‘La Bola Negra’ Wins 2026 Toronto International Film Festival People’s Choice Award

Platform Prize:
Angh, dir. Theja Rio | India

Platform jury’s statement: “The Platform Prize goes to Angh. For its refreshing perspective, strength of filmmaking, and deeply resonant portrait of a world. We praise the filmmaker’s vision, audacity and courage.”

Special Jury Award:
Brace Your Heart (Garrat Du Váimmu), dir. Amanda Kernell | Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Bulgaria

Platform jury’s statement: “We would like to recognize Brace Your Heart with an Honourable Mention. For how its apparent simplicity reflects the complex nature of the world today, its powerful central performance and beautiful visual journey.”

SHORT CUTS AWARDS

Short Cuts Award for Best International Short Film:
MAMMALIA, dir. Elia Kalogianni | Greece, Netherlands

Short Cuts jury’s statement: “We were struck by the audacity of a film willing to expose what we would rather not admit about ourselves and concepts we thought we were comfortable with. Bold, visceral, and formally assured, it explores the toxic relationship we don’t examine enough with those around us. It takes the grotesque and makes it disturbingly relatable, forcing opposing sides of a double standard into the same frame. What first feels extreme slowly reveals itself as something much more unsettling: a reflection of our own behavior, and of a society whose contradictions urgently deserve to be challenged.”

Honourable Mention:
The Spectacular Death of Prisca, dir. Kaelo Iyizoba | Nigeria

Short Cuts jury’s statement: “We wanted to give an Honourable Mention to a film that took us on a completely different kind of ride: a delightful mashup of melodrama, action and comedy that reminded us of the pure joy of making and watching cinema. Executed with remarkable precision in both filmmaking and performance, it turns family dynamics into something heightened, absurd and unexpectedly revealing. We were especially struck by how original it felt without ever seeming to chase originality. Choices that many filmmakers might hesitate to make were handled with such confidence and ease that the film created its own singular tone, full of personality and completely free of pretension.”

Short Cuts Award for Best Canadian Short Film:
Fight Kid, dir. Michael Del Monte | Canada

Short Cuts jury’s statement: “A film that is at once gripping and cautionary, offering a sharp dissection of inherited masculinity and ambition. We were taken by its enigmatic and electric journey, and by the unique way it blurs performance and reality, making it almost impossible to disengage from the screen.”

Honourable Mention:
Almost Pink, dir. Justine Prince | Canada

Short Cuts jury’s statement: “A film that helps us address another shameful and traumatic experience we fear to share. Disturbing but vital, it confronts the sexual exploitation of teenagers and the social and economic forces that allow it to happen. With remarkable confidence, the film builds and sustains an unbearably tense and terrifying atmosphere, demanding that we pay attention to a reality too often kept out of sight.”

Short Cuts Award for Best Animated Short Film:
Into The Betaverse, dirs. Varun Raman, Tom Hancock | United Kingdom

Short Cuts jury’s statement: “This film is a venue where ridiculous meets the profound. It is a surprisingly emotional comedy about friendship and finding love in unexpected places. This confident hybrid of live action and animation is unapologetically primitive and loose. Which, in an era of AI smoothing, that roughness only makes its humanity feel more present.”

Honourable Mention: 
Terminal, dir. Alexandre Siqueira | Portugal, Spain, France

Short Cuts jury’s statement: “We shared the joy of discovering a film that knows how to be poetic and surreal without becoming overwhelming. It creates a delicate allegory of death and loss while giving us the space to sit with those emotions. Its animation is crisp and full of detail, but never calls attention to itself at the expense of the story. The style serves the film’s quest to connect rather than competing with it.”

FIPRESCI PRIZE

FIPRESCI Prize:
Ancestors, dir. David Turpin | Ireland, United Kingdom

FIPRESCI jury’s statement: “In this story of lost people finding each other, we saw an extraordinary command of translating the dreamy landscape of memories and recollections into compassionate cinematic language. It immersed us in someone else’s life, a time of love and turmoil, a past that returns through photographs and memories to haunt, bring longing, and give hope at once.”

NETPAC AWARD

NETPAC Award: 
Thirteen in Gaza, dir. Hosam Abu Dan | Palestine

NETPAC jury’s statement: “Against unfolding genocide, Thirteen in Gaza by Hosam Abu Dan turns suffering into neither spectacle nor victimhood, but into riveting images of life in all its complexity. A brave, intimate film that announces a major new voice in cinema.”

BEST CANADIAN DISCOVERY AWARD 

Best Canadian Discovery Award: 
Smudge the Blades, dir. Cody Lightning | Canada

Canadian Discovery jury’s statement: “Smudge the Blades is electric. It carries heart and humour in equal measure, while never shying away from the challenges faced by Indigenous communities caused by the ongoing treatment of Indigenous people and colonization of Indigenous lands. Rooted in joy and resilience, Smudge the Blades challenges familiar genres by placing Indigenous voices at the centre of a story filled with hope, offering a radical path forward. Cody’s deeply empathetic directing and his eye for character, has resulted in a film that is propulsive, funny and furious. An assured sophomore feature about family, ambition — and the transformational power of community.”

Honourable Mention: 
The Black Box is Orange, dir. Yuula Benivolski | Canada

Canadian Discovery jury’s statement: “A childhood impacted by settler ideology is unpacked through painful memories and the striking use of archival images. For its sensitive, brave and challenging formal dexterity, showcasing a nuanced depiction of the systematic erasure of Palestinian histories while delicately threading the needle between personal and political, we award The Black Box is Orange with the Honourable Mention for this year’s Discovery Award.”

BEST CANADIAN FEATURE FILM AWARD 

Best Canadian Feature Film Award:
Sunburn, dir. Serville Poblete | Canada

Honourable Mention: 
Man in Motion: The Rick Hansen Story, dir. Adrian Buitenhuis | Canada