2018 TIFF Award Winners

The Field

As the 43rd Toronto International Film Festival concludes outgoing CEO and Director Piers Handling and Artistic Director Cameron Bailey hosted the closing ceremony at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.  During the 11 days of the festivities 255 features and 88 short films were screened from 83 countries with 33 percent being contributed by female filmmakers.  The IWC Short Cuts Award for Best Canadian Short Film went to Brotherhood by Meryam Joobeur and Best Short Film was given to The Field by Sandhya Suri.  The Canada Goose Award for Best Canadian Film was handed to Sébastien Pilote’s The Fireflies Are Gone.  Roads in February by Katherine Jerkovic received the City of Toronto Award for Best Canadian First Feature Film and was commended, “For the way the film demonstrates how genuine human connections best develop between two individuals when they stand on common ground.”

Fig Tree

The FIPRESCI Awards saw Carmel Winters win the Discovery programme with Float Like a Butterfly and Guy Nattiv being lauded for Skin as part of the Special Presentations programme.  The NETPAC Award for World or International Asian Film Premiere went to The Third Wife by Ash Mayfair while the Audentia Award for Best Female Director was given to Aäläm-Wärqe Davidian for Fig Tree which was called “a stunning and illuminating debut.  Based on her own experiences, Ethiopian-Israeli writer-director Aäläm-Wärqe Davidian takes us on an unsentimental journey and shows us the tragic effects of civil war on ordinary people.”  Cities of Last Things by Wi Ding Ho received the Toronto Platform Prize with The Grolsch People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award going to Vasan Bala’s The Man Who Feels No Pain and Grolsch People’s Choice Documentary Award given to Free Solo by E. Chai t Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin.  The coveted Grolsch People’s Choice Award singled out Green Book by Peter Farrelly with If Beale Street Could Talk by Barry Jenkins and ROMA by Alfonso Cuarón receiving honourable mentions.

Green Book

For more information visit official website for TIFF.  The 44th Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 5 to 15, 2019.

Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada; he can be found at LinkedIn.

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