Steven Spielberg’s autobiographical coming-of-age drama “The Fabelmans” won the Toronto International Film Festival’s (TIFF) top prize, the People’s Choice Award, solidifying its early status as Academy Awards frontrunner.
Toronto’s audience award was announced Sunday as the largest North American film festival wrapped up its 47th edition and first full-scale gathering in three years.
Toronto’s audience award, voted on by festival moviegoers, is a much-watched harbinger of the coming awards season. Each of the last ten years, the TIFF winner has gone on to be nominated for best picture at the Oscars—and often won it. Last year, Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast” triumphed at a much-diminished hybrid Toronto International Film Festival. The year before that, Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland” took TIFF’s award before winning at the Academy Awards. Other past winners include “12 Years a Slave,” “La La Land,” and “Green Book.”…