The 2026 Toronto International Film Festival closed its latest edition with the announcement of its audience and jury awards on September 20. The People’s Choice Award, decided by festival audiences rather than a jury and often watched as an early signal in the awards season, went to La Bola Negra, directed by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi. The result placed the film at the center of the festival’s closing coverage and capped a run of screenings across the eleven-day event.
In the same category, I Play Rocky, directed by Peter Farrelly, finished as the first runner-up, and Being Heumann, directed by Sian Heder, took third place. The People’s Choice Award has a long record of going to titles that later appear in the wider awards conversation, and several past winners have gone on to major nominations, which drew added attention to the top three finishers in Toronto this year.
The festival’s other audience prizes recognized a range of work from around the world. Elsinore, directed by Simon Stone, won the People’s Choice International Award, ahead of Possible Love by Lee Chang-dong and The Assassins by Hur Jin-ho. The People’s Choice Documentary Award went to Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been, directed by Barry Avrich, with Black Sunflowers by James Marcus Haney and The Ultra Runner by Mila Aung-Thwin named as the runners-up in the non-fiction field.
In the Midnight Madness section, which showcases genre and late-night programming, the People’s Choice Award went to Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney, directed by Matthew Rankin. The Spiral, directed by Paolo Strippoli, and Arrested Memory, directed by SABU, followed in second and third place, rounding out an audience vote that spanned several strands of the program and gave a wide picture of what festival crowds responded to most strongly.
Among the jury awards, the Platform Prize went to Angh, directed by Theja Rio. Sunburn, directed by Serville Pobletel, was named Best Canadian Feature, and Smudge the Blades, directed by Cody Lightning, won the award for Best Canadian Discovery. The spread of winners across audience and jury categories reflected the festival’s mix of international premieres, documentaries and homegrown Canadian titles, and set the stage for how several of these films will carry into the months ahead.
