‘Nomadland’ Wins Audience Award at Toronto Film Festival

Nomadland is the winner of this year's People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival. The recession-era road trip drama, starring Frances McDormand, tells the story of a woman travelling the American West alone in her van. Directed by Chloé Zhao, Nomadland is already a favourite with critics, and picked up the Golden Lion for best film at Venice Film Festival earlier this month.
After picking up Venice's Golden Lion award, Chloé Zhao’s “ Nomadland " has won another prestigious honor: The Toronto International Film Festival's People's Choice Award. No film has ever won both.

‘Nomadland’ Wins Audience Award at Toronto Film Festival 

Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland,” a low-key drama starring Frances McDormand as a woman who loses her house and travels around the Western United States in a van, has won the People’s Choice Award at the 2020 Toronto International film Festival, TIFF organizers announced on Sunday.

The first runner-up for the award was “One Night in Miami,” the first feature to be directed by actress Regina King. The second runner-up was “Beans,” a coming-of-age story from indigenous Canadian director Tracey Deer.

The People’s Choice Award in the documentary section went to Michelle Latimer’s “Inconvenient Indian,” while the Midnight Madness winner was Roseanne Liang’s “Shadow in the Cloud.”

It’s still very early, but it’s impossible not to take notice of what Chloe Zhao’s film Nomadland is doing right now. The fall film festival season has launched other movies, like Regina King’s One Night in Miami…, but none like Nomadland. Today, the flick added a pretty big feather in its cap, taking the prestigious Audience Award from the Toronto International Film Festival (with the aforementioned One Night in Miami… as runner up). Taking this prize from TIFF is a huge deal, even in an unusual awards season like this one.

So, what exactly does this mean for Nomadland? Looking specifically at the Audience Award and thinking in terms of its history, this is a somewhat reliable indicator of prestige, especially with the Academy. Nomadland now joins a group that has seen a half dozen prior Best Picture winners, along with a whole host of nominees since the prize was introduced in the late 1970’s. Last year, Jojo Rabbit took the prize, the year before that, Green Book won the whole shebang, while previously La La Land became an absolute nomination behemoth, not to mention how Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri did quite well for itself too. There are outliers, but it’s undeniably a good thing to be in this company. Buzz alone is worth a ton to those who are pushing this one for awards (Searchlight Pictures, specifically), in terms of getting anticipation out there for the film.

Accepting the award remotely, Zhao thanked the festival team and the audience, saying “We can’t do this without you. Cinema is about sharing.” In a plea to the audiences who had watched “Nomadland” remotely and at a drive-in screening, she added, “Please, please keep going because we cannot do this without you. We’re so grateful and we hope we’ll see you all down the road.”

“Nomadland” is set after the economic collapse of a company town in rural Nevada, with Frances McDormand staring as Fern, a woman exploring a life outside of conventional society as a modern-day nomad. The film will next head to the New York Film Festival and Montclair Film Festival. Searchlight Pictures will release the film on Dec. 4

“The films and talent featured in this year’s Festival have left us inspired and moved,” said Joana Vicente, TIFF executive director, in a written statement. "In a time where the very future of our beloved art form was in question due to cinema and production shutdowns and film festival cancellations, we have seen a tenacity of spirit."

TIFF artistic director Cameron Bailey added: “The pandemic hit TIFF hard and we responded by going back to our original inspiration — to bring the very best in film to the broadest possible audience and transform the way people see the world through film.”