Kenneth Branagh’s semi-autobiographical “Belfast,” a black-and-white family drama about the Northern Ireland city during the tumult of the late 1960s, on Saturday won the Toronto International Film Festival’s People’s Choice Award, a telling indicator of Academy Awards chances. The previous nine winners have all gone on to secure a best-picture Oscar nomination, as have 13 of the last 14 People’s Choice prizewinners. Those include best-picture winners “12 Years a Slave,” “Green Book“ and last year's pick, Chloé Zhoe's “Nomadland.”“Belfast,” which first premiered at the Telluride Film Festival, draws from Branagh’s own childhood in Belfast. Both “Dune” and “Spencer” didn’t make themselves eligible for the People’s Choice Award, which required both an in-person screening and availability on the festival digital portal. The People’s Choice award for documentary went to E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin's “The Rescue,” a non-fiction account of the 2018 mission to rescue the trapped youth soccer team from Thailand’s Tham Luang cave.

Source: thestar September 19, 2021 00:33 UTC