Family drama Belfast wins Oscar bellwether People's Choice prize at Toronto International Film Festival
CBC
British star Kenneth Branagh's "deeply personal" directorial effort, Belfast, has picked up awards season momentum after winning the People's Choice prize at the Toronto International Film Festival.
The family drama inspired by his own childhood in Belfast, Ireland, won the honour during Saturday's TIFF Tribute Awards broadcast on CTV, which ended 10 days of pandemic-tailored in-person screenings and digital at-home viewing.
Caitriona Balfe, Jamie Dornan and Judi Dench star in the black-and-white coming-of-age tale, set amid the tumult of late-1960s Northern Ireland.
Branagh, who's also an esteemed actor with an Oscar-nominated turn in Henry V, said he was "deeply grateful" for the prize chosen through online votes.
"Our first showing of Belfast at TIFF was one of the most memorable experiences of my entire career," the writer-director said in a pre-recorded video in the show, which also had a live element with masked attendees at a soiree with TIFF co-heads Joana Vicente and Cameron Bailey.
"That so many film lovers connected with Belfast so profoundly was absolutely overwhelming to myself and Jamie Dornan, and we talked about it long into a memorable night of laughter and tears in your great city."
The People's Choice prize has been seen as a predictor of Academy Award success.
Actor Jared Leto carrying around his own head as an accessory? Real. Rapper Lil Nas X, painted head to toe in silver, his body encrusted with pearls and crystals, wearing only a metallic Dior thong? It happened. Actor and singer Billy Porter, wearing a catsuit, carried into the event by six shirtless men in gold pants? Yes.