Toronto film festival opens. Its audience prize usually goes to its own premieres.
Apple released a trailer for Siân Heder's film Being Heumann on 2 September. It opens the 51st Toronto International Film Festival on 10 September.
What happened
Apple Original Films released a teaser trailer on for Being Heumann, Siân Heder’s follow-up to CODA, ahead of its world premiere as the opening film of the Toronto Film Festival the following week.
The Toronto International Film Festival opens on with the world premiere of Being Heumann. Apple Original Films released the trailer on Wednesday . The opening screening is at Roy Thomson Hall.
Siân Heder made the film as her follow-up to CODA. It tells the story of the disability rights activist Judy Heumann, played by Ruth Madeley. In 1977 she led a 28-day sit-in, where protesters refused to leave a federal building in San Francisco.
The festival’s 51st edition runs from 10 to . Susanna White’s Prima Facie, with Cynthia Erivo, is another world premiere. The People’s Choice Award is voted by the audience across the programme and announced as the festival closes.
The award matters because of what comes after it. Six winners since 1999 went on to win Best Picture at the Oscars, Green Book and Nomadland among them. The next Oscar nominations are on , too late for any question that can close this autumn.
The nearer question is what kind of film wins. It may be one first shown in Toronto, or one that arrives from Venice or Telluride with a reputation already made.
Sources: Deadline (2, 3, 4), Variety (2)
The Pattern
We looked at the last eight People’s Choice winners and where each had its first screening, using trade and newspaper reports of the award. Five were first shown in Toronto. The other three came from Venice or Telluride.
Show the other 6 cases
The Read
History favours a film first shown in Toronto. Five of the last eight winners were unveiled at the festival itself, including the three before Hamnet. The audience tends to reward films it discovers in the room over titles its keenest voters have already seen elsewhere. That is why the first market opened at 60%, a little below history, to allow for a year when the festival’s own films are not yet reviewed.
The weak point is the film that arrives with a name already made. Nomadland, Belfast and Hamnet each came from Venice or Telluride with reviews already published, and still won. The prediction fails if such a film plays Toronto in the first week and the festival’s own premieres split the vote.
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