Well, there you have it. The first big prize of Oscar season is the Toronto Film Festival’s People’s Choice Award, which always goes to a movie that ends up being a heavy Oscar contender. Past winners have included Three Billboards, La La Land, Room, The Imitation Game, 12 Years a Slave, Silver Linings Playbook, The King’s Speech, etc. For the past ten years at least, it’s been a pretty reliable bellwether. A lot of people though A Star is Born would win this, but it turns out it wasn’t even one of the runners up. Green Book was so popular with crowds that it probably shouldn’t be that surprising, but the runners up here were Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma and Barry Jenkins’ follow up to Moonlight, If Beale Street Could Talk, which got quite good reactions from critics a few days ago as well. But this solidifies Green Book as a very strong Oscar favorite going forward, so look out for it.
