Fresh-faced and bleary-eyed following its recent outing in Venice, Nomadland doubled up to take the top prize at the Toronto International Film Festival. Claiming the People’s Choice Award in a year which mostly made do with online streaming, Chloé Zhao and Frances McDormand’s itinerant journey through the American Midwest is leading the running in early Oscars contention.
One Night in Miami, the directorial debut of Regina King, finished runner-up in Toronto. A fictionalised account of a real-life meeting between Cassius Clay, Malcolm X, soul singer Sam Cooke, and star running back Jim Brown on the night of Clay’s world title victory over Sonny Liston, the film is adapted from the stage play by Kemp Powers, and made King the first female African-American director in the history of the Venice Film Festival.
Inconvenient Indian, a history of the indigenous peoples of Canada by Michelle Latimer, won the documentary award, while the Georgian-French drama Beginning by Déa Kulumbegashvili won a single FIPRESCI Prize, voted on by international critics.
That marked the start of a big week for Kulumbegashvili, as Beginning also triumphed at the 68th San Sebastián Film Festival, which concluded on Saturday. The psychological portrait of extremism within a community of Jehovah’s Witnesses picked up Best Screenplay, Best Director, and Best Actress as well as the Golden Shell for Best Film.
Meanwhile critics kept their antennas tuned to the Big Apple, where the New York Film Festival will run over the course of the next two weeks. Already causing a stir was Mangrove, a retelling of police harassment among London’s Caribbean community in the 1970s, and the second picture in the Small Axe series by the acclaimed director Steve McQueen.
