2015 Toronto International Film Festival


The 40th annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from 10 to 20 September 2015. On 28 July 2015 the first wave of films to be screened at the Festival was announced. Jean-Marc Vallée's Demolition starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Naomi Watts was the opening night film; Mr. Right by Paco Cabezas was the closing night film.
The year's edition included two new sections called Platform and Primetime. At Platform, twelve films will be screened in front of a jury, with the best film of the program winning the C$25,000 Platform Prize. Film directors Claire Denis, Jia Zhangke, and Agnieszka Holland were selected as the jurors for this section. At Primetime, six high-quality television programs will be presented at public screenings with Question and Answer sessions with show creators. The lineups for the TIFF Docs, Vanguard, Midnight Madness, and Masters sections were announced on 11 August 2015. More than 100 films were added to the festival's programme on 18 August. The new program titled In Conversation replaced the Maverick section.
The Festival reported that TIFF 2015 had a record high industry attendance, with 5,450 delegates from 80 countries, a 7% increase over 2014.

Awards

The festival's final awards were announced on 20 September.
AwardFilmDirector
People's Choice AwardRoomLenny Abrahamson
People's Choice Award, First Runner UpAngry Indian GoddessesPan Nalin
People's Choice Award, Second Runner UpSpotlightTom McCarthy
Evgeny Afineevsky
People's Choice Award: Documentaries, First Runner UpThis Changes EverythingAvi Lewis
People's Choice Award: Documentaries, Second Runner UpAl Purdy Was HereBrian D. Johnson
Hardcore HenryIlya Naishuller
People's Choice Award: Midnight Madness, First Runner UpThe Final GirlsTodd Strauss-Schulson
People's Choice Award: Midnight Madness, Second Runner UpGreen RoomJeremy Saulnier
Platform PrizeHurtAlan Zweig
Best Canadian Feature FilmCloset MonsterStephen Dunn
Best Canadian Short FilmOverpassPatrice Laliberté
Best Canadian First Feature FilmSleeping GiantAndrew Cividino
Special Citation, Canadian Feature FilmMy Internship in CanadaPhilippe Falardeau
Dropbox Discovery Program Filmmakers AwardBlackAdil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah
FIPRESCI Discovery PrizeEva NováMarko Skop
FIPRESCI Special PresentationsDesiertoJonás Cuarón
Best International Short FilmMamanMaïmouna Doucouré
Netpac Award for World or International Asian Film PremiereThe Whispering StarSion Sono

Juries

Short film awards jury:
Canadian awards jury:
FIPRESCI jury:
NETPAC jury:
Platform Prize jury :

Gala presentations

In December, TIFF programmers released their annual Canada's Top Ten list of the films selected as the ten best Canadian films of 2015. The selected films received a follow-up screening at the TIFF Bell Lightbox as a "Canada's Top Ten" minifestival in January 2016, as well as in selected other cities including Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax.

Features

Shorts