Mike Flanagan’s The Life of Chuck & body horror flick The Substance nab top TIFF awards

Last Updated on September 17, 2024

The winners for this year’s Toronto International Film Festival have been announced, with Mike Flanagan’s The Life of Chuck taking home the People’s Choice Award.

Check out the full list of winners below:

People’s Choice Award: The Life of Chuck, dir. Mike Flanagan 

People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award: The Substance, dir. Coralie Fargeat

People’s Choice Documentary Award: The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal, dir. Mike Downie

Short Cuts Award for Best International Film: Deck 5B, dir. Malin Ingrid Johansson 

Short Cuts Award for Best Canadian Film: Are You Scared To Be Yourself Because You Think That You Might Fail?, dir. Bec Pecaut

FIPRESCI Award: Mother Mother, dir. K’naan Warsame

NETPAC Award: The Last of the Sea Women, dir. Sue Kim

Best Canadian Discovery Award: Universal Language, dir. Matthew Rankin

Best Canadian Feature Film Award: Shepherds, dir. Sophie Deraspe

Platform Award: They Will Be Dust, dir. Carlos Marques-Marcet

That’s a promising lineup, but one movie we want to focus on especially is Mike Flanagan’s latest Stephen King adaptation, The Life of Chuck, as it has garnered just the sort of buzz we would expect and is officially part of the Oscar discussion.

No doubt TIFF had some incredible films screening this year, which our own Chris Bumbray kept our readers in the loop about over the course of the event. One of the movies he dug was indeed The Life of Chuck (read his review here), of which he wrote: “[Flanagan’s fans (of which I am one) will undoubtedly appreciate this detour and find The Life of Chuck a bittersweet tearjerker.” In other words, don’t expect your typical Stephen King fare here. Regardless, it nabbing the People’s Choice Award is a major get, edging out the Zoe Saldaña-starring Emilia Pérez and Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or-winning Anora, both of which were named runners-up.

Posting to social media following the announcement of The Life of Chuck’s achievement, Mike Flanagan wrote, “I am absolutely, positively overwhelmed by this. Thank you so much to the audiences who opened their hearts to Chuck, and to TIFF for bringing the movie to those audiences. My heart is dancing!” Every winner since 2012 has gone on to be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, with three – 12 Years a Slave, Green Book and Nomadland – taking it home.

It would be unfair to say that Mike Flanagan put Stephen King on the screen considering people have been adapting his works since the ‘70s (hell, King himself has been involved in the screenplays since the ‘80s). But Flanagan has been one of the most committed, having previously helmed Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep. That he has so much love for King and selected a non-horror keeps Flanagan at the top of ideal adapters of the writer’s works.

Meanwhile, the Demi Moore-led body horror flick, The Substance, nabbed the top Midnight Madness award. Check out our review of that WILD movie right here!

Do you think The Life of Chuck has a legitimate shot at being nominated for Best Picture? Let us know below!