Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction wins TIFF 2023 People’s Choice Award
Writer-Director Cord Jefferson’s “American Fiction” has won the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, TIFF organizers announced at an awards brunch on Sunday.
For the last 11 years in a row, and for 14 of the last 15 years, the winner of the TIFF People’s Choice Award has gone on to receive a Best Picture nomination, and the TIFF winner has won the Oscar five times: “Slumdog Millionaire” in 2008, “The King’s Speech” in 2010, “12 Years a Slave” in 2013, “Green Book” in 2018 and “Nomadland” in 2020.
Starring Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, Erika Alexander, Leslie Uggams, Sterling K. Brown, Myra Lucretia Taylor, John Ortiz, Issa Rae, and Adam Brody, the film will be released theatrically on November 3, 2023, by Orion Pictures through MGM.
Wright stars in the film as Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, an English professor and author who writes a satirical novel under a pseudonym, aiming to lay bare the hypocrisies of the publishing world. The book’s immediate success forces Monk to get deeper enmeshed in his assumed identity and challenges his closely-held worldviews.
The Wrap states that unlike festivals like Cannes, Sundance and Venice, Toronto does not give out a jury award to the festival’s top film. Instead, viewers at all public screenings are invited to vote for their favorite films on the TIFF website, with the resulting audience awards announced at the end of the festival.
Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers” was the runner-up for the People’s Choice Award, while legendary Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki’s “The Boy and the Heron” finished third.
