La Bola Negra directed by Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo has won the 2026 TIFF People’s Choice Award, boosting its prospects of earning a best picture Oscar nomination.
Over the previous 15 years, all but two winners have earned a best picture Oscar nomination, and three – Nomadland, 12 Years A Slave, and Green Book – have gone on to claim the Academy Award for best picture.
The win caps a rousing week for La Bola Negra (Sp-Fr) after it was selected as Spain’s official Oscar submission. Netflix holds US rights and is giving the multi-generational saga a 37-day exclusive theatrical release on October 16 before it debuts on the service on December 2. Elastica is the Spanish distributor.
Peter Farrelly’s I Play Rocky was the first runner up and Sian Heder’s festival opening selection Being Heumann the second. Last year’s winner Hamnet directed by Chloe Zhao garnered an Oscar nod.
In the Platform section where non-English-language winners are now eligible for the international feature film Oscar in light of Academy rule changes, Theja Rio’s Angh took the award and a USD $14,200 (CAD $20,000) prize.
The jury led by Pablo Trapero hailed Angh’s ”refreshing perspective, strength of filmmaking, and deeply resonant portrait of a world”. TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey said the film was “something we have never seen before” and urged the audience at the TIFF Lightbox ceremony to experience it. The Platform special jury award went to Brace Your Heart (Swe-Nor-Den-Ice-Bul) by Amanda Kernell.
The international TIFF People’s Choice Award went to Simon Stone’s Elsinore (UK) at Focus Features starring Andrew Scott. The first runner-up was Lee Chang-dong’s South Korean Oscar submission Possible Love, and the second was Hur Jin-ho’s The Assassin(s).
The TIFF People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award went to Matthew Rankin’s Ladies And Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney (Can), and the runners up were Paolo Strippoli’s The Spiral (It-Fr-Bel) and SABU’s Arrested Memory (Tai-Japan).
Barry Avrich’s Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been (Can) earned the TIFF People’s Choice Documentary Award as James Marcus Haney’s Black Sunflowers (Ukr-USA) and Mila Aung-Thwin’s The Ultra Runner (Can) earned first and second runner-up spots.
The Best Canadian Feature Film was presented to Serville Poblete’s Sunburn, while Adrian Buitenhuis’s Man In Motion: The Rick Hansen Story received an honourable mention. Best Canadian Discovery Award was presented to Cody Lightning’s Smudge The Blades and the honourable mention went to The Black Box Is Orange.
In the Short Cuts Awards, Elia Kalogianni won best international film for Mammalia (Gre-Neth) and Kaelo Iyizoba’s The Spectacular Death Of Prisca (Nigeria) received an honourable mention. Best Canadian short went to Michael Del Monte’s Fight Kid (Can), with Justine Prince earning an honourable mention for Almost Pink (Can).
The best animated short award went to Varun Raman and Tom Hancock for Into The Betaverse (UK) and the honourable mention went to Alexandre Siqueira’s Terminal (Port-Sp-Fr).
The Fipresci Prize was awarded to David Turpin’s Ancestors (Ire-UK). The NETPAC Award recgonising films from the Asian and Pacific regions went to Hosam Abu Dan’s Thirteen In Gaza (Pal)
The 51st edition of TIFF ran September 10-20.
