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| 'McDormand is sensational as Mildred: hard to love, impossible to ignore and strangely disarming even with a Molotov cocktail in hand' Photo: Courtesy of Venice Film Festival |
Michael McDonagh's film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri has taken home the audience award at Toronto Film Festival.
The film - which had its premiere in Venice - stars Frances McDormand as a grieving mother, who takes on the police over the unsolved murder of her daughter. The cast also includes Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Peter Dinklage and John Hawkes.
Describing McDormand's performance, our reviewer wrote: '"McDormand is sensational as Mildred: hard to love, impossible to ignore and strangely disarming even with a Molotov cocktail in hand."
The runner-up was ice-skating biopic I, Tonya, directed by Craig Gillespie, which tells the story of the figure skater who received a lifetime ban for an attack on fellow athlete Nancy Kerrigan.
The second runner-up was Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name, which has continued to pick up awards since its premiere in Sundance at the start of the year and goes on general release in the UK on October 27.
Three Billboards will have its UK premiere at the London Film Festival next month and is scheduled for UK release in January.
Agnès Varda and JR’s Faces Places took home the Documentary People's Choice award.
The industry often sees the People's Choice winners in Toronto as giving an early indication of which films will go to to Oscar glory. Former winners that have gone on to take Best Picture include 12 Years A Slave, The King’s Speech, Slumdog Millionaire and La La Land.
The full list of audience/critics prize winners are below:
Midnight Madness: Joseph Kahn’s Bodied
Documentary: Agnès Varda and JR’s Faces Places
International Platoform award: Warwick Thornton’s Sweet Country
FIPRESCI awards: Discovery: Sadaf Foroughi’s Ava; Special Presentations: Manuel Martín Cuenca’s The Motive
NETPAC award: Huang Hsin-Yao’s The Great Buddha+”
Best Canadian short film: Marc-Antoine Lemire’s Pre-Drink
Best short film: Niki Lindroth von Bahr’s The Burden
Best Canadian first feature: Wayne Wapeemukwa’s Luk’ Luk’ l
Best Canadian feature: Winner: Robin Aubert’s Les Affamés
