December 10, 2018

Toronto Film Critics Association Announces 2018 Awards

Roma wins Best Picture, Best Director for Alfonso Cuarón

Two awards each for Burning, The Favourite and First Reformed

ANTHROPOCENE: The Human Epoch, Ava and Maison du bonheur compete for Rogers $100,000 Best Canadian Film Award

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – Dec. 10, 2018

TORONTO, ON – Roma took two top awards from the Toronto Film Critics Association, named the year’s Best Picture winner with Alfonso Cuarón chosen Best Director.

The TFCA chose Olivia Colman as Best Actress for her portrayal of the temperamental, yet tenderly vulnerable, Queen Anne in Yorgos Lanthimos’ black comedy The Favourite.

Ethan Hawke was awarded Best Actor for playing a tormented pastor in Paul Schrader’s drama First Reformed, and South Korean mystery-drama Burning was chosen Best Foreign-Language Film.

Regina King was named Best Supporting Actress for If Beale Street Could Talk, while TFCA members chose Steven Yeun as Best Supporting Actor for Burning.

There was a tie in the Best Screenplay category between The Favourite and First Reformed.

The awards were voted on by TFCA members at a meeting on Sunday, December 9, 2018.

“The past year has seen a bounty of great cinema, featuring engaging stories both intimate and universal,” said TFCA President Peter Howell. “This made it exceedingly hard for us to choose favourites and led to very spirited debates, as evidenced by how evenly our votes were divided, including in one case, a rare tie. But it was a delightful problem to have.”

Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, Morgan Neville’s affectionate look at the legacy reaching beyond the small screen neighbourhood created by TV’s Mr. Rogers, was given the RBC Allan King Documentary Award.

Wes Anderson’s stop-motion, canine world-view Isle of Dogs was named Best Animated Feature.

The membership has chosen the three finalists for the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award: ANTHROPOCENE: The Human Epoch, Ava and Maison du bonheur.

The winner will be named at the 22^nd TFCA Awards Gala, to be held at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto on January 8, 2019. The honour carries a record-setting $100,000 cash prize; the richest film award in the country. The runners-up will each receive $5,000.

As previously announced, the 2017 recipient of the Technicolor Clyde Gilmour Award is prolific actor Tantoo Cardinal, who has chosen writer-director and video artist Darlene Naponse to receive $50,000 worth of services from Technicolor.

Writer-director Naponse’s film Falls Around Her, starring Cardinal as an Anishinaabe musician, had its world premiere at TIFF 2018.

The winner of the Stella Artois Jay Scott Prize for an emerging artist, to be announced at a later date, will be presented with a $10,000 cheque at the gala.

The 2018 TFCA Awards Gala will be hosted by Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director and Co-Head of the Toronto International Film Festival.

The TFCA is extremely grateful to founding sponsor Rogers Communications for the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award, to returning sponsors Labatt Brewing Company Limited for the Stella Artois Jay Scott Prize for an emerging artist, to Technicolor for the Technicolor Clyde Gilmour Award, to Cineplex Entertainment for the awards cocktail reception. The TFCA welcomes new sponsors Air Canada as the official airline and RBC for the RBC Allan KingDocumentary Award. The TFCA also welcomes new sponsors the Four Seasons Hotel andChampagne Perrier–Jouët. The TFCA salutes stalwart supporters The Globe and Mail, Maclean’s, Zoomer Magazine, and TAXI Toronto.

The full list of 2018 Toronto Film Critics Association Awards winners and runners-up:

BEST PICTURE
“Roma” (Netflix)
Runners-up
          “Burning” (Well Go USA)
          “First Reformed” (ABMO Films)

BEST ACTOR
            Ethan Hawke, “First Reformed” (ABMO Films)
Runners-up
           Willem Dafoe, “At Eternity’s Gate” (Elevation Pictures)
           Viggo Mortensen “Green Book” (NBCUniversal)

BEST ACTRESS
          Olivia Colman, “The Favourite” (Fox Searchlight)
Runners-up
         Regina Hall, “Support the Girls” (Mongrel Media)
         Melissa McCarthy, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” (Fox Searchlight)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Steven Yuen, “Burning” (Well Go USA)
Runners-up
          Richard E. Grant, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” (Fox Searchlight)
          Michael B. Jordan, “Black Panther” (Walt Disney Studios)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Regina King, “If Beale Street Could Talk” (Entertainment One)
Runners-up
          Emma Stone, “The Favourite” (Fox Searchlight)
          Rachel Weisz, “The Favourite” (Fox Searchlight)

BEST DIRECTOR
Alfonso Cuarón, “Roma” (Netflix)
Runners-up
            Lee Chang-dong, “Burning” (Well Go USA)
            Paul Schrader, “First Reformed” (ABMO Films)

BEST SCREENPLAY, ADAPTED OR ORIGINAL 
          Tie: “The Favourite” by Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara (Fox Searchlight) and“First Reformed” by Paul Schrader (ABMO Films)
Runner-up
           “Roma” by Alfonso Cuarón (Netflix)

BEST FIRST FEATURE
“Sorry to Bother You” directed by Boots Riley (Entertainment One)
Runners-up
          “Eighth Grade” directed by Bo Burnham (Elevation Pictures)
          “Hereditary” directed by Ari Aster (Elevation Pictures)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
            “Isle of Dogs” (Fox Searchlight)
Runners-up
            “Ralph Breaks the Internet” (Walt Disney Studios)
             “Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse” (Sony Pictures Animation)

BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM
           “Burning” (Well Go USA)
Runners-up
          “Cold War” (Mongrel Media)
          “Roma” (Netflix)

RBC ALLAN KING DOCUMENTARY AWARD
           “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” (NBCUniversal)
Runners-up
          “ANTHROPOCENE: The Human Epoch” (Mongrel Media)
          “Free Solo” (Mongrel Media)

ROGERS BEST CANADIAN FILM AWARD FINALISTS

“ANTHROPOCENE: The Human Epoch (Mongrel Media)” directed by Jennifer Baichwal, Edward Burtynsky, Nicholas de Pencier (Mongrel Media)
“Ava” directed by Sadaf Foroughi (Mongrel Media)
“Maison du bonheur” directed by Sofia Bohdanowicz (Lisa Pictures)

The Toronto Film Critics Association was established in 1997 and is comprised of Toronto based journalists and broadcasters who specialize in film criticism and commentary.  All major dailies, weeklies and a variety of other print, electronic and web outlets are represented. Members of the TFCA also participate in the Federation of International Film Critics (FIPRESCI).  As such, they have sat on juries at festivals in Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Toronto, Montreal, Miami, Palm Springs, Chicago, Pusan, Moscow, Amsterdam, London and Vienna, among others.

Website: www.torontofilmcritics.com
Twitter: @TFCA 
Hashtag: #TFCA2019

For more information or media inquiries, please contact:
Martha Heeney, rock-it promotions, inc., at martha@rockitpromo.com or 416.656.0707 ext. 127

For more information regarding TFCA please contact:

Peter Howell, President, Toronto Film Critics Association at phowell@thestar.ca or 416-869-4445