In-person awards ceremony with livestream to take place on Sept 14
New awards in 2025: International People’s Choice Award and Short Cuts Award: Best Animated Short Film
Toronto/CMEDIA: TIFF 2025 reportedly reveals the 2025 award categories, jury members, and prizes that will honour the year’s most exceptional works.
The films will be evaluated by the juries comprising renowned film critics and filmmakers for prestigious honours including the two Canadian feature film awards, the FIPRESCI Prize from the International Federation of Film Critics, and the NETPAC Award from the Network for the Promotion of Asian Pacific Cinema.
During an in-person awards ceremony, presentation of all prizes will be livestreamed at 10 am ET at TIFF Lightbox on Sunday, September 14, the last day of the Festival.
2025 Jury for Best Canadian Feature Film & Best Canadian Discovery Awards
Celebrating works of emerging filmmakers, the Best Canadian Discovery Award goes to the filmmakers contributing to enriching the Canadian film landscape.
Eligibility criteria for for this award includes all Canadian first or second feature films in Official Selection.
A cash prize of $10,000 would be bestowed to the winner.
Last year’s winner was Matthew Rankin’s Universal Language.
Honouring the unique craft and storytelling in Canadian cinema, the Best Canadian Feature Film Award would consider all Canadian feature films in Official Selection — excluding first or second features.
The winning filmmaker will receive a $10,000 cash prize. Last year’s prize went to Sophie Deraspe’s Shepherds.
Having been directing and producing documentaries for nearly three decades, Jennifer Baichwal has made — among other films, installations, and lens-based projects — 10 feature documentaries including the Festival Official Selections Manufactured Landscapes (Best Canadian Feature Film, TIFF ’06); Long Time Running (Gala Presentations, TIFF ’17); and ANTHROPOCENE: The Human Epoch (Canada’s Top Ten, TIFF ’18).
A Swiss-Canadian filmmaker, Sophie Jarvis‘ feature debut Until Branches Bend (TIFF ’22) won the Prix de Soleure at the Solothurner Filmtage, the Netflix Breakthrough Award at the Athena Film Festival, and Best BC Film at VIFF, as well received a CSA nomination for Best Original Screenplay in 2023.
A prolific triple threat, R.T. Thorne is the director, screenwriter, and producer, garnering multiple Canadian Screen Awards and an Emmy nomination for his television work. His critically acclaimed feature debut, 40 Acres (TIFF ’24), with its North American theatrical release this summer, starring Danielle Deadwyler, is a Canada’s Top Ten honouree.
2025 FIPRESCI Jury
Presented by an international jury selected by the International Federation of Film Critics, the FIPRESCI Prize, founded in 1925, awards the prize at international film festivals to promote film art and to encourage new and young cinema.
Prize of International Critics would be awarded by FIPRESCI Jury for those dedicated to emerging filmmakers, to a debut feature film having its World Premiere in TIFF’s Discovery programme.
Having studied history and cultural studies at Humboldt University in Berlin, Katharina Dockhorn has been working since 1993, as a freelance journalist for television stations, daily newspapers, monthly magazines, and trade papers. With film policy and the film industry being her areas of expertise, she was one of the founding members of the Professional Association of German Media Journalists, of which she is a board member.
A journalist and film critic born in Lisbon, Francisco Ferreira graduated as a mechanical engineer from the Technical University of Lisbon, where he began programming for the film club. His collaborations have appeared in a number of books, texts published by film festival catalogues and international film magazines such as Cahiers du Cinéma (France), Film Comment (USA), Cinema Scope (Canada), and Caiman Cuadernos de Cine (Spain). He has been working as a film critic for the Portuguese press since 1998.
Having been a film journalist since 1982 and a member of the French Union of Film Critics, Jean-Philippe Guerand has contributed to French publications such as Première, Le Film Français, TéléCinéObs and L’Avant-Scène Cinéma. As a Host of the blog Persona Grata he has also written biographies of Woody Allen, Cyril Collard, James Dean, Jacques Tati, Bernard Blier, and Jean Rochefort.
A film journalist based in Melbourne, Australia, Andy Hazel is also the senior editorial producer at The Saturday Paper and a regular contributor to IndieWire, Guardian Australia, The Curb, and A Rabbit’s Foot. He is also a voting member of the Golden Globes and host of Twin Peaks The Return: A Season Three Podcast.
The screen editor at Cult MTL and the programmer of the Underground Section at the Fantasia International Film Festival, Justine Smith has written for BFI, Little White Lies, Vinegar Syndrome, and Ebert Voices. She is currently working on her first book.
2025 NETPAC Jury
Recognizing films specifically from the Asian and Pacific regions, the NETPAC Award is presented by the Network for the Promotion of Asian Pacific Cinema. The jury consists of three international community members selected by TIFF and NETPAC, who award the prize to the best Asian film by a first or second-time feature director. In 2024, the NETPAC Award went to Sue Kim’s The Last of the Sea Women.
As a professor of global cinema and an expert in transnational film festivals, Dina Iordanova is the author of Film Festivals in East Asia, has been a visiting professor at the University of Hong Kong and Beijing Film Academy, has given masterclasses and served on juries of festivals across Asia, including BIFF and YIDFF.
A Seoul-born, Toronto-based filmmaker, Helen Lee’s films include: Tenderness (TIFF ’24), Hers At Last (TIFF ’18), The Art of Woo (TIFF ’01), Subrosa (TIFF ’00); Prey (TIFF ’95), My Niagara (TIFF ’92, Special Jury Citation), and Sally’s Beauty Spot (TIFF ’90, Honourable Mention, Best Canadian Short).
A French journalist, born in Laos and based in Paris, Keoprasith Souvannavong (Jury Chair) has worked since 1993 for Radio France Internationale, for which he has covered various international film festivals. He also acted in the feature film The Scent of Green Papaya, which received the Caméra d’Or at the Cannes and was nominated for an Academy Award.
People’s Choice Awards presented by Rogers
A longstanding TIFF tradition and marking their 48th year, The People’s Choice Award is an Oscars bellwether with a rich history; past winners include Chariots of Fire, The Princess Bride, Slumdog Millionaire, and the 2023 debut feature from Cord Jefferson, American Fiction. All feature films and series in TIFF’s Official Selection are eligible.
People’s Choice Award, the People’s Choice Documentary Award, the People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award and, new this year, the International People’s Choice Award are among the four audience-voted awards. The 2024 winners were The Life of Chuck, The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal, and The Substance. The 2025 People’s Choice Awards are presented by Rogers.
Platform, the 2025 Jury for TIFF’s competitive programme was recently announced with Carlos Marqués-Marcet (Jury Chair), Marianne Jean-Baptiste, and Chloé Robichaud.
The 2025 Short Cuts jurors Ashley Iris Gill, Marcel Jean, and Connor Jessup were also announced and will be evaluating new Short Cuts Awards for Best Animated Short Film, Best International Short Film, and Best Canadian Short Film.
The 50th Toronto International Film Festival, presented by Rogers, runs September 4–14, 2025
