TIFF 2025: Chloé Zhaos Hamnet wins Peoples Choice Award; Park Chan-wooks No Other Choice takes inaugural worldwide prize

The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) closed its 2025 version with the announcement of its audience-voted awards, led by Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet, which earned the distinguished People’s Choice Award. The win makes Zhao the primary filmmaker to assert the honour twice, following her 2020 victory for Nomadland, which went on to safe the Academy Award for Best Picture.

TIFF’s People’s Choice Award is taken into account one of the vital important precursors to the Oscars. Over the previous 15 years, 12 winners of the prize have gone on to obtain Best Picture nominations, with 4 — together with 12 Years a Slave, Green Book, and Zhao’s personal Nomadland — in the end claiming the highest Oscar. This 12 months, Zhao’s Shakespeare-inspired drama prevailed over Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein and Rian Johnson’s Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, which positioned as first and second runners-up.

A brand new addition to TIFF’s lineup of viewers awards additionally made headlines. The inaugural International People’s Choice Award went to Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice, a satirical black comedy thriller from the seasoned South Korean auteur. Based on Donald Westlake’s novel The Ax, the movie stars Lee Byung-hun, Son Ye-jin, and Park Hee-soon. Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value and Neeraj Ghaywan’s Homebound positioned as first and second runners-up.

Other main awards included Barry Avrich’s The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue, which earned the People’s Choice Documentary Award, and Matt Johnson’s Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, which topped the Midnight Madness class. Canadian Inuit filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk gained the Best Canadian Feature Film prize for Wrong Husband, with Min Sook Lee’s There Are No Words receiving an honorable point out.

The Platform Prize went to Valentyn Vasyanovych’s To the Victory!, whereas Lucía Aleñar Iglesias’ Forastera gained the International Critics’ FIPRESCI Prize devoted to rising filmmakers. In quick movie classes, Talk Me by Joecar Hanna was named Best International Short, and The Girl Who Cried Pearls by Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski was acknowledged as Best Canadian Short. Agnès Patron’s To the Woods earned the newly launched Short Cuts Award for Best Animated Film.

Now in its forty eighth 12 months, TIFF stays a crucial launchpad for awards season, with Zhao and Park’s wins instantly positioning their movies as world contenders heading into the months forward.