Tehran-born, Montreal-based director Sadaf Foroughi wins Discovery Fipresci Award and Honorable mention as the Best Canadian First Feature at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival.
“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” won the audience award on Sunday at the Toronto Film Festival, putting it in prime position to compete at the Academy Awards.
Directed by Martin McDonagh, “Three Billboards” stars Frances McDormand as a woman who takes a stand against the police, using the titular three billboards after her daughter is murdered and months later no arrests have been made. The rest of the cast includes Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell (who, along with McDormand, is already receiving awards season buzz), John Hawkes, and Peter Dinklage.
Apart from “Three Billboards,” the first runner-up at the awards was Craig Gillespie’s Tonya Harding biopic “I, Tonya.” Margo Robbie stars as the figure skater who was banned for life from the U.S. Figure Skating Association for her association with a violent attack on fellow Olympian Nancy Kerrigan. Sebastian Stan and Allison Janney also star in addition to Robbie.
The second runner-up this year is “Call Me by Your Name,” Luca Guadagnino’s adaptation of André Aciman’s novel about a summer romance between a young man (Timothée Chalamet) and an academic (Armie Hammer) who comes to stay at his parents’ villa in Italy.
Past audience prize winners include “12 Years a Slave,” “The King’s Speech,” “Slumdog Millionaire,” and last year’s “La La Land.”
Midnight Madness:
Winner: Joseph Kahn’s “Bodied”
Second runner-up: Craig Zahler’s “Brawl in Cell Block 99”
First runner-up: James Franco’s “The Disaster Artist”
Documentary:
Winner: Agnès Varda and JR’s “Faces Places”
First runner-up: Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas De Pencier’s “Long Time Running”
Second runner-up: Morgan Spurlock’s “Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!”
International Platoform award:
Winner: Warwick Thornton’s “Sweet Country”
Fipresci awards:
Winner – Discovery: Sadaf Foroughi’s “Ava”
Winner – Special Presentations: Manuel Martín Cuenca’s “The Motive”
NETPAC award:
Winner: Huang Hsin-Yao’s “The Great Buddha+”
Best Canadian short film:
Winner: Marc-Antoine Lemire’s “Pre-Drink”
Best short film:
Winner: Niki Lindroth von Bahr’s “The Burden”
Honourable mentions: Matthew Rankin’s “The Tesla World Light”; Qiu Yang’s “Xiao Cheng Er Yue.”
Best Canadian first feature:
Winner: Wayne Wapeemukwa’s “Luk’ Luk’l”
Honourable mention: Sadaf Foroughi’s “Ava”
Best Canadian feature:
Winner: Robin Aubert’s “Les Affamés”
Honourable mention: Simon Lavoie’s “The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches”
Source: Variety