“Hamnet,” director Chloé Zhao’s adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s bestselling novel about William Shakespeare and his wife, Agnes, has won the People’s Choice Award at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, TIFF organizers announced at an awards ceremony on Sunday.
Unlike most major film festivals, Toronto puts its top award in the hands of the public rather than a jury of film professionals. Viewers at the festival’s public screenings are invited to vote for their favorite films on the TIFF website, with the film getting the highest percentage of votes from its viewers winning.
Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein” finished second in People’s Choice voting, while Rian Johnson’s “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” finished third.
The win makes Zhao the first director to have two films win the People’s Choice Award, which was first given out in 1978. She also won in 2020 for “Nomadland.”
While Zhao was not present to accept the award, she sent an acceptance speech on video, which screened upside down on the livestream of the ceremony. “Apologies for the error, but that is what this film does to your heart,” said TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey at the end of the video.
In recent years, the TIFF People’s Choice Award has been a reliable indicator of Oscar success, with 15 of the last 17 winners going on to receive a Best Picture nomination, and five of them winning (“Slumdog Millionaire,” “The King’s Speech,” “12 Years a Slave,” “Green Book” and “Nomadland”). Last year’s winner, “The Life of Chuck,” did not receive a theatrical release until 2025 and is a longshot to extend the streak to 13 years in a row.
If you include TIFF second-place and third-place winners, 25 of the last 39 films to receive People’s Choice recognition also earned Best Picture nominations. In seven of the last 13 years, the Oscar winner had previously won, placed or showed in Toronto.
The first-ever International People’s Choice Award went to Park Chan-wook’s “No Other Choice,” with Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value” finishing second and Neeraj Ghaywan’s “Homebound” finishing third.
People’s Choice Awards were also given out in the Midnight Madness and TIFF Docs sections. “Nirvanna The Band the Show the Movie” won the Midnight Madness award, while “The Road Between Us” took the documentary prize.
The latter film, about an Israeli general who rescued his family from Hamas during the Oct. 7 attacks, was the festival’s most controversial film, with TIFF booking it, then withdrawing it from the lineup, then adding it back and admitting that the decision to withdraw it had been a mistake.
While the marquee awards were voted on by the public, the festival did put several other awards in the hands of juries. The Platform jury, which gave its top award to “To the Jury!,” consisted of Carlos Marqués-Marcet, Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Chloé Robichaud. The Short Cuts jury was made up of Ashley Iris Gill, Marcel Jean and Connor Jessup, who gave awards to “The Girl Who Cried Pearls,” “To the Woods” and “Talk Me.”
The Short Cuts awards came with $10,000 CAD cash prizes, while the Vimeo Staff Pick Award, a new addition, went to “I Fear Blue Skies” and carried a $5,000 prize.
The Canadian Discovery and Best Canadian Feature Film Awards were given to and “Blue Heron” and “Wrong Husband,” respectively, by filmmakers Jennifer Baichwal, Sophie Jarvis and R.T. Thorne.
The FIPRESCI Prize for the festival’s best first feature, from the International Federation of Film Critics, was given to “Forastera” by critics Katharina Dockhorn, Francisco Ferreira, Jean-Philippe Guerand, Andy Hazel and Justine Smith. The NETPAC Award for films from the Asian and Pacific regions went to “In Search of the Sky” and was voted by filmmaker Helen Lee, journalist Keoprasith Souvannavong and author/professor Dina Iordanova.
Here is the complete list of awards announced at a brunch on Sunday morning. Many of the winners were also announced in a press release that was sent to TIFF members in advance of the ceremony, turning the comments section of the livestream into a mass of spoilers.
People’s Choice Award: “Hamnet,” Chloé Zhao
First Runner-up: “Frankenstein,” Guillermo del Toro
Second Runner-up: “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery,” Rian Johnson
International People’s Choice Award: “No Other Choice,” Park Chan-wook
First Runner-up: “Sentimental Value,” Joachim Trier
Second Runner-up: “Homebound,” Neeraj Ghaywan
People’s Choice Documentary Award: “The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue,” Barry Avrich
First Runner-up: “EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert,” Baz Luhrmann
Second Runner-up: “You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution, Spread Love & Overalls, and Created a Community That Changed the World (in a Canadian Kind of Way),” Nick Davis
People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award: “Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie,” Matt Johnson
First Runner-up: “Obsession,” Curry Barker
Second Runner-up: “The Furious,” Kenji Tanigaki
Platform Jury Prize: “To the Victory!” Valentyn Vasanovych
Best Canadian Feature Film: “Uiksaringitara (Wrong Husband),” Zacharias Kunuk
Honorable Mention: “There Are No Words,” Min Sook Lee
Best Canadian Discovery Award: “Blue Heron,” Sophie Romvari
Honorable Mention: “100 Sunset,” Kunsang Kyirong
Short Cuts Award for Best International Film: “Talk Me,” Joecar Hanna
Honorable Mention: “Agapito,” Arvin Belarmino and Kyla Danelle Romero
Short Cuts Award for Best Canadian Film: “The Girl Who Cried Pearls,” Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski
Honorable Mention: “A Soft Touch,” Heather Young
Short Cuts Award for Best Animated Short Film: “To the Woods,” Agnes Patron
Vimeo Staff Pick Award: “I Fear Blue Skies,” Sslar Pashtoonyar
NETPAC Award: “In Search of the Sky,” Jitand Singh Gurjar
FIPRESCI Prize: “Forestera,” Lucía Aleñar Iglesias
