Satire American Fiction wins TIFF's People's Choice prize

The Canadian Press

· Posted: Sep 17, 2023 12:45 PM EDT | Last Updated: 6 minutes ago

Cord Jefferson's American Fiction has won the People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The satire astir contention and idiosyncratic bureau was announced arsenic the victor during a TIFF awards meal connected Sunday morning, concluding 11 days of in-person movie screenings and celebrations.

The movie stars Jeffrey Wright arsenic an African-American novelist grappling with an manufacture that is limiting his enactment to trauma and poorness narratives.

It's an adaptation of Percival Everett's book Erasure — poking amusive astatine the publishing industry's commodification of marginalized voices.

A frustrated writer struggling to pull publishers for his latest enactment pens a pseudonymous caller embodying each Black cliché and stereotype helium tin imagine. When it becomes a hit, helium indispensable reckon with a monster of his ain making.

Known for his Emmy Award-winning tv work, Jefferson's directorial debut has been described by TIFF arsenic "a wildly entertaining sendup of our hunger for authenticity," and a timely reflection connected the fictions we archer ourselves — astir race, advancement and community.

The People's Choice Award, determined done online voting, is often considered a harbinger of occurrence astatine the Academy Awards. Last year's victor was Steven Spielberg's coming-of-age ode to cinema, The Fabelmans.

Meanwhile, the People's Choice documentary grant went to Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe, about beloved children's performer Ernie Coombs, directed by Robert McCallum.