These hyped-up films just won big honours at TIFF 2025

That's a wrap on this year's Toronto International Film Festival! After hundreds of movies, metric tonnes of celebrities, fights for tickets, festival faves, solid selections, programming decisions, a punch and a Rock and a pigeon, there have been plenty of stories to track this year.

People's Choice Awards are among the most sought-after trophies at TIFF, and in years past have been a strong indicator of not only the best of the fest, but also served as a pretty solid Oscar prognostication.

The People's Choice Awards were split into even more sections this year. There has always been the traditional main prize, as well as one for documentary and a special one for the Midnight Madness slate. This year, TIFF introduced "International People's Choice", which, hypothetically, refers to films other than those in the English Language, but the definition is unclear, even on TIFF's own website.

The goal, of course, is to regain TIFF's stature as the center for Oscar conversation, for with more awards bestowed, the more chances there are with titles to be part of the conversation when the end-of-year trophies are handed out. 

With the stronger competition from the likes of Telluride and Venice, taking place just days before Toronto's festival, that reputation is under threat. Still, it's a major push for a given film to take home this accolade, and this year's winner is sure to get a bump thanks to our local crowds.

Here are the winners at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, as well as a number of other titles to look out for over the weeks and months to come.

Hamnet
(People's Choice Award Winner)

While I'm not the biggest fan, having found much of the film torturous to watch, the majority of the audience at the Roy Thompson Hall premiere wept throughout and gave it a robust standing ovation.

After Nomadland's march from PC winner to Oscar glory, Chloé Zhao's tale of the travails of the Shakespeare household was undoubtedly one of the most divisive yet talked about films of the festival, marching its way to winning the much-coveted People's Choice Award.

Frankenstein 
(People's Choice Award Runner-up)

Guillermo Del Toro's sumptuous, moving portrait takes Mary Shelley's tale into a unique yet sympathetic-to-the-source direction, emphasizing the father/son relationship of creator/created, and questioning the very idea of monstrousness and to whom that label should be applied.

It's big, it's a bit bloated, but every frame is lovingly crafted, and one cannot begrudge the indulgences of this filmmaker who has called Toronto home for decades. Every frame exudes the joy of fulfilling a lifetime's desire to bring this story to the screen.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery 
(People's Choice Award Runner-up)

Rian Johnson's welcome return with his latest chapter in the Benoit Blanc series of mysteries is far more philosophical than the previous chapters, making this church set series of unfortunate events a perfect setting for deeper questions of faith and humanity. The cast is stellar, it looks stunning, and it remains a wonderful tradition to showcase these films as World Premieres here in Toronto. Long may it continue!

No Other Choice 
(International People's Choice Award Winner)

I had hopes for Park Chan-Wook's return to Toronto with his collaboration with local hero Don McKellar, former TIFF theatre manager and scribe of the legendary Last Night, a film I continue to fight to get into the Criterion Collection. While my own reaction was mixed, the people have spoken, awarding it the inaugural People's Choice International Award.

Sentimental Value 
(International People's Choice Award Runner-up)

The runner-up at Cannes is the runner-up for International People's Choice. Joachim Trier's exceptional film is a delight, and this story about filmmaking and family is easily one of the year's best.

Homebound 
(International People's Choice Award Runner-up)

The one award winner I managed to miss, Neeraj Ghaywan's drama, exec produced by none other than Martin Scorsese, was clearly a sleeper hit.

Part Bollywood excess, part intimate drama, this looks like one of those titles that may not have got as much heat as the Hollywood hits, but it’s exactly the kind of rich International fare that gets a massive push at a festival like TIFF and then goes on to find audiences around the globe.

Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie 
(Midnight Madness People's Choice Award Winner)

After its SXSW premiere last February, Toronto audiences finally got to embrace all the Back to the Future-like madness at this new Midnight classic. Its broadly comical moments worked for international audiences, but it's the clever bits, including more than a few moments designed to please locals more than anything else, makes this a true homecoming for Matt, Jay, and the entire crew behind the scenes.

The Furious 
(Midnight Madness People's Choice Award Runner-up)

Kenji Tanigaki's sublime symphony of punches and kicks was the action film of this year's fest, with a closing battle for the ages.

Set "somewhere in South East Asia", this mix of the best of Chinese, Japanese, Hong Kong, Indonesian, Thai and other fighting styles is a wonderful, pan-cultural excuse to celebrate the mayhem of martial arts in all its gutsy glory.

Obsession 
(Midnight Madness People's Choice Award Runner-up)

Curry Barket’s film did not work for me, but with distributors circling this YouTube creator-turned-feature filmmaker's debut, the making-a-wish-gone-wrong tale certainly spoke to the Midnight Madness crowd, bestowing it runner-up for this year's prize.

The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue 
(Documentary People's Choice Award Winner)

Protested before audiences even had a chance to see the film, the story of Barry Avrich's documentary being programmed, then pulled, then reinstated, could easily have overshadowed this story of a father on a mission to save his family.

Whatever your views on the showcasing of this title, its win provides a powerful indictment against those who chose to try and silence its screening, including many who made up their minds before ever even seeing the film.

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)
(Documentary People's Choice Award Runner Up)

Getting the chance to interview director Nick Davis, as well as legendary talents Victor Garber and Paul Shaffer, was absolutely one of the highlights of my festival this year.

This joyful, sometimes profound look at how this misfit group put on stage a rock musical helped transform culture in major ways is an absolute treat, and I could not be happier to see its success amplified by its mention in the best Documentary People's Choice Award runner-up list.

Epic: Elvis Presley In Concert
(Documentary People's Choice Award Runner-up)

Few moments of this year's TIFF felt as ecstatic as the screening of Baz Luhrmann's exceptional documentary about Presley's Vegas residency.

The film is a masterclass of montage, brilliantly tying together different years and performances into one coherent whole, allowing generations old and new to fully understand just how electric a performer he was, as well as hearing from the man himself in ways rarely showcased before. 

Bonus Film: Rental Family

Hikari was still in town on the 10^th day of the festival to engage with audiences and participate in a Q&A, a rare treat for local audiences who usually get second shrift after most of the many visitors depart after the festival's first half. For this reason alone, I thought it had a strong shot at a top prize, and that was my prediction in advance.

This moving story that mixes the fish-out-of-water elements of Lost in Translation with the "good lies" found in The Farewell. Given Brendan Fraser's recent Oscar win, this is a feel-good, premiered-in-Toronto fest fave that may well have legs long after its well-received screenings here.