The TFCA names The Florida Project the Best Film of 2017

December 10, 2017

The Florida Project, Sean Baker’s naturalistic drama about kids growing up fast in a welfare motel in the shadow of Disney World, was named the year’s Best Picture winner by members of the Toronto Film Critics Association. Willem Dafoe was chosen Best Supporting Actor for his role as the empathetic motel manager.

Greta Gerwig was named Best Director for her coming-of-age comedic drama, Lady Bird, while the film’s co-star Laurie Metcalf, was chosen Best Supporting Actress.

The awards were voted by TFCA members at a meeting on Sunday, December 10, 2017.

Writer-director Jordan Peele’s socially aware satiric thriller Get Out was recognized with two awards: Best Screenplay, Adapted or Original, and Best First Feature.

“Films of empathy and urgency led this year’s winning pictures, reflective of the need for compassion and awareness in a time of social and political upheaval,” said TFCA President Peter Howell.

The Florida Project, Lady Bird and Get Out are radically different in form and content, yet they all address the desire to find inner truth behind situations that only appear to be obvious,” said Howell.

Daniel Day-Lewis was awarded Best Actor for what he’s said will be his final film role, perfectionist dressmaker Reynolds Woodcock in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread.

The TFCA chose Frances McDormand as Best Actress for her portrayal of a driven and tormented mother in Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. 

Faces Places, a whimsical journey through France directed by Agnès Varda and muralist JR, was given the Allan King Documentary Film Award.

Art-world satire The Square, directed by Ruben Östlund, was chosen Best Foreign-Language film. 

Nora Twomey’s The Breadwinner, based on Canadian author Deborah Ellis’ award-winning novel about an 11-year-old Afghan girl who provides for her family in difficult times, was named Best Animated Feature.

The membership also chose the three finalists for the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award:  Hello Destroyer directed by Kevan Funk, Werewolf directed by Ashley McKenzie and Wexford Plaza directed by Joyce Wong.

The winner will be named at the 21st TFCA awards gala, to be held in the historic art deco Round Room at The Carlu in Toronto, on January 9, 2018. 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.

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 $5,000 cheque at the gala.

As previously announced, the 2017 recipient of the Technicolor Clyde Gilmour Award is Inuk director, producer and writer Zacharias Kunuk. Kunuk has earned international acclaim for his dramatic work, including winning the prestigious Caméra d’Or for Best First Feature at Cannes 2001 for Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner. He has chosen Montreal-based Inuk filmmaker and visual artist Isabella Weetaluktuk to receive $50,000 worth of services from Technicolor. She will accept the award at the gala.

Weetaluktuk, a graduate of NSCAD University in Halifax, premiered her short Three Thousand, her first film with the National Film Board, at the 18th annual imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival in October.

The 2017 TFCA Awards Gala will be hosted by Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director 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’s for the Stella Artois Jay Scott Prize for an emerging artist, to Technicolor for the Technicolor Clyde Gilmour Award and Cineplex Entertainment for the pre-gala reception. The TFCA salutes stalwart supporters Maison Birks, Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC), The Globe and Mail, Maclean’s, Shangri-La Hotel Toronto, Moet et Chandon, Zoomer Magazine, The Carlu and TAXI Toronto.

(Under the TFCA’s guidelines, contenders eligible for the awards include films released in Canada in 2017 plus films that qualify for the 2017 Oscars and have Canadian distribution scheduled by the end of February 2018.)

The full list of 2017 Toronto Film Critics Association Awards winners and runners-up:

BEST PICTURE

            “The Florida Project” (Elevation Pictures)

Runners-up

          “Phantom Thread” (Focus Features)

         “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” (Fox Searchlight) 

BEST ACTOR

            Daniel Day-Lewis, “Phantom Thread” (Focus Features)

Runners-up

           Timothée Chalamet, “Call Me By Your Name” (Mongrel Media)

           Gary Oldman “Darkest Hour” (Focus Features)

BEST ACTRESS

          Frances McDormand, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” (Fox Searchlight)

Runners-up

         Sally Hawkins, “The Shape of Water” (Fox Searchlight)

         Saoirse Ronan, “Lady Bird” (Elevation Pictures)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

           Willem Dafoe “The Florida Project” (Elevation Pictures)

Runners-up

          Sam Rockwell, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” (Fox Searchlight)

          Michael Stuhlbarg, “Call Me By Your Name” (Mongrel Media)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

         Laurie Metcalf “Lady Bird” (Elevation Pictures)

Runners-up

          Allison Janney, “I, Tonya” (VVS Films)

          Lesley Manville, “Phantom Thread” (Focus Features)

BEST DIRECTOR

            Greta Gerwig, “Lady Bird” (Elevation Pictures)

Runners-up

            Paul Thomas Anderson, “Phantom Thread” (Focus Features)

            Jordan Peele, “Get Out” (Universal Pictures)        

BEST SCREENPLAY, ADAPTED OR ORIGINAL

         “Get Out” by Jordan Peele (Universal Pictures)

Runners-up

           “Lady Bird” by Greta Gerwig (Elevation Pictures)

            “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” by Martin McDonagh (Fox Searchlight)

BEST FIRST FEATURE

“Get Out” directed by Jordan Peele (Universal Pictures)

Runners-up

            “Lady Macbeth” directed by William Oldroyd (D Films)

          “Werewolf,” directed by Ashley McKenzie (grassfire films)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

            “The Breadwinner” (Elevation Pictures)

Runners-up

          “Coco” (Disney/Pixar)

            “Window Horses” (Mongrel Media)

BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM

           “The Square” (The Archive of Film Inc.)

Runners-up

          “Faces Places” (Cohen Media Group)

         “Loveless” (Mongrel Media)

ALLAN KING DOCUMENTARY FILM AWARD

           “Faces Places” (Cohen Media Group)

Runners-up

          “Jane” (National Geographic)

         “Kedi” (Blue Ice Docs)

ROGERS BEST CANADIAN FILM AWARD FINALISTS

         “Hello Destroyer” directed by Kevan Funk (Northern Banner)

         “Werewolf” directed by Ashley McKenzie (grassfire films)

         “Wexford Plaza” directed by Joyce Wong (LevelFILM)

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.