Parasite Tops Toronto Film Critics Association Award Winners

Bong Joon-ho’s masterful Parasite topped this year’s list of Toronto Film Critics Association award winners. The film, which scooped the Palme d’Or at Cannes and was a runner-up for the TIFF People’s Choice Award, took three TFCA prizes including Best Picture. Bong also scored Best Director. The awards were determined today during a live vote at the Toronto Star offices.

Other winners included a landslide victory for Marriage Story‘s Laura Dern. The Best Supporting Actress winner was a runaway in a list of contenders that inspired several hours of passionate discussion. Marriage Story also won Best Actor for Adam Driver. Other winners included Brad Pitt as Best Supporting Actor for Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood and Olivia Wilde’s Booksmart for Best First Feature.

Celebrating Canadian Content

The TFCA also announced the three nominees for the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award. The contenders are Sophie Deraspe’s Antigone, Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers and Kathleen Hepburn’s The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open, and Jasmine Mozaffari’s Firecrackers. The prize offers a purse of $100,000 and $5000 for each runner-up, courtesy of Rogers. The winner will be announced at the TFCA Gala on January 9. The Gala will also feature the announcement of this year’s winner for the Stella Artois Award, which honours an emerging Canadian talent.

Other Canadian winners included retiring TIFF COO Michèle Maheux, who received the Technicolor Clyde Gilmour Award. The honour recognizes Maheux’s contribution to Canadian film with her long career working at all levels in the festival. As part of the award, Maheux gets to select one emerging filmmaker to receive $50,000 in production support from Telefilm. Maheux’s selection is Colombian-Canadian director Lina Rodriguez. Her previous films include This Time Tomorrow and Señoritas.

“The big win for Bong Joon-ho’s masterful Parasite, a South Korean comic thriller of family guile and guilt, attests to the vitality of global cinema even at a time of rapid change for film,” said TFCA President Peter Howell in a statement. “It was also gratifying to see how TFCA members saluted female moviemakers: our three nominees for Best Canadian Feature and our three nominees for Best First Feature were all directed by women.”

The full list of Toronto Film Critics Association Award winners is as follows:

BEST PICTURE

Parasite (MK2)

Runners-up
The Irishman (Netflix)
Marriage Story (Netflix)

BEST ACTOR

Adam Driver, Marriage Story (Netflix)

Runners-up
Adam Sandler, Uncut Gems (Netflix)
Antonio Banderas, Pain and Glory (Mongrel Media)

BEST ACTRESS

Lupita Nyong’o, Us (Universal)

Runners-up
Renée Zellweger, Judy (eOne)
Scarlett Johansson, Marriage Story (Netflix)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Brad Pitt, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Sony)

Runners-up
Willem Dafoe, The Lighthouse (VVS Films)
Joe Pesci, The Irishman (Netflix)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Laura Dern, Marriage Story (Netflix)

Runners-up
Florence Pugh, Little Women (Sony)
Julia Fox, Uncut Gems (Netflix)

BEST DIRECTOR

Bong Joon-ho, Parasite (MK2)

Runners-up
Martin Scorsese, The Irishman (Netflix)
Noah Baumbach, Marriage Story (Netflix)

BEST SCREENPLAY, ADAPTED OR ORIGINAL

The Irishman by Steven Zaillian from the book byCharles Brandt (Netflix)

Runners-up
Parasite by Bong Joon-ho (MK2)
Marriage Story by Noah Baumbach (Netflix)

BEST FIRST FEATURE

Booksmart directed by Olivia Wilde (eOne)

Runners-up
Atlantics directed by Mati Diop (Netflix)
Queen & Slim directed by Melina Matsoukas (eOne)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

Missing Link (Elevation Pictures)

Runners-up
Toy Story 4 (Disney/Pixar)
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (Universal)
Frozen 2 (Disney)

BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM

Parasite (MK2)

Runners-up
Pain and Glory (Mongrel Media)
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (MK2)

ALLAN KING DOCUMENTARY FILM AWARD

American Factory (Netflix)

Runners-up
Apollo 11 (Elevation Pictures)
The Cave (Mongrel Media)

ROGERS BEST CANADIAN FILM AWARD FINALISTS

The Body Remembers When the World Broken Open directed by Kathleen Hepburn and Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers (levelFilm)
Antigone directed by Sophie Deraspe (Maison 4:3)
Firecrackers directed by Jasmin Mozaffari (levelFilm)