#TIFF2023, #awardsCategories; #filmjuries
2023 People’s Choice Awards, Changemaker Award, Amplify Voices Awards, and Short Cuts Awards, along with FIPRESCI and NETPAC film jury awards to be announced at the close of TIFF
Toronto/ The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has announced its Award categories, jury members, and prizes for 2023, as well as the return of three distinguished international film juries to honour outstanding works in this year’s lineup.
Featuring in the juries are renowned film critics and filmmakers, include five members for FIPRESCI, the International Federation of Film Critics; three jurors for NETPAC, the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema; and three jurors for Platform (previously announced).
All awards will be announced on September 17 at the annual Awards Breakfast at TIFF Bell Lightbox. Details to follow in the coming weeks.
“A crucial component of the film industry’s ecosystem, the annual awards presented by TIFF are dedicated to honouring creativity, vision, and excellence,” said Anita Lee, Chief Programming Officer, TIFF. “Every year, we unite to applaud the diverse array of cinematic voices with the support of respected colleagues from the global industry, and this year will be no exception.”
BEST CANADIAN FEATURE FILM AWARD: All 27 Canadian feature films in Official Selection — ranging from debut features to documentaries to films from well-established directors — will be considered for the award.
AMPLIFY VOICES AWARDS PRESENTED BY CANADA GOOSE:
Canada Goose embraces diversity in all its forms and definitions, including the technique and passion that transports storytelling to the screen. This year, Canada Goose will again present the Amplify Voices Awards to under-represented filmmakers in Canada.
Feature films in Official Selection by Canadian BIPOC filmmakers are eligible for the Best Feature and Best First Feature Award. The Amplify Voices Award will also celebrate a Canadian BIPOC trailblazer, recognizing a producer who has made significant contributions to the Canadian film landscape. The three winners will receive a cash prize of $10,000 each, made possible by Canada Goose. The jurors are:
V.T. Nayani is a multi-hyphenate storyteller working across the screen industries, Nisha Pahuja’s documentary credits include To Kill a Tiger, Ricardo Acosta is a film editor, script consultant, and member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Canadian Cinema Editors
SHORT CUTS AWARDS: Films in the Short Cuts programme are eligible for three jury-selected Short Cuts Awards: Best Short Film, Best Canadian Short Film, and the Share Her Journey Award for best short film by a woman filmmaker. These awards provide each of the three winners with a bursary of $10,000 CAD to help them continue achieving success in their careers.
Short Cuts Awards Jurors are: Aisha Jamal, Afghan Canadian filmmaker and film programmer, Araya Mengesha, an Ethiopian Eritrean award-winning filmmaker and actor, Shasha Nakhai is a Toronto-based storyteller with more than a decade of experience.
FIPRESCI JURY
The FIPRESCI Prize is presented by an international jury selected by the International Federation of Film Critics.
The 2023 FIPRESCI jurors are:
Cem Altinsaray is a film critic with 28 years of experience in writing, editing, creating, and publishing movie magazines. He is now focused on enjoying and spreading his love of cinema at MUBI.
Elijah Baron is a Montreal-based film critic, translator, and editor, mostly known for his affiliation with 24 images, one of Quebec’s leading and oldest French-language film magazines.
Jindřiška Bláhová is a film critic and film industry analyst for the leading Czech weekly Respekt, an editor-in-chief of the film magazine Cinepur, and a film historian.
Diego Faraone is a Uruguayan film critic and journalist. He collaborated in publications such as Dossier, El Boulevard, Guía 50, and Argentinian websites Revista Caligari and Otros Cines, among others.
Jenni Zylka is a freelance writer focusing on film, media, and music. She is head of the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section of the Berlinale.
NETPAC JURY
Presented by the Network for the Promotion of Asian Pacific Cinema, the NETPAC Award recognizes films specifically from the Asian and Pacific region. The jury consists of three members of the international community selected by TIFF and NETPAC, who award the prize to the best film by an emerging Asian and/or Pacific Islander filmmaker in the Centrepiece and Discovery programmes. In 2022, the NETPAC Award went to Sweet As. The 2023 NETPAC
Award jurors are:
Sung Moon, 2023 NETPAC Jury Chair, is a programmer at the Jeonju International Film Festival.
Haolun Shu is a Shanghai-based filmmaker and teaches film directing and screenwriting at Shanghai Film Academy.
Lalita Krishna is the Co-Chair of Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. She is a critically acclaimed documentary filmmaker.
CHANGEMAKER AWARD
The Changemaker Award is presented to a feature film in Official Selection that explores issues relevant to young people and is focused on themes of social change and youth empowerment. The award embraces the power in young people seeing their communities represented on screen and celebrates the next generation of storytellers and changemakers in cinema.
PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD
A longstanding tradition at TIFF, the People’s Choice Award is celebrating its 46th year, and TIFF audience members are encouraged to vote for their favourite films online at tiff.net/vote. All feature films in TIFF’s Official Selection are eligible for this Award. TIFF has two other Awards also voted on by the audience: the People’s Choice Documentary Award and the People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award. The 2022 winners are The Fabelmans, Black Ice, and Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.
