Compiled by Shaibu Husseini

Toronto International Film Festival Announces Winners
The Toronto International Film Festival has unveiled this year’s award winners during a live press conference at TIFF Lightbox. Among the top honours announced were the People’s Choice Awards, presented by Rogers, voted on by TIFF’s public audience; the Platform Prize, the Festival’s only juried programme; two Canadian feature film awards, Short Cuts, FIPRESCI, and NETPAC awards. In total, 12 awards were handed out, celebrating standout films and breakout talent. In a historic first this year, winning TIFF’s Platform Prize grants a non-English-language film direct eligibility for Best International Feature Film at the Academy Awards, alongside top winners from five other qualifying festivals. Audiences can catch this year’s People’s Choice Award–winning films for free at the Lightbox, beginning at 12pm today. Over the past 11 days, TIFF presented 294 films from 72 countries, welcoming over 800 talents across 98 red carpets. The Festival hosted 2,000 accredited media, close to 7,000 TIFF: The Market delegates, and 279 directors from around the world.
Launched in 1978, the TIFF People’s Choice Award, presented by Rogers, celebrates the Festival’s top title as chosen by Toronto’s famously passionate and discerning public audience. The honour now spans four categories: overall, International, Documentary, and Midnight Madness. The People’s Choice Award presented by Rogers went to La Bola Negra, dirs. Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi while the International People’s Choice Award presented by Rogers went to Elsinore, dir. Simon Stone. The  People’s Choice Documentary Award presented by Rogers went to Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been, dir. Barry Avrich while the People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award presented by Rogers went to Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney, dir. Matthew Rankin

TIFF Appoints Head Of Jury
THE Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) is pleased to announce that director Rolf de Heer will serve as President of the International Competition jury at the 39th TIFF. Based in Tasmania, Australia, Rolf de Heer has worked for more than 40 years as a film director, screenwriter and producer, taking on a wide range of subjects and forms of cinematic expression while training his gaze on humanity and society, earning widespread international acclaim. His film, Bad Boy Bubby (1993), won the Special Jury Prize and the FIPRESCI Prize at the Venice International Film Festival.

Four of his films have been selected for the Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival, including Ten Canoes (2006), which won the Special Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section. This year, TIFF’s World Focus section will feature ‘Australia Spotlight’, a special showcase of Australian cinema presented in cooperation with the Australian Embassy in Japan. As part of Australia Spotlight, de Heer’s The Survival of Kindness (2022), which was selected for the Competition at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival, will be screened. Having spent decades pursuing his own singular approach to filmmaking, de Heer will bring a distinctive judging to this year’s Competition lineup. For Rolf de Heer “For any of us attending the Tokyo International Film Festival, it is a privilege. For me, as a filmmaker, it is even more so. The more films I manage to make, the fewer films I manage to see, especially on the big screen.

But as a part of this jury, I have the duty, the obligation, to see at least 15 films and talk about them with other filmmakers! And not just any old 15 films, but the 15 films in Competition, drawn from films made all over the world by all sorts of extraordinary filmmakers! And to do this in a city that plays host to one of the most formidable film cultures in the world! Can life ever get much better than this?” Festival Director of TIFF Hisamatsu Takeo remarked that with Rolf de Heer appointment as President of the International Competition jury at the 39th Tokyo International Film Festival, the festival looks forward to the fresh dialogue and discoveries that his wealth of experience and deep insight will bring to this year’s Competition and its diverse selection of films. After graduating from AFTRS (the Australian Film, Television and Radio School) decades ago, Tasmania-based Rolf de Heer wrote/co-wrote 14 original and adapted screenplays that have been made into feature films, and probably more than 14 that haven’t. De Heer has also produced/co-produced 16 fiction features and five feature documentaries

October 20 Is Start Date For Abuja International Film Festival
FILMMAKERS interested in submitting their films for the 23rd Abuja International Film Festival still have a late entry window open. They have up until September 30 to enter their films for what is obviously the longest running film festival in West Africa. The 23rd Abuja International Film Festival (AIFF 2026, by far Africa’s premier cinematic gathering, takes place between October 20 to 24, 2026. Held yearly in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital territory, past editions of AIFF has brought together over 11,250+ film submissions from 115 countries in 23 years. The festival welcomes feature films, compelling shorts, animations, and insightful documentaries. The theme for the 2026 edition is Frames Without Borders: Ai, Ethics and The Future of Filmmaking.