Announcing the TFCA’s 2019 Award Winners

December 8, 2019

The Toronto Film Critics Association: Parasite wins Best Picture, Best Director and Best Foreign Film for Bong Joon-ho


Double acting awards for Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story


The Body Remembers When the World Broke OpenAntigone and Firecrackers compete for Rogers $100,000 Best Canadian Film Award


TORONTO – Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite took three top awards from the Toronto Film Critics Association, while Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story took two acting awards.

South Korean director Bong Joon-ho’s dark, class-based comedy about a poor family that scams a rich one, was awarded Best Picture, Best Director and Best Foreign Film.

The TFCA chose Adam Driver as Best Actor for playing a father fighting for custody in Marriage Story.

Lupita Nyong’o was named Best Actress for her performance in Jordan Peele’s horror film Us.

Laura Dern was named Best Supporting Actress for Marriage Story, while TFCA members chose Brad Pitt as Best Supporting Actor for Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman won in the Best Screenplay category.

Actress-turned-director Olivia Wilde’s teen coming-of-age movie Booksmart was awarded Best First Feature.

The awards were voted by TFCA members at a meeting on Sunday, December 8, 2019.

American Factory was given the Allan King Documentary Film Award.

Missing Link, from the Portland-based stop-motion animation house Laika, was named Best Animated Feature.

The membership has chosen the three finalists for the Rogers Best Canadian Film AwardThe Body Remembers When the World Broken Open co-directed by Kathleen Hepburn and Elle-Máijá TailfeathersAntigone by Sophie Deraspe and Firecrackers by Jasmin Mozaffari.

The winner will be named at the 23rd TFCA awards gala, to be held at The Omni King Edward Hotel in Toronto on January 9, 2020. 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 big win for Bong Joon-ho’s masterful Parasite, a South Korean comic thriller of family guile and guilt, attests to the vitality of global cinema even at a time of rapid change for film,” said TFCA President Peter Howell“It was also gratifying to see how TFCA members saluted female moviemakers: our three nominees for Best Canadian Feature and our three nominees for Best First Feature were all directed by women.”

As previously announced, the 2019 recipient of the Technicolor Clyde Gilmour Award is Michèle Maheux, who has chosen Colombian-Canadian filmmaker Lina Rodriguez to be the recipient of $50,000 worth of services from Technicolor Creative Services, as part of the “pay it forward” protocol of the Gilmour prize.

Rodriguez’s first feature film, Señoritas, had its US premiere at the Film Society of Lincoln Center. Her second, This Time Tomorrow, competed for the Golden Leopard at the Locarno International Film Festival.

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

The 2019 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’s for the Stella Artois Jay Scott Prize for an emerging artist, to Technicolor Creative Services for the Technicolor Clyde Gilmour Award, and to Cineplex Entertainment for the Cineplex cocktail reception. The TFCA thanks Air Canada as the official airline sponsor and RBC for the Emerging Critic Award. The TFCA also thanks champagne sponsor PerrierJouëtThe Globe and MailZoomer Magazine and TAXI Toronto, and welcomes new official hotel sponsor The Omni King Edward Hotel.

The full list of 2019 Toronto Film Critics Association Awards winners and runners-up:

BEST PICTURE
Parasite (MK2)
Runners-up
The Irishman (Netflix)
Marriage Story (Netflix)

BEST ACTOR
Adam Driver, Marriage Story (Netflix)
Runners-up
Adam Sandler, Uncut Gems (Netflix)
Antonio Banderas, Pain and Glory (Mongrel Media)

BEST ACTRESS
Lupita Nyong’o, Us (Universal)
Runners-up
Renée Zellweger, Judy (eOne)
Scarlett Johansson, Marriage Story (Netflix)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Brad Pitt, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Sony)
Runners-up
Willem Dafoe, The Lighthouse (VVS Films)
Joe Pesci, The Irishman (Netflix)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Laura Dern, Marriage Story (Netflix)
Runners-up
Florence Pugh, Little Women (Sony)
Julia Fox, Uncut Gems (Netflix)

BEST DIRECTOR
Bong Joon-ho, Parasite (MK2)
Runners-up
Martin Scorsese, The Irishman (Netflix)
Noah Baumbach, Marriage Story (Netflix)

BEST SCREENPLAY, ADAPTED OR ORIGINAL
The Irishman by Steven Zaillian from the book by Charles Brandt (Netflix)
Runners-up
Parasite by Bong Joon-ho  (MK2)
Marriage Story by Noah Baumbach (Netflix)

BEST FIRST FEATURE
Booksmart directed by Olivia Wilde (eOne)
Runners-up
Atlantics directed by Mati Diop (Netflix)
Queen & Slim directed by Melina Matsoukas (eOne)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Missing Link (Elevation Pictures)
Runners-up
Toy Story 4 (Disney/Pixar)
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (Universal)
Frozen 2 (Disney)

BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM
Parasite (MK2)
Runners-up
Pain and Glory (Mongrel Media)
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (MK2)

ALLAN KING DOCUMENTARY FILM AWARD
American Factory (Netflix)
Runners-up
Apollo 11 (Elevation Pictures)
The Cave (Mongrel Media)

ROGERS BEST CANADIAN FILM AWARD FINALISTS
The Body Remembers When the World Broken Open directed by Kathleen Hepburn and Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers (levelFilm)
Antigone directed by Sophie Deraspe (Maison 4:3)
Firecrackers directed by Jasmin Mozaffari (levelFilm)

About the Toronto Film Critics Association
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.

Websitewww.torontofilmcritics.com
Twitter@tfca

For more information or media inquiries, please contact:
Sheri Clish, rock-it promotions, sheri@rockitpromo.com, 416.656.0707 ext. 122
Joyce Li, rock-it promotions, joyce@rockitpromo.com, 416.656.0707 ext. 118

For more information regarding TFCA please contact:
Peter Howell, President, Toronto Film Critics Association at phowell@thestar.ca or 416-869- 4445