To many, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), which just wrapped up Sept. 14, acts as a symbolic “starting gun” for the coming year’s awards season. This year, as usual, the conversation surrounding the festival focused on its People’s Choice Award (PCA), a fan-voted award that is TIFF’s top prize. Importantly, past PCA winners and runners-up are nominated in major categories at the Academy Awards at an extremely high rate.
However, 2025 marks a new page for TIFF with the addition of a new International PCA (IPCA) category, which acts functionally the same as the existing award but with voting limited to only non-Canadian and non-American films. Ideally, the creation of the new award should do more than just diversify the winners list — an already visible recent trend with “Emilia Pérez,” a French production, and “The Boy and the Heron,” from famed Japanese animators Studio Ghibli, placing as runners-up in the past two years — and hopefully establish a new pathway for Oscars glory.
The inaugural IPCA was given to “No Other Choice” from veteran South Korean director Park Chan-wook, whose 2022 film “Decision to Leave” was controversially snubbed from any recognition at the 95th Academy Awards. Lee Byung-hun stars as the lead of “No Other Choice,” a black comedy thriller satirizing the modern job market, particularly emphasizing the pressures of generative AI. Early hype for the movie seems to surround a possible push for Park to be nominated for Best Director at the Oscars, a category looking more crowded every week. However, I’m not sure he is well-known enough to American moviegoers to find traction among the general audience here. If the movie does maintain its crowd-pleasing power and catches on worldwide, there could be both Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay nominations in its future. The film premiered in competition at the Venice International Film Festival in August with raving reviews but left Italy empty-handed, so winning a major prize in Toronto could either be a sign of more trophies to come or merely a fluke in the ever-shifting landscape of awards season.
“Sentimental Value,” the first runner-up for the IPCA, was seen as primary competition for the award, especially after earning the Grand Prix at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Noteworthy for its star-studded cast of veterans including Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård and Elle Fanning, alongside a breakout performance from Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, “Sentimental Value” is a family drama that has established itself among the top cut of Oscar contenders. Although the chatter out of TIFF was fairly muted following the film’s showings, the film clearly has found a niche, having received praise at two major festivals, and its path for Oscar nominations across the board is looking clearer every day. Possible pushes for the film include Joachim Trier for Best Director, Reinsve for Best Lead Actress, Skarsgård for Best Supporting Actor, both Fanning and Lilleaas for Best Supporting Actress and, obviously, Best Picture. However, wins may be a bit harder to come by for “Sentimental Value,” with competition in Best Director and Best Supporting Actor heating up as of late, mostly due to Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest smash hit with critics, “One Battle After Another.” On top of that, while both Fanning and Lilleaas do give great performances, campaigning both of them in the same category could cannibalize the vote, leading to neither being truly competitive for the win.
The second runner-up position provided the biggest shock from the IPCA results, with the fairly unheralded “Homebound” sneaking into the third slot. Not only was it a surprise to me, but the movie was essentially not on my radar at all. Although the film premiered at Cannes and has already been selected as India’s submission for Best International Feature Film, the drama chronicling two friends’ journey to pass a national police exam is unlikely to create much noise due to the slew of quality international features this season.
Frankly, the more important aspect of the placement of “Homebound,” at least for award purposes, are the implications for “It Was Just An Accident,” a film that was widely predicted to be competitive for the IPCA. Not only is it the reigning Palme d’Or winner, but North American distributor Neon has already begun a generous awards campaign for director Jafar Panahi. Neon has now won six Palmes in a row, with four of the previous five Neon distributed films also being nominated for Best Picture. With such a glowing track record from its distributor — along with social urgency behind the film itself, as Panahi’s latest work explores political and social repression in Iran — “It Was Just An Accident” has been placed by many, including myself, into early Best Picture lineups.
Could missing the IPCA, which is itself a new and unproven award, prove essentially meaningless in the end? Probably. But it is still not a good look for a film that has its sights set on nominations in Best Picture, Best Director and, likely, Best Original Screenplay. Neon is also the distributor for “No Other Choice,” which adds a layer of complexity to the situation, as the two movies are competing in many of the same categories. I personally can’t wait to see how the race unfolds and will be watching how each contender performs at the global box office.
Ultimately, the International People’s Choice award has already proven itself to be yet another interesting wrinkle in the crowded lineup of fall festival awards, adding a broader scope to TIFF’s influence. However, only time will tell if the new offshoot of the famed PCA will continue its predecessor’s track record at predicting Oscars glory.
