The 51st Toronto International Film Festival wrapped Sunday with a clearer awards-season map than it had at the start: Netflix’s Spanish-language epic La Bola Negra now looks like a major threat in the developing Oscar race, I Play Rocky proved it can play to a broad festival crowd, and several would-be acquisition titles failed to generate the kind of momentum that can reshape a season.
TIFF’s audience prizes and public responses do not settle the Oscar race, but they remain closely watched because Toronto moviegoers are often viewed as a meaningful indicator of Academy-friendly enthusiasm. This year’s results put a handful of films in sharper focus, while also leaving some contenders with more work to do.
La Bola Negra gains serious Oscar heat
La Bola Negra had the festival’s most consequential week. The Netflix film drew one of TIFF’s longest standing ovations on record at its Canadian premiere last Tuesday. The following day, Spain selected it as the country’s entry for the best international feature Oscar. By Sunday, it had won TIFF’s audience award — the first time a Netflix film has taken that prize.
The audience award comes with caveats. The last non-English-language film to win it was Where Do We Go Now? 15 years ago, and that film did not receive an Oscar nomination. Nor did The Life of Chuck, which won the prize two years ago. Still, every other TIFF audience award winner of the past decade went on to receive at least a best picture Oscar nomination, making the win a significant boost for La Bola Negra.
The victory also stands out because TIFF audiences saw other prominent awards hopefuls, including Searchlight’s Wild Horse Nine and A24’s Club Kid, neither of which placed in the audience award’s top three. For the moment, that positions La Bola Negra as a leading challenger to Universal’s The Odyssey in the best picture conversation. The contrast between the films is striking: La Bola Negra cost less than $15 million, while The Odyssey was made on a $250 million budget.
I Play Rocky breaks through
Among TIFF’s world premieres, Amazon/MGM’s I Play Rocky made the loudest awards-season impression. Peter Farrelly’s drama about young Sylvester Stallone, played by Anthony Ippolito, and the making of Rocky screened Saturday night to applause throughout its first presentation and again after it ended.
The film’s response was especially notable because TIFF’s policy regarding movies that previously screened in Venice and/or Telluride kept those titles out of marquee venues on the festival’s opening Thursday, Friday and Saturday. That left fewer high-profile awards contenders in the earliest slots.
Other opening-weekend world premieres found varying degrees of traction. Apple’s Being Heumann and Neon’s The Housewife were warmly received on Thursday, with Being Heumann ultimately placing third for the audience award. On Friday, A24’s Misty Green, a Hollywood satire written and directed by Chris Rock, earned strong notices, particularly for lead actress Rosalind Eleazar. Amazon/MGM’s Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, an action-thriller led by Mahershala Ali, also drew a favorable response Saturday.
But I Play Rocky emerged with the strongest crowd reaction of the group, finishing second for the audience award. Farrelly’s Green Book, also unveiled at TIFF, went on to win the festival’s audience award; Rotten Tomatoes lists that film at 77 percent, while I Play Rocky is at 82 percent.
Elsinore and Possible Love strengthen their cases
Focus’ Elsinore also left Toronto with an important win. The film, starring Andrew Scott and Olivia Colman, took TIFF’s international audience award after La Bola Negra was removed from that race because it placed in the top three of the overall audience award.
The central argument for Elsinore appears to be Scott’s performance. The film is at 88 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, and Scott is described as being in virtually every scene. That level of actor-driven enthusiasm could matter in a best picture field of 10 nominees.
Netflix’s Possible Love, from Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-dong, finished second in voting for the international audience award. The film is at 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes with more than 30 reviews factored in, further strengthening its profile as the international feature race begins to take shape alongside La Bola Negra.
Few acquisition titles appear poised to disrupt the season
TIFF has previously launched unbought films into the awards race after strong festival showings and sales, with past examples including The Wrestler in 2008, Still Alice in 2014 and The Wife in 2017. This year, the first in which TIFF hosted a market, does not appear likely to add a similar late-breaking contender.
Several titles arrived seeking both distribution and awards momentum but struggled with critics. They included Prima Facie, an adaptation of the Broadway show for which Jodie Comer won a Tony, now starring Cynthia Erivo, at 25 percent on Rotten Tomatoes; the Taron Egerton comedy Everybody Wants to F*ck Me, at 55 percent; Closing Night, Cody Fern’s directorial debut starring Sarah Paulson, at 62 percent; and Chase Infiniti’s first post-One Battle After Another vehicle, The Julia Set, also at 62 percent.
The notable narrative sale was Joshua Giuliano’s River, which came out of Midnight Madness with a 91 percent Rotten Tomatoes score, sparked a bidding war and sold to Universal and Blumhouse for $10 million. Whether it factors into this year’s awards race, next year’s or neither remains uncertain.
One narrative title still on the table is Tim Blake Nelson’s The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd, starring Amanda Seyfried. Distributors regard it as a potential awards player, though it is generally viewed as too small to make a major impact if acquired, and many distributors’ slates are considered too full for this season.
Obsession remains part of the conversation
TIFF also used the festival’s first Friday for a victory lap around Obsession, which premiered at the festival on Sept. 5, 2025. Writer-director-editor Curry Barker and star Inde Navarrette appeared in a TIFF Dialogues conversation with Peter Kuplowsky, lead programmer of Midnight Madness.
The film’s trajectory remains one of the festival’s standout recent stories. Made for $750,000, Obsession sparked an overnight bidding war after becoming a major TIFF talking point. Focus acquired it for $15 million, released it in 2,615 North American theaters on the weekend of May 15, and saw it gross $17 million that weekend. It then exceeded that amount for each of the next five weekends and has reached $514 million in worldwide ticket sales.
Barker said he had never left the United States before being invited to TIFF last year. Navarrette said she roomed with another member of the film’s team during last year’s trip. Now, at 26 and 25 respectively, Barker and Navarrette are being discussed as serious Oscar nomination contenders — another reminder that Toronto can still change careers quickly.