Toronto International Film Festival kicked off this year’s awards season in style and introduced us to many contenders for the upcoming Academy Awards. Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans proved to be one of the very best, and it walked away with TIFF’s People’s Choice Award.
Spielberg’s new film defeated Sarah Polley’s Women Talking and Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery to win the festival’s biggest honor. By doing so, it established itself as a major Oscar contender since many of the previous recipients of the People’s Choice Award either won or received a nomination for the best picture.
Spielberg thanked festival director Cameron Bailey, staff, and the audience for welcoming his new film with open arms and making this past weekend one he’ll never forget.
“As I said on stage the other night, ‘Above all, I’m glad I brought this film to Toronto!’ This is the most personal film I’ve ever made, and the warm reception from everyone in Toronto made my first visit to TIFF so intimate and personal for me and my entire Fabelman family,” said Spielberg in a statement.
The Fabelmans is inspired by the director’s childhood, and it stars Gabriel LaBelle, Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, and Judd Hirsch. It will have a limited theatrical release on November 11, before expanding wide on November 23.
