Mira Nair, Kate Winslet, Anthony Hopkins honoured at TIFF Tribute Awards in virtual ceremony

The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) Tribute Awards virtual ceremony was held on Tuesday night. This time around the annual fundraiser event was held virtually due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The event, hosted by Canadian TV presenters Chloe Wilde and Tyrone Edwards, was kicked off by Martin Scorsese. According to the festival website , the awards honour “the film industry’s outstanding contributors and their achievements, recognising leading industry members, acting talent, directorial expertise, new talent, and a below-the-line artist and creator.”

“We can never remind people enough that this remarkable art form has always been and always will be much more than a diversion. Cinema, film, movies at its best, is a source of wonder and inspiration.” —Wise words from #TIFF20 Ambassador Martin Scorsese. pic.twitter.com/ziIPIdZcqg

— TIFF (@TIFF_NET) September 16, 2020

Ava DuVernay, Tabu, Regina King, Jodie Foster, Olivia Colman, Colin Farrell, and Delroy Lindo were among the virtual award presenters. 

IndieWire notes that TIFF has often helped launch potential Oscar contenders. In 2019, the first-ever instalment of the awards event had honoured Taika Waititi (Jojo Rabbit) and Joaquin Phoenix (The Joker).

Kate Winslet (Ammonite) and Sir Anthony Hopkins ( The Father ) were the recipients of the TIFF Tribute Actor Award.

Directed by Francis Lee, Ammonite follows an unlikely romance between a palaeontologist Mary Anning (Winslet) and a rich tourist (Saoirse Ronan) recuperating from a personal tragedy. Billed as a heartfelt love-story and an examination of gender, class and society, the film brings to life in vivid detail the life of a woman unappreciated in her own time.

Meanwhile, The Father will see Hopkins and Colman as a father-daughter duo who battle the universal prophecy of memory loss that comes with age.

Thank you Toronto International Film Festival, it is an honor to be recognized.
The Tribute Awards will air tonight at 8pm ET on CTV and streamed internationally by Variety. @TIFF_NET @Variety pic.twitter.com/7zNwCkCw2y

— Anthony Hopkins (@AnthonyHopkins) September 15, 2020

Golden Lion-winner Chloe Zhao (Nomadland) was given the TIFF Ebert Director Award. “When I first entered this industry, I thought this place was very competitive, and it is. And I thought if I failed, everyone would abandon me. But as I’ve worked with different filmmakers, I feel incredibly lucky that the people I work with are there when I’m succeeding, and even more when I fail. So I’d like to share this with them,” she said in her acceptance speech, writes The Hollywood Reporter .

Mira Nair was presented with Jeff Skoll Award in Impact Media. Her series A Suitable Boy, an adaptation of Vikram Seth’s eponymous novel, will close the festival on 19 September.

Bollywood star Tabu presents @MiraPagliNair with the Jeff Skoll Award in Impact Media.

“Giving us films like MONSOON WEDDING, THE NAMESAKE, QUEEN OF KATWE, and most recently...A SUITABLE BOY, see Mira, art can change the world.” #TIFF20 pic.twitter.com/B07DUpCYxA

— TIFF (@TIFF_NET) September 16, 2020

The TIFF Variety Artisan Award went to composer Terence Blanchard (One Night in Miami) and the winner of the TIFF Emerging Talent Award was Tracey Deer. The Canadian indigenous filmmaker, who debuted her coming-of-age film Beans set at the backdrop of the 1990 Oka Crisis, thanked her mother as she accepted the award.