American Fiction Snags People's Choice at 2023 Toronto Film Festival

American Fiction, a film by Cord Jefferson, has been awarded the People’s Choice Award at the 2023 Toronto Film Festival. The First Runner-Up award was seized by Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers, while the Second Runner-Up position went to Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron.

The Documentary Award was won by Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe, and the Midnight Madness award was claimed by Dicks: The Musical.

American Fiction is a production from Orion and MRC that stars Jeffrey Wright. Written and directed by Jefferson, the film offers a biting satirical commentary on the publishing industry and its treatment of serious works by Black authors, particularly one character named Thelonious "Monk" Ellison. He returns to his native Boston to attend a book festival but finds the event poorly attended compared to a different book seminar featuring Sintara Golden’s (Issa Rae) bestseller We Lives in Da Ghetto. American Fiction is set to be released in theaters this coming November.

The TIFF People’s Choice Award is a key industry accolade decided by audience votes since 1978. It holds a reputation as a precursor to the Best Picture Oscar, an assertion supported by a history of past winners that went on to claim the prestigious Academy Award for Best Picture.

These include Nomadland, Green Book, 12 Years a Slave, The King’s Speech, Slumdog Millionaire, American Beauty and Chariots of Fire. Also of note are those films that claimed the TIFF People’s Choice Award and later received Best Picture nominations, such as last year’s winner The Fabelmans, Belfast, JoJo Rabbit, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, Room, La La Land, The Imitation Game, Silver Linings Playbook, Precious, Life Is Beautiful, Places in the Heart and The Big Chill.

Now, let's switch gears a bit.

Welcome to the slightly-biased-except-not-really Addison Prentice spin zone. The Toronto Film Festival? More like the Goosebumps-inducing future Oscars fortune-teller's crystal ball. But really, if you're a film buff with a penchant for perusing statuettes in the backlog, TIFF is your first-rate carnival fortuneteller.

A toast to Cord Jefferson's American Fiction, the blend of scathing social satire and Jeffrey Wright's undiluted powerful performance seems to be the winning cocktail that left the audience enamored. What better way to stick it to the publishing industry than by winning over the movie industry? Poetic? I'd say hilariously revolutionary.

On a side note, Dicks: The Musical fetching the Midnight Madness award? I almost choked on my popcorn reading that. Sounds like just the kind of wild ride that might make you laugh till you're hoarse and clear up your sinuses. Who said culture wasn't fun?

Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe. Now, that's a title that deserves a feel-good tear wipe, a pat on the back or maybe even a nostalgia-driven hug. Fingers-crossed, it finds more pats on the back in the documentary Oscar race.

And let's not forget our runners-up. The Holdovers and The Boy and the Heron. I'm sure I'll be seeing them again strapped into the Oscar roller-coaster. Only time and the award gods will tell if they get to go on the big up-hill climb or get dropped off at the first turn.

In conclusion, if the TIFF is the crystal ball of the industry, that crystal just got a little clearer, filtered through the discerning lens of audiences. You heard it here, folks: keep an eye on American Fiction. After all, when the people speak - Hollywood listens.