Summer of Soul and Flee represented documentary at the 2021 Toronto Film Critics Association Awards. Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s Summer of Soul (…Or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) won the Allan King Documentary Award during Sunday’s live vote. The archival doc is a frontrunner for the Best Documentary Feature Oscar with its electrifying portrait of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival.
TFCA members honoured Summer of Soul’s main competition for the Oscar, Flee, in the category for Best Animated Feature. Directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen, Flee tells the story of Amin, a gay Afghan refugee who recounts his journey escaping Afghanistan and artfully harnesses animation to protect his anonymity. Flee was also a runner-up for the documentary prize alongside Todd Haynes’ The Velvet Underground.
The big winner of the awards was the Japanese drama Drive My Car, which won three awards including Best Picture. Maggie Gyllenhaal’s debut feature The Lost Daughter also took three awards, including Best Actress for Olivia Colman.
The TFCA also announced the three nominees for this year’s Rogers Award for Best Canadian Feature. The nominees are Beans, directed by Tracey Deer; Night Raiders, directed by Danis Goulet; and Scarborough, directed by Shasha Nakhai and Rich Williamson. Beans is a personal coming-of-age story set amid the 1990 Oka Crisis and seen through the eyes of a young girl. Night Raiders is a timely dystopian drama about the ongoing effects of colonialism told with a twist of Indigenous futurism. Scarborough adapts the acclaimed novel by Catherine Hernandez and offers an intimate glimpse into the lives of three children in the GTA. The team of the winning film receives a $100,000 cash prize, courtesy of Rogers, with runners-up receiving $5000. The winner will be announced at the upcoming TFCA Awards gala.
The TFCA is extremely grateful to founding sponsor Rogers Communications for the Rogers Best Canadian Film Award, to returning sponsors Labatt for the Stella Artois Jay Scott Prize for an emerging artist and to Cineplex Entertainment for the awards cocktail reception. The TFCA welcomes new sponsor Netflix as the official dinner sponsor and Company 3 for the Company 3 Clyde Gilmour Award. The TFCA also thanks sponsor G.H. Mumm Champagne and salutes stalwart supporters Zoomer Magazine, Chairman Mills and TAXI Toronto.
The full list of TFCA Award winners is as follows
Best Picture:
Drive My Car (Films We Like)
Runners-Up:
Licorice Pizza (Universal Pictures Canada)
The Power of the Dog (Netflix)
Rogers Award for Best Canadian Feature:
Nominees:
Beans (Mongrel Media)
Night Raiders (Elevation Pictures)
Scarborough (levelFILM)
Best Director:
Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog (Netflix)
Runners-Up:
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Drive My Car (Films We Like)
Denis Villeneuve, Dune (Warner Bros. Canada)
Best Actress:
Olivia Colman, The Lost Daughter (Netflix)
Runners-up:
Penélope Cruz, Parallel Mothers (Mongrel Media)
Kristen Stewart, Spencer (Elevation Pictures)
Best Actor:
Denzel Washington, The Tragedy of Macbeth (AppleTV+)
Runners-Up:
Benedict Cumberbatch, The Power of the Dog (Netflix)
Andrew Garfield, tick, tick…BOOM! (Netflix)
Best Supporting Actress:
Jessie Buckley, The Lost Daughter (Netflix)
Runners-Up:
Kirsten Dunst, The Power of the Dog (Netflix)
Ruth Negga, Passing (Netflix)
Best Supporting Actor:
Bradley Cooper, Licorice Pizza (Universal Pictures Canada)
Runners-Up:
Ciarán Hinds, Belfast (Universal Pictures Canada)
Kodi Smith-McPhee, The Power of the Dog (Netflix)
Best Screenplay:
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe, Drive My Car (Films We Like)
Runners-Up:
Paul Thomas Anderson, Licorice Pizza (Universal Pictures Canada)
Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog (Netflix)
Allan King Documentary Award:
Summer of Soul (Searchlight Pictures)
Runners-Up:
Flee (Elevation Pictures)
The Velvet Underground (AppleTV+)
Best International Feature:
Drive My Car (Films We Like)
Runners-Up:
Petite Maman (Elevation Pictures)
The Worst Person in the World (MK2 Mile-end)
Best Animated Film:
Flee (Elevation Pictures)
Runners-Up:
Encanto (Disney Canada)
The Mitchells vs. the Machines (Netflix)
Best First Feature:
The Lost Daughter (Netflix)
Runners-Up:
Passing (Netflix)
Pig (Elevation Pictures)
Shiva Baby (Photon Films)
