the Toronto Film Festival in Canada has become one of the most important film festivals in North America and is often referred to as the bellwether of the Academy Awards. This year's Toronto Film Festival marks its 40th anniversary with more Canadian films on display. After an 11-day screening, the hundreds of films featured at the festival produced the following award-winning films:
Audience Choice Award: The Room (Directed by Lenny Abrahamson)
Audience Choice Award (Midnight Crazy Unit): Hardcore (Director: Ilya Naishuller)
Audience Choice Award (Documentary Section): Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom (Director: Evgeny Afineevsky)
Platform Unit Award: Hurt (Directed by Alan Zweig)
Asian Film Awards: The Whispering Star (aka Heso Boshi, directed by Yuan Ziwen)
International Film Critics Special Award: "Desert" Desierto (Director: Jonás Cuarón)
International Film Critics Discovery Award: Eva Nova (Director: Marko Skop)
Best Canadian Feature Film: "The Beast in the Closet, Closet Monster" (Directed by Stephen Dunn)
Best Canadian Debut: Sleeping Giant (directed by Andrew Cividino)
Best Short Film Award: Maman(s) by Mamuna Dukuré
Best Canadian Short Film: Overpass (Directed by Patrice Laliberté)
DROPBOX Film Discovery Award: "Gangsters" Black (Directed by Adil El Arbi, Bilall Fallah)
The Audience Choice Awards are not as good as the "Platform" unit
"Room" or sword refers to the Oscars
At this year's Toronto Film Festival, the winner of the Audience Choice Award, "Room", can be said to be the most popular, more popular than the second place "Wrath of the Indian Goddess" and the third place "Spotlight" (starring Michael Keaton). Adapted from the novel of the same name by Irish writer Emma Donohoe, the film tells the story of a five-year-old boy Jack who is imprisoned in a room of less than ten square meters from birth, sleeps in a closet, and lives with his mother, Jack has never seen the light of day since birth, but he has to pluck up the courage to rescue his mother. Jack, the actor of the movie boy Jack, who voiced the Smurfs 2, provoked the beam in "The Room" to vividly show a helpless boy who grew up living in a deformed environment where love and shadow intersected. Although there was no participation of A-list big stars, the screening of "Room" not only received explosive praise from the Toronto Film Festival, but also earned many audience tears.
In previous years, Oscar hits such as "Slumdog Millionaire", "The King's Speech", "Twelve Years of Slavery", "Imitation Game" and so on have all won the Toronto Audience Choice Awards first, so some media predict that "Room" will make a big difference at the Academy Awards. After the award ceremony, the organizing committee specially prepared a screening of "Room" to entertain the audience who missed the screening during the film festival. Interestingly, the Grand Prize", the Audience Choice Award, was only $15,000, which was $10,000 less than the prize money of the competition unit "Platform Unit" named after Jia Zhangke's "Platform".
Jia Zhangke presented the award to the documentary director of the one-legged runner
He Ping won the Honorary Director Award
This year's "Platform" unit named after Jia Zhangke's works also invited director Jia Zhangke to personally serve as the guest of honor, and the "Platform" unit is a competition unit focusing on art films set up by the Toronto Film Festival, and it is also the first unit named after the works of Chinese directors in the 40 years since the establishment of the film festival. The legendary Canadian one-legged runner Steve Fonyo won the Platform Unit Award for "Injury", a runner who crossed the country with only one leg and a legend of life's ups and downs. Steve Fonyo had his left leg removed from cancer as a teenager and went through hardships to become a famous runner, but in the years that followed, Steve Fonyo was constantly troubled, constantly charged with gun possession, theft, driving without a license, etc., and the film delicately showed the complex mental journey of this subverted Canadian hero.
Alan Zweig, the director of "Hurt", was very happy to hold the square cornerstone metal trophy of the "Platform" unit, saying that his film deserved the "weight" of the award, and he also became the first director in the history of the Toronto Film Festival to win the "Platform Award". Several directors in the platform unit also won the Honorary Director Award, among which Chinese director He Ping won the award for his work "Back to every Day Of Being Loved". Director He Ping's "Back to every Day Of Being Loved" was filmed experimentally, focusing on the plight of young Chinese people at present, and received critical acclaim at the Toronto Film Festival.
Alfonso Cuarón's son's new film won the award
Russian netizen crowdfunding videos were recognized
Released in 2013, Gravity is a film co-written by Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón and son Honas Cuarón, which swept the Oscars for technology, and Hornes-Cuarón also directed Gravity's spin-off short film Aninga. At this year's Toronto Film Festival, The Tiger Father has no dogs, and Horners-Caron brought his feature film "Desert", which won the International Film Critics Special Award. Starring famed Mexican actor Gail García Bernal, who starred in "The Motorcycle Diaries" and "Love is a Dog Lady," Desert tells the story of a Mexican illegal immigrant and an American police officer in a game of hiding, and the film showcases Honas Cuarón's solid skills as a feature film director.
The strange movie "Hardcore War" has also been recognized by this year's Toronto Film Festival, which is quite inspirational. It's a first-person action blockbuster shot by Russian netizen Ilya Naishuller through crowdfunding. Ilya had previously made a teaser video to put on the Internet, did not expect the idea to be quite popular, but got a $250,000 funding, so it had the ability to shoot larger scenes and more complex plots, and invited "District 9" actor Shartto Copley to star, upgraded "Hardcore Wars" into a Cyborg action blockbuster with elements of love, science fiction, crime and so on, and won the Audience Choice Award Midnight Crazy Unit Award at this year's Toronto Film Festival.
"The Martian" and "Danish Girl", which have attracted more attention before, have received no grain in the awards, but "Little Freckles" Eddie Redmayne should win the Oscars again with his excellent acting skills in "Danish Girl".