“Hamnet”, Chloé Zhao's film about Shakespeare's family, has claimed the People's Choice prize of the Toronto International Film Festival, often a predictor of Oscar's success.
The victory was announced on Sunday, along with several other tribute to the festival. The runner -up of the People's Choice Prize were “Frankenstein” by Guillermo del Toro and “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Myster” by Rian Johnson.
“Hamnet”, based on a book by Maggie O'Farrell and a script by O'Farrell and Zhao, investigates the idea that Shakespeare's “Hamlet” was deeply influenced by the death of his 11 -year -old son, Hamnet. Shakespeare's wife, Agnes (also known as Anne), is essential for history.
Zhao, who has led five films, also directed “Nomadland”, winner of the 2020 Toronto People's Choice and three Academy Awards, including the best director, in 2021.
The winner of People's Choice last year in Toronto was Mike Flanagan's film “The Life of Chuck”, which was released publicly in the summer of 2025, a schedule that some have said that they could damage their possibilities of Oscar.
The People's Choice documentary award was for “The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue”, on a hostage rescue mission undertaken by a retired officer of Israel's defense forces after Hamas attacks in Israel on October 7, 2023. After withdrawing his initial invitation to the film, directed by the Toronto Filmker TIFF) Barry Avrich, the festival, the festival, the festival later, the festival later rechedulates.
The People's Choice International Award went to “No other choice”, led by Park Chan-Wook from South Korea.
Among the other winners were:
Midnight Madness Award (Celebrating “The best and strangest in contemporary genre and shock cinema”): “Nirvanna The Band the Show the Movie”, directed by Matt Johnson
Platform award (Highlighting artistic merit and direction vision): “A victory”, directed by Valentyn Vasyanovych
Canadian feature film: “Uiksaringitara (wrong husband)”, directed by Zacharias Kunuk
Canadian discovery: (Celebrating emerging directors): “Heron Blue”, directed by Sophy Romvari
International short films: “Tell me”, directed by Joecar Hanna
Canadian short film: “The girl who cried the pearls”, directed by Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski
Animated short film: “To the forest”, directed by the agnès pattern
NETPAC Award (Focusing on films made in Asia and the Pacific): “In Search of the Sky”, directed by Jitch Singh Gurjar
Fipresci Award (By the International Federation of Critiques of Film): “Forastera”, directed by Lucía Aleinar Iglesias
Staff writer Mark Olsen contributed to this report.
