‘Nomadland’ Wins TIFF’s 2020 People’s Choice Award

Ryan Lattanzio
·2 min read

Chloé Zhao’s beloved road odyssey “Nomadland” took home the coveted Toronto International Film Festival 2020 People’s Choice Award on Sunday, often a precursor to an eventual Best Picture Academy Award nomination. Last year’s People’s Choice Award went to Taika Waititi’s “Jojo Rabbit,” which sealed the deal at the 2020 Oscars with a Best Adapted Screenplay win, along with a Best Picture nomination. Over the last eight years, every top TIFF winner has gone on to be nominated for Best Picture. “Nomadland” also won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival — making it the first film in history to win both festival prizes. Searchlight will release the movie on December 4.

All this year’s winners were directed by women. The first runner up was “One Night in Miami,” directed by Regina King. The second runner up was “Beans,” directed by Tracey Deer. The TIFF 2020 People’s Choice Documentary Award winner is “Inconvenient Indian,” directed by Michelle Latimer. The TIFF 2020 People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award winner is “Shadow in the Cloud,” directed by Roseanne Liang.

“TIFF 2020 was a year we won’t soon forget,” said Cameron Bailey, TIFF Artistic Director and Co-Head. “Over the last 10 days, we have experienced community in the truest sense. The pandemic hit TIFF hard and we responded by going back to our original inspiration — to bring the very best in film to the broadest possible audience and transform the way people see the world through film. We heeded the urgent calls for greater representation of under-represented voices. And we watched as audiences embraced cinema’s ability to transport them through screens of all sizes by joining us online from all over this country — something that we would never have seen in previous years. TIFF delivered on its promise to provide Festival-goers and the industry with impactful programming. We are very proud of what the TIFF team accomplished.”

The 2020 Changemaker Award is awarded to “Black Bodies,” a short film by Kelly Fyffe-Marshall.

The three Amplify Voices Awards presented by Canada Goose winners are as follows.

Amplify Voices Award for Best Canadian Feature Film: “Inconvenient Indian,” dir. Michelle Latimer

Special Mention: “Fauna,” dir. Nicolás Pereda (Canadian Film)

Amplify Voices Award: “The Disciple,” dir. Chaitanya Tamhane

Amplify Voices Award: “Night of the Kings,” dir. Philippe Lacôte

Special Mention: “Downstream to Kinshasa,” dir. Dieudo Hamadi

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